KHAZARS

The Khazars have the Power of Resolve.

National bonuses

• Patronage of the Arts : Start with 1 Science Tech already researched. First Wonder is built instantly, provided no other nation is building it too.
• Cosmopolitanism : Start with a School next to your first Settlement. New Schools spawn Scholars when built.
• Mercenary Contracts :Infantry, cavalry and artillery upgrade 25% cheaper.
• Confederacy : Free Politics upgrades at the Senate.
• Trade Routes : Receive +3 Food, Timber, Metal and Wealth for every non-Scout Barracks unit while they are not garrisoned.

Units and structures

UU gallery:

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Structures:

Sanctuary

City Watch

Warrior Hall

Mercenary Quarters

<Note that Peasants' Commune is not available in the flashcard above. This is intentional.> 

Wonders:

Detinets

Necropolis Complex

Masjidil Haram

Palace District

Buddha Grotto Complex

Standing Stones

Leaders

Manasseh; Zebulun; Nisi; Hezekiah; Tong; Bulan; Ras; Hazer; Barjik; Balgitzin; Alp

Settlements

History

The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who created what for its duration was the most powerful polity to emerge from the breakup of the western Turkish steppe empire, known as the Khazar Khanate or Khazaria. This imperial nation governed a crucial region on the Eurasian crossroads for over three hundred years, with social and state structures not readily found elsewhere. They became erstwhile allies of the Byzantine Romans against the Persians and the Arabs until they were effectively wiped out by the Russians of Kyiv in the mid-10th century CE, eventually fading out of existence by the 1300s. 

While they certainly were not the first equestrian empire of Central Asian origin in what is today Ukraine and the Caucasus and certainly not the last  (the Huns, Mongols and other nations like the Cumans and the Tatars are also just as famous), what perhaps distinguishes the Khazars from these other nomadic empires lies in one area alone: their rulers' conversion to Judaism, forming what was possibly otherwise the only Jewish polity of significance in the world (aside from the Arab kingdom of Himyar) after the Jewish Revolt of the 60s CE until the founding of the contemporary republic of Israel. Of great significance, too was their multiculturalism - in contrast with their more puritanical Byzantine and Saracen neighbours, the Khazars were known for their multireligious tolerance, which attracted many traders, among them Greeks, Arabs and Jews. 

Refugees, Migrants and Conquerors: The Rise of Khazaria

As with the status of Judaism and Jewry within the Khazar Khaganate, the origins of the Khazar nation itself are somewhat shrouded in mystery. Our understanding is not helped by the near-absence of a common consensus amongst the different accounts left behind by mediaeval authors, but nevertheless Chinese, Muslim and Roman sources all state the same thing: that the Khazars were people of Turkic extraction.

Their ancestry aside, the exact details over how the khaganate, as mentioned before, are subject to much conjecture due to a lack of consensus and consistency in written sources, and in modern times, how the Khazars achieved nationhood is still subject to conjecture and speculation. One theory states that the Khazars were formerly subjects of the Western Turkic Khaganate who managed to reach and settle the lands at the easternmost reaches of Europe (centred around present day Dagestan, Chechnya and Kalmykia in southern Russia), who then may have assimilated or subjugated another group of Turkish nomads in that area called the Sabirs. Afterwards, the Khazar peoples in turn embraced nationhood after the Western Turkic Khanate when it was destroyed and scattered after many wars with Tang China. Another account instead asserts that the first Khazars were not subjects of the Khanate, but were descendents of refugees from those conflicts. 

Whatever the true story was, one thing is nevertheless undisputed: by the seventh century CE, the Khazars achieved independence and for the next three centuries (c 650s–965CE) the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus, bringing even the erstwhile Slavic tribes in the regions south of the Baltic - such as the Khazars' nearest neighbours, the Siverianian and Polianian tribes -  under Khazar influence. And so, until the ninth century, Khazaria would be a major partner and military ally of Byzantium. Apart from incidents in the Crimea during the time of Justinian II, the relationship between Byzantines and Khazars were friendly, with the Khazars sending soldiers to aid the Byzantines in their military campaigns against the Saracens. In the eighth century CE, a Khazar princess became Empress in Constantinople and her son, the emperor Leo IV (r 775–80CE) came to be called ‘the Khazar’. In the 10th century CE, the emperor (khagan) of Khazaria was held in higher esteem than the Pope in Rome, as evidenced in Byzantine correspondence with the Empire's foes and allies.

Relations with the Muslim Abbasids, however, were mostly hostile. The history of Khazaria is riddled by wars with the Muslim Arab empires to the south, and under the Umayyad predecessors of the Abbasids, Saracen forces made deep incursions into Khazar territory, conquering the Caucasus, destroying the former Khazar capitals of Balanjar and Samandar and threatening the capital Khazaran-Itil (Atil) on the lower stretches of the Volga. So devastating were these invasions, that the Umayyads could even force some members of the Khazar ruling elite to adopt Islam. Thus, it was probably for the purpose of countering and resisting these incursions that the grand limestone fortress of Sarkel, located near the Don River, was built in 835 CE by a joint team of Byzantine and Khazar architects. In this manner, the Khazars, along with the Franks and the Byzantines, served as a dam against the tide of Islam, which posed military threats to pagan and Christian Europe from three sides for most of the Middle Ages, and played an important role in prolonging the lifespan of the East Roman Empire.

A Changing Landscape: The Khazars and Their Political Economy

The Arab traveller, Ibn Fadlan (879–960CE) on his way to his celebrated and famous meeting with the Varangians of the far north, made Khazaria one of the stops on his journey. His writings, corroborated by the many rich finds unearthed by Soviet archeologists at the site of Sarkel (near present-day Rostov na Donu) in the mid-20th century CE, provide us with a wealth of detailed information on Khazar society in Khazaria's heyday, and reveal that at the time of his visit, the Khazars had founded for themselves a rich and sophisticated community for themselves, prospering from agriculture, fishing and trade. 

While the ancestors of the Khazars must have relied heavily on herding as well as slave raiding to sustain themselves (like other steppe empires before them) the vast reach and phenomenal natural wealth of their lands, however, resulted in the Khazars becoming more sedentary (a social development observed in the Scythians who preceded them in Ukraine many centuries before) and thus trade and agriculture became important contributors to Khazaria's economy in Ibn Fadlan's time. Rice, fish and wheat were the most important products, supplemented by the gold and silver mines of the Caucasus. However, as valuable as these were, the slave trade was also highly lucrative, and Khazaria became an important centre in the East European slave trade. Ibn Khurdadhbeh, an Abbasid civil servant of Persian extraction, noted that the "Radhanites", along with the Rus' or Russians, were most active in the procurement and transport of slaves to the Byzantine and Arab empires. 

Astride a major artery of commerce between northern Europe and southwestern Asia, Khazaria became one of the foremost trading emporia of the medieval world, commanding the western marches of the Silk Road and played a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East, and Christian Europe. Tributes paid by vassal tribes and the Caliph (in times of Arab weakness) added to the Khazar treasury, as did transiting merchants who paid ten percent of the value of their goods to tax collectors. But on the whole, the country’s internal economic base was weak and dependent on external sources. As the Khazars had strong neighbours, control of these external sources was problematic. Additionally, for all of her size and the immense military clout Khazaria had demonstrated by granting the Byzantines an edge over the Abbasids, Khazar politics was highly decentralised, even by the standards of most other great nomadic hordes before it, most notably the Xiongnu (Huns) and the two Turkic Empires that preceded it. 

Like other Turkic peoples, the Khazars for most of their existence were a tribal confederacy, with two sources of authority that ran parallel with one another: tribal rule, and clan rule. Of the many tribes that made-up the empire, one or two were dominant; the tribes themselves were also dominated by one or more pre-eminent clans.  So while Khazaria was more sedentary than other steppe empires, in the long run it could not match the institutionalised state formations that surrounded it. There, it was much more difficult to accumulate profit margins than in the cities of the Abbasid and Byzantine empires.

Of Prophets and Kings: Khazar Politics & Society

Of central power, however, the few sources on Khazar politcs that we have inherited often differ and contradict one another, but in general, most seem to agree that Khazar society was headed by a khagan, who like prehistoric Chinese rulers, was the high shaman of the Khazars. In some accounts, the khagan was assisted by a vice-regent or assistant-khagan, but this did not mean, however, that they together held de facto power in the country, either. Real power appeared to be wielded by the bek/beg/bey or tribal chiefs, or by the khagan bek - literally "Khagan Chief; viz overlord" - being the head of all Khazar military forces. Even though his position would have been inferior to that of the khagan or his viceregent, the khagan bek was usually the one who made the real decisions: he was in charge of the treasury, and led the army with assitance from tribal chiefs and local rulers. Thus for most of Khazaria's life, the real power struggles were over who should be the tribal bek and/or the khagan bek. The separation of power between the khagan and his bek wasn't, however, always clear-cut - over time, the roles of both leaders appeared to be very fluid - but toward the end of the existence of Khazaria, the role and responsibilities of the khagan bek appeared to be gradually absorbed by that of the khagan. It may have been around the time that this took place that the khagans allegedly chose conversion to Judaism. 

The motives of the Khazar khagans for embracing Judaism, as are the true circumstances around the conversion process, are unfortunately very much the stuff of legend as they are too a source of hearsay and misinformation (and sadly, possibly obscured by the latter same). References to Khazar rulers converting to Judaism emanate from rivals and neighbours alike, but the most salient reference to a Jewish ruling elite thus far come from the Khazar Correspondence, consisting of 10th century documents from Muslim Spain, recounting the correspondence between a Jewish diplomat working for the Muslim caliphate of Cordobá and a Khazar khagan named Joseph. In it, the khagan Joseph stated that the Khazars first converted to Judaism under the khagan Bulan (c 740s CE). Apart from this account, the too was a legend, circulated by the Spanish Jewish polymath Judas Halevy (c 1075-1141CE?) a century later after the emergence of the Correspondence, that Bulan called in representatives of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, in order to decide which religion to choose for himself and the royal family. After listening to each of their arguments, Bulan chose Judaism on the grounds that since Byzantium and Baghdad did not hate Jews as they did as much Muslims and Christians respectively, it was best that the Khazar ruling elite embrace Judaism. 

As suggested by Halevy's anecdotes, the reason for the conversion to Judaism might well have been political and simply reflected changes in Khazar society that preceded Bulan's rule (and were thus attempts by the khagan to adapt to them) - but personal choice and preference also cannot be ruled out. At the beginning of the 8th century, Jews from Iran and Byzantium settled among the Khazars in northern Dagestan. Although some native Khazars soon converted to Judaism, it was only at the beginning of the 9th century CE that Khagan Obadiah proclaimed non-Talmudic Judaism the state religion. Byzantium also tried to convert the Khazars to Christianity: in 860–1CE Saint Cyril conducted a mission among them and a metropoly with seven eparchies was organized. The Khazars even played a role in spreading Christianity in Kyivan Rus’ before its official conversion under Volodymyr the Great. Yet, conversion to Christianity would have made the country too dependent on Constantinople, which, though Khazaria’s main ally, could never be fully trusted.  In contrast, conversion to Islam would have brought Khazaria under its archenemy, the Caliph - which could then lead to war with the Byzantines. 

Northern Storm: Decline and Fall of the Empire

Judaism was an elegant third way out. While religious tolerance strengthened Khazaria as the absence of religious repression created loyalty to the khagan, and attracted an influx of Jewish, Muslim and Christian traders, the adoption of Judaism thus had some value for a buffer state caught between two warring kingdoms, one Christian and the other Muslim.  But this choice also meant isolation and the danger of being attacked or crushed between both of them. Lacking a clear religious identity and zeal, this could be seen as a factor weakening Khazar chances for survival as a distinct nation. 

Regardless of the threat the Byzantines and the Saracens posed, neither civilisation would ever get to defeat the Khazars - rather, it was at the hands of a northern upstart - the Slavo-Nordic Russians - that the Khazar Khaganate would meet its end, beginning the long decline and eventual disappearance of the Khazars. By the tenth century Khazar relations with the Byzantines had soured. The reasons for this are unclear. It might have had to do with the waning power of the Abbasids and thus a reduced need for Byzantium to have the Khazars as allies. It could also be that the conversion of the ruling elite of Khazaria to the Jewish faith annoyed Constantinople. This had portentous ramifications for the Khazars - not only had they lost a major geostrategic partner, they now also had to face two major threats on their own terms - the aforementioned Kyivan Rus, and a new Turkic rival, the Pechenegs. 

However, it was not the emergence of the Russians or the Pechenegs that marked the decline of the Khazar state overnight. The first sign of trouble actually appeared in the 9th century CE, with the so-called Kabar rebellion. In the 820s CE, the northern reaches of the Khazar Empire, long the home of the Kabars (or Qavars), a powerful member tribe of the Khazar confederacy, was ablaze with civil war. The reasons for this internecine conflict in Khazaria remain murky at best, but one Roman source - namely, none other than the emperor Constantine VII - stated that it was a war over religion, namely the Khazar khagan, dissatisfied with how his deputy had tried to usurp power attempted to impose Judaism on all of Khazaria, raised a revolt with the help of the Kabars, but he was unsuccessful. It is also thanks to Constantine's book, De Administratio Imperio, that we do know what happened next: the Kabars travelled to lands west of Khazaria, to search for the Magyars, who had already migrated far from Khazar borders and influence, with the intent to seek refuge with them. But not all of them went west: the khagan, along with some other Kabar rebels, instead, fled north where they may have sought asylum with the Russians, who by now had expanded enough to be sufficiently powerful as to warrant Byzantine interest. Constantine further added, however, that the flight of the Kabars to Magyar territory was not the end of the affair: rather, it led to the Magyars attacking their Bulgar, Roman and Russian neighbours during the emperor's own reign, perhaps to find new homes and pastures for the children of the western Kabars, who were now members of the Magyar confederacy.

While the loss of the Kabars and their Magyar patrons did not at first seem to pose any serious troubles for the Khazar state, the next thing to befall them certainly did: decades after the civil war in Ukraine, the Black Sea steppes (southern Ukraine) that were under Khazar control were invaded by a new host of Turkic horse raiders, the Pechenegs, whose incessant raids on the khaganate considerably weakened the Khazar state, rendering it susceptible to the Varangians, who now menaced Khazaria by raiding Khazar territories, chipping away at Khazar influence - and in doing so, laid the foundations of the modern nation of Ukraine. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Varangians, under the leadership of two warriors named Askold and Dyr, liberated the city of Kyiv (then a small rural settlement known as Sambat to the Khazars) in 862 CE. Two decades later, the Varangians (now settled in Kyiv and known as the Kyivan Rus' and led by none other than Ihor, the son of the famous Rurik) freed the Polianians and Siverianians from Khazar rule after a two-year war. 

From this point on, Khazaria's fate was sealed. With the rise of the Kievan Rus state in Ukraine,  Khazar power dwindled under years and years of incessant Varangian campaigning. By 965CE, the great Khazar fortress of Sarkel was no more: Russian forces under Svyatoslav, Ihor's son had it razed; next was Itil, the capital, which would suffer the same fate as that of Sarkel. Even so, destroying Khazaria was a tragic miscalculation on the part of both the Russians and the Greeks. The weakening of Khazaria strengthened the Pecheneg and Oghuz tribes, who became formidable rivals of both Kyiv and Constantinople.

Nevertheless, the Khazars would cast long shadows, both east and west, throughout the Middle Ages: the Bulgars, Hungarians and Selcük Turks all had their origins in Khazaria and emerged either through migration or secession. However, of these, the greatest influence must have been on the development of the Russian and Ukrainian states, and their respective cultures. 

References

1. Wallace R, & Krieger L (ed); Rise of Russia; (1967) Time and Life Books, New York
2. Brook K; The Khazar Fortress of Sarkel
3. Semenov K; Boszormeny: A little-known history of Muslims of medieval Hungary reign [sic]; (2022) TRTWorld
4. Mirolaev M, Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital;(2008) ABC News
5. Meerts P; Assessing Khazaria (July 2004/45); IIAS NEwsletter
6. Zhukovsky A; Khazars (1988 vol 2); Encyclopedia of Ukraine
7. Pritsak O, "The Origin of 'Rus'"; (1977) The Russian Review
8. Mako G; The Possible Reasons for the Arab-Khazar Wars; (2010 vol 17)Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi, reproduced byMedievalists.net
9. Magocsi P; A History of Ukraine: A Land and Its Peoples; (2010) University of Toronto Press, Toronto
10. Muhammad T; The Turkish Settlement in Caucasus and Steppes: Constantine VII’s Evidence; (2002 vol II) Journal of Medieval and Islamic History