No scholarly discovery in modern times has been cloaked in more controversy than that of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is especially true of the circumstances surrounding the actual find of Cave I in 1946-1947, and the various claims and counter claims of ownership that ensued. One such claim of ownership came from Anton D. Kiraz (d. 1993), known as the contact person between Mar Samuel and Prof. Sukenik. Kiraz left an extensive archive of letters, documents, and a recorded interview with the Bedouins who discovered the scrolls. The archive not only reveals Kiraz's claims of ownership, but also documents the minutest details concerning the discovery itself. This book is an edition of the archive.
The documents are arranged in chronological order. Documents written between 1948 and 1958 deal primarily with Kiraz's claim to the title of four of the scrolls from Cave I (1QIsa, 1QpHab, 1QS, and 1QLamech).
From 1960 onward, Kiraz acted as a field researcher to John C. Trever, who was preparing The Untold Story of Qumran. The documents from this period give the most detailed information about the actual find and the circumstances that followed. Upon Kiraz's suggestion, the first interview was conducted with the Bedouins who gave their sworn testimony and answered over sixty questions.
The letters between 1966 and 1967, deal primarily with Samuel's reaction to The Untold Story, and later, Kiraz's reaction to Samuel's Treasure of Qumran. A few letters from 1975 answer some questions for Trever's revision of The Untold Story (now reprinted by Gorgias Press).
George A. Kiraz is the son of Anton Kiraz, and served as a deacon in Samuel's archdiocese. He obtained a Master degree in Syriac studies from Oxford (1991), a second Master (1992) and a Ph.D. (1996) from Cambridge. He has written extensively on Syriac and computational linguistics.
