Karaites (from Heb., ‘readers’, i.e. of scripture). Jewish sect basing itself on scripture, not subsequent interpretation. The name ‘Karaite’ was not used until 9th cent. CE. The sect is usually thought to have been founded by the ascetic
Anan b. David in the 8th cent., when his younger brother Hananiah was elected
exilarch. Their basic doctrine was that the Bible is the only source of law, and that scholars must study scripture for themselves and interpret it according to their own consciences. From the 12th cent., however, a process of systematization began under such scholars as Judah b. Elijah Hadassi (who summarized Karaite theology in his
Eshkol ha-Kofer), Aaron b. Joseph ha-Rofe (who was an eminent biblical exegete and wrote
Sefer-Mivhar, the classic Karaite commentary), and the codifier, Aaron b. Elijah the Younger, whose
Gan Eden earned him the title of ‘the Karaite
Maimonides’. They were perceived as Jews by their gentile rulers, and were in general subject to the same edicts. During the Second World War, the German government pronounced that the Karaites were not Jews and they were thus spared the horrors of the
Holocaust. In Israel, they have their own
bet din and they are not permitted either by
halakhah or by their own laws to intermarry with the rest of the population.
