The Appearance of the Khazars in the Caucasus

The early history of the Khazars is still to be thoroughly investigated. When they came to the Caucasus is lesser known than their origins. The original land of the Khazar tribe, a member of the T’ieh-le union, was likely in the South Siberian belt. They, together with the comrade tribes Suvars and Barsils, if not still others, were attacked by the Uyghurs, another T’ieh-le member, possibly in cooperation with the Avar and Türk alliance in the mid-5th century. The trio migrated to the north of the Caucasus, after expelling the Ogurs. So, the Khazars came to the west in company with the Suvars, who represented and led the interim union towards the outer world. The Suvars were closer to Persia on the Darband Gate, and the Khazars were to their north. The formers were more active in the early generations, but this meant also the speedier melting of their human source. So the Khazars became relatively more crowded. In contrast to the Romans referring only to the name ‘Suvar’ (Sabir), the Persians were able to separate between the Suvars and Khazars. Their sources have not survived to us, but were abundantly used by early medieval Muslim authors, that need to be checked for anachronism. This helped contruct this paper in a certain logic, according to which the appearance of the Khazars in the Caucasus can be taken to the beginning of the 6th century, if not a little earlier.