Jewish city feared by Stalin is rediscovered

The Telegraph ^ | 9/24/2008 | Ben Leach

[bruinbirdman]

The ruins of a lost Jewish city that vanished 700 years ago have been found, it has been claimed.

The city, Itil, was the capital of the Khazars, a powerful nation that adopted Judaism as its official religion more than 1,000 years ago, only to disappear, leaving little trace of its culture.

Archeologists hope the discovery of Itil will reveal how the Khazars actually lived

It was mentioned in medieval travellers' accounts but Soviet dictator Josef Stalin banned any research into the city and the Khazars, fearing it would prove Russia was descended from a Jewish state.

The city made a fortune from trade but its prosperity declined and in the 14th century it was flooded by the Caspian Sea.

Now a nine-year dig has unearthed the city including the foundations of a fortress, according to archeologists at Russia's Astrakhan State University.

One of the archeologists, Dmitry Vasilyev, said: "This is a hugely important discovery. We can now shed light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of that period - how the Khazars actually lived.

"We know very little about the Khazars - about their traditions, their funerary rites, their culture."

At their height, the Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people, controlled much of what is now southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan and large parts of Russia's North Caucasus region.

The capital is referred to as Itil in Arab chronicles but Vasilyev said the word may actually have been used to refer to the Volga River on which the city was founded or to the surrounding river delta region.

Itil was said to be a multi-ethnic place with houses of worship and judges for Christians, Jews, Muslims and pagans. Its remains have until now never been identified.

Yevgeny Satanovsky, director of the Middle

[rabscuttle385]

GGG ping

[fieldmarshaldj]

"It was mentioned in medieval travellers' accounts but Soviet dictator Josef Stalin banned any research into the city and the Khazars, fearing it would prove Russia was descended from a Jewish state."

The ultimate horror of left-wingers (be they Nazis, Communists, or Democrats), to find out they're descended from Jews.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rabscuttle385.

Right now it sez, “no such thread”, but it is the first of four, and soon it will be back:

Russian archaeologists find long-lost Jewish capital
09/03/2008 9:26:26 AM PDT | Posted by Alouette | 43 replies | 1,118+ views
AFP | Sept. 3, 2008
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2073813/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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[cricket]

Really, quite amazing; by history; by historical import and implications.

[Regulator]

Well, maybe Stalin and his Georgian forebearers might have some Khazar roots, but the Rus were a Scandinavian tribe (um, Swedish) and you can verify that for yourself by taking a short walk around Moscow right about quitting time in all the offices. More blond blue eyed females (and males) you will not see almost anywhere else, including the Swedish cities which include Arabs that you don't see in Russia.

But it is routinely accepted in the Black Sea area that many have Khazar ancestors, at least from what I've been told.

Stalin was as unhinged about genetics as he was about politics, obviously.

[redgolum]

Cool!

I stumbled on the Khazar’s while reading about the Byzantine Empire. Sadly, the Khazar kingdom is used by Arabs (and I found out recently, some Jews!) to say that the current state of Israel is illegitimate since it is made up of the “wrong” line of Jews (in other words, the Jews in Israel are descended from Turks).

So this is political dynamite in the West.

Didn't know about Stalin, but one of the few places I could find unbiased non anti Semitic studies of the Khazars is from several former Soviet Bloc nations. Maybe they were trying to get Old Joe's goat.

[caveat emptor]

The Thirteenth Tribe, a book by Arthur Koestler.

This book traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark Ages became converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Khan, but evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western Jewry. . .

The Khazars' sway extended from the Black Sea to the Caspian, from the Caucasus to the Volga, and they were instrumental in stopping the Muslim onslaught against Byzantium, the eastern jaw of the gigantic pincer movement that in the West swept across northern Africa and into Spain.

It's been a while since I read this book, but IIRC Koestler argues that the Khazars converted to Judaism in order to maintain their independence - they were pressured to choose between Christianity to the north and Islam to the south.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, but that book is, uh, not correct.

[caveat emptor]

Yeah, but that book is, uh, not correct.

You could be partly right - at least Wiki agrees with you. And maybe poor old Yevgeny been reading the wrong stuff. Me, I'll be interested to see what those dumb Ruskies have to say when more information becomes available.

Yevgeny Satanovsky, director of the Middle Eastern Institute in Moscow, said he believes the Khazar elite chose Judaism out of political expediency – to remain independent of neighboring Muslim and Christian states. "They embraced Judaism because they wanted to remain neutral, like Switzerland these days," he said.