Editing Khazars (section)

== Religion ==
=== Tengrism ===
{{Main|Tengrism}}

Direct sources for the Khazar religion are not many, but in all likelihood they originally engaged in a traditional Turkic form of religious practices known as [[Tengrism]], which focused on the [[sky god]] [[Tengri]]. Something of its nature may be deduced from what we know of the rites and beliefs of contiguous tribes, such as the North Caucasian Huns. [[Horse sacrifice]]s were made to this supreme deity. Rites involved offerings to fire, water, and the moon, to remarkable creatures, and to "gods of the road" (cf. Old Türk ''yol tengri'', perhaps a god of fortune). Sun amulets were widespread as cultic ornaments. A tree cult was also maintained. Whatever was struck by lightning, man or object, was considered a sacrifice to the high god of heaven. The afterlife, to judge from excavations of aristocratic tumuli, was much a continuation of life on earth, warriors being interred with their weapons, horses, and sometimes with human sacrifices: the funeral of one ''tudrun'' in 711-12 saw 300 soldiers killed to accompany him to the otherworld. [[Ancestor worship]] was observed. The key religious figure appears to have been a [[shamanism|shaman]]-like ''qam'',{{sfn|Golden|2007b|pp=131–133}} and it was these (''qozmím'') that were, according to the Khazar Hebrew conversion stories, driven out.

[[Amīn Rāzī|Amin Razi]], a Persian geographer in his geographical and biographical encyclopedia called [[Haft iqlim|Haft eqlim]] ({{lit|Seven climes}}) writes:

{{Blockquote|text=Khazar. [This] is also [one] of the countries of the Turks, and its inhabitants are extremely beautiful and pretty. As soon as their king turns forty years old, he will be fired or killed. Their belief is such that the day, and night, and wind, and rain, and earth, and sky - each individually has a "god", but the "god" of heaven is greater than the rest.<ref name="The book of Ahmad ibn Fadlan about his trip to the Volga in 921-922">{{Cite book |last=Kovalevsky |first=A.P |title=The book of Ahmad ibn Fadlan |year=1594|language=Persian}}</ref>}}

Many sources suggest, and a notable number of scholars have argued, that the charismatic Ashina clan played a germinal role in the early Khazar state, although Zuckerman dismisses the widespread notion of their pivotal role as a "phantom". The Ashina were closely associated with the Tengri cult, whose practices involved rites performed to assure a tribe of heaven's protective providence.{{sfn|Whittow|1996|p=220}} The qağan was deemed to rule by virtue of [[Kut (mythology)|''qut'']], "the heavenly mandate/good fortune to rule."{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=133}}{{efn|group=note|Whittow notes that this native institution, given the constant, lengthy, military and acculturating pressures on the tribes from China to the East, was influenced also by the [[Sinocentrism|sinocentric]] doctrine of the [[Mandate of Heaven|Mandate of Heaven (Tiānmìng:天命)]], which signaled legitimacy of rule {{harv|Whittow|1996|p=220}}.}}

=== Christianity ===
Khazaria long served as a [[buffer state]] between the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine empire]] and both the nomads of the northern steppes and the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad empire]], after serving as Byzantium's proxy against the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian Persian empire]]. The alliance was dropped around 900. Byzantium began to encourage the [[Alans]] to attack Khazaria and weaken its hold on Crimea and the Caucasus, while seeking to obtain an entente with the rising Rus' power to the north, which it aspired to convert to Christianity.{{sfn|Noonan|1999|pp=499, 502–503}}

On Khazaria's southern flank, both Islam and Byzantine Christianity were proselytising great powers. Byzantine success in the north was sporadic, although Armenian and Albanian missions from [[Derbend]] built churches extensively in maritime [[Daghestan]], then a Khazar district.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|pp=124, 135}} [[Buddhism]] also had exercised an attraction on leaders of both the Eastern (552–742) and Western Qağanates (552–659), the latter being the progenitor of the Khazar state.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=125}} In 682, according to the Armenian chronicle of [[Movses Kaghankatvatsi|Movsês Dasxuranc'i]], the king of [[Caucasian Albania]], [[Varaz Trdat]], dispatched a bishop, Israyêl, to convert Caucasian "Huns" who were subject to the Khazars, and managed to convince Alp Ilut'uêr, a son-in-law of the Khazar qağan, and his army, to abandon their shamanising cults and join the Christian fold.{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|pp=292–293}}{{efn|group=note|Alp Ilut'uêr is a Turkish subordinate title {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=124}}.}}

The Arab Georgian martyr [[Abo of Tiflis|St Abo]], who converted to Christianity within the Khazar kingdom around 779–80, describes local Khazars as irreligious.{{efn|group=note|Golden and Shapira thinks the evidence from such Georgian sources renders suspect a conversion prior to this date ({{harvnb|Golden|2007b|pp=135–136}}; {{harvnb|Shapira|2007b|pp=347–348}}).}} Some reports register a Christian majority at [[Samandar (city)|Samandar]],{{efn|group=note|{{harvnb|Golden|2007b|pp=135–136}}, reporting on [[al-Muqaddasi]].}} or Muslim majorities.{{efn|group=note|During Islamic invasions, some groups of Khazars who suffered defeat, including a qağan, were converted to Islam {{harv|DeWeese|1994|p=73}}.}}

=== Judaism ===
{{See also|Gerim|Conversion to Judaism}}[[File:Khazar coin Spillings Hoard.jpg|thumb|The Khazar "Moses coin" found in the [[Spillings Hoard]] and dated c. 837/8  CE (223 [[Hijri year|AH]]). It is inscribed with "Moses is the messenger of God" instead of the usual Muslim text "Muhammad is the messenger of God".{{sfn|Kovalev|2005|pp=226–228, 252}}]]

Conversion to Judaism is mentioned in the [[Khazar Correspondence]] and medieval external sources. The authenticity of the former was long doubted and challenged,{{efn|group=note|[[Johannes Buxtorf]] first published the letters around 1660. Controversy arose over their authenticity; it was even argued that the letters represented "no more than Jewish self-consolation and fantasmagory over the lost dreams of statehood" {{harv|Kohen|2007|p=112}}.}} but the documents are now widely accepted by specialists as either authentic or as reflecting internal Khazar traditions.{{efn|group=note|"If anyone thinks that the Khazar correspondence was first composed in 1577 and published in ''Qol Mebasser'', the onus of proof is certainly on him. He must show that a number of ancient manuscripts, which appear to contain references to the correspondence, have all been interpolated since the end of the sixteenth century. This will prove a very difficult or rather an impossible task." {{harv|Dunlop|1954|p=130}}}}{{efn|group=note|"The issue of the authenticity of the Correspondence has a long and mottled history which need not detain us here. Dunlop and most recently Golb have demonstrated that Hasdai's letter, Joseph's response (dating perhaps from the 950s) and the 'Cambridge Document' are, indeed, authentic." {{harv|Golden|2007b|pp=145–146}}}}{{efn|group=note|"(a court debate on conversion) appears in accounts of Khazar Judaism in two Hebrew accounts, as well as in one eleventh-century Arabic account. These widespread and evidently independent attestations would seem to support the historicity of some kind of court debate, but, more important, clearly suggest the currency of tales recounting the conversion and originating among the Khazar Jewish community itself" ... "the 'authenticity' of the Khazar correspondence is hardly relevant"{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|p=171}} "The wider issue of the 'authenticity' of the 'Khazar correspondence', and of the significance of this tale's parallels with the equally controversial Cambridge document /Schechter text, has been discussed extensively in the literature on Khazar Judaism; much of the debate loses significance if, as Pritsak has recently suggested, the accounts are approached as 'epic' narratives rather than evaluated from the standpoint of their 'historicity'."{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|p=305}}}}{{sfn|Szpiech|2012|p=102}} Archaeological evidence for conversion, on the other hand, remains elusive,{{efn|group=note|"Of the intensive archaeological study of Khazar sites (over a thousand burial sites have been investigated!), not one has yet yielded finds that yet fit in some way the material legacy of antique European or Middle Eastern Jewry." {{harv|Toch|2012|pp=162–163}}}}{{efn|group=note|Shingiray noting the widespread lack of artifacts of wealth in Khazar burials, arguing that nomads used few materials to express their personal attributes: "The SMC assemblages-even if they were not entirely missing from the Khazar imperial center - presented an outstanding instance of archaeological material minimalism in this region." {{harv|Shingiray|2012|pp=209–211}}}} and may reflect either the incompleteness of excavations, or that the stratum of actual adherents was thin.{{efn|group=note|"But, one must ask, are we to expect much religious paraphernalia in a recently converted steppe society? Do the Oğuz, in the century or so after their Islamization, present much physical evidence in the steppe for their new faith? These conclusions must be considered preliminary." {{harv|Golden|2007b|pp=150–151, and note 137}}}} Conversion of steppe or peripheral tribes to a [[Universalism|universal religion]] is a fairly well attested phenomenon,{{efn|group=note|{{harvnb|Golden|2007b|pp=128–129}} compares [[Ulfilas]]'s conversions of the [[Goths]] to [[Arianism]]; Al-Masudi records a conversion of the [[Alans]] to Christianity during the Abbasid period; the Volga Bulğars adopted Islam after their leader converted in the 10th century; the Uyğur Qağan accepted Manichaeism in 762.}} and the Khazar conversion to Judaism, although unusual, would not have been without precedent.{{efn|group=note|Golden takes exception to [[J. B. Bury]]'s claim (1912) that it was "unique in history".{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=123}}{{sfn|Koestler|1977|p=52}} Golden also cites from Jewish history the conversion of [[Edom|Idumeans]] under [[John Hyrcanus]]; of the [[Iturea]]ns under [[Aristobulus I]]; of the kingdom of [[Adiabene]] under [[Helena of Adiabene|Queen Helena]]; the [[Himyarite Kingdom|Ḥimyârî kings in Yemen]], and [[Berber people|Berber]] assimilations into North African Jewry.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=153}}}}

Jews from both the Islamic world and Byzantium are known to have migrated to Khazaria during periods of persecution under [[Heraclius]], [[Justinian II]], [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo III]], and [[Romanos I Lekapenos|Romanus Lakapēnos]].{{sfn|Golden|2007b|pp=141–145, 161}}{{sfn|Noonan|2001|pp=77–78}} For [[Simon Schama]], Jewish communities from the Balkans and the Bosphoran Crimea, especially from [[Panticapaeum]], began migrating to the more hospitable climate of pagan Khazaria in the wake of these persecutions, and were joined there by Jews from Armenia. The [[Cairo Geniza|Geniza fragments]], he argues, make it clear the Judaising reforms sent roots down into the whole of the population.{{sfn|Schama|2013|p=266}} The pattern is one of an elite conversion preceding large-scale adoption of the new religion by the general population, which often resisted the imposition.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=125}} One important condition for mass conversion was a settled urban state, where churches, synagogues or mosques provided a focus for religion, as opposed to the free nomadic lifestyle of life on the open steppes.{{efn|group=note|"The [[Sufism|Șûfî]] wandering out into the steppe was far more effective in bringing Islam to the Turkic nomads than the learned [[ulama|'ulamâ]] of the cities." {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=126}}}} A tradition of the Iranian [[Mountain Jews|Judeo-Tats]] claims that their ancestors were responsible for the Khazar conversion.{{sfn|Wexler|1987|p=61}} A legend traceable to the 16th-century Italian rabbi [[Judah Moscato]] attributed it to [[Yitzhak ha-Sangari]].{{sfn|Szyszman|1980|pp=71, 73}}{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|pp=122–124}}{{sfn|Brook|2010|pp=95, 117 n.51,52}}

Both the date of the conversion, and the extent of its influence beyond the elite,{{efn|group=note|"the Khazars (most of whom did not convert to Judaism, but remained animists, or adopted Islam and Christianity)" {{harv|Wexler|2002|p=514}}}} often minimised in some scholarship,{{efn|group=note|"In much of the literature on conversions of Inner Asian peoples, attempts are made, 'to minimize the impact' ... This has certainly been true of some of the scholarship regarding the Khazars." {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=127}}}} are a matter of dispute,{{efn|group=note|"scholars who have contributed to the subject of the Khazars' conversion, have based their arguments on a limited corpus of textual, and more recently, numismatic evidence ... Taken together these sources offer a cacophony of distortions, contradictions, vested interests, and anomalies in some areas, and nothing but silence in others." {{harv|Olsson|2013|p=496}}}} but at some point between 740 and 920&nbsp;CE, the Khazar [[royal family|royalty]] and [[nobility]] appear to have converted to [[Judaism]], in part, it is argued, perhaps to deflect competing pressures from Arabs and Byzantines to accept either Islam or Christianity.{{efn|group=note|"Judaism was apparently chosen because it was a religion of the book without being the faith of a neighbouring state which had designs on Khazar lands." {{harv|Noonan|1999|p=502}}}}{{efn|group=note|"Their conversion to Judaism was the equivalent of a declaration of neutrality between the two rival powers." {{harv|Baron|1957|p=198}}}}

The conversion of the Khazars to Judaism is an emotionally charged topic in Israel,{{efn|group=note|"in Israel, emotions are still high when it comes to the history of the Khazars, as I witnessed in a symposium on the issue at the Israeli Academy of Sciences in Jerusalem (May 24, 2011). Whereas Prof. Shaul Stampfer believed the story of the Khazars' conversion to Judaism was a collection of stories or legends that have no historical foundation, (and insisted that the Ashkenazi of Eastern Europe of today stem from Jews in Central Europe who emigrated eastwards), Prof. Dan Shapiro believed that the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism was part of the history of Russia at the time it established itself as a kingdom." {{harv|Falk|2017|p=101, n. 9}}}} and two scholars, [[Moshe Gil]] (2011) and [[Shaul Stampfer]], (2013) have challenged the authenticity of the medieval Hebrew documents and argue that the conversion of the Khazar elite to Judaism never happened.{{sfn|Stampfer|2013|pp=1–72}}{{sfn|Gil|2011|pp=429–441}} [[Alex M. Feldman]] is critical of Stampfer and Gil's dismissal of "overwhelming textual and archaeological evidence" of Khazarian Judaism, though agrees it is unlikely that Ashkenazim are descended from Khazarian Jews, he posits "a middle ground which can simultaneously accept Khazarian Judaism and doubt the Khazar-Ashkenazi descent theory advanced in dubious genetic studies."{{sfn|Feldman|2022b|pp=193–205}}

==== History of discussions about Khazar Jewishness ====
The earliest surviving Arabic text that refers to Khazar Jewishness appears to be that which was written by [[Ahmad ibn Rustah|ibn Rustah]], a Persian scholar who wrote an encyclopedic work on geography in the early tenth century.{{sfn|Stampfer|2013|p=17}} It is believed that ibn Rustah derived much of his information from the works of his contemporary [[Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jayhani|Abu al Jayhani]] based in Central Asia.

[[File:Signature Kiev letter.gif|right|thumb|250px|The 10th century [[Kievian Letter]] has [[Old Turkic alphabet|Old Turkic]] (Orkhon) inscription word-phrase ''OKHQURÜM'', "I read (this or it)".]]
[[Christian of Stavelot]] in his [[Expositio in Matthaeum Evangelistam]] (c. 860–870s) refers to ''Gazari'', presumably Khazars, as living in the lands of [[Gog and Magog]], who were circumcised and ''omnem Judaismum observat''—observing all the laws of Judaism.{{efn|group=note|"We are not aware of any nation under the sky that would not have Christians among them. For even in Gog and Magog, the Hunnic people who call themselves Gazari, those whom Alexander confined, there was a tribe more brave than the others. This tribe had already been circumcised and they profess all dogmata of Judaism (''omnem Judaismum observat'')." {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=139}}}} New numismatic evidence of coins dated 837/8 bearing the inscriptions ''arḍ al-ḫazar'' (Land of the Khazars), or ''Mûsâ rasûl Allâh'' ([[Moses in Islam|Moses is the messenger of God]], in imitation of the Islamic coin phrase: ''Muḥammad rasûl Allâh'') suggest to many the conversion took place in that decade.{{efn|group=note|The idea of a forced general conversion imposed on the Qağanal dynasty in the 830s was advanced by Omeljian Pritsak, and is now supported by Roman Kovalev and Peter Golden {{harv|Olsson|2013|p=497}}.}} Olsson argues that the 837/8 evidence marks only the beginning of a long and difficult official [[Judaization]] that concluded some decades later.{{efn|group=note|Olsson identifies this with the onset of Magyar invasions of the Pontic steppe in the 830s, the construction of Sarkel, and the Schechter letter's reference to Bulan, converted to his Jewish wife Serakh's faith, wresting power, in a period of famine, elements which undermined the qağan, and allowed the creation of the royal diarchy {{harv|Olsson|2013|pp=507, 513ff}}.}} A 9th-century Jewish traveller, [[Eldad ha-Dani]], is said to have informed Spanish Jews in 883 that there was a Jewish polity in the East, and that fragments of the legendary [[Ten Lost Tribes]], part of the line of [[Tribe of Simeon|Simeon]] and half-line of [[Tribe of Manasseh|Manasseh]], dwelt in "the land of the Khazars", receiving tribute from some 25 to 28 kingdoms.{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=6}}{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|pp=140–142}}{{sfn|Zhivkov|2015|p=42}} Another view holds that by the 10th century, while the royal clan officially claimed Judaism, a non-normative variety of Islamisation took place among the majority of Khazars.{{sfn|Shingiray|2012|pp=212–214}}

By the 10th century, the [[Khazar Correspondence|letter of King Joseph]] asserts that, after the royal conversion, "Israel returned (''yashuvu yisra'el'') with the people of Qazaria (to Judaism) in complete repentance (''bi-teshuvah shelemah'')."{{sfn|Szpiech|2012|pp=92–117 [104]}} [[Persians|Persian historian]] [[Ibn al-Faqih|Ibn al-Faqîh]] wrote that "all the Khazars are Jews, but they have been Judaized recently". [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan|Ibn Fadlân]], based on his Caliphal mission (921–922) to the Volga Bulğars, also reported that "the core element of the state, the Khazars, were Judaized",{{efn|group=note|''wa al-ḥazarwa malikuhum kulluhum yahûd'' ("The Khazars and their king are all Jews") {{harv|Golden|2007b|pp=143, 159}}}} something underwritten by the [[Karaite Judaism|Qaraite]] scholar [[Jacob Qirqisani|Ya'kub Qirqisânî]] around 937.{{efn|group=note|Golden, citing his comment on [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 9:27: "some other commentators are of the opinion that this verse alludes to the Khazars who accepted Judaism", with Golden's comment: "Certainly, by this time, the association of Khazaria and Judaism in the Jewish world was an established fact" {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=143}}.}} The conversion appears to have occurred against a background of frictions arising from both an intensification of Byzantine missionary activity from the Crimea to the Caucasus, and Arab attempts to wrest control over the latter in the 8th century CE,{{sfn|Golden|2007b|pp=137–138}} and a revolt, put down, by the [[Kabar|Khavars]] around the mid-9th century is often invoked as in part influenced by their refusal to accept Judaism.{{sfn|Spinei|2009|p=50}} Modern scholars generally{{efn|group=note|Shapira and Zuckerman disagree, positing only one stage and placing it later. Shapira takes stage 1 as a Jewish-Khazar reinterpretation of the Tengri-cult in terms of a monotheism similar to Judaism's; Zuckerman thinks Judaisation took place, just once, after 861 ({{harvnb|Shapira|2007b|pp=349, and n.178}}; {{harvnb|Zuckerman|1995|p=250}}).}} see the conversion as a slow process through three stages, which accords with Richard Eaton's model of syncretic ''inclusion'', gradual ''identification'' and, finally, ''displacement'' of the older tradition.{{efn|group=note|Dunlop thought the first stage occurred with the king's conversion c. 740; the second with the installation of Rabbinical Judaism c. 800 ({{harvnb|Golden|2007b|pp=127–128, 151–153}}; {{harvnb|Dunlop|1954|p=170}}).}}{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|pp=300–308}}

Sometime between 954 and 961, [[Hasdai ibn Shaprut|Ḥasdai ibn Shaprūṭ]], from [[al-Andalus]] (Muslim Spain), wrote a letter of inquiry addressed to the ruler of Khazaria, and received a reply from [[Joseph (Khazar)|Joseph of Khazaria]]. The exchanges of this [[Khazar Correspondence]], together with the [[Schechter Letter]] discovered in the [[Cairo Geniza]] and the famous [[plato]] nizing dialogue{{sfn|Melamed|2003|pp=24–26}} by [[Judah Halevi]], ''[[Kuzari|Sefer ha-Kuzari]]'' ("Book (of) The Khazari"), which plausibly drew on such sources,{{efn|group=note|Arabic original: ''Kitâb al-ḥuyya wa'l-dalîl fi naṣr al-din al-dhalîl'' (Book of the Argument and Demonstration in Aid of the Despised Faith) {{harv|Schweid|2007|p=279}}.}} provide us with the only direct evidence of the indigenous traditions{{efn|group=note|Brook mentions also a letter in Hebrew, the [[Mandgelis Document|Mejelis document]], dated 985–986, which refers to "our lord David, the Khazar prince" who lived in [[Taman Peninsula|Taman]]. As Brook notes, both [[D. M. Dunlop]] and Dan Shapira dismiss it as a forgery {{harv|Brook|2010|pp=30; 41, n.75}}.}} concerning the conversion. [[Bulan (Khazar)|King Bulan]]{{efn|group=note|The name is commonly etymologized as meaning "elk" in Türkic. Shapira identifies him with the Sabriel of the Schechter letter, and suggests, since Sabriel is unattested as a Jewish name, although the root is "hope, believe, find out, understand" that it is a calque on the Oğuz Türkic ''bulan'' (one who finds out) or ''bilen'' (one who knows) {{harv|Shapira|2009|p=1102}}.}} is said to have driven out the sorcerers,{{efn|group=note|Szpiech, citing the [[Khazar Correspondence|Letter of King Joseph]]: ''et ha-qosmim ve-et'ovdei avodah zarah'' ("expelled the wizards and idolators") {{harv|Szpiech|2012|pp=93–117 [102]}}.}} and to have received angelic visitations exhorting him to find the true religion, upon which, accompanied by his vizier, he travelled to desert mountains of Warsān on a seashore, where he came across a cave rising from the plain of Tiyul in which Jews used to celebrate the Sabbath. Here he was circumcised.{{efn|group=note|This detail is in Halevi's ''Sefer Ha-Kusari''.{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|p=302}} Golden has identified Warsān as Transcaucasian Varaˇc'an.{{sfn|Olsson|2013|p=512}} Ḥasdai ibn Shaprūṭ's letter also mentions a legend that the Chaldaeans, under persecution, hid the Scriptures in a cave, and taught their sons to pray there, which they did until their descendants forgot the custom. Much later, a tradition has it, a man of Israel entered the cave and, retrieving the books, taught the descendants how to learn the Law.{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|pp=304–305}}}} Bulan is then said to have convened a royal debate between exponents of the three [[Abrahamic religions]]. He decided to convert when he was convinced of Judaism's superiority. Many scholars situate this c. 740, a date supported by Halevi's own account.{{sfn|Korobkin|1998|p=352, n.8}}{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|p=170}} The details are both Judaic{{efn|group=note|The Schechter document has officers during the religious debate speak of a cave in a certain plain (''TYZWL'') where books are to be retrieved. They turn out to be the books of the [[Torah]] ({{harvnb|DeWeese|1994|p=303}}; {{harvnb|Golb|Pritsak|1982|p=111}}).}} and Türkic: a Türkic ethnogonic myth speaks of an ancestral cave in which the Ashina were conceived from the mating of their human ancestor and a wolf ancestress.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=157}}{{efn|group=note|The original ancestral cavern of the Türks, according to Chinese sources, was called ''Ötüken'', and the tribal leaders would travel there annually to conduct sacrificial rites {{harv|DeWeese|1994|pp=276, 300–304}}.}}{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|pp=117–118}} These accounts suggest that there was a rationalising syncretism of native pagan traditions with Jewish law, by melding through the motif of the cave, a site of ancestral ritual and repository of forgotten sacred texts, Türkic myths of origin and Jewish notions of redemption of Israel's fallen people.{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|pp=304–305}} It is generally agreed they adopted Rabbinical rather than [[Karaite Judaism|Qaraite Judaism]].{{sfn|Róna-Tas|1999|p=232}}

[[Ibn Fadlan]] reports that the settlement of disputes in Khazaria was adjudicated by judges hailing each from his community, be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Pagan.{{sfn|Maroney|2010|p=72}} Some evidence suggests that the Khazar king saw himself as a defender of Jews even beyond the kingdom's frontiers, retaliating against Muslim or Christian interests in Khazaria in the wake of Islamic and Byzantine persecutions of Jews abroad.{{sfn|Golden|2007a|p=34}}{{efn|group=note|Kohen refers to Khazar killings of Christians or the uncircumcized in retaliation for persecutions of Jews in Byzantium, and Khazar reprisals against Muslims for persecutions of Jews in [[Caucasian Albania]], perhaps under Emir Nasr {{harv|Kohen|2007|pp=107–108}}.}} Ibn Fadlan recounts specifically an incident in which the king of Khazaria destroyed the minaret of a mosque in Atil as revenge for the destruction of a synagogue in Dâr al-Bâbûnaj, and allegedly said he would have done worse were it not for a fear that the Muslims might retaliate in turn against Jews.{{sfn|Róna-Tas|1999|p=232}}{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=161}} Ḥasdai ibn Shaprūṭ sought information on Khazaria in the hope he might discover "a place on this earth where harassed Israel can rule itself" and wrote that, were it to prove true that Khazaria had such a king, he would not hesitate to forsake his high office and his family in order to emigrate there.{{efn|group=note|"If indeed I could learn that this was the case, then, despising all my glory, abandoning my high estate, leaving my family, I would go over mountains and hills, through seas and lands, till I should arrive at the place where my Lord the King resides, that I might see not only his glory and magnificence, and that of his servants and ministers, but also the tranquillity of the Israelites. On beholding this my eyes would brighten, my reins would exult, my lips would pour forth praises to God, who has not withdrawn his favour from his afflicted ones." ({{harvnb|Koestler|1977|p=63}}; {{harvnb|Leviant|2008|pp=159–162}})}}

[[Abraham Harkavy|Albert Harkavy]] noted in 1877 that an [[Arabic]] commentary on [[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah 48:14]]
ascribed to [[Saadia Gaon]] or to the Karaite scholar [[Benjamin Nahawandi|Benjamin Nahâwandî]], interpreted "The Lord hath loved him" as a reference "to the Khazars, who will go and destroy [[Babylon|Babel]]" (i.e., [[Babylon]]ia), a name used to designate the country of the Arabs. This has been taken as an indication of hopes by Jews that the Khazars might succeed in destroying the [[Caliphate]].{{sfn|Szyszman|1980|pp=71, 73}}

=== Islam ===
In 965, as the Qağanate was struggling against the victorious campaign of the Rus' prince Sviatoslav, the Islamic historian [[Ibn al-Athir|Ibn al-Athîr]] mentions that Khazaria, attacked by [[Oghuz Turks|the Oğuz]], sought help from [[Khwarazm|Khwarezm]], but their appeal was rejected because they were regarded as "infidels" (''al-kuffâr''; pagans). Save for the king, the Khazarians are said to have converted to Islam in order to secure an alliance, and the Turks were, with Khwarezm's military assistance, repelled. It was this that, according to Ibn al-Athîr, led the Jewish king of Khazar to convert to Islam.{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=263}}