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Lev Nussimbaum (Kiev, October 17, 1905 – Positano, August 27, 1942), who wrote under the pen names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, was a writer and journalist, born in Kiev to a Jewish family,〔Abbas Abdulla, "Research" Nussimbaum is a Jew from Kyiv" in Adabiyyat Qazetti (Literature Qazette), No. 48:3643 (Baku: December 19, 2008), p.6 as quoted in ("Frequently Asked Questions about the Authorship of Ali and Nino," ) FAQ No. 54: But was Lev Nussimbaum (Essad Bey) actually born in Baku?" in (Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4 ) (2011), p. 65 and Endnote 119 on page 109.〕 who spent his childhood in Baku before fleeing the Bolsheviks in 1920 at the age of 14. In 1922, while living in Germany he obtained a certificate claiming that he had converted to Islam in the presence of the imam of the Turkish embassy in Berlin.〔Reiss, Tom. 'The Orientalist''. Random House, 2005, p.199〕 He created for himself a niche in the competitive European literary world by writing about topics that Westerners, in general, knew little about - the Caucasus,〔Blood and Oil in the Orient (1929), Twelve Secrets of the Caucasus (1930), and Der Kaukasus (1931)〕 Russian Empire,〔OGPU (1932), Nicholas II (1935)〕 Bolshevik Revolution〔Stalin (1931), OGPU (1932), Russia at the Crossroads (1933), Lenin (1935), End of Bolshevism (1936)〕 newly discovered oil,〔Blood and Oil in the Orient (1929), Liquid Oil (1933), Love and Oil (1934), God is Great (about Ibn Saud, 1936)〕 and Islam.〔Mohammed (1932), God is Great (about resurgence of Islam and Ibn Saud, 1936)〕 He wrote under the name of Essad Bey in German. Historians and literary critics, who knew these subjects well, discredited Essad Bey as a reliable source.〔<"Fact or Fiction? What Essad Bey's Contemporaries Said," in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4, pp. 166-177.〕 Today, historians disregard books published under his name and rarely quote him, though the topics Essad Bey chose to write about are still critically relevant. Furthermore, the fact that Essad Bey was so prolific calls into question the authorship of these books〔("Did he really write 16 books in 8 years?" ) Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4, pp. 162-163.〕 and whether Essad Bey was primarily operating as a broker and doctoring manuscripts and marketing them under his name, which by then had become famous. In 1934, his agent Werner Schendell warned him to slow down and take a year off between books so that he would not appear to be so prolific.〔Literary agent Werner Schendell (1891-1961) cautioned Essad Bey to slow down, not to appear too prolific in correspondence, dated May 8, 1934. Dr. Gerhard Hopp, "Mohammed Essad Bey: Nur Orient Für Europäer?" in Asien Afrika Lateinamerika, Vol. 25:1 (1997), p. 86, Endnote 120.〕 That year no books appeared in German - only two novellas in Polish.〔"Love and Oil" and "Manuela"〕 ==Life== Lev Nussimbaum was born in October 1905, according to himself in a train,〔Essad Bey claimed he was born on a train in an autobiographical essay published in "Die literarische Welt"(Berlin, 5/1929, No. 48, page 5) after German police traced his birth to Kiev. At that time he had already written two books ("Blood and Oil in the Orient," and "Twelve Secrets of the Caucasus") in which his publishers had promoted these books as being written by native-born Bakui. Thus, the non-descript location of his birth - "on a train" - in "Die literarische Welt" provides a slick cover for claims he had made earlier in which being "born in Baku" would have lent more credibility to his writing and, thus, made his books more profitable. This was a typical practice of Nussimbaum (Essad Bey). He was always trying to lay claim to the national identity of the topics and personalities about which he wrote. When he wrote about Stalin, he was Georgian. When he wrote about Nicolas II, he was Russian. When he wrote about Persian matters of divorce, he was Persian. When he wrote about Mohammed, he was Muslim. All were very calculated efforts to convince readers that what he wrote was credible though it was often nonsense. See Betty Blair, No. 4 "Too Many Identities, Essad Bey as Core Author of Ali and Nino: Seven Reasons Why It Just Aint' So," in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4 (2011), pp. 186-190.〕 though documents in the Kiev State Archives and the Kiev Synagogue state that Lev Nussimbaum was born in Kiev.〔Kyiv Central Historical Archives: Fund 1164, List 1, Case 473, Page 635, according to an official letter sent to Azerbaijani philologist Abdulla Ajaloghlu, dated November 4, 2008, signed by L.Y. Demchenko, Director of the Kyiv Archives and referenced in article: "Archives: What a Hoax! Vacca's Sensational Biographical Account of Essad Bey," in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4 (2011), pp. 146-149.〕 Nussimbaum's birth was originally registered in the Kyiv Synagogue.〔Letter from Kyiv Central Historical Archives signed by Director L.Y. Demchenko and head of Information Department E.V. Polozova. Letter No. 02-1132, dated November 4, 2008 addressed to Azerbaijan philologist Badulla Ajaloghlu in Baku. Photo p. 159 in (Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4, 2011 ) "Who Wrote Azerbaijan's Most Famous Novel, "Ali and Nino": The Business of Literature.〕 His father, Abraam Leybusovich Nussimbaum, was a Jew from Tiflis, in the present-day Georgia, born in 1875, who later migrated to Baku and invested in oil.〔The A.L. Nussimbaum & Binagadi Petroleum Pipeline Co. was sold to the Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company in 1914 for 131,500 rubles. Azerbaijan Republic State History Archives,Fund 392, List 1, Case 199, Page 1.〕 His mother Berta Basya Davidovna Slutzkin Nussimbaum, according to her marriage certificate,〔Marriage Certificate (October 26, 1904), Georgian Central State Historical Archives, No. 675, p. 10. The marriage of Lev Nussimbaum's parents was originally registered in the Tiflis (Tbilisi) Synagogue.〕 was a Jew from Belarus. She committed suicide on February 16, 1911 in Baku when Nussimbaum was five years old.〔Azerbaijan Republic State History Archives, Fund 1044, List 1, Case 571, page 4.〕 Apparently, she had embraced left-wing politics〔 and was possibly involved in the underground Communist movement. Nussimbaum's father then hired Alice Schulte, a woman of German ethnicity to be his son's governess.〔Alice Schulte: "Biographie Essad-Bey," unpublished "biography," Rascher Archives at the Central Library, Zurich, Switzerland.〕 In 1918, Lev and his father fled Baku because of the massacres that were taking place in the streets. According to Essad Bey's first book, "Blood and Oil in the Orient," which historians do not consider to be very reliable, the two travelled through Turkestan and Persia. However, of this adventurous journey there is no record except in Nussimbaum's own writings.〔Essad Bey, "Əsəd Bəy, “Şərqdə neft və qan” (1929).〕 Nussimbaum and his father returned to Baku but when the Bolsheviks took Baku in the spring of 1920, they fled to Georgia where they stayed until the Bolsheviks took Tiflis and Batumi. Lev Nussimbaum, as Essad Bey, wrote his first book ''Oel und Blut im Orient'' (''Blood and Oil in the Orient'') in German in 1929. Although he claims that his account was autobiographical, historians in Azerbaijan and Georgia refute the possibility as there are many major factual errors in the historical description.〔Dr. Zaza Aleksidze (Georgia): "I am sure that 'Blood and Oil in the Orient' is not an autobiography as Essad Bey claims. It is a fiction, full of tales and mistakes and no one should rely upon it as a source for reconstructing the biography of Essad Bey." Also Dr. Farid Alakbarli (Azerbaijan), "Correcting all of Essad Bey's errors in this book would be an endless job." Both in "Critics: Fact or Fiction? What Essad Bey's Contemporaries Said," in (Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4 (2011) ), p. 169.〕 Essad Bey describes how as a child, aged 14, his delight in leaving Azerbaijan. In the final passage of the book, he writes: "At that moment, Europe began for me. The Old East was dead."〔Essad Bey, "OIl and Blood in the Orient" (San Francisco: Aran Press, 1997), p. 317.〕 Then they managed to board a ship to Constantinople to where thousands of refugees had fled. Later, Nussimbaum eventually settled in Berlin (1921–1933),〔 where he enrolled simultaneously in high school and in Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. He did not graduate from either, but told people that he had a Cand. Phil.〔Gerhard Höpp, "Mohammed Essad Bey: Nur Orient Fur Europaäer?" (Orient for the Europeans) in Asien Afrika Lateinamerika 25:1 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1997), p. 78.〕 In 1926, he began writing under the pen name of Essad Bey for the literary journal ''Die literarische Welt'' (The Literary World). At least 120 articles were published under his name.〔Index for "Die literarische Welt 1925-1933, Vol. 1" (Nendeln: Kraus-Thomason Organization Ltd, 1976).〕 By the early 1930s, Essad Bey had become a popular author throughout Western Europe, writing mainly about contemporary historical and political issues.〔 However, note that both Lazare and Reiss are secondary sources for Lev Nussimbaum's biography, not primary sources.〕 Politically, Bey was a monarchist.〔Essad Bey boasted that he was a Monarchist in "The Story of My Life" (Die Gelchichte Meines Lebens) in Die literarische Welt, Berlin, Vol. 7:5 (January 30, 1931, pp. 3-4). Essad Bey also wrote a sympathetic "biography" about Nicholas II (1935).〕 In 1931, he joined the ''German-Russian League Against Bolshevism'', the members of which, Daniel Lazare remarks, "for the most part either were Nazis or soon would be". He also joined the Social Monarchist Party, which advocated restoration of Germany's Hohenzollern dynasty. He also had connections to the pre-fascistic Young Russian movement, headed by Alexander Kazembek.〔 In 1932, Essad Bey married Erika Loewendahl—daughter of shoe magnate Walter Loewendahl. The marriage failed, ending in scandal.〔Essad Bey had Erika arrested when she arrived by ship in New York. He notified authorities that she planned an assassination in the United States. It was a totally false allegation - totally imaginary, but gave Erika serious legal problems. “Gerichtssaal: Scheidungsprozess Gegen Den Schriftsteller Essad Bey / Courtroom: Divorce Proceedings Against the Writer Essad Bey.” Neues Wiener Journal 15, (1937), p. 33.〕 Erika ran off with Nussimbaum's colleague René Fülöp-Miller in 1935. Erika's parents, who were wealthy, succeeded in getting the marriage to Lev Nussimbaum Essad Bey annulled in 1937.〔"Los Angeles Times," November 19, 1937, p. A12.〕 In 1938, when the Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Nussimbaum fled to Italy and settled in the seacoast town of Positano. He died there of a rare blood disorder which causes gangrene of the extremities—most likely Buerger's disease, which is known to afflict Ashkenazi male Jews rather than Raynaud's Disease,〔 which is more prevalent in women. It is highly likely that Essad Bey denied his Jewish ancestry from doctors who were treating him which led to his misdiagnosis of Raynaud's instead of Buerger's.〔Essad Bey consulted doctors in both Switzerland and Italy and they all insisted that he did not have Raynaud's Disease. However, his doctor in Positano assumed Raynaud's. Alice Schulte's unpublished hand-written 12-page manuscript entitled "Biographie Essad-Bey (in German, 1943), page 5. Archived in Central Library of the University of Zurich, Rascher Fund 78-III, A-2; B6498 and A0570.〕 Little was known in the early 1940s about Buerger's Disease, especially how the disease could be reversed if the patient stopped smoking. Tragically, Essad Bey, who was known to be a heavy smoker,〔Armin Wegner's diary: "(Bey's ) bed cover was full of cigarette holes." Gerhard Höpp, "Mohammed Essad Bey: Nur Orient Für Europäer?" Asien, Afrika, Lateinamerika, 25:1 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1997), p. 89.〕 died a painful death at the age of 37.〔Wilfried Fuhrmann "(Essad-Bey: im Auftrag von Mussolini und die Raynaudsche oder die Buerger Krankheit ), August 25, 2009, pp. 4-5, at essadbey.de.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lev Nussimbaum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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