Khazar The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

ruler during the early 10th century CE, Aaron ben Benjamin was the son of the Khazar king

Benjamin Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thi ...

. Whether Aaron, like the rest of the

Bulanids The Bulanids were the ruling dynasty of the Khazar Khaganate during the 9th century and 10th century CE. The dynasty is named after Bulan, who may or may not have been its founder. In other sources (see Schechter Letter), the founder of the dy ...

, was a Khagan or a Bek is an unresolved issue. According to the anonymous author of the

Schechter Letter The "Schechter Letter" (also called the "Cambridge Document") was discovered in the Cairo Geniza by Solomon Schechter. The Letter The Schechter Letter has been interpreted as a communique from an unnamed Khazar author to an unidentified Jewish d ...

, during Aaron's reign a war was launched against Khazaria by a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

-inspired coalition led by the

Alans The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the A ...

, who had been allies of Aaron's father

. Aaron defeated his enemies with the help of Oghuz mercenaries and captured the king of the Alans. Rather than execute his captive, he demanded an oath of fealty and spared his life. The Alan king's daughter married Aaron's son

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the m ...

. In ''Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century'',

Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak ( uk, Омелян Йосипович Пріцак; 7 April 1919, Luka, Sambir County, West Ukrainian People's Republic – 29 May 2006, Boston) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Har ...

dated this war to the early reign of

Romanos I Romanos I Lekapenos ( el, Ρωμανός Λεκαπηνός; 870 – 15 June 948), Latinized as Romanus I Lecapenus, was Byzantine emperor from 920 until his deposition in 944, serving as regent for the infant Constantine VII. Origin Romanos ...

(i.e., the early 920s CE).

External links and Sources

* Brook, Kevin Alan. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006. *

Dunlop, Douglas M Douglas Morton Dunlop (1909–1987) was a renowned British orientalist and scholar of Islamic and Eurasian history. Early life and education Born in England, Dunlop studied at Bonn and Oxford under the historian Paul Ernst Kahle (1875–1965). H ...

. ''The History of the Jewish Khazars,'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954. * Golb, Norman and

. ''Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century.'' Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aaron 02 Turkic rulers Khazar rulers Jewish monarchs 10th-century rulers in Europe 10th-century Jews Jewish royalty