Mikhail Zhirohov - The Khazars - A Judeo-Turkish Empire on the Steppes, 7th-11th Centuries AD

The intermittent campaigns of the ‘Second Arab-Khazar War’ lasted for around 80 years, and involved sometimes devastating raids by both sides, with Muslims striking north of the Caucasus and Khazars striking south. In practice, however, both sides proved more successful in defence than attack, and so a narrow strip of land between the eastern end of the Caucasus and the shores of the Caspian remained a war-torn and fluctuating frontier zone. By achieving a relatively stable front with the Muslims, and an alliance with the Byzantine Empire around the Black Sea, the Khazars were able to expand in other directions. Around 894, in alliance with Ghuzz Turks, they defeated the Turkish Pechenegs to their east and the Magyars who lived in the ‘forest-steppe’ region north-east of the Black Sea. Even before these successes the Khazars had subjugated Slav peoples along the Dnieper River north-west of the Black Sea. Thus, by the 9th and 10th centuries, Khazar territory stretched from the northern foothills of the Caucasus to the ‘lands of the northmen’ and the Slavic Radimich people, across much of what are now Russia, Ukraine and even part of Belarus.

By the 10th century, however, the Khaganate’s Viking nemesis was approaching, with the emergence of the Rus north of Khazar territory. This first Russian state gradually brought together many Eastern Slav tribes under the rule of Prince Oleg ‘the Seer’ of Novgorod and latterly of Kiev (879–912), subjugating some tribes which had previously been tributary to the Khazars.

In 965 or 966 Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich of Kievan Rus invaded Khazaria, and won a victory so decisive that it spelled the end of the Khazar Khaganate as a major power. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 11th century two small Khazar principalities still remained. One, centred upon Kerch at the eastern tip of the Crimean peninsula, survived until 1016, when it was crushed by Byzantine and Rus forces. Its Khazar population had earlier converted to Karaite Judaism, which recognizes the validity of only the 24 books of the Tanakh (roughly equivalent to the Christian Old Testament) but not that of the Talmud. In medieval Russian chronicles the final mention of Khozars or Khazars as a distinct people is found in 1079, though the term ‘Khazarian’ continued to be used even into the 15th century to describe some vassals of the Muscovite princes.

Another small Khazar principality survived in what is now Daghestan on the north-eastern slopes of the Caucasus. Centred around Samandar, which had briefly been the capital of the great Khazar Khaganate, this partially Jewish principality survived until it was destroyed by the Mongols in the 1220s. A third Khazar community may have existed around Saksin in the Volga Delta, as an autonomous region under the Muslim rulers of Khwarazm, though some scholars deny any real associations with the previous Khazar Khaganate. Its people converted to Islam, and were absorbed into the wider Islamic world.

AD 371The Huns conquer the steppes north of the Black Sea.

515–516Hunno-Sabirian invasion of Armenia.

540Sabiri raid south of the Caucasus.

552Death of Khagan Bumin (Tumin), founder of the Turkic Khaganate in Central Asia; joint assault by Sabiri and Khazars upon ‘Caucasian Albanians’ (vassals of the Sassanian Empire, in present-day Azerbaijan).

562Defeat of the Sabiri-Khazar alliance by Sassanian ruler Khusrow I Anushirvan.

567–571Khazar and Bulgar territories between the Caspian and Black Seas fall under Turkish Khaganate.

576War begins between Byzantine Empire and Turkic Khaganate.

626Alliance of Byzantine Empire and Turkic Khagan against Sassanian Empire; Turkic and subordinate Khazar armies strike south of Caucasus.

628Khazars conquer ‘Caucasian Albania’ (largely in present-day Azerbaijan).

632Formation of Great Bulgaria in the western steppes.

c. 650Khazar tribes establish Khazar Khaganate (Khazaria) north of the Caucasus.

653–654Defeat of first Arab-Muslim invasion of Khazaria, but Muslims take Derbent.

655Khazars conquer part of Crimean peninsula.

657–659Fragmentation of the Turkic Khaganate.

c. 660Migration of some Bulgar tribes from the western steppes, across the Danube into what became Bulgaria.

684 & 711Khazars invade Muslim territory south of Caucasus and take Derbent.

713Muslims recapture Derbent and raid deep into Khazaria.

721Muslims invade Khazaria and take the Khazar capital at Balanjar.

723–724Further campaigns by Muslims against Khazars and probably also Alans; a major Khazar assault is defeated between the Araxes and Kura rivers in February 724.

c. 730Traditionally, the date when the Khazar Khagan Bulan converts to Judaism.

730–731Khazars defeat an Arab-Muslim army at the battle of Marj Ardabil (9 December 730), overrun north-western Iran, and reportedly reach northern Iraq before being expelled.

732Marriage of Byzantine Prince Constantine Copronimus (later Emperor Constantine V) to Tzitzak (baptized as Irene), daughter of the Khazar Khagan Bihar. Marwan ibn Muhammad (subsequently the last Umayyad caliph) counterattacks against Khazars, retaking Derbent and seizing Balanjar.

735Marwan again invades Khazaria and defeats Khazar army.

737Khazar Khagan supposedly accepts Islam temporarily as part of a peace agreement with the Caliphate.

c. 740Khazar ruling elite and perhaps other dominant elements start converting to Judaism.

750Umayyad caliphal dynasty, with powerbase in Syria, is replaced by Abbasid caliphal dynasty with powerbase in Iraq.

799–809Reforms of Khagan Obadiah, and official adoption of Judaism by Khazar ruling clans.

810–812Uprising of Kabarians (Khavars)◦– Khazar tribes who subsequently joined the Magyars.

822–836Internal strife in Khazar Khaganate causes some Magyar tribes and three Kabarian Khazar sub-tribes to migrate to ‘Etelköz’ between Carpathian mountains and Dnieper river.

834Construction of a fortified Khazar urban centre at Sarkel, controlling strategic portage between Don and Volga rivers.

882–885Varangian Rus take Kiev and absorb several Eastern Slav tribes.

889–890Turkic Pecheneg tribes, having migrated to the western steppes, attack the western Magyars; the Gyula (military commander) Arpad becomes ruler of Magyar Hungarians before 895.

894–895Magyar Hungarians campaign on the Danube; defeated by Pechenegs, they abandon Etelköz and cross the Carpathians into Transylvania.

909Varangian Rus raid Khazar territory and plunder Caspian coast.

913–914Pecheneg and Ghuzz Turks and Alans attack the Khazars. A permitted Varangian raid down the Volga reaches the Caspian Sea, attacking Baku and northern Iran, but is attacked by Khazar troops on its return.