Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T20:17:02.748Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Appendix 3 - The Khazar-Ashkenazi Descent Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2023

Alex M. Feldman
Affiliation:
CIS University, Madrid
Get access

Summary

Plato introduces his Myth of Blood and Soil with the blunt admission that it is a fraud. ‘Well then’, says the Socrates of the Republic, ‘could we perhaps fabricate one of those very handy lies which indeed we mentioned just recently? With the help of one single lordly lie we may, if we are lucky, persuade even the rulers themselves – but at any rate the rest of the city.’

A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a common hatred of its neighbours.

L’oubli, et je dirai même l’erreur historique, sont un facteur essentiel de la formation d’une nation.

There are many strands, subcategories and highly debated taxonomies within Judaism – governed by theology, doxology, jurisprudence, language and descent. The differences between the two main branches of Judaic communities, Sephardim (and Mizrahim) and Ashkenazim, are well known: they emerged from Judaic communities in the Islamic ummah and Christian oikoumene, respectively – with attendant geographical subcategories. Judaic communities also survived for centuries further south, east and beyond the Abrahamic worlds, such as Beta Israel and the Teimanim (Eastern Africa and Southern Arabia), Kaifeng Jews (western China) and Kochinim (southern India). All these communities date back centuries and their origins remain the subject of many discussions. However, one of the most contentious debates is about the origin of the Ashkenazim – or as typically described, the Jewish populations of Central and Eastern Europe.

There are two schematic theories about the origin of the Ashkenazim: that they settled in Central and Eastern Europe via a western route through Western Europe and/or via an eastern route through Caucasia and Khazaria. The former, termed the ‘Rhineland hypothesis’, is the most commonly accepted theory for Ashkenazi origins: according to this theory, following the diaspora in the wake of the Roman suppression of the second-century Bar Kokhba Revolt, Jewish communities emerged in second- to fifth-century Western Roman imperial provinces like Hispania, Gaul, Britannia and Italy, which remained until various thirteenth- to fourteenth-century anti-Jewish expulsions and Crusader violence, leading to eastward migrations towards Piast-ruled lands due to simultaneous legal protections granted by Piast kings.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia
From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century
, pp. 193 - 205
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×