The proposed research concerns the politics of war and trade between the nomadic Khazars and the Islamic Caliphate (7th -10th centuries AD), and its impact on the emergence, development, and collapse of the Khazar Empire. The economic dependence of the latter on the resources of the Caliphate-especially on luxury goods ­ promoted political manipulations that resulted in the intensification of trade in the Western Caspian Region along the latitudinal axis spanning the Caliphate with the Khazar Empire and as far north as Scandinavia. The dynamics of war and trade between the two empires, and its impact on the nomadic Khazar society will be investigated on the basis of archaeological evidence taken from the core of the Khazar Empire and its trade routes.