Editing Khazars (section)

=== Khazars and Byzantium ===
{{see also|Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628|Third Perso-Turkic War}}
Byzantine diplomatic policy towards the steppe peoples generally consisted of encouraging them to fight among themselves. The [[Pechenegs]] provided great assistance to the Byzantines in the 9th century in exchange for regular payments.{{sfn|Luttwak|2009|p=52}} Byzantium also sought alliances with the [[Göktürks]] against common enemies: in the early 7th century, one such alliance was brokered with the Western Tűrks against the Persian [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanians]] in the [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628]]. The Byzantines called Khazaria ''Tourkía'', and by the 9th century referred to the Khazars as "Turks".{{efn|group=note|[[Theophanes the Confessor]] around 813 defined them as ''Eastern Turks''. The designation is complex and Róna-Tas writes: "The ''Georgian Chronicle'' refers to the Khazars in 626–628 as the 'West Turks' who were then opposed to the East Turks of Central Asia. Shortly after 679 the ''Armenian Geography'' mentions the Turks together with the Khazars; this may be the first record of the Magyars. Around 813, Theophanes uses – alongside the generic name ''Turk'' – 'East Turk' for the designation of the Khazars, and in context, the 'West Turks' may actually have meant the Magyars. We know that Nicholas Misticus referred to the Magyars as 'West Turks' in 924/925. In the 9th century the name ''Turk'' was mainly used to designate the Khazars." {{harv|Róna-Tas|1999|p=282}}}} During the period leading up to and after the [[Siege of Constantinople (626)|siege of Constantinople]] in 626, [[Heraclius]] sought help via emissaries, and eventually personally, from a Göktürk chieftain{{efn|group=note|Many sources identify the Göktürks in this alliance as Khazars--for example, Beckwith writes recently: "The alliance sealed by Heraclius with the Khazars in 627 was of seminal importance to the Byzantine Empire through the Early Middle Ages, and helped assure its long-term survival."{{sfn|Beckwith|2011|pp=120, 122}} Early sources such as the almost contemporary [[Armenian language|Armenian]] history, ''Patmutʿiwn Ałuanicʿ Ašxarhi'', attributed to Movsēs Dasxurancʿ, and the Chronicle attributed to Theophanes identify these Turks as Khazars (Theophanes has: "Turks, who are called Khazars"). Both Zuckerman and Golden reject the identification.{{sfn|Zuckerman|2007|pp=403–404}}}} of the Western Turkic Khaganate, [[Tong Yabghu Qaghan|Tong Yabghu Qağan]], in [[Tiflis]], plying him with gifts and the promise of marriage to his daughter, [[Eudoxia Epiphania|Epiphania]].{{sfn|Kaegi|2003|pp=143–145}} Tong Yabghu responded by sending a large force to ravage the Persian empire, marking the start of the [[Third Perso-Turkic War]].{{sfn|Róna-Tas|1999|p=230}} A joint Byzantine-Tűrk operation breached the [[Gates of Alexander|Caspian gates]] and sacked [[Derbent]] in 627. Together they then besieged [[Tiflis]], where the Byzantines may have deployed an early variety of [[Trebuchet#Traction trebuchet|traction trebuchets]] ([[Helepolis|ἑλέπόλεις]]) to breach the walls. After the campaign, Tong Yabghu is reported, perhaps with some exaggeration, to have left some 40,000 troops behind with Heraclius.{{sfn|Kaegi|2003|p=145}} Although occasionally identified with Khazars, the Göktürk identification is more probable since the Khazars only emerged from that group after the fragmentation of the former sometime after 630.{{sfn|Kaegi|2003|p=143, n.115}}{{sfn|Golden|1992|pp=127–136, 234–237}} Some scholars argued that Sasanian Persia never recovered from the devastating defeat wrought by this invasion.{{efn|group=note|Scholars dismiss Chinese annals which, reporting the events from Turkic sources, attribute the destruction of Persia and its leader [[Khosrau II|Shah Khusrau II]] personally to Tong Yabghu. Zuckerman argues instead that the account is correct in its essentials {{harv|Zuckerman|2007|p=417}}.}}

[[File:Khazar map1.PNG|thumb|Khazar Khaganate and surrounding states, c. 820 (area of direct Khazar control in dark blue, sphere of influence in purple).]]
Once the Khazars emerged as a power, the Byzantines also began to form alliances with them, dynastic and military. In 695, the last [[Byzantine Empire under the Heraclian dynasty|Heraclian emperor]], [[Justinian II]], nicknamed "the slit-nosed" (ὁ ῥινότμητος) after he was mutilated and deposed, was exiled to [[Chersonesus (Crimea)|Cherson]] in the [[Crimea]], where a Khazar governor (''tudun'') presided. He escaped into Khazar territory in 704 or 705 and was given asylum by qağan [[Busir|Busir Glavan]] (Ἰβουζῆρος Γλιαβάνος), who gave him his sister in marriage, perhaps in response to an offer by Justinian, who may have thought a dynastic marriage would seal by kinship a powerful tribal support for his attempts to regain the throne.{{sfn|Bauer|2010|p=341}} The Khazarian spouse thereupon changed her name to [[Theodora of Khazaria|Theodora]].{{sfn|Ostrogorski|1969|pp=124–126}} Busir was offered a bribe by the Byzantine usurper, [[Tiberius III]], to kill Justinian. Warned by Theodora, Justinian escaped, murdering two Khazar officials in the process. He fled to Bulgaria, whose Khan [[Tervel]] helped him regain the throne. Upon his reinstalment, and despite Busir's treachery during his exile, he sent for Theodora; Busir complied, and she was crowned as Augusta, suggesting that both prized the alliance.{{sfn|Cameron|Herrin|1984|p=212}}{{sfn|Bauer|2010|pp=341–342}}

Decades later, [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo III]] (ruled 717–741) made a similar alliance to co-ordinate strategy against a common enemy, the [[Muslim Arabs]]. He sent an embassy to the Khazar qağan [[Bihar (Khazar)|Bihar]] and married his son, the future [[Constantine V]] (ruled 741–775), to Bihar's daughter, a princess referred to as [[Tzitzak]], in 732. On converting to Christianity, she took the name Irene. Constantine and Irene had a son, the future [[Leo IV the Khazar|Leo IV (775–780)]], who thereafter bore the sobriquet, "the Khazar".{{sfn|Luttwak|2009|pp=137–138}}{{sfn|Piltz|2004|p=42}} Leo died in mysterious circumstances after his Athenian wife bore him a son, [[Constantine VI]], who on his majority co-ruled with his mother, the dowager. He proved unpopular, and his death ended the dynastic link of the Khazars to the Byzantine throne.{{sfn|Schwartzwald|2015|p=26}}{{sfn|Luttwak|2009|pp=137–138}} By the 8th century, Khazars [[Pax Khazarica|dominated the Crimea]] (650–c. 950), and even extended their influence into the Byzantine peninsula of Cherson until it was wrested back in the 10th century.{{sfn|Noonan|2007|p=220}} Khazar and [[Fergana|Farghânian (Φάργανοι)]] mercenaries constituted part of the imperial Byzantine ''[[Hetaireia]]'' bodyguard after its formation in 840, a position that could openly be purchased by a payment of seven pounds of gold.{{sfn|Beckwith|2011|p=392, n.22}}{{sfn|Heath|1979|p=14}}