Thirteenth Tribe

An excellent history of the Kazars, detailing the extraordinary power of this kingdom and its many influences. Having adopted Judaism in the 7th century the Kazars represent the true origins of the Ashkenazi Jews - a fact that many people will wish to suppress but which is powerfully proven by Koestler, himself an Ashkenazi Jew. The break up of the Kazar kingdom and the resulting waves of migration are explored in detail. A robustly researched and well documented history of a people whose origins are crucial to modern history.

I also found this book to be quite informative and can understand that it may touch off a few issues. The interesting thing is that people would rather debunk something because of a belief system than actually READ and take to heart what the book has to reveal. It is well referenced and gives us much information concerning the issues we are facing today, how it is and will affect the world.

Historically, the information is all out there, published in various places. Arthur Koestler simply brought it all together and put it into comprehensive form. If this is why he is attacked, then it's a sad statement to the conditions we are living in today.

Unlike other reviewers I found this to be a very interesting book and it appears that some of these reviewers were more interested in debunking Arthur Koestler by labelling him anti-semitic. He was himself of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and proud of it. His book quotes many sources and his thesis should not be dismissed out of hand. In itself it is of historical interest to learn of the Khazar empire that ruled for several hundred years and who were a power equal to the Byzantine empire and one that stopped the Muslim onslaught against Byzantium. I can strongly encourage others to read this book and make up their own mind.