Khazars: Encyclopedia II - Khazars - Debate

Khazars - Debate

Khazars - Date and extent of the conversion

The date of the conversion, and whether it occurred as one event or as a sequence of events over time, is widely disputed. The issues surrounding this controversy are discussed above.

The number of Khazars who converted to Judaism is also hotly contested. D.M. Dunlop was of the opinion that only the upper class converted; this was the majority view until relatively recently. The relatively sudden shift in burial customs during the mid 800s suggests a more widespread conversion, which hypothesis has been recently championed by Kevin A. Brook.

Khazars - Khazar ancestry of Ashkenazim

Some historians, and most famously the non-historian novelist Arthur Koestler (in The Thirteenth Tribe), have proposed that Jewish Khazars are the ancestors of most or all Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews, but the idea is controversial and is not supported by mainstream researchers. Recent genetic studies appear to demonstrate that Middle Eastern elements dominate the Ashkenazi male line (see, e.g., Y-chromosomal Aaron), but that the female line appears to have a substantially different history. Some have argued this suggests Middle Eastern men marrying into local European communities [5]meaning that Ashkenazim are either not related to Jewish Khazars or that Jewish Khazars represent only a small element of Ashkenazi ancestry rather than the dominant element suggested by Koestler. The theory for the most part is considered to have been widely discredited. Some historians and scientists recognize the need to specifically test the Khazar theory, rather than generalizing based on studies of other non-Khazar populations.[6]

Another criticism that has been levelled against Koestler's work is that he largely appropriated his history from such sources as D.M. Dunlop, sometimes without proper attribution. Moreover, it has been pointed out that his more speculative second half (discussing his theories about Ashkenazi descent) is largely unsupported; to the extent that Koestler referred to place-names and documentary evidence his analysis has been described as a mixture of flawed etymologies and misinterpreted primary sources.

Other critics of the Khazar-Ashkenazi theory have stated that the prime motive for even the small degree of acceptance of these these ideas is because they have become political and anti-Zionist in nature. The Khazar theory has been adopted by many anti-Zionists, especially in the Arab world; such proponents of the theory argue that if Ashkenazi Jews are primarily Khazar in origin, then they would be exempt from God's promise of Canaan to Israelites as recorded in the Bible, were one to ignore that the promise also applies to converts, and the fact that over half of Israeli Jews are not Ashkenazi. Some have countered that such charges of a political motive are not relevant to the core of the argument; in any event, Koestler himself was emphatically pro-Zionist based upon secular considerations.

The Khazar claim has also served as a catalyst for state antisemitism in the Soviet Union and a justification for conquest by Russian nationalists. [7]

Others have claimed Khazar origins for such groups as the Karaim, Krymchaks, Mountain Jews, and Gruzim. There is little evidence to support any of these theories, although it is possible that some Khazar descendants found their way into these communities. Non-Jewish groups who claim at least partial descent from the Khazars include the Kumyks and Crimean Tatars; as with the above-mentioned Jewish groups, these claims are subject to a great deal of controversy and debate.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Debate", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki