Irbis (Khazar)

Irbis
House	Ashina
Religion	Tengrism

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

Irbis (fl. 650 or 652) ^[1] was according to a number of Russian sources the founder of the Khazar Khaganate. ^[2] The Khazars traced their origin to the Turkic Ashina clan who also founded the Onok Khaganate and Turkic Khaganate in Central Asia. ^[3]

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. ^[4]

References

1. Kaegi, Walter Emil (2003). Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium (2 utg.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-81459-1.
2. Kevin Alan Brook (1999). The Jews of Khazaria. Jason Aronson. p. 69. ISBN   978-0-7657-6032-6.
3. 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.
4. 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.