In the Hebrew Bible, Ashkenaz (אַשְׁכְּנַז) was the first son of Gomer and brother of Riphath and Togarmah (Genesis 10:3, 1 Chronicles 1:6). Gomer was the grandson of Noah through Japheth. Accordingly, Ashkenaz was a Japhetic descendant of Noah.
According to Jeremiah 51:27, a kingdom of Ashkenaz was called together with Ararat and Minni against Babylon. The location of this kingdom, however, is not clear and is not mentioned again, nor is there any clear non-biblical reference to the kingdom. Ashkenaz is often identified with the Scythians and Sarmatians, due in part to the use of the name "Ashkuz" (Saka) for the Scythians in Assyrian Akkadianinscriptions. It may also refer to the Phrygians, who according to Homer's Iliad settled around Lake Ascania. The Assyrian Gimirri and Hebrew Gomer have likewise been associated with the Cimmerians.
Isaac Asimov has proposed that biblical Ashkenaz (אשכנז) arose from Ashkūz (אשכוז), i.e. the Scythians, by an old misreading of נ (nun) for ו (vav).
According to the Encyclopaedia Biblica, "Ashkenaz must have been one of the migratory peoples which in the time of Esar-haddon, burst upon the northern provinces of Asia Minor, and upon Armenia. One branch of this great migration appears to have reached Lake Urumiyeh; for in the revolt which Esar-haddon chastised (i R 45, col. 2, 27 jf.), the Mannai, who lived to the SW of that lake, sought the help of Ispakai 'of the land of Asguza,' a name (originally perhaps Asgunza) which the scepticism 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. (See Schr. COT'I^gs; \Vi. GBA 269; ^7^6488491; similarly Friedr. Del., Sayce, Knudlzon.)"
The Sefer Hasidim or Sefer Chassidim (Hebrew: ספר חסדים, Book of the Pious) is a text by Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg, a foundation work of the teachings of the Chassidei Ashkenaz ("Pious Ones of Germany"). It offers an account of the day-to-day religious life of medieval German Jews, and their customs, beliefs and traditions. It presents the combined teachings of the three leaders of German Hasidism during the 12th and 13th centuries: Samuel the Chassid, Judah the Chassid of Regensburg (his son), and Elazar Rokeach.[1]
This Hebrew book originated between the late 12th and early 13th centuries in the Rhineland, shortly after the Second Crusade. After this time, it circulated widely. It influenced the distinctive religious practices and Hebrew literary style of Jews in Ashkenaz and also shaped the discourse about Jewish ethics in medieval Europe and beyond.[2]
Several manuscripts are in existence, some more extensive than others. An edition based on the Parma manuscript, published by Chevra Mekitzei Nirdamim in 1891, was reprinted in 1955. Recently Otzar haPoskim Institute has published an elaborate version with numerous commentaries.
Medieval Ashkenaz[edit]
In rabbinic literature, the kingdom of Ashkenaz was first associated with the Scythian region, then later with the Slavic territories,[1] and, from the 11th century onwards, with northern Europe and Germany.[2]The region of Ashkenaz was centred on the Rhineland and the Palatinate (notably Worms and Speyer), in what is now the westernmost part of Germany. Its geographic extent did not coincide with the German Christian principalities of the time, and it included northern France. How the name of Ashkenaz came to be associated in the rabbinic literature with the Rhineland is a subject of speculation.[2]
In the 10th century, a distinctive Jewish culture formed in Central Europe and came to be called Ashkenazi, deriving its name from Ashkenaz. Although the region is no longer referred to by that name, Jews who follow traditions that originated in that culture are referred to as Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazi culture later spread into Eastern Europe and migrated to all parts of the world with the movement of Jews.
In rabbinic literature from the 11th century, Ashkenaz was considered the ruler of a kingdom in the North and of the Northern and Germanic people.
In Armenian tradition, Ashkenaz, along with Togarmah, was considered among the ancestors of the Armenians. Koriun, the earliest Armenian historian, calls the Armenians an "Askanazian (=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..."[3]
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."[4]
Because of this tradition, Askanaz is a male given name still used today by Armenians.
Askenaz in Royal genealogies (1732)[edit]
Japhetite (also Japhethitic, Japhetic) in Abrahamic mythology is a term for the peoples supposedly descended from Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah in theBible. The other two sons of Noah, Shem and Ham, are the eponymous ancestors of the Semites and the Hamites, respectively.
In medieval ethnography, the world was believed to have been divided into three large-scale racial groupings, corresponding to the three classical continents: In addition to the Japhetic peoples of Europe, the Semitic peoples of Asia and the Hamitic peoples of Africa.
The term has been used in modern times as a designation in physical anthropology, ethnography and comparative linguistics. In anthropology, it was used in a racial sense for "white people" (the Caucasian race). In linguistics it was used as a term for the Indo-European languages. These uses are now mostly obsolete. In a linguistic sense, only the Semitic peoples still form a well-defined family. The Indo-European group is no longer known as "Japhetite", and the Hamitic group is now recognized as polyphyletic within the Afro-Asiatic family.
The 1732 tome Royal genealogies by James Anderson reports a significant number of antiquarian or mythographic traditions regarding Askenaz as the first king of ancient Germany, in the following entry: