"The Khazars Are Coming"

by Edward (Ephraim) Hirsch

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Foreward by Yair Davidiy to "The Khazars are Coming!" by Edward (Ephraim) Hirsch.
The following article was forwarded to "Brit-Am"  by the author,
Edward (Ephraim) Hirsch.

         The opinions expressed by Edward (Ephraim) Hirsch are his own. His account is highly  idealised and maybe exaggerated. Nevertheless sources do exist that render most of his claims defensible. The article concerns the Khazars who were related to the Parthians. The Parthians were also known for their tolerance and for a laissez faire administration that was successful. Both Parthians and Khazars were descended from the Lost Ten Tribes and both were kinsfolk to entities now amongst nations of West European descent.. Maybe the ambition to realise human potential through constitutional freedom is a recurring urge of the Israelite Peoples. The basic core of the Khazars were the Agathyrsi descendants of Aiezer [Ai-g-ezer] of Manasseh.  The North Americans are also dominated by Menasseh and the account below reads like another version of the American Dream.

"The Khazars Are Coming"

by Edward (Ephraim) Hirsch

         It sounds like the plot from an Arnold Schwarzenegger epic. A  nomadic people in the South Russian steppes raised up against tyranny and  barbarism. Surrounded by wild tribes who yoked their women to chariots,  they enjoyed all the comforts of civilized nations, a well-constituted and  tolerant government, a flourishing trade, and a well-disciplined standing army. At a time when fanaticism, ignorance and anarchy reigned in Western  Europe, this kingdom could boast of its just and broad-minded  administration. They practiced complete freedom of religion. Christian, Jew  and Muslim rode together as brothers under the same flag. ...They were an  equal opportunity employer. Half their ranks were black, while half were white. They ruled over Russia from the lower course of the Volga and the northern slopes of the Caucasus, as far as the lands bounded by the Sea of  Azov and the Caspian. Their kingdom lasted a thousand years. During that  span, they saved Christianity, rescued the Jews, and embraced the Muslims  as partners. They gave sanctuary to an outcast Byzantine emperor and risked  their lives and empire for the poor and oppressed. They chose their king  from the most humble of their subjects and he never made a public  appearance, lacking the status of even a figurehead. Their women were  reputed to be among the most beautiful in the world and were married off to  the most powerful rulers in history. This will-o'-the-wisp people appeared  out of nowhere in the second century and disappeared with hardly a trace in  the twelfth. They spoke an unknown language, unrelated to their neighbors  of which only fifty words remain. They left virtually no artifacts, no  ruins and no written documents. Although at one time their capital city,  Atil, named after the mythical land of Atlantis, was the richest and the  greatest on the globe.
         As unlikely as this scenario may sound, every word is historical  truth. They were the Khazars, a tribal union that emerged in the aftermath  of a series of migrations of nomadic people from Inner and Central Asia.  Like everything else about them, their racial origin is unknown. Scholars  first argued that they were of Finno-Ugrian extraction, but later  maintained they were a Turkish offshoot. Eventually, the leading  academicians decided they had no idea where they came from. Readers of  Gibbon are familiar with the name of Leo the Khazar, an Emperor of the  Greeks, whose mother was one of those glamorous Khazar princesses. More recently, inveterate viewers of late night television saw the Khazars on  cable. The descendants of the Khazars are those guys storming the Hitler  bunker on the documentary "World at War". The Khazars were known by their  enemies as the most valiant warriors of their epoch and the tradition has  lingered. The Russians used the mountain Tats, reputed to be the last of  the Khazars, as shock troops. ...
         Among the accomplishments of the Khazars, according to historians,  is holding the line between the advance of the Muslim hordes and Europe,  much as Charles Martel fended off the Moors at Tours. The Khazars also are  known for the conversion of the royal family to the Jewish religion in the  eighth century. Scholars claim that this came about as the result of a  religious debate when emissaries of the three faiths were sent to the  kingdom. The Khazars adopted the Jewish religion because of their  imperative to help the oppressed, in the same way that the king of Denmark  later donned a Star of David to show solidarity with the besieged people.  The Khazars did things like that. In their spare time they invented Democracy.  Although the Greek philosopher Pericles is generally credited with the  idea, it is known that Herodotus, a buddy of Pericles visited Khazaria  shortly before Pericles came up with this inspiration that has shaped  modern thought. Historians report that the Khazar king dreamed that God  spoke to him, saying "your intentions are good but your works leave a lot  to be desired". Thereafter, the Khazars not only preached total freedom and  justice, they implemented it. Their government consisted of a council of  two Christians, two Jews, two Muslims, and a barbarian. They never withdrew  loyalty once granted. They willingly sacrificed their lives for  Christianity, Judaism, and Allah. No man was so despised that he could not  find forgiveness in the Khazar kingdom. ......... They invented the concept  of liberty, fraternity and equality.
         According to D.M. Dunlop of Colombia University, the foremost  American scholar of the Khazars, the reason the Khazars are not generally  known by the public is that the historical records exist mistily in Arabic  and Turkish texts. Also, the thrust of history as taught in our schools  concerns itself mostly with Greece, Rome and Western Europe. But Dunlop  says "It can scarcely be doubted that but for the existence of the Khazars  in the region north of the Caucasus, Byzantium, the bulwark of European  civilization in the east, would have found itself outflanked by the Arabs,  and the history of Christianity and Islam might well have been very
different from what we know".
         Khazaria derived its wealth from its international trade routes  that crossed its territory linking the Byzantine Empire, the Arab Caliphate  and Northern Europe. In order to protect their commercial interests, the  Khazars strove to maintain peace in the region and to exclude or neutralize  any nomadic invaders from the east...Shielded by this peace accord, the  East Slavic tribes north of the open steppe were able to expand further  southward and to prosper in their livestock-raising pursuits.
         Although Khazaria subsequently became known as the first land  whose rulers embraced Judaism in the Medieval Period the Khazars had  [previously] been most renowned  for their prowess in commerce. The Khazars  were the first true capitalists as well as the first democratic political  entity.
         An account of the Khazars was in fact given by the Cambridge  historian J.B. Bury in a chapter of his History of the Eastern Roman  Empire, and the Khazars are mentioned in most encyclopedias and  dictionaries. One encyclopedia says of the Khazars: "Besides the White  Khazars, there were also Black Khazars who were as dark as Hindus....The  entourage of the Khagan consisted of  4,000 men of different nationalities".
         But most books on the Khazars, and even that of Dunlop, are out of  print. The modern Khazar scholar, Peter Golden of Rutgers University, told  me that even his book is out of print. I also attempted to contact lost  members of the royal family who were exiled to Spain after the destruction of Khazaria by the Russian Prince Sviatoslav...[BUT] Ultimately, the  Khazars are not to be found in remote parts of the Soviet Union or in exile in corners of Brazil and Paraguay. The Khazars are found in our hearts. The Khazars were never a nation in the real sense. They were an empire of the senses, a trading organization and a confederation of peace loving people.
They were the law west of the Pecos -- and the Volga, Dnieper, and Don for that matter. Our ideals, our vision and even our system of government were forged by the Khazars...

"Much has been written by the authorities respecting the kingdom of Cozar (the Khazars) which Basnage in his History of the Jews is inclined to consider an imaginary region, but which, whether a real or an ideal monarchy and wherever situated affords proof that in the rabbinical tradition, they build a tabernacle perfectly like that which Moses set up in the wilderness. They are said to have been happy and potent, to have triumphed over their enemies..." Lord Kingsborough (Edward King) quoted by  Edward Hirsch.