740 - 1259 KINGDOM OF KHAZAR
The King Bulan converted his people to a vague form of Judaism ("religion of Abraham") after ordering a disputation between the three major monotheistic faiths. Ibn Shaprut, the
foreign minister for Abd ar-Rahman of Cordova, corresponded with King
Joseph (960). Most of our knowledge of the Khazars is based on these
letters. The Khazars were eventually overcome by the Mongols under Genghis
Khan. With the spread of Christianity by the Russians, many Khazars were
forcibly baptized. The rest fled. Some went into northern Hungary where
villages still have names such as Kozar and Kozardie. Tshagataish, the
language of the Khazar Jews, is spoken by the few remaining Jewish
Krimtchaki of the Crimea. The Khazars' campaign against the Muslims
(730-740) succeeded in checking the Muslim advance on the eastern flank of
Europe. The Khazars succeeded in defending themselves for 500 years against
Muslims, Byzantines and Russians.
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