- List of Khazar rulers
List of
Khazar rulers:Early Khazar rulers
• Khozarig (Eponymous folk-ancestor of theKhazars )• fl. 450s Karadach Karadach was the king of the
Akatziroi , asteppe nation allied to theHuns . He is described in the accounts ofPriscus .Khazar Khagans (Ashina dynasty)
:"See also:
Ashina andGöktürk 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 the680s , one will sometimes see references to aKhalga , fl. mid 660s, and aKaban , 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 late17th century . It has been used by VolganTatars 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 the1930s for the purpose of creating divisiveness and factionalism within the ethnicTatar s 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 The Soviet government did create spurious historical documents on several occasions.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 placateTiberius III , causing Justinian's flight toBulgaria 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 EmperorConstantine 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 Bek s 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 before737 AD were or were notBulanid s, 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 imposedIslam upon the Khazars. Nevertheless, the Caliphs could not adequately garrisonKhazaria , and within a few years the Khazars were once again independent. The famous conversion toJudaism seems to have occurred about this time. The date of the actual conversion to Judaism is a matter of some controversy. According toYehuda Halevi in "Kuzari", it occurred around740 AD, though some Arab sources point to a date closer to the end of the 700s or early 800s, and more recent scholars postulated that861 AD, the date ofSt. Cyril 's visit to Khazaria, was the year of the conversion to Judaism.The
2002 discovery of a coin hoard inSweden 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 from837 AD or838 AD, some scholars think the conversion occurred in838 AD.Bulan Sabriel was the Khazar ruler at the time of the conversion, but in the below list all the dates up toAaron 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. late920s -940 Aaron II
*fl.940 -965 JosephJoseph corresponded with
Hasdai ibn Shaprut , aJew ishvizier toAbd 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 the900s , 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 sackedItil , the capital of the Khazar Khaganate. Khazar successor states appear to have survived in theCaucasus and around theBlack Sea . We know of two later Khazar rulers:*c.
986 -988 David
*? -1016 Georgius Tzul (InKerch )Georgius Tzul was captured by a joint Rus-Byzantine expedition and his state was destroyed. Shortly thereafter, the
Kipchaks became masters of thePontic steppe (seeCumans ). However, there continue to be tantalizing references, in Muslim sources, of battles against "Khazars" in theCaucasus 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 inKiev and even to have emigrated toSpain , theByzantine Empire andIraq . The majority may have gone toHungary ,Poland and theCrimea , mingling with Jews in those areas and with later waves of Jewish immigrants from the west.Genetic testing has disproven Fact|date=February 2007" 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 ofCrimea and the lands beside theSea of Azov , utilized by Genoese merchant-colonizers in the area.References
List largely adapted from [http://www.hostkingdom.net/siberia.html Bruce Gordon's Regnal Chronologies - Eurasian Nomads]
ources
*
Artamonov, Mikhail . "Istoriya Khazar". Leningrad, 1962.
*Brook, K.A.. "The Jews of Khazaria." 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.
*Christian, David. "A History of Russia, Mongolia and Central Asia." Blackwell, 1999.
*Golden, Peter Benjamin . "Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples." Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 1992.
*Golden, Peter Benjamin. "Nomads and Sedentary Societies in Medieval Eurasia". Washington, D.C.: American Historical Society, 1998.
*Klyashtorny, S.G. and T.I. Sultanov. "Kazakhstan". Alma-Ata, 1992.
*Mango, C. & R. Scott (trans.), The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford University Press, 1997.
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