A thousand years before the establishment of the Modern State of Israel, there existed a Jewish kingdom in the eastern fringes of Europe, astride the Don and Volga rivers, presided over by two Jewish monarchs and inhabited by a mixed population that included many Jews. Their kings had names like Yosef and Aharon and one of their generals was named Pesach after the Jewish holiday that was celebrated around his birth. This kingdom, called Khazaria, was one of the most interesting and influential countries of the medieval world, wielding great power over economic and diplomatic affairs. Its influence was so great that a 10th-century emperor of the Byzantines, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, sent correspondence to the Khazars marked with a gold seal worth 3 solidi - more than the 2 solidi that always accompanied letters to the Pope of Rome, the Prince of the Rus, and the Prince of the Hungarians. Its power was so great that it had the ability to finance a permanent paid army. Khazaria was "the most significant attempt at the establishment of an independent Jewish state in the Diaspora", according to former Israeli President Itzhak Ben-Zvi in his book The Exiled and the Redeemed.Please read the rest of the article here.
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