Khazars
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The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who established a major commercial empire in the late 6th century CE spanning the south of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, and western Kazakhsta
Khazar Khaganate, 650–850
Court of Seljuk ruler Tughril III, circa 1200 CE.
Site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel (aerial photo from excavations conducted by Mikhail Artamonov in the 1950s).
Sviatoslav I of Kiev (in boat), destroyer of the Khazar Khaganate.
Tengrism
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Tengrism is a belief system originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism, and commonly centered on the titular sky god Tengri. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism
Khazars
…since there is no surviving record in the Khazar language and the state was multilingual and polyethnic. Their native religion is thought to have been Tengrism, like that of the North Caucasian Huns and other Turkic peoples, although their multiethnic population seems to have included pagans, Jews, Christians…
Peak of Khan Tengri at sunset
Estimated extent of Tengriist populations across Eurasia (c. 600 CE)
The earliest known depiction of a Siberian shaman, drawn by the Dutch explorer Nicolaes Witsen, who wrote an account of his travels among Samoyedic- and Tungusic-speaking peoples in 1692. Witsen labeled the illustration as a "Priest of the Devil", giving this figure clawed feet to express what he thought were demonic qualities.
Russian postcard based on a photo taken in 1908 by S. I. Borisov, showing a female shaman, of probable Khakas ethnicity.