{"id":13249,"date":"2019-03-19T00:15:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T00:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=13249"},"modified":"2019-03-19T00:19:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T00:19:50","slug":"jewish-nomads-or-was-the-khazar-khanate-a-jewish-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/jewish-nomads-or-was-the-khazar-khanate-a-jewish-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish nomads, or was the Khazar Khanate a Jewish State?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The historian Shaul Stampfer<\/a> discusses the religion of Khazaria<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Khazar Khanate<\/a> existed from the seventh to the tenth century. At the peak of its prosperity this nomadic Turkic state controlled the Northern Caucasus, the Lower and Middle Volga regions, part of Kazakhstan, as well as part of the territory of contemporary Ukraine, including Crimea, the Left Bank, and, in the view of some historians, even Kyiv.
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The history of\nKhazaria is typical of the Early Medieval Turkic state. It emerged from an\nalliance of tribes, captured surrounding territories, then disappeared without leaving\nmany traces. However, this nomadic state existed for three hundred years, waged\nwars, and traded with Byzantium<\/a>,\nthe Arab Caliphate<\/a>,\nthe Vikings<\/a>, and it\nmay have been the only Jewish state among the pagan nomads. Professor Shaul\nStampfer, the former head of the Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew\nUniversity of Jerusalem, a guest lecturer of the Master\u2019s\nProgram in Jewish Studies at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,<\/a> and specialist in\nthe history of Eastern European Jews, and I discussed whether Judaism was the\nmain religion in the Khazar Khanate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andriy Kobalia:  Can we trust this group of sources? Are most\nof the subjects legendary?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaul Stampfer:<\/strong>  The Khazars<\/a>\nwere a nomadic tribe; the steppe was their native home. The capital of the\nstate was the city of Itil. Today it is difficult to say with certainty where\nthe city was located. The tribes moved together with the herds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andriy Kobalia:  Unlike many other historians, you believe that\nthe Khazars did not adopt Judaism. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaul Stampfer:<\/strong>  I want\nto start with general things. It is much easier to prove that something\nhappened than to prove that some event did not take place. When you want to\nprove the former, you simply find one source, you present it, and there\u2019s your\nproof. If you believe that nothing really happened, you must consider all\npossible circumstances and prove that all the evidence is unreliable. This is\nwhat I am trying to do in my research on the Khazar Khanate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of the\nKhazars\u2019 conversion to Judaism is very reminiscent of the principle of today\u2019s\nfake news. There is material in a newspaper, on the radio, or on television. If\nthis is broadcast by an official state source, then everyone starts believing\nit. But what source of information? The Khazars were pagans for a long period\nof time. The truth is that we know very little about the Khazars. They did not\nleave us texts or inscriptions and not very many material artifacts. We know\nabout them because they were mentioned by their enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The territory of the Khazar Khanate (Wikimedia Foundation) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Khazars fought\nagainst the Arabs, Byzantium, Rus\u2032,<\/a>\nand the Vikings. But they themselves did not leave a description of their\nbeliefs. If we are speaking about sources that mention the Khazars\u2019 conversion\nto Judaism, there is a batch of correspondence in Hebrew between the Khazar\nking and a Spanish Jew. If we look at a map and imagine the people in those\ndays, we see that there is a huge distance between Spain and Khazaria. After\nyou read the letters of the king of the Khazars, many questions arise. There is\nsimply an ideal language there. Even today it would be difficult to find a\nperson who can write so beautifully and in this grammatically correct fashion.\nIt is interesting that the language of the king of the tribe was so beautiful. We\nwould expect something much simpler and with mistakes, with fewer quotations\nand not such [excellent] grammar. In my opinion, this text was written in\nSpain, which in those days was the center of Hebrew-language literature. There\nis also no evidence that there are Turkic influences in the text. It is\ngenerally known that the Khazars were a Turkic people. We do not know what\nlanguage they spoke, but it was from the Turkic group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Khazars fought against the Arabs, Byzantium, Rus\u2032,<\/a> and the Vikings. But they themselves did not leave a description of their beliefs. If we are speaking about sources that mention the Khazars\u2019 conversion to Judaism, there is a batch of correspondence in Hebrew between the Khazar king and a Spanish Jew. If we look at a map and imagine the people in those days, we see that there is a huge distance between Spain and Khazaria. After you read the letters of the king of the Khazars, many questions arise. There is simply an ideal language there. Even today it would be difficult to find a person who can write so beautifully and in this grammatically correct fashion. It is interesting that the language of the king of the tribe was so beautiful. We would expect something much simpler and with mistakes, with fewer quotations and not such [excellent] grammar. In my opinion, this text was written in Spain, which in those days was the center of Hebrew-language literature. There is also no evidence that there are Turkic influences in the text. It is generally known that the Khazars were a Turkic people. We do not know what language they spoke, but it was from the Turkic group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, there is a very\nfine description of the state in this correspondence; it talks about Crimea and\nother territories. But the description of the eastern border is obscure. It is\nvery likely that some person was describing what he had heard from others, and\ndid not know where the border of this state lay. In the texts it is written\nthat a generation ago the king of the Khazars was choosing a religion and decided\nthat his religion would be Judaism. The question is that, if we are to believe\nthe source, then the Khazars converted to Judaism before the Khazar Khanate\neven came into existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andriy Kobalia:  What can other written sources tell us? For\nexample, the Byzantine Empire was a neighbor of Khazaria. Do Byzantine sources\nconfirm the conversion to Judaism? Or the Vikings, who came all the way to the\nArab lands? All these journeys were described in a very exaggerated manner in\nthe sagas. Are there mentions of these tribes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaul Stampfer:<\/strong>  I agree\nwith you that it is necessary to examine various sources. Khazaria and\nByzantium were allies against the Arab states that were pushing northward. I\nmade a very careful study of Byzantine sources and spotted something very\nstrange. There are very many mentions of this state, but not a single one about\nhow they converted to Judaism. The Byzantines were Eastern-rite Christians. Why\ndid they not write that they had dealings with a tribe that professed a\nreligion which rejected the principles of their religion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Christians sent\nmissionaries there, they gave them instructions. They did not mention that they\nwould be dealing with a population that was mostly Jewish. Why? Later documents\nmention that Cyril\nand Methodius<\/a> studied Hebrew, but this was added at a time when the\nlegend of the conversion had long existed for several centuries afterwards.\nThere is no such information in the sources of that period. Moreover, these\nmissionaries went there to preach Christianity! I wonder if the leader of a\nstate whose main religion was Judaism would allow another religion to be\npreached. It is difficult for me to imagine such a thing. The king, who is\ndescribed in the texts as being truly pious, allowed them to proselytize. There\nwere no such stories anywhere during this period. Would Jewish preachers be\nwelcomed in Byzantium? No. Tolerance was not popular in those days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you imagine\nthat the king was a pagan and believed in many gods, the theory that he indeed\nallowed missionaries to preach one of many gods is more credible, but not a\nJewish king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andriy Kobalia:  Besides the correspondence that you mentioned,\nthere is an Arabic source that recounts the conversion to Judaism. It talks\nabout the historian and traveler Al-Masudi<\/a>. He\nis often cited by the Russian historian Kokovets. Al-Masudi lived in the late\nninth\u2013early tenth century and claimed that during the rule of ar-Rashida, the\nfifth caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate<\/a>,\nKhazaria made the decision to convert to Judaism. Why does this person, too,\nmention the conversion?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaul Stampfer: <\/strong> The fact\nis that he takes a lot from earlier texts. For example, neither you nor I saw\nthe Khazarian Khan. And everything that we know about them is from books and\nsources that we have right now. It was the same then. That is why the majority\nof Arabic sources on this topic cite older sources. As a historian, I\neventually found a primary source. Hardly any of the authors were in Khazaria.\nIt was dangerous because they were enemies. Thus, all the information came from\nwhat they had heard from other people. And those people were not Khazars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes information was\npassed from an eyewitness to some individual and only then to an author. When\neverything is transmitted this way, it is always bad. Those sources mention\nthings that we describe today as mythical. For example, there is an account about\npeople behind a wall who will destroy the world if they are able to break\nthrough. Obviously, what we have here is a reference to the Great Wall of\nChina. In\ngeneral, there are many legends in these early sources. At that time authors simply did not have\ninstruments to separate legends from real facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another good\nillustration of the dubiousness of sources is the fact that each early Arabic\nsource gives its own date of the conversion to Judaism. Thus, we do not even\nhave a date. If someone heard about one date, why did he make up another one? There\nare many rumors in them. And every new author added new information. I would\nnot reject Arabic sources. But one needs to treat them very carefully. If\nsomething was written in ancient times, this does not mean that it is the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andriy Kobalia:  You can find out more about the Khazars from\narchaeology and numismatics. The historians, the\nFlorovs, <\/strong>believe that it is very difficult to find evidence of the conversion to\nJudaism in archaeology or numismatics. Can these two sciences say something\nabout the conversion?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMoses coin\u201d in the Gotlands Museum, Sweden (Wikimedia Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shaul Stampfer: <\/strong> In this\nsense archaeology does not offer any proof of the conversion theory. There are\nno grafitti. Some people connect the candelabras that were found during digs\nwith Judaism, but these were not explicitly Jewish candelabra, simply a symbol\nof light. Burial rites did not change. Some rituals are generally banned in\nJudaism. But there are exceptions. There is a coin that was made by the Khazars\nwith the Arabic text \u201cMoses, messenger of God\u201d\u2014Moses, not Mohammed. And this\nproves the involvement of Jews in the production of coins in Khazaria. Jews were\noften specialists in this. This may be proof of an anti-Muslim and pro-Jewish\npolicy. But there is a saying: \u201cOne swallow does not a summer make.\u201d It\u2019s the\nsame thing with coins. If the khanate had been Jewish and made coins, then\nthere would have been more such inscriptions. But we have only one. It is easier to state that there was a Jew who was\nengaged in minting coins in Khazaria. Therefore, we still do not have proof.\nAnd when there is no proof, it is easier to say that this never happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andriy Kobalia:  The Khazar state fell into decay by the tenth century.\nThe Arabs, Kyivan Rus\u2032, and the Byzantine Empire pressed it from several sides.\nIn the 960s Prince\nSviatoslav the Brave<\/a> led a few campaigns against the Khazars and\nfinally captured their capital, Itil. This event is regarded as the end of the\nKhazar state.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nprogram was made possible by the Canadian non-profit organization Ukrainian\nJewish Encounter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally appeared in Ukrainian (Hromadske\nRadio podcast) here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the Ukrainian by Marta D. Olynyk.<\/strong><\/em>
<\/strong>Edited by Peter Bejger.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: UJE does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in articles and other materials published on its website and social media pages. Such materials are posted to promote discussion related to Ukrainian-Jewish interactions and relations. The website and social media pages will be places of information that reflect varied viewpoints.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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