INTRODUCTION: Karaite Archives is a peer-reviewed print journal which will appear annually and which focuses on the literature, languages, history and culture of the Karaites in Eastern Europe. It is designed as a forum for Karaite scholars to promote research and exchange ideas. The journal was established on the initiative of a group of European and Israeli scholars. Although formally connected with the Department of Asian Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, scholars from other academic institutions are also involved in its editing. ABOUT THE JOURNAL CURRENT ISSUE ARCHIVES INDEXED IN: Google Scholar; WorldCat JOURNAL METRICS: DOI: 10.14746/ka ISSN: 2353-2327 PUBLISHED WORK ARE LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS (2015 -):
The article, divided into five chapters, is devoted to the corpus of works by the Hebrew writer Reuven Fahn (1878–1939?) about the Karaites. The works consist of both research and literary writings. The article emphasizes the fact that Reuven Fahn was the only author who wrote stories about the lives of the Karaites in Hebrew. In the first chapter, parts of his life are depicted, emphasizing the period when he lived in the town of Halicz. The second describes briefly the variety of research and literary works he produced. The third deals with his approach as a religious Jew to research on the Karaites. The fourth studies his stories about various characters in the Karaite community and their customs. The stories demonstrate Reuven Fahn’s close familiarity with the Karaites, the compassion he felt toward them, as well as his criticism of them. The fifth is devoted to a description of seven Karaite legends that he personally heard from them and then put into writing in Hebrew. To finalize the picture, the history of the Karaites in WWII is briefly mentioned, as well as the immigration of part of the community to Israel in the 1950s. A list of selected works by Reuven Fahn concerning the Karaites is included in the article.
Two Karaim religious poems by Isaac ben Abraham Troki
This article presents two Karaim religious hymns attributed to the famous Lithuanian Karaite sage, Isaac ben Abraham Troki (1533–1594), the best known Lithuanian Karaite scholar in Europe, author of Ḥizzuk Emuna ‘The strengthening of faith’, which was translated into a number of European languages. The poems were found in two Karaite manuscripts, one undated, the other dated 1686.
Karaite Education in Crimea at the End of the 19th Century: An Unknown Resolution
The article is a contribution to studies of Karaite education in Eastern Europe. It presents an unknown resolution of the Taurida and Odessa Spiritual Consistory dated to 1898, which approved a new system of education in the Karaite communities of the Taurida and Odessa Spiritual Consistory. It was a formal act which approved the transformation of Karaite education, which was gradually taking place in the second half of the 19th century, and its permanent re-alignment in relation to the Russian education system of that time. This resolution is important as it contributed to a decline of the Hebrew language and Hebrew literature in the Karaite community.
Copyright (c) 2015 Małgorzata Machcińska
Folklore of the Karaites in Lithuania: the Yehuda Bezekowicz Manuscript from Troki, 1873
The Heb 8°3652 manuscript from the National Library of Israel is among a collection of rare manuscripts from 19th-century Lithuania containing unofficial Karaite literature. These manuscripts, including the Abkowicz 3 and JSul.I.05 manuscripts, contain a vast collection of texts relating to the practical cabbala. Some of them are typical of divination and magic literature, and many resemble parallel texts from the Cairo Geniza in their form and contents. Their presence in Karaite manuscripts is exceptional for theological reasons. The Karaite translations of these texts were presented by professor Ananiasz Zajączkowski in the inter-war period as representative evidence of Karaite folklore and folk literature. This article includes an introductory presentation of the Heb 8.3652 manuscript.
Yosef ben Mordekhay Malinowski: On the date of his death
According to Jacob Mann, Yosef ben Mordekhay Malinowski, the prominent pupil of Yiṣḥaq ben Avraham of Troki, died after 1624. This article quotes some new data on the date of his death and proves it should be established within a few years after 1603. It points out that most probably Malinowski left Troki and moved to Łuck in 1602. The article also gives his brief genealogy and a list of his works.
Copyright (c) 2015 Piotr Muchowski, Arie Yariv
An Early North-Western Karaim Bible Translation from 1720. Part 1. The Torah
In this article an early Bible translation into north-western Karaim is described. The manuscript, written in Hebrew script (in its Karaim semi-cursive variant), dates back to 1720, which makes it the oldest western Karaim Bible translation to be hitherto critically analysed. The manuscript was copied in Kukizów by Simcha ben Chananiel (died in the 1720s). The language of the manuscript reveals archaic features, among others, consonant harmony in the process of emerging.
A New Karaite-Turkish Manuscript from Germany: New Light on Genre and Language in Karaite and Rabbanite Turkic Bible Translations in the Crimea, Constantinople and Elsewhere
A Karaite manuscript in Istanbuli Turkish written in Hebrew characters has turned up in Germany lately. This article investigates the whereabouts of the manuscript and tries to place it in its historical and linguistic context. Although the manuscript was apparently written/copied in Constantinople, the Turkic language used in it has some Crimean connections. The novelty of this discovery lies in the fact that Turkish was used by the 19th century Constantinople Karaites as a literary language.
A Document on the Economic Status of the Lutsk Karaites in the Mid-19th century
Among the various documents preserved in the community’s archives is a handwritten list containing the names, properties and professions of the Lutsk Karaites. Compiled in 1854, it provides data about various economic and social aspects of the community’s life in the mid-19th century. It is also a valuable source of information on anthroponomy and genealogy. In the article, the content of the manuscript is presented, as well as additional information obtained through a comparison with other sources.
Documents in the Firkovich Collection: Valuable Sources on the History of the Jewish Communities in Europe and the Middle East from the 12th to the 19th century
The paper presents a survey of the manuscript collections of Avraham Firkovich, and, in particular, of the handwritten documents it contains in Hebrew, Arabic, West-Russian and other languages. These historical documents belonged to the Karaite (mostly of Lithuania), Rabbanite and Samaritan communities, and reflect their life in Europe and the Middle East from the 12th to the 19thcentury. These historical sources were included in different library funds and described in several inventory hand-lists; some archival materials have been presented in printed catalogues, and many items have been published and translated into European languages. In the paper, a brief survey of the documents is given, as well as the history of their acquisition by Firkovich and the history of their cataloguing and research over the past 150 years.
Review of О. Береговський, С. Побуцький, Я. Поташник, Караïми та ïх роль у контексті світовоï спільноти. Матеріали міжнародної конференції [Karaïmi ta ïh rol’ u kontekst svìtovoï spìl’noti. Materìali mìžnarodnoï naukovoï konferencìï] ‘Karaites and Their Role in the Context of the Global Community. Materials from an International Conference’. Галич: Національний заповідник “Давній Галич”, 2012, 98 pages. ISBN - 966-8090 - 56 - 9
Review of Urzeczeni Orientem. Listy Ananiasza Zajączkowskiego do Tadeusza Kowalskiego 1925–1948. Pod redakcją Tadeusza Majdy. ‘Enchanted by Orient. Letters of Ananiasz Zajączkowski to Tadeusz Kowalski 1925–1948. Edited by Tadeusz Majda’, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Agade, 2013, 226 pages. ISBN 978-83-89111-63-2.
Review of Mariusz Pawelec (ed.) Almanach Karaimski 2 (2013) ‘Karaim Almanac’, Wrocław: Bitik, 2013, 190 pages. ISSN 2300-8164.
Review of Nesrin Güllüdağ, Kırımçak Türkçesi Grameri ‘A Grammar of Krymchak Turkic’, Ankara: Gece Kitaplığı. 2014, 496 pages. ISBN 9786054942619.