Edward L. Keenan

He became a prominent and controversial figure after conducting various studies that analyzed and ultimately disproved the authenticity of major resources in East Slavic history.

[citation needed] Two of his books argue that two texts were not medieval at all, but seventeenth- and eighteenth-century, respectively: The Kurbskii-Groznyi Apocrypha: The Seventeenth-century Genesis of the "Correspondence" Attributed to Prince A. M. Kurbskii and Tsar Ivan IV (1971),[2] and Joseph Dobrovsky and the Origins of the "Igor Tale" (2003)[3] He eventually became one of the world's leading experts on medieval Russian history.

[5] He was the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1978–84) and the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies over a considerable period (1981–1983, 1986–1987, 1993–1994).

[4] The Kurbskii-Groznyi Apocrypha: The Seventeenth-century Genesis of the 'Correspondence' Attributed to Prince A. M. Kurbskii and Tsar Ivan IV claims these letters were forgeries.

This work has led to renewed interest and debate about the authenticity of the Igor Tale and has gained mixed reviews.