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The Jews of Khazaria Paperback – December 16, 2009

by Kevin Alan Brook (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 65 ratings
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The Jews of Khazaria chronicles the history of the Khazars, a people who, in the early Middle Ages, founded a large empire in eastern Europe (located in present-day Ukraine and Russia). The Khazars played a pivotal role in world history. Khazaria was one of the largest-sized political formations of its time, an economic and cultural superpower connected to several important trade routes. It was especially notable for its religious tolerance, and in the 9th century, a large portion of the royal family converted to Judaism. Many of the nobles and commoners did likewise shortly thereafter. After their conversion, the Khazars were ruled by a succession of Jewish kings that began to adopt the hallmarks of Jewish civilization, including the Torah and Talmud, the Hebrew script, and the observance of Jewish holidays. In this thoroughly revised edition of a modern classic, The Jews of Khazaria explores many exciting new discoveries about the Khazars' religious life, economy, military, government, and culture. It builds upon new studies of the Khazars, evaluating and incorporating recent theories, along with new documentary and archaeological findings. The book gives a comprehensive accounting of the cities, towns, and fortresses of Khazaria, and features a timeline summarizing key events in Khazar history.
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    December 16, 2009
  4. Dimensions
    6.07 x 0.92 x 9.13 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0742549828
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0742549821
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"As a full exploration in English of the history and culture of the Khazars, this volume is without equal..." --Edward J. Lazzerini, Visiting Professor of Central Eurasian History, Indiana University Bloomington

"a compendium of information gathered from every available source... a useful reference work" --James Howard-Johnston, Lecturer, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, Winter 2009

"a concise and readable digest... current and accessible... extremely valuable for its consolidation of this disparate material."
--Eve Krakowski, University of Chicago, in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, October 2011

About the Author

Kevin Alan Brook is a historian who has researched the Khazars since 1993. Since 1995, Brook has maintained the website Khazaria.com. He has lectured on the Khazars in Ontario, Ohio, and Massachusetts. He is the author of the following articles, among others:
  • "A Brief History of the Khazars" in Rabbi Korobkin's edition of The Kuzari: In Defense of the Despised Faith (Feldheim, 2009)
  • "Khazars and Judaism" in The Encyclopaedia of Judaism, Second Edition (Brill, 2005)
  • "Khazar Empire" in Encyclopedia of World Trade (M.E. Sharpe, 2005)
  • "Khazar-Byzantine Relations" in The Turks (Yeni Türkiye, 2002)
  • "The Origins of East European Jews" in Russian History/Histoire Russe, Spring-Summer 2003
  • "Jews in Medieval Armenia" in Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora (ABC-CLIO, 2008)
  • "The Genetics of Crimean Karaites" in Karadeniz Araştırmaları, Summer 2014

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Second edition (December 16, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0742549828
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0742549821
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.07 x 0.92 x 9.13 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 65 ratings

About the author

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Kevin Alan Brook

Kevin Alan Brook

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Kevin Brook is an American researcher of history, genetics, and genealogy known for his articles about Sephardic Jewish migrations into Eastern Europe in the ZichronNote newsletter, his book-length study of the Khazar kingdom whose leaders converted to Judaism, his exploration of the genetics of the Karaite Jews of Europe, and his investigations of Slavic and East Asian DNA in Ashkenazic Jews. He also helps customers of autosomal DNA tests trace their Ashkenazic Jewish and Sephardic Jewish roots. He is a graduate of Bryant College's Russian studies track's courses on general Russian history and Russian political history.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
65 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Brian G.
5.0 out of 5 stars A vast improvement on an already impressive work
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2007
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Brook has accomplished what no-one since D.M. Dunlop (in his 1954 "History of the Jewish Khazars") has been able to do: He has written a comprehensive, up-to-date, scrupulously researched and scholarly account of the amazing history of the Khazars. Better still, he has done so in a manner that is accessible to the layman as well as to historians.

Brook, a layman himself (albeit a lay expert), has meticulously collected thousands of tidbits of historical knowledge and lore from a myriad of primary and secondary sources

Brook's first edition (published by Jason Aaronson in 1999) was a masterpiece in and of itself, but it was flawed by the certainty of certain controversial assertions (such as that the conversion of the Khazars took place in 861) which have, over the course of only a few years, become outdated by dramatic new discoveries in numismatics and archaeology. This second edition of Brook's magnum opus corrects many errors and also includes information on new discoveries, organized into convenient, intuitive and well-cited sections (including "The Origins of the Khazars", "The Khazars' Conversion to Judaism", and "Relations between the Khazars and other People".)

Khazar history is brought to life through discussions of trade, religion, daily life, language, and many other issues. Anyone interested in Jewish, Eastern European or Eurasian history, or anyone who fancies themselves a polymath, would be remiss if they failed to purchase and read this book.
38 people found this helpful
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Ron M. Lewenberg
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book showing the latest actual research on Khazaria
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2009
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I truly wish most of the people citing or writing about this book had actually read it. This is the first worthy successor to DM Dunlop's The History of the Jewish Khazars .
It is a shame that Shlomo Sand, author of the ideological fiction known as  The Invention of the Jewish People , did not actually read it.
6 people found this helpful
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Nadene Goldfoot
5.0 out of 5 stars The Jews of Khazaria second edition by Kevin Alan Brook
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2007
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The Jews of Khazaria is a brilliant work of incredible research written in a very interesting manner. This is a group of Turkish people from the early midieval period that has been overlooked in most history books, perhaps mentioned in a few sentences. Kevin Brook has managed to find out so much on the history of Jews. Up to the 10th century Khazaria covered area from the northern Caucasus and the Volga delta to Kiev. I thought after having a Y DNA test and finding that the male side of my family were rather rare Q haplogroup that we would also be from Khazaria but that may not be true. Nevertheless, I have learned a great deal about a part of my history that I had never known about.
10 people found this helpful
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VA 6
5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for Learning about Khazaria and Jewish History in Eastern Europe
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2013
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For a history buff, I thought this was an excellent read.

I wanted to learn more about the remarkable empire that was Khazaria, and this book did an excellent job. As a bonus, I enjoyed the detailed history of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. I had no idea there were so many enclaves!

My only complaint is that the book starts off a little slow. You have to get thru the first chapter or two, but then it seems to take off like a rocket. I couldn't put it down after that.
10 people found this helpful
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Ray Walker
3.0 out of 5 stars Jews of Khazaria
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2007
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I rated this as 3 Stars because it is not for the casual reader. This is a very seriously done work, with plenty of references, and done in studious detail. It is a very detailed history, dealing with what the casual reader would consider as minutiae, but a scholar interested in the subject will find of help and interest. For the scholar it would be a 5 star.
10 people found this helpful
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LisaCCM
5.0 out of 5 stars Ashkenazi Jewish people: Never say’ Anti Semitic Again! Maybe Japhethitic...
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2020
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Awesome book.🌺 Cute and to the point’ History of the Khazars who are the today’s’ (Ashkenazi Jewish) people... who claims to be the true Jews... all Lies. They come from the line of Japheth Not Shem!!!! Genesis 10:2-3 *** Read it for yourselves...
31 people found this helpful
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Goodview
4.0 out of 5 stars Certainly there are a lot of Jewish people with names like Kagan, etc
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2014
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One version of the origin of the Eskenazi Jew. Certainly there are a lot of Jewish people with names like Kagan, etc.
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Vaughn G. Silverman
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but not for people looking for light reading
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2015
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Excellent, but not for people looking for light reading. This is a serious endeavor by Brook that is much more comprehensive than the title suggests.
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Lidia F.
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy bien empacado
Reviewed in Mexico on January 14, 2020
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Llegó en perfectas condiciones
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Aldo C. Marturano
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books written on the Khazars
Reviewed in Italy on September 28, 2012
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I know the author well, as I had he occasion to exchange many comments with him. He is very accurate in his researches and reliable even in the hypotheses that he, a few times indeed, sets up to clarify some obscure event. I recommend every reader of any education to read this book if he wants to broaden up his views in the European, Middle Ages and Jews' history.
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Mac McAleer
3.0 out of 5 stars The third force
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2012
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I liked this book. It is more detailed than some other publications which mention the Khazars but leads to the same question: Are the Khazars substantially or partially the ancestors of the east European Jewry? The author suggests that the Khazarian Jews may represent 25% of Ashkenazic Jews and up to 60% of the Ukrainian Jews.

The Khazars were a mainly Turkic people, a cultural-linguistic group rather than an ethnicity, who migrated westward into southern Russia. Originally shamanistic, they converted to Judaism in the early medieval period and became an important third force balancing the Christian Byzantine Empire and the Islamic imperium.

These partly nomadic pastoralists, partly urbanised traders, were aggressively expansionist. Relations with Byzantium oscillated between friendship and war. These relations worsened when the Khazars adopted Judaism, a religion that the Byzantines were actively persecuting.

The Arab-Khazars wars lasted over a century, starting with the Arab expansion following the emergence of the new Arab religion. Eventually their respective territories were stabilised with the Khazars north of, and the Arabs south of, the Caucasus. This prevented the Islamic conquest of eastern Europe. With the Rus, the proto-Russians, there was continuous conflict. There was also some conflict with the Magyars as they moved westward, but when this nation reached its final destination of Hungary they were joined by many Khazars.

The Kazarian Empire was gradually destroyed, first by the Rus, then by the Rus in alliance with the Byzantines. The last remnants of the Khazars were obliterated by the Mongol Golden Horde. This was a tough neighbourhood.

THE BOOK is often too detailed and too arcane, particularly in the chapters describing the early years of the Khazars. These have the feel of a book by a local history society, where all the facts about an area are collected together regardless of editorial discipline. Many of these could have been incorporated in the Notes rather than the main text. Western European readers will find a confusion of unfamiliar and similar-sounding names of places, tribes and nations, often migrating, making it seem like a sci-fi space opera.

Irrationally, I was annoyed by the frequent use of the word toponym. I would have preferred place name. I am sure toponym is a more precise term, but this did not stop my irritation.

RECOMMENDATION: This book must have been a labour of love and should be respected. The details are included because they may not be readily available elsewhere, and if they are available they are probably in Russian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Polish etc. I would recommend it to potential readers, but only if they feel they have an interest in early medieval Eurasian history or in the possible origins of east European Jewry.

To quote the author at the end of the Introduction "I felt compelled to write this book because I want to make the world of the Khazars more accessible to both the average reader and the scholar. Only a precious few extensive studies on the Khazars have been published in the English language in recent times. I am pleased to present this book in the hope that awareness of the Khazar Empire and our Jewish roots will be heightened."

THE CHAPTERS are all prefixed by a brief summary and post-fixed with notes. The chapters are followed by an appendix "A Timeline of Khazar History", a glossary, an extensive bibliography and an index.
1 The Origin of the Khazars
2 The Cities and Towns of the Khazars
3 The Structure of the Khazar Government
4 The Khazar Way of Life
5 Khazarian Trade
6 The Khazar's Conversion to Judaism
7 Relations between the Khazars and Other Peoples
8 The Decline and Fall of the Khazar empire
9 The Diaspora of the Khazars
10 The Phenomenon of Proselytism
11 Eastern and Central European Jews after the Tenth Century

SELECTED LINKS
Shlomo Sand  The Invention of the Jewish People
Arthur Koestler  The Thirteenth Tribe The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage
Paul Wexler  Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews ;
 The Ashkenazic Jews: A Slavo-Turkic People in Search of a Jewish Identity
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Emile Cohen
2.0 out of 5 stars The jews of Khazaria
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2013
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The book tends to go into great details on Khazarian costumes and traditions but not adequate into the subject of the Jews of Khazaria and left me wondering what happened to them exactly as the information is wishy washy perhaps lacking in historical details and reliable sources. Very little on the period between the 10th and 12th century. Left me with questions rather than answers. The DNA analysis left me with the conclusion that the DNA science is inadequate and perhaps not very reliable. Although a link is established between the Jews of Khazaria and Ashkenazi Jews, the statistics are rather sparce. How many Jews were in kazaria; not even an estimate is provided.
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Leo
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting introduction to the Khazar civilisation
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 8, 2016
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The book is taking care of fascinating and interesting topic. However is not really "solid" in his thesis and sometimes lacks of a clear and whole narrative
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