Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

REALMS OF SILENCE 211
ben Aaron. Rumors about a great Jewish empire bordering on eastern Europe
had reached the Jewish elites at the Continent's western end, and aroused
intense curiosity: Was there, at long last, a Jewish kingdom that was not subordinate
to Muslim or Christian powers?
The letter opens with a poem of praise for the king—with an acrostic
composed by Menahem ben Saruq, Hasdai's secretary and the leading Hebrew
poet in the Iberian Peninsula 43 —followed by the writer's introduction of
himself (inter alia, of course, as a descendant of the exiles from Jerusalem) and
a description of the kingdom in which he lives. Then he comes to the point:
Merchants have told me that there is a kingdom of Jews called Alkhazar, and
I did not believe it, because I thought they said this to please and approach
me. I was puzzled about it, until emissaries arrived from Constantinople with
a gift from their king to our king, and I asked them about it. They assured me
that this was the truth, that the kingdom is called Alkhazar, and between al-
Constantinople and their country there was a journey of fifteen days by sea,
but on land there are many nations between us. And the name of its king is
Joseph ... And I, when I heard this, was filled with force and my hands grew
strong and my hope intensified, and I bowed and made obeisance to the Lord
of heaven. I searched for a faithful emissary to send to your land to find out
the truth and to greet my lord the king and his servants our brothers, but it
was difficult to do, for the distance is very great. 44
Hasdai goes on to describe in detail all the difficulties entailed in dispatching
the letter, and finally asks direct questions: Of what tribe is the king? What is
the system of the monarchy? Is it passed from father to son, as was done by
the ancestors in the Torah? How big is the kingdom? Who are its enemies, and
over whom does it rule? Does war take precedence over the Sabbath? What is
the country's climate? And so forth. Hasdai's curiosity was limitless, for which
he apologized courteously.
It is not known how long it took before the Khazar king's reply arrived, but
in the extant letter King Joseph answered Hasdai's questions as best he could.
He described his origin and the boundaries of his kingdom:
You have asked of what nation and family and tribe we are. Know you that
we are of the sons of Japhet and of his son Togarmah ... It is said that in his
43 On this poet, see Tova Rosen-Mokked, "Khazars, Mongols and pre-Messianic
Sufferings," in Between History and Literature, Michal Oron (ed), Tel Aviv: Dionon, 1983 (in
Hebrew), 41-59.
44 The letter of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut and the answer of Joseph the king of the Khazars
can be found in Abraham Kahana (ed), The Literature of History, Warsaw, 1922 (in Hebrew),
38.