Starkova Claudia

Starkova Claudia (1915–2000) – specialist in Hebrew studies, especially in the Qumran manuscripts.

In 1933, after a secondary school, she enrolled to the Faculty of Linguistic of the Leningrad Institute of Philosophy, Linguistic, and Literature, specializing there at the Chair of Semitic Languages and Literatures. After the graduation, she started her work over the Candidate thesis about the Hebrew poet and philosopher Judah Halevi (twelfth century) on the base of manuscripts from the State Public Library. She spent the first winter of the Blockade in Leningrad; since 1942 she was in evacuation in Tashkent. There she described Arabic manuscripts of the collection of the Tashkent Institute of Oriental Studies, and there she defended her Candidate thesis. Till 1950, she taught at the Leningrad State University, but then – at the wave of the official Antisemitism – the Chair of Semitology was closed. She worked at the Library of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R., and at the library of the Institute of Archeology.

In 1959-1974, she worked at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies. Doctor in Philology (1972); she was retired in 1979.

Two main spheres of her work were studying the manuscripts of Qumran, and of Hebrew monuments of St. Petersburg collections (first of all – the collection of A. Firkovich in the State Public Library).

Compositions

Monuments of the Qumran Literature: By the Research on the Ideology of the Qumran Society. Moscow, 1971 (in Rus.)
A Letter by Judah Halevi to Khabib al-Makhdevi: Publication and Comments // Sovetskoe vostokovedenie. Vol. 3, Moscow – Leningrad, 1946, pp. 423-437. (in Rus.)
Panegyric in the Medieval Hebrew Poetry // Sovetskoe vostokovedenie. Vol. 4, Moscow – Leningrad, 1947, pp. 134–156. (in Rus.)
Inscriptions by Artaxias (Artashes I), Tsar of Armenia // Vestnik drevnei istorii. 1955, No 2, pp. 161–174. (together with I. М. Diakonov). (in Rus.)
Manuscripts from the Region of the Dead Sea // Vestnik drevnei istorii. 1956, No 1, pp. 87–102. (in Rus.)
Manuscript of ‘Medicine Canon’ by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) from the Collection of the State Public Library. Vol. 2, Leningrad, 1957, pp. 39–54. (in Rus.)
Supplement to the ‘Rule’ of the Qumran Society // Palestinskyi sbornik. Iss. 8, Moscow – Leningrad, 1960, pp. 22–31. (in Rus.)
Semitology in the U.S.S.R. for Forty Years // Uchenye zapiski of the Institute of Oriental Studies. Vol. 25, Moscow, pp. 267–277. (in Rus.)
On the Publication and Studying the Monuments of Hebrew-Arabic Literature // Semitic languages. Iss. 2. (part 1), Moscow, 1965, pp. 205–215. (in Rus.)
Manuscripts from the Collection of Firkovich in the State Public Library // Written Monuments of the East: Historical-Philological Research for 1970. Moscow, 1974, pp. 165–195. (in Rus.)
Les manuscrits de la collection Firkovic conservйs б la Bibliotheque publique d’Etat Saltykov-Scedrin // Revue des йtudes juives. T. 134. Paris, 1975, N 3–4. P. 101–117.
Les plus anciens manuscrits de la Bible dans la collection de L’Institut des йtudes orientales de l’Acadйmie des sciences de l’URSS // La palйographie hйbraique mediйvale. Paris, 11–13 Septembre 1972. P.: Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique, 1974. P. 37–40.
Ciphered Astrological Documents from the Vicinity of Khirbet-Qumran (4Q Cript.) // Palestinskyi sbornik. Iss. 26. Moscow – Leningrad, 1978, pp. 124-132. (in Rus.)
Fragments of the ‘Lamentation’ from the 4th Cave of the Khirbet-Qumran (4Q 179) // Palestinskyi sbornik. Iss. 27, 1981, pp.57–62. (in Rus.)
‘Wanderings of Abraham’ (1Q Gen Ap XXI, 8–20) // Palestinskyi sbornik. Iss. 28, Leningrad, 1985, pp.10–13. (in Rus.)
Words Enlightening (4Q Dib Ham) // Palestinskyi sbornik. Iss. 29 (92): History and Philology. Leningrad, 1987, pp. 13–21. (in Rus.)
Texts of Qumran. (together with А. М. Gazov-Ginzberg and М. М. Elizarova). St. Petersburg, 1996. (in Rus.)
The War of the Sons of Light against Sons of Darkness // Religiovedenie. Blagoveshchensk, 2003, No 3. (in Rus.)
Memories on the Lived Out: Life and Work of the Semitologist-Hebraist in the U.S.S.R. / Edit. V. L. Vikhnovich. St. Petersburg, Evropeiskyi dom Publishing House, 2006. (in Rus.)
Literary Monuments of the Qumran Community. Leningrad: Nauka, 1973. Palestinsky sbornik 24 (87).

Bibliography

A List of Main Works by Dr. in Philology C. B. Starkova: by her 60th Anniversary / Comp. S. D. Miliband // Peoples of Asia and Africa. 1975, pp. 235–236. (in Rus.)

About her

Tantlevsky I. R., Vikhnovich V. L. Claudia Borisovna Starkova // Memories on the Lived Out: Life and Work of the Semitologist-Hebraist in the U.S.S.R. / Edit. V. L. Vikhnovich. St. Petersburg, Evropeiskyi dom Publishing House, 2006. (in Rus.)
Meshcherskaya E. N. Years with Claudia Borisovna Starkova // Memories on the Lived Out: Life and Work of the Semitologist-Hebraist in the U.S.S.R. / Edit. V. L. Vikhnovich. St. Petersburg, Evropeiskyi dom Publishing House, 2006. (in Rus.)

D. B.