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Khazar Khaganate — Conversion to Judaism
Around 740 AD, the Khazar Khagan Bulan and the Khazar nobility converted to Judaism — one of the most significant mass conversions in Jewish history. The Khazar Khaganate, a powerful Turkic empire dominating the Pontic-Caspian steppe between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, became the only significant non-Israelite state to adopt Judaism as its official religion. The conversion is documented in the Khazar Correspondence (~960 AD) — letters exchanged between Khagan Joseph and Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the Jewish physician and statesman of the Córdoba Caliphate. Joseph’s letter traces the conversion three generations back to Bulan, describes the royal court’s observance of Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and lists the 24 Khazar tribes. The Khazars maintained relations with both Babylonian and Palestinian Jewish academies, sent questions of Jewish law to the Geonim, and welcomed Jewish refugees fleeing Byzantine persecution. Arab geographer al-Masudi (~950 AD) writes that the Khazar capital Atil contained many synagogues. Hebrew-alphabet inscriptions have been found on Khazar coins. The conversion gave diaspora Jewry an unprecedented patron state on the steppe frontier.