The history of the Jewish people // l'Histoire du peuple Juif

English: Introduction

Status of this work

The publication of this work is as yet incomplete. Approximately half of the original handwritten notes have been typed up, and less than half of that is online. At present the formatting stops before the end of the text - I decided to publish the unformatted text anyway so that you can read if you wish, but it will be hard to follow. The English translation is very far behind the French (which was the original language), so I have not published any of the English yet. I will translate this page into French soon.

Background

Linked from this page is an in-depth account of the history of the Jewish people, written by my late grandfather, Sadi Saban. I originally heard about this when my grandmother moved house, and sent a collection of notepads to my mother (Eva Goldenberg, née Saban). I was told that Sadi used to meet with friends regularly to discuss Jewish history, and that he had left behind some notes, handwritten in French. I had also heard many stories about how learned my grandfather was, but I thought that these notes were a small and casual affair.

My mother started typing the notes up to preserve them, and checking unclear parts in reference books to get the names of people and places right. I was wondering why it was taking so long, but when I asked her to send me the work in progress I was shocked at how long and how comprehensive it was. I have taken it on myself to publish the work, and to attempt a translation into English, partly as a fitting memorial to my grandfather and partly because I think (and hope) the work is actually detailed enough to be of interest to other people.

This edition

My mother has provided a glossary of French words that are either unusual or refer to specifically Jewish concepts. I have tried to link words to their definitions - you can see the definition either by holding the mouse over an underlined word (might not work in all browsers) or by clicking on the word to get a pop-up with the definition (should work in any browser with JavaScript enabled). If you find that neither of these work, please email me with details of your computer and browser, and what (if anything) happened.

I have also added links to many external sites. These are a selection from pages with more information about things, mostly the characters and places in this story. I have read all of them, but due to the fluid nature of the web I can make no guarantees that the links still work, nor that they still lead to accurate or well-written information. Some links are also to commercial sites which may carry a lot of advertising, or may require a subscription to access the full text. With these provisos, I hope the extra links are useful.

As this is all in progress, and I am not sure what to do with this once it's finished, I would be very grateful if anyone who finds it of interest could email me so I know if it is interesting to people who don't have a personal link to the author. Please do not reproduce this work or quote extensively; I would rather you linked to whatever you want to refer to instead, so that people see the whole context. If you want to use short quotes that's fine, but please still contact me and link to the original source.

Eldan Goldenberg; Brighton, UK; January 2002

Author's introduction

The Jews people trace their history through thirty eight centuries: but this history is unlike that of other nations because they have only been an independent nation on their own territory for around twelve of those thirty eight centuries. Even while dispersed around the world, speaking different languages (but praying in the same language), the Jews have been recognised as members of one tribe, one people. Thus our history is different from that of other nations, in the sense that it tells of how our people have managed to maintain an identity through twenty centuries of dispersion and through much adversity in these different historical epochs.

If this story must be divided into periods, the most logical way is as follows:

Sadi Saban; Istanbul, Türkiye

links to English version will be put in to the table as it is produced

Français: Introduction

Status of this work

French translation to go here

Background

French translation to go here

This edition

French translation to go here

Eldan Goldenberg; Brighton, UK; Janvier 2002

Introduction par l'auteur

Le peuple juif compte trente-huit siècles d'histoire: mais son histoire diffère de celle des autres nations du fait que durant ces trente-huit siècles, il n'a vécu qu'environ douze siècles en tant que peuple indépendant sur son territoire. Puis dispersés à travers le monde, parlant des langues différentes, mais priant dans la même langue, les juifs se sont reconnus comme étant les membres d'une même tribu, d'un même peuple. Notre histoire est donc différente de celle des autres nations, dans le sens qu'elle nous enseigne surtout comment notre peuple a reussi à se conserver durant vingt siècles de dispersion et par quelles épreuves et vicissitudes ont passé des dizaines de générations vivant dans des pays différents dans des époques historiques diverses:

Si il faut diviser cette histoire en périodes, il conviendrait de le faire de la manière suivante

Sadi Saban; Istanbul, Türkiye