The Khazar Khaganate (650–969)

The Khazars broke away from the western wing of the Göktürk Khaganate and founded their own state in the mid-7th century. Their lands stretched from the North Caucasus to the Volga basin and from Crimea to the Aral steppe. The capital was Atil, at the mouth of the Volga.

The Khazars halted the northward advance of Arab armies in the Caucasus passes and allied themselves with Byzantium. The khaganate sat on trade routes linking East and West, Scandinavia and Baghdad; in Atil Muslim, Christian, Jewish and pagan communities lived side by side, each with its own judge. The ruling elite adopted Judaism in the 8th–9th centuries.

In 965–969 the campaigns of Prince Sviatoslav of Kyiv destroyed Atil, and the khaganate left the stage of history. Yet the Khazars' name survives: in Azerbaijani and Turkish the Caspian is still called the "Khazar Sea".