 The Arab – Khazar wars were a result of the attempts of the Umayyad Caliphate to secure control of Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus , where the Khazars were already established . The first Arab invasion , in the 640s and early 650s , ended with the defeat of an Arab force led by Abd ar @-@ Rahman ibn Rabiah outside the Khazar town of Balanjar . Hostilities broke out again with the Caliphate in the 710s , with raids back and forth across the Caucasus . Led by the distinguished generals al @-@ Jarrah ibn Abdallah and Maslama ibn Abd al @-@ Malik , the Arabs were able to capture Derbent and even the southern Khazar capital of Balanjar , but this had little impact on the nomadic Khazars , who remained able to launch devastating raids deep into Transcaucasia . In one such raid in 730 , the Khazars inflicted a major defeat on the Umayyad forces at the Battle of Ardabil , killing al @-@ Jarrah , but were in turn defeated the next year and pushed back north . Maslama then recovered Derbent , which became a major Arab military outpost and colony , before being replaced by Marwan ibn Muhammad ( the future caliph Marwan II ) in 732 . A period of relatively localized warfare followed until 737 , when Marwan led north a massive expedition that reached the Khazar capital Atil on the Volga . After securing some form of submission by the khagan , the Arabs withdrew . 
