Ethnic Structure of the Jewish Proselyte Community in Khazaria

Usually many scholars connected the Jewish proselytism only with the Khazars in the Khazar Kaganate. It is widely known that the Jewish proselytes of the Khazar Kaganate were only a part of the Khazar urban population and were in direct relation to both the ruling stratum and merchants. However, the Khazars were formed from two ethnic groups: the Turkuts as newcomers and the “natural Khazars.” The first ethnic group became the ruling stratum. The second one was the Turkophone native population. Unfortunately, we know nothing about the ethnic belonging of the Khazar merchants who were Jews.

The analysis of the Khazar-Hebrew documents allows us to identify other groups of the Jewish proselytes in the Khazar Kaganate. For instance, according to the “Schechter’s document,” the part of the North Caucasian Alans were Jews. In addition, Yahuda by the nickname of SWRTH was mentioned in the Kievan Letter of the Khazarian Jews. It is more likely that the term SWRTH was used in reference to a subgroup of the ancient Hungarians – the Savarts – described by Constantinus Porphirogenitus.

In 13th century, a Western European traveler Plano Carpini mentioned the Brutaques, who were the Jews in the North Western Caucasus, among the conquered by Mongols nations. I assume that they were neighbors of the Jewish Khazars in the Taman peninsula. As a result, a part of them became Jews.

Therefore, it is possible to consider Judaism as an international religion in the Khazar Kaganate.