portio, you might be able to get acopy of 'the thirteenth tribe' from the book sites on the net. The Khazars were a quite mixed crowd, traders, and a very wealthy state its time. Koestler has done massive job of research from all available historical sources. They employed mercenary armies of all religions to defend them, occupying huge fortresses in the transit valleys in the Caucasus. The bibliography of sources is long and exhaustive. From Arab records, Russian as well. It goes on. They were no pure race perhaps. Therewas for a long time no state religion. All were tolerated. Know what? The Grand Kagan, the king, decided to adopt Judaism as the national religion because the Muslims were always attacking them from the south, the Christians from the north but he deduced that if the were Jewish they would not be liked but would be tolerated by both. Fair dinkum! Pretty smart really, they just wanted to get on with business.... Also no one liked the Zoroastrians so that was out.
