There is no 13th tribe: Ashkenazi Jews are NOT Khazars
An evidence-first takedown of the “13th Tribe” myth: what the 10th-century sources actually say, how it was transformed into a popular origin story, the scholarship that discredits it and what genetics says about a Turkic origin for Ashkenazim. N.B. Error: The image of the coin in the video is not the Khazar "Moses coin." I used an Islamic Abbasid Caliphate in error. The they look the same except for the inscription "Mohammed is the messenger of God" is changed to "Moses is the messenger of God". Note on Elhaik: I did not address the paper by Elhaik, which is often cited in discussions of the Khazar hypothesis and shpuld have been addressed. While Elhaik raises questions, he does not resolve them. A decisive test would require ancient DNA from securely identified Khazar-era burials. In the absence of such data, some studies (including Elhaik’s) model “Khazars” indirectly using present-day Caucasus populations as surrogates, and then interpret Ashkenazi Caucasus-related ancestry as evidence of Khazar contribution. However, geographic affinity to modern proxy populations cannot, by itself, demonstrate a large-scale Khazar origin. To date, no genome-wide study has identified a discrete, dateable Khazar-derived founder layer in Ashkenazi Jews. Sources: Khazar Correspondence https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Khazar... From The meadows of gold by al Masʻūdī, -956? https://www.google.com/books/edition/... Al-Istakhri, Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik, c. 933–934. https://artsandculture.google.com/ass... Ibn Ḥawqal, Ṣūrat al-Arḍ, c. 977–978. https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/24... Ibn Faḍlān, Risāla, 921–922. https://www.academia.edu/34749799/Ahm... Judah Halevi, The Kuzari (apologetic dialogue), 12th c. https://www.amazon.com/Kuzari-Defense... D. M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars, 1954. https://archive.org/details/dunlop-d.... Peter B. Golden’s main works that directly address the Khazars and Judaism : “The Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism.” In The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives (Brill, 2007). A focused, up-to-date synthesis on what the sources do—and don’t—show about the royal/elite conversion. https://www.researchgate.net/publicat... Khazar Studies: An Historico-Philological Inquiry into the Origins of the Khazars (2 vols., Akadémiai Kiadó, 1980). Golden’s classic monograph; broader than religion, but it treats the conversion within the political and cultural history. https://www.google.com/books/edition/... “The Khazars as ‘Sons of Abraham’.” Article-length treatment on the conversion and its reception/politicization. https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/server... “Khazaria” (YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe). A reliable overview entry that includes the Judaism question with references. https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article... An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992). A survey text; includes sections on the Khazars and their religious history in the wider steppe context. https://archive.org/details/golden_20... The Hidden Centre: Ibn Fadlan and the Khazars by Nick Evans https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/ep... Khazaria in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries by Boris Zhivkov https://brill.com/display/title/31706... Khazaria. The History of the Jewish Kingdom in Europe by Abraham Polak https://one.bid/en/ksiazki-i-starodru... The Thirteenth Tribe by Arthur Koestler https://www.amazon.com/Thirteenth-Tri...
