- Joseph (Khazar)
Joseph ben Aaron was king of the
Khazars during the 950s and 960s.Joseph was the son of Aaron II, a Khazar ruler who defeated a Byzantine-inspired war against Khazaria on numerous fronts. Joseph's wife (or probably, one of many wives) was the daughter of the king of theAlans .Whether Joseph was the
Khagan or theBek of the Khazars is contested among historians. He describes leading Khazar armies which seems to imply the role of the Bek. However, as he does not refer to a co-ruler in his writings, it is possible that by his time the two-king system had been abandoned altogether. (see Khazar Kingship).Joseph actively sought contact with Jews elsewhere in the
diaspora . He corresponded withHasdai ibn Shaprut , a rabbi in Cordoba, and invited him to settle inKhazaria . He is also mentioned in theSchechter Letter .Joseph was involved in wars against the
Kievan Rus and thePechenegs , as well as sporadic fighting with the Byzantines in theCrimea . He reported that he was allied with theMuslim states around theCaspian Sea againstVarangian marauders from Rus' andScandinavia . He converted fromJudaism toIslam .Joseph's ultimate fate is unknown. As the destruction of the Khazar empire by
Sviatoslav I of Kiev occurred soon after his correspondence with Hasdai (in 967 or 969), it is possible that Joseph was ruler during the Khaganate's collapse.ee also
*
Bulan (Khazar)
*List of Khazar rulers ources
*
Kevin Alan Brook . "The Jews of Khazaria." 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.
*Douglas M. Dunlop . "The History of the Jewish Khazars". Princeton, N.J.:Princeton University Press, 1954.
*Norman Golb andOmeljan Pritsak . "Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century". Ithaca:Cornell University Press, 1982.
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