- 400
- 500
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- Rouran 400–554
- First Göktürk 552–630
- Tang rule 630–682
- Second Göktürk 682–744
- Uyghur 744–840
- Kirghiz 840–924
- Huns 370–469
- Western Göktürk 552–659
- Türgesh 699–766
- Karluk 766–800
- Khazar 650–969
The Kievian letter is a Hebrew letter from the Cairo Genizah, a single leaf of thirty lines. The library catalogue gives its language as Hebrew and Khazarian. The letter recommends a man named Jacob ben Hanukkah. A line that some readers took for runes stands at its end.[1]
The runic reading
Golb and Pritsak published the letter in 1982. Pritsak saw in the closing line a Khazar word in runes, read hokurüm, “I have read”. Ligeti, Haussig and others followed him.[2] The letter then served as evidence that the Hebrew alphabet was known and used in Khazaria alongside variants of the Turkic runic script.[3]
The objection
János Harmatta argued that the line is not runic at all. He read it as a Hebrew note added later, šhdnwlh[w], which he took to mean “we redeemed him from the punishment”. He also argued that the place name in the Hebrew text is Kahannub, that is, Canopus in the Nile delta, and not Kiev.[2]
Value as a witness
The letter is written in Hebrew, and that is not in doubt.[4] Both claims that made it a Khazar document are open: its Kievan origin and its runic line. Until they are settled, it cannot serve as a witness for the language or script of the Khazars.
References
Literature
- Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
- Golb; Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century (1982)
- István Vásáry, Doğu Avrupa'nın Runik Alfabe Sistemleri Üzerine (1993)
- Peter Zieme, Runik Harfli Birkaç Pasaj Üzerine Kimi Yorum Önerileri (2000)
What links here1
- States
- Khazar Khaganate
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “The Kievian letter.” Turkic Atlas, revised 4 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/kievian-letter/
Last revised: 4 November 2026
