Seraya Shapshal or ''His

Excellency Excellency is an honorific style (manner of address), style given to certain high-level officers of a sovereign state, officials of an international organization, or members of an aristocracy. Once entitled to the title "Excellency", the holder ...

Hajji Hajji (; sometimes spelled Hajjeh, Hadji, Haji, Alhaji, Al-Hadj, Al-Haj or El-Hajj) is an honorific title which is given to a Muslim who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca. Etymology ''Hajji'' is derived from the Arabic ' (), which i ...

Seraya

Khan Khan may refer to: * Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name * Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by various ethnicities Art and entertainment * Khan (band), an English progressiv ...

Shapshal '' ( Karaim: Серая Бен Мордехай Шапшал; ; ; ) (1873–1961) was a

hakham ''Hakham'' (or ''Chakam(i), Haham(i), Hacham(i), Hach''; ) is a term in Judaism meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise th ...

and leader of the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

n and then the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

and

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

Crimean Karaites Crimean Karaites or simply Karaites (Crimean Karaim language, Karaim: Кърымкъарайлар, ''Qrımqaraylar'', singular къарай, ''qaray''; Trakai dialect: ''karajlar'', singular ''karaj''; ; ; ), also known more broadly as Eastern E ...

(Karaim) community.

Biography

Shapshal was born in Bahçesaray,

and studied at

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

University, where he was graduated in

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

and

oriental languages Asia is home to hundreds of languages comprising several families and some unrelated isolates. The most spoken language families on the continent include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, ...

. During his studies he became a strong adopter of Russian orientalist V. Grigorjev's theory about the Khazarian origin of the

. Immediately after his graduation at 1901 he was invited to serve as the personal tutor of the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian crown prince,

Mohammad Ali Shah Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (‎; 21 June 1872 – 5 April 1925) was the sixth shah of the Qajar dynasty and remained the Shah of Iran from 8 January 1907 until being deposed on 16 July 1909. He was furthermore the grandson of Iran’s early mod ...

, and became a minister in the Persian government in 1907. In 1911 he returned to

and became Chief

Hakham ''Hakham'' (or ''Chakam(i), Haham(i), Hacham(i), Hach''; ) is a term in Judaism meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise th ...

of the

communities in

From 1920 to 1927 he lived in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. Here he was active in the pan-Turkic movement. In 1927 while living in Turkey he was elected the head of the Karaims in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and in 1928 moved to

Wilno Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. He denied any connection between

and

Rabbinic Jews Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

. Shapshal is the founder of the Crimean Karaite religion and historical doctrine of Dejudaization. Under this doctrine, he changed the traditional title of " Hacham" to "Gahan" ("Ḥakhan"), which in his opinion goes back to the Khazarian word "

Khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Middle Mongol:; or ''Khagan''; ) or zh, c=大汗, p=Dàhán; ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan, Khaqan, Xagahn, Qaghan, Chagan, Қан, or Kha'an is a title of empire, im ...

". In the mid 1930s, he began to create a theory of the Altai- Turkic origin of the Karaims and the pagan roots of the Karaite religious teaching (worship of sacred oaks, polytheism, led by the god

Tengri Tengri (; Old Uyghur: ; Middle Turkic: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Proto-Turkic: / ; Mongolian script: , ; , ; , ) is the all-encompassing God of Heaven in the traditional Turkic, Yeniseian, Mongolic, and various other nomadic religious beliefs. So ...

, the Sacrifice). Shapshal's doctrine is still a topic of critical research and public debate. He made a number of reforms aimed at the

Turkification Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization () describes a shift whereby populations or places receive or adopt Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly applied to mean specif ...

of the Karaims and the eradication of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

elements from their culture and language. He issued an order abolishing the teaching of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

in Karaite schools, replaced names of Jewish holidays and months with the Turkic ones, renamed "Gahan" the position of " Hacham" in consonance with the word "

khan Khan may refer to: * Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name * Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by various ethnicities Art and entertainment * Khan (band), an English progressiv ...

". According to Shapshal, the doctrine of

Anan ben David Anan Ben David (, ) is widely considered to be a major founder of Karaite Judaism. His followers were called Ananites and, like modern Karaites, did not believe the Rabbinic Jewish Oral Torah, such as the Mishnah, to be authoritative. History F ...

was close to early Christianity, and Karaites had believed for centuries in

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

and

Mohammed Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, ...

as prophets. Crimean Karaites adopted the law of

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

, but continued to adhere to the ancient Turkic pagan beliefs. Between the efforts to impose a Khazarian origin for the

was the "militarization" process of their history originated in the 20th century's inter-war

:''Кизилов М.'
Ильяш Караимович и Тимофей Хмельницкий: кровная месть, которой не было
Karadeniz Araştırmaları, Cilt: 6, Sayı: 22, Yaz 2009, C.43-74. the trend of representing the Karaite population of Eastern Europe as a nation of warriors. Shapshal was one of the initiators of this process. In 1939, using his connections with the community of Russian emigrés in Germany, he appealed to the authorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Reich with a request to examine the issue of

' ethnicity. After the occupation by German troops of the areas of Eastern Europe populated by

, this appellation was observed by the German administration. They involved three major historian specialists on the history of the Karaites:

Zelig Kalmanovich __NOTOC__ Zelig Hirsch Kalmanovich (; ) (1885–1944) was a Lithuanian Jews, Litvak Jewish philologist, translator, historian, and community archivist of the early 20th century. He was a renowned scholar of Yiddish. In 1929 he settled in Vilnius ...

, Meir Balaban and Yitzhak (Ignacy) Schiper. Despite the fact that all three had been before the war fierce opponents of the theory of the Turkic origin of the Crimean Karaites, they supported Shapshal's theory in order to save the European Karaites from the Holocaust. Shapshal was instrumental in the formulation of

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

policy towards the Karaims. As

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

he was infamous for his confrontations with such Jewish community figures as

. He was also known for having been forced (under penalty of endangering his own community) to give the Nazis a detailed list of the members of the

communities of Troki and

, allowing them to easily discover and arrest

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

who had forged papers stating that they were

. In 1945 he formally abdicated from Karaite Gahan post, submitting a statement to the Commissioner for Religious Affairs of the

Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR The Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR () or Council of People's Commissars in 1940–46 () was the cabinet (executive branch) of the Lithuanian SSR, one of the republics of the Soviet Union. Its structure and functions were modeled after t ...

, and got a position as a researcher at the Institute of History of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-dominated

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA (, ) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that would strengthen the welfare ...

He co-authored a Karaim–

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

–

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

(published in 1974) and wrote a number of articles on the

. Using his position he continued to promote his ideas, including forgery of some evidences regarding the military past of

, publishing the articles about his "discoveries" in the Soviet Union's leading academic journals. Recent studies on Shapshal's archive have shown that his drafts include several versions of the "original" documents texts, evidencing forgery. In spite of that, Shapshal's ideas about Karaim warriors were adopted widely in USSR and even abroad. Thus in

Trakai Trakai (; see Trakai#Names and etymology, names section for alternative and historic names) is a city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania or just from the administrative limits of the Lithuanian capi ...

, modern

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, visitors are often told that Karaim warriors were guards of Trakai Castles. In 1997, a commemorative coin in denominations of 50 LTL was issued in honor of the 600th anniversary of the

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

and

. The coin includes the image of Tatar and Karaim warriors. Some of his works (including "History of the Karaims") remain unpublished. Part of his collections and books are kept in National Library of Lithuania, the other in a small museum in the old kenesa of Trakai, where he died in 1961. Some of his descendants settled in Israel during the 1990s under the

Law of Return The Law of Return (, ''ḥok ha-shvūt'') is an Israeli law, passed on 5 July 1950, which gives Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to Aliyah, relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli nationality law, Isra ...

.Mikhail Kizilov. The Karaites of Galicia: An Ethnoreligious Minority Among the Ashkenazim, the Turks, and the Slavs, 1772—1945 (Studia Judaeoslavica, 2009)] с. 340

References

* Shapshal, S. M.: Karaimy SSSR v otnoshenii etnicheskom: karaimy na sluzhbe u krymskich chanov. Simferopol', 2004 * Kizilov M. New Materials on the Biography of S. M. Szapszał in 1928-1939 // Материалы Девятой Ежегодной Международной Междисциплинарной Конференции по Иудаике. – М., 2002. – Ч. 1. – С. 255–273 * Shapira Dan D. Y. A Jewish Pan-Turkist: Seraya Szapszał (Şapşaloğlu) and his Work Qırım Qaray Türkleri (1928) (Judaeo-Türkica XIII) // Acta Orientalia Hungaricae. – December 2005. – Vol. 58, № 4. – P. 349–380 * Зайцев И.В. «Что мне делать и как быть?» (письма Серайя Марковича Шапшала академику В.А.Гордлевскому: 1945-1950) // Вестник Евразии. Acta Eurasica. № 4 (38). М., 2007. С.147-169 * Петров-Дубинский О.В. С.М.Шапшал (Эдиб-ус-Султан) ― учитель Валиахда Мохаммед-Али, генерал-адъютант Мохаммед-Али-шаха // Восток. 2007, № 5. С. 64-78 * Прохоров Д.А., Кизилов М.Б. Шапшал Серайя Маркович (1873-1961) // Крым в лицах и биографиях. Симферополь, 2008. С. 396-400 {{DEFAULTSORT:Shapshal, Seraya Karaite rabbis History of Crimea Crimean Karaites 1873 births 1961 deaths People from Bakhchysarai Saint Petersburg State University alumni Expatriates from the Russian Empire in Iran Soviet expatriates in Turkey Soviet lexicographers Soviet religious leaders Pan-Turkists Pseudohistorians