Balanjar, a city located in the North Caucasus region, between the cities of Derbent and Samandar, probably on the lower Sulak River, flourishes from the seventh to the tenth centuries CE.

The legendary founder of Balanjar, according to the Arab chroniclers Ibn al-Faqih and Abu al-Fida, was named Balanjar ibn Japheth.

Balanjar was a capital of the Baranjar state in the 630s.

Some scholars speculate that the name derives from the Turkic root "Bala" or "Great", and the clan-name "Endzhar".

They are first mentioned in Arab chronicles of the seventh century.

They were supposedly settled in the northern Caucasus Mountains in the 370s CE, having come to Europe with the nomadic Huns.

From the second half of the sixth century, they were subjected to the Göktürk Khaganate.

After the collapse of the Göktürk power in the 630s, they formed a state centered on the town of Balanjar on the lower Terek and Sulak rivers in Daghestan and along the western shore of the Caspian Sea.

Their independence was short-lived, however, and by the end of the 630s they were incorporated into the Bulgar Khaganate and later the Khazar Khanate.

The Khazars establish a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia.

With the rest of the Baranjar domains, the city becomes part of the Khazar Khaganate around 650; Balanjar will serve as the capital of Khazaria until the early 720s.