Research Thread: Khazars

[gogo t]

Post anything related to the Khazars here

[Kavhan Isbul]

Here is an on-line book on the history of the Khazars.

http://www.russiancity.ru/ybooks/y1.htm

I have an article about their weapons that I will be happy tos end to whoever will be in charge of the unti skins and models - justs end me a PM.

[gogo t]

Khazars were a semi-nomadic people from Central Asia who adopted Judaism. They founded the independent Khazar Kingdom in the 7th Century. Religious toleration was maintained for the state’s three hundred plus years. In the 10th Century the Empire began to decline due to the attacks of both Vikings from Kievan Rus and other Turkic tribes, and their political significance greatly diminished toward the end of the 12th Century.

[Vasil_Kolarov]

wasnt the Khazars khagante created by the Volga Bulgars

[Kavhan Isbul]

wasnt the Khazars khagante created by the Volga Bulgars

Not at all - actually Volga Bulgaria was created under heavy pressure from the Khazars, or so is the official theory that assumes that part of the Bulgars migrated to the North fleeing from the Khazars.

It has been suggested that Volga Bulgaria might have been vassal to the Khazar Khaganate for a while, although I am not sure what evidence there is to support this. Apparently relations between the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars were tense at best and it is believed that the Volga Bulgars accepted Islam in hopes of securing Muslim allies against the Khazars, which given the wars between the Khazars and the Arab Caliphate, probably made a lot of sense.

Anyway, the Bulgars and the Khazars were enemies throughout the history of the Khazar khaganate, and Volga Bulgaria was most likely created as a result of the dissolution of Kubrat's Great Bulgaria under the Khazar attacks, so there is no way the Volga Bulgars could have created the Khazar Khaganate.

[Vasil_Kolarov]

So maybe you should add volga bulgaria as faction too

[NikeBG]

Too far away and would require enlarging the map's scope and thus including a number of other factions which we just can't make (we know the saying about having a too big bite).

[soccernut]

Perhaps it wouldn't require enlarging the map's scope, just dividing the Bulgar province in the east into two or three.. Which other factions do you think would have to be made if you make the Volga Bulgars?

Personally, I'm all for the idea that there is two Bulgarias in the Bulgaria Total War Mod. Isn't there evidence that the Volga Bulgars sent aid to Danube Bulgaria against the Crusaders?

[gogo t]

are you Bulgarian ?

[Boztorgai_Khan]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=130049


http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=123469

[gogo t]

Wow thank you verry much !

[Tzar]

[Tzar]

Khazaria

Khazaria served as the western anchor of the northern Silk Road for several centuries, specifically 7th through 10th, as well as a major buffer state between the Christian and Islamic worlds. However, by a combination of both accident and design, knowledge of this early medieval empire was lost to the world until very recently. The famous and comprehensive Victorian "Wall Chart of World History," originally published in 1890 and now housed in the Library of the British Museum in London, does not even mention the Khazars. And yet, Arab records note that in the 9th Century the Caliph in Baghdad set up a throne room with four thrones representing the four major imperial figures of the world at that time, i.e., (1) himself as leader of the Islamic Empire, (2) Charlemagne of Western Christendom, (3) the Emperor of China, and (4) the Qaghan of the Khazars. The Byzantine Emperor was not considered worthy of inclusion!

Initially a confederation of Turkic tribes with the good fortune to be situated along the Silk Road, the Khazars evolved from their closed nomadic society into a pluralistic, urban and agrarian society as they absorbed Jews escaping Byzantine and Arab persecution, other non-Muslims fleeing the Arab Conquest, Arabs from the east, Slavs from the north, and other nomadic tribes. As the country prospered, others came to expand their trading networks, and to seek new manufacturing and agricultural opportunities. Khazaria was ruled (at least symbolicly) by the Khagan (also Kagan or Gaghan) who hailed from a "royal" Khazarian lineage. Actual power was wielded by the Beg (or Bek), who was the senior general and statesman of the empire, chosen by proven success on the battlefield to serve as the supreme leader of the standing regular army, and who also managed all diplomatic relations, as well as internal governmental administration. An analogy can be made to medieval Japan and the respective roles of the Emperor and the Shogun. Power was also wielded in varying degrees by the various tribal chieftains.

Only very recent exploration and research has brought to light the unique nature and full extent of Khazarian civilization. A surprisingly tolerant and pluralistic society, even its army incorporated relatively harmoniously Jews, Christians, Muslims and Pagans at a time when religious warfare was the order of the day around the Mediterranean and in Western Europe. By welcoming educated and worldly Jews from both Christian Europe and the Islamic Middle East (even to the point where these proto-Turks converted to Judaism in the 8th century), the Khazars rapidly absorbed many of the arts and technologies of civilization.

As a direct result of this cultural infusion, they became one of the very few Asian steppe tribal societies that successfully made the transition from nomad to urbanite. Settling in their newly created towns and cities between the Caspian Sea and the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea, they became literate and multi-lingual agriculturalists, manufacturers and international traders. (See Kevin A. Brook, The Jews of Khazaria, Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc., 1999, pages 82-86, 99-107; and Samuel Kurinsky, The Glassmakers: An Odyssey of the Jews, New York: Hippocrene Books, 1991, pages 321-352.) Even the great city of Kiev is now thought by many scholars to have been founded by the Khazars under its earlier name of Sambata (Brook, p. 35). They also rapidly evolved a relatively sophisticated military establishment (compared to other "hordes" such as the Ghuzz, Pechenegs, Bulgars, etc.).

Their first military appearance in recorded history of any significance occurred in 627 C.E., when 40,000 Khazar horsemen, under a formal military alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, joined a campaign against Sassanian Persia. (See A. Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage, New York: Random House, 1976, page 25.) Greatly weakened by this war with Byzantium and its allies, the Sassanids rapidly succumbed to the subsequent onslaught of Islamic Arabs, which allowed the Khazars to seize lands in the Transcaucacus region.

As an indicator of Khazarian military capabilities, they are noted as having utilized artillery, such as catapults and ballistae, as early as the Arab-Khazar wars in the 7th century. (See Koestler, page 27.) Later in their history, in the early 9th century, the Khazars employed Byzantine engineers to build a major brick fortress on the lower Don River, at a site that became known as Sarkel (a Turkish word meaning "White Fortress"). Architecturally, Sarkel was a combination of Turko-Iranian and Byzantine technological characteristics. (See Brook, pages 38-39, and "The Khazarian Fortress of Sarkel" on-line at The Khazaria Info Center.

The advance of the Arab Conquest forced the Khazars to abandon Derbent (661), but around 685 the Khazars counterattacked south of the Caucacus, seizing large portions of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia became the principal battleground between the two empires in the 720s, with the tide gradually shifting back toward the Arabs. In 737 AD, the Arabs defeated the Khazars and drove them north of the Caucacus. An Arab army then sacked the Khazarian capital at Itil before withdrawing south of the Caucacus, effectively establishing that mountain range as their boundary.

Although losing ground, Khazaria by its determined resistance effectively stopped the new Islamic Empire from flanking Christendom in the east at a time when Europe was in disarray. In fact, Khazaria "was the only credible rival to the caliphate in the Near East during the seventh and eighth centuries" (Mark Whittow, The Making of Byzantium, 600-1025, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, page 225).

Thwarted in the south, the Khazars turned their attention to the west, extending their domain from the Caspian Sea and the lower Volga in the east to the north shore of the Black Sea as far as the Dneiper River in the west. They extracted tributes from the Alans, the Magyars, the Goths, the Greeks of the Crimea, and the Volga Bulgars. However, the rise of the Pechenegs in the north and the arrival of the Rus in Kiev greatly diminished Khazarian influence. The campaign of Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev effectively broke the back of the Khazarian empire in 965 AD, although a portion of the kingdom continued until at least 1030 AD and references to the Khazars appear as late as the 12th Century as they migrated westward

[Tzar]

Lots of info here;

http://www.khazaria.com/

[gogo t]

10x m8s
Btw, haha

[Tzar]

[soccernut]

are you Bulgarian ?

Да.

[Boztorgai_Khan]

Male Khazarian names

Turkic names:
Alp (means "hero")1
Baghatur (means "brave warrior")2
Balgitzi, Belgichi, Bälgichi, Balghichi3
Barjik4
Bashtu, Bashtwa15
Bihor, Biheros, Bihar, Virhor5
Bugha (means "bull")62
Bulan (means "elk")6
Bulchan, Buljan, Bluchan7
Buzer, Busir, Bazir8
Chat9
Chat`n10
Chorpan (means "star")11
Itakh (means "puppy")12
Kayghalagh, Kayqalagh64
Khatir, Khadir, Qadir13
Khuterkin, Quterkin (means "chief with heavenly good fortune")66
Kisa14
Kundajiq, Kundaj16
Mänär17
Mänäs18
Ötemish65
Papatzys61
Samsam, Simsam21
Tarkhan (normally a title; means "general" or "commander")22
Tarmach23
Tuzniq63
Yilig, Ilig25
Ziebil (probably equal to the title Yabghu, Jebghu)26

Hebrew names:
Aharon, Aaron27
Amram28
Avraham, Abraham29
Benyamin30
David31
Hanukkah32
Hezekiah33
Menakhem, Menahem34
Menashe35
Nisi, Nissi36
Obadiah, Ovadiah37
Pesakh, Pesah38
Reuven, Reuben39
Sabriel40
Shmuel41
Simson42
Sinai43
Yaakov45
Yehudah46
Yitzhak47
Yosef48
Zebulun, Zavulon49
Zechariah, Zachariah, Zecharias50

Slavic names:
Gostyata, Gostata51
Ivan52

Other names:
George, Georgios, Georgius53
Kupin, Kufin54
Morut, Marót19
Menumorut, Menmarót, Mënü Marót20
Zambri, Zambrios55
Zoilus, Zoilos56
Kibar44

Female Khazarian names

Turkic names:
Chichek, Chichäk (means "flower")57
Khatun (normally a title; means "lady" or "queen")58
Parsbit, Barsbek (also a male name)59

Hebrew names:
Serakh, Serah60

[Boztorgai_Khan]

KHAZAR ( FLAG / BANNER / SYMBOL )





HAZAR KAGAN ( KHAZAR KHAGAN )






the Khazar





http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/1815/250pxhazardevletidw5.png



the KHAZARS - populair unit - Khazar Royal heaviest cavalryman

here are some ideas: LIST is so FAR

peasant archers and spearman (mostly sheepherders and the weakest units)

Khazar vlach peasants
Slav infantry with swords
Slav infantry with spears
Caucasus infantry

Khazar cavalry with swords
Caucasus cavalry with swords
Khazar Royal heaviest cavalryman
Khazar Noble heavy cavalry
Khazar heavy cavalry with swords
Khazar heaviest horse archers
Khagan Bek's Guard


Khagan Bek is the title used by the Bek (generalissimo) of the Khazars.

The title became associated with the Ashina rulers of the Göktürks and their dynastic successors among such peoples as the Khazars (confer the compound military title Khagan Bek). Minor rulers were rather relegated to the lower title of Khan.

Ishad (or "Shad", "Sad") was an Old Turkic word used to designate the highest-ranking Göktürk generals (e.g., Buri-sad). It is also used in some Arabic sources to describe the Khagan Bek of the Khazars.

According to Movses Kagankatvatsi, Buri-sad ("Wolf Commander") was a
7th century Göktürk prince and an ishad or general in the army of the Western Turkic Khaganate. He was the son of Mo-ho sad, who may have been the yabghu or prince of the Khazars. Buri-sad's uncle was Tong
Yabghu Khagan, the khagan of the Western Göktürks.


Babaghuq was the title of an elected chieftain who was involved in the governance of a Khazar town, either in place of or in conjunction with a tudun or governor. The name means "father of the city".

Babaghuqs are recorded as being involved in city politics in Cherson and Tamatarkha.

A title in the Khazar Khaganate. The term Baliqchi means "Fisherman." In the Schechter Letter, the Khazar warlord Pesakh (who was active along the Strait of Kerch) is described with this title. An earlier figure in Khazar history, Balgitzin, was governor of Phanagoria during Justinian II's soujourn there in 705 CE. Whether Balgitzin is a personal name or a variant of the title Baliqchi is unclear.


In the hierarchy of the Göktürk and Khazar empires, an Elteber was the client king of an autonomous but tributary tribe or polity.

In the case of the Khazar Khaganate, the rulers of such vassal peoples as the Volga Bulgars, Burtas and North Caucasian Huns were titled elteber or some variant such as Ilutwer, Ilutver (North Caucasian Huns), Yiltawar or İltäbär (Volga Bulgaria).

The earliest extant mention of the term is for a ruler of the North Caucasian Huns in the 680's CE, referred to in Christian sources from Caucasian Albania as Alp Ilutuer. The title was also mentioned in Letter to Kültegin in 732. It was used by rulers of pre-Islamic Volga Bulgaria during the period of their vassalage to the Khazars.


According to ibn Fadlan, the Jawyshyghr was an official in the Khazar government under the command of the Khagan Bek. Ibn Fadlan did not describe the duties of this officer. Douglas M. Dunlop hypothesized that the name derives from the pharas Chavush Uyghur or "Marshal of the Uyghurs"; however, other scholars have disputed this theory.


According to ibn Fadlan, the Kündür was an official in the Khazar government under the command of the Khagan Bek. Ibn Fadlan did not describe the duties of this officer, nor does any extant source. The Magyars had a dual-kingship system in which power was divided between a gyula and a kende; therefore it has been hypothesized that the kündür was a client-ruler of Hungarian remnants who remained in the Pontic steppe during the 10th century. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the title may derive from an Old Turkic word for law, and that the kündür may have been a judicial officer, possibly the head of the Khazar judiciary.


Tarkhan, ( Tarkan )

It was used among the Turks, Mongols, and other steppe people, and was a high rank in the army of Tamerlane. Tarkhans commanded military contingents (roughly of regimental size under the Khazar khan) and were, roughly speaking, generals. They could also be assigned as military governors of conquered regions.


In pre-Islamic Turkic empires, particularly those of the Göktürks and the Khazars, a tudun was a governor resident in a town or other settlement. The tudun was the personal representative of the imperial government and could function both as an administrator and a diplomat. At times a tudun would be appointed for a town nominally under another power's control but de facto within the sphere of influence of the tudun's khagan.



by Khazars:

Tribes and Nations:
Alans, Bashkir, Bulgars, Burtas, Byzantine Empire, Göktürks, Jews, Karluks, Kievan Rus, Kimak Khanate, Kipchaks, Oghuz, Onogurs, Pechenegs, Suars, Volga Bulgars and Uyghurs.

People:
al-Masudi, Basil II, Constantine V, Constantine VII, ibn al-Athir, ibn Fadlan, Kubrat, Leo III, Oleg of Novgorod, Philippicus, Photius, Seljuk, Svyatoslav I of Kiev, Tiberius III and Vladimir I of Kiev

Texts:
Codex Cumanicus and De Administrando Imperio



Seljuk Bek, Founder of Seljuks Dynasty

Origins
Prior to the ninth century, hordes of Turks had crossed the Volga River into the Black Sea steppes. Originally, the House of Seljuq was a branch of the Qinik Oghuz Turks who in the 9th century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world, north of the Caspian and Aral sea in their Yabghu Khaganate of the Oghuz confederacy. In the 10th century the Seljuqs migrated from their ancestral homelands into mainland Persia, in the province of Khurasan, where they mixed with the local population and adopted the Persian culture and language in the following decades.

It was reported by some muslim historians of the time that the Seljuks were originally a remote tribe of the Khazar that escaped destruction by the Rus because they were further north east of the Volga river. They cconverted from Judaism to Sunni Islam and their leader proclaimed the title of Sultan of War for Islam. The turks and Turkomans had pride in being in servitude to the Seljuq dynasty because the Khazar were their ancient masters in the Khazar wars.

[Boztorgai_Khan]

List of Khazar rulers:


Early Khazar rulers

• Khozarig (Eponymous folk-ancestor of the Khazars)
• fl. 450s Karadach

Karadach was the king of the Akatziroi, a steppe nation allied to the Huns. He is described in the accounts of Priscus.


Khazar Khagans (Ashina dynasty)

Ashina and Göktürk Khagans.

The Khagans were the supreme chiefs of the people, holding a position of much influence and spiritual authority, but not much actual day-to-day command.


618 — 650

• 618-630 Ziebel (Tun Yabgu Khan of the West Göktürks)
• 630-650 Possibly Buri-Sad
• fl. 650 Irbis ?

For the period between the 650s and the 680s, one will sometimes see references to a Khalga, fl. mid 660s, and a Kaban, fl. late 660s. Researchers should be aware that these names derive from a single document, the Cäğfär Taríxı, and that a great many scholars have severely attacked this document as a mixture of factual data and outright fabrications.

The Cäğfär Taríxı purports to be a compilation of early Bulgar historical information, assembled (or at least written in its present form) in the late 17th century. It has been used by Volgan Tatars to provide documentation for extending their antecedents in their region back in time by many centuries.

Its critics claim it to be a forgery, created by or at the behest of the Soviet Secret Police (then the NKVD) in the 1930s for the purpose of creating divisiveness and factionalism within the ethnic Tatars of that era. The Soviet government did create spurious historical documents on several occasions. The historicity of the people that it refers to is therefore questionable, so until additional documentation comes to light, Khalga and Kaban should be regarded warily at best.


690 — 715

c. 690-715 Busir (Ibuzir Glavan)

Busir Glavan took in the exiled Byzantine Emperor, Justinian II, and gave him his own sister (baptismal name Theodora). He later tried to kill Justinian to placate Tiberius III, causing Justinian's flight to Bulgaria and his ultimate restoration to the throne.


720 — 732

• fl. late 720s-731 Barjik
• c. 732 Bihar

Bihar is the name given in some sources to the Khazar Khagan whose daughter, Tzitzak, married the future Byzantine Emperor Constantine V. Their son was Leo IV, called "Leo The Khazar".


730s — 840s

• fl. late 730s Prisbit (fem.) (Regent?)
• 737 - c. 740 To the Caliphate
• fl. c. 760 Baghatur
• c. 825 - 830 d. ? Khan-Tuvan (a.k.a. Dyggvi)
• 840s "Tarkhan"

Arab sources speak of "Tarkhan, King of the Khazars" during this period. Tarkhan can be both a proper name and a military rank, and it is unclear whether the sources refer to a Khagan named Tarkhan or are merely a confused reference to a general.


861 -

• c. 861 Zachariah


Khazar Beks

• Yazir Bulash
• c. 630 Chorpan Tarkhan
• early 700s Alp Tarkhan
• fl. c. 730 Tar'mach
• ? - 737 Hazer Tarkhan
• 737 - c. 740 To the Caliphate

The Khagan Beks were warlords, military commanders who exercised considerable day-to-day authority, and were sometimes regarded by outsiders as the supreme lords of the Khazar nation. It is not entirely clear that the individuals listed before 737 AD were or were not Bulanids, or were Beks. They may have been simply warlords. Nevertheless, their activity parallels that of later Beks, and so are included.

Hazer's army was annihilated at Itil in 737 AD and the Caliphate imposed Islam upon the Khazars. Nevertheless, the Caliphs could not adequately garrison Khazaria, and within a few years the Khazars were once again independent. The famous conversion to Judaism seems to have occurred about this time. The date of the actual conversion to Judaism is a matter of some controversy. According to Yehuda Halevi in Kuzari, it occurred around 740 AD, though some Arab sources point to a date closer to the end of the 700s or early 800s, and more recent scholars postulated that 861 AD, the date of St. Cyril's visit to Khazaria, was the year of the conversion to Judaism.

The 2002 discovery of a coin hoard in Sweden further complicates the issue, as some of the coins bear dates from the early 800s and the legends "Ard al-Khazar" (Land of the Khazars) and "Moses is the Prophet of God". Since the coins date from 837 AD or 838 AD, some scholars think the conversion occurred in 838 AD. Bulan Sabriel was the Khazar ruler at the time of the conversion, but in the below list all the dates up to Aaron I are based on a presumed 740 AD conversion date.


Bulanid dynasty

fl. c. 740 Bulan Sabriel
c. 786-809 Obadiah
Hezekiah
Manasseh I
Chanukkah
Isaac
Zebulun
Manasseh II
Nisi
fl. c. 900 Aaron I
Menahem
fl. c. 920 Benjamin
c. late 920s-940 Aaron II
fl. 940-965 Joseph

Joseph corresponded with Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a Jewish vizier to Abd al-Rahman III, Caliph of Córdoba. It is from this letter that the preceding list is taken. It is not entirely ruled out that the Bulanids were in fact Khagans rather than Beks, though their power certainly appears to be that of the Beks. Moreover, it is possible that the positions merged in the 900s, as Joseph makes no reference to a colleague, instead referring to himself as "king of the Khazars."


Late Khazar Rulers

In 969 AD, Sviatoslav I of Kiev sacked Itil, the capital of the Khazar Khaganate. Khazar successor states appear to have survived in the Caucasus and around the Black Sea. We know of two later

Khazar rulers:

c. 986-988 David
? -1016 Georgius Tzul (In Kerch)

Georgius Tzul was captured by a joint Rus-Byzantine expedition and his state was destroyed. Shortly thereafter, the Kipchaks became masters of the Pontic steppe (Cumans). However, there continue to be tantalizing references, in Muslim sources, of battles against "Khazars" in the Caucasus well into the late 1000s; whether Khazar states continued to survive or their name was used generically to describe Caucasian highlanders is unclear.

The fate of the Jewish Khazars is unclear. Jewish travellers of the 1100s continue to refer to them in passing. Khazar Jews are known to have lived in Kiev and even to have emigrated to Spain, the Byzantine Empire and Iraq. The majority may have gone to Hungary, Poland and the Crimea, mingling with Jews in those areas and with later waves of Jewish immigrants from the west.

Genetic testing has disproven that Ashkenazi Jews are primarily descended from the Khazars, but some admixture is highly probable. Note also that the name "Khazaria" (Gazaria) survived, at least for a time, as the general label for the region of Crimea and the lands beside the Sea of Azov, utilized by Genoese merchant-colonizers in the area.