History

Khazar kingship was divided between the khagan and the Bek or Khagan Bek. Contemporary Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 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

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...

, King Joseph

Joseph (Khazar)

Joseph ben Aaron was king of the Khazars during the 950s and 960s.Joseph was the son of Aaron II, a Khazar ruler who defeated a Byzantine-inspired war against Khazaria on numerous fronts. Joseph's wife was the daughter of the king of the Alans.Whether Joseph was the Khagan or the Bek of the...

 identifies himself as the ruler of the Khazars and makes no reference to a colleague. It has been disputed whether Joseph was a Khagan or a Bek; his description of his military campaigns make the latter probable. A third option is that by the time of the Correspondence (c. 950-960) the Khazars had merged the two positions into a single ruler, or that the Beks had somehow supplanted the Khagans or vice versa.

Some sources refer to the Khazar Bek as ishad (a Göktürk military rank) or Malik

Malik

Malik is an Arabic word meaning "king, chieftain".It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized, Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings...

(Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 for "king", also used as a high rank). He was theoretically the subordinate of the 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...

 but in reality controlled the military and civil government for the Khazar khaganate.

It is asserted by some scholars that the house of the Bulanids

Bulanids

The Bulanids were the ruling dynasty of the Khazar Khaganate during the 9th century and 10th century CE.The dynasty is named after Bulan, who may or may not have been its founder. In other sources , the founder of the dynasty is named Sabriel.Whether the Bulanid rulers were Beks or Khagans is a...

 were hereditary Khagan Beks, which would be parallel to the Japanese shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

ate.