Metadata: D. A. Khvol’son
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Holding institution (official language):
- Институт восточных рукописей Российской Академии наук
- Postal address:
- 191186, St. Petersburg, Dvortsovaia nab., d. 18
- Phone number:
- (812) 315-87-28
- Web address:
- http://www.orientalstudies.ru
- Email:
- iom@orientaistudies.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 55
- Title:
- D. A. Khvol’son
- Title (official language):
- Хвольсон Д. А.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Khvol’son, Daniil Abramovich
- Date(s):
- 1859/1909
- Language:
- Russian
- German
- French
- Hebrew
- Latin
- Arabic
- Extent:
- 11 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The materials in this fonds may be provisionally divided into the following thematic groups:
1) D. A. Khvol’son’s personal documents, including a notebook; five letters from various persons to him (1870, 1891, 1899, 1900); correspondence and draft agreements on the Academy of Sciences’ acquisition of D. A. Khvol’son’s library (the “Biblioteca Chvolsoniana”), and a brief catalogue thereof and a description the manuscript collection (1909); letters from the German publisher O. Harrasovits to K. G. Zaleman regarding acquisition of the library (1909); two photographic portraits of D. A. Khvol’son, and negatives of these (undated); etc.
2) Scholarly works by D. A. Khvol’son, including manuscripts and author’s copies of publications with his corrections and additions: “Achtzehn Hebräische Grabschriften aus der Krim” (1865); “Eighteen Jewish Headstone Inscriptions from Crimea” (1866); “Die Semitischen Fälker. Versuch einer Characteristik von D. Chvolson” (1872); “Zettel zum arab. Kat” (undated); a critical analysis of a study by Abraham Harkavy: “A Review of the Work Titled ‘Tales of Eastern Muslim Writers about the Ancient Slavs and Ancient Rus’ till the mid-12th c.’”; part 1 (1869); a piece on New Testament narratives titled “Syrisch-Nestorianische Grabinschriften aus Semiryatsche” (1890); working materials and notes under the heading “Miscellanea Talmudica” (1859-90); etc.
3) Various documents, including a review by I. F. Gotval’d on a work prepared for publication by D. A. Khvol’son titled “Information on Khazars, Burtasy, Bulgarians, Magyars, Slavs, and Russes provided by Abu Ali Ahmed ben Omar ibn-Dast, a hitherto unknown Arabic writer of the early 10th c., from a manuscript of the British Museum” (St. Petersburg, 1869); two clippings from the newspaper Petersburger Zeitung, including articles titled “Über die neue Bibelhandschrift vom Berge Sinai” (“On the New Bible from Mount Sinai”, 1859), etc.; printed programs and lists of participants of the II-XVIII Archaeological Congresses (1871-90); and a printed illustrated leaflet to commemorate M. M. Antokol’skii, published in Hamburg (1902).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Daniil Abramovich Khvol’son (1819-1911) was an Orientalist, Semitics scholar, Hebraist, historian and linguist. He received a traditional Jewish education in a cheder and yeshiva, where he studied the Bible and Talmud and medieval commentaries thereon under the guidance of Rabbi Izrail’ Ginzburg. From 1844-48, he was able to study at the University of Breslau due to the support of the Jewish theologian Rabbi A. Geiger. In 1850, D. A. Khvol’son received a PhD at Leipzig University for his thesis “Die Sabier und der Sabismus” (“The Sabeans and their Religion”). Upon his return to Russia, he continued to study this subject and published an extensive work under the same title in St. Petersburg in 1856. In 1855, he took part in the Department of Spiritual Affairs’ commission on the Saratov case and, as such, submitted a memorandum debunking the accusation that Jews practiced ritual murder. In 1878, in connection with the Kutaisi case, and at the request of Baron G. O. Gintsburg, he wrote and published a special study titled Do Jews Use Christian Blood? (St. Petersburg, 1879), which had a broad public resonance and was subsequently translated into several languages (in 1912, this work was republished in connection with the Beilis case). In 1855, having converted to Russian Orthodoxy, he took the chair in Jewish, Syriac and Chaldean literature in the Oriental studies department of St. Petersburg University. From 1858 to 1883 he taught Hebrew and biblical archeology at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and from 1858 to 1884 he was an instructor in Hebrew at the St. Petersburg Roman Catholic Academy. In 1858, he became a corresponding member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the Oriental literature category and in 1908 an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences. His primary works were devoted to the history of the East, as well as of the peoples of Eastern Europe. He studied and published newfound sources on the history of Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac writing, including the Syriac Nestorian inscriptions of the tombs of Semirech’e (1886-97). He published works on Assyriology, Oriental epigraphy and Hebrew grammar and phonetics. He carried out a scholarly translation of the Bible into Russian, thus contributing to the development of the field of scientific criticism of the Bible in Russia. D. A. Khvol’son’s works include On Certain Medieval Accusations against Jews (St. Petersburg, 1861); “A Description of the Semitic Peoples” (Russkii vestnik, no. 2, 1872); “A History of the Old Testament Text and an Outline of its Most Ancient Translations as Pertain to the Original and among Themselves” (Khristianskoe chtenie, no. 5, 1874); “On the Influence of the Geographical Position of Palestine on the Fate of the Ancient Jewish People" (Khristianskoe chtenie, no. 1, 1875, and the scholarly-literary compendium The Future [St. Petersburg, 1901, vol. 2.]), On the False Idea of Jews’ Isolation (St. Petersburg, 1880); and Hebrew Early Printed Books (St. Petersburg, 1896).
The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IVR RAN) is a research institute in the Academy of Sciences system. Its operations are focused mainly on the comprehensive study of landmarks of the literature of the East, as well as of the ancient and medieval history of the countries of Asia and North Africa. The fonds of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts currently contain a significant collection of Jewish materials reflecting both the rabbinical and Karaite traditions: approximately 50,000 printed books in Hebrew (including 66 incunabula and approximately 300 paleotypes); about 10,000 printed books in Yiddish; over 1,700 manuscripts (among them, 1,217 codices and 79 scrolls), not counting a great number of fragments; and about 5,000 copies of Jewish newspapers (published before 1917). The Hebrew fonds was formed during the 19th and 20th centuries from the private collections of L F Friedland, D A Khvol’son, D G Maggid, V V Radlov, E Ross, P K Kokovtsov and other collectors, mandatory copies of all books printed in the territory of the Russian Empire and books expropriated after the October Revolution from synagogues and Jewish schools. Some of the publications were acquired as ‘trophies’ of the Second World War.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises a single series arranged thematically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
