Golda Akhiezer

Books and Book Scribes in the Jewish Communities  of the Golden Horde (Solkhat)

Our knowledge of the history of the Jewish communities in the Golden Horde (the thirteenth–  the early fifteenth century), as well as the Mongol Empire on the whole, is quite limited due to poor documentation that survived from this period. An exception is the city of Solkhat – the regional capital of the Golden Horde in the Crimean Peninsula, and the neighbouring Genoese Kaffa, where numerous texts from Solkhat were transferred. Solkhat, a city built by the Mongols on the Silk Road, was an important trade and cultural center for the Golden Horde. It was a multi-ethno-religious city, with two Jewish communities – a Rabbanite and a Karaite one, most of whose members apparently coming from Persia, central Asia and Byzantium. Hebrew manuscripts from Solkhat, with various texts including inscriptions (colophons, deeds of sale and ownership and dedication notes) have survived along with archaeological evidence related to its Jewish, especially Karaite population. These archaeological artefacts, especially the recent discovery of the ruins of the Karaite synagogue, among the largest in the Black sea area, shed a new light on the history of the Jewish communities in this region. The existing sources contribute to our understanding of the historical and cultural processes in the Solkhat Jewish communities, and in the whole Black sea region. Based on these surviving sources, this article aims at a partial reconstruction of the communal, and primarily intellectual life of the Jewish communities of Solkhat. This research includes an identification of the community institutions and leaders, scribes, and practices associated with the book consumption, as well as an assessment of their bookshelf. This article also intends to trace selected patterns of interaction between Rabbanites and Karaites, as well as the transmission and exchange of texts between the Jewish communities in the Crimean Peninsula and with other communities.

The last Tatar khan in the Crimean Peninsula, Şahin Giray, lived during the period that saw the annexation of this Ottoman suzerainty by the Russian Empire. He is the first recorded Muslim ruler in history who tried to introduce a program of modernization based on contemporary European models, and his reforms concerned all spheres of Tatar society. In spite of his collaboration with the Russian Empire, Russian historiography is generally critical toward this khan and skeptical regarding his reforms. The Ottoman historians saw Şahin as a traitor, therefore his achievements were ignored in their writings. A completely different approach regarding Şahin Giray and his innovations can be found in a little-known Jewish-Karaite chronicle, presenting an additional cultural-historical dimension from the perspective of minorities. The purpose of the present article is to analyze political and socio-cultural factors of these distinctions between the imperial standpoint and minority perspective.

The Crimean Peninsula was one of the important Jewish cultural centers of the Black Sea region, as evidenced by the surviving manuscripts found during the 19th century in the Rabbanite and Karaite Crimean and Byzantine communities. These manuscripts-their texts, colophons, deeds of sale, or ownership notes are used in this article as tools for reconstructing cultural history of these communities. They reveal Byzantine influences on various spheres of the intellectual life of Crimean Jewry, as well as on the pathways of transmission of books and of the distribution of knowledge between the Crimea and the Mediterranean. These selected materials show the patterns of interaction between the Rabbanites and Karaites, including their practices of consumption and exchange of texts.

Research Objectives: A reconstruction of the history and cultural life of the Jewish communities in Medieval Solkhat in the context of the urban life of the multicultural and multiconfessional city of the Golden Horde. Research Materials: The article is based on the results of historical research from the 19th to the 21st centuries, as well as new archaeological excavations in Stary Krym conducted by M.G. Kramarovsky. Medieval Jewish manuscripts from Crimea are also an important source, shedding light on the history of the Jewish (Karaite and Rabbinic) communities of Solkhat. Results and Novelty of the Research: The history of the Crimean Jewish communities, especially in Medieval Solkhat, is a field that has not been thoroughly researched. Therefore, events such as the discovery by M.G. Kramarovsky of the ruins of the 13th-century synagogue, along with associated artefacts related to these communities, are important milestones in the research of the Jewish past of Solkhat and the history of the Golden Horde. The combination and juxtaposition of the new archaeological material with the existing Jewish manuscripts from Crimea, which until recently had not been systematically researched, shed light on a little-known aspect of that historical period. Such a combination of sources provided the authors with an opportunity to carry out a partial reconstruction of the cultural and social life of the Jewish communities of Solkhat and an assessment of their place in the context of the medieval urban life of this multicultural and multireligious centre of the Golden Horde.

In the 19th century, the Crimean Peninsula became a focus of attraction for educated elites of Polish Karaites, who lived in conditions of poverty and economic competition with Rabbanite Jews in their homeland. The image of Crimea in their eyes was that of a "land of milk and honey" and a prominent center of Torah knowledge. However, a collision with reality soon forced some of these "Ashkenazic" Karaite immigrants to change their perception. Influenced by the new political and cultural agenda of Russian ruling circles that attributed to the peninsula a special political, cultural, and symbolic dimension, they now presented Crimea as the cradle of the Russian Karaites. Contributing to this new perception was the Jewish Haskalah movement, which provided Karaite leaders with historical knowledge, as well as tools and methods, to support their ahistorical claims. These factors significantly contributed to transforming the Jewish Karaite community into a separate nation.

The anti-Judaic polemical book, The True Messiah (1669), composed by the Orthodox archimandrite Yoannikii Galiatovskii from the Mohyla Academy in Kiev, was a response to the emergence of the messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi, the largest of its kind throughout Jewish history. Sabbatianism, as a theological phenomenon attracting not only Jews but also Christians from Eastern Europe, occupies a prominent place in Galiatovskii's polemic. This article aims to analyse its novel Orthodox anti-Judaic features, together with factors which led to their development.

This study is an attempt to reconstruct the intellectual life of the Crimean Jewish communities (both Rabbanite and Karaite) from the Middle Ages to early modern times in their wide cultural context. The article is based on manuscripts related to Solkhat, the regional capital of the Golden Horde, and Genoese (and early Ottoman) Kaffa, which can shed light on the spiritual life of their Jewish communities. These manuscripts provide us with a perspective on the areas of interests, patterns of knowledge, and modes of study prevalent in these Jewish communities. They offer evidence for the contents of Jewish libraries and the span of Crimean Jews' intellectual contacts with their Jewish and non-Jewish cultural environments.
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's study "The Sons of Scripture: the Karaites in Poland and Lithua-nia in the Twentieth Century" is a milestone not only in the study of Karaism, but also of many aspects of the history of the Rabbinic Jews in Eastern Europe. Although there are a number of studies on Eastern European Jewry between the two world wars, research on the history, culture and identity of the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania of this period is extremely scarce. Furthermore, many studies of this topic reflect views based on the theories of the Turkic origin of the Karaites, which were based on the ideas of the Karaite leaders in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their goal was to create a new Karaite history and tradition , different from that of other Jews in order to obtain for the Karaites rights equal to those of the non-Jewish population of the Russian Empire. Kizilov's study fills this gap – important both in historical and cultural sense – and reconstructs the history of the modern Karaites about which we, oddly enough, know very little. The introduction to the book and the first chapter present to the readers the essence of Karaite studies, which differ so much from other areas of Jewish studies. Here the author speaks, above all, about a considerable amount of sources, which include oral traditions published by the aforementioned Karaite leaders, results of anthropological studies, travelers' notes, journalist reports etc. Most of these sources, whose contents were uncritically accepted by modern scholars, should be used with a grain of salt. Many legends, documented by Karaite leaders, were only partly based on genuine Karaite folklore and, to a large extent, presented the fruits of fantasy of these leaders. Their task was to prove to the local authorities " aborig-inality " of the Karaite population in Eastern Europe and to emphasize " special " attitude of Christian rulers to the Karaites as well as importance of the Karaites to the well-being of these countries.

Dear Colleagues, Religious polemics are a multifaceted phenomenon which can be defined as a discursive conflict, or a tool for discovering and disseminating "the truth motivated by a sense of mission. Their typology can be classified into strategies, methods, or arguments. A religious polemic manifests itself in literature intended for internal use or addressed to dispute opponents. It often includes the coercion of the opposite side to participate in public disputation, frequently ending in forced conversion, as we have encountered in medieval Christian-Jewish polemics. There are also examples of the voluntary participation of Jews, Muslims, and various Christian denominations in religious disputations, as in the case of radical Protestants in Poland. Religious polemics have been studied as part of research in theology, philosophy, sociology of religion, and history, with a focus on case studies and specific disputations or varieties of polemics. This Special Issue is aimed at exploring religious polemics from the phenomenological standpoint, seeking to deepen our understanding of religious polemics in a wide cultural, historical, and social context. The articles will deal with a variety of religious polemics between monotheistic religions, sects, and denominations, as well as with polytheistic involvement in religious polemics. The chronological frame of the articles will encompass the early Middle Ages through to the 19 th century. Articles presenting new methodological or comparative perspectives will be especially welcome. Scholars are invited to submit essays on specific and general topics: Public disputation as social practice, its strategies, tactics, and tools; its role in the phenomenon of conversion; The typology of the polemics' argumentation (e.g., exegetical, philosophical, or historical); Dynamics and changes in religious polemics through the lens of history; Polemical literature: authors, aims, and target audiences; Constructing the "religious other" through religious polemics; Research on religious polemics-new perspectives and methodologies.

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Identity, National Policies and National Histories in the Modern Age:
The Cases of Israel and the States of Central Asia and the Caucasus

Center for Research of Jewish Communities on the Caucasus and Central Asia (CJCC), Ariel University