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Hello, welcome to the new books in Jewish Studies podcast. I'm Ari Barbellat, and today I'm honored to be in dialogue with my guest, Dr. Gulta Afriazar. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish History at R.E.L.
University. Today we will be in dialogue about her new book. Historical Consciousness, Haskala, and Nationalism among the Caraites of Eastern Europe, published in Leading by Brill 2018. Gulta, it's an honor to be in dialogue with you today.
I'm tremendously grateful. Thank you, Ari. To begin, can you kindly tell us about yourself? Where did you grow up?
What events in your life inspired the scholarship you would engage in as an adult? I grew up in Moscow in a period of abreasionous stagnation. My father was also a researcher, interdisciplinary researcher, involved in philosophy, history, sociology. He was also a dissident and brought to books on history with a criticism of regime.
Of course, it was forbidden and dangerous, but these books, which I read from 1314, just stimulated me asking numerous questions about the history of the society. In addition, I sought for more information on Jewish culture, Jewish history, and tradition, but there were almost no books about these issues, unless official anti-Semitic works for which we tried to extract grains of information. At the age of 14, I met a group of Jews who studied Hebrew in underground and I joined them. And four years later, I applied and submitted an application to integrate to Israel.
I was refused, but I couldn't study at the university. And only in 1987, when I was already married with a little daughter, I was permitted to go to Israel. And then I started my university studies in Israel and I chose Jewish history. What inspired your interest in the caris?
It was an expedition organized in 1997 by Benzvi Institute for the study of Jewish communities in the East. In Jerusalem, I was then a student and our purpose was to investigate the caris roots in the Crimea. We went to the Crimea and we wanted to investigate the possible causal roots of caris as it was claimed by Houdiari, who was Israeli journalist and the popular Israeli television personality, who produced documentary series of the Kazar Kingdom. Surprisingly, we encountered in the Crimea, an opposition of the local caris.
They wanted us to leave the place. They told us that they wouldn't allow us to research caris if we consider them Jews and not to hurt people. Although, in fact, there is no any connection between the caris and cars or other to people. I just face a phenomenon of a quite arbitrary construction of identity and historical memory, which wasn't backed by any documental evidence.
This made me to overthink how to research such a phenomenon. Just in this period, some solid schoolers told me that this is quite accepted today to write history without using primary sources or documents. This is a post-modernistic approach that every perception or idea is rather a narrative that affects themselves. Your history documents are the result of the authors construction or search for construction.
Everyone has its own narrative and all the narratives are equal. There is no difference between history and fiction as Hiden White claimed. As the post-are the product of imagination. I saw this approach as canceling the foundations of historical research.
In this period, many archives and libraries in the former USSR, including the current collections, were opened for researchers. This was an unprecedented challenge to discover many interesting things instead of narratives. It is another, the work with archives, with manuscripts, it's quite another view of history. Although it's never exactly the history, it never exactly repeats itself.
But it has similar tendencies which are close to similar factors and through the ages. Therefore, the historical memory with the presence of historical consciousness can serve a repository of a practical experience, both personal and for a whole society or even civilization. I see it in fact as the message for readers of my book. What inspired you to write this book?
What message do you hope to convey to readers? I think that is the message about my view of history which I mentioned. So all the events with this expedition and all my contemplations about what is history, how to research the historical sources against the background of the alternative to deal only with narratives just inspired me. My conclusions inspired me to write these books, which is totally completely based on the every document or basis, menu scripts and all kinds of documents.
What are the primary themes in your book? What argument does your book advance? I would say that the main heroes of my book are the current intellectuals from the middle ages to the modern times with their perceptions of current and urban history and self identity. The book is seeking their perceptions in various texts, historical, polemical, exegetical, many historical, of course.
My book traces the factors social and cultural factors, which influence this perception of current history and identity among them. I just can give examples. One of them is current, urbanized medieval polemics. When their historical perception was as the successors of kingdom of Judea in the writings of the Kelsani or followers of Shami, the perception about the existence of Kari's in the second in the period of the second temple.
Another factor is the Christians and Protestants who are writing who idolized view of Kari is this influence on current writings in the 17th and 18th centuries when they developed anti-Robinic line, which they found in protestants writings. Another factor is a hasca movement in the 19th century, spawned modern historical research that search Kari as an instrument for their transformation from the Jews to the so called biblical people or descendants of the 10 lost tribes or the Kazaers. One of the main arguments of my book is that the period of a both European enlightenment and Jewish hasca la. There was a street link between three elements, the development of historical research, the forgeries of historical documents, which included also several scientific couple of years of these forgeries and modern nationalism.
This paradoxical combination can be explained as follows that new historical scholarship as well as the modern nationalism, which developed in parallel as an outcome of enlightenment led to the historical forgery as it was a perfect tool for serving a national idea of any kind. And we can see it among Kari's among Jewish masculine and among the European historians. Who is and then David, can you say more about him for us. Yes, and then David, according to the scholars starting from the 19th century, until the recent decades, who was defined as a founder of the Kari's and even Sadia Gahan writes that an under David was just to find a point, not a point, but a position of exile arc of the Bionian Jewry in and he established his own movement, which was correct movements contemporary scholars, however, have another view on the inception of carism.
And so, the Gabbenscha Mai claims that the bionic apple was a formation, formative period for Judaism for Jewish exegesis for a radical practices and more, and in fact the views of an and David were meant to exceptional from many rabbinic authorities of this period. Therefore, a most of contemporary scholars consider anance movement as a separate one from Kari's which took form about 150 years after an an just some principles of his teaching were later adopted by the current movement. The caraism itself begins in the late ninth century, after the first current scholar of the ninth century Benjamin Havendi, and especially after Alkyo Kissani, we initially represents in this book of lights and watch towers, quite current tradition of exegesis, and even Kari's history. According to him, the all heresies, rabbinate, some aritan and sarducin are rooted in the changes made by made by a biblical king, Jorovan Ben-Nivat, to the Torah commandment, commandments.
And this book of the Kissani identifies these heretics with him and with the kingdom of Israel and the Kariites with the followers of Solomon dynasty and the kingdom of Judah. We can see in Kircissani's book both anti- rabbinate polemics and at the same time, historicization of the Bible, and even a struggle for the history, whose history and historical memory is right. And this is a widespread in the medieval Kariites literature. And I would like to add that inter-confessional polemics started with a study of the Huan was a highly significant factor in the systematic development and formation of the Kariites religious principles.
Through forming the arguments based on the scriptural analysis. This polemics brought to the development of the multifarious apologetic literature in subsequent periods of Kariite history. In addition, this polemics resulted in the crystallization of two competing entities, the rabbinate and the Kariites with the separate identity of the Kariites. What is your books contribution to the history of religions?
Kariites, from its inception, defined the oral tradition, I mean Mishnah and Stalmud, as a false and arbitrary invention of the rabbis and rejected the legitimacy of its transmission. And in spite of the specific features of Kariites, we can see in the wider context of comparative religious phenomena, we can see a common paradigm to various religions. The search for balance between oral and written traditions. The contradiction between the provenance of oral tradition and its opponents usually includes attempts of the former to substantiate its giving source and represent the oral tradition as a complementary part of the major canonical written text.
This position encounters a radical scripturalism. It is a script adherence to the body of a scriptural and its literal meaning as a sol canonical basis for faith and law. And in fact scripturalism is a reaction to the growing influence on the oral tradition, its authorities and its institutions. We can see it in Islam.
We find a controversy between Shihi shihi and Sunnis on the authenticity of the Sunni oral tradition. And we can see also Christian controversy between Catholics and Protestants. And their polemics also includes its similar situation. When we can see a polemics between the existing Catholic transmitted oral tradition and quite radical Protestant scripturalism.
And in practice, we see in correct case, we can see it in fact in all these cases that over time scripturalism gradually deviates from the choosing course and creates its own transmitted tradition, adjusting their teaching to some little social and intellectual needs, while keeping the original principles of scripturalism as an ideal. Can you outline the history of the further spread of karaism? Yes, the golden age of a karaism in Jerusalem, which was an important cultural center. It existed from the late ninth and until the end of the 11th century, when the city was completed by cross-adors, it's Jewish population.
This center produced very important works mostly in Arabic theology exegesis, the Al-Acha grammar by current sizes, such as the Yefid Benelli, Yosef Al-Bassir, Abu L'Faraj, Harum and many others. Jerusalem charades defined themselves as a mourners of Zion, who marked by a sketchy practices and special liturgy associated with the Messianic redemption. They called others, other Jews, to come to Jerusalem. It was a pure charade idea in order to bring Messianic chimes and rebuild the temple.
They saw the rabbinate as an impediment for redemption, for their unwillingness to come to Jerusalem. The charade communities appeared in Egypt and in Byzantium, the 10th century at least, and the Byzantium leaders came, community leaders, intellectuals came to study under Jerusalem. The teachers, one of them was the Tobias Ben-Moses, who went to Jerusalem, and after that was involved in a project of translation, all the sages worked into Hebrew, in order to make them available to Byzantine Greek-speaking charades. According to Sviyan Kori's opinion, for ideological motives, the hybridization of Byzantine charades.
Other charades communities appeared in North Africa, and during the 13th century, we find evidences about the charade communities in the Crimean Peninsula, and some of the Crimean charades later immigrated in the 14th-15th century to Poland and Lithuania. How much is known of charade literature in the medieval and early modern periods? Anan Ben-David claimed, search well in the Torah and don't rely on my opinion. This appeal for individual and interpretations adopted by early charades, and this gave an impetus to the individual creativity in the charade Bible exegesis.
The researcher, Mira Kolak, also emphasizes that charade scholars developed in this period, Shat exegesis, in parallel with the rabbinate scholars from the Slavic lands and Spain. As such, the use of the shop, which was the main exegetic method of charades, created a white common ground of charades with Spanish and Latte Sephardic scholars. Therefore, we find that the charades from the late Middle Ages made an ample use of rabbinate, Spanish literature, especially even as my monidas, Bechai, and Bakuza, and many others. The charades were focusing on the scriptures, the head wide, a solid basis in the knowledge of Hebrew and its grammar.
The knowledge of Hebrew was one of the principles of faith. It regarded a condition for the correct understanding of the Torah and its laws. Therefore, they also used the works of rabbinate grammarians, such as Judah, even K'nuj, or that, and others. The charades developed in the Islamic world and Byzantium.
Therefore, it was opened for even adopted rabbinate tradition, which included secular sciences, especially astronomy and philosophy. If we look at bookshelf, we find there such books as a spirit of grace, the basic principles of sciences, Nidrash Ha'vohma, which was the 13th century, the first Jewish in Cyclopedia, written in Spain. The intentions of the philosophers on Aristotle by the Muslim philosopher Al-Gazali, in Hebrew translations, and many other scientific books. Among the most known charades, I can mention Moshe Dari from Egypt, who lived in the 12th, 13th century, and Caleb of Endopolo from Constantinople, who was a very prolific poet who composed many secular poems, which he dedicated, for instance, for his wife, or for rabbinate exiles from Spain, from Lithuania, and many others.
During the 17th centuries, we find numerous historical chronicles, written by charades of the Crimea, where they depict local wars, natural disasters, and the events in Jewish communities, ethnic conflicts, taxation, prices, and many other data and events, which are very essential in our research about the history of these communities, the history of other peoples, and the history of the Crimea, and its neighbors. In Eastern Europe, the charades are right by three, also in a Turkey-Kipchak language, which they brought from the Crimea, and they continue to use this language as a spoken and literary language until the 20th century. In the period of Haskala, there is many poets and authors both in the Crimea and in Lithuania, Poland. One of the Crimean poets is Eliao Kazaz, who also was a famous poet and a legendary poet, Judas Savuscan, and many others.
The Aron-Kateek wrote in Russian and Tatar Karayt-Epnalek, the head of the local community, writes, binds, plays, short satiric stories, and sometimes in the spirit of the Russian realism, uncovering the problems in the Karayt society. I can mention also about the study of Kabbalah by Karayt, which is quite an interesting issue. It's pretty commonplace among the researchers that Karayt, like rabbinaids, were never involved in mystical practices, nor in the Kabbalah studies. However, today, according to the existing manuscripts, we see that these practices were quite widespread, both among the common people and within a scholarly class.
And above the Kabbalah studies, the most prominent Kabbalists was Simcha Vemmochelutsky, who lived in Busch today, in Ukraine, in the 18th century, and relocated to the Crimea, who wrote numerous books and exercises at the Kabbalah astronomy. He propagated Kabbalah study among Karayt, as he saw it as a part of a common Jewish heritage, given to Moses on the Mount Sinai. In his book, I don't know if it appears, Lutsky presents his view on the history of Kabbalistic tradition, as well as its main concepts. Especially the Kabbalah of the Al-Rim, Rabbi Trat-Luria.
And he refers exclusively, of course, to the rabbinic rabbinate authors, such as Ibn Ezra, Manides, Trat-Karama, Moshek-O-Dovil, and of course, Trat-Luria, and separate Siras, Trat-Razor, the Book of Zor. And he even criticizes my monidas for his restrained position towards Kabbalah. Although, according to Lutsky's claim, my monidas had read the book of Zor. But he didn't use this opportunity.
For Lutsky, Kabbalah was a true Torah wisdom, unlike philosophy, he compares philosophy with the... even with adult or women. Lutsky writes that hundreds of Lithuanian carites, carite scholars in the 16th and 17th centuries were involved both in the theoretical and practical Kabbalah. Also, we don't have any confirmation about it, except some texts of Kabbalah, which can be found in carite private libraries.
Lutsky saw himself as the last transmitter of Kabbalah teaching in his generation. How did Christian Pabreism construct and remember the carites? Christian, yes. In fact, the Protestant scholars were pioneers of carite studies during the 17th and 18th centuries.
And their interests found its expression in context, correspondence, and the collecting of carite manuscripts. This interest was triggered by polemics between Catholics and Protestants. The Protestants saw the carite case and their conflict with the rabbina Judaism as a historical analogy of the controversy between the Catholics and Protestants. The view also is a pure scripturalist movement that rejected the obsolete oral tradition, similar to the Protestants' rejection of the Catholic oral tradition, which Protestants created with the Talmud.
The Protestants believed that the researching of the carite original Judaism, they saw it as original, would help them understand the processes that Christianity had undergone from the its inception to their until their formation. It took a while to correct the distortions abroad by Catholic Church. I will give an example, Jacob Tregland, a professor of Semitic studies at Leiden University, asked questions about the origins of the carism and about the differences between them. And one of the contemporary carite sages, a more the Haib and Nisan, a more the book, the Haib, is an answer to Tregland's questions.
Even Swedish king Charles in this period, the 12th, who invited in Poland, asked carites about their faith and the differences between them and rabbina Jews. The Protestants hebraced who asked these questions already had a clear opinion about it. As Tregland even enrolled in his letter, I saw that carite wisdom and interpretations are superior to their of the rabbinaites, their Talmud, as light is superior to darkness. And they created a very specific image of carism.
The carites appear in numerous Protestant writings as representatives of ideal, most original and enlightened form of Judaism, in contrast to its rabbinaite version. They defined as a Pharisee Judaism and they saw carites as honest, highly moral, hardworking, original and far from super-stitians. And all these due to their adherence to the scriptures and rejecting the Talmud, which usually was defined in Christian tradition as a source of a moral corruption and prevented them to see the Christian true. And as a source of anti-Christian blasphemy.
So the Protestant perseved carites as a kind of protestance and believed that they would be the first Jews to convert to Christianity, of course, Protestant Christianity, and will serve a model for rabbinaites in the future. A Christian millinerians, such as John Dury from Scotland, even gave the carites an important role in the Messianic process, which would include, on his view, the return of the ten lost tribes to the Land of Israel, a battle at Armageddon, in which the carites army would fight at the side of Protestants and the conversion of all Jews. Of course, this image had a certain impact and influence on carites. This influence also on the character of carite studies.
It was partially adapted later in Hopmat Israel, Wissenschafta's Udentum. And of course, it influenced on the self perception of the carites themselves who were familiar with it. There was an interaction between, as I told, between the carites and Protestant scholars who transmitted their own, or in holistic fantasy, to the object of their research, who adopted this fantasy for their own social needs, using it for the construction of their national narrative. During the fight of emancipation, for emancipation in the 19th century, carites presented this idealized image produced by Protestants to the authorities.
And this was one of the factors of the indirect factor resulted in improving the social status of carite communities. How did the Protestant image of the carites influence carites own self perception? As I explained, they adopted this image. They used it for receiving civil rights.
And it also impacted on their relationship with rabbinites. From the end of the 17th century, they begin to develop an anti-rabbinic line in their literature, exactly according to the Protestants' claims about the rabbini Jews comparing these Jews to the carites, the carites, to the carism. And using, in fact, the Protestant terminology. What was the Chochmatisra el movements in Europe of the early 19th century?
Who were its primary scholarly luminaries? How did they perceive and regard the carites? Chochmatisra el, in the recent shows the student films or academic Jewish studies appear in the first decades of the 19th century in Germany. Its researchers applied the modern methods in the study of philology, Jewish history, grammar and more.
Jewish studies, in addition to the pure academic purposes, served a relico for the improvement of the legal studies of the German and European Jews. And they also intended to reduce the anti-Semitism by demonstrating the contribution of Judaism to the European civilization and providing the facts about Jewish people and Judaism. The studies of caraism appeared as part of the Chochmatisra el among the prominent scholars who searched caraism where Leopold Sun's, its hierarchy was used, Abraham Heigen, Moshe Stainshneider, Moits Stainshneider and many others who were successors of Haskala. And at the same time, the followers of Jewish reform movements.
These researchers like Protestants who were seeking new pure form of Christianity anticipated the modern, renewed form of Judaism and their returning to the scriptural roots. They perceived the movements of Anand Bandavid as a rebellion against Talmudic authority associated with distorted interpretations and obsolete laws. But if the Christianity saw the Talmud as a source of moral corruption and blasphemy against Christianity, also preventing from Jews the conversion, the Jewish Muskeem, especially reformers, so the Talmud is a factor that prevented the Jews from enlightenment, from modernization and causing a narrow mindless. Basing the research on the caraism on the Protestants' researches, writings, these reform researchers considered caraism as original, great Almodic version of Judaism as an enlightenment and lightened movement with rational principles.
Jewish studies of Mad Israel appears also in the Russian Empire in 1840s, and it is quite similar in their attitude toward caraits. Also, you can find idolization and even romanticization of caraits among the scholars who were around the river, Rotlover, and Daina, and Daina, and Daina, and Daina, and the other. As there were a current communities in Eastern Europe, Mosquilik scholars viewed the study of caraism as a special importance, and they felt responsibility as the elder brothers of the caraits to assist their younger brothers, both in dissemination of the ideas of a scallime of them, and preserving and investigating the courage and heritage, considering it as a part of common Jewish legacy. Moreover, many of these Russian, Eastern European, Mosquilim, even sold the unification between the two groups under a banner of the Haskala, and this Mosquilik ideology created a common ground for approachments between the two groups between caraits and rabbinites, and literary scholarly cooperation that lasted about 50 years.
What were the similarities and differences in world view between caraite, Mosquilim, and rabbinite, Mosquilim? The caraits who had also been influenced by Haskala also hold for changes in traditional caraite society took interest in Hebrew literature, secular education, integration into the general society. However, like rabbinite Mosquilim, the caraits didn't intend to unify with rabbinites in general, and they quite rapidly abandoned their tradition. The Russian caraits, caraits, Mosquilim, is one of the outcomes of Haskala, a disappearance of the Talmud.
For these reasons, of course, Mosquilik hopes of caraite, rabbinate, and rabbinate configuration wouldn't be realized similarly to the Messianic hopes of the Protestant millinarians in Europe. Do you describe the history of caraite to choose emancipation in Eastern Europe? Yes, the modernisation in caraite society, as well as rabbinate communities, of course, began following the Russians annexation of the Crimea in 1783, and annexation of the parts of the Polish and Tuanim, the Commonwealth in the same period. And really, dramatic changes occurred under the Russian, as well as upstream rule, which annexed also Eastern Galicia.
This annexation affected caraite legal status and the sense of their identity. Following the annexation of the Crimea, the caraits appealed to sorryst officials with requests to be distinguished from the rabbinites. In 1795, the caraite delegation from the Crimea appeared to Sankpeterburg and obtained from Empress covering the two, an exemption from the double tax imposed on all the Jews of the empire, a right to portrails real estate and other privileges. Later in 1827, the caraits were granted exemption from the compulsory military service, and in 63, they were granted civil rights, which made them equal to Christian citizens.
There were a number of factors, like the rabbinate case, the caraits, who in the success in granting them emancipation. And all these factors, there were close ties of economically powerful caraite leaders with local administration and porties, quite a high number of wealthy caraits, especially in the Crimea, who were perceived the officials of useful citizens, or exemplary Jews, similar to the poor rabbinate masses from Poland, seen as a potential treat of the treat to Russian. The small size of courage community also was a significant factor. There were 200 more than 200 caraits in the Crimea following the Russian annexation.
And according to the census of 1897, they had grown to almost 1300. In contrast, in the same year, the rabbinate population in the Russian Empire numbered 5 million to 115. But the most important factor was the creating a new caraite image distinct from that of rabbinate, which this image was created by caraits leaders. This image as the plant was met the criteria for emancipation.
These leaders, such as the Hijsutanski and around Fürko, which was also supported by scientific apology and portteries of their own historical documents. Who is Mordecai Sotanski? Mordecai Sotanski was one of the first water-dedact historians from Lutsk, Mordecai, and Josef Sotanski, the head of the Litz community, who was inspired by Haskala literature. He composed his major work, Zechal Taddiki, Memory of the Just, after the visit of the Tsar Nicholas de Frost, and his original to the Crimea, to Fündkale, the city, the previous in the Karayite Center, traditional Karayite Center in 1837.
During this visit, the guests asked Karayite community leaders and members of the history of Karayite settlement in the Crimea, and about their literature, prominent historical figures, and other questions. And anyone could not answer them. This was a very awkward situation. But this gave Sotanski and impetus to write a new Karayite history, which intended to be an instrument for promoting the civil rights.
So this Sotanski book, to demonstrate the allegedly special relations between Karayites and Christians, he claims that during the history, all the Christian authorities gave granted the Karayites special rights. As an example, he wrote about the Krasadors, their conquest of Jerusalem, which, as we know, ended with the massacres of all Jewish population, but according to Sotanski, while doing the first Krasador king of Jerusalem, he claimed that Karayites were not in Jerusalem during the second temple, and they didn't hurt Christians, intended they didn't take part in the crucifixion of Jews, and they are honest and righteous people. Sotanski, further, argued that due to Baldwin's law, it took Karayites, he granted them residence charters in Europe and in the Crimean. Of course, there is no historical evidence about such effects.
Sotanski's writings suggested such historical narrative as the issue of Byzantine and Constantine V by Raff Sangari. This is a character called Havel in Judah, Halebi's book, Kuzari, this Havel converted the Krasar king to Judaism. In the Krasar king, Krasar king to Karayism, not to Rabbani-Jill-Dahism, and in addition, he met the Russian prince Vladimir the great of Kiev. We can see here an attempt to incorporate Karayite history into the Christian, and especially the Russian one.
Of course, this is an impossible event because the Karayism in the ninth century, when according to most researchers, the Krasar converted to Judaism, the Krasar still wasn't a crystallized and organized movement with its teaching and principle of faith. Who was Avraham Benchmal, Fierkovich? Why does he warrant the detailed attention that your book devotes to him? Fierkovich was the disciple of the Haesultanski, also from Nutsk.
He was a public figure and a leader of Karayite community and an ardent collector of ancient Jewish manuscripts, whose collections were considered among the largest in the world. Fierkovich adopted the ideas of Sultanski, especially theories on the ancient origins of the Crimean Karayites, and supported these ideas by his fragmentary knowledge from the books of the Hobmat Israel and from writings of modern Russian historians. Fierkovich in 1822, relocated to the Crimean, and the ledger started a series of expeditions in the Crimean Couples, supported by the authorities and initiated by the general governor, Mikhail Wurrensau, who also supported the Karayite communities. Fierkovich's task was the search of the antiquities, history artifacts, and manuscripts, and further writing of an account of Karayite history for Russian officials.
The authorities were interested in a cultural appropriation of the newly annexed Gramea by resorting its artifacts for further incorporating them into the Russian history. The Karayite leaders were interested in attaining emancipation by means of creating a new documented Karayite history linked to the Russian one, as well as a great and positive image of the Karayites, allegedly distinct from the Rabbinites, historically, culturally, and even anthropologically. Fierkovich uncovered ancient stone in Karayite cemeteries and gathered manuscripts from the Karaynea, the Caucasus, the Little Inutwania, the land of Israel, the K-hero, Istanbul, and more, and created a new version of Karayites, or regions, Karayite history. His aim was demonstrating the critical role of the Karaynea as the permanent Karayite Cultural Center with flourishing communities already in the early Middle Ages, with sages and study halls rooted in strictly biblical Judaism, as opposed to the Talmulipia teachings.
He presented the Karayites as a descendants of the exiles of Samaria following the conquest and destruction of Samaria in 722 BCE. In fact, the descendants of the 10 lost tribes. And according to him, to Fierkovich, in the 5th century BCE, the king combises offered them the Crimean Peninsula as a reward for the services to his throne. The Kariqovich also developed a Sultan's idea about the Karayite role in the converting of Karayite king to Karayite Judaism, adding that Karayites and Karayites are mixed through the marriages.
While understanding the importance of historical documents for modern research, Kariqovich substantiated his ideas by fabricated, allegedly ancient manuscript inscriptions, and other platforms. They aim to prove the connections among others, the connections between Karayites and Kazars. One of them was his forged educational inscriptions on the authentic copy of the Book of Prophets. The inscription intended to testify that some Hoshana been somewhere from the Karayite community of Anhat, dedicated in the 9th century, this book to the Karayite community of the Chufoutkale in the Karayite.
However, the city of Anhat never existed, and the city of Chufoutkale was established more than 400 years later. And in addition, as I told, the Kariite movement was only in the stages of its shape. The Kariite didn't hesitate to add ancient dates for changing existing dates to earlier ones on the Karayite burial term inscriptions in the Karayite cemeteries of the Karayite. He changed letters on the epitaphies to the earlier dates in order to prove the early presence of the Karayite of the Karayite before the crucifixion of Jesus.
He also invented great figures of Karayite history, who in reality has never existed, and also connected them to the cranium. In order to convince his audience, his readers, researchers, the authenticity of his findings. And he tried to use scientific language and methods of critical research in order to be more convenient. During his travels, when he was seeking for antiquities, a Turkish became acquainted with leading masculine of the Russian empire, such as Bezalel Schtern, Daniel Holson, the Gautlova, Simhapinska and many others, some of them mentored him in working with historical documents and setting full of his ideas, as well as promoting his publications in the muskilic periodicals, such as Hakal Mel, Hamadid, Hamelitz, Zion, Firkovic and other leaders succeeded in making the Karayite issue a part of public discourse, and thus promoted a change in their legal status in Russian.
At the same time, Firkovic laid the foundations for de-dualization and assimilation of his community that rapidly occurred from 1990s and during the first decades of the 20th century. Although his activity was controversial, which had an important influence on the development on the field of Jewish studies involved Eastern and Western Europe. Here, the phenomenon of forgeries also had a side effect. It challenged the researchers to conduct scholarly debates to rape's mind, history sources, and to construct alternative theories, and all these gave an impetus to the development of the Karayites and Jewish studies in general.
What were the unique features of Karayite nationalism? The Karayite nationalism in Eastern Europe had the unique properties completely unparalleled in the European or Jewish world. It demonstrates an ability to alternate national history, matching it to the cultural and political agenda of the locally dominant national nation. The Russians, Poles, Rothhenians, or two Kik people, at the same time, detaching themselves from Judaism.
We saw the efforts of St. Ansky and Firkovic to incorporate the history of Eastern European and Ukrainian Karayites within the history of the ancient Russia and Russian Empire. The modified versions of Karayite medieval tradition regarding the destruction of the Samaria and the Ten lost tribes. In addition, Karayite leaders demonstrated ability to represent two different sets of concepts, one before the government and Russian society as ancient people with special religion, descendants of the Ten lost tribes.
Another, for inter-Jewish use, this duality was accompanied by separation of the religious and ethnic identity of the Karayites. Who is Sarayak Shabshal? Why is he a person of prominence? Sarayak Shabshal was a Karaymian Karayite diplomat or entilist and a graduate from the Sanpejevu University and the leader of Karayite communities of the Karaymia and Lithuania.
He was a proponent of the Khazar and Turkic origins, the theory of Khazar and Turkic origins of the Karayites, and he almost totally Turkified the Eastern European Karayites during the 20th century. The model of Karay Nationalism of Shabshal was inspired by the pan-Turkism of Kemal ataturk, while in Istanbul in the 1920s, Shabshal witnessed the accelerated reforms in Turkey, which aim was to realize a secular model of nationalism with a new identity Turkic identity, a pan-Turkic identity based on the history of Turkic people, yet almost without Islam and Arabic and including European culture. The central elements of Shabshal's view were the Turkic language spoken by Karayites and Turkic influences on Karayites folklore and customs, some of which he created by himself. Shabshal, for instance, replaced the star of David on the gate of the Jorokis synagogue in Lithuania with the Tatar-Tambga, seal or stamp used by European nomads, and he gave the Jewish holidays Turkic names.
On his opinion, Karayism was a distinction for the Jews like Christianity and Islam. At the same time, Karayism was represented according to Shabshal, the early Christianity and accepted Jesus and Muhammad as prophets. According to him, the remnants of the pagan beliefs, including the belief in two gods, the bad gods and the good gods, and pagan practices that allegedly survived among Karayites were the proof of their affinity with Turkic people, because they are especially, and the lack of connection of Karayites to the rabbinate Jews. So following Shabshal, Eastern European Karayites, the Crimean Karayites began denying any connection to the Jewish people, the denial that in addition to the due to theization and assimilation would prove life-saving for them and the Holocaust a few decades later.
As we bring our dialogue to a close, what do you hope that listeners got out of our dialogue today? I think it's the importance of the connection between historical and past, and our present life, including if all it's problematic. An important Russian researcher scholar, Mikhail Bhatin, precisely expressed it as follows, we level the other culture at the past, new questions that it never asked itself, and it replies to us. In the process, new facets and depth of meaning are revealed with it.
Thank you. I'm tremendously grateful for everything you generously shared. Thank you for your erudition, eloquence, and extraordinary insight. Thank you very much, Erin.
As we bring our dialogue to a close, what are you working on next as your current project? What are you working on now? Recently, I have been working a lot with manuscripts from 1416 centuries from the Black Sea regions and Mediterranean, trying to reconstruct cultural life on this time, to advertise between the communities and to trace the transmission of texts between courage and rabbinate communities. Another project which I would like to start is a book on various patterns of the Haskala in the Russian Empire in comparative perspective between Ashkenazim, and the current Jews and mountains.
Wow, that sounds amazing. That sounds like a marvelous idea and a marvelous initiative. I wish you the very best of luck in that project. I can hardly thank you enough for everything that I and our listeners have learned from you during the course of our dialogue today.
This has been a genuine blessing. Thank you very much, Erin. As we bring our dialogue to a close, I am your host on the new books network, Ari Barblett. Today, we have been discussing the new book by Gilda Afiezer, Historical Consciousness, Haskala and Nationalism among the Karaites of Eastern Europe, published in Leaden by Brill Publishers 2018.
Gilda Afiezer is Associate Professor of Jewish History at Ariel University in Israel. Thank you. A safer Ontario means more police and prosecutors making sure my card doesn't get stolen. It means building new jails, the key criminals behind bars.
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