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This book traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark Ages converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Ghengis Khan, but evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western Jewry.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Until I read this book I was always under the assumption that Jews were a race of Semitic people from the loins of Abraham's second born Issac. It seems there was a race in the Caucuses between the Black sea and the Caspian an area that covered from the Ural mountain to the Volga's known as the Khazars.
Khazaria was a kingdom that chose to convert to Judaism in the hope if staying independent from the rule of Byzantium or Baghdad. They Chose the Jewish faith instead of Christianity or Islam in order to preserve their proud warrior status.
It is amazing how little people know about this race which after the collapse of the kingdom dispersed to Russia and Western Europe, and much of the Jews in USA are from this stock. In fact, it now clear that the invasion of the Holy Lands and in particular Jerusalem is mainly by the non-Semitic Jews of the Khazaria decent
A History of Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths
Khazaria was a kingdom that chose to convert to Judaism in the hope if staying independent from the rule of Byzantium or Baghdad. They Chose the Jewish faith instead of Christianity or Islam in order to preserve their proud warrior status.
It is amazing how little people know about this race which after the collapse of the kingdom dispersed to Russia and Western Europe, and much of the Jews in USA are from this stock. In fact, it now clear that the invasion of the Holy Lands and in particular Jerusalem is mainly by the non-Semitic Jews of the Khazaria decent
A History of Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Koestler, in The Thirteenth Tribe, traces the history of the ancient Khazar people, related to other Turkish tribes, the Magyars, Huns, and Oghuz, who from around 750AD, in their Caucasian homeland, converted to Judaism. Were they wiped out in the Middle Ages by the Mongol hordes of Gengis Khan sweeping westward at around 1222? There is substantial evidence that the majority migrated north and west, primarily to Hungary and Poland. Their influence on European history was considerably greater than their numbers might suggest, as they formed a buffer state between the expanding Islamic empire and Byzantium, and later slowed the southward marauding Viking Rus, who eventually served as the mercenary Varangian Guard in Constantinople. Thus the Khazars, by rejecting Orthodox Christianity and Islam, choosing instead Judaism, did so primarily for political purposes. The reasoning went that the commonality of the Hebrew Scripture's acceptability to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike aided diplomacy and commercial trade.
David Keys, in his book 'Catastrophe', cites the Khazars and their migration as evidence of the widespread displacement of peoples after 536AD, and an explanation of the relatively sudden appearance of the Northern European Jewish (Yiddish speaking) communities.
What implications are there of this theory, in linking the origin of the Northern European Jews, the Ashkenazim, with the migrating Khazars? Zionism was the political Jewish movement that sought a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The United Nations in 1947 partitioned Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Without commenting on the complex political situation in the modern day Middle East, no state anywhere in the world today depends for its existence on a genetically pure link with a historical `mother-race'. Ironically, such a concept we normally might associate with Nazism.
Koestler sums up his argument by claiming the philosophical, artistic and scientific achievements of individual Jews consist of contributions to the culture of their host nations; they do not represent a common cultural inheritance, or autonomous body of traditions. At first, this seemed at odds with the spirit of the major Jewish writers of the twentieth century. Koestler argues that Jews of the Diaspora, at least in the present day, have little in common except a religion the majority do not practice or believe in, and the shared trauma of the Holocaust, the effect of which can only lessen in the future. The national identity of Israel, then does not depend on the European heritage that originated in Khazaria.
David Keys, in his book 'Catastrophe', cites the Khazars and their migration as evidence of the widespread displacement of peoples after 536AD, and an explanation of the relatively sudden appearance of the Northern European Jewish (Yiddish speaking) communities.
What implications are there of this theory, in linking the origin of the Northern European Jews, the Ashkenazim, with the migrating Khazars? Zionism was the political Jewish movement that sought a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The United Nations in 1947 partitioned Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Without commenting on the complex political situation in the modern day Middle East, no state anywhere in the world today depends for its existence on a genetically pure link with a historical `mother-race'. Ironically, such a concept we normally might associate with Nazism.
Koestler sums up his argument by claiming the philosophical, artistic and scientific achievements of individual Jews consist of contributions to the culture of their host nations; they do not represent a common cultural inheritance, or autonomous body of traditions. At first, this seemed at odds with the spirit of the major Jewish writers of the twentieth century. Koestler argues that Jews of the Diaspora, at least in the present day, have little in common except a religion the majority do not practice or believe in, and the shared trauma of the Holocaust, the effect of which can only lessen in the future. The national identity of Israel, then does not depend on the European heritage that originated in Khazaria.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This important book and it's successor books are very important for us to understand how nations evolved to what they are today even if it contradicts a status quo for nation building in the Middle East. The book explains well that the Ashkenazi Jews who are the Majority of world Jewry today (87-90%) are not descended from the original Semitic Jews but from a Magyar Kingdom who in the 9th Century converted to Judaism for political reasons and founded a great Kingdom in the Crimea before being driven deeper in to Europe where they founded flourishing communities by the Mongol invaders who destroyed their Kingdom. Long black hats and coats, the Yiddish language and other typical Jewish images are firmly European especially Magyar and have no traces direct or indirect to the Middle East. The remaining Sephardic Jews do however have a historical and legitamite claim to a state in Palestine and are descended from the original Jews a present day remnant of the Aramaen people's. This challenges and contradicts Zionist ideology and puts the West's position of Sensitive History and current day Politics in to uncertainty challenging a claim to Palestine and the national character and heritage of Israel and for the West to write the wrong's of the guilt of the Second world war and deal with the challenging problems of the Middle East.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
From the steppe to the shtetl
I first bought this book in the late 1970s. Several clear-outs later I came across it again and re-bought it. Often revisiting books is a disappointment, but not in this case. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Mac McAleer
The khazar empire
The book sucks you right in from the first page with great detail and historical events. Iv'e not finished the book yet but its a must buy for anyone who wants the know the facts... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Urfan
13th tribe
Very interesting book and a very interesting thesis. For me there was a bit of too much ancient history in it, but then again you need it to understand the 2nd part of the book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by L. M. Van Bokkel
Wild hypothesis
In the light of the other reviews, it's important to mention that this book advances a controversial and implausible theory which is at odds with all other serious research on... Read more
Published 19 months ago by P A Marshall
The unvarnished truth of the origins of the Ashkenazi Jews
A fascinating tale of the true origins of the vast majority of the Eastern European Jews, the Ashkenazi's. Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2010 by Captain Marvelous
Arthur Koestler's logical and deeply researched book
It's an excellent book. I read about the Khazars and their adoption of the Jewish religion long time ago. Read more
Published on 30 April 2008 by Carlos
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