42 CHAPTER 1
(Togarmah is mentioned twice there), which allows for the conclusion that
the “house of Togarmah” incorporated the equestrian peoples.103 The Book of
Joseph ( Josippon), compiled by a Jewish author in Italy during the tenth cen-
tury, also contains the names of Togarmah’s descendants. The list there begins
with Khazar (Kozar), followed by Pacinak (the Pechenegs), Alan, Bulgar,
Kanbinah, Turq, Buz, Zakhukh, Ugr, Tolmaz. It is emphasized that these people
live in the north, with only Bulgar, Pacinak and Ugr living by the Danube and
the rest inhabiting an area along the Volga.104
P. Golden believes that the genealogy, used by the Khazar ruler Joseph, is
a testament to a new ideology in Khazaria, a consequence of the adoption of
Judaism. According to him, “in the Middle Ages [Togarmah] was viewed by
Jews as the progenitor of the Turkic peoples”. The loans from the Christian and
Muslim tradition should also lead to a similar interpretation.105
If the Jewish tradition is to be judged on the basis of The Book of Joseph, it
does not refer to Turkic peoples, but rather to people that inhabited the terri-
tory between the Danube and the Volga; named among them are also ethnic
groups of Iranian and Ugrian origin.
Additional details are provided by the Cambridge Document (the Schechter
Letter), which was probably written by a Khazar Jew who believed that the
Khazars (or the Khazar Jews?) descended from the line of Simeon. The anon-
ymous author stresses that he does not know whether this assertion is true.
According to Eldad HaDani, whose account is part of the same tradition, the
Khazars are Jews—a fragment of Simeon’s line and the semi-line of Manasseh.106
According to another genealogical line, related to Arabo-Persian beliefs,
the Khazars are descendants of Abraham and more precisely of his son Isaac.
And according to Al-Kalbi (who died in 819) the children of Isaac are Khazar,
B-z-ra, Barsul, Khwarezm and Fil (the name of one of the ancient cities of
Khwarezm). Another legend mentions the encounter between the Khazars
and the sons of Keturah (the wife of Abraham), which occurred somewhere
in Khorasan. According to the same tradition, the descendants of Keturah are
103 Stamatov 1997, 107–113.
104 Petrukhin 1995a, 25–38 and 1998, 272–274. Dobrev 1998b, 30–35 specifically studies this
source but for some reason asserts that the Khazars are not mentioned there, having pre-
viously quoted the text where they are at the very beginning of the list. His following
conclusions are based on the impression that the list begins with the Pechenegs, which
makes them difficult to accept.
105 Golden 2003, no. 3, 150.
106 Artamonov 1962, 265–266; see also the text of the Cambridge Document in Golb and
Pritzak 1997, 138–142.