Capital of the Khazars, a Turkic people who converted to Judaism, was thought washed away by Caspian Sea.
By The Associated Press HAARETZ.COM
Russian archaeologists said Wednesday they had found the long-lost capital of the Khazar kingdom in southern Russia, a breakthrough for research on the ancient Jewish state.
“This is a hugely important discovery,” expedition organiser Dmitry Vasilyev told AFP by telephone from Astrakhan State University after returning from excavations near the village of Samosdelka, just north of the Caspian Sea.
“We can now shed light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of that period — how the Khazars actually lived. We know very little about the Khazars — about their traditions, their funerary rites, their culture,” he said.
The city was the capital of the Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic peoples who adopted Judaism as a state religion, from between the 8th and the 10th centuries, when it was captured and sacked by the rulers of ancient Russia.
At its height, the Khazar state and its tributaries controlled much of what is now southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan and large parts of Russia’s North Caucasus region.
The capital is referred to as Itil in Arab chronicles but Vasilyev said the word may actually have been used to refer to the Volga River on which the city was founded or to the surrounding river delta region.
Itil was said to be a multi-ethnic place with houses of worship and judges for Christians, Jews, Muslims and pagans. Its remains have until now never been identified and were said to have been washed away by the Caspian Sea.
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NOTE BY THE EDITOR: This is where the ‘Russian’ Jews come from. They never actually came from Israel/Palestine, but from the Kingdom of Khazar, therefore they do not really have a ‘Right of Return’. Now-a-days this could easily be proved by DNA tests, but due to some interesting reason no one wants to make these tests…
History books tell us that the King of Khazar was pushed by the Catholics from the West to become a Catholic, from the Orthodox in the North-East to become Orthodox and from the Muslims in the South to become Muslim. He studied all religions and found Islam to be the most reasonable, with its teaching of One God. He however found it difficult to ‘make do’ without wine and therefore decided to convert to the Jewish religion…
To the editor,
You are mistaken about a lack of genetic testing. Please see the following article, which details quite comprehensive genetic testing that shows that European (Ashkenazi) Jews have a very similar genetic makeup to the Lebanese and Druze, among others.
The study was published in the journal, Nature, one of the foremost serious scientific journals in the world.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7303/full/nature09103.html
Here is a very detailed discussion of the findings you might find interesting.
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2010/06/genome-wide-structure-of-jews-behar-et.html
Also, please link your historical source regarding your claims about the King of Khazar and his preference for Islam or trouble “making do” without wine. Are you sure it wasn’t made up to serve a different purpose?
Best wishes,
Jonny L, lover of all peoples from all lands
Thanks Jonny for this valuable additional information. I will study the links with interest.
deR Mr. Rafiq could u please throw some light on my by
Hypotheses that some of these khazars should have i filtrated Islam too therefore does not this become vital to look for their footprints inmodern muslim body or ummah. Drop me an e mail if u have any reference on tbe subject
thanks
Dr.sarkar Haider
I read it somewhere, but I have to search the reference again myself. Shall revert, Inshallah.
here is one link (but not ‘too strong’) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d8NH3VMtVI
This is from a Jewish source: http://menashedovid1.wordpress.com/khazars/
In about A.D.700 the Khazar king was converted to Islam and later to Judaism. A later king, Obadiah, greatly strengthened Judaism, inviting rabbis into his Kingdom and building synagogues. Their Judaism – limited no doubt in any case to a comparatively small group (only the king, his attendants and the Khazars of his kind) – was always superficial and they were liable to relapse into paganism. They became what could best be called Judaized Turks. Religious toleration was maintained for the Kingdom’s 300 years, with clear traces of Christianity being found among them for the whole historical period. The predominating element in the country were the Muslims, and they formed the royal army (3). In the 10th century, “probably in 965, Khazar leaders appealed to a neighbouring Islamic state for help against invasion but were told that the price of assistance was Khazaria’s conversion to Islam. According to Muslim historians the kingdom that had embraced Judaism around 740 suddenly abandoned it less than two and a half centuries later. But this did not save them and by the end of the eleventh century the Khazar Empire was no more.”(1) There are persistent references to the Khazars as Muslims after A.D. 965(3).
thanks Dr. Rafiq I had almost forgotten my query after puting it on your article it was a pleasant discovery to stumble upon the page denovo and this time receive few helping references.. trust me it was like discovering a small treasure in abandoned garden .
My search is still on I suspect a lot of khazars ultimately converted to islam and may even have claimed to be decendants of prophet mohammad thereby adding SYED as pre-fix titles , how else to explain the characteristic brilliance and spark common among present day jews and Syeds ( particularly of shia sect of Islam). kindly give some more food to my curiosity in this research .
Thanks
This is a reference to the Jewish character of the Khazars:
http://haroonhaider.com/2012/02/12/khazar-self-perception-a-study-of-the-schechter-text/
This link speaks of a ‘flourishing Khazar Muslim community’:
http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/NatIdentity/FSU/Caucasus/khazaria.htm