A Khazar ruler during the early 10th century CE, Aaron ben Benjamin was the son of the Khazar king Benjamin

Benjamin (Khazar)

A Khazar ruler , mentioned in the Schechter Text and the Khazar Correspondence, Benjamin was the son of the Khazar ruler Menahem and probably reigned in the late ninth and early tenth centuries CE....

. Whether Aaron, like the rest of the Bulanids

Bulanids

The Bulanids were the ruling dynasty of the Khazar Khaganate during the 9th century and 10th century CE.The dynasty is named after Bulan, who may or may not have been its founder. In other sources , the founder of the dynasty is named Sabriel.Whether the Bulanid rulers were Beks or Khagans is a...

, was a Khagan or a Bek is an unresolved issue.

According to the anonymous author of the Schechter Letter

Schechter Letter

The "Schechter Letter" was discovered in the Cairo Geniza by Solomon Schechter.-The Letter:The Schechter Letter is a communique from an unnamed Khazar author to an unidentified Jewish dignitary...

, during Aaron's reign a war was launched against Khazaria by a Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

-inspired coalition led by the Alans

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

, who had been allies of Aaron's father Benjamin

Benjamin (Khazar)

A Khazar ruler , mentioned in the Schechter Text and the Khazar Correspondence, Benjamin was the son of the Khazar ruler Menahem and probably reigned in the late ninth and early tenth centuries CE....

. Aaron defeated his enemies with the help of Oghuz

Oghuz Turks

The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....

 mercenaries and captured the king of the Alans alive. Rather than execute his captive, he demanded an oath of fealty and spared his life. The Alan king's daughter married Aaron's son Joseph

Joseph (Khazar)

Joseph ben Aaron was king of the Khazars during the 950s and 960s.Joseph was the son of Aaron II, a Khazar ruler who defeated a Byzantine-inspired war against Khazaria on numerous fronts. Joseph's wife was the daughter of the king of the Alans.Whether Joseph was the Khagan or the Bek of the...

. In Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century, Omeljan Pritsak

Omeljan Pritsak

Omeljan Pritsak was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.-Career:Pritsak began his academic career at the University of Lvov in interwar Poland where he...

 dated this war to the early reign of Romanos I

Romanos I

Romanos I Lekapenos was Byzantine Emperor from 920 until his deposition on December 16, 944.-Origin:...

 (i.e., the early 920s CE).

External links and Sources

• Brook, Kevin Alan. The Jews of Khazaria. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.
• Dunlop, Douglas M. The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
• Golb, Norman
  Norman Golb
  Norman Golb is the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor in Jewish History and Civilization at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. He earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1954. He joined the faculty of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati in 1958 before settling at the...
  
   and Omeljan Pritsak
  Omeljan Pritsak
  Omeljan Pritsak was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.-Career:Pritsak began his academic career at the University of Lvov in interwar Poland where he...
  
  . Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982.