Pesach or Pesakh ( he, ''PSḤ'') was a

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 ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

general mentioned in 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 ...

. Pesach was military commander of the region around the

Strait of Kerch The Kerch Strait, uk, Керченська протока, crh, Keriç boğazı, ady, Хы ТӀуалэ is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west f ...

who defeated the armies of the Rus' prince ''HLGW'' ( he, ), most likely

Oleg of Novgorod Oleg ( orv, Ѡлегъ, Ольгъ; non, Helgi; died 912), also known as Oleg the Wise (russian: Олег Вещий, lit=Oleg the Prophet; uk, Олег Віщий), was a Varangian prince of the Rus' who was ruler of Novgorod. He later con ...

, around the year 941 in the Taman region. Golb and Pritsak argue that the term ''PSḤ'' should be read as "the Beg" or "Ebe-shad". The letter associates Pesach with the term ''BWLŠṢY'' ( he, ) with the phrase , or, "''BWLŠṢY'' who is Pesach ''haMYQR''". This has given rise to two interpretations: that ''BWLŠṢY'' represents the Khazar military title ''

baliqchi ''Baliqchi'' (most probably Old Turkic ''balıkçı'') was a supposed military title used by the Khazar Khaganate. The main piece of support for the term's existence is the historiography of Theophanes the Confessor, which mention a governor of Ph ...

'', which is only attested to by the Greek accounts of

Theophanes the Confessor Theophanes the Confessor ( el, Θεοφάνης Ὁμολογητής; c. 758/760 – 12 March 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy who became a monk and chronicler. He served in the court of Emperor Leo IV the Khazar before taking ...

- thus affording the reading "Pesach, he (who is the) ''baliqchi''" - or, that ''BWLŠṢY'' represents a personal name, perhaps the Turkic ''Boluščï'', indicating that "Pesach" was merely the general's nickname, or at the very least was not his name at birth - thus affording the reading "''Boluščï'', he (who is called) Pesach". Assuming ''BWLŠṢY'' does represent the title of ''baliqchi'', it might indicate that Pesach commanded ships or a port, instead of soldiers on the ground, as ''baliqchi'' is thought to roughly translate to "Fisherman" (or, in alternate translation "Fish-Lord") in the Khazar language; leading scholars to hypothesize that the office was actually a ''naval'' rank within the Khazar military. The term ''haMYQR'' is similarly obscure. Schechter proposed reading "the Reverer" or emending to המיחד ''haMYḤD'' "the Uniter". David Kahane proposed the alternate reading השומר ''haŠMR'' "the guardian". Golb and Pritsak agree with המיקר but read המיוקר ''haMeyuqqar'' "the Honored".

References

Sources

Kevin Alan Brook Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant '' Kevan'' is anglicized from , a ...

. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006. *Dunlop, Douglas M. ''The History of the Jewish Khazars,'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954. *Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. ''Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century.'' Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982. *Zuckerman, Constantine. "On the Date of the Khazar’s Conversion to Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Rus

Oleg Oleg (russian: Олег), Oleh ( uk, Олег), or Aleh ( be, Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "bless ...

and Igor." ''Revue des Etudes Byzantines'' 53 (1995): 237–270. {{Khazaria Khazar generals 10th-century Jews