在7世纪和8世纪，可萨人与倭马亚王朝及其继承者阿拔斯王朝进行了一系列战争。第一次阿拉伯-可萨战争始于伊斯兰教扩张的第一阶段。640年穆斯林部队已经到达亚美尼亚。642年，他们在Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah的领导下对高加索地区进行了首次突袭。652年，阿拉伯军队进攻可萨汗国首都巴伦加尔（英语：Balanjar），但被击败且损失惨重；根据塔巴里等波斯历史学家的说法，战斗中双方都使用投石机对付敌方部队。许多俄罗斯史料称这一时期的可萨汗国的可汗名为埃尔比斯（Irbis），并将其描述为古突厥王室阿史那的继承人。埃尔比斯是否曾存在，以及他是否就是许多同名的古突厥统治者之一，这些问题尚不明确。
第二次阿拉伯-可萨战争始于8世纪初期，高加索地区发生一系列袭击。倭马亚阿拉伯人镇压了一场大规模叛乱后在705年加强了对亚美尼亚的控制。在713或714年，倭马亚将军Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik征服了杰尔宾特，并进一步深入可萨汗国的领土。可萨人袭击了高加索阿尔巴尼亚和伊朗阿塞拜疆，但被Hasan ibn al-Nu'man领导的阿拉伯人赶回[52]。军事冲突在722年升级，3万名可萨人入侵亚美尼亚，重创当地军队。哈里发耶齐德二世向北派遣了25,000名阿拉伯援军，迅速将可萨人赶出高加索地区，恢复了杰尔宾特，并向巴兰加尔前进。巴兰加尔战役中，阿拉伯人突破了可萨人防御并冲进了这座城市，大多数居民被屠杀或沦为奴隶，但有少数设法逃往北方[51]。尽管取得了成功，但阿拉伯人尚未击败可萨军队，并撤退到了高加索南部。
724年，阿拉伯将军al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami在库拉河和阿拉斯河之间的漫长战斗中击败了可萨人，进而攻占第比利斯，使高加索伊比利亚归穆斯林所有。726年，可萨人在一位名叫巴尔吉克的王子的率领下发动反攻，对高加索阿尔巴尼亚和阿塞拜疆进行了大规模入侵。到729年，阿拉伯人失去了对外高加索东北部的控制，再次进入守势。730年，巴尔吉克入侵伊朗阿塞拜疆，并在阿尔达比勒击败了阿拉伯军队（马尔吉-阿尔达比勒战役），杀死了Al-Djarrah al-Hakami将军并短暂占领了该地。第二年，巴尔吉克在摩苏尔被击败并丧生。737年，Marwan Ibn Muhammad以寻求休战为幌子进入可萨领土，然后发动了一次突袭，可汗逃往北方，可萨投降[53]。阿拉伯人没有能力来影响外高加索地区的事务[53]。可汗被迫接受皈依伊斯兰教的条件，并臣服于哈里发，但这一和解并未长久，由于倭马亚内部的不稳定和拜占庭的支持，三年之内可萨人重获独立[54]。有人猜想可萨人早在740年就采纳了犹太教，正是基于该历史背景，即在作为面对哈里发和东罗马时使用犹太教来确立其独立性，同时也符合亚欧大陆居民普遍皈依一种世界性宗教的潮流[注 12]。
可萨汗国早在犹大·哈列维的时代就曾激发犹太人重返以色列的弥赛亚愿望[93]。12世纪初期的埃及，一个名叫Solomon ben Duji，通常被认为是可萨犹太人[注 30]，试图倡导犹太人的解放并呼吁所有犹太人重回巴勒斯坦，写信给许多犹太人社区争取支持。他最终移居库尔德斯坦。几十年后他的儿子梅纳赫姆自称弥赛亚，为此组建了一支军队，占领了摩苏尔以北的阿马迪耶堡垒。他的计划遭到拉比权威的反对，在睡眠中被毒死。有一种理论认为，当时还只是装饰图案或魔法纹章的大卫之星，就从梅纳赫姆的使用之后，开始在犹太晚期传统文化中成为民族价值的象征。
“可萨”一词作为民族名最后被使用是13世纪北高加索的一个信仰犹太教的民族[94]。可萨流散社区的性质（犹太教或者其他宗教）还存在争议。Avraham ibn Daud提到他在1160年左右遇见过来自西班牙托莱多的可萨裔拉比学生[95]。可萨社会在不同地方继续存在。许多可萨雇佣兵进入了伊斯兰哈里发和其他国家的军队。中世纪君士坦丁堡的文献里表明了加拉塔郊区可萨社区与犹太人混居的情况[96]。可萨商人活跃于12世纪的君士坦丁堡和亚历山大港[97]。
This figure has been calculated on the basis of the data in both Herlihy and Russell's work.[5] (Russell 1972，第25–71页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFRussell1972 (帮助)
"The Gazari are, presumably, the Khazars, although this term or the Kozary of the perhaps near contemporary Vita Constantini ... could have reflected any of a number of peoples within Khazaria." (Golden 2007b，第139页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
"Somewhat later, however, in a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Basil I, dated to 871, Louis the German, clearly taking exception to what had apparently become Byzantine usage, declares that 'we have not found that the leader of the Avars, or Khazars (Gasanorum)'..." (Golden 2001a，第33页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2001a (帮助)
"The word tribe is as troublesome as the term clan. It is commonly held to denote a group, like the clan, claiming descent from a common (in some culture zones eponymous) ancestor, possessing a common territory, economy, language, culture, religion, and sense of identity. In reality, tribes were often highly fluid sociopolitical structures, arising as 'ad hoc responses to ephemeral situations of competition,' as Morton H. Fried has noted." (Golden 2001b，第78页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2001b (帮助)
Dieter Ludwig, in his doctoral thesis Struktur und Gesellschaft des Chazaren-Reiches im Licht der schriftlichen Quellen, (Münster, 1982) suggested that the Khazars were Turkic members of the Hephthalite Empire, where the lingua franca was a variety of Iranian.[20] (Brook 2010，第4页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFBrook2010 (帮助)
"The reader should be warned that the A-shih-na link of the Khazar dynasty, an old phantom of ... Khazarology, will ... lose its last claim to reality". (Zuckerman 2007，第404页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFZuckerman2007 (帮助)
The Duōlù (咄陆) were the left wing of the On Oq, the Nǔshībì (弩失毕: *Nu Šad(a)pit), and together they were registered in Chinese sources as the 'ten names' (shí míng:十名). (Golden 2010，第54–55页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2010 (帮助)
Theophanes the Confessor around 813 defined them as Eastern Turks. The designation is complex and Róna-Tas writes: "The Georgian Chronicle refers to the Khazars in 626–628 as the 'West Turks' who were then opposed to the East Turks of Central Asia. Shortly after 679 the Armenian Geography mentions the Turks together with the Khazars; this may be the first record of the Magyars. Around 813, Theophanes uses – alongside the generic name Turk – 'East Turk' for the designation of the Khazars, and in context, the 'West Turks' may actually have meant the Magyars. We know that Nicholas Misticus referred to the Magyars as 'West Turks' in 924/925. In the 9th century the name Turk was mainly used to designate the Khazars." (Róna-Tas 1999，第282页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFRóna-Tas1999 (帮助)
Many sources identify the Göktürks in this alliance as Khazars--for example, Beckwith writes recently: "The alliance sealed by Heraclius with the Khazars in 627 was of seminal importance to the Byzantine Empire through the Early Middle Ages, and helped assure its long-term survival."[37]Early sources such as the almost contemporary Armenian history, Patmutʿiwn Ałuanicʿ Ašxarhi, attributed to Movsēs Dasxurancʿ, and the Chronicle attributed to Theophanes identify these Turks as Khazars (Theophanes has: 'Turks, who are called Khazars'). Both Zuckerman and Golden reject the identification. (Zuckerman 2007，第403–404页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFZuckerman2007 (帮助)
Scholars dismiss Chinese annals which, reporting the events from Turkic sources, attribute the destruction of Persia and its leader Shah Khusrau II personally to Tong Yabghu. Zuckerman argues instead that the account is correct in its essentials. (Zuckerman 2007，第417页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFZuckerman2007 (帮助)
"The Khazars, the close allies of the Byzantines, adopted Judaism, as their official religion, apparently by 740, three years after an invasion by the Arabs under Marwan ibn Muhammad. Marwan had used treachery against a Khazar envoy to gain peaceful entrance to Khazar territory. He then declared his dishonourable intentions and pressed deep into Khazar territory, only subsequently releasing the envoy. The Arabs devastated the horse herds, seized many Khazars and others as captives, and forced much of the population to flee into the Ural Mountains. Marwan's terms were that the kaghan and his Khazars should convert to Islam. Having no choice, the kaghan agreed, and the Arabs returned home in triumph. As soon as the Arabs were gone, the kaghan renounced Islam – with, one may assume, great vehemence. The Khazar Dynasty's conversion to Judaism is best explained by this specific historical background, together with the fact that the mid-eighth century was an age in which the major Eurasian states proclaimed their adherence to distinctive world religions. Adopting Judaism also was politically astute: it meant the Khazars avoided having to accept the overlordship (however theoretical) of the Arab caliph or the Byzantine emperor." (Beckwith 2011，第149页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFBeckwith2011 (帮助)
The Volga Bulgarian state was converted to Islam in the 10th century, and wrested liberty from its Khazarian suzerains when Sviatoslav I of Kiev|Svyatislav razed Atil. (Abulafia 1987，第419, 480–483页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFAbulafia1987 (帮助)
Whittow argues however that: "The title of qaghan, with its claims to lordship over the steppe world, is likely to be no more than ideological booty from the 965 victory." (Whittow 1996，第243–252页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFWhittow1996 (帮助)
Korobkin citing Golb & Pritsak notes that Khazars have often been connected with Kiev's foundations.[58] Pritsak and Golb state that children in Kiev were being given a mixture of Hebrew and Slavic languages names by c. 930.[59] Toch on the other hand is skeptical, and argues that "a significant Jewish presence in early medieval Kiev or indeed in Russia at large remains much in doubt". (Toch 2012，第166页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFToch2012 (帮助)
The yarmaq based on the Arab dirhem was perhaps issued in reaction to fall-off in Muslim minting in the 820s, and to a felt need in the turbulent upheavals of the 830s to assert a new religious profile, with the Jewish legends stamped on them. (Golden 2007b，第156页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
Scholars are divided as to whether the fortification of Sarkel represents a defensive bulwark against a growing Magyar or Varangian threat. (Petrukhin 2007，第247, and n.1页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFPetrukhin2007 (帮助)
MQDWN or the Macedonian dynasty of Byzantium; SY, perhaps a central Volga statelet, Burtas, Asya; PYYNYL denoting the Danube-Don Pechnegs; BM, perhaps indicating the Volga Bulgars, and TWRQY or Oghuz Turks. The provisory identifications are those of Pritsak. (Kohen 2007，第106页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFKohen2007 (帮助)
Al-Mas'udi says the king secretly tipped off the Rus' of the attack but was unable to oppose the request of his guards. (Olsson 2013，第507页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFOlsson2013 (帮助)
The letter continues: "I wage war with them. If I left them (in peace) for a single hour they would crush the whole land of the Ishmaelites up to Baghdad." (Petrukhin 2007，第257页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFPetrukhin2007 (帮助)
The Caspian Sea is still known to Arabs, and many peoples of the region, as the 'Khazar Sea' (Arabic Bahr ul-Khazar) (Brook 2010，第156页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFBrook2010 (帮助)
"thus it is clear that the false doctrine of Yišô in Rome (Hrôm) and that of Môsê among the Khazars and that of Mânî in Turkistan took away their might and the valor that they once possessed and made them feeble and decadent among their rivals". (Golden 2007b，第130页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
Some sources claim that the father of Seljuk (warlord), the eponymous progenitor of the Seljuk Turks, namely Toqaq Temür Yalığ, began his career as an Oghuz soldier in Khazar service in the early and mid-10th century, and rose to high rank before he fell out with the Khazar rulers and departed for Khwarazm. Seljuk's sons, significantly, all bear names from the Tanakh|Jewish scriptures: Mîkâ'il, Isrâ'îl, Mûsâ, Yûnus. Peacock argues that early traditions attesting a Seljuk origin within the Khazar empire when it was powerful, were later rewritten, after Khazaria fell from power in the 11th century, to blank out the connection. (Peacock 2010，第27–35页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFPeacock2010 (帮助)
Tzitzak is often treated as her original proper name, with a Turkic etymology čiček ('flower'). Erdal, however, citing the Byzantine work on court ceremony De Ceremoniis, authored by Constantine Porphyrogennetos, argues that the word referred only to the dress Irene wore at court, perhaps denoting its colourfulness, and compares it to the Hebrew Tzitzit
"Engravings that resemble the six-pointed Star of David were found on circular Khazar relics and bronze mirrors from Sarkel and Khazarian grave fields in Upper Saltov. However, rather than having been made by Jews, these appear to be shamanistic sun discs." (Brook 2010，第113, 122–123 n.148页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFBrook2010 (帮助)
Brook says this thesis was developed by Jacob Mann, based on a reading of the word "Khazaria" in the Cairo Geniza fragment. Bernard Lewis, he adds, challenged the assumption by noting that the original text reads Hakkâri and refers to the Kurds of the Hakkâri mountains in south-east Turkey. (Brook 2010，第191–192, n.72页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFBrook2010 (帮助)
Golden and Shapira thinks the evidence from such Georgian sources renders suspect a conversion prior to this date.[98](Shapira 2007b，第347–348页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFShapira2007b (帮助)
During Islamic invasions, some groups of Khazars who suffered defeat, including a qağan, were converted to Islam. (DeWeese 1994，第73页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFDeWeese1994 (帮助)
Johannes Buxtorf first published the letters around 1660. Controversy arose over their authenticity; it was even argued that the letters represented "no more than Jewish self-consolation and fantasmagory over the lost dreams of statehood". (Kohen 2007，第112页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFKohen2007 (帮助)
"If anyone thinks that the Khazar correspondence was first composed in 1577 and published in Qol Mebasser, the onus of proof is certainly on him. He must show that a number of ancient manuscripts, which appear to contain references to the correspondence, have all been interpolated since the end of the sixteenth century. This will prove a very difficult or rather an impossible task." (Dunlop 1954，第130页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFDunlop1954 (帮助)
"The issue of the authenticity of the Correspondence has a long and mottled history which need not detain us here. Dunlop and most recently Golb have demonstrated that Hasdai's letter, Joseph's response (dating perhaps from the 950s) and the 'Cambridge Document' are, indeed, authentic." (Golden 2007b，第145–146页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
"(a court debate on conversion) appears in accounts of Khazar Judaism in two Hebrew accounts, as well as in one eleventh-century Arabic account. These widespread and evidently independent attestations would seem to support the historicity of some kind of court debate, but, more important, clearly suggest the currency of tales recounting the conversion and originating among the Khazar Jewish community itself" ... "the 'authenticity' of the Khazar correspondence is hardly relevant"[100] "The wider issue of the 'authenticity' of the 'Khazar correspondence', and of the significance of this tale's parallels with the equally controversial Cambridge document /Schechter text, has been discussed extensively in the literature on Khazar Judaism; much of the debate loses significance if, as Pritsak has recently suggested, the accounts are approached as 'epic' narratives rather than evaluated from the standpoint of their 'historicity'." (DeWeese 1994，第305页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFDeWeese1994 (帮助)
"Of the intensive archaeological study of Khazar sites (over a thousand burial sites have been investigated!), not one has yet yielded finds that yet fit in some way the material legacy of antique European or Middle Eastern Jewry." (Toch 2012，第162–3页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFToch2012 (帮助)
Shingiray noting the widespread lack of artifacts of wealth in Khazar burials, arguing that nomads used few materials to express their personal attributes: "The SMC assemblages-even if they were not entirely missing from the Khazar imperial center - presented an outstanding instance of archaeological material minimalism in this region." (Shingiray 2012，第209–211页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFShingiray2012 (帮助)
"But, one must ask, are we to expect much religious paraphernalia in a recently converted steppe society? Do the Oğuz, in the century or so after their Islamization, present much physical evidence in the steppe for their new faith? These conclusions must be considered preliminary." (Golden 2007b，第150–151, and note 137页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
Golden 2007b，第128–129页 harvnb模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助) compares Ulfilas's conversions of the Goths to Arianism; Al-Masudi records a conversion of the Alans to Christianity during the Abbasid period; the Volga Bulğars adopted Islam after their leader converted in the 10th century; the Uyğur Qağan accepted Manichaeism in 762.
Golden takes exception to J. B. Bury's claim (1912) that it was 'unique in history'.[102][103] Golden also cites from Jewish history the conversion of Idumeans under John Hyrcanus; of the Itureans under Aristobulus I; of the kingdom of Adiabene under Queen Helena; the Ḥimyârî kings in Yemen, and Berber assimilations to North African Jewry. (Golden 2007b，第153页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
"in Israel, emotions are still high when it comes to the history of the Khazars, as I witnessed in a symposium on the issue at the Israeli Academy of Sciences in Jerusalem (May 24, 2011). Whereas Prof. Shaul Stampfer believed the story of the Khazars' conversion to Judaism was a collection of stories or legends that have no historical foundation, (and insisted that the Ashkenazi of Eastern Europe of today stem from Jews in Central Europe who emigrated eastwards), Prof. Dan Shapiro believed that the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism was part of the history of Russia at the time it established itself as a kingdom." (Falk 2017，第101,n.9页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFFalk2017 (帮助)
"The Șûfî wandering out into the steppe was far more effective in bringing Islam to the Turkic nomads than the learned 'ulamâ of the cities." (Golden 2007b，第126页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
"the Khazars (most of whom did not convert to Judaism, but remained animists, or adopted Islam and Christianity)" (Wexler 2002，第514页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFWexler2002 (帮助)
"In much of the literature on conversions of Inner Asian peoples, attempts are made, 'to minimize the impact' ... This has certainly been true of some of the scholarship regarding the Khazars." (Golden 2007b，第127页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
"scholars who have contributed to the subject of the Khazars' conversion, have based their arguments on a limited corpus of textual, and more recently, numismatic evidence ... Taken together these sources offer a cacophony of distortions, contradictions, vested interests, and anomalies in some areas, and nothing but silence in others." (Olsson 2013，第496页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFOlsson2013 (帮助)
"Judaism was apparently chosen because it was a religion of the book without being the faith of a neighbouring state which had designs on Khazar lands." (Noonan 1999，第502页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFNoonan1999 (帮助)
"Their conversion to Judaism was the equivalent of a declaration of neutrality between the two rival powers." (Baron 1957，第198页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFBaron1957 (帮助)
This regiment was exempt from campaigning against fellow Muslims, evidence that non-Judaic beliefs were no obstacle to access to the highest levels of government. They had abandoned their homeland and sought service with the Khazars in exchange for the right to exercise their religious freedom, according to al-Masudi. (Golden 2007b，第138页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFGolden2007b (帮助)
Olsson writes that there is no evidence for this Islamic guard for the 9th century, but that its existence is attested for 913. (Olsson 2013，第507页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFOlsson2013 (帮助)
Noonan gives the lower figure for the Muslim contingents, but adds that the army could draw on other mercenaries stationed in the capital, Rūs, Ṣaqāliba and pagans. Olsson's 10,000 refers to the spring-summer horsemen in the nomadic king's retinue. (Noonan 2007，第211, 217页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFNoonan2007 (帮助)
A third division may have contained the dwellings of the tsarina. The dimensions of the western part were 3x3, as opposed to the eastern part's 8 x 8 farsakhs. (Noonan 2007，第208–209, 216–219页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFNoonan2007 (帮助)
Outside Muslim traders were under the jurisdiction of a special royal official (ghulām). (Noonan 2007，第211–214页) harv模板错误: 无指向目标: CITEREFNoonan2007 (帮助)
