Did a 9th-Century Eurasian Empire Really Convert to Judaism?

In his theological masterwork the Kuzari, the great medieval philosopher and poet Rabbi Judah Halevi imagines a dialogue between a rabbi and the ruler of an exotic pagan emperor about religion, which concludes with the latter’s decision to convert to Judaism. Halevi’s framing device was based on what he thought to be a true story of the king of the Khazaria, an empire located in what is now the southern part of European Russia—perhaps spilling over into Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Georgia—whose ruling class converted to Judaism around the 8th century CE. From time to time—most recently in 2013—spurious theories have popped up that the Khazars are the real ancestors of the majority of Ashkenazi Jews. The eminent scholar Shaul Stampfer, meanwhile, has concluded that not only are these claims unfounded, but that the Khazar conversion is itself a myth.