Periodic Reporting for period 2 - KaraimBible ((Re)constructing a Bible. A new approach to unedited Biblical manuscripts as sources for the early history of the Karaim language)
Période du rapport: 2020-08-01 au 2022-01-31
1. General information
KaraimBIBLE is a research project financed by the European Research Council (ERC) the basis of which will be a comprehensive edition of the entire Karaim Bible based on carefully selected sources from the 15th–20th centuries. The sources will receive grammatical and palaeographical descriptions. Beyond that, it will be investigated whether the Biblical manuscripts and the Karaite semi-cursive script types belong to one or multiple scribal traditions in order to better understand the way these translations were created. Some Karaim texts will be translated into English and efforts will be made to discover further manuscripts. The project is hosted at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland) and is conducted in collaboration with the Uppsala University (Sweden).
To achieve the research objectives an on-line digital critical edition will be created – equipped with a lexicographical database. The platform will be a complex research instrument providing a highly interconnected network of data based on the technologies commonly referred to as Semantic Web.
Eastern European Karaims are the sole representatives of Karaite Judaism in Europe. Their native tongue is a severely endangered Turkic vernacular, but merely a fraction of its surviving written heritage has entered scholarly circulation. In particular, the Karaim translations of the Hebrew Bible – the oldest written records of this language – still await investigation. As a result, on the one hand, the Karaim data cannot be effectively exploited in historical-comparative studies and, on the other hand, there is no edition of the Bible that Karaims could read in religious practice. The existing translations are locked in sources written in Hebrew script – a script which Karaims cannot read any more. What makes this project crucial to sustaining this endangered culture is the fact that Karaite Judaism is based on the recognition of the Hebrew Bible alone as the supreme authority in religious law and theology.
The project and its objectives are shaped by two pivotal factors. Firstly, due to its archaic nature Karaim plays a key role in Turkic comparative linguistics. Having been isolated from the Turkic linguistic world for centuries, and surrounded mainly by Slavonic languages, it has preserved a number of archaic features.
Secondly, of great importance is the fact that the essence of the religion of this intriguing ethno-linguistic-religious minority lies, unlike mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, in its recognition of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) alone as the supreme authority in religious law and theology. In this project, then, the Karaim Bible translations are perceived not only as the earliest written record of a language, but also as the central component of a culture.
KaraimBIBLE is a research project financed by the European Research Council (ERC) the basis of which will be a comprehensive edition of the entire Karaim Bible based on carefully selected sources from the 15th–20th centuries. The sources will receive grammatical and palaeographical descriptions. Beyond that, it will be investigated whether the Biblical manuscripts and the Karaite semi-cursive script types belong to one or multiple scribal traditions in order to better understand the way these translations were created. Some Karaim texts will be translated into English and efforts will be made to discover further manuscripts. The project is hosted at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland) and is conducted in collaboration with the Uppsala University (Sweden).
To achieve the research objectives an on-line digital critical edition will be created – equipped with a lexicographical database. The platform will be a complex research instrument providing a highly interconnected network of data based on the technologies commonly referred to as Semantic Web.
Eastern European Karaims are the sole representatives of Karaite Judaism in Europe. Their native tongue is a severely endangered Turkic vernacular, but merely a fraction of its surviving written heritage has entered scholarly circulation. In particular, the Karaim translations of the Hebrew Bible – the oldest written records of this language – still await investigation. As a result, on the one hand, the Karaim data cannot be effectively exploited in historical-comparative studies and, on the other hand, there is no edition of the Bible that Karaims could read in religious practice. The existing translations are locked in sources written in Hebrew script – a script which Karaims cannot read any more. What makes this project crucial to sustaining this endangered culture is the fact that Karaite Judaism is based on the recognition of the Hebrew Bible alone as the supreme authority in religious law and theology.
The project and its objectives are shaped by two pivotal factors. Firstly, due to its archaic nature Karaim plays a key role in Turkic comparative linguistics. Having been isolated from the Turkic linguistic world for centuries, and surrounded mainly by Slavonic languages, it has preserved a number of archaic features.
Secondly, of great importance is the fact that the essence of the religion of this intriguing ethno-linguistic-religious minority lies, unlike mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, in its recognition of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) alone as the supreme authority in religious law and theology. In this project, then, the Karaim Bible translations are perceived not only as the earliest written record of a language, but also as the central component of a culture.
Work performed (months 1–30)
The main methodological aspects of the transcription have been discussed during the first key-researcher visits in Uppsala and during the first two annual meetings in Kraków. A uniform transcription has been developed that is suitable for the linguistic description of all Middle Turkic languages attested using different scripts in the past, including Arabic, Armenian, Uighur, Hebrew, Latin, and Cyrillic. This was motivated by the fact that the database is being developed in a way that it will allow, in the future, comparative research between Middle Turkic languages. The Uppsala team has worked out a database platform for presentation of selected manuscripts, which is now available on-line (for the team members) to be tested, and improved.
The linguistic treatment of numerous Biblical manuscripts — mss. ADub.III.73 (343 folios), JSul.III.01 (296 folios), JSul.I.04 (126 folios), ADub.III.84 (224 folios), JSul.III.65 (22 folios), ADub.III.83 (245 folios), TKow.01 (216 folios), and ADub.III.73 — has been delivered, including their transcription, linguistic analysis, the preparation of the critical apparatus (philological and linguistic commentaries). Ms. ADub.III.73 received an English translation, too. The transcription of the first two Books of Moses of the linguistically very demanding Eupatorian print is ready. Several sources underwent linguistic and stemmatological analysis. The textual and stylistic similarities between Biblical manuscripts created separately in Karaim communities located far from one another in the regions of Crimea, Lithuania, Volhynia, and Galicia highlight the close affinities between these manuscripts and suggest that a common tradition of Bible translation must have existed among the Karaims. Moreover, the textual complexity and the use of sophisticated translation techniques and literary methods in the oldest known texts suggest that they could have been based on older texts or on a well-established oral translating tradition.
So far 10 talks have been delivered on conferences, seminars and workshops, 7 papers were published, further 8 articles are being on different stages of publication process, and 1 monograph was published in 2021 by the BRILL Academic Publishers (two volumes, 1467 pages). Additionally, one workshop was organized for the members of the Karaim communities of Trakai and Vilnius (hybrid seminar: held in Trakai, but transmitted online) to raise the awareness of the value of the manuscripts privately owned by them.
The main methodological aspects of the transcription have been discussed during the first key-researcher visits in Uppsala and during the first two annual meetings in Kraków. A uniform transcription has been developed that is suitable for the linguistic description of all Middle Turkic languages attested using different scripts in the past, including Arabic, Armenian, Uighur, Hebrew, Latin, and Cyrillic. This was motivated by the fact that the database is being developed in a way that it will allow, in the future, comparative research between Middle Turkic languages. The Uppsala team has worked out a database platform for presentation of selected manuscripts, which is now available on-line (for the team members) to be tested, and improved.
The linguistic treatment of numerous Biblical manuscripts — mss. ADub.III.73 (343 folios), JSul.III.01 (296 folios), JSul.I.04 (126 folios), ADub.III.84 (224 folios), JSul.III.65 (22 folios), ADub.III.83 (245 folios), TKow.01 (216 folios), and ADub.III.73 — has been delivered, including their transcription, linguistic analysis, the preparation of the critical apparatus (philological and linguistic commentaries). Ms. ADub.III.73 received an English translation, too. The transcription of the first two Books of Moses of the linguistically very demanding Eupatorian print is ready. Several sources underwent linguistic and stemmatological analysis. The textual and stylistic similarities between Biblical manuscripts created separately in Karaim communities located far from one another in the regions of Crimea, Lithuania, Volhynia, and Galicia highlight the close affinities between these manuscripts and suggest that a common tradition of Bible translation must have existed among the Karaims. Moreover, the textual complexity and the use of sophisticated translation techniques and literary methods in the oldest known texts suggest that they could have been based on older texts or on a well-established oral translating tradition.
So far 10 talks have been delivered on conferences, seminars and workshops, 7 papers were published, further 8 articles are being on different stages of publication process, and 1 monograph was published in 2021 by the BRILL Academic Publishers (two volumes, 1467 pages). Additionally, one workshop was organized for the members of the Karaim communities of Trakai and Vilnius (hybrid seminar: held in Trakai, but transmitted online) to raise the awareness of the value of the manuscripts privately owned by them.
Progress beyond the state of the art (months 1-30)
Several archival visits took place in Lithuania and Poland. As a result, new, very valuable manuscripts were discovered in Polish and Lithuanian private archives and in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Before launching the project, there was still a risk that some of the chapters of the Hebrew Bible were never translated before into Karaim or that no surviving manuscript contains them. Thanks to our findings now we have reached a full coverage of the Hebrew Bible in Karaim translation. The archival visits in Lithuania have been supplemented by preparing sound recordings of spoken Karaim. The team has been supplemented with a person with great experience in fieldwork and a good knowledge of the structure and the present state of Karaim communities in Lithuania. The present situation of linguistic assimilation has been preliminarily assessed. The first recordings of the last fully competent native speakers are secured.
Due to the bad condition of some of the discovered manuscripts, legal and financial frameworks were created to launch a professional restoration and conservation process of the most valuable items. As a result of an open competition, a professional paper conservation laboratory was chosen to perform the rescue of the first, extremely valuable item (a manuscript from 1722, the second oldest North-Western Karaim Bible translation). This action will be continued within the project, to save from destruction as many manuscripts as possible.
The entire edition of the North-Western Karaim Torah in contemporary Karaim orthography and phonetic shape was created by the PI to meet another objective of the project, namely to create the first edition of the Tanakh that is accessible for present-day Karaims of Lithuania and Poland. A fruitful and continuous cooperation has been established with a native speaker of Karaim (from Lithuania) to perform a thorough proofreading of the entire material. The edition is due to be published in 2022.
Several archival visits took place in Lithuania and Poland. As a result, new, very valuable manuscripts were discovered in Polish and Lithuanian private archives and in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Before launching the project, there was still a risk that some of the chapters of the Hebrew Bible were never translated before into Karaim or that no surviving manuscript contains them. Thanks to our findings now we have reached a full coverage of the Hebrew Bible in Karaim translation. The archival visits in Lithuania have been supplemented by preparing sound recordings of spoken Karaim. The team has been supplemented with a person with great experience in fieldwork and a good knowledge of the structure and the present state of Karaim communities in Lithuania. The present situation of linguistic assimilation has been preliminarily assessed. The first recordings of the last fully competent native speakers are secured.
Due to the bad condition of some of the discovered manuscripts, legal and financial frameworks were created to launch a professional restoration and conservation process of the most valuable items. As a result of an open competition, a professional paper conservation laboratory was chosen to perform the rescue of the first, extremely valuable item (a manuscript from 1722, the second oldest North-Western Karaim Bible translation). This action will be continued within the project, to save from destruction as many manuscripts as possible.
The entire edition of the North-Western Karaim Torah in contemporary Karaim orthography and phonetic shape was created by the PI to meet another objective of the project, namely to create the first edition of the Tanakh that is accessible for present-day Karaims of Lithuania and Poland. A fruitful and continuous cooperation has been established with a native speaker of Karaim (from Lithuania) to perform a thorough proofreading of the entire material. The edition is due to be published in 2022.