Menasseh ben Hezekiah was a Turkic

Turkic peoples

The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...

 Jewish ruler of the Khazars

Khazars

The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...

 mentioned in the Khazar Correspondence

Khazar Correspondence

The Khazar Correspondence was an exchange of letters in the 950s or 960s between Hasdai ibn Shaprut, foreign secretary to the Caliph of Cordoba, and Joseph, Khagan of the Khazars. It is one of the few documents known to have been authored by a Khazar, and one of the very few primary sources on...

. He probably reigned in the mid to late ninth century CE. He was the son of Hezekiah

Hezekiah (Khazar)

Hezekiah ben Obadiah was the ruler of the Khazars, probably in the mid ninth century CE. He was the son of Obadiah, the descendant of Bulan who brought rabbinical scholars to and built yeshivot in Khazaria. Little is known about Hezekiah's reign...

, the son of Obadiah

Obadiah (Khazar)

Obadiah was the name of a Khazar ruler of the late eighth or early ninth century. He is described as coming from among "the sons of the sons" of Bulan, but whether this should be taken literally to mean that he was Bulan's grandson, or figuratively to imply a more remote descent, is unclear...

. Little is known about his reign. As with other Bulanid rulers, it is unclear whether he was Khagan

Khagan

Khagan or qagan , alternatively spelled kagan, khaghan, qaghan, or chagan, is a title of imperial rank in the Mongolian and Turkic languages equal to the status of emperor and someone who rules a khaganate...

 or Khagan Bek

Khagan Bek

-History:Khazar kingship was divided between the khagan and the Bek or Khagan Bek. Contemporary Arab historians related that the Khagan was purely a spiritual ruler or figurehead with limited powers, while the Bek was responsible for administration and military affairs.In the Khazar Correspondence,...

 of the Khazars, although the latter is more likely.

Menasseh was succeeded by his uncle Hanukkah

Hanukkah (Khazar)

Hanukkah or Chanukkah ben Obadiah was a Khazar ruler who probably reigned during the mid to late ninth century CE. Hanukkah was the son of Obadiah and succeeded his nephew Menasseh I to the throne. No contemporary records from his reign survive; however, he is known from the Khazar Correspondence...

.

Sources

• Kevin Alan Brook. The Jews of Khazaria. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.
• Douglas M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
• Norman Golb
  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.