The Jews of Khazaria

See Larger Image	List Price: $46.00 Our Price: $36.80 Your Save: $ 9.20 ( 20% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Written By: Kevin Alan Brook Average Customer Rating:


Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 947.01088296 EAN: 9780742549814 ISBN: 074254981X Label: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 352 Publication Date: 2006-10-28 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Studio: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
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Editorial Reviews: In this thoroughly revised edition of a modern classic, The Jews of Khazaria explores many exciting new discoveries about the Khazars' religious life, economy, military, government, and culture. It builds upon new studies of the Khazars, evaluating and incorporating recent theories, along with new documentary and archaeological findings. The book gives a comprehensive accounting of the cities, towns, and fortresses of Khazaria, and features a timeline summarizing key events in Khazar history.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Amazingly thorough look at Jews in he world after the disapora Comment: A little academic for my taste but a fascinating view of the medieval (and older) Hebrew influence on the Middle East and the rest of Europe with emphasis on Eastern Europe. I had heard about a nation in the region that had made Judaism the state religion during the period but knew nothing about it since Khaziria became part of the Ottoman empire (now Turkey.) But the book goes into the Jews' role in Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine,Russia, Spain, etc. Much information based on DNA studies of various peoples to provide scientific validation. Fascinating stuff but has to be taken a little at a time since writing is very academic and stiff. Great for those who have an interest in the Jewish disapora. Customer Rating: Summary: Informative but Extremely Dry Comment: To be perfectly frank, this is one of the more boring books I have ever read. Then again, I read it solely for a research paper so if you are actually interested in the subject you will probably enjoy it more than me. That being said, it was chock full of details, and obviously meticulously researched. It appears that this is THE ONLY recent (and reliable) work on the Khazars, which probably explains why it is so over-priced. Therefore, it is certainly valuable for it's rarity alone. Anyway, the book gives a thorough description of the Khazars from their pre-Jewish origins as a Turkic people, through the conversion, and the building of, and subsequent decline of the Khazarian empire, which included a diaspora of Khazarian Jews into Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Brook finishes with a discussion of whether or not the Khazars are the ancestors of the modern day Ashkenazi Jews. So, this might not be the most compelling read, but if you're looking to learn about the Khazars, you don't have much choice! Four stars. Customer Rating: Summary: Jews of Khazaria Comment: I rated this as 3 Stars because it is not for the casual reader. This is a very seriously done work, with plenty of references, and done in studious detail. It is a very detailed history, dealing with what the casual reader would consider as minutiae, but a scholar interested in the subject will find of help and interest. For the scholar it would be a 5 star. Customer Rating: Summary: The Jews of Khazaria second edition by Kevin Alan Brook Comment: The Jews of Khazaria is a brilliant work of incredible research written in a very interesting manner. This is a group of Turkish people from the early midieval period that has been overlooked in most history books, perhaps mentioned in a few sentences. Kevin Brook has managed to find out so much on the history of Jews. Up to the 10th century Khazaria covered area from the northern Caucasus and the Volga delta to Kiev. I thought after having a Y DNA test and finding that the male side of my family were rather rare Q haplogroup that we would also be from Khazaria but that may not be true. Nevertheless, I have learned a great deal about a part of my history that I had never known about. Customer Rating: Summary: The Jews of Khazaria Comment: Histories of peoples with little about them in the historical record and few artifacts uncovered, are of course difficult to compile and risky to make absolute assertions about. The most important previous book about the Khazarians, The Thirteenth Tribe, was published in 1976 by the novelist Arthur Koestler. It's a good read, and has the novelist's enthusiastic engagement with the subject matter. However, Koestler had an ax to grind, the thesis that all or most eastern European Ashkenazic Jews were descended not from the Jews of Palestine but from the Khazarians, and as often as he could he bent, misunderstood and apparently occasionally fudged the historical record to fit his thesis, which current DNA testing has disproven. Kevin Alan Brooks' book is a work of solid research, layered with sources, quite readable for an academic study, and like most academic works very careful in its assertions. I recommend it for anyone interested in the period, from about the eighth century to the 11th, and the place, between the southern Caucasus Mountains and the Volga River, between the Black Sea and the Crimean, in the steppes just east of what we consider "Europe," in the "-stans." Among other things, we learn about the Khazarians' origins, their character as nomads, traders, and fierce horsemen warriors, their conversion to Judaism, their politics and wars with the Arabs the Christian church, and with surrounding tribespeople (Bulgars, Magyars, Alans, et cetera), and their eventual fall to the Rus. The book was of particular interest to me because my DNA shows the Khazarian stamp, a Q haplotype, which is relatively rare among Ashkenazi Jews. After reading this book, I was ready to buy a horse and select an armorer. More Reviews