Literary Sources of the Jewish Communities in the Medieval Crimea: Between Byzantium and the Golden Horde

This paper presents preliminary results of the reconstruction of the intellectual life in the Crimean Jewish communities, both Rabbanite and Karaite. It deals with the period running from the Middle Ages to the early 16^th century, in both Jewish and non Jewish cultural contexts. The aim of the paper is to present the main manuscripts, previously unknown or little known, related to Solkhat – the regional capital of the Golden Horde in the 13^th -14^th centuries, and to the Genoesian Kaffa.

These two neighboring Crimean communities were important Jewish centers which served as a cultural crossroad between the Byzantine, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Caucasian, Italian and Eastern European Jewish communities. The manuscripts from Solkhat and Kaffa shed light on the spiritual life of these Medieval Jewish communities, on their areas of interests, They display the patterns of knowledge and of study prevalent in these communities, the contents of their libraries. Thus are put in evidence the transition of texts, and the span of their intellectual contacts between the Black Sea region and Jewish communities from other areas.