The Brutakhi were a Jewish polity of uncertain location and origin during the early 13th century. Giovanni di Plano Carpini, a 13-century papal legate

Papal legate

A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....

 to the court of the Mongol Khan Guyuk

Güyük Khan

Güyük was the third Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. As the eldest son of Ögedei Khan and a grandson of Genghis Khan, he reigned from 1246 to 1248...

, gave a list of the nations the Mongols had conquered in his account. One of them, listed among tribes of the Caucasus, Pontic steppe and the Caspian region, was the "Brutakhi, who are Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

."

Some translations read "Comani Brutakhi", (Comani Brutachi, qui sunt Iudii) which seems to indicate an alignment with the Kipchaks

Kipchaks

Kipchaks were a Turkic tribal confederation...

; however, this reading has been challenged by many historians who have asserted that there should be a comma between the Comani

Cumans

The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...

 and Brutakhi. However, earlier in the same list Giovanni refers to "Comania", leading some to regard the postulated comma as redundant and therefore highly suspect.

The identity of the Brutakhi is unclear. Giovanni later refers to the Brutakhi as shaving their heads, a common Turkic custom. They may have been a remnant of the Khazar people. Alternatively, they may have been Kipchak converts to Judaism (possibly connected to the Krymchaks

Krymchaks

The Krymchaks are a Turkic people, community of Turkic languages and adherents of Rabbinic Judaism living in Crimea. They have historically lived in close proximity to the Crimean Karaites...

 or the Karaims). Another possibility is that the Brutakhi are connected to the Mountain Jews

Mountain Jews

Highland Jews, Mountain Jews or Kavkazi Jews also known as Juvuro or Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or less commonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part...

 of Daghestan, who are believed to have ruled independent states at points in their history. Some scholars have speculated that "Brutakhi" may be a corruption of "Brutas" or "Burtas

Burtas

Burtas were a tribe of uncertain ethnolinguistic affiliation inhabiting the steppe region north of the Caspian Sea in medieval times...

", a steppe tribe of uncertain ethnic affiliation mentioned by other medieval sources.