MAPU, ABRAHAM

born Jan. 10, 1808, near Kovno, Lithuania, Russian Empire died Oct. 9, 1867, Knigsberg, East Prussia [now Kaliningrad, Russia] author of the first Hebrew novel, Ahavat Ziyyon (1853; Annou: Prince and Peasant), an idyllic historical romance set in the days of the prophet Isaiah. Couched in florid biblical language, it artfully depicts pastoral life in ancient Israel; the book attained immediate popularity and was later translated into several languages. A teacher of religion and German, Mapu was an influential advocate of the Haskalah, or Enlightenment, movement. Influenced stylistically by Victor Hugo and Eugne Sue, Mapu's novels romanticized a sovereign Israel and indirectly paved the way for the revival of Jewish nationalism and the Zionist movement. Other novels include 'Ayit tzavua' (185869; The Hypocrite), an attack on social and religious injustice in the ghetto; Ashmat Shomron (1865; Guilt of Samaria), a biblical epic about the hostility between Jerusalem and Samaria in the time of King Ahaz; and Hoze hezyonot, (1869; The Visionary), an expos of Hasidism, which was confiscated by religious authorities.