Editing Khazars (section)

=== 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}}