Editing Khazars (section)

== History ==
=== Tribal origins and early history ===
The tribes{{efn|group=note|"The word ''tribe'' is as troublesome as the term ''clan''. It is commonly held to denote a group, like the clan, claiming descent from a common (in some culture zones eponymous) ancestor, possessing a common territory, economy, language, culture, religion, and sense of identity. In reality, tribes were often highly fluid sociopolitical structures, arising as 'ad hoc responses to ephemeral situations of competition,' as Morton H. Fried has noted." {{harv|Golden|2001b|p=78}}}} that were to comprise the Khazar empire were not an ethnic union, but a congeries of steppe nomads and peoples who came to be subordinated, and subscribed to a core Turkic leadership.{{sfn|Whittow|1996|pp=220–223}} Many Turkic groups, such as the [[Oghur languages|Oğuric peoples]], including [[Saragurs|Šarağurs]], Oğurs, [[Onogurs|Onoğurs]], and [[Bulgars|Bulğars]] who earlier formed part of the [[Tiele people|Tiele (Tiělè) confederation]], are attested quite early, having been driven West by the [[Sabir people|Sabirs]], who in turn fled the [[Pannonian Avars|Asian Avars]], and began to flow into the [[Volga Region|Volga]]–[[Caspian Depression|Caspian]]–[[Pontus (region)|Pontic]] zone from as early as the 4th century CE and are recorded by [[Priscus]] to reside in the Western Eurasian steppe lands as early as 463.{{sfn|Golden|2007a|p=14}}{{sfn|Szádeczky-Kardoss|1994|p=206}} They appear to stem from Mongolia and South Siberia in the aftermath of the fall of the [[Huns|Hunnic]]/[[Xiongnu|Xiōngnú]] nomadic polities. A variegated tribal federation led by these Turks, probably comprising a complex assortment of [[Indo-Iranians|Iranian]],{{efn|group=note|Dieter Ludwig, in his doctoral thesis {{lang|de|Struktur und Gesellschaft des Chazaren-Reiches im Licht der schriftlichen Quellen}}, (Münster, 1982) suggested that the Khazars were Turkic members of the [[Hephthalite Empire]], where the lingua franca was a variety of Iranian ({{harvnb|Golden|2007a|pp=40–41}}; {{harvnb|Brook|2010|p=4}}).}} [[Mongols|proto-Mongolic]], [[Uralic languages|Uralic]], and [[Paleosiberian languages|Palaeo-Siberian]] clans, vanquished the [[Rouran Khaganate]] of the hegemonic central Asian Avars in 552 and swept westwards, taking in their train other steppe nomads and peoples from [[Sogdiana]].{{sfn|Golden|2006|p=86}}

The ruling family of this confederation may have hailed from the [[Ashina tribe|Āshǐnà clan]] of the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]],{{sfn|Pritsak|1978|p=261}}{{sfn|Golden|2007a|p=53}}{{sfn|Golden|2007c|p=165}} although [[Constantine Zuckerman]] regards Ashina and their pivotal role in the formation of the Khazars with scepticism.{{efn|group=note|"The reader should be warned that the A-shih-na link of the Khazar dynasty, an old phantom of ... Khazarology, will ... lose its last claim to reality" {{harv|Zuckerman|2007|p=404}}.}} Golden notes that Chinese and Arabic reports are almost identical, making the connection a strong one, and conjectures that their leader may have been [[Irbis Seguy|Yǐpíshèkuì]], who lost power or was killed around 651.{{sfn|Golden|2006|p=89}} Moving west, the confederation reached the land of the [[Akatziroi]],{{efn|group=note|In this view, the name Khazar would derive from a hypothetical *Aq Qasar {{harv|Golden|2006|pp=89–90}}: e.g. Pritsak (1978) links ''Ak-Katzirs'' (< {{lang|grc|Άκατζίροι}}) to the name [[Khazar]], though he explains that the polity was named Khazar because the Ashina-ruled [[Western Turkic Khaganate|Western Turks]], after [[Conquest of the Western Turks|losing their territories to Tang Chinese]], took over the territory formerly occupied by the Akatziri ({{harvnb|Pritsak|1978|p=261}}). However, the hypothesized link between the Akatizoi and the Khazars was not solid, being based on mere phonetic resemblance ({{harvnb|Golden|2011b|p=136}}, {{harvnb|Brook|2006|p=10}}).}} who had been important allies of Byzantium in fighting off [[Attila]]'s army.

=== Rise of the Khazar state ===
{{Continental Asia in 800 CE|right|The Khazar Khaganate and contemporary polities circa 800.}}
An embryonic state of Khazaria began to form sometime after 630,{{sfn|Kaegi|2003|p=143, n.115}}{{sfn|Golden|1992|pp=127–136, 234–237}} when it emerged from the breakdown of the larger [[First Turkic Khaganate|Göktürk Khaganate]]. Göktürk armies had penetrated the Volga by 549, ejecting the Avars, who were then forced to flee to the sanctuary of the [[Pannonian Basin|Hungarian plain]]. The Ashina clan appeared on the scene by 552, when they overthrew the Rourans and established the [[Göktürk]] [[First Turkic Khaganate|Qağanate]], whose self designation was ''Tür(ü)k''.{{efn|group=note|Whittow states that the word Türk had no strict ethnic meaning at the time: "Throughout the early middle ages on the Eurasian steppes, the term 'Turk' may or may not imply membership of the ethnic group of Turkic peoples, but it does always mean at least some awareness and acceptance of the traditions and ideology of the Gök Türk empire, and a share, however distant, in the political and cultural inheritance of that state." {{harv|Whittow|1996|p=221}}}} By 568, these Göktürks were probing for an alliance with Byzantium to attack [[Persia]]. An [[civil war|internecine war]] broke out between the senior eastern Göktürks and the junior West Turkic Khaganate some decades later, when on the death of [[Taspar Qaghan|Taspar Qağan]], a [[War of succession|succession dispute led to a dynastic crisis]] between Taspar's chosen heir, the [[Apa Qaghan|Apa Qağan]], and the ruler appointed by the tribal high council, Āshǐnà Shètú, the [[Ishbara Qaghan|Ishbara Qağan]].

By the first decades of the 7th century, the Ashina [[yabgu]] [[Tong Yabghu Qaghan|Tong]] managed to stabilise the Western division, but upon his death, after providing crucial military assistance to Byzantium in routing the Sasanian army in the Persian heartland,{{sfn|Kaegi|2003|pp=154–186}}{{sfn|Whittow|1996|p=222}} the Western Turkic Qağanate dissolved under pressure from the [[Tang Dynasty in Inner Asia|encroaching Tang dynasty armies]] and split into two competing federations, each consisting of five tribes, collectively known as the "Ten Arrows" (''On Oq''). Both briefly challenged Tang hegemony in eastern Turkestan. To the West, two new nomadic states arose in the meantime, [[Old Great Bulgaria]] under [[Kubrat]], the Duōlù clan leader, and the Nǔshībì subconfederation, also consisting of five tribes.{{efn|group=note|The [[Dulo clan|Duōlù (咄陆)]] were the left wing of the ''On Oq'', the [[Nushibi|Nǔshībì (弩失畢: *''Nu Šad(a)pit'')]], and together they were registered in Chinese sources as the "ten names" (shí míng:十名) {{harv|Golden|2010|pp=54–55}}.}} The Duōlù challenged the Avars in the [[Kuban River]]-[[Sea of Azov]] area while the Khazar Qağanate consolidated further westwards, led apparently by an Ashina dynasty. With a resounding victory over the tribes in 657, engineered by General [[Su Dingfang]], Chinese overlordship was imposed to their East after a final mop-up operation in 659, but the two confederations of Bulğars and Khazars fought for supremacy on the western steppeland, and with the ascendency of the latter, the former either succumbed to Khazar rule or, as under [[Asparukh of Bulgaria|Asparukh]], Kubrat's son, shifted even further west across the Danube to lay the foundations of the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] in the Balkans ({{circa|679}}).{{sfn|Golden|2001b|pp=94–95}}{{sfn|Somogyi|2008|p=128}}

The Qağanate of the Khazars thus took shape out of the ruins of this nomadic empire as it broke up under pressure from the Tang dynasty armies to the east sometime between 630 and 650.{{sfn|Golden|2006|p=89}} After their conquest of the lower Volga region to the East and an area westwards between the [[Danube]] and the [[Dniepr]], and their subjugation of the [[Onogurs|Onoğur]]-[[Bulgars|Bulğar]] union, sometime around 670, a properly constituted Khazar Qağanate emerges,{{sfn|Zuckerman|2007|p=417}} becoming the westernmost [[Succession of states|successor state]] of the formidable Göktürk Qağanate after its disintegration. According to [[Omeljan Pritsak]], the language of the Onoğur-Bulğar federation was to become the [[lingua franca]] of Khazaria{{sfn|Golden|2006|p=90}} as it developed into what [[Lev Gumilev]] called a "steppe Atlantis" (''stepnaja Atlantida''/ Степная Атлантида).{{sfn|Golden|2007a|pp=11–13}} Historians have often referred to this period of Khazar domination as the [[Pax Khazarica]] since the state became an international trading hub permitting Western Eurasian merchants safe transit across it to pursue their business without interference.{{sfn|Noonan|2001|p=91}} The high status soon to be accorded this empire to the north is attested by [[Ibn Balkhi|Ibn al-Balḫî]]'s ''Fârsnâma'' (c. 1100), which relates that the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] Shah, [[Khosrau I|Ḫusraw 1, Anûsîrvân]], placed three thrones by his own, one for the King of China, a second for the King of Byzantium, and a third for the king of the Khazars. Although anachronistic in retrodating the Khazars to this period, the legend, in placing the Khazar qağan on a throne with equal status to kings of the other two superpowers, bears witness to the reputation won by the Khazars from early times.{{sfn|Golden|2007a|pp=7–8}}{{sfn|Golden|2001b|p=73}}

=== Khazar state: culture and institutions ===
==== Royal Diarchy with sacral Qağanate ====
Khazaria developed a [[Diarchy|dual kingship]] governance structure,{{efn|group=note|Several scholars connect it to Judaization, with [[Artamonov]] linking its introduction to Obadiyah's reforms and the imposition of full Rabbinical Judaism and [[Pritsak]] to the same period (799–833), arguing that the [[Bey|Beg]], a majordomo from the Iranian *''Barč/Warâ Bolčan'' clan, identified with Obadiyah, compelled the Qağanal clan to convert, an event which putatively caused the Qabar revolt. Golden comments: "There is nothing but conjecture to connect it with the reforms of Obadiyah, the further evolution of Khazar Judaism or the [[Kabar|Qabars]]&nbsp;... The fact is we do not know when, precisely, the Khazar system of dual kingship emerged. It could not have come ''ex nihilo''. It was not present in the early stages of Khazar history. Given the Old Türk traditions of the Khazar state&nbsp;... and the overall institutional conservation of steppe society, one must exercise great caution here. Clear evidence for it is relatively late (the latter part of the ninth century perhaps and more probably the tenth century)- although it was probably present by the first third of the ninth century. Iranian influences via the [[Ors]] guard of the Qağans may have also been a factor" {{harv|Golden|2007b|pp=155–156}}}} typical among Turkic nomads, consisting of a ''shad/bäk'' and a ''qağan''.{{sfn|Noonan|1999|p=500}} The emergence of this system may be deeply entwined with the conversion to Judaism.{{sfn|Olsson|2013|p=496}} According to Arabic sources, the lesser king was called ''[[Khagan Bek|îšâ]]'' and the greater king ''Khazar [[Khagan|xâqân]]''; the former managed and commanded the military, while the greater king's role was primarily sacral, less concerned with daily affairs. The greater king was recruited from the Khazar house of notables (''ahl bait ma'rûfīn'') and, in an initiation ritual, was nearly strangled until he declared the number of years he wished to reign, on the expiration of which he would be [[ritual killing|killed by the nobles]].{{efn|group=note|There was a maximum limit on the number of years of a king's reign, according to [[Ibn Fadlan]]; if a Qağan had reigned for at least forty years, his courtiers and subjects felt his ability to reason would become impaired by old age. They would then kill the Qağan {{harv|Dunlop|1954|pp=97, 112}}.}}{{sfn|Noonan|2001|p=77}}{{sfn|Golden|2006|pp=81–82}}{{efn|group=note|Petrukhin notes that Ibn Fadlan's description of a Rus' prince (''malik'') and his lieutenant (''[[khalifa]]'') mirrored the Khazarian diarchy, but the comparison was flawed, as there was no sacral kingship among the Rus' {{harv|Petrukhin|2007|pp=256–257}}.}} The deputy ruler would enter the presence of the reclusive greater king only with great ceremony, approaching him barefoot to prostrate himself in the dust and then light a piece of wood as a purifying fire, while waiting humbly and calmly to be summoned.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|pp=133–134}} Particularly elaborate rituals accompanied a [[royal burial]]. At one period, travellers had to dismount, bow before the ruler's tomb, and then walk away on foot.{{sfn|Shingiray|2012|p=212}} Subsequently, the charismatic sovereign's burial place was hidden from view, with a palatial structure ("Paradise") constructed and then [[buried treasure|hidden]] under rerouted river water to avoid disturbance by evil spirits and later generations. Such a royal burial ground (''[[qoruq (burial)|qoruq]]'') is typical of inner Asian peoples.{{sfn|DeWeese|1994|p=181}} Both the îšâ and the xâqân converted to Judaism sometime in the 8th century, while the rest, according to the Persian traveller [[Ahmad ibn Rustah]], probably followed the old Tūrkic religion.{{sfn|Golden|2006|pp=79–81}}{{efn|group=note|"the rest of the Khazars profess a religion similar to that of the Turks." {{harv|Golden|2007b|pp=130–131}}}}

==== Ruling elite ====
The ruling stratum, like that of the later [[Borjigin|Činggisids]] within the [[Golden Horde]], was a relatively small group that differed ethnically and linguistically from its subject peoples, meaning the [[Alans|Alano-As]] and Oğuric Turkic tribes, who were numerically superior within Khazaria.{{sfn|Golden|2006|p=88}} The Khazar Qağans, while taking wives and concubines from the subject populations, were protected by a [[Khwarezm|Khwârazmian]] guard corps, or ''[[Comitatus (classical meaning)|comitatus]]'', called the [[Arsiyah|Ursiyya]].{{efn|group=note|This regiment was exempt from campaigning against fellow Muslims, evidence that non-Judaic beliefs were no obstacle to access to the highest levels of government. They had abandoned their homeland and sought service with the Khazars in exchange for the right to exercise their religious freedom, according to al-Masudi {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=138}}.}}{{efn|group=note|Olsson writes that there is no evidence for this Islamic guard for the 9th century, but that its existence is attested for 913 {{harv|Olsson|2013|p=507}}.}} But unlike many other local polities, they hired soldiers (mercenaries) (the ''junûd murtazîqa'' in [[Al-Masudi|al-Mas'ûdî]]).{{sfn|Golden|2006|pp=79–80, 88}} At the peak of their empire, the Khazars ran a centralised fiscal administration, with a standing army of some 7–12,000 men, which could, at need, be multiplied two or three times that number by inducting reserves from their nobles' retinues.{{sfn|Olsson|2013|p=495}}{{efn|group=note|Noonan gives the lower figure for the Muslim contingents, but adds that the army could draw on other mercenaries stationed in the capital, Rūs, [[Saqaliba|Ṣaqāliba]] and pagans. Olsson's 10,000 refers to the spring-summer horsemen in the nomadic king's retinue {{harv|Noonan|2007|pp=211, 217}}.}} Other figures for the permanent standing army indicate that it numbered as many as one hundred thousand. They controlled and exacted tribute from 25 to 30 different nations and tribes inhabiting the vast territories between the Caucasus, the Aral Sea, the Ural Mountains, and the Ukrainian steppes.{{sfn|Koestler|1977|p=18}} Khazar armies were led by the Qağan Bek (pronounced as Kagan Bek) and commanded by subordinate [[officer (armed forces)|officers]] known as [[tarkhan]]s. When the bek sent out a body of troops, they would not retreat under any circumstances. If they were defeated, every one who returned was killed.{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|p=113}}

Settlements were governed by administrative officials known as ''[[tudun]]s''. In some cases, such as the Byzantine settlements in southern [[Crimea]], a ''tudun'' would be appointed for a town nominally within another polity's [[sphere of influence]]. Other officials in the Khazar government included dignitaries referred to by [[ibn Fadlan]] as ''[[Jawyshyghr]]'' and ''[[Kündür]]'', but their responsibilities are unknown.

==== Demographics ====
It has been estimated that 25 to 28 distinct ethnic groups made up the population of the Khazar Qağanate, aside from the ethnic elite. The ruling elite seems to have been constituted out of nine tribes/clans, themselves ethnically heterogeneous, spread over perhaps nine provinces or principalities, each of which would have been allocated to a clan.{{sfn|Noonan|2001|p=77}} In terms of caste or class, some evidence suggests that there was a distinction, whether racial or social is unclear, between "White Khazars" (ak-Khazars) and "Black Khazars" (qara-Khazars).{{sfn|Noonan|2001|p=77}} The 10th-century Muslim geographer [[Istakhri|al-Iṣṭakhrī]] claimed that the White Khazars were strikingly handsome with reddish hair, white skin, and blue eyes, while the Black Khazars were swarthy, verging on deep black as if they were "some kind of [[India]]n".{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|p=96}} Many Turkic nations had a similar (political, not racial) division between a "white" ruling warrior caste and a "black" class of commoners; the consensus among mainstream scholars is that Istakhri was confused by the names given to the two groups.{{sfn|Brook|2010|pp=3–4}} However, Khazars are generally described by early Arab sources as having a white complexion, blue eyes, and reddish hair.{{sfn|Patai|Patai|1989|p=70}}{{sfn|Brook|2010|p=3}} The ethnonym in the Tang Chinese annals, Ashina, often accorded a key role in the Khazar leadership, may reflect an Eastern Iranian or [[Tocharian languages|Tokharian]] word ([[Saka language|Khotanese Saka]] ''âşşeina-āššsena'' "blue"): [[Middle Persian]] ''axšaêna'' ("dark-coloured"): [[Tocharian languages#Tocharian A and B|Tokharian A]] ''âśna'' ("blue", "dark").{{sfn|Luttwak|2009|p=152}} The distinction appears to have survived the collapse of the Khazarian empire. Later Russian chronicles, commenting on the role of the Khazars in the magyarisation of Hungary, refer to them as "White [[Oghur (tribe)|Oghurs]]" and [[Magyars]] as "[[Black Hungarians|Black Oghurs]]".{{sfn|Oppenheim|1994|p=312}} Studies of the physical remains, such as skulls at [[Sarkel]], have revealed individuals belonging to the Slavic, other European, and a few Mongolian types.{{sfn|Brook|2010|pp=3–4}}

==== Economy ====
The import and export of foreign wares, and the revenues derived from taxing their transit, was a hallmark of the Khazar economy, although it is said also to have produced [[isinglass]].{{sfn|Barthold|1993|p=936}} Distinctively among the nomadic steppe polities, the Khazar Qağanate developed a self-sufficient domestic [[Saltovo-Mayaki|Saltovo]]{{sfn|Zhivkov|2015|p=173}} economy, a combination of traditional pastoralism – allowing sheep and cattle to be exported – extensive agriculture, abundant use of the Volga's rich fishing stocks, together with craft manufacture, with diversification in lucrative returns from taxing international trade given its pivotal control of major trade routes.

The [[Khazar slave trade]] constituted one of the two great furnishers of slaves to [[history of slavery in the Muslim world|the Muslim market]] to [[slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate]] (the other being the [[Samanid slave trade|Iranian Sâmânid amîrs]]), supplying it with captured Slavs and tribesmen from the Eurasian northlands.{{sfn|Golden|2011a|p=64}} It profited from the latter which enabled it to maintain a standing army of Khwarezm Muslim troops. The capital Atil reflected the division: Kharazān on the western bank where the king and his Khazar elite, with a retinue of some 4,000 attendants, dwelt, and Itil proper to the East, inhabited by Jews, Christians, Muslims and slaves and by craftsmen and foreign merchants.{{efn|group=note|A third division may have contained the dwellings of the tsarina. The dimensions of the western part were 3x3, as opposed to the eastern part's 8 x 8 ''farsakhs'' {{harv|Noonan|2007|pp=208–209, 216–219}}.}}

The Khazar Khaghanate played a key role in the trade between Europe and the Muslim world in the early middle ages. People taken captive during the viking raids in Europe, such as Ireland, could be transported to [[Hedeby]] or [[Brännö]] in Scandinavia and from there via the [[Volga trade route]] to Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silver ''[[dirham]]'' and [[silk]], which have been found in [[Birka]], [[Wolin|Wollin]] and [[Dublin]];{{sfn|Reuter|1999|p=91}} during the 8th- and 9th-century this trade route between Europe and the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] passed via the Khazar Kaghanate,{{sfn|Noonan|2007|p=232}}  until it was supplanted in the 10th-century by the route of [[Volga Bulgarian slave trade|Volga Bulgaria]], [[Khwarazm]], and the [[Samanid slave trade]].{{sfn|Reuter|1999|p=504}}

The ruling elite wintered in the city and spent from spring to late autumn in their fields. A large irrigated greenbelt, drawing on channels from the Volga river, lay outside the capital, where meadows and vineyards extended for some 20 ''farsakhs'' (c. 60 miles).{{sfn|Noonan|2007|p=214}} While customs duties were imposed on traders, and tribute and tithes were exacted from 25 to 30 tribes, with a levy of one sable skin, squirrel pelt, sword, dirham per hearth or ploughshare, or hides, wax, honey and livestock, depending on the zone. Trade disputes were handled by a commercial tribunal in Atil consisting of seven judges, two for each of the monotheistic inhabitants (Jews, Muslims, Christians) and one for the pagans.{{efn|group=note|Outside Muslim traders were under the jurisdiction of a special royal official (''ghulām'') {{harv|Noonan|2007|pp=211–214}}.}}

=== 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}}

=== {{anchor|Second Khazar-Arab war}}Arab–Khazar wars ===
{{Main|Arab–Khazar wars}}

During the 7th and 8th centuries, the Khazars fought a series of wars against the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] and its [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] successor. The First Arab-Khazar War began during the first phase of [[Early Muslim conquests|Muslim expansion]]. By 640, Muslim forces had reached Armenia; in 642 they launched their first raid across the Caucasus under [[Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah]]. In 652 Arab forces advanced on the Khazar capital, [[Balanjar]], but were [[Battle of Balanjar (650s)|defeated]], suffering heavy losses; according to Persian historians such as [[Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|al-Tabari]], both sides in the battle used [[catapult]]s against the opposing troops. A number of Russian sources give the name of a Khazar khagan from this period as [[List of Khazar rulers|Irbis]] and describe him as a scion of the Göktürk royal house, the Ashina. Whether Irbis ever existed is open to debate, as is whether he can be identified with one of the many Göktürk rulers of the same name.

Due to the outbreak of the [[First Fitna|First Muslim Civil War]] and other priorities, the Arabs refrained from repeating an attack on the Khazars until the early 8th century.{{sfn|Mako|2010|p=45}} The Khazars launched a few raids into Transcaucasian principalities under Muslim dominion, including a large-scale raid in 683–685 during the [[Second Fitna|Second Muslim Civil War]] that rendered much booty and many prisoners.{{sfn|Brook|2010|pp=126–127}} There is evidence from the account of al-Tabari that the Khazars formed a united front with the remnants of the Göktürks in Transoxiana.

[[File:Map of the Caucasus, 740 CE.svg|thumb|300px|{{center|Caucasus region, c. 740}}]]
The Second Arab-Khazar War began with a series of raids across the Caucasus in the early 8th century. The Umayyads tightened their grip on Armenia in 705 after suppressing a large-scale rebellion. In 713 or 714, the Umayyad general [[Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik|Maslamah]] conquered Derbent and drove deeper into Khazar territory. The Khazars launched raids in response into [[Caucasian Albania|Albania]] and [[Iranian Azerbaijan]] but were driven back by the Arabs under [[Hasan ibn al-Nu'man]].{{sfn|Brook|2010|p=127}} The conflict escalated in 722 with an invasion by 30,000 Khazars into Armenia inflicting a crushing defeat. Caliph [[Yazid II]] responded, sending 25,000 Arab troops north, swiftly driving the Khazars back across the Caucasus, recovering Derbent, and advancing on Balanjar. The Arabs [[Battle of Balanjar (723)|broke through the Khazar defence]] and stormed the city; most of its inhabitants were killed or enslaved, but a few of them managed to flee north.{{sfn|Brook|2010|pp=126–127}} Despite their success, the Arabs had not yet defeated the Khazar army, and they retreated south of the Caucasus.

In 724, the Arab general [[al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami]] inflicted a crushing defeat on the Khazars in a long battle between the rivers [[Cyrus (river)|Cyrus]] and [[Araxes]], then moved on to capture [[Tiflis]], bringing [[Principality of Iberia|Caucasian Iberia]] under Muslim suzerainty. The Khazars struck back in 726, led by a prince named [[Barjik]], launching a major invasion of Albania and Azerbaijan; by 729, the Arabs had lost control of northeastern Transcaucasia and were thrust again into the defensive. In 730, Barjik invaded Iranian Azerbaijan and [[Battle of Ardabil|defeated]] Arab forces at [[Ardabil]], killing the general [[al-Djarrah al-Hakami]] and briefly occupying the town. Barjik was defeated and killed the next year at [[Mosul]], where he directed Khazar forces from a throne mounted with al-Djarrah's severed head {{citation needed|date=November 2016}}. In 737, Marwan Ibn Muhammad entered Khazar territory under the guise of seeking a truce. He then launched a surprise attack in which The Qaghan fled north and the Khazars surrendered.{{sfn|Golden|1980|p=64}} The Arabs did not have enough resources to influence the affairs of Transcaucasia.{{sfn|Golden|1980|p=64}} The Qağan was forced to accept terms involving his conversion to Islam, and subject himself to the rule of the Caliphate, but the accommodation was short-lived because a combination of internal instability among the Umayyads and Byzantine support undid the agreement within three years, and the Khazars re-asserted their independence.{{sfn|Wasserstein|2007|pp=375–376}} The suggestion that the Khazars adopted [[Judaism]] as early as 740 is based on the idea that, in part, it was, a re-assertion of their independence from the rule of both regional powers, Byzantium and the Caliphate, while it also conformed to a general Eurasian trend to embrace a [[World religions|world religion]].{{efn|group=note|"The Khazars, the close allies of the Byzantines, adopted Judaism, as their official religion, apparently by 740, three years after an invasion by the Arabs under Marwan ibn Muhammad. Marwan had used treachery against a Khazar envoy in order to gain peaceful entrance into Khazar territory. He then declared his dishonourable intentions and pressed deep into Khazar territory, subsequently, he released the envoy. The Arabs devastated the horse herds, seized many Khazars and others as captives, and forced much of the population to flee into the Ural Mountains. Marwan's terms dictated that the kaghan and his Khazars should convert to Islam. Having no choice, the kaghan accepted Marwan's terms, and the Arabs returned home in triumph. As soon as the Arabs were gone, the kaghan renounced Islam – with, one may assume, great vehemence. The Khazar Dynasty's conversion to Judaism is best explained by this specific historical background, together with the fact that the mid-eighth century was an age in which the major Eurasian states proclaimed their adherence to distinctive world religions. Adopting Judaism also was politically astute: it meant that the Khazars did not have to accept the overlordship (however theoretical) of the Arab caliph or the Byzantine emperor." {{harv|Beckwith|2011|p=149}}}}

Whatever the impact of Marwan's campaigns was, warfare between the Khazars and the Arabs ceased for more than two decades after 737. Arab raids continued to occur until 741, but their control of the region was limited because maintaining a large garrison at Derbent further depleted their already overstretched army. A [[Third Fitna|third Muslim civil war]] soon broke out, leading to the Abbasid Revolution and the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in 750.

In 758, the [[Abbasid]] [[Caliph]] [[al-Mansur]] attempted to strengthen diplomatic ties with the Khazars, ordering [[Yazid ibn Usayd al-Sulami]], one of his nobles and the [[Ostikanate of Arminiya|military governor of Armenia]], to take a royal Khazar bride.{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|p=179}} Yazid married a daughter of Khazar Khagan [[Baghatur]], but she died inexplicably, possibly during childbirth. Her attendants returned home, convinced that some members of another Arab faction had poisoned her, and her father was enraged. The Khazar general [[Ras Tarkhan]] invaded regions which were located south of the Caucasus in 762–764, devastating Albania, Armenia, and Iberia, and capturing Tiflis.{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=115}} Thereafter, relations between the Khazars and the Abbasids became increasingly cordial, because the foreign policies of the Abbasids were generally less expansionist than the foreign policies of the Umayyads, relations between the Khazars and the Abbasids were ultimately broken by a series of raids which occurred in 799, the raids occurred after another marriage alliance failed.{{sfn|Brook|2018|p=115}}

=== Khazars and Hungarians ===
Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three [[Kabar]] tribes{{sfn|Makkai|1994|p=11}} of the Khazars (probably the majority of ethnic Khazars) joined the Hungarians and moved through [[Levedia]] to what the Hungarians call the [[Etelköz]], the territory between the [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]] and the [[Dnieper River]]. The Hungarians faced their first attack by the [[Pechenegs]] around 854,{{sfn|Country Study: Hungary|1989}} though other sources state that an attack by Pechenegs was the reason for their departure to Etelköz. The new neighbours of the Hungarians were the [[Varangians]] and the eastern [[Slavs]]. From 862 onwards, the Hungarians (already referred to as the ''Ungri'') along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of raids from the Etelköz into the Carpathian Basin, mostly against the [[East Francia|Eastern Frankish Empire]] (Germany) and [[Great Moravia]], but also against the [[Pannonian Slavs#Principality|Lower Pannonian principality]] and [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]]. Then they together ended up at the outer slopes of Carpathians, and settled there.
=== Rise of the Rus' and the collapse of the Khazarian state ===
[[File:Varangian routes.png|thumb|300px|Trade routes of the Black Sea region, 8th–11th centuries]]

By the 9th century, groups of [[Varangians|Varangian Rus']], developing a powerful warrior-merchant system, began probing south down the waterways controlled by the Khazars and their protectorate, the [[Volga Bulgaria]]ns, partially in pursuit of the Arab silver that flowed north for hoarding through the Khazarian-Volga Bulgarian trading zones,{{efn|group=note|Over 520 separate hoards of such silver have been uncovered in Sweden and [[Gotland]] {{harv|Moss|2002|p=16}}.}} partially to trade in furs and ironwork.{{efn|group=note|The Volga Bulgarian state was converted to Islam in the 10th century, and wrested liberty from its Khazarian suzerains when [[Sviatoslav I of Kiev|Svyatislav]] razed Atil {{harv|Abulafia|1987|pp=419, 480–483}}.}} Northern mercantile fleets passing Atil were tithed, as they were at Byzantine [[Cherson (theme)|Cherson]].{{sfn|Shepard|2006|p=19}} Their presence may have prompted the formation of a Rus' state by convincing the [[Slavic peoples|Slavs]], [[Volga Finns|Merja]] and the [[Chud]]' to unite to protect common interests against Khazarian exactions of tribute. It is often argued that a [[Rus' Khaganate]] modelled on the Khazarian state had formed to the east and that the Varangian chieftain of the coalition appropriated the title of qağan (''khagan'') as early as the 830s: the title survived to denote the princes of [[Kievan Rus']], whose capital, [[Kiev]], is often associated with a Khazarian foundation.{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=245}}{{sfn|Noonan|2001|p=81}}{{efn|group=note|Whittow argues however that: "The title of qaghan, with its claims to lordship over the steppe world, is likely to be no more than ideological booty from the 965 victory." {{harv|Whittow|1996|pp=243–252}}}}{{efn|group=note|Korobkin citing Golb & Pritsak notes that Khazars have often been connected with Kiev's foundations.{{sfn|Korobkin|1998|p=xxvii}} Pritsak and Golb state that children in [[Kiev]] were being given a mixture of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] names by c. 930.{{sfn|Golb|Pritsak|1982|p=15}} Toch on the other hand is sceptical, and argues that "a significant Jewish presence in early medieval Kiev or indeed in Russia at large remains much in doubt".{{sfn|Toch|2012|p=166}}}} The construction of the [[Sarkel|Sarkel fortress]], with technical assistance from Khazaria's Byzantine ally at the time, together with the minting of an autonomous Khazar coinage around the 830s, may have been a defensive measure against emerging threats from Varangians to the north and from the [[Magyars]] on the eastern steppe.{{efn|group=note|The ''[[yarmaq]]'' based on the Arab ''[[dirhem]]'' was perhaps issued in reaction to fall-off in Muslim minting in the 820s, and to a felt need in the turbulent upheavals of the 830s to assert a new religious profile, with the Jewish legends stamped on them {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=156}}.}}{{efn|group=note|Scholars are divided as to whether the fortification of Sarkel represents a defensive bulwark against a growing Magyar or Varangian threat {{harv|Petrukhin|2007|pp=247, and n.1}}.}} By 860, the Rus' had penetrated as far as Kiev and, via the [[Dnieper]], [[Constantinople]].{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=257}}

[[File:Sarkel.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel (aerial photo from excavations conducted by [[Mikhail Illarionovich Artamonov|Mikhail Artamonov]] in the 1950s).]]
Alliances often shifted. Byzantium, threatened by Varangian Rus' raiders, would assist Khazaria, and Khazaria at times allowed the northerners to pass through their territory in exchange for a portion of the booty.{{sfn|Kohen|2007|p=107}} From the beginning of the 10th century, the Khazars found themselves fighting on multiple fronts as nomadic incursions were exacerbated by uprisings by former clients and invasions from former allies. The [[pax Khazarica]] was caught in a pincer movement between steppe Pechenegs and the strengthening of an emergent Rus' power to the north, both undermining Khazaria's tributary empire.{{sfn|Noonan|1999|pp=502–503}} According to the [[Schechter Text]], the Khazar ruler [[Benjamin (Khazar)|King Benjamin]] (ca.880–890) fought a battle against the allied forces of five lands whose moves were perhaps encouraged by Byzantium.{{efn|group=note|''MQDWN'' or the [[Macedonian dynasty|Macedon dynasty of Byzantium]]; ''SY'', perhaps a central Volga statelet, [[Burtas]], Asya; ''PYYNYL'' denoting the [[Pechenegs|Danube-Don Pechnegs]]; ''BM'', perhaps indicating the [[Volga Bulgars]], and ''TWRQY'' or [[Oghuz Turks]]. The provisory identifications are those of Pritsak {{harv|Kohen|2007|p=106}}.}} Although Benjamin was victorious, his son [[Aaron II (Khazar)|Aaron II]] faced another invasion, this time led by the [[Alans]], whose leader had converted to Christianity and entered into an alliance with Byzantium, which, under [[Leo VI the Wise]], encouraged them to fight against the Khazars.

By the 880s, Khazar control of the Middle [[Dnieper]] from Kiev, where they collected tribute from Eastern Slavic tribes, began to wane as [[Oleg of Novgorod]] wrested control of the city from the Varangian warlords [[Askold and Dir]], and embarked on what was to prove to be the foundation of a Rus' empire.{{sfn|Noonan|1999|p=508}} The Khazars had initially allowed the Rus' to use the [[Volga trade route|trade route]] along the Volga River, and raid southwards. See [[Caspian expeditions of the Rus']]. According to [[Al Masudi|Al-Mas'udi]], the qağan is said to have given his assent on the condition that the Rus' give him half of the booty.{{sfn|Kohen|2007|p=107}} In 913, however, two years after Byzantium concluded a peace treaty with the Rus' in 911, a [[Varangians|Varangian]] foray, with Khazar connivance, through Arab lands led to a request to the Khazar throne by the Khwârazmian Islamic guard for permission to retaliate against the large Rus' contingent on its return. The purpose was to revenge the violence the Rus' [[Looting|razzias]] had inflicted on their fellow Muslim believers.{{efn|group=note|Al-Mas'udi says the king secretly tipped off the Rus' of the attack but was unable to oppose the request of his guards {{harv|Olsson|2013|p=507}}.}} The Rus' force was thoroughly routed and massacred.{{sfn|Kohen|2007|p=107}} The Khazar rulers closed the passage down the Volga to the Rus', sparking a war. In the early 960s, Khazar ruler [[Joseph (Khazar)|Joseph]] wrote to [[Hasdai ibn Shaprut]] about the deterioration of Khazar relations with the Rus': "I protect the mouth of the river (Itil-Volga) and prevent the Rus arriving in their ships from setting off by sea against the [[Arabs|Ishmaelites]] and (equally) all (their) enemies from setting off by land to [[Derbent|Bab]]."{{efn|group=note|The letter continues: "I wage war with them. If I left them (in peace) for a single hour they would crush the whole land of the Ishmaelites up to [[Baghdad]]." {{harv|Petrukhin|2007|p=257}}}}

[[File:Lebedev Svyatoslavs meeting with Emperor John.jpg|thumb|[[Sviatoslav I of Kiev]] (in boat), destroyer of the Khazar Khaganate.{{efn|group=note|From Klavdiy Lebedev (1852–1916), ''Svyatoslav's meeting with [[John I Tzimisces|Emperor John]], as described by Leo the Deacon.''}}]]
The Rus' warlords launched several wars against the Khazar Qağanate, and raided down to [[Caspian expeditions of the Rus'|the Caspian sea]]. The [[Schechter Letter]] relates the story of a campaign against Khazaria by ''HLGW'' (recently identified as Oleg of Chernigov) around 941 in which Oleg was defeated by the Khazar general [[Pesakh (Khazar)|Pesakh]].{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=259}} The Khazar alliance with the Byzantine empire began to collapse in the early 10th century. Byzantine and Khazar forces may have clashed in the Crimea, and by the 940s emperor [[Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus]] was speculating in ''[[De Administrando Imperio]]'' about ways in which the Khazars could be isolated and attacked. The Byzantines during the same period began to attempt alliances with the Pechenegs and the Rus', with varying degrees of success. A further factor undermining the Khazar Qağanate was a shift in Islamic routes at this time, as Muslims in Khwarazmia forged trade links with the recently converted Volga Bulgarian Muslims, a move which may have caused a drastic drop, perhaps up to 80%, in the revenue base of Khazaria, and consequently, a crisis in its ability to pay for its defence.{{sfn|Feldman|2022a|pp=75–84}}

[[Sviatoslav I of Kiev|Sviatoslav I]] finally succeeded in destroying Khazar imperial power in the 960s, in a circular sweep that overwhelmed Khazar fortresses like [[Sarkel]] and [[Tmutarakan|Tamatarkha]], and reached as far as the Caucasian Kassogians/[[Circassians]]{{efn|group=note|[[Henry Hoyle Howorth|H. H. Howorth]] argued that the Khazars were the ancestors of contemporary Circassians {{harv|Howorth|1870|pp=182–192}}.}} and then back to Kiev.{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=262}} Sarkel fell in 965, with the capital city of [[Atil]] following, c. 968 or 969.

In the Russian chronicle, the vanquishing of the Khazar traditions is associated with Vladimir's conversion in 986.{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|pp=262–263}} According to the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'', in 986, Khazar Jews were present at [[Vladimir I of Kiev|Vladimir]]'s [[disputation]] to decide on the prospective religion of the Kievan Rus'.{{sfn|''Russian Primary Chronicle''}} Whether these were Jews who had settled in Kiev or emissaries from some Jewish Khazar remnant state is unclear. Conversion to one of the faiths of the people of Scripture was a precondition to any peace treaty with the Arabs, whose Bulgar envoys had arrived in Kiev after 985.{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=263}}

A visitor to Atil wrote soon after the sacking of the city that its vineyards and garden had been razed, that not a grape or raisin remained in the land, and not even alms for the poor were available.{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|p=242}} An attempt to rebuild may have been undertaken, since [[Ibn Hawqal]] and [[al-Muqaddasi]] refer to it after that date, but by [[Al-Biruni]]'s time (1048) it was in ruins.{{efn|group=note|Dunlop thought the later city of [[Saqsin]] lay on or near Atil {{harv|Dunlop|1954|p=248}}.}}

=== Aftermath: impact, decline and dispersion ===
Although Poliak argued that the Khazar kingdom did not wholly succumb to Sviatoslav's campaign, but lingered on until 1224, when the [[Mongol invasion of Rus'|Mongols invaded Rus']],{{sfn|Gow|1995|p=31, n.28}}{{sfn|Sand|2010|p=229}} by most accounts, the Rus'-Oghuz campaigns left Khazaria devastated, with perhaps many Khazarian Jews in flight,{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=148}} and leaving behind at best a minor [[rump state]]. It left little trace, except for some placenames,{{efn|group=note|The [[Caspian Sea]] is still known to Arabs, and many peoples of the region, as the "Khazar Sea" (Arabic ''Bahr ul-Khazar'') {{harv|Brook|2010|p=156}}}} and much of its population was undoubtedly absorbed in successor hordes.{{sfn|Noonan|1999|p=503}} [[Al-Muqaddasi]], writing ca.985, mentions Khazar beyond the Caspian sea as a district of "woe and squalor", with honey, many sheep and Jews.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|pp=147–148}} [[Kedrenos]] mentions a joint Rus'-Byzantine attack on Khazaria in 1016, which defeated its ruler [[Georgius Tzul]]. The name suggests Christian affiliations. The account concludes by saying, that after Tzul's defeat, the Khazar ruler of "upper Media", Senaccherib, had to sue for peace and submission.{{sfn|Kohen|2007|p=109}} In 1024 [[Mstislav of Chernigov]] (one of Vladimir's sons) marched against his brother Yaroslav with an army that included "Khazars and Kassogians" in a repulsed attempt to restore a kind of "Khazarian"-type dominion over Kiev.{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=262}} [[Ibn al-Athir]]'s mention of a "raid of Faḍlūn the Kurd against the Khazars" in 1030&nbsp;CE, in which 10,000 of his men were vanquished by the latter, has been taken as a reference to such a Khazar remnant, but [[Vasily Bartold|Barthold]] identified this Faḍlūn as [[al-Fadhl ibn Muhammad|Faḍl ibn Muḥammad]] and the "Khazars" as either [[Georgian people|Georgians]] or [[Abkhaz people|Abkhazians]].{{sfn|Shapira|2007a|p=305}}{{sfn|Dunlop|1954|p=253}} A Kievian prince named [[Oleg I of Chernigov|Oleg, grandson of Jaroslav]] was reportedly kidnapped by "Khazars" in 1079 and shipped off to [[Constantinople]], although most scholars believe that this is a reference to the [[Cumans]]-[[Kipchaks]] or other steppe peoples then dominant in the Pontic region. Upon his conquest of [[Tmutarakan]] in the 1080s Oleg gave himself the title "[[archon]] of Khazaria".{{sfn|Petrukhin|2007|p=262}} In 1083 Oleg is said to have exacted revenge on the Khazars after his brother Roman was killed by their allies, the [[Polovtsi]]. After one more conflict with these Polovtsi in 1106, the Khazars fade from history.{{sfn|Kohen|2007|p=109}} By the 13th century they survived in Russian folklore only as "Jewish heroes" in the "land of the Jews". (''zemlya Jidovskaya'').{{sfn|Falk|2017|p=102}}

By the end of the 12th century, [[Petachiah of Ratisbon]] reported travelling through what he called "Khazaria", and had little to remark on other than describing its ''minim'' (sectaries) living amidst desolation in perpetual mourning.{{sfn|Sand|2010|p=227}} The reference seems to be to Karaites.{{sfn|Dubnov|1980|p=792}} The Franciscan missionary [[William of Rubruck]] likewise found only impoverished pastures in the lower Volga area where Ital once lay.{{sfn|Noonan|2007|p=214}} [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]], the papal legate to the court of the [[Mongol]] Khan [[Güyük Khan|Guyuk]] at that time, mentioned an otherwise unattested Jewish tribe, the [[Brutakhi]], perhaps in the Volga region. Although connections are made to the Khazars, the link is based merely on a common attribution of Judaism.{{sfn|Golden|2007a|p=45, n.157}}

[[File:Khazarfall1.png|thumb|The [[Pontic steppe]]s, c. 1015 (areas in blue possibly still under Khazar control).]]
The 10th century [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] [[Denkard|Dênkart]] registered the collapse of Khazar power in attributing its eclipse to the enfeebling effects of "false" religion.{{efn|group=note|"thus it is clear that the false doctrine of Yišô in Rome (Hrôm) and that of Môsê among the Khazars and that of Mânî in Turkistan took away their might and the valor that they once possessed and made them feeble and decadent among their rivals" {{harv|Golden|2007b|p=130}}.}} The decline was contemporary to that suffered by the [[Transoxiana]] [[Samanids|Sāmānid]] empire to the east, both events paving the way for the rise of the [[Great Seljuq Empire]], whose founding traditions mention Khazar connections.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=159}}{{efn|group=note|Some sources claim that the father of [[Seljuk (warlord)|Seljuk]], the eponymous progenitor of the [[Seljuk Turks]], namely Toqaq Temür Yalığ, began his career as an Oghuz soldier in Khazar service in the early and mid-10th century, and rose to high rank before he fell out with the Khazar rulers and departed for [[Khwarazm]]. Seljuk's sons, significantly, all bear names from the [[Tanakh|Jewish scriptures]]: Mîkâ"il, Isrâ"îl, Mûsâ, Yûnus. Peacock argues that early traditions attesting a Seljuk origin within the Khazar empire when it was powerful, were later rewritten, after Khazaria fell from power in the 11th century, to blank out the connection {{harv|Peacock|2010|pp=27–35}}.}} Whatever successor entity survived, it could no longer function as a bulwark against the pressure east and south of nomad expansions. By 1043, [[Kimek tribe|Kimeks]] and [[Kipchaks|Qipchaqs]], thrusting westwards, pressured the [[Oghuz Turks|Oğuz]], who in turn pushed the [[Pechenegs]] west towards Byzantium's Balkan provinces.{{sfn|Peacock|2010|p=35}}

Khazaria nonetheless left its mark on the rising states and some of their traditions and institutions. Much earlier, [[Tzitzak]], the Khazar wife of [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo III]], introduced into the Byzantine court the distinctive kaftan or riding habit of the nomadic Khazars, the tzitzakion (τζιτζάκιον), and this was adopted as a solemn element of imperial dress.{{efn|group=note|Tzitzak is often treated as her original [[proper name]], with a Turkic etymology ''čiček'' ("flower"). Erdal, however, citing the Byzantine work on court ceremony [[De Ceremoniis]], authored by [[Constantine VII|Constantine Porphyrogennetos]], argues that the word referred only to the dress Irene wore at court, perhaps denoting its colourfulness, and compares it to the Hebrew ''[[Tzitzit|ciciot]]'', the knotted fringes of a ceremonial shawl, or [[tallit]] ({{harvnb|Erdal|2007|p=80, n.22}}; {{harvnb|Wexler|1987|p=72}}).}} The orderly hierarchical system of succession by "scales" (''lestvichnaia sistema'':лествичная система) to the [[Kievan Rus'|Grand Principate of Kiev]] was arguably modelled on Khazar institutions, via the example of the [[Rus' Khaganate]].{{sfn|Golden|2001a|pp=28–29, 37}}

The proto-Hungarian Pontic tribe, while perhaps threatening Khazaria as early as 839 (Sarkel), practiced their institutional model, such as the dual rule of a ceremonial ''kende-kündü'' and a ''gyula'' administering practical and military administration, as tributaries of the Khazars. A dissident group of Khazars, the [[Kabar|Qabars]], joined the Hungarians in their migration westwards as they moved into [[Pannonia]]. Elements within the Hungarian population can be viewed as perpetuating Khazar traditions as a successor state. Byzantine sources refer to Hungary as [[Principality of Hungary|Western Tourkia]] in contrast to Khazaria, Eastern Tourkia. The gyula line produced the kings of medieval Hungary through descent from [[Árpád]], while the Qabars retained their traditions longer, and were known as "black Hungarians" (''fekete magyarság''). Some archaeological evidence from [[Čelarevo]] suggests the Qabars practised Judaism{{sfn|Golden|1994b|pp=247–248}}{{sfn|Róna-Tas|1999|p=56}}{{sfn|Golden|2007a|p=33}} since warrior graves with Jewish symbols were found there, including [[Menorah (Temple)|menorahs]], [[shofar]]s, [[etrog]]s, [[lulav]]s, candlesnuffers, ash collectors, inscriptions in Hebrew, and a six-pointed star identical to the [[Star of David]].{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=150}}{{sfn|Brook|2010|p=167}}
[[File:Davestar.jpg|thumb|right|Seal discovered in excavations at Khazar sites. However, rather than having been made by Jews, these appear to be shamanistic sun discs.{{efn|group=note|"Engravings that resemble the six-pointed Star of David were found on circular Khazar relics and bronze mirrors from Sarkel and Khazarian grave fields in Upper Saltov. However, rather than having been made by Jews, these appear to be shamanistic sun discs." {{harv|Brook|2010|pp=113, 122–123 n.148}}}}]]

The Khazar state was not the only Jewish state to rise between the [[Second Temple Judaism|fall of the Second Temple]] (67–70&nbsp;CE) and the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|establishment of Israel]] (1948). A [[Himyarite Kingdom#Jewish monarchy|state in Yemen]] also adopted Judaism in the 4th century, lasting until the rise of Islam.{{sfn|Bowersock|2013|pp=85ff.}}

The Khazar kingdom is said to have stimulated messianic aspirations for a return to Israel as early as [[Judah Halevi]].{{sfn|Schweid|2007|p=286}} In the time of the Egyptian vizier [[Al-Afdal Shahanshah]] (d. 1121), one Solomon ben Duji, often identified as a Khazarian Jew,{{efn|group=note|Brook says this thesis was developed by Jacob Mann, based on a reading of the word "Khazaria" in the Cairo Geniza fragment. Bernard Lewis, he adds, challenged the assumption by noting that the original text reads ''Hakkâri'' and refers to the Kurds of the [[Hakkâri Province|Hakkâri mountains]] in south-east Turkey {{harv|Brook|2010|pp=191–192, n.72}}.}} attempted to advocate for a messianic effort for the liberation of, and return of all Jews to, Palestine. He wrote to many Jewish communities to enlist support. He eventually moved to [[Kurdistan]] where his son [[David Alroy|Menachem]] some decades later assumed the title of [[Messiah]] and, raising an army for this purpose, took the fortress of [[Amadiya]] north of [[Mosul]]. His project was opposed by the rabbinical authorities and he was poisoned in his sleep. One theory maintains that the Star of David, until then a decorative motif or magical emblem, began to assume its national value in late Jewish tradition from its earlier symbolic use by Menachem.{{sfn|Baron|1957|pp=202–204 [204]}}

The word Khazar, as an ethnonym, was last used in the 13th century by people in the North Caucasus believed to practice Judaism.{{sfn|Wexler|2002|p=514}} The nature of a hypothetical Khazar [[diaspora]], Jewish or otherwise, is disputed. [[Avraham ibn Daud]] mentions encountering rabbinical students descended from Khazars as far away as [[Toledo, Spain]] in the 1160s.{{sfn|Golden|2007b|p=149}} Khazar communities persisted here and there. Many Khazar mercenaries served in the armies of the Islamic Caliphates and other states. Documents from medieval Constantinople attest to a Khazar community mingled with the Jews of the suburb of [[Galata|Pera]].{{sfn|Brook|2010|pp=177–178}} Khazar merchants were active in both Constantinople and Alexandria in the 12th century.{{sfn|Noonan|2007|p=229}}