Irbis (fl. 650 or 652) was according to a number of Russian sources the founder of the Khazar Khaganate.[1] The Khazars traced their origin to the Turkic Ashina clan who also founded the Onok Khaganate and Turkic Khaganate in Central Asia.[2]

Irbis
HouseAshina
ReligionTengrism
The Pontic steppe in ca. 650, showing the early territory of the Khazars and their neighbors.

Peter Golden notes that Chinese and Arabic reports are almost identical, making the connection a strong one, and conjectures that the Khazar leader may have been Irbis Seguy, who lost power or was killed around 651.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Kevin Alan Brook (1999). The Jews of Khazaria. Jason Aronson. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-7657-6032-6.
  2. ^ Timothy Reuter; Rosamond McKitterick (1995). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, C.900-c.1024. Cambridge University Press. p. 500. ISBN 978-0-521-36447-8.
  3. ^ Golden, Peter Benjamin (2006). "The Khazar Sacral Kingship". In Reyerson, Kathryn Von; Stavrou, Theofanis George; Tracy, James Donald (eds.). Pre-modern Russia and its world: Essays in Honour of Thomas S. Noonan. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 89. ISBN 978-3-447-05425-6.