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Daniel Abramovich Chwolson orChwolsohn orKhvolson (Russian:Даниил Авраамович (Абрамович) Хвольсон;Hebrew:דניאל אברמוביץ' חבולסון) (December 3, 1819 [O.S. November 21]) – March 23, 1911 [O.S. March 12])) was a Russian-Jewish scholar of the Arabic language.
Chwolson was born inVilnius, which was then part of the Russian Empire. As he showed marked ability in the study ofHebrew andTalmud, his parents, who were very religious, destined him for therabbinate, and placed him at theyeshiva of Rabbi Israel Günzburg. Up to his eighteenth year he did not know any other[citation needed] language than Hebrew, but in three years he acquired a fair knowledge of German, French, and Russian.
Chwolson went toBreslau in 1841, and, after three years' preparation in the classical languages, enteredBreslau University, where he devoted himself toArabic. There he studied until 1848, and in 1850 he received the degree ofdoctor of philosophy atLeipzig University.
On his return to Russia he settled inSt. Petersburg, where his son, the physicistOrest Khvolson, was born in 1852. In 1855, being highly appreciated in learned circles, and having embraced Christianity, he was appointed extraordinary professor of Oriental languages in the university. Three years later he received a similar appointment in theDukhovnaya Akademiya (Theological Academy). In 1856, theImperial Academy issued, at its own expense, Chwolson's first work, which established the authority of its author in the field of Oriental research, the two-volumeDie Ssabier und der Ssabismus (Sabians and Sabianism). Three years later Chwolson publishedUeber die Ueberreste der Altbabylonischen Literatur in Arabischen Uebersetzungen (St. Petersburg, 1859; also in Russian inThe Russian Messenger under the titleNovootkrytie Pamyatniki). This work made a great sensation among scholars by the importance of its discoveries and by Chwolson's theories concerning the oldBabylonian monuments. It was followed in 1860 byUeber Tammuz und die Menschenverehrung bei den Alten Babyloniern (ib. 1860).
The learned world in 1899 celebrated Chwolson's literary jubilee by presenting him with a collection of articles written in his honor by prominent European scholars. This was published byBaron David Günzburg under the titleRecueil des travaux rédigés en mémoire du jubilé scientifique de M. Daniel Chwolson, Berlin, 1899.
Blood libel accusations had been brought against the Jews ofSaratov in 1857, and the government summoned a commission of scholars to see whether any passages could be found in Jewish literature recommending the use of Christian blood for ritual purposes. Chwolson, who was appointed a member of the commission, wrote a report in which he demonstrated the groundlessness of the accusations in general, and pointed out that in the particular case of Saratov the evidence given by the two principal witnesses was full of contradictions and absurdities. The investigation extended over a period of nine years. Chwolson secured permission to publish his memoir, which appeared in 1861 asO nekotorykh srednevekovykh obvineniyakh protiv evreyev ("On several medieval accusations against the Jews").
In 1878 Chwolson saw a new blood accusation brought againstGeorgian Jews atKutais,Transcaucasia. At the same time several Russiananti-Semitic writers undertook a campaign against the Talmud, repeating the old charge that it contained blasphemies against Jesus. Chwolson again took up the defense of the Jews, and republished his memoir with many additions (St. Petersburg, 1880). A German edition of this work appeared in the year 1901 under the titleDie Blutanklage und Sonstige Mittelalterliche Beschuldigungen der Juden. In this edition Chwolson, before entering into a discussion of the blood question, expounds the history of the Talmud, and shows that the "Pharisees" condemned by Jesus in the Gospels were not the Rabbinites in general and that it was not the Pharisees but theSadducees who were the enemies and persecutors of Jesus. He further demonstrates that, according to Talmudic law, Jews were bound to look upon Christians as their brethren, the assertions to the contrary being due partly to misconception, partly to hatred.
The deep-rooted belief that Jesus was crucified by the Jews being the principal cause of the prejudice against them on the part of the Christians, Chwolson, in a dissertation entitledPoslyedniyaya paskhalnaya vecherya Isusa Christa i den' yevo smerti (St. Petersburg, 1875; German translation,Das letzte Passamal Christi, 1892) shows the groundlessness of this belief, pointing out that the proceedings of the trial and condemnation of Jesus, as related in the Gospels, were in violation of the rabbinical laws and consequently could not have been conducted by a Jewish tribunal.
He defended the Jewish people as well asJudaism. In a work entitledKharakteristika semitskikh narodov published inThe Russian Messenger, 1872 (German ed., Berlin, 1872), he draws a parallel between the distinguishing characteristics of the Jew, the representative of the Semitic race, and those of the Greek, the representative of theAryan peoples, not always to the advantage of the latter. The pamphlet was translated into English under the titleThe Semitic Nations (Cincinnati, 1874).
He also wrote:
Mention may be made here of Chwolson's early contributions of Jewish biographies from Arabic sources, especially that ofMaimonides, to theOrient, 1846.
Chwolson was an indefatigable collector of Hebrew books, and his collection of Hebrew incunabula was valuable. A catalogue of his Hebrew books was published by him under the titleReshimat Sifre Yisrael, Vilna, 1897.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Broydé, Isaac;Roenthal, Herman (1903)."Chwolson, Daniel Abramowich". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. pp. 86–88.
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