Khazar

Member of a people of Turkish origin from the lower Volga basin of Central Asia, who formed a commercial link and a buffer state in the 7th–12th centuries between the Arabs and the Byzantine Empire, and later between the Byzantine Empire and the Baltic. Their ruler adopted Judaism as the state religion in the 8th century. In the 11th century, Slavonic and nomadic Turks invaded, and by the 13th century the Khazar empire had been absorbed by its neighbours. It has been suggested that the Khazars were the ancestors of some of the Jews living in Eastern European countries and now throughout the world.