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established 1942 |
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KHAZAR OPENWORK SILVER GILT SQUARE ATTACHMENT Centering a female face with a double flip hair style. Each side formed from two navettes, a circle between and circles at each corner; four small attachment rings on the back. Ca. 9th Century AD H. & W. 7/8 in. (2.2 cm.) Art of the Ancient World, 2009, no. 166 GLR05 $5,000 Sales |
| The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who dominated the Pontic steppe and the North Caucasus from the 7th-10th century. The name 'Khazar' seems to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering". During the 7th century, the Khazars founded an independent Khaganate in the Northern Caucasus along the Caspian Sea. Although the Khazars were initially Tengri shamanists, many of them converted to Christianity, Islam, and other religions. During the eighth or ninth century the state religion became Judaism. At their height, the Khazar khaganate controlled much of what is today southern Russia, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the Caucasus (including Circassia, Dagestan, Chechnya, and parts of Georgia), and the Crimea. Between 965 and 969, their sovereignty was broken by Sviatoslav I of Kiev, and they became a subject people of Kievan Rus'. Gradually displaced by the Rus, the Kipchaks, and later the conquering Mongol Golden Horde, the Khazars largely disappeared as a culturally-distinct people. | |
