Khazar Studies

Khazars (They were called ko'-sa in the Chinese historical records) was a midieval ancient nation in the steppe of southern Russia. In the beginning, they believed in Tengri Shamanism and were nomadic. From about 550 to 630, the Khazars were ruled by the K?k Turks. They gradually got away from the Western Turkish Empire after the middle of the 7th century and successfully established an independent country. In the early 8th centuries, the Khazars became a formidable political power through outward expansion activities, and finally established a hugeous empire in the southern Russian steppe on the foudation of the Western Turkish Empire's home land.The Khazar Empire is a multi-national and multi-religious country. The people under Khazar suzerainty included the Sabirs, Saragurs, Utigurs, Bulgars, Burtas, Ghuzz, Magyars, the Gothic and Greek colonies of the Crimea, and the Slavonic tribes in the north-western woodlands ect. In addition, the Khazar Empire carried on the religious tolerant policies, Judaism, Christianity, Islamism and the other religious coexisted in the empire for a long time. The ruling class of the Khazar Empire adopted Judaism in its prosperous time, it was become an unique Jewish country in the Middle Ages.The Khazar Empire has occupied an important historical status in medieval Europe. Its political structure mainly inherited the"dual monarchy"from Western Turkish Empire, so it was also called"Khazar Kaganate". From the middle of the 7th century to the beginning of 11 centuries, the empire controled the important transportation pivot between East and West, which commercial trade activity was especially prospering, and the tithe and customs duties were important sources of revenue for its national treasury. Its social structure mainly were constituted by a group of half-nomadism and half-agriculture, and the military force and economic system were a kind of interdependent attached relationship. Therefore, the characteristic which formidable military power proped up the entire politics and economic system of the country was continuously passing through the Khazar history throughout. As a buffer area between the Christianity world and the Islamism world, the Khazar Empire had once played a vital role in the process of preventing the Muslim from expanding to the north. The famous Arab-Khazar war had not only helped Byzantine to resist the attack of Arabs, simultaneously also had initially laid the foundation for the boundary division of the modern Christianity and Islamism civilized circle, this is the biggest contribution of the Khazar Empire to the world history.This article is base on the Chinese ancient documentary and the English material, attempt to stand on Chinese's standpoint to study the problem of Khazar history. In this text, the author put the Khazar Empire on the specific historical period to investigate, emphatically give prominence to the historical status of the Khazar Empire and the transmited function of its civilization. From the nationality, the country and the civilization three stratification planes, this article adopt the special method to study the Khazar history, particularly to solve the problems of the origins of Khazars, the establishment of Khazar nation and the empire's formation, the Khazars converted the Judaism, the politic and economic system of the Khazar Empire, the relationships bewteen the Khazar Empire and the other country and so on, and further discusses the reasons for decline and disintegration of the Khazar Empire and its civilization.