The Turks in Jacob's Tents (2)

I am happy to announce that I have completed chapter 8 about the Khazars. It appeared to be one of the longest extracts in the whole book. I think that I have managed to relate the history in a non-traditional way.

To start with, we still are unaware of the flow of the Khazar history; what we have got are bits and pieces and each of us is trying to glean from them a plausible plot. 

I tried to use historical accounts of travelers who had visited Khazaria or whose opinion is supported by the archaeological record rather than be supported by legends. The problem is that few Khazar sources available are written in Hebrew and are rife in myths. It does not mean that the entire content is false; however, it is biased and cannot be related at face value. 

With the completion of this chapter, I have nearly finished Unit IV. I tend to write the conclusion called Bottom Line. This makes about seventy percent of the book. As usual, the whole unit will be sent to the publisher.

It is too early to assume when the book is finished. I still have a month of my school leave and will do my utmost. 

Here is a short extract from Unit 8:

The rumors about an overwhelming Jewish polity, which carried a latent threat to the Western Christendom, were not made out of whole cloth.   

    

Though the steppe and the sown were at frequent loggerheads, nobody could deny that Alexander Barrier marked the limit beyond which the religious oppression seemed to expire. The smiling extents of the grassy plains foreshadowed the freedom of conscience.

     The Khazar rulers tended to be lenient in their approach to religious tenets and intricacies of their subjects’ birthrights. They greeted people of any ethnos, speakers of any vernacular, adherents of any lifestyle, and adherents of any faith.

     In the following chapter, we will take a gander at an often overlooked kingdom which has recently abandoned its fixed place at the junk pile of history and embarked on unearthing its secrets and diffusing its charms. We will strive to glean facts from the thin historical record. 

The Turks in Jacob's Tents (1)

Some chapters take longer than expected. 

The last but one chapter of Unit IV, Mapping Marvels and Monsters: In the Shadow of the Iron Gate, is devoted to the Khazars. I would like to link the existence of their khaganate to European persistent rumors about the Jewish empire that would eventually liberate their coreligionists from the yoke of the Christian nations. 

There are too few facts and too much fiction surrounding the world of the Khazars. Instead of recounting the more or less known myths, I decided to collect data about this mysterious ethnic group and their polity. Much of this info is controversial and one has to approach it with loads of skepticism in case his/her conception would burst in his/her hands. 

I am checking the collected data and writing extracts based on it. I still have some work to do. Now and then, I inspect new sources and the scope of written pages is getting larger and larger. 

At the next stage, I will compare the new pieces with the old ones and I will choose the best text. I also have to rearrange the material: some info might belong to other chapters.

It is clear that even after editing every chapter I will have to reread the whole book. There are so many corrections and repetitions and even last minute's exploring. 

I will also speak about the Rus, a bunch of adventurous Vikings who preyed on tribes of Eastern Europe and managed to launch a state. The collision between this polity and the Khazars led to the disintegration of the Khaganate. 

  

Site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel (aerial photo from excavations conducted by Mikhail Artamonov in the 1950s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars#/media/File:Sarkel.jpg