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Not by Firkowicz's Fault: Daniel Chwolson's Comic Blunders in Research of Hebrew Epigraphy of the Crimea and Caucasus, and their Impact on Jewish Studies in Russia

Nosonovsky, Michael and Shapira, Dan and Vasyutinsky-Shapira, Daria (2020) Not by Firkowicz's Fault: Daniel Chwolson's Comic Blunders in Research of Hebrew Epigraphy of the Crimea and Caucasus, and their Impact on Jewish Studies in Russia. ACTA ORIENTALIA ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM HUNGARICAE, 73 (4). pp. 633-668. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

Daniel Chwolson (1819-1911) made a huge impact upon the research of Hebrew epigraphy from the Crimea and Caucasus. Despite that, his role in the more-than-a-century-long controversy regarding Crimean Hebrew tomb inscriptions has not been well studied. Chwolson, at first, adopted Abraham Firkowicz's forgeries, and then quickly realized his mistake; however, he could not back up. The criticism by both Abraham Harkavy and German Hebraists questioned Chwolson's scholarly qualifications and integrity. Consequently, the interference of political pressure into the academic argument resulted in the prevailing of the scholarly flawed opinion. We revisit the interpretation of these findings by Russian, Jewish, Karaite and Georgian historians in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the Soviet period, Jewish Studies in the USSR were in neglect and nobody seriously studied the whole complex of the inscriptions from the South of Russia / the Soviet Union. The remnants of the scholarly community were hypnotized by Chwolson's authority, who was the teacher of their teachers' teachers. At the same time, Western scholars did not have access to these materials and/or lacked the understanding of the broader context, and thus a number of erroneous Chwolson's conclusion have entered academic literature for decades.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: history; Jews in the Crimea; Jews in the Caucasus; Karaites in the Crimea; Hebrew Epigraphy; Daniel Chwolson; Abraham Harkavy; Abraham Firkowicz/Firkovich;
Subjects: D History General and Old World / történelem > D0 History (General) / történelem általában
P Language and Literature / nyelvészet és irodalom > PI Oriental languages and literatures / keleti nyelvek és irodalmak
SWORD Depositor: MTMT SWORD
Depositing User: MTMT SWORD
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2022 08:13
Last Modified: 10 Nov 2022 08:13
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/153206

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