Abu ?Imr?n Al-Tifl?s?
ABU ?IMR?N AL-TIFL?S?
ABU ?IMR?N AL-TIFL?S? (Abu ?Imram M?s? al-?af?r?n? ), founder of a Jewish religious sect in the ninth century. He emigrated from Iraq to *Tiflis, in Georgia, hence the designation al-Tifl?s?. Information about him is to be found in the writings of his Karaite opponents, among them, al-Kirkis?n?. Al-Tifl?s? developed his own halakhah. While agreeing with accepted Karaite views, such as the Karaite dating of the Feast of Weeks and the prohibitions of the marriage of first cousins and eating the tail fat of sheep, he devised his own method of determining the occurrence of Rosh ?odesh ("New Moon"). According to *Japheth b. Ali ha-Levi, a tenth-century Karaite, al-Tifl?s? rejected the doctrine of resurrection. This, however, is doubtful, for his other opponents would have attacked al-Tifl?s? for such a deviation. The sect of Tiflisites survived several generations after the death of its founder, as evidenced by Judah Hadassi's 12th-century Eshkol ha-Kofer.
bibliography:
Nemoy, in: huca, 7 (1930), 389; S. Pinsker, Likkutei Kadmoniyyot, 1 (1860), 26; Z. Ankori, Karaites in Byzantium (1959), 369–71.
[Eliyahu Ashtor]