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Special Feature -- Book ReviewsKevin A. Brook's The Jews of KhazariaThe Jews of Khazaria by Kevin Alan Brook. Paperback edition published by Jason Aronson, Inc. Publishers (Northvale, New Jersey, USA, Oct. 2002). ISBN: 0765762129. List price: $25.00. The distinguished Jewish author Nathan Ausubel once wrote, "Of all the astonishing experiences of the widely dispersed Jewish people, none was more extraordinary than that concerning the Khazars." The Jews of Khazaria by Kevin A. Brook, the first English-language book about the Khazars since 1982, recounts the eventful history of the Turkic kingdom of Khazaria, which was located in eastern Europe and flourished as an independent state from about 650 to 1016. As a major world power, Khazaria enjoyed diplomatic and trade relations with many peoples and nations (including the Byzantines, Alans, Magyars, and Slavs) and changed the course of medieval history in many ways. For instance, (1) the Arab-Khazar wars established the Caucasus Mountains as a boundary between the Islamic world to the south and the Slavo-Turkic world to the north; (2) Khazarian warriors participated in the founding of the kingdom of Hungary beyond the Carpathians; (3) Khazarian princesses married into the Byzantine royal family; and (4) Khazars played a part in founding the city of Kiev on the Dnieper River. Some even speculate that the two-king governmental system of the early Rus was derived from that of the Khazars. The Khazar people belonged to a grouping of Turks who wrote in a runic script that originated in Mongolia. The royalty of the Khazar kingdom was descended from the Ashina Turkic dynasty. In the ninth century, the Khazarian royalty and nobility as well as a significant portion of the Khazarian Turkic population embraced the Jewish religion. After their conversion, as this book proves, the Khazars were ruled by a succession of Jewish kings and began to adopt the hallmarks of Jewish civilization, including the Torah and Talmud, the Hebrew script, and the observance of Jewish holidays. A portion of the empire's population adopted Christianity and Islam. This volume traces the development of the Khazars from their early beginnings as a tribe to the decline and fall of their kingdom. The author explores the agriculture, horticulture, fishing, burial practices, and architecture of the Khazar people and highlights their contributions to cross-continental economic activity. There are other sections discussing the intricate relations between Khazars and Byzantines, Hungarians, Rusians, Persians, and Arabs. The book also examines the many migrations of the Khazar people into Hungary, Ukraine, and other areas of Europe and their subsequent assimilation, providing the most comprehensive treatment of this complex issue to date. The final chapter enumerates the Jewish communities of eastern Europe which sprung up after the fall of Khazaria and proposes that the Jews from the former Russian Empire are descended from a mixture of Khazar Jews, German Jews, Greek Jews, and Slavs. The Jews of Khazaria draws upon the latest archival, linguistic, and archaeological discoveries. Readers of history who desire a thorough yet easy-to-read account of the Khazar kingdom will gain in their understanding of this important but previously obscure topic. The book also includes a map of the Khazar kingdom; a map of Khazarian-ruled Crimea; several tables illustrating royal genealogies, king lists, and the Turkic language family; a glossary of Khazarian words and other important terms which may be unfamiliar to readers; and an extensive bibliography of articles, books, and other essays. Reviews:"This book represents a modern effort to unravel the mysteries which still surround the Khazars. It makes skillful use of the vast literature, in many different languages, related to the Khazars. It will be a very helpful guide for the general reader who wishes to discover the truth about this legendary people." - John D. Klier, Professor of Modern Jewish History, University College, London "The sources for Khazar history are extremely varied, representing all of the major cultural groups and languages of Eurasia (Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Turkic, Greek, Latin, Slavic, Georgian, Armenian, and Chinese). Kevin Alan Brook has put together an absorbing account of their history based on this wide array of sources, supplemented by archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic data dealing with Khazar Jewry and their legacy. This is a most useful introduction to this at times enigmatic, but always fascinating people." - Peter B. Golden, Professor of History, Rutgers University (author of "Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars") "Kevin Brook has gone far to penetrate the obfuscating veil cast over an important facet of Judaic, Khazar, and, indeed, world history. His work casts a penetrating beam into the epoch in which the Khazars and the Jews associated to advance civilization in eastern Europe, its least developed sector.... Brook deserves to be lauded for his scholarly and persistent effort to unearth the facts. Sparse as the facts proved to be, Brook gathered them together to create an outline into which scholars of the subject can delve and upon which they can depend." - Samuel Kurinsky, Executive Director, Hebrew History Federation Ltd. "Over a millennium after the kingdom's disastrous wars with the Kievan Rus, the Khazar story still has an alluring mystique... Kevin Alan Brook presents the findings of an impressive array of scholarship...He begins with legends about the Khazars' origins - ascription to the biblical Togarma or to one of the Ten Lost Tribes - and attempts to reconstruct the historical process by which Turkic peoples came to settle in the area between Crimea and the Caspian and coalesce into the Khazar Kingdom. Jews also settled there... The Jewish presence in Crimea and beyond increased with refugees from Persian persecution in the 5th century and from the increasing severity of Byzantine anti-Jewish legislation. Brook discusses the Khazar cities one by one, as well as the imperial structure... He describes lifestyles and trade patterns (including visits of the Jewish Radhanite merchants), before turning to the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism... [T]he last Khazar kagan, who became a Christian, was defeated in 1016. Brook notes that some scholars muse about Khazar revivals in the next two centuries, up to the Mongol invasions, but argues that it is difficult to verify these claims... The Jews of Khazaria is broad in scope; often, however, the book reads more like an annotated bibliography than a tight narrative... A highly useful, comprehensive chronology is given as an appendix... By accepting Judaism, Khazar Jews became part of the overall Jewish community... Far from being [merely] a romantic interlude whose brief existence sparked the imagination of generations, Brook's volume shows that the Khazar experience is intrinsic to the narrative of Jewish history." -- Seth Ward, in The Jewish Quarterly Review 91:3-4 (January-April 2001 issue). Recommended by the library staff of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Librarian's Corner, June 21, 1999). See http://learn.jtsa.edu/shop/books/library/19990621.shtml TABLE OF CONTENTS:
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