HISTORY OF THE JEWS
IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
UNTIL THE PRESENT DAY
HISTORY OF THE JEWS
IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
UNTIL THE PRESENT DAY
BY
S. M. DUBNOW
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
BY
I. FRIEDLAENDER
VOLUME I
FROM THE BEGINNING UNTIL THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER I
(1825)
[Illustration]
PHILADELPHIA
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
It is not my intention to expatiate in these prefatory remarks on the
present work and its author. A history of the Jews in Russia and Poland
from the pen of S. M. Dubnow needs neither justification nor
recommendation. The want of a work of this kind has long been keenly
felt by those interested in Jewish life or Jewish letters, never more
keenly than to-day when the flare of the world conflagration has thrown
into ghastly relief the tragic plight of the largest Jewry of the
Diaspora. As for the author, his power of grasping and presenting the
broad aspects of general Jewish history and his lifelong, painstaking
labors in the particular field of Russian-Jewish history fit him in
singular measure to cope with the task to which this work is dedicated.
In what follows I merely wish to render account of the English
translation and of the form of the original which it has endeavored to
reproduce.
The translation is based upon a work in Russian which was especially
prepared by Mr. Dubnow for THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA.
Those acquainted with modern Jewish literature in the Russian language
know that the author of our book has treated the same subject in his
general history of the Jewish people, in three volumes, and in a number
of special studies published by him in the periodical _Yevreyskaya
Starina_ ("Jewish Antiquity"). Upon this material Mr. Dubnow has freely
drawn for the present work, after subjecting it to a careful revision,
and so supplementing and co-ordinating it that to all intents and
purposes the book issued herewith is a new and independent publication.
Moreover, the history of Russian Jewry after 1881, comprising the
gruesome era of pogroms and expulsions, has been written by Mr. Dubnow
entirely anew, and will appear for the first time as part of this work.
The present publication may thus properly claim to give the first
comprehensive and systematic account of the history of Russo-Polish
Jewry.
The work is divided into two volumes. The first volume, now offered to
the public, contains the history of the Jews of Russia and Poland from
its beginnings until the death of Alexander I., in 1825. The second
volume will continue the historic narrative up to the very threshold of
the present. The book was originally scheduled to appear at a later
date. The great events of our time, which have made the question of
Russian Jewry a part of the world problem, suggested the importance of
earlier publication. In order that there might be as little delay as
possible in giving the book to the public, the maps and the
bibliographical apparatus were reserved for the second volume. The same
volume, which, it is hoped, will appear in the course of this year, will
contain also the index to the whole work.
My task as translator has been considerably facilitated by the
self-abnegation of the author, who gave me permission to act as editor
and to adapt the original to the requirements of an English version. I
have made frequent use of the privilege accorded to me, and have
endeavored throughout to bridge the wide gap which stretches between the
Russian and American reading public in matters of literary taste. This
editorial activity includes a number of changes in the framework of the
book, which was originally divided into sections of disproportionate
length, and has now been arranged in a more uniform manner. In the
course of this rearrangement, it became necessary to change the wording
of some of the headings so as to bring them into greater conformity with
English literary usage. It should be pointed out, however, that the
changes made are of a stylistic nature, or relate only to the skeleton
of the book. With the exception of a few passages, they leave the
contents untouched, and the responsibility for the latter rests entirely
with the author.
As translator I had resolved to keep myself in the background and act
solely as the interpreter of the author. Much to my regret I found
myself unable to maintain this attitude uniformly. The text was already
in type when it was borne in upon me that the subject of the book,
dealing as it does with the lands of Eastern Europe, was a _terra
incognita_ to the average American reader, and that many things in it
must perforce be wholly or partly unintelligible to him if left without
an explanation. There was nothing for me to do but to step into the
breach and supply the deficiency. I did so by adding a number of
footnotes, which, in distinction from those of the author, are placed in
brackets. With very few exceptions these notes are not of a
supplementary, but of an explanatory, nature. They are confined to such
information as the reader may need to grasp the full bearing of the
text. I trust that in some small measure these detached notes may serve
instead of a systematic account of the general development of Eastern
Europe, which, it was originally hoped, might be supplied by the
authoritative pen of Mr. Dubnow himself, as a background for the history
of Russo-Polish Jewry. An attempt in this direction, within a narrow
compass and with no pretense to completeness, has been undertaken by
the present writer in a recent publication of his own.[1]
A word must be said concerning the spelling of foreign names and terms,
which are naturally numerous in a work like the present. After
considerable deliberation I decided on the phonetic method, as being the
most convenient from the point of view of the reader. I have
consequently endeavored to reproduce, as far as possible, the original
sounds of all foreign words in English characters. In conformity with
this principle, I have adopted the spelling _Tzar_, instead of _Czar_.
As far as I am aware, the only exception is the Russian word _ukase_,
which reflects in its spelling the effect of French transmission, and is
to be pronounced _ookaz_, with the accent on the last syllable. Needless
to say I have had to resort to artificial contrivances to indicate those
sounds which are unknown in English, but I have reduced these
contrivances to a minimum. They are as follows: _zh_ represents the
Slavic sound which corresponds to French _j_; _kh_ stands for the sound
which is to be pronounced like hard German _ch_ (as in _lachen_, not as
in _brechen_); _tz_ is the equivalent of a Slavic letter which is to be
pronounced like German _z_. To avoid mispronunciation, _g_ in all
foreign words has been spelled _gh_ before _e_ and _i_. _U_ in these
words is to be pronounced like _oo_, and _a_ like French and short
German _a_. With every desire for uniformity, I have yet little doubt
that inconsistencies will be found, particularly in the transliteration
of Hebrew, which, as a Semitic idiom, is more difficult of phonetic
reproduction than are even the Slavic languages. I hope that these
inconsistencies are not numerous enough to be offensive.
The method of transliteration referred to in the foregoing presents a
special difficulty in the case of Polish names, in view of the fact that
the Polish language uses the general European alphabet, and that the
Polish spelling of such names has found access to other languages. In
some instances even the question of identity may arise. Thus, to quote
but one example out of many, the name _Chmielnicki_, written in this
form in Polish, differs considerably from the phonetic spelling
_Khmelnitzk_i, adopted in this volume. To meet this difficulty, the
index to this work will give all Polish names and expressions both in
their transliterated English forms and in their original Polish
spelling.
In conclusion, it is my pleasant duty to record my appreciation of the
help rendered me in my task. I am indebted to the Honorable Mayer
Sulzberger for his great kindness in reading the proofs of this volume
and in giving me the benefit of his subtle literary judgment. Professor
Alexander Marx has assisted me by reading the proofs and making a number
of suggestions. My thanks are finally due to Miss Henrietta Szold for
her indefatigable and most valuable co-operation.
I. F.
NEW YORK, May 19, 1916.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] "The Jews of Russia and Poland. A Bird's-Bye View of Their History
and Culture" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915). To avoid any misconception on
the part of the reader, I desire to point out that the aim and scope of
my little volume are totally different from those of Mr. Dubnow's work.
As indicated in the title of my sketch, and as stated in the preface to
it, my purpose was none other than to present a "bird's-eye view" of the
subject, to point out the large bearings of the problem, with no
intention on my part "to offer new and independent results of
investigation." The publication is based on a course of lectures
delivered by me before the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate
Learning in Philadelphia in March, 1915. My natural reluctance to
anticipate Mr. Dubnow's large work was overcome by the encouragement of
several friends, among them Mr. Dubnow himself, who, from their
knowledge of public affairs, thought that a succinct, popular
presentation of the destinies of the Jews in the Eastern war area was a
word in due season.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE JEWISH DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE
1. The Jewish Settlements on the Shores of the Black Sea 13
2. The Kingdom of the Khazars 19
3. The Jews in the Early Russian Principalities
and in the Tataric Khanate of the Crimea 29
II. THE JEWISH COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA
1. The Immigration from Western Europe during
the Period of the Crusades 39
2. The Charter of Prince Boleslav and the Canons
of the Church 43
3. Rise of Polish Jewry under Casimir the Great 50
4. Polish Jewry during the Reign of Yaghello 54
5. The Jews of Lithuania during the Reign of Vitovt 58
6. The Conflict between Royalty and Clergy under
Casimir IV. and His Sons 61
III. THE AUTONOMOUS CENTER IN POLAND AT ITS ZENITH (1501-1648)
1. Social and Economic Conditions 66
2. The Liberal Régime of Sigismund I. 70
3. Liberalism and Reaction in the Reigns of Sigismund
Augustus and Stephen Batory 83
4. Shlakhta and Royalty in the Reigns of Sigismund
III. and Vladislav IV. 91
IV. THE INNER LIFE OF POLISH JEWRY AT ITS ZENITH
1. Kahal Autonomy and the Jewish Diets 103
2. The Instruction of the Young 114
3. The High-Water Mark of Rabbinic Learning 121
4. Secular Sciences, Philosophy, Cabala, and Apologetics 131
V. THE AUTONOMOUS CENTER IN POLAND DURING ITS DECLINE (1648-1772)
1. Economic and National Antagonism in the Ukraina 139
2. The Pogroms and Massacres of 1648-1649 144
3. The Russian and Swedish Invasions (1654-1658) 153
4. The Restoration (1658-1697) 158
5. Social and Political Dissolution 167
6. A Frenzy of Blood Accusations 172
7. The Massacre of Uman and the First Partition of Poland 180
VI. THE INNER LIFE OF POLISH JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF DECLINE
1. Jewish Self-Government 188
2. Rabbinical and Mystical Literature 198
3. The Sabbatian Movement 204
4. The Frankist Sect 211
5. The Rise of Hasidism and Israel Baal-Shem-Tob 220
6. The Hasidic Propaganda and the Growth of Tzaddikism 229
7. Rabbinism, Hasidism, and the Forerunners of Enlightenment 235
VII. THE RUSSIAN QUARANTINE AGAINST JEWS (TILL 1772)
1. The Anti-Jewish Attitude of Muscovy during the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 242
2. The Jews under Peter I. and His Successors 246
3. Elizabeth Petrovna and the First Years of Catherine II. 254
VIII. POLISH JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS
1. The Jews of Poland after the First Partition 262
2. The Period of the Quadrennial Diet (1788-1791) 278
3. The Last Two Partitions and Berek Yoselo 291
4. The Duchy of Warsaw and the Reaction under Napoleon 298
IX. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE RUSSIAN RÉGIME
1. The Jewish Policy of Catherine II. (1772-1796) 306
2. Jewish Legislative Schemes during the Reign of Paul I. 321
3. Dyerzhavin's "Opinion" on the Jewish Problem 328
X. THE "ENLIGHTENED ABSOLUTISM" OF ALEXANDER I.
1. "The Committee for the Amelioration of the Jews" 335
2. The "Jewish Constitution" of 1804 342
3. The Projected Expulsion from the Villages 345
4. The Patriotic Attitude of Russian Jewry during
the War of 1812 355
5. Economic and Agricultural Experiments 359
XI. THE INNER LIFE OF RUSSIAN JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD
OF "ENLIGHTENED ABSOLUTISM"
1. Kahal Autonomy and City Government 366
2. The Hasidic Schism and the Intervention of the Government 371
3. Rabbinism, Hasidism, and Enlightened "Berlinerdom" 379
XII. THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER I.
1. "The Deputation of the Jewish People" 390
2. Christianizing Endeavors 396
3. "Judaizing" Sects in Russia 401
4. Recrudescence of Anti-Jewish Legislation 403
6. The Russian Revolutionaries and the Jews 409
CHAPTER I
THE JEWISH DIASPORA IN EASTERN EUROPE
1. THE JEWISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA
From the point of view of antiquity the Jewish Diaspora in the east of
Europe is the equal of that in the west, though vastly its inferior in
geographic expansion and spiritual development. It is even possible that
the settlement of Jews in the east of Europe antedates their settlement
in the west. For Eastern Europe, beginning with Alexander the Great,
received its immigrants from the ancient lands of Hellenized Asia, while
the immigration into Western Europe proceeded in the main from the Roman
Empire, the heir to the Hellenic dominion of the East.
Among the ancient Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe the colonies
situated on the northern shores of the Black Sea, now forming a part of
the Russian Empire, occupy a prominent place.
Far back in antiquity the Greeks of Asia Minor and the Ionian Islands
gravitated towards the northern shores of the Pontus Euxinus, the
fertile lands of Tauris--the present Crimea.[2] Beginning with the sixth
century B.C.E., they established their colonies in those parts, whence
they exported corn to their homeland, Greece. When, after the conquests
of Alexander the Great, Judea became a part of the Hellenistic Orient,
and sent forth the "great Diaspora" into all the dominions of the
Seleucids and Ptolemies, one of the branches of this Diaspora must have
reached as far as distant Tauris. Following in the wake of the Greeks,
the Jews wandered thither from Asia Minor, that conglomerate of
countries and cities--Cilicia, Galatia, Miletus, Ephesus, Sardis,
Tarsus--which harbored, at the beginning of the Christian era, important
Jewish communities, the earliest nurseries of Christianity. In the first
century of the Christian era, which marks the consolidation of the Roman
power over the Hellenized East, we meet in the Greek colonies of Tauris
with fully organized Jewish communities, which undoubtedly represent
offshoots of a much older colonization.
During the same period there flourished in the Crimea and on the
adjacent shores of the Black and Azov Seas, called by the Greeks Pontus
and Maeotis, in the lands of the Scythians, Sarmatians, and Taurians, a
number of diminutive Greek city-republics--Cimmerian Bosporus, or
Panticapaeum (at present Kerch), Phanagoria (the Taman Peninsula),
Olbia, Gorgippia (now Anapa), and others. The most active of these
colonies was Bosporus-Panticapaeum, which was situated at the confluence
of the Black and Azov Seas. The kings, or archonts, of Bosporus, of the
Greek dynasty of the Rhescuporides, acknowledged the sovereignty of
Rome. They styled themselves, in accordance with the customary formula,
"friends of the Caesars and the Romans," and frequently added to their
title the Roman dynastic appellation "Tiberius-Julius." The Jewish
historian Josephus Flavius, in depicting the irresistible sway of the
Roman world-power in his time, refers to this colony in the following
terms: "Why need I speak of the Heniochi and Colchians and the nation of
the Tauri, and those who inhabit the Bosporus and the nations about
Pontus and Maeotis ... who are now subject to three thousand armed men,
and where forty long ships keep in peace the sea which before was
unnavigable, and is very tempestuous?" (Bell. Jud. II. xvi. 4.) These
words were written shortly after the downfall of Judea, about the year
80 of the Christian era.
Now from practically the same year (80-81) date the Greek inscriptions
which were discovered on the soil of ancient Bosporus in Tauris,
testifying to the existence there of a well-organized Jewish community,
with a house of prayer. The following is the text of one of these
inscriptions, engraved on a marble tablet which is kept in the Hermitage
of Petrograd:
In the reign of King Tiberius Julius Rhescuporides, the pious
friend of the Caesars and the Romans, in the year 377,[3] on the
twelfth day of the month of Peritios, I, Chresta, formerly the
wife of Drusus, declare in the house of prayer (προσευχή) that
my foster-son Heracles is free once [for all], in accordance
with my vow, so that he may not be captured or annoyed by my
heirs, and may move about wherever he chooses, without let or
hindrance, except for [the obligation of visiting] the house of
prayer for worship and constant attendance. [Done] with the
approval of my heirs Iphicleides and Heliconias, and with the
participation of the Synagogue of the Jews in the guardianship
(συνεπιτροπευούσης δὲ καὶ τῆς συναγωγῆς τῶν Ἰουδαίων).
This inscription, paralleled by a similar document of the same period,
was evidently meant to certify the act of liberating a slave, which,
according to custom, was performed publicly, in the "house of prayer,"
with the participation of the representatives of the Jewish
community.[4]
The contents of the inscriptions enable us to draw the following
conclusions bearing on the history of the Jews during that period:
1. The Jewish community in Taurian Bosporus was made up of
Hellenized Jews, who employed the Greek language in their
religious and civil documents, and called themselves by Greek
names (Chresta, Drusus, Heracles, Artemisia, etc.). 2. While
assimilated to the Greeks in point of language, they were firmly
united among themselves by the bond of religion, as is shown by
the obligation, imposed even on the freedman, the _libertinus_,
to visit the house of prayer for worship. 3. The Jewish
community enjoyed a certain amount of civil autonomy, as shown
in the case cited above, in which the community appears in the
rôle of a juridical person, acting as the guardian of the
liberated slaves.
It is to be assumed that similar communities of Hellenized Jews were
found in the other Greek colonies of Tauris, their population being
constantly swelled by the influx of immigrants from Asia Minor, Syria,
and Egypt, particularly from Judeo-Hellenistic Alexandria. Since these
communities of the first Christian century appear to have been
well-organized and to have possessed their own institutions, we are safe
in assuming that they were preceded by a more primitive phase of
communal Jewish life, in the shape of petty settlements and trading
stations, which must have arisen in earlier centuries.
From the first centuries of the Christian era date a number of
tombstones bearing representations of the holy candlestick, the Menorah.
The religious influence of Judaism in Tauris and in the Azov region is
attested by various other indications. The inscriptions contain several
references to "those who fear God the Most High" (σεβόμενοι θεὸν ὕψιστον),
a phrase applied in the Greco-Roman world to pagans who stand half-way
between polytheism on the one hand and Judaism or primitive Christianity
on the other.
The Judeo-Hellenistic Diaspora in Tauris, on the northern shores of the
Black Sea, was, like its parent stock in Asia Minor, the center of a
Christian propaganda. Towards the end of the third century we find in
Chersonesus, near Sevastopol, Christian bishops wielding considerable
power. The exercise of this power was evidently responsible for the
pagan rebellion of which we read in the lives of the Christian martyrs
Basil and Capiton. On the sixth of December of the year 300 the pagan
inhabitants rose in revolt against these two bishops and their
fellow-missionaries, and were joined by the Jews, whom, it would seem,
the zealots of the new faith had endeavored equally to drag into the
bosom of the Church.
The existence of a Jewish settlement in the Bosporan kingdom was also
known to St. Jerome, the famous Church father, who lived at the end of
the fourth century in far-off Palestine. On the authority of his Jewish
teacher he applied verse 20 in Obadiah, "and the captivity of Jerusalem
which is in Sepharad," to the Taurian Bosporus, the remotest corner of
the Jewish Diaspora.[5]
With the division of the Roman Empire into two halves the Greco-Judean
colonies on the Black Sea were naturally drawn into the sphere of
influence of the eastern part, the Empire of Byzantium, the capital of
which, Constantinople, was situated on the opposite coast of the Black
Sea. Commercial relations brought the Taurian colony into ever closer
contact with the metropolis of Byzantium, and the Jews vied with the
Greeks in the promotion of trade. The persecutions of the militant
Church of Byzantium under the Emperors Theodosius II., Zeno, and
Justinian, during the fifth and sixth centuries, drove the Jews from the
ancient provinces of the Empire into the Taurian colonies. In the eighth
century the Jewish population of these colonies was so numerous that the
Byzantine chronicler Theophanes places the Jews in the forefront of the
various groups of the population. "In Phanagoria and the neighboring
region," says Theophanes, "the Jews who live there are surrounded by
many other tribes."
These colonies were frequently visited by Christian missionaries, who
endeavored to convert the native population to their faith, and
incidentally also to win over the Jews. The Patriarchs of Constantinople
were then hopeful of drawing the people of the Old Testament into the
fold of the New. The Patriarch Photius, of the ninth century, writes
thus to the Bishop of Bosporus (Kerch): "Wert thou also to capture the
Judeans there, securing their obedience unto Christ, I should welcome
with my whole soul the fruits of such beautiful hopes." The "Judeans,"
however, not only did not take the bait of the missionaries, but even
managed to spoil their propaganda among the pagans. The most illustrious
of all Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, had frequent
occasion to quarrel with "the Judeans, who blaspheme the Christian
faith," and the boastful ecclesiastic legend asserts that the holy
brothers "by prayer and eloquence defeated the Judeans [in disputes] and
put them to shame" (about 860).
The struggle between the Christian missionaries and the Jews during that
period had for its object the Khazar nation, part of whom had embraced
Judaism.
2. THE KINGDOM OF THE KHAZARS
While Byzantium was pressing on the Euxine colonies from the west,
endeavoring to draw them, together with the adjoining lands of the
Slavs, into the sphere of Christian civilization, a new power from the
east, from the Caucasus and the Caspian region, came rushing along in
the same direction. We refer to the Khazars, or Kazars.[6] Forming
originally a conglomerate of Finno-Turkish tribes, the warlike Khazars
appeared in the Caucasus during the "migration of nations," and began to
make inroads into the Persian Empire of the Sassanids, often acting as
the tools of Persia's rival, Byzantium. The great Arabic conquests of
the seventh century and the rise of the powerful Eastern Caliphate
checked the movement of the Khazars towards the East, and turned it
westward, to the shores of the Caspian Sea, the mouths of the Volga and
the Don, the Byzantine colonies on the Black and Azov Seas, and, in
particular, the flourishing region of Tauris. At the mouth of the Volga,
where the mighty river joins the Caspian Sea, near the present city of
Astrakhan, arose the kingdom of the Khazars with its capital Ityl, the
name originally designating the river Volga. From there the bellicose
Khazars made constant raids upon the Slavonian tribes far and near, to
the very gates of Kiev, forcing them to become their tributaries.
Another Khazar center was established in the Crimea, among Byzantine
Greeks and Jews. From the Crimea the Khazars pressed forward in the
direction of Byzantium and the Balkan Peninsula, constituting a serious
menace to the Roman Empire of the East. As a rule, the Byzantine
emperors concluded alliances with the kings, or khagans, of the Khazars,
checking their unbridled energy by means of concessions and the payment
of tribute. In Constantinople the illusion was fostered that the Church,
and with it Byzantine diplomacy, were in the end bound to triumph over
all the Khazars--by converting them to Christianity. With this purpose
in view, missionaries were dispatched from Byzantium, while the local
bishops of Tauris were working zealously to the same end. But the task
proved extremely difficult, for the Greek Church found itself face to
face with a powerful rival in Judaism, which succeeded in establishing
its hold on a part of the Khazar nation.
While yet in their pagan state, the Khazars were exposed at one and the
same time to the influences of three religions: Mohammedanism, which
pursued its triumphant march from the Arabic Caliphate; Christianity,
which was spreading in Byzantium, and Judaism, which, headed by the
Exilarchs and Gaons of Babylonia, was centered in the Caliphate, while
its ramifications spread all over the Empire of Byzantium and its
colonies on the Black Sea. The Arabs and the Byzantines succeeded in
converting several groups of the Khazar population to Islam and
Christianity, but the lion's share fell to Judaism, for it managed to
get hold of the royal dynasty and the ruling classes.
The conversion of the Khazars to Judaism, which took place about 740, is
described circumstantially in the traditions preserved among the Jews
and in the accounts of the medieval Arabic travelers:
The King, or Khagan, of the Khazars, by the name of Bulan, had
resolved to abandon paganism, but was undecided as to the
religion he should adopt instead. Messengers sent by the Caliph
persuaded him to accept Islam, envoys from Byzantium endeavored
to win him over to Christianity, and representatives of Judaism
championed their own faith. As a result, Bulan arranged a
disputation between the advocates of the three religions, to be
held in his presence, but he failed to carry away any definite
conviction from their arguments and mutual refutations.
Thereupon the King invited first the Christian and then the
Mohammedan, and questioned them separately. On asking the former
which religion he thought was the better of the two, Judaism or
Mohammedanism, he received the reply: Judaism, since it is the
older of the two, and the basis of all religions.[7] On asking
the Mohammedan, which religion he preferred, Judaism or
Christianity, he received the same reply in favor of Judaism,
with the same motivation. "If that be the case," Bulan argued in
consequence, "if both the Mohammedan and the Christian
acknowledge the superiority of Judaism to the religion of their
antagonist, I too prefer to adopt the Jewish religion." Bulan
accordingly embraced Judaism, and many of the Khazar nobles
followed his example.
According to the Jewish sources, one of Bulan's descendants, the Khagan
Obadiah, was a particularly zealous adherent of Judaism. He
invited--possibly from Babylonia--many Jewish sages to his country, to
instruct the converted Khazars in Bible and Talmud, and he founded
synagogues, and established Divine services.
In the ninth and tenth centuries, the kingdom of the Khazars, governed
by rulers professing the Jewish faith, attained to outward power and
inner prosperity. The accounts of the Arabic writers of that period
throw an interesting light on the inner life of the Khazars, which was
marked by religious tolerance. The king of the Khazars and the governing
classes professed the Jewish religion. Among the lower classes the three
monotheistic religions were all represented, and in addition a
considerable number of pagans still survived. In spite of the fact that
royalty and nobility professed Judaism, the principle of religious
equality was never violated. The khagan had under him seven (according
to another version, nine) judges: two for the followers of the Jewish
religion, two each for the Christians and Mohammedans, and one for the
pagans--the Slavs, the Russians, and other races. Only occasionally did
the Khazar king show signs of intolerance, particularly when rumors
concerning Jewish persecutions in other countries came to his ears.
Thus, on one occasion, about 921, on being informed that the Mohammedans
had destroyed a synagogue somewhere in the land of Babunj, the Khagan
gave orders to destroy the tower (minaret) of a certain mosque and to
kill the muezzins (the heralds who call to prayer), explaining his
attitude in these words: "I should have destroyed the mosque itself, had
I not feared that not a single synagogue would be left standing in the
lands of the Mohammedans."
In the kingdom of the Khazars, favorably situated as it was between the
Caliphate of Bagdad and the Byzantine Empire, the Jews evidently played
an important economic rôle. During the ninth and tenth centuries the
territory of the Khazars was traversed by one of the great trade routes
which connected the three parts of the Old World. According to the
testimony of Ibn Khordadbeh, an Arabic geographer of the ninth century,
Jewish merchants, who were able to speak the principal Asiatic and
European languages, "traveled from West to East and from East to West,
on sea and by land." The land route led from Persia and the Caucasus
"through the country of the Slavs, near the capital of the Khazars" (the
mouth of the Volga), by crossing the Sea of Jorjan (the Caspian Sea).
Another Arabic writer, named Ibn Fakih,[8] who wrote shortly after 900,
testifies that on the route of the "Slav merchants," who were trading
between the Sea of the Khazars (the Caspian Sea) and that of Rum (the
Byzantine or Black Sea), was found the Jewish city of Samkers, on the
Taman Peninsula, near the Crimea.[9]
During this period of prosperity the kingdom of the Khazars received a
considerable Jewish influx from Byzantium, where the Jews were
persecuted by Emperor Basil the Macedonian (867-886), being forcibly
converted to Christianity, while hundreds of Jewish communities were
devastated. The Jewish emigrants from Byzantium were naturally attracted
towards a land in which Judaism was the religion of the Government and
the Court, though equal toleration was accorded to all other religions.
The well-known Arabic writer Masudi refers to this Jewish immigration in
the following passage:
The population of the Khazar capital consists of Moslems,
Christians, Jews, and pagans. The king, his court, and all
members of the Khazar tribe profess the Jewish religion, which
has been the dominant faith of the country since the time of the
Caliph Harun ar-Rashid. Many Jews who settled among the Khazars
came from all the cities of the Moslems and the lands of Rum
(Byzantium), the reason being that the king of Rum persecuted
the Jews of his empire in order to force them to adopt
Christianity.... In this way a large number of Jews left the
land of Rum in order to depart to the Khazars.
This testimony dates from the year 954. Contemporaneous with it is the
extremely interesting correspondence between Joseph, the Khagan of the
Khazars, and Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, the Jewish statesman of the Cordova
Caliphate in Spain. Being a high official at the court of Abderrahman
III., Hasdai maintained diplomatic relations with the emperors of
Byzantium and other rulers of Asia and Europe, and in this way came to
learn of the Khazar kingdom, through the Persian and Byzantine
ambassadors. The news of the existence of a land somewhere beyond the
seas where a Jew sat on the throne, and Judaism was the religion of the
state, filled Hasdai with joy. Firmly convinced that he had found the
clue to the lost Jewish kingdom of which popular Jewish tradition had so
much to tell, the Jewish statesman at the Moslem court felt the burning
need of getting in touch with the rulers of Khazaria, and, in case the
rumors should prove correct, of transferring his abode thither and
devoting his powers of statesmanship to his fellow-Jews. Prolonged
inquiries elicited the information that the land of the Khazars lay
fifteen days by sea from Constantinople, that it stood in commercial
relations with Byzantium, that the name of its present ruler was Joseph,
and that the safest means of communicating with him was by way of
Hungary, Bulgaria, and Russia. After several vain attempts to get in
touch with the ruler of the Khazars Hasdai finally succeeded in having
an elaborate Hebrew epistle delivered into the hands of King Joseph
(about 955).
In his epistle Hasdai first gives an account of himself and his position
at the court of Cordova, and then proceeds to beg the King of the
Khazars to inform him in detail of the rise and present status of "the
Jewish kingdom," being anxious to find out "whether there is anywhere a
soil and a kingdom where scattered Israel is not subject and subordinate
to others."
Were I to know--Hasdai continues--that this is true, I should
renounce my place of honor, abandon my lofty rank, forsake my
family, and wander over mountains and hills, by sea and on land,
until I reached the dwelling-place of my lord and sovereign,
there to behold his greatness and splendor, the seats of his
subjects, the position of his servants, and the tranquillity of
the remnant of Israel.... Having been cast down from our former
glory, and now living in exile, we are powerless to answer those
who constantly say unto us: "Every nation hath its own kingdom,
while you have no trace [of a kingdom] on earth." But when we
received the news about our lord and sovereign, about the power
of his kingdom and the multitude of his hosts, we were filled
with astonishment. We lifted our heads, our spirit revived, and
our hands were strengthened, the kingdom of my lord serving us
as an answer. Would that this rumor might increase in strength
[_i. e._ be verified], for thereby will our greatness be
enhanced!
After long and painful waiting Hasdai received the King's reply. In it
the ruler of the Khazars gives an account of the heterogeneous
composition of his people and the various religions professed by it. He
describes how King Bulan and his princes embraced the Jewish faith after
testing the various rival creeds, and how zealously it was upheld by the
Kings Obadiah, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Hanukkah, Isaac, Zebulun, Moses (or
Manasseh II.), Nissi, Aaron, Menahem, Benjamin, Aaron (II.), the last
being the father of the writer, King Joseph. The King continues:
I reside [_i. e._ my residence is situated] at the mouth of the
river Ityl [Volga]; at the end of the river is found the Sea of
Jorjan [the Caspian Sea]. The beginning of the river is towards
the east, at a distance of a four months' journey. Along the
banks of the river there are many nations living in towns and
villages, in open as well as fortified places. These are their
names: Burtas, Bulgar, Suvar, Arisu, Tzarmis, Venentit, Sever,
Slaviun.[10] Each of these nations is very numerous, and all of
them are tributary to me. From there the boundary turns towards
Buarezm [probably Khwarism], up to Jorjan, and all the
inhabitants of the sea-shore, for a distance of one month's
journey, are tributary to me. To the south are found Semender,
Bak-Tadlud, up to the gates of Bab al-Abwab, which are situated
on the coast.[11] ... To the west there are Sarkel, Samkrtz,
Kertz, Sugdai, Alus, Lambat, Bartnit, Alubika, Kut, Mankup,
Budak, Alma, and Gruzin.[12] All these localities are situated
on the shores of the Sea of Kostantinia[13] towards the west....
They are all tributary to me. Their dwellings and camping-places
are scattered over a distance of a four months' journey.
Know and take notice that I live at the mouth of the river
[Volga], and with the help of the Almighty I guard the entrance
to this river, and prevent the Russians, who arrive in vessels,
from passing into the Caspian Sea for the purpose of making
their way to the Ishmaelites [Mohammedans]. In the same manner
I keep the enemies on land from approaching the gates of Bab
al-Abwab. Because of this I am at war with them, and were I to
let them pass but once, they would destroy the whole land of
the Ishmaelites as far as Bagdad.... Our eyes are [turned] to
God and to the wise men of Israel who preside over the
academies of Jerusalem and Babylon. We are far away from Zion,
but it has come to our ears that, on account of our sins, the
calculations [concerning the coming of the Messiah] have become
confused, so that we know nothing. May it please the Lord to
act for the sake of His great Name. May the destruction of His
temple, and the cutting off of the holy service, and the
misfortunes that have befallen us, not appear small in His
sight. May the words of the prophet be fulfilled: "And the
Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple" (Mal.
iii. 1). We have nothing in our possession [concerning the
coming of the Messiah] except the prophecy of Daniel. May the
God of Israel hasten our redemption and gather together all our
exiled and scattered [brethren] in my lifetime, in thy
lifetime, and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, who
love His name.
The concluding phrases cast a shadow of doubt on the authenticity of
this epistle or, more correctly, of some parts of both epistles, which
more probably reflect the mournful Messianic temper of the sixteenth
century, when this correspondence was brought to light by Spanish exiles
who had made their way to Constantinople, than the state of mind of a
Spanish dignitary or a Khazar king of the tenth century. However, the
essential data contained in Joseph's epistle are so completely in accord
with the reports of contemporaneous Arabic writers that the substance of
this correspondence may be safely declared to be authentic.[14]
Joseph's epistle must have arrived in Spain about 960. Only a few years
later events occurred which made this King the last ruler of the
Khazars. The apprehensions, voiced in his letter, concerning the
Russians, with whom the King was at war, and who were ready to "destroy
the whole land of the Ishmaelites as far as Bagdad," were speedily
realized. A few years later the Slavonian tribes, who had in the
meantime been united under the leadership of Russian princes, not only
threw off the yoke of the Khazars, whose vassals they were, but also
succeeded in invading and finally destroying their center at the mouth
of the Volga. Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev devastated the Khazar
territories on the Ityl, and, penetrating to the heart of the country,
dislodged the Khazars from the Caspian region (966-969). The Khazars
withdrew to their possessions on the Black Sea, and established
themselves in particular on the Crimean Peninsula, which for a long time
retained the name of Khazaria.
The greatly reduced Khazar kingdom in Tauris, the survival of a mighty
empire, was able to hold its own for nearly half a century, until in the
eleventh century it fell a prey to the Russians and Byzantines (1016).
The relatives of the last khagan fled, according to tradition, to their
coreligionists in Spain. The Khazar nation was scattered, and was
subsequently lost among the other nations. The remnants of the Khazars
in the Crimea who professed Judaism were in all likelihood merged with
the native Jews, consisting partly of Rabbanites and partly of Karaites.
In this way the ancient Jewish settlements on the Crimean Peninsula
suddenly received a large increase. At the same time the influx of
Jewish immigrants, who, together with the Greeks, moved from Byzantium
towards the northern shores of the Black Sea, continued as theretofore,
the greater part of these immigrants consisting of Karaites, who were
found in large numbers in the Byzantine Empire. Even the subsequent
dominion of the Pechenegs and Polovtzis, who ruled over the Tauris
region after the downfall of the Khazars, failed to uproot the ancient
traditions, and as late as the twelfth century the name Khazaria meets
us in contemporary documents. About the year 1175 the traveler Pethahiah
of Ratisbon visited "the land of the Kedars and that of the Khazars,
which are separated from each other by a sea tongue," meaning the
continental part of Tauris, where the nomadic Polovtzis (Kedars) were
roaming about, and the Crimean Peninsula, between which two regions lie
the Gulf of Perekop and the isthmus of the same name. In the land of the
Kedars Pethahiah did not find genuine Jews, but _minim_, heretics or
sectarians, who "do not believe in the traditions of the sages, eat
their Sabbath meal in the dark, are ignorant of the Talmudic forms of
the benedictions and prayers, and have not even heard of the Talmud." It
is evident that the author is describing the Karaites.
3. THE JEWS IN THE EARLY RUSSIAN PRINCIPALITIES AND IN THE TATARIC
KHANATE OF THE CRIMEA[15]
With the growth of the Russian Principality of Kiev, which received its
ecclesiastic organization from the hands of Byzantine monks, it
gradually became another objective of Jewish immigration. The Jews came
thither not only from Khazaria, or the Crimea, but also, following in
the wake of the Greeks, from the Empire of Byzantium, developing the
commercial life of the principality and connecting that primitive region
with the centers of human civilization. The popular legend, which is
reproduced in the ancient Russian chronicles, and is no doubt tinged
with the spirit of Byzantine clericalism, makes the Jews participate in
the competition of religions for the conquest of pagan Russia, in that
famous spectacle of the "test of creeds" which took place in 986 in the
presence of Vladimir, Prince of Kiev.
The church legend narrates that when Vladimir had announced his
intention to abandon idolatry, he received a visit from
Khazarian Jews, who said to him: "We have heard that the
Christians have come to preach their faith, but they believe in
one who was crucified by us, while we believe in the one God,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Vladimir asked the Jews:
"What does your law prescribe?" To this they replied: "To be
circumcised, not to eat pork or game, and to keep the Sabbath."
"Where is your country?" inquired the Prince. "In Jerusalem,"
replied the Jews. "But do you live there?" he asked. "We do
not," answered the Jews, "for the Lord was wroth with our
forefathers, and scattered us all over the earth for our sins,
while our land was given away to the Christians." Thereupon
Vladimir exclaimed: "How then dare you teach others when you
yourselves are rejected by God and scattered? If God loved you,
you would not be dispersed in strange lands. Do you intend to
inflict the same misfortune on me?"
This popular tradition is historically true only insofar as it reflects
the ecclesiastic and political struggle of the time. It was in Taurian
Chersonesus, the ancient scene of Jewish and Byzantine rivalry, that the
threads were woven which subsequently tied pagan Russia to Byzantium.
The attempts of the Taurian, or Khazarian, Jews to assert their claims
in the religious competition at Kiev were bound to prove a failure. For
community of political and economic interests was forcing Byzantium and
the Principality of Kiev into an alliance, which was finally consummated
at the end of the tenth century by the conversion of Russia to Greek
Orthodox Christianity. The alliance resulted in the downfall of their
common enemy, the Khazars, who, for several centuries, had been
struggling with the Byzantines on the shores of the Black Sea, and at
the same time had held in subjection the tribes of the Slavs. In
consequence of the defeat of the Khazars, a part of the Jewish-Khazarian
center in Tauris was transferred to the Principality of Kiev.
The coincidence of the settlement of Jews in Kiev with the conversion of
Russia to the Greek Orthodox faith foreshadows the course of history.
The very earliest phase of Russian cultural life is stamped by the
Byzantine spirit of intolerance in relation to the Jews. The Abbot of
the famous Pechera monastery, Theodosius (1057-1074), taught the
Kiovians to live at peace with friends and foes, "but with their own
foes, not with those of God." God's foes, however, are Jews and
heretics, "who hold a crooked religion." In the Life of Theodosius
written by the celebrated Russian chronicler Nestor we are told that
this austere monk was in the habit of getting up in the night and
secretly going to the Jews to argue with them about Christ. He would
scold them, branding them as wicked and godless, and would purposely
irritate them, in the hope of being killed "for the profession of
Christ" and thus attaining to martyrdom, though it would seem that the
Jews consistently refused to grant him this pleasure. Hatred against
Jews and Judaism was equally preached by Theodosius' contemporaries
Illarion and John, Metropolitans of Kiev (about 1050 and 1080).
This propaganda of religious intolerance did not remain without effect.
In the beginning of the twelfth century the Jewish colony of Kiev
experienced the first pogrom. Under Grand Duke Svyatopolk II.
(1093-1113) the Jews of Kiev had enjoyed complete liberty of trade and
commerce. The Prince had protected his Jewish subjects, and had
intrusted some of them with the collection of the customs and other
ducal imposts. But during the interregnum following the death of
Svyatopolk (1113) they had to pay dearly for the liberty enjoyed by
them. The Kiovians had offered the throne of the principality to
Vladimir Monomakh, but he was slow about entering the capital. As a
result, riots broke out. The Kiev mob revolted, and, after looting the
residences of several high officials, threw itself upon the Jews and
plundered their property. The well-intentioned among the inhabitants of
Kiev dispatched a second delegation to Monomakh, warning him that, if he
tarried longer, the riots would assume formidable dimensions. Thereupon
Monomakh arrived and restored order in the capital.
Nevertheless the Jews continued to reside in Kiev. In 1124 they suffered
severely from a fire which destroyed a considerable portion of the city.
In the chronicles of that period (1146-1151) mention is frequently made
of the "Jewish gate" in Kiev. Jewish merchants were attracted towards
this city, a growing commercial center serving as the connecting link
between Western Europe on the one hand and the Black Sea provinces and
the Asiatic continent on the other. Reference to Kiev is made by the
Jewish travelers of the time, Benjamin of Tudela and Pethahiah of
Ratisbon (1160-1190). The former speaks of "the kingdom of Russia,
stretching from the gates of Prague to the gates of Kiev, a large city
on the border of the kingdom." The latter, Pethahiah, informs us that,
on leaving his home in Ratisbon, he proceeded to Prague, the capital of
Bohemia; from Prague he went to Poland, and from there "to Kiev, which
is in Russia," whereupon he traveled for six days, until he reached the
Dnieper, and, having crossed it, finally arrived on the coast of the
Black Sea and in the Crimea.
After the Crusades, when considerable settlements of Jewish immigrants
from Germany began to spring up in Poland, part of these immigrants
found their way into the Principality of Kiev. The German rabbis of the
twelfth century occasionally refer in their writings to the journeys of
German Jews traveling with their merchandise to "Russ" and "Sclavonia"
(= Slavonia, Slav countries). The Jews of Russia, who lacked rabbinical
authorities of their own, addressed their inquiries to the Jewish
scholars of Germany, or sent their studious young men to the West to
obtain a Talmudic education. Hebrew sources of the twelfth century make
mention of the names of Rabbi Isaac of Chernigov and Rabbi Moses of
Kiev. The latter is quoted as having addressed an inquiry to the
well-known Gaon of Bagdad, Samuel ben Ali.
The conquest of the Crimea by the Tatar khans in the thirteenth century
and the gradual extension of their sovereignty to the Principalities of
Kiev and Moscow brought the old center of Judaism in the Tauris region
in close contact with its offshoots in various parts of Russia. Kiev
enters into regular commercial intercourse with Kaffa (Theodosia) on the
Crimean sea-shore. Kaffa becomes during that period an international
emporium, owing to the Genoese, who had obtained from the Tatar khans
concessions for Kaffa and the surrounding country, and had founded there
a commercial colony of the Genoese Republic. The Crimean Peninsula was
joined to the world commerce of Italy, and merchantmen were constantly
ploughing the seas between Genoa and Kaffa, passing through the
Byzantine Dardanelles. Italians, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians flocked to
Kaffa and the adjacent localities on the southern coast of the Crimea.
The Government of the Genoese Republic time and again instructed its
consuls who were charged with the administration of the Crimean colony
to observe the principles of religious toleration in their attitude
towards this heterogeneous population. If the testimony of the traveler
Schiltberger, who visited the Crimea between 1394 and 1427, may be
relied upon, there were in Kaffa Jews "of two kinds," evidently
Rabbanites and Karaites, who had two synagogues and four thousand
houses, an imposing population to judge by its numbers.
The great crisis in the history of Byzantium--the capture of
Constantinople by the Turks--affected also the Genoese colony in the
Crimea. The Turks began to hamper the Genoese in their navigation
through the straits. In 1455 the Genoese Government ceded its Kaffa
possessions to the Bank of St. George in Genoa. The new administration
set out to restore order in the colony and establish normal relations
between the various races inhabiting it; but the days of this cultural
oasis on the Black Sea were numbered. In 1475 Kaffa was taken by the
Turks, and the whole peninsula fell under Turco-Tataric dominion.
Important Jewish communities were to be found during that period also in
the older Tataric possessions of the Crimea. Two Jewish communities, one
consisting of Rabbanites and the other of Karaites, flourished, during
the thirteenth century, in the ancient capital of the Tatar khans, named
Solkhat (now Eski-Krym). Beginning with 1428, the old Karaite community
of Chufut-Kale ("the Rock of the Jews"), situated near the new Tatar
capital, Bakhchi-Sarai, grows in numbers and influence. The memory of
this community is perpetuated by a huge number of tombstones, ranging
from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. Crimea, now peopled with
Jews, sends forth settlers to Lithuania, where, at the end of the
fourteenth century, Grand Duke Vitovt[16] takes them under his
protection. Crimean colonies spring up in the Lithuanian towns of Troki
and Lutzk, which, as will be seen later, are granted extensive
privileges by the ruler of the land.
The establishment of Turkish sovereignty over the Crimea (1475-1783)
resulted in a closer commercial relationship between the Jewish center
on the Peninsula and the Principality of Moscow, which at that time
fenced herself off from the outside world by a Chinese wall, and, with
few exceptions, barred from her dominions all foreigners and infidels,
or "Basurmans."[17] In the second half of the fifteenth century the
Grand Duke of Muscovy, Ivan III., was constrained to seek the help of
several Crimean Jews in his diplomatic negotiations with the Khan of the
Crimea, Mengli-Guiray. One of the agents of the Muscovite Prince was an
influential Jew of Kaffa, by the name of Khoza Kokos, who was
instrumental in bringing about a military alliance between the Grand
Duke and the Khan (1472-1475). It is curious to note that Kokos wrote
his letters to Ivan III. in Hebrew, so that the Muscovite ruler, who
evidently could find no one in Moscow familiar with that language, had
to request his agent to correspond with him in Russian or "in the
Basurman language" (Tataric or perhaps Italian). Another agent of Ivan
III., Zechariah Guizolfi, was an Italian Jew, who had previously
occupied an important post in the Genoese colony in the Crimea, and was
the owner of the Taman Peninsula ("the Prince of Taman"). He stood in
close relations to Khan Mengli-Guiray, and in this capacity carried on a
diplomatic correspondence with the Prince of Muscovy (1484-1500). Later
on Zechariah was on the point of taking up his abode in Moscow in order
to participate more directly in the foreign affairs of Russia, but
circumstances interfered with the execution of the plan.
During the same period there arose in Moscow, as the result of a secret
propaganda of Judaism, a religious movement known under the name of the
"Judaizing heresy." According to the Russian chroniclers, the originator
of this heresy was the learned Jew Skharia (Zechariah), who had
emigrated with a number of coreligionists from Kiev to the ancient
Russian city of Novgorod. Profiting by the religious unrest rife at that
time in Novgorod--a new sect, called the Strigolniki,[18] had arisen in
the city, which abrogated the Church rites, and went to the point of
denying the divinity of Christ--Zechariah got in touch with several
representatives of the Orthodox clergy, and succeeded in converting them
to Judaism. The leaders of the Novgorod apostates, the priests Denis and
Alexius, went to Moscow in 1480, and converted a number of the Greek
Orthodox there, some of the new converts even submitting to the rite of
circumcision. The "Judaizing heresy" was soon intrenched among the
nobility of Moscow and in the court circles. Among its sympathizers was
the daughter-in-law of the Grand Duke, Helena.
The Archbishop of Novgorod, Hennadius, called attention to the dangerous
propagation of the "Judaizing heresy," and made valiant efforts to
uproot it in his diocese. In Moscow the fight against the new doctrine
proved extremely difficult. But here too it was finally checked, owing
to the vigorous endeavors of Hennadius and other Orthodox zealots. By
the decision of the Church Council of 1504, supported by the orders of
Ivan III., the principal apostates were burned at the stake, while the
others were cast into prison or exiled to monasteries. As a result, the
"Judaizing heresy" ceased to exist.[19]
Another tragic occurrence in the same period affords a lurid
illustration of Muscovite superstition. At the court of Grand Duke Ivan
III. the post of physician was occupied by a learned Jew, Master Leon,
who had been invited from Venice. In the beginning of 1490 the eldest
son of the Grand Duke fell dangerously ill. Master Leon tried to cure
his patient by means of hot cupping-glasses and various medicaments.
Questioned by the Grand Duke whether his son had any chances of
recovery, the physician, in an unguarded moment, replied: "I shall not
fail to cure your son; otherwise you may put me to death!" On March 15,
1490, the patient died. When the forty days of mourning were over, Ivan
III. gave orders to cut off the head of the Jewish physician for his
failure to effect a cure. The execution was carried out publicly, on one
of the squares of Moscow.
In the eyes of the Muscovites both the learned theologian Skharia and
the physician Leon were adepts of the "black art," or magicians. The
"Judaizing heresy" instilled in them a superstitious fear of the Jews,
of whom they only knew by hearsay. As long as such ideas and manners
prevailed, the Jews could scarcely expect to be hospitably received in
the land of the Muscovites. No wonder then that for a long time the Jews
appear there, not in the capacity of permanent residents, but as
itinerant merchants, who in a few cases--and with extreme reluctance at
that--are accorded the right of temporary sojourn in "holy Russia."
FOOTNOTES:
[2] [Later on the author differentiates between Tauris and the Crimea,
using the former term to designate the northern coast of the Black Sea
in general, with the Crimea as a part of it. The modern Russian
Government of Tavrida is similarly made up of two sections: the larger
northern part consists of the mainland, the smaller southern part is
identical with the Crimean Peninsula, connected with the mainland by the
Isthmus of Perekop. In antiquity the name Tauri, or Taurians, was
restricted to the inhabitants of the mountainous south coast of the
Crimea.]
[3] The date is that of the "Bosporan era," and corresponds to the year
80-81 of the common era.
[4] In the Greek documents of that period Synagogue signifies, not a
house of worship, but a religious community.
[5] [It is possible that the identification was suggested by the
similarity in sound between Bosporus and _bi-Spharad_, the Hebrew for
"in Sepharad."]
[6] [The Arabic and other medieval authors write the name with a _kh_ (=
hard German _ch_), hence the frequent spelling Chazars. In Hebrew
sources the word is written with a _k_ (כ), except in a
recently discovered document (see Schechter, Jew. Quart. Review, new
series, iii. 184), where it is spelled with a _k_ (ק).
Besides _Khazar_ and _Kazar_, the name is also found in the form
_Kozar_, or _Kuzar_.]
[7] According to another version of the same story, quoted by the Arabic
geographer al-Bekri (d. 1094), the Bishop who was championing the cause
of Christianity said in reply to the King's inquiry: "I believe that
Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, is the Word, and that he revealed the
mysteries of the great and exalted God." A Jew who lived at the royal
court and was present at the disputation interrupted him with the
remark: "He [the Bishop] believes in things which are unintelligible to
me."
[8] [The author, evidently relying on the authority of Harkavy, writes
_Ibn Sharzi_. The writer referred to by Harkavy is Ali Ibn Ja`far
ash-Shaizari (wrongly called Ibn Sharzi), who made an extract from Ibn
Fakih's "Book of Countries" about 1022. This extract has since been
published by de Goeje in his _Bibliotheca Geographicorum Arabicorum_,
vol. v. Our reference is found there on p. 271. I have put Ibn Fakih's
name in the text, as there is no reason to doubt that our passage was
found in the original work, which was written more than a hundred years
earlier.]
[9] [See on the name of this city de Goeje's remarks in his edition of
Ibn Fakih, p. 271, note _a_.]
[10] A group of Slav nations.
[11] A group of Caucasian cities (Semender = Tarku, near
Shamir-Khan-Shur; Bab al-Abwab = Derbent).
[12] A group of Crimean cities (Kerch, Sudak, Mangup, and others).
[13] [_I. e._ Sea of Constantinople, another name for the Black Sea.]
[14] This supposition is confirmed by a recently discovered Genizah
fragment containing a portion of another Khazar epistle, which
supplements and modifies the epistle of King Joseph. See Schechter, "An
Unknown Khazar Document," Jewish Quarterly Review, new series, iii. 181
ff.
[15] [During the early centuries of its existence Russia was made up of
a number of independent principalities, over which the Principality of
Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities," exercised, or rather claimed, the
right of overlordship. From 1238 to 1462 the Russian lands were subject
to the dominion of the Tatars. During the fourteenth century, while yet
under Tatar rule, the Principality of Moscow gained the ascendancy over
the other Russian states. The absorption of the latter and the creation
of the autocratic Tzardom of Muscovy was the work of Ivan III.
(1462-1505), his son Basil (1505-1533), and his grandson Ivan IV. the
Terrible (1533-1584).]
[16] [Also written Witowt. Another form of the name is Witold.]
[17] [_Basurman_, or _Busurman_, mutilated from _Mussulman_, is an
archaic and contemptuous designation for Mohammedans and in general for
all who do not profess the Greek Orthodox faith.]
[18] [The name is derived from their founder, Carp Strigolnik.]
[19] [For later "Judaizing" tendencies in Russia, see pp. 251 _et seq._
and 401 _et seq._]