The sons of scripture : : the Karaites in Poland and Lithuania in the twentieth century / / Mikhail Kizilov ; managing editor, Katarzyna Tempczyk ; language editor, Wayne Smith.

• VerfasserIn: Kizilov, Mikhail,
• TeilnehmendeR: Tempczyk, Katarzyna,; Smith, Wayne,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin, Germany ;, Boston, Massachusetts : : De Gruyter,, 2015.; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (546 pages) :; illustrations
• Other title: Front matter --; Contents --; List of Abbreviations --; Foreword --; Acknowledgements --; 1 Introduction --; 2 Between the Israelites and the Khazars: 1900-1918 --; 3 Interwar Period (1919-1939): the Victory of the Khazar Theory --; 4 Ḥakham (Ḥakhan) Seraja Szapszał (1873-1961) and His Role in Shaping of the Turkic Identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite Community --; 5 Between Scylla and Charybdis: Polish-Lithuanian Karaites between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (1939-1945) --; 6 From the Soviet Stagnation to the Post-Soviet Renaissance (1945-2014) --; 7 Conclusion --; Glossary --; Bibliography --; List of Illustrations --; Name Index --; Geographic Index
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 3110425262
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Mikhail Kizilov ; managing editor, Katarzyna Tempczyk ; language editor, Wayne Smith.

Drawing on the variety of archival sources in the host of European and Oriental languages, the book focuses on the history, ethnography, and convoluted ethnic identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. The vanishing community of the Karaites, a non-Talmudic Turkic-speaking Jewish minority that had been living in Eastern Europe since the late Middle Ages, developed a unique ethnographic culture and religious tradition. The book offers the first comprehensive study of the dramatic history of the Polish-Lithuanian Karaite community in the twentieth century. Especially important is the analysis of the dejudaization (or Turkicization) of the community that saved the Karaites from horrors of the Holocaust.