Khazars

The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who established a powerful khaganate north of the Caucasus and around the Caspian Sea from the seventh to tenth centuries.

Western Turkic Khaganate: A Turkic empire that controlled much of Central Asia from the sixth to seventh centuries. Its fragmentation preceded the rise of Khazar power in the western steppe.
Khazar Khaganate: A medieval polity that dominated parts of the northern Caucasus, lower Volga, and Pontic-Caspian steppe. It was the state through which Khazar leaders governed a diverse territory and population.
Ibn Fadlan: A tenth-century Arab traveler and writer who recorded his journey to the Volga Bulgars. His account preserves a rare description of the Khazar court and its political order.
Arab–Khazar wars: A series of conflicts between the Khazars and the Arab caliphates, especially during the seventh and eighth centuries. These wars tested Khazar power and fixed the Caucasus as a contested frontier.
Fall of the Khazar Khaganate: The decline of Khazar political power during the tenth century, accelerated by Rus' campaigns. Its collapse ended Khazar dominance over major routes between the steppe and the Caspian.
Göktürks: A Turkic-speaking confederation that founded the first Turkic Khaganate in the sixth century. The Khazars belonged to the wider Turkic political and cultural world shaped by Göktürk rule.
Khagan: A sovereign title used by rulers of several Inner Asian steppe empires. The Khazars organized their highest authority around a ruler bearing this title.
Constantine the Philosopher: A Byzantine missionary and scholar, later known as Saint Cyril, active in the ninth century. His mission to the Khazars appears in accounts of Byzantine diplomacy and religious debate.
Khazar–Byzantine alliance: A political and military partnership between Khazar rulers and the Byzantine Empire. The alliance linked Khazar influence in the steppe to Byzantine strategy around the Black Sea.
Kievan Rus': A medieval polity centered on Kyiv that developed among East Slavic and related communities. Its expansion challenged Khazar authority and helped reshape power in eastern Europe.

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