Editing Khazars (section)

==== Genetic studies ====
{{See also|Ashkenazi Jews#Genetic origins|Genetic studies on Jews|Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry#Genetics and the Khazar theory}}

The hypothesis of Khazarian ancestry in Ashkenazi has also been a subject of vehement disagreements in the field of [[population genetics]],{{efn|group=note|"The Khazar king and part of his court allegedly adopted the Jewish religion ... The truth of such a conversion and its extent has been the topic of many discussions, and the topic of vehement disagreements in our age of genomic DNA analyses." {{harv|Falk|2017|p=100}}}} wherein claims have been made concerning evidence both for and against it. Eran Elhaik argued in 2012 for a significant Khazar component in the admixture of Ashkenazi Jews using Caucasian populations—Georgians, Armenians and [[Azerbaijani Jews]]—as proxies.{{efn|group=note|"Strong evidence for the Khazarian hypothesis is the clustering of European Jews with the populations that reside on opposite ends of ancient Khazaria: Armenians, Georgians, and Azerbaijani Jews" {{harv|Elhaik|2012|pp=61–74}}.}} The evidence from historians he used has been criticised by [[Shaul Stampfer]]{{sfn|Stampfer|2013}} and the technical response to such a position from geneticists is mostly dismissive, arguing that, if traces of descent from Khazars exist in the Ashkenazi gene pool, the contribution would be quite minor,{{sfn|Ostrer|2012|pp=24–27, 93–95, 124–125}}{{sfn|Nebel|Filon|Brinkmann|2001|pp=1095–1112}}{{sfn|Behar|Thomas|Skorecki|Hammer|2003|pp=769–779}}{{sfn|Nebel|Filon|Faerman|2005|pp=388–391}}{{efn|group=note|"During Greco-Roman times, recorded mass conversions led to 6&nbsp;million people practicing Judaism in Roman times or up to 10% of the population of the Roman Empire. Thus, the genetic proximity of these European/Syrian Jewish populations, including Ashkenazi Jews, to each other and to French, Northern Italian, and Sardinian populations favors the idea of non-Semitic Mediterranean ancestry in the formation of the European/Syrian Jewish groups and is incompatible with theories that Ashkenazi Jews are for the most part the direct lineal descendants of converted Khazars or Slavs. The genetic proximity of Ashkenazi Jews to southern European populations has been observed in several other recent studies.. Admixture with local populations, including Khazars and Slavs, may have occurred subsequently during the 1000 year (2nd millennium) history of the European Jews. Based on analysis of Y chromosomal polymorphisms, Hammer estimated that the rate might have been as high as 0.5% per generation or 12.5% cumulatively (a figure derived from Motulsky), although this calculation might have underestimated the influx of European Y chromosomes during the initial formation of European Jewry.15 Notably, up to 50% of Ashkenazi Jewish Y chromosomal haplogroups (E3b, G, J1, and Q) are of Middle Eastern origin, 15 whereas the other prevalent haplogroups (J2, R1a1, R1b) may be representative of the early European admixture.20 The 7.5% prevalence of the R1a1 haplogroup among Ashkenazi Jews has been interpreted as a possible marker for Slavic or Khazar admixture because this haplogroup is very common among Ukrainians (where it was thought to have originated), Russians, and Sorbs, as well as among Central Asian populations, although the admixture may have occurred with Ukrainians, Poles, or Russians, rather than Khazars." {{harv|Atzmon|Ostrer|2010|pp=850–859}}}} or insignificant.{{sfn|Costa|Pereira|Richards|2013|pp=1–10}}{{sfn|Behar|Metspalu|Baran|Kopelman|2013}} One geneticist, [[Raphael Falk (geneticist)|Raphael Falk]], has argued that "national and ethnic prejudices play a central role in the controversy."{{efn|group=note|"The extent to which the Khazars contributed to the Jewish gene-pool, and more specifically to the Ashkenazi ethnic-group(s), has become a charged issue among expert scientists as well as nonprofessionals. National and ethnic prejudices play a central role in the controversy." {{harv|Falk|2017|p=100}}}}
According to [[Nadia Abu El-Haj]], the issues of origins are generally complicated by the difficulties of writing history via genome studies and the biases of emotional investments in different narratives, depending on whether the emphasis lies on direct descent or on conversion within Jewish history. At the time of her writing, the lack of Khazar DNA samples that might allow verification also presented difficulties.{{efn|group=note|"if the genome does not prove Sand wrong, neither can it prove him right. It is the wrong kind of evidence and the wrong style of reasoning for the task at hand."{{sfn|Abu El-Haj|2012|p=28}} "They (researchers) will never be able to prove descent from Khazars: there are no 'verification' samples."{{sfn|Abu El-Haj|2012|p=133}}}}