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"The Rabbi King" is a history-based adventure novel that tells the story of David, the fictional last Khagan of a remnant of the historical Jewish Kingdom of Khazaria that may have existed into the early thirteenth century. It was located in the area of the Caucasus that now comprises Dagestan and Chechnya, on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. In the middle of the eighth century the Khazar Khagan (king) and his nobles adopted Judaism as their religion.
In the novel, David, son of the Khagan, is sent from his homeland in the Caucasus to Spain at age seven. There, he studies in the same household with another boy who is later called Maimonides, earning the right to be called Rabbi, a scholar of the laws, scriptures and customs of Judaism.
When the time comes to return home, seventeen-year-old David leaves civilization to rule an untamed country. His Khazaria is sparsely populated by pagan nomads and by the descendants of many Jewish immigrants who fled persecution in Persia and Byzantium and intermarried with Khazar converts. To survive, they must emulate the lifestyle of the nomads.
When Davids father dies, he becomes Khagan and is sworn to keep his homeland safe and under a Jewish sovereign. He faces many difficulties, not the least of which is trying to balance his wish to keep the Jewish laws and customs he learned in Spain against the need to survive in a wild country under attack by barbarian tribes.
In an effort to reverse a betrayal of his people, David of Khazaria undertakes a long journey, both physically and spiritually, to save his kingdom. He meets many important historical personages and plays a role in some of the events that shaped history in the years between 1150 and 1170 C.E.in the Caucasus, Persia, Byzantium and Egypt.
In the novel, David, son of the Khagan, is sent from his homeland in the Caucasus to Spain at age seven. There, he studies in the same household with another boy who is later called Maimonides, earning the right to be called Rabbi, a scholar of the laws, scriptures and customs of Judaism.
When the time comes to return home, seventeen-year-old David leaves civilization to rule an untamed country. His Khazaria is sparsely populated by pagan nomads and by the descendants of many Jewish immigrants who fled persecution in Persia and Byzantium and intermarried with Khazar converts. To survive, they must emulate the lifestyle of the nomads.
When Davids father dies, he becomes Khagan and is sworn to keep his homeland safe and under a Jewish sovereign. He faces many difficulties, not the least of which is trying to balance his wish to keep the Jewish laws and customs he learned in Spain against the need to survive in a wild country under attack by barbarian tribes.
In an effort to reverse a betrayal of his people, David of Khazaria undertakes a long journey, both physically and spiritually, to save his kingdom. He meets many important historical personages and plays a role in some of the events that shaped history in the years between 1150 and 1170 C.E.in the Caucasus, Persia, Byzantium and Egypt.