This chapter will explore the monotheisation of Khazaria, from the first seventh-century mentions of Khazaria in the textual sources, through the adoption of Judaism allegedly occurring in the eighth to ninth centuries, up to the tenth-century Khazarian texts. There are many disagreements within the field of Khazar studies: when, where, why and how did the khağan convert to Judaism - and did it even happen in the first place? Perhaps more controversially, is there incontrovertible evidence linking modern Ashkenazi Jews to ninth- to tenth-century Khazarian Jews? Furthermore, can the process of monotheisation be linked to the process of sedentarisation? And finally, can the process of Khazarian monotheisation shed light on other monotheisation processes in Pontic-Caspian Eurasia?

I use the term ‘monotheisation’ because the khağans’ conversion to Judaism was neither inevitable, nor a consensus: rather, Islam or Christianity could have won out, and the map of the world could now look very different. In other words, had the khağans adopted Islam or Christianity, the term ‘monotheisation’ would still apply. I use the term ‘sedentarisation’ to refer to the adoption of a settled, agrarian and urbanised regime. These two processes may have at times been correlated, but were not necessarily mutually causal (cum hoc ergo propter hoc).

This study begins with Khazaria because although it disappeared politically, its lessons are essential to avoiding teleological interpretations of the subsequent history of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia.

Khazaria functions as an initial ‘Petri dish’ for examining the processes surrounding monotheisation in eighth- to thirteenth-century Pontic-Caspian Eurasia. Contextualised between the Islamic Caliphate and Christian Rome (Byzantium), this chapter will address the three most heated debates about Khazaria: (1) the dating of conversion, (2) the extent of conversion and (3) the location of Itīl’, the ‘Jewish’ Khazar capital. As for the original reason for adopting Judaism, most historians agree that the reason was to avoid being politically subjugated to Islam or Christianity, and I see no reason to disagree.