Steppean Rovas inscription on the Kievian letter

] The Kievan Letter, or Kyivan letter is an early 10th-century (ca. 930) letter thought to be written by representatives of the Judaism, Jewish community in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. The letter, a Hebrew-language recommendation written on behalf of one member of their community, was part of an enormous collection brought to Cambridge by

Solomon Schechter Solomon Schechter (‎; 7 December 1847 – 19 November 1915) was a Moldavian-born British-American rabbi, academic scholar and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the ...

from the

Cairo Geniza The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled the Cairo Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Judaism, Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the ''genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra ...

. It was discovered in 1962 during a survey of the Geniza documents by Norman Golb of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. The letter is dated by most scholars to around 930 CE. Some think (on the basis of the "pleading" nature of the text, mentioned below) that the letter dates from a time when Khazars were no longer a dominant force in the politics of the city. According to Marcel Erdal, the letter does not come ''from'' Kiev but was sent ''to'' Kiev.

Historical significance

Some scholars point to a district in Kievan Podil named after the

Khazar The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...

s (called "Kozare"), which indicates to some that Turkic Khazars lived in Kiev. The Khazars apparently played a significant role in the economic vitality of the city, importing

caviar Caviar or caviare is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspi ...

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

and

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

into Kiev. This may point to a

Radhanite The Radhanites or Radanites (; ) were early medieval Jewish merchants, active in the trade between Christendom and the Muslim world during roughly the 8th to the 10th centuries. Many trade routes previously established under the Roman Empire cont ...

presence in the city, which was common in greater Khazaria. If so, it might at first glance suggest that Khazar control over Kiev, in some form or another, continued well into the 10th century, significantly later than the traditional date for conquest by Oleg, 882. On the other hand, the letter itself implies that the Khazar authorities could do little to help the Jewish community of Kiev. The letter itself had ended up in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and the beleaguered alms-seeker had presumably travelled thousands of miles in his search for relief. The identity and the status of the reviewing officer are, therefore, ambiguous. It would seem more likely that the letter was reviewed in Khazaria while Khazar Jewish power had waned not only in Kiev but also in the heartland itself (sometime in the 11th century).

Linguistic significance

The linguistic identity of the runic inscription is unclear. The implicit assumption that it genuinely is Khazarian is problematic as the letter would be the only written record of Khazrian extant today. Erdal argues against that hypothesis and favours Bolgar-Chuvash (''hakurüm'' from the reconstructed verb *''okï-'', 'call out, recite, read') and suggests that it originated in the Danube-Bulgar region.Erdal, ibid.p.98. (Similar inscriptions in Latin and Greek are found in

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

documents from roughly the same period.) Also notable are the unusual names of the community members, several of which have been controversially hypothesized to be of Slavic or Turkic origin.

Text

#The First among the foremost .e. God">God.html" ;"title=".e. God">.e. God/nowiki>, He who is adorned with the crown "Final and First," #Who hears the whispered voice, and listens to utterance and tongue - May He guard them #as the pupil [of his eye] and make them to dwell with Nahshon on high as at first - #Men of Truth, despisers of gain, doers of [deeds of] loving-kindness and pursuers of charity, #guardians of salvation whose bread is available to every traveler and passerby, #holy communities scattered to all (the world's) corners: may it be the will of #the Master of Peace to make them dwell as a crown of peace! Now, our officers and masters, #we, hecommunity of Kiev, (hereby) inform you of the affair of this Mr. Jacob bar #Hanukah, who is of the sons of ood folk He was of the givers, and not of the #takers, until a cruel decree was decreed against him, in that his brother went and took money #from

gentiles ''Gentile'' () is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish. Other Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites, groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, have historically used the term ''gentile'' to describe outsider ...

; this Jacob stood surety. His brother went on the road, and there came #brigands who slew him and took his money. Then came creditors # nd tok captive this Jacob, they put chains of iron on his neck #and irons about his legs. He stayed there an entire year ... # nd afterwardswe took him in surety; we paid out sixty oinsand there ye ...#remained forty coins; so we have sent him among the holy communities #that they might take pity on him. So now, O our masters, raise up your eyes to heaven #and do as is your goodly custom, for you know how great is the virtue #of charity. For charity saves from death. Nor are we as warners #but rather those who remind; and to you will be charity before the Lord your God #You shall eat fruits in this world, and the capital fund f meritshall be yours perpetually in the

world to come The world to come, age to come, heaven on Earth, and the Kingdom of God are eschatology, eschatological phrases reflecting the belief that the World (theology), current world or Dispensation (period), current age is flawed or cursed and will be r ...

. #Only be strong and of good courage, and do not put our words behind #your backs; and may the Omnipresent have mercy upon you and build Jerusalem in your days #and redeem you and also us with you. (An acronym follows standing for either "Amen, Amen, Amen, soon ay the redemption come or "Brotherly people are we, soon ...) #Abraham the Parnas ommunity leader ..l bar MNS Reuben bar #GWSTT (Gostata) bar KYBR (Kiabar) Kohen Samson #Judah, who is called SWRTH (Surta) Hanukah bar Moses #QWFYN (Kufin) bar Joseph MNR (Manar) bar Samuel

Kohen Kohen (, ; , ، Arabic كاهن , Kahen) is the Hebrew word for "priest", used in reference to the Aaronic Priest#Judaism, priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. They are traditionally believed, and halakha, halakhically required, to ...

#Judah bar Isaac he

Levite Levites ( ; ) or Levi are Jewish males who claim patrilineal descent from the Tribe of Levi. The Tribe of Levi descended from Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah. The surname ''Halevi'', which consists of the Hebrew definite article "" ''Ha-' ...

Sinai bar Samuel #Isaac the Parnas

Old Turkic Old Siberian Turkic, generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic, was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Kh ...

/Steppean rovas inscription follows, read variously as ''okhqurüm/hokurüm/hakurüm, "I read (this or it)"]

References

Bibliography

* Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. ''Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century''. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982 .

External links

Image of T-S 12.122, the Kievan Letter
in the

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of over 100 libraries Libraries of the University of Cambridge, within the university. The library is a major scholarly resource for me ...