Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-h6jzd Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-03-01T09:12:51.603Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 17 - Karaism

from Part III - Spiritual and Intellectual History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2021

By
Haggai Ben-Shammai
Edited by
Phillip I. Lieberman
Phillip I. Lieberman
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
Get access

Summary

Karaism is the Europeanized name given to a Jewish movement whose members identified themselves by the Hebrew name qaraʾim, a term widely understood to mean “those who are dedicated or devoted to the study of the Law [Torah],” “those who observe the Torah strictly according to the plain meaning of its text,” or “those who consider the text of the Torah to be the sole source of legislation.” Put otherwise, the Karaites are those Jews who reject the authority of the rabbinic tradition (or Oral Law, Torah she-be-ʿal peh) as the definitive interpretation of the Hebrew Bible.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Judaism , pp. 571 - 605
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select Bibliography

Ankori, Zvi. Karaites in Byzantium: The Formative Years, 970–1100 (New York, 1959).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Shammai, Haggai. “The Doctrines of Religious Thought of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Qirqisānī and Japheth b. ʿEli” [Hebrew] (PhD diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1977).Google Scholar
Birnbaum, Philip, ed. Karaite Studies (New York, 1971).Google Scholar
Erder, Yoram. The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, 2004).Google Scholar
Erder, Yoram. The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls: On the History of an Alternative to Rabbinic Judaism (Turnhout, 2017).Google Scholar
Frank, Daniel. “The Study of Medieval Karaism, 1959–1989: A Bibliographic Essay,” Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies 6 (1990), 15–23.Google Scholar
Frank, Daniel. Search Scripture Well: Karaite Exegetes and the Origins of the Jewish Bible Commentary in the Islamic East (Leiden, 2004).Google Scholar
Khan, Geoffrey. The Early Karaite Tradition of Grammatical Thought (Leiden, 2000).Google Scholar
Lasker, Daniel J. From Judah Hadassi To Elijah Bashyatchi: Studies in Late Karaite Philosophy (Leiden, 2008).Google Scholar
Mann, Jacob. Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, 2 vols. (Cincinnati, 1935).Google Scholar
Nemoy, Leon. Karaite Anthology (New Haven, 1952).Google Scholar
Polliack, Meira, ed. Karaite Judaism: A Guide to Its History and Literary Sources (Leiden, 2003).Google Scholar
Rustow, Marina. Heresy and the Politics of Community: The Jews of the Fatimid Caliphate (Ithaca, 2008).Google Scholar
Vajda, Georges, ed. and trans. Al-Kitāb al-Muḥtawī de Yūsuf al-Baṣīr, ed. Blumenthal, David R. (Leiden, 1985).Google Scholar
Zawanowska, Marzena. “Review of Scholarly Research on Yefet Ben ʿEli and His Work,” Revue des Études Juives 173 (2014), 97–138.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×