Who were the Khazar tribes ?

Question

I have read that they converted to Judaism. Does anybody know about this/

I read also that many came to Poland and became assimilated with Separdic Jews and were then called Ashkenaizi jews.
Does any of this info have any validity?

Answer 1

It's true that the Khazars (whose country was around the Crimea) converted to Judaism, probably some time in the 8th Century.

Supposedly they did this so as to remain neutral between the Christian countries to the west and the Muslim countries to the east.

However, although sopme may have gone to Poland they are not the ancestors of most ashkenazi Jews.

DNA studies demonstrate that Ashkenazi Y-Chromosome Jews originated in Middle Eastern populations, as has the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of at least 40% of the current Ashkenazi population. So although Khazars might have been absorbed into the Jewish population it is unlikely that they formed a large percentage of the ancestors of modern Ashkenazim.

Answer 2

The Khazars were a Jewish-Turkish tribe of Southern Russia. They were of Turkish origin, ranging over the western end of the Steppes before converting to Judaism in AD 740. They created the largest and most civilised empire in the region since the Scythians, their capital Iti being one of the greatest commercial centres of the age. They were largely destroyed by their Russian neighbours in the 10th and 11th century, their empire either being absorbed or fragmenting into smaller states. Beyond this point my knowledge is pretty limited on the Khazars, but i hope this was helpful.