Khazar

Khazar

Any member of a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that established a commercial empire in European Russia in the late 6th century. A people of the northern Caucasus region, the Khazars allied with the Byzantines against the Persians in the 7th century and warred with the Arabs until the mid-8th century. Their empire extended westward along the Black Sea, and they controlled trade routes and exacted tribute from their neighbors. The ruling class adopted Judaism and maintained close relations with the Byzantine emperors. The Khazar empire began to decline in the 10th century and was crushed by Kiev in 965.

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Khazar 

the language of the Khazars. Khazar is attested in proper names from Hebrew, Arabic, and European sources and in a single inscription written in Orkhon-Enisei runes. The inscription, which appears in a Hebrew letter believed to have been written in the tenth century, consists of the word oqurüm (“I read,” [past tense]). Khazar is a Turkic language, but its exact relationship to the other languages in this family has not been determined. Some scholars accept the theory, based on evidence given by the Arab geographer Balkhis and on the etymology of “Sarkil,” the name of a Khazar city, that Khazar is related to Bulgar. Categorizing Khazar as a Turkic language, such Russian scholars as V. V. Grigor’ev, V. V. Bartol’d, and A. A. Kunik have noted a historical relationship between Khazar and modern Chuvash.

REFERENCES

Kokovtsov, P. K. Evreisko-khazarskaia perepiska v X veke. Leningrad, 1932.
Thúry, B. J. “A khazar isa méltóságnévról.” Keleti szemíe, 1903, vol. 4.
Benzing, J. “Das Hunische, Donaubolgarische und Wolgabolgarische.” In Philologiae Turcicae fundamenta. Aquis Mattiacis, 1959.