c. 930 CE Hebrew-language letter; first mention of Kiev (Kyiv)
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The Kievan Letter scan in The Kievan Letter scan collection of Cambridge University Library website
The Kievan Letter, or Kyivan letter[1] is an early 10th-century (ca. 930)[2] letter thought to be written by representatives of the Jewish community in Kiev. 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 from the Cairo Geniza. It was discovered in 1962 during a survey of the Geniza documents by Norman Golb of the University of Chicago. 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.[3]
^Petrovsky-Shtern, Yohanan (2017). "The Art of Shifting Contexts". In Plokhy, Serhii (ed.). The Future of the Past: New Perspectives on Ukrainian History. Cambridge MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (Harvard University Press). p. 234. Found by Norman Golb in the Cairo Geniza, the tenth-century Kyivan letter illuminating the presence of allegedly Turkic-named Jews among the Kyivan Jewish elites, again pointed to the Khazarian origin of Jews in Kyivan Rus′, and to the Judaic character of the Khazarians.
^Nomads in the sedentary world
^Marcel Erdal, 'The Khazar Language,' in Peter B. Golden, Haggai Ben-Shammai, András Róna-Tas,(eds.), The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives,Brill, 2007 pp.75-108, pp.95-97.
The KievanLetter, or Kyivan letter is an early 10th-century (ca. 930) letter thought to be written by representatives of the Jewish community in Kiev...
late as the 920s, leaving historical documents such as the KievanLetter and Schechter Letter. Other historians suggest that Magyar tribes ruled the city...
Khazar letter discussing several matters including the wars of the early 940s, involving the Byzantine Empire, the Khazar Khaganate, and Kievan Rus'. Scholars...
the KievanLetter (c. 930), written in Hebrew as SWRTH (read either as Sur'ata or Sever'ata), derived from Slavic sirota ("orphan"; in the letter, possibly...
a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East and Kievan Rus'. For some three centuries (c. 650–965) the Khazars dominated the vast...
Fishberg, Maurice (1911): The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment. The KievanLetter scan in the Cambridge University Library collection. Khazaria.com Resources...
comprising only one attested word, oqurüm, "I have read" (from the KievanLetter). Alsószentmihály inscription Golden 2011, p. 224. Golden 2011, p. 151...
Grand Prince of Kiev (sometimes grand duke) was the title of the monarch of Kievan Rus', residing in Kiev (modern Kyiv) from the 10th to 13th centuries.[citation...
of the Rus' who became prince of Kiev, and laid the foundations of the Kievan Rus' state. According to the Primary Chronicle, he succeeded his "kinsman"...
Initially an old variant of the Bulgarian alphabet, it became used in the Kievan Rusʹ since the 10th century to write what would become the modern Russian...
Povest' vremennykh let (PVL), lit. 'Tale of Bygone Years'), is a chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been originally compiled...
himself at Novgorod in the year 862. The Rurikids were the ruling dynasty of Kievan Rus' and its principalities following its disintegration. The Romanovichi...
general scholarly studies. Golb was the discoverer, in 1962, of the KievanLetter, the earliest document attesting to Jewish habitation of Kyiv. He also...
descendant of Old East Slavic, a language spoken in the medieval state of Kievan Rus'. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the language developed into Ruthenian...
architecture of modern Russia as well as the architecture of both the original Kievan Rus', the Russian principalities, and Imperial Russia. Due to the geographical...
100 kopiyok. It is named after a measure of weight used in Kievan Rus'. The currency of Kievan Rus' in the 11th century was the grivna. The word is thought...
literary language, called Old Slavonic. In the 10th century, it became used in Kievan Rus' to write Old East Slavic, from which the Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn...
entered into written history with the establishment of the medieval state of Kievan Rus', which emerged as a powerful nation but disintegrated during the High...
area later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated...
modern East Slavic languages descend from a common predecessor spoken in Kievan Rus' from the 9th to 13th centuries, which later evolved into Ruthenian...
Many eventually settled west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Kievan Rus', the Galicia–Volhynia Principality, the Golden Horde Khanate, the Second...
affiliations Rus' Khaganate c.830–882 Kievan Rus' 882–1132 Principality of Kiev 1132–1471 ∟ part of the Kievan Rus' from 1132 to 1243 ∟ part of Vladimir-Suzdal...
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