Historical consciousness, Haskalah, and nationalism among the Karaites of Eastern Europe / by Golda Akhiezer.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Front Matter -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- Abstract -- General Introduction -- Introduction to Terminology -- The Study of Karaism and Its Paradoxes -- History or Historical Narratives? Formative Traditions in Karaite Literature and Their Social Functions -- Karaite Intellectual Life in the Fifteenth- to Seventeenth-Century Poland-Lithuania -- The Interaction between the Karaites and the Protestant Hebraists in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries -- The Karaite "Chain of Tradition" in Eastern Europe and the Resurgence of Schism Literature -- Karaite Chronography in the Crimea and Eastern Europe -- Karaites and Their Neighbors in the Nineteenth Century: The Attempt to Construct a Karaite History -- The Haskalah, Hokhmat Israel, and the Evolution of Karaite Identity in the Russian Empire -- Conclusion.

The present study is the first of its kind to deal with Eastern European Karaite historical thought. It focuses on the social functions of Karaite historical narratives concerning the rise of Karaism from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. The book also deals with the image of Karaism created by Protestants, and with the perception of Karaism by some leaders of the Haskalah movement, especially the scholars of Hokhmat Israel . In both cases, Karaism was seen as an orientalistic phenomenon whereby the "enlightened" European scholars romanticized the "indigenous" people, while the Karaites (themselves), adopted this romantic images, incorporating it into their own national discourse. Finally, the book sheds new light on several conventional notions that shaped the study of Karaism from the nineteenth century.

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