Ashkenaz (Hebrew:אַשְׁכְּנָזʾAškənāz) in theHebrew Bible is one of thedescendants of Noah.Ashkenaz is the first son ofGomer, and aJaphetic patriarch in theTable of Nations. Inrabbinic literature, the descendants of Ashkenaz were first associated with theScythian cultures, then later with theSlavic territories,[1] and, from the 11th century onwards, withGermany and northern Europe, or theIndo-European people, in a manner similar toTzarfat orSefarad.
His name is related to theAssyrianAškūza (Aškuzai, Iškuzai), theScythians who expelled theGimirri (Gimirrāi) from the Armenian highland of the Upper Euphrates area.[2]
In the genealogies of theHebrew Bible, Ashkenaz (Hebrew:אַשְׁכְּנַז,’Aškənaz;Greek:Ἀσχανάζ,romanized: Askhanáz) was adescendant of Noah. He was the first son ofGomer and brother ofRiphath andTogarmah (Genesis 10:3,1 Chronicles 1:6), with Gomer being the grandson ofNoah throughJapheth.
InJeremiah 51:27, a kingdom of Ashkenaz was to be called together withArarat andMinni againstBabylon, which reads:
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her [ie. Babylon], call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.
According to theEncyclopaedia Biblica, "Ashkenaz must have been one of the migratory peoples which in the time ofEsar-haddon, burst upon the northern provinces ofAsia Minor, and uponArmenia. One branch of this great migration appears to have reachedLake Urumiyeh; for in the revolt which Esar-haddon chastised, theMannai, who lived to the SW of that lake, sought the help ofIspakai 'of the land of Asguza,' a name (originally perhaps Asgunza) which the skepticism of Dillmann need not hinder us from identifying with Ashkenaz, and from considering as that of a horde from the north, of Indo-Germanic origin, which settled on the south of Lake Urumiyeh."
TheKaraite philologistDavid ben Abraham al-Fāsi, writing around the turn of the millennium, identified Ashkenaz as the ancestor of theKhazars.[3]
Inrabbinic literature, the kingdom of Ashkenaz was first associated with theScythian region, then later with theSlavic territories,[1] and, from the 11th century onwards, with northern Europe and Germany.[4] The region of Ashkenaz was centred on theRhineland and thePalatinate (notablyWorms andSpeyer), in what is now the westernmost part ofGermany.[citation needed] Its geographic extent did not coincide with the GermanChristian principalities of the time, and it includednorthern France.
How the name of Ashkenaz came to be associated in the rabbinic literature with the Rhineland is a subject of speculation.[4]
In rabbinic literature from the 11th century, Ashkenaz was considered the ruler of a kingdom in the North and of the Northern andGermanic people.[citation needed] (See below.)
Sometime in theEarly Middle Ages, the Jews east of France came to be called by the nameAshkenazim,[5] in conformity with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain asSepharad (Obadiah 1:20), France asTzarfat (1 Kings 17:9), andBohemia asCanaan.[6] By theHigh Middle Ages, Talmudic commentators likeRashi began to useAshkenaz/Eretz Ashkenaz to designateGermany, earlier known asLoter,[5][7] where, especially in theRhineland communities ofSpeyer,Worms, andMainz, the most important Jewish communities arose.[8] Rashi usesleshon Ashkenaz (Ashkenazi language) to describe the German language, and Byzantium and Syrian Jewish letters referred to theCrusaders as Ashkenazim.[7] Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France and Germany following theCarolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to both the Jews of medieval Germany and France.[9] Ashkenazi Jewish culture later spread in the 16th century intoEastern Europe, where their rite replaced that of existing Jewish communities whom some scholars believe to have been larger in demographics than the Ashkenazi Jews themselves,[10] and then to all parts of the world with the migrations of Jews who identified as "Ashkenazi Jews".
In Armenian tradition, Ashkenaz, along withTogarmah, was considered among the ancestors of theArmenians.Koriun, the earliest Armenian historian, calls the Armenians an "Askanazian (i.e., Ashkenazi) nation". He starts the "Life of Mashtots" with these words:
I had been thinking of the God-given alphabet of the Azkanazian nation and of the land of Armenia—when, in what time, and through what kind of man that new divine gift had been bestowed ...[11]
Later Armenian authors concur with this.Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi (10th century) writes:
The sixth son was Tiras from whom were born our very own Ashkenaz [Ask'anaz] and Togarmah [T'orgom] who named the country that he possessed Thrace after himself, as well as Chittim [K'itiim] who brought under his sway the Macedonians. 7. The sons of Tiras were Ashkenaz, from whom descended the Sarmatians, Riphath, whence the Sauromatians [Soramatk'], and Togarmah, who according to Jeremiah subjugated the Ashkenazian army and called it the House of Togarmah; for at first Ashkenaz had named our people after himself in accord with the law of seniority, as we shall explain in its proper place.[12]
Because of this tradition,Askanaz is a male given name still used today by Armenians.
In 1498, a monk namedAnnio da Viterbo published fragments known as "Pseudo-Berossus", now considered a forgery, claiming that Babylonian records had shown that Noah had more sons than the three sons of his listed in the Bible. Specifically, Tuiscon orTuisto is given as the fourth son of Noah, who had been the first ruler ofScythia and Germany following the dispersion of peoples, with him being succeeded by his son Mannus as the second king.
Later historians (e.g.,Johannes Aventinus andJohann Hübner) managed to furnish numerous further details, including the assertion byJames Anderson in the early 18th century that this Tuiscon was in fact none other than the biblical Ashkenaz, son ofGomer.[13] James Anderson's 1732 tomeRoyal genealogies reports a significant number of antiquarian or mythographic traditions regarding Askenaz as the first king of ancient Germany, for example the following entry:
Askenaz, or Askanes, called byAventinus Tuisco the Giant, and by othersTuisto or Tuizo (whom Aventinus makes the 4th son of Noah, and that he was born after the flood, but without authority) was sent by Noah into Europe, after the flood 131 years, with 20 Captains, and made a settlement near theTanais, on the West coast of theEuxin sea (by some called Asken from him) and there founded the kingdom of the Germans and the Sarmatians ... when Askenaz himself was 24 years old, for he lived above 200 years, and reigned 176.
In the vocables ofSaxony andHessia, there are some villages of the name Askenaz, and from him the Jews call the Germans Askenaz, but in the Saxonic and Italian, they are called Tuiscones, from Tuisco his other name. In the 25th year of his reign, he partitioned the kingdom intoToparchies,Tetrarchies, and Governments, and brought colonies from diverse parts to increase it. He built the cityDuisburg, made a body of laws in verse, and invented letters, whichKadmos later imitated, for the Greek and High Dutch are alike in many words.
The 20 captains or dukes that came with Askenaz are: Sarmata, from whomSarmatia; Dacus or Danus – Dania or Denmark; Geta from whom theGetae; Gotha from whom theGoths; Tibiscus, people on the riverTibiscus; Mocia –Mysia; Phrygus or Brigus –Phrygia; Thynus –Bithynia; Dalmata –Dalmatia; Jader –Jadera Colonia; Albanus from whomAlbania; Zavus – the riverSave; Pannus –Pannonia; Salon – the townSale, Azalus – theAzali; Hister –Istria; Adulas, Dietas, Ibalus – people that of old dwelt between the riversOenus andRhenus; Epirus, from whomEpirus.
Askenaz had a brother called Scytha (say the Germans) the father of theScythians, for which the Germans have of old been called Scythians too (very justly, for they came mostly from old Scythia) and Germany had several ancient names; for that part next to the Euxin was called Scythia, and the country of the Getes, but the parts east of theVistule or Weyssel were called Sarmatia Europaea, and westward it was calledGallia, Celtica,Allemania,Francia andTeutonia; for old Germany comprehended the greater part of Europe; and those calledGauls were all old Germans; who by ancient authors were calledCelts, Gauls andGalatians, which is confirmed by the historiansStrabo and Aventinus, and byAlstedius in his Chronology, p. 201 etc. Askenaz, or Tuisco, after his death, was worshipped as the ambassador and interpreter of the gods, and from thence called the first GermanMercury, from Tuitseben to interpret.[13]
In the 19th century, the German theologianAugust Wilhelm Knobel again equated Ashkenaz with the Germans, deriving the name of theAesir from Ashkenaz.[14]