In reply to my
> Interesting from a Biblical mythology point of view. Strange how
the
> "kurgan fact" parallels "medieval myth". In modern times, Arthur
> Koestler also tried similarly to connect Ashkenazi Jews to the
> medieval Jewish Khazar Khanate.
Mark wrote
> Tried to connect? It's my understanding that the Khazarian influx,
mixing with Sephardim originating from the west, has been proven by
genetic testing. The Khazars, from my reading, were quite fair.
In "In The Blood: God Genes and Destiny" by Steve Jones (BBC Program)
published by Harper Collins London 1996, Jones reports that whilst
Ashkenazi Jews do have some genetic markers that separate them from
the surrounding Polish, Russian and Ukrainian populations, (eg.
Tay Sachs Syndrome) these are surprisingly few. There is, he
suggests, almost no presence of Turkic genes (less than one finds in
Ukrainians generally), disproving Koerstler's theory.
Do you have more recent work?
A little on the Khazars for those on the list who may not know of
them. They are interesting as they arose in precisely the area in
which the PIE arose. Their spread, as Khazars, and later as Seljuks,
offers some interesting parallels to the possible spread of early IE
languages.
The Khazars burst into history in 468 when, led by the Ashena
dynasty,
they took over the power vacuum created by the collapse of the Huns
in
the Ukrainian and North Caucasian Steppe.
In 490 they were attacked by Sassanid Persians who were reoccupying
the lands that had been taken in the period from 467 by the
Hephthalite (White Huns) - who destoyed the Gupta Empire in India,
and
eventually evolved as the Rajputs.
In 552 when the Juan-juan confederacy in Mongolia was destroyed by
Chinese armies cooperating with Turks, the Turks created a new steppe
empire reaching from Turkestan to India and Manchuria. Another
Turkish
army invaded the Caucasus in 576, then split apart from the main
power
and joined with those elements in the north Caucasas calling
themselves Khazars.
By 580 a Khazar-Byzantine alliance worked together to reinstall on
the
Sassanid throne crown prince Khusrau, who had fled to Byzantium.
When
Maurice was assasinated, the Sassanids attacked Byzantium, and
absorbed most of the Eastern Roman Empire east of the Bosphorus.
In 622 the new emperor Heraclius called for Khazars help.
By 627 the Khazars are reported at the gates of Tiflis, and together
they descended onto the plain of the Tigris. Khusrau was assasinated
and peace was signed in 628.
In the period from 630 to 830 the Khazars were a tribal coalition
which included groups of Magyars (including the Kabars who were led
by
the Turkic Khazars) & also contained Iranian Chwaresm, and Alans, in
addition to Oghuz turks.
In 632 AD, according to the account of Byzantine chroniclers, khan
Kubrat availed himself of the failing power of the Turkut khagan,
shook off the vassal age his tribe was in, and declared himself an
independent ruler.
In 651 the Bulgars under Isperikh (643-701) (Kubrat's uccessor)
migrated to Lower Danube (after having been attacked by a joint
Khazar
& Avar force).
In 679 the Bulgar Empire of the steppes was completely destroyed by
Khazars and the Turkic Eskil (From "Attila" - Hunnic renmants, later
Szekelers or Bulgar-Turks) were incorporated into the developing
Khazar state. The Bulgar refugees surged into Balkans, becoming
recognised rulers over Slavs by Byzantium in 681.
Between 650 and 800 Jewish refugees from Byzantine Empire & Islamic
countries nearby (A. Koestler, The 13th Tribe) sought sanctuary
within the Khazar Khhanate as refugees from persecution.
In 683 the Khazars were again raiding Armenia. By then the Khazar
state occupied the Northern Caucasian area & the triangular bulge to
the north, between the lower Don and lower Volga RR, also the steppes
between the Caucasus & Caspian. From there they spread to the
deserts east of Volga to the Yaik River (= Ural R). Their southern
boundary was main Caucasus range. The western boundary is Pontic
(Black Sea) littoral from Kuban River mouth to Kerch. Their north
west
boundary was the Sea of Azov. The Eastern boundary was from mouth of
Yaik River to Derbend Pass or Gate.} Their capital was the caravan
city of Itil.
In 704, Byzantine Emperor Justinian II married a daughter of a Khazar
monarch.
In 724 the Khazars were driven out of Georgia by the new power of the
Ummayyads. It looked as though they were going to be cuaght between
the hammer of Islam and the Anvil of Byzantine Christianity.
To escape this trap, between 740 and 860 the Khazars converted to
Judaisim, as this allowed themselves to maintain their independence
from both the Christian Byzantine alliances, and the Muslim Arabs.
Khagan Bulan, "called upon the representatives of Judaism,
Christianity and Mohammedanism to expound their doctrines before him.
This discussion convinced him that the Jewish faith was the most
preferable, and he decided to embrace it. Thereupon he and about
4,000
Khazars were circumcised; (but) it was only by degrees that the
Jewish
teachings gained a foothold among the population."
With the south closed to them, in about 750 the Khazars crossed the
Don River to expand to the Dnepr and Dnestr Rivers, sending envoys to
Byzantium. There they developed as a particularly powerful trading
emporium offering an alternative route to the Silk Road whose Persian
end was in the hands of the muslims.
The city of Tmutorokan was the end of this trade route. Founded in
the sixth century BCE as the Greek city of Germonassus, as a part of
the Khazar khanate it was known as Tamatarkha. A bishopric was
probably established there in conjunction with St. Cyril's mission to
the Khazars in about 860.
Khagan Obadiah, was the first to make serious efforts to further the
Jewish religion. He invited Jewish sages to settle in his dominions,
rewarded them royally, founded synagogues and schools...caused
instruction to be given to himself and his people in the Torah and
the
Talmud, and introduced a divine service modeled on the ancient
communities. After Obadiah came a long series of Jewish chagans, for
according to a fundamental law of the state only Jewish rulers were
permitted to ascend the throne."
By the end of the 9th century the Khazar state was beginning to come
apart. In 895 the increasingly troublesome and independent Magyars
(who speaking a Ugric tongue, had adopted the nomadic steppe culture
of the Khazars) were expelled from Ukraine by an alliance between the
Vikings of the north and Khazars from the east. The seven tribes of
Magyars of Etelkõz (between the Rivers), joined by the Khazar
Kabars,
and under their ruler (gyula) Álmos, and his son Árpád, then
moved
into Hungary.
The breakup seemed to occur as a result of struggles between the
ruling family and its Turkic clans. According to ibn Habreus, Tuquq,
leader of the Oghuzz "began his career in the army of the
khan [beg] of the Jewish Khazars, the two peoples having been
connected by trade for already quite some time."
As many of the Oghuz Turks of the time, Tuquq fought under the blue
banner of the Khazar Empire and rose, according to ibn Habreus, to
the
high rank of commander, but died early, perhaps in a military
excursion against the Arabs or Byzantines. Having secured the
goodwill of the Khazar Beg, Tuquq's son Seljuk was placed in the
royal
household, and educated and treated as such. However Seljuk found his
differences with the Beg's wife, the Khazar Katoun (Queen), and was
banished form the court. Seljuk found it expedient to move to the
lands of his people beyond the Transoxus.
Seljuk returned at an opportune time, circa 950 CE, finding a tax-war
in the lands of the Oghuz and the Persian Samanids and the Turkic
Karakhanid tribe. As proper for the warrior's son, and undoubtedly
utilizing his Khazar training, Seljuk formed a force of Oghuz and
invaded the Samanid-occupied city of Djand, refusing to withdraw
until
a rapproachment was reached between the Karakhanid and Samanids . He
passed in Djand at the biblical age of 107 years after consolidating
his control in Samarkand and Bukhara.
Seljuk had four sons and each was a successor to his rule in Central
Asia: Mikail (Michael), Yunus (Jonah), Musa (Moses), and Israil
(Israel), and a grandson David; these names are obvious in their
historical and religious connotations to Judaism, and not
Christianity
or Islam. Whether they were made in deference to the Khazar
Fatherland
their grandfather Tuquq arose from, an adherence to Judaism or Judaic
practices, or another matter are subject for discussion.
There is no evidence that Seljuk himself adopted Islam; Talbot Rice
cites Douglas Dunlopxix in the argument that aside from the Jewish,
Buddhist, Manichean, Nestorian and Muslim merchant populations in
Oghuz Transoxiana, Seljuk himself held beliefs in Judaism, at least
until and perhaps after the Muslim suzerain in the area by the
beginning of 1000 CE.
944 was the beginning of the end of the Khazar Empire when they were
attacked by the Kievan Rus. The end came in the brutally destruction
by Prince Sviatoslav of the the Kievan Rus in the period from 965 -
969. This allowed their place on the steppe to be taken by the more
vicious Pechenegs (Polovtsians).
Pletneva, S.A. Ocherki Khazarskoi Arkheologii. [Essays on Khazar
archeology].
Regards
John