Al-Tarās, Sīdī Ibn
AL-TARĀS, SĪDĪ IBN
AL-TARĀS, SĪDĪ IBN (end of 11th century), Karaite scholar in Castile. According to Abraham ibn Daud and Joseph b. Ẓaddik, Al-Tarās went in his youth from Castile to Ereẓ Israel, where he became a pupil of the Karaite Abu al-Faraj (probably *Jeshua b. Judah). When he returned to Andalusia, he brought back his teacher's book with him and not only attempted to circulate it among the *Karaites, but also tried to gain adherents for Karaism among the *Rabbanites. After Al-Tarās' death, his wife, who is referred to by the Karaites as al-Muʿallima ("the teacher") and was considered by them an authority on religious practice, continued to spread the tenets of Karaism. Abraham ibn Daud indicates that their propaganda prompted the leaders of the Rabbanites to vigorous action, and Joseph *Ferrizuel "Cidellus" (Alkabri), a Jewish favorite of Alfonso vi, obtained authority to expel the Karaites from all the Castilian towns except one.
bibliography:
Steinschneider, in: jqr, 11 (1899), 624, n.755; Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 3, 39; L. Nemoy (ed.), Karaite Anthology (1952), xxi (introd.), 124; Z. Ankori, Karaites in Byzantium (1959), 359n.; Ibn Daud, Tradition, xlvi, 94–95, 164–5; J. Rosenthal, Meḥkarim u-Mekorot (1967), 238; Baer, Spain, 1 (1966), 65, 390–1.
[Moshe Nahum Zobel]