The Thirteenth Tribe

''The Thirteenth Tribe'' is a 1976 book by Arthur Koestler advocating the Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, the thesis that Ashkenazi Jews are not descended from the historical Judeans and Israelites of antiquity, but from Khazars, a Turkic people who allegedly mass-converted to Judaism. Koestler hypothesized that the Khazars after their conversion in the 8th century migrated westwards into Eastern Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries when the Khazar Empire was collapsing.

Koestler used previous works by Douglas Morton Dunlop, Raphael Patai and Abraham Polak as sources. His stated intent was to make antisemitism disappear by disproving its racial basis.

Popular reviews of the book were mixed, academic critiques of its research were generally negative, and Koestler biographers David Cesarani and Michael Scammell panned it. In 2018, the ''New York Times'' described the book as "widely discredited."

Summary

Contents

Koestler advances the thesis that Ashkenazi Jews are not descended from the historical Israelites of antiquity, but from Khazars, a Turkic people originating in and populating an empire north of and between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Koestler's hypothesis is that the Khazars – who converted to Judaism in the 8th century – migrated westwards into current Eastern Europe (primarily Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Hungary and Germany) in the 12th and 13th centuries when the Khazar Empire was collapsing.

At the end of the book's last chapter, Koestler summarizes its content and his intentions as follows: "In Part One of this book I have attempted to trace the history of the Khazar Empire based on the scant existing sources. In Part Two, Chapters V-VII, I have compiled the historical evidence which indicates that the bulk of Eastern Jewry — and hence of world Jewry — is of Khazar-Turkish, rather than Semitic, origin. In the last chapter I have tried to show that the evidence from anthropology concurs with history in refuting the popular belief in a Jewish race descended from the biblical tribe."

Sources

Mattias Gardell writes that Koestler's thesis is "partly based on amateur anthropology", and its scientific arguments come from ''The Myth of a Jewish Race'' (1975) by Raphael Patai and his daughter Jennifer. Biale, David. ''Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians'', University of California Press, 2008,
p. 259.
/ref> It also relies on the work of earlier historians, particularly Russian-Israeli historian Abraham Poliak's Hebrew book ''Khazaria: Toledot mamlakhah yehudit'' (1951),Hundert, Gershon David. ''Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity'', University of California Press, 2006, , p. 6 footnote 6. and the ''History of the Jewish Khazars'' (1954) by Douglas Morton Dunlop, the author whom Koestler himself describes as a main source.McInnes, Neil
"Koestler and His Jewish Thesis"
''The National Interest'', Fall 1999. Neil McInnes writes that Dunlop was, however, "much more tentative" in his conclusions, as were other historians of Khazars, including Peter Golden and Moses Shulvass. Golden himself described the book as "controversial", stating it contained "sweeping claims of Khazar legacy and influence". Golden, Peter B., "Khazar Studies: Achievements and Perspectives", in Golden, Peter B.; Ben-Shammai, Haggai; Róna-Tas, András. ''The World of Khazars: New Perspectives'', Brill Publishers, 2007, , p. 9.

Motive

Koestler biographer Michael Scammell writes that Koestler told French biologist Pierre Debray-Ritzen he "was convinced that if he could prove that the bulk of Eastern European Jews (the ancestors of today's Ashkenazim) were descended from the Khazars, the racial basis for anti-Semitism would be removed and anti-Semitism itself could disappear". Scammell, Michael. ''Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic'', Random House, 2009,
p. 546.
/ref> According to George Urban, Koestler's desire to connect Ashkenazi Jews with Khazars was "based on a tacit belief that the intellectual brilliance of and international influence of Hungarians and Jews, especially Hungarian Jews or Jewish-Hungarians, was due to some unexplained but clearly ancient affinity between the two peoples". Urban, George. ''Radio Free Europe and the Pursuit of Democracy'', Yale University Press, 1997, , p. 200.

Reception

In ''The Invention of the Jewish People'', Shlomo Sand, historian of cinema, French intellectual history, and nationalism at Tel Aviv University, writes "while the Khazars scared off the Israeli historians, not one of whom has published a single paper on the subject, Koestler's ''Thirteenth Tribe'' annoyed and provoked angry responses. Hebrew readers had no access to the book itself for many years, learning about it only through the venomous denunciations". Writing in ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''Chronicle of Higher Education'' editor Evan Goldstein states "Sand suggests that those who attacked Koestler's book did so not because it lacked merit, but because the critics were cowards and ideologues. 'No one wants to go looking under stones when venomous scorpions might be lurking beneath them, waiting to attack the self-image of the existing ethnos and its territorial ambitions.'"Goldstein, Evan R
"Where Do Jews Come From?"
''The Wall Street Journal'', 29 October 2009.

In the Arab world the theory espoused in Koestler's book was adopted by persons who argued that if Ashkenazi Jews are primarily Khazar and not Semitic in origin, they would have no historical claim to Israel, nor would they be the subject of the Biblical promise of Canaan to the Israelites, thus undermining the theological basis of both Jewish religious Zionists and Christian Zionists. The Saudi Arabian delegate to the United Nations argued that Koestler's theory "negated Israel's right to exist". Scammell, Michael. ''Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic'', Random House, 2009,
p. 547.
/ref> Koestler did not see alleged Khazar ancestry as diminishing the claim of Jews to Israel, which he felt was based on the United Nations mandate and not on Biblical covenants or genetic inheritance. Barkun, Michael. ''Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement'', University of North Carolina Press, 1994,
pp. 144–145.
/ref> In his view, " e problem of the Khazar infusion a thousand years ago... is irrelevant to modern Israel."

Koestler's book was praised by the neo-Nazi magazine ''The Thunderbolt'' as "the political bombshell of the century", and it was enthusiastically supported by followers of the Christian Identity movement. Gardell, Mattias. ''Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism'', Duke University Press, 2003,
p. 124.
/ref> According to Jeffrey Kaplan, ''The Thirteenth Tribe'' was "Identity's primary source for the Khazar theory"; they felt Koestler's book confirmed their own beliefs regarding Jews,Kaplan, Jeffrey. ''Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah'', Syracuse University Press, 1997, , pp. 48, 191. and sold it "through their mail order services". Goldstein writes that "Koestler and the Khazar theory he advanced lives on in the fever swamps of the white nationalist movement".Goldstein, Evan
"Inventing Israel"
''Tablet Magazine'', 13 October 2009. Michael Barkun writes that Koestler was apparently "either unaware of or oblivious to the use anti-Semites had made of the Khazar theory since its introduction at the turn of the century."

Assessment

After it was first published, Fitzroy Maclean in ''The New York Times Book Review'' called ''The Thirteenth Tribe'' excellent, writing "Mr. Koestler's book is as readable as it is thought-provoking. Nothing could be more stimulating than the skill, elegance and erudition with which he marshals his facts and develops his theories."Maclean, Fitzroy
"Shalom Yisrah"
''The New York Times Book Review'', 29 August 1976, p. 219. Reviewing the work in the ''Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

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