Abraham Mapu

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Hebrew. (August 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Hebrew Wikipedia article at [[:he:אברהם מאפו]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|he|אברהם מאפו}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Abraham Mapu (Lithuanian: Abraomas Mapu; 1808 in Vilijampolė, Kaunas – 1867 in Königsberg, Prussia) was a Lithuanian novelist. He wrote in Hebrew as part of the Haskalah (enlightenment) movement. His novels, with their lively plots encompassing heroism, adventure and romantic love in Biblical settings, contributed to the rise of the Zionist movement.^[1]

Born into a Jewish family, as a child Mapu studied in a cheder where his father served as a teacher. He married in 1825.

For many years he was an impoverished, itinerant schoolmaster. Mapu gained financial security when he was appointed teacher in a government school for Jewish children. He worked as a teacher in various towns and cities, joined the Haskalah movement, and studied German, French and Russian. He also studied Latin from a translation of the Bible to that language, given to him by his local rabbi.

He returned in 1848 to Kaunas and self-published his first historical novel, Ahavat Zion. This is considered one of the first Hebrew novels. He began work on it in 1830 but completed it only in 1853. Unable to fully subsist on his book sales, he relied on the support of his brother, Matisyahu. In 1867 he moved to Königsberg due to illness, published his last book, Amon Pedagogue (Amon means something like Mentor), and died there.

Mapu is considered to be the first Hebrew novelist.^{[citation needed]} Influenced by French Romanticism, he wrote intricately plotted stories about life in ancient Israel, which he contrasted favourably with 19th-century Jewish life. His style is fresh and poetic, almost Biblical in its simple grandeur.^{[editorializing]}

The romantic-nationalistic ideas in his novels later inspired David Ben-Gurion^{[citation needed]} and others active in the leadership of the modern Zionist movement that led to the establishment of the state of Israel. The American Hebrew poet, Gabriel Preil, references Mapu in one of his works and focuses on the two writers' native Lithuania.

• Ahavat Zion (1853) (Amnon, Prince and Peasant, translated by F. Jaffe, 1887); (In the Days of Isaiah, translated by B.A.M. Schapiro, 1902 and republished in 1922 and 1930 as The Shepherd Prince); (The Sorrows of Noma, translated by J. Marymont, 1919)
• Ayit Tzavua (1858) (Hypocrite Eagle)
• Ashmat Shomron (1865) (Guilt of Samaria)

Streets bearing his name are found in the Kaunas Old Town and in the Israeli cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Kiriat Ata. A well-known Israeli novel called "The Children from Mapu Street" ("הילדים מרחוב מאפו") also celebrates his name. In Kaunas A. Mapu Street a joyful statue of A. Mapu with a book in his hand was established by the sculptor Martynas Gaubas in 2019.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abraham Mapu.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Mapu, Abraham".

• Mapu's works (Hebrew) at Project Ben-Yehuda
• Abraham Mapu (English) at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
• Works by or about Abraham Mapu at the Internet Archive
• Works by Abraham Mapu at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

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