Aaron II

A Khazar ruler during the early 10th century CE, Aaron ben Benjamin was the son of the Khazar king Benjamin. Whether Aaron, like the rest of the Bulanids, was a Khagan or a Bek is an unresolved issue.

According to the anonymous author of the Schechter Letter, during Aaron's reign a war was launched against Khazaria by a Byzantine-inspired coalition led by the Alans, who had been allies of Aaron's father Benjamin. ^[1] Aaron defeated his enemies with the help of Oghuz mercenaries and captured the king of the Alans. ^[1] Rather than execute his captive, he demanded an oath of fealty and spared his life. The Alan king's daughter married Aaron's son Joseph. ^[1] In Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century, Omeljan Pritsak dated this war to the early reign of Romanos I (i.e., the early 920s CE). ^[2]

Notes

1. Golb, Norman; Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Cornell University Press. pp. 104, 115. ISBN   9780801412219.
2. Golb, Norman; Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Cornell University Press. p. 136. ISBN   9780801412219.

Sources

• Brook, Kevin Alan. The Jews of Khazaria. 3rd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.
• Dunlop, Douglas M. The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
• Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982.