The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and its Heritage Paperback – 3 August 1976
by Arthur Koestler (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars (832)
All original edition. Nothing added, nothing removed. This book traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark Ages became converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Khan, but evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western Jewry. To the general reader the Khazars, who flourished from the 7th to 11th century, may seem infinitely remote today. Yet they have a close and unexpected bearing on our world, which emerges as Koestler recounts the fascinating history of the ancient Khazar Empire. At about the time that Charlemagne was Emperor in the West. The Khazars' sway extended from the Black Sea to the Caspian, from the Caucasus to the Volga, and they were instrumental in stopping the Muslim onslaught against Byzantium, the eastern jaw of the gigantic pincer movement that in the West swept across northern Africa and into Spain.
Thereafter the Khazars found themselves in a precarious position between the two major world powers: the Eastern Roman Empire in Byzantium and the triumphant followers of Mohammed. As Koestler points out, the Khazars were the Third World of their day. They chose a surprising method of resisting both the Western pressure to become Christian and the Eastern to adopt Islam. Rejecting both, they converted to Judaism.
Mr. Koestler speculates about the ultimate faith of the Khazars and their impact on the racial composition and social heritage of modern Jewry. He produces detailed research to support a theory which could make the term 'anti-Semitism' become void of meaning.
Publisher : One 70 Press
Publication date : 3 August 1976
Language : English
Print length : 210 pages
ISBN-10 : 1939438993
ISBN-13 : 978-1939438997
Item weight : 313 g
Dimensions : 15.24 x 1.22 x 22.86 cm
Best Sellers Rank: 45,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)114 in History of Russia
263 in History of the Middle East
501 in Calendars & Personal Organisers
Customer Reviews:
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars (832)
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Arthur Koestler
Born in Budapest in 1905, educated in Vienna, Arthur Koestler immersed himself in the major ideological and social conflicts of his time. A communist during the 1930s, and visitor for a time in the Soviet Union, he became disillusioned with the Party and left it in 1938. Later that year in Spain, he was captured by the Fascist forces under Franco, and sentenced to death. Released through the last-minute intervention of the British government, he went to France where, the following year, he again was arrested for his political views. Released in 1940, he went to England, where he made his home. His novels, reportage, autobiographical works, and political and cultural writings established him as an important commentator on the dilemmas of the 20th century. He died in 1983.
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Customers say
Customers find the book engaging and well-researched, with one review specifically highlighting its detailed coverage of the Khazar Empire. Moreover, they appreciate its eye-opening historical content and hidden truths. However, the writing quality receives mixed feedback, with some customers finding it well written while others disagree.
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Top reviews from Australia
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The thirteenth tribe.Reviewed in Australia on 25 October 2020
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I liked the whole book. Five stars. Facts that need to be more widely spread.
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Wayne N.
1.0 out of 5 stars To MuchReviewed in Australia on 16 June 2023
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This book requires the reader to have an advanced knowledge of early middle eastern geography and is poorly written. It attempts to explain in waay to much detail what could be written in an easier format to understand. Very disappointed
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John Martin
3.0 out of 5 stars Details the varied origins of non-Semitic Jews throughout recorded non-biblical history.Reviewed in Australia on 5 November 2021
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Can be tedious at times and there are non-continuous overlapping cross-references.
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JayWin
5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I wantedReviewed in Spain on 23 May 2024
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The ordering was easy, picking the book up at the post station in the local Carrefour uncomplicated, free of charge and more reliable than having the parcel delivered to my door in Spain.
The book is exactly what I read about it and looking for. In very good condition.
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Latonia
5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK!Reviewed in the United States on 21 September 2021
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Great book. Gives alot of information that leads me to believe that after the destruction of the 2nd temple in 70 A.D, the Jews that were expelled from the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, and Portugal migrated to West Africa --Ghana, Mali, and Songhai--which was called the Bilad as-Sudan meaning LAND OF THE BLACKS in Arabic. They also migrated to Senegal and Cape Verde. Some even went as far as South Africa where there is a large Lemba community today. The Lemba have been genetically determined through DNA to be of the priestly tribe of the Levites!....and yes, they are BLACK AFRICANS. They practice Hebrewism that has been their religion for thousands of years.
I always wondered how white people became Jews and owners of Israel! They are proselytes...converts. Not of the bloodline of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
They stole the identity of the true Jews and hijacked the Hebrew language which was the language of the Canaanites. Hebrew is an AFRO-ASIATIC language close to Ugaritic.
When they were in Europe, they spoke Yiddish and whatever language of the country they were from.
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Ernie Osborne
5.0 out of 5 stars Jaw dropping.Reviewed in Canada on 7 January 2023
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A deep and insightful book that wiil stir the mind of the curious.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars InformativeReviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2025
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Good read and very informative
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nuvola
5.0 out of 5 stars InterestingReviewed in Italy on 23 September 2024
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An important book to read to learn more about today's geopolitics!
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From other countries
Ppmtnez
5.0 out of 5 stars raices
Reviewed in Spain on 19 December 2019
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Esta parte de la historia es desconocida para la mayoría de las personas y debería fomentarse su difusión.
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Tony Uriah Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Revelation 2:9 - Revelation 3:9 KJV
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 August 2025
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Prophecy fulfilling..before our very eyes, as to the true Israelites are..
All Twelve Tribes were Africans! Still are until this very day! I am one of them of the Tribe of Judah.Genesis 49:10 KJV
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Lynne
5.0 out of 5 stars I recoomend this book for anyone interested in world history!
Reviewed in the United States on 24 June 2016
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I have read about half of this book and find it very interesting and informative. It certainly clears up a mystery for me. I am a native New Yorker and had many acquaintances who were Jewish from European ancestry. But I could never understand how this assimilation took place, since the Jews were supposed to be from the middle east. This book explains other parallel historical developments concerning the Vikings, Russia, other Turkish tribes as well as the Khazars development and subsequent conversion. As one gets past the introductory information, the book reads as well as a non-fiction work, as opposed to a dry historical tome. There are plenty of footnotes and references to substantiate the research. The author is very careful to give the sources he relies on and in most cases tries to get more than one source to substantiate the information he relies on. This book is not a polemic or agenda driven, but rather one that tries to enlighten the reader as to historical occurrences. I suggest that this book will be informative to anyone interested in early European history and its alliances affect us today.
107 people found this helpful
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Raz
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read, did not learn this in school.
Reviewed in Canada on 14 November 2024
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You are always learning no matter how old you are...
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Red
5.0 out of 5 stars Looks great on the old bookshelf and the content is equally impressive
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 September 2021
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Thees nothing to dislike, arguably Koestler's most controversial and most seminal work. Gives the reader and history enthusiast in general a detailed window into the violently medieval world of the Steppe nomads, the jewish khazars stood proud along with the other 2 superpowers of the day , the Roman-Byzantine empire and the Abbasid Muslim empire. The most interesting and main theme of the book is the ethno-biologucal origins of the eastern European Ashkenazic jew. Are the semite or not? Koestler in hos authoritative analysis seems to think not. And that is the controversy.
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Dellwood Jackson
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting Book
Reviewed in the United States on 9 April 2025
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A very interesting book. Koestler describes the fascinating Jewish kingdom of Khazaria, in the land north of the Caucaucus, between the Caspian and Black seas, and the area north of there, reaching as far west as Kiev. This kingdom lasted approximately 400 years, maintaining its independance against the Christian Byzantine empire to the southwest, and the Muslim empire to the south. The rise of the Russian kingdom in Kiev, and its alliance with the Byzantine empire, eventually ended the Khazar dominance in the region. Then its people were swept away-- like all the other peoples in southern Russia-- by the Mongol invasions led by Ghengis Khan.
Koestler convincingly makes the case that the Jewish community in Poland descended from the Khazar refugees fleeing the Mongol devastation. He also makes the case the the Hungarian Jewish population descended from a dissident branch of Khazars, who migrated westward prior to the Mongol invasion.
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Maureen
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic book
Reviewed in Canada on 27 October 2025
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A very interesting & famous book.
Always wanted to read it . A good read
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Dekker Bourne
4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting book.
Reviewed in Canada on 6 April 2024
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It's a thought-provoking book, but it needed a better writer.
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glorious rose
4.0 out of 5 stars This is history uncovered.
Reviewed in the United States on 3 December 2023
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This is knowledge and history that is eye opening. A bit technical to read but understandable.
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Ms Boo
4.0 out of 5 stars The thirteenth tribe
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 October 2022
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Interesting read..... Sometimes a little contradictory but nevertheless interesting.
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From other countries
I didn’t get the turquoise beads And the box was torn and the plastic boxs were broken and the beads were all mixed together
5.0 out of 5 stars Good to know
Reviewed in the United States on 11 November 2025
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Good to know
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Baraqyaahla
5.0 out of 5 stars MUST READ
Reviewed in Canada on 6 August 2025
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Speechless. This explains a lot about questions that were previously unanswered to certain individuals
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trava
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2025
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Very interesting read. Learnt a lot of new stuff reading this
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Austin powers
5.0 out of 5 stars Being able to prove things by learning the facts
Reviewed in the United States on 16 October 2024
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Just researching proving facts over fiction.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 January 2025
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Great value for money and good information
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John
5.0 out of 5 stars as described.
Reviewed in Canada on 24 December 2024
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Great seller.
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K. Mcclean
5.0 out of 5 stars I appreciate this Book
Reviewed in the United States on 11 May 2017
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As an awoken negro, I appreciate this book telling the truth. Not only telling me that I am not anti -Semite but I am perhaps an original Semite. For me this book puts a lot into perspective especially about the origin of the Jewish people and confirming my suspicions that the majority of the modern day Jew is not the same people as referred to in the Bible as Hebrews or the chosen people of the Most High Yah. Great read...
108 people found this helpful
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Pierre
5.0 out of 5 stars Livre
Reviewed in Canada on 27 September 2024
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Excellent
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samuel
5.0 out of 5 stars The truth 👍
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 May 2025
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The truth shall set you FREE!!
3 people found this helpful
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customer
5.0 out of 5 stars what I needed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2025
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Especially relevant in view of what is going on today.
Documented history or the majority of people who consider themselves Jewish..
Jewish people don't like it.
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