The Mysterious Khazar Empire | Historical Turkic States

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Published 2023-05-19
From the ashes of the Western Göktürk Empire, a new state emerged between the Don basin, Volga river and the Caucasus. Calling themselves "Khazars", these Turkic people established a political entity that very quickly rose to the rank of an empire. Strategically located along the ancient Silk Road(s), the Khazars controlled much of the trade in the region and, making use of their military prowess, managed to defeat all neighboring nomadic peoples. But this state was led by both a Khagan and Bek, and this dual kingship enabled a flexible reign over their subjects. The fate of the Khazars was ultimately sealed by their foreign policy, as they served both the Byzantine interest of keep the advancing Muslim Arab Empires out of the Caucasus and the nomadic Turkic peoples who could roam away freely along the Eurasian Steppe Belt.

The most remarkable trait of the Khazars, however, was their conversion to Judaism. Whether a majority of the Turkic population or only the ruling dynasty converted away from Tengrism is subject to speculation. Nonetheless, this speculation is purposefully linked with the "Khazar Hypothesis" which, ever since the 19th century, proposes a Turkic Khazar origin of the Jewish people who later appeared in Central and Eastern Europe.

How correct are such assumptions? Is there any evidence for this theory? How did the Khazars establish their state in the first place, and what impact did it have on the political and cultural affairs in the region? Let us find out in this new documentary from Khan's Den.

WEBSITE: bit.ly/KhansDen
GÖKTÜRK MOVIE 01: bit.ly/GokturkMovie1
GÖKTÜRK MOVIE 02: bit.ly/GokturkMovie2
GÖKTÜRK MOVIE 03: bit.ly/GokturkMovie3
PATREON: bit.ly/3BR6M3T
PODCAST: bit.ly/KhansDenPodcast
BOOK 1: amzn.to/3fwqmKR
BOOK 2: [Coming Soon]

Chapters:

00:00-01:34 Introduction
01:35-05:03 Khazar Origins
05:04-08:38 Khazar State: Rulers and Economy
08:39-09:39 Khazar-Göktürk Connection
09:40-17:59 Khazar Religion: Adopting Judaism
18:00-23:10 Khazar Wars: Victories and Defeat
23:11-26:40 Khazar Fate: Conclusion

All Comments (21)
  • @KhansDen
    The buzz this video has generated in the past few months is crazy. Really did not expect that much attention. But all the better. Let me introduce myself. I am Emre, the founder and producer of Khan's Den. This channel focuses on the history of the Turkic peoples of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Most of the videos handle topics like the many historical Turkic states – among which the Khazar Khaganate was one of the most important – and the Turkic peoples' ancient way of life. The reason why I made this video was that I wanted to give a non-biased outlook at the Khazar Turks. I had the honor and privilege to interview Peter B. Golden, who for more than 50 years has contributed immensely to Turkic studies. However, I do not necersarily share all the views presented in this video. That is why towards the end, I mentioned the genetic studies of those who agree with the Khazar hypotheses. It's important to show both sides of the coin. If you think I managed to do so, please leave a "like". If you'd like to watch more of my stuff, subscribe and click on the notification bell. You have even more videos at your disposal, e.g. about the Xiongnu, the Huns of Attila, the Uyghur Empire and – most recently – the Celestial Turks (Göktürks) that were mentioned in the video several times. And if you would like to get an overview of all of my projects, consider visiting the official website: www.thekhansden.com/ Thanks for watching! :)
  • @lazsoliz
    makes you wonder what the Ukraine - Russia war is really about.
  • @t_y_2192
    Turkey's presidency emblem has 16 stars. They symbolise historical turkic states. One of these stars symbolises khazar state
  • @Atilla__Oguz
    Joseph Reinach, a French Jewish member of parliament who was opposed to Zionism, dismissed the idea, arguing that Jews descended from Israelites were a tiny minority. In his view, conversion had played a major role in the expansion of the Jewish people, and, in addition, he claimed, the majority of "Russian, Polish and Galician Jews descend from the Khazars, a Turkish people. who converted to Judaism en masse at the time of Charlemagne.
  • Once you find out about the Kazar Mafia everything that’s happened throughout history up until now starts to make sense…
  • @KungenTV
    They are our current rulers under disguise and they have used different costumes throughout history.
  • @paistefever
    Thanks for the video, guys! I'm Kalmyk Mongolian (Lower Volga region) and have always been fascinated by the history of Khazars. I always had an impression that Khazars were the smartest of nomadic empires of that time, as they only chose Judaism as a state religion for political reasons not to be associated with anybody but stayed Tengrist between themselves. Lots of ppl often confuse that Khazars were Jews by blood and migrated to the region from Middle East, while in reality Khazars were a federation of tribes what's today is considered as "Turkic/Mongolic/Finno-Ugric/Caucasian" nations. Even though there are no actual written records of their language, if you trace down the geographical history you can figure that Chuvash and Crimean Tatar Jews speak the language that could be considered quite possibly the actual Khazar language. There are plenty of archeological sites found in Kalmykia in the last decade or so near Caspian Sea dated to Khazars period (blacksmith, various factories such as pottery and hand-tools making as well as lots of burial sites). In some weird way, I feel like Dzungars (centuries later) used exactly the same tactic as Khazars. When they would discovered areas with natural resources, they would form a village around it, while still being a nomadic nation for the most part but kept the villages as a "work sites". Incredible! Cheers everyone! PS Gazar or Gazr in Mongolian languages means Nature or Grass or field.
  • @Mtrl-newer
    As a Chinese, I think most Turkish people are extremely beautiful.
  • @bizmyurt8582
    Kiev is Turkish KIY EV meaning Edge house or city at the water.
  • In 1943, Abraham N. Polak (sometimes referred to as Poliak), later professor of the history of the Middle Ages at Tel Aviv University, published a Hebrew monograph in which he concluded that the East European Jews came from Khazaria.
  • Don't stop making videos mate! It's only matter of time the world learns what Turkic people really are! 💪🏻💪🏻👏🏻
  • @dpimpernell4050
    This is the story of Europe we was never taught. I went to school from 90 to 95 and what i learned about Europe after school could fill an encyclopedia
  • @rosesprog1722
    I have to apologize, I was so taken by the overwhelming beauty, stunning realism and the seemingly perfect relation between facial traits and geographic location that I didn't, or rather couldn't pay much attention to the obviously well researched narration so either there are podcasts of this somewhere, or I will have to close my eyes, and press replay! Amazing work sir, superb website and the motivation behind it all has touched my heart, I couldn't imagine better, thank you.
  • @baxa414
    Now people, do you get why Israel's relation with Azerbaijan is spectacular?
  • @dahabestt999
    This is a breakthru! For the first time in history, Gog and their descendants has been identify!