I was reading my Russian History book, and I noted that in the 8th century after Christ, the Arabs were having wars with the Khazars, the slavic-turkic-mongolic people who lived in what is now Ukraine and converted to Judaism for political reasons. The wars were known as the Arab-Khazar Wars. They took place around the cossacks region, which today is better known between Volgograd and Rostov, down to Circassia, and also the Northern Caucasus. The Khazars at one point went on the offensive after taking advantages of their wins against the Arabs, but the Arabs pushed out of Transcaucasia over the Caucasus mountains, and actually went up through Circassia into the mainland of Khazaria. Now, my George Vernadsky book,
A History of Russia, states that the Arabs captured 20,000 citizens of the region and sent them to Syria. However, Vernadsky leaves it at that. Eventually, the Arabs won the war, and within the next 2 centuries the Khazar Kagandom collapsed as the Rhos tribes to the north (with the help of Swedish norsemen) grew in power, and the state of Kiev replaced the Jewish empire. Some Jews of Khazar origin still exist today. But the question still remains, what happened to the Khazar Jews sent to Syria? Were they recruited? Forced to intermingle with the Muslim population? Sent to Jerusalem?
It doesn't seem likely that they would mingle then with the Muslims, because there really wern't that many Muslims at this time. The only real converts the Arabs had were the Arabs, some Egyptians, and a bit of success with the Berbers. However, most of the population in Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Syria were Christian or Jewish.
Now, this post is completely random, but I'll give you guys updates on my little research project
