Tribes
The Khazars' tribal structure is not well understood. They were divided between Ak-Khazars ("White Khazars") and Kara-Khazars ("Black Khazars"). The 10th-century Muslim geographer al-Istakhri claimed that the White Khazars were strikingly handsome with reddish hair, white skin and blue eyes while the Black Khazars were swarthy verging on deep black as if they were "some kind of Indian". Many Turkic nations had a similar (political, not racial) division between a "white" ruling warrior caste and a "black" class of commoners; the consensus among mainstream scholars is that Istakhri was confused by the names given to the two groups. The Turkic affinities of the Khazars are confirmed by modern anthropological studies.
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Famous quotes containing the word tribes:
“A stranger came one night to Yussouf’s tent,
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Against whose life the bow of power is bent,
Who flies, and hath not where to lay his head;
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To Yussouf, called through all our tribes ‘he Good.’ “
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—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
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—William Collins (1721–1759)
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—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)