The Khazars were a nation of Turkic origin and language who from the 7th to lOth centuries A.D., Ist to 4th A.H., had a strong and independent state in the northeast regions of the Black Sea and the northwest areas of the Caspian sea. In early Islamic sources, the cities of Atel, Balenjar, and Samandar have been mentioned as different capitals of the Khazarian state. In the 2 nd half of the 8th century, the ruling class and the majority of the Khazars embraced Judaism, driven by political motives. In the Ist century A.H., relations between the Muslims and the Khazars were marked by endless and inconclusive wars on both sides of the Caucasus Mountains. Following the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism and the establishment of relatively cordial relations With the Abbasi khalifahs in Baghdad, though the intensity of these conflicts subsides, they sporadically continued until the conquest of the Khazars by the Russians in the 4 Th century A. H. Muslim travelers and geographers have given accounts of large populations ofMuslimsliving in the country of the Khazars. The endeavor of this paper has been to portray a Abstracts 4 clear picture of the history of the khazars with an emphasis on their relations with the Muslims, based on ancient Islamic texts, and the reconstruction of the existing scattered information on the final fate of the Khazars.
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