Early Khazar history is intimately tied with that of the Göktürk empire, founded when the Ashina clan had overthrew the Juan Juan in 552.

With the collapse of the Göktürk empire due to internal conflict in the seventh century, the western half of the Turk empire had split into a number of tribal confederations, among whom were the Bulgars, led by the Dulo clan, and the Khazars, led by the Ashina clan, the traditional rulers of the Göktürk empire.

By 670, the Khazars had broken the Bulgar confederation, causing various tribal groups to migrate and leaving two remnants of Bulgar rule—Volga Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian khanate on the Danube River.

The first significant appearance of the Khazars in history had been their aid to the campaign of the Roman emperor Heraclius against the Sassanid Persians.

The Khazar ruler Ziebel (sometimes identified, inconclusively, as Tong Yabghu Khagan of the West Turks) had aided the Romans in overrunning Georgia.

A marriage had even been contemplated between Ziebel's son and Heraclius' daughter, but never took place.

During these campaigns, the Khazars may have been ruled by Mo-ho-sahd and their forces may have been under the command of his son Buri-sad.

The Umayyad Caliphate has been attempting simultaneously to expand its influence into Transoxiana and the Caucasus.

The first war between Khazaria and the Caliphate had been fought in the early 650s and ended with the defeat of an Arab force led by Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah outside the Khazar town of Balanjar, after a battle in which both sides used siege engines on the others' troops.

Several further conflicts would erupt in the in following the decades, with Arab attacks and Khazar raids into Kurdistan and Iran.

The Khazars counterattack around 685, penetrating southward of the Caucasus into present-day Georgia, and Azerbaijan.