KAREAH
19
KARENS
Numher and Present Condi/ion. — The number of the present adherents to Karaism has been variously esti- mated; nothing, however, can be definitely or even ap- proximately given until more shall be known of the Jews of Asia. They are strongest, according to modern accounts, in the Crimea, where there are over 4000 of them ; but, with Rule (p. 112), we believe that there are many Jews, ostensibly adherents of the Rabbinites, who are truly believers in Karaism ; certainly the lieformed schools of Judaism are nothing else than Rationalistic Karaites.
Under the Russian and Austrian governments the Karaites enjoy greater privileges than the Rabbinites; in mauj' respects they are on an equality with the adhe- rents to the state religion of these respective countries. Fortunately for the Rabbinites, however, it is not any want of morality in them, but the excesses of the Chas- idim (q. v.) who belong to their number, that has de- prived them of the favors which are so freely bestowed on the Karaites. Strangely enough, the Karaites con- tend that the Messiah will issue from their tribe, and that their princes were once the sovereigns of Egypt.
Literature. — The Karaites have, ever since the days of Ahnan, produced writers of great excellence and dis- tinction. Unfortunately, we have thus far succeeded in wresting from oblivion, comparatively speaking, only a few works, but these evince that Karaism has not failed to be active in urging its adherents to literary activity. They have produced an extensive special Hebrew liter- ature of their own, chiefly consisting of works on the- ology, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, etc. The greatest number of these are deposited in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. So long as they lived prin- cipally under jMohammedan rule they wrote in Arabic, but when they unfolded a literary activity in the Cri- mea and among the Tartars they originated a language peculiar to themselves — a mixture of Tartar and Turk- ish. Some of their principal later authors are little known to us, e. g. Joseph b.-Noah, .Jeshua, Jehudah Ha- dassi, Aron b.-Joseph, Aron b.-Eliah, the celebrated op- ponent of Moses Maimonides ; Eliah Beshitzi, Kaleb, IMoses Beshizi, IMardochai b.-Nissan, Salomo b.-Abram Traki, Simcha b.-Isaac b.-lMoses, etc.
Se? Furst, Gesch. d. Karderthitms (Leipz. 18G9, 5 vols. 8vo) ; Beer, Gesch. d. jiidisch. Sekten, vol. i (Leipz. 1822, 8vo); Jost, Gesch. d.Jndentfiitm.9, xo\. ii (see Index in vol. ill); Gviitz, Gesch. ,d. Juden, u, i07 sq., and later volumes; and the compendium of Rule, History of the Karaite Jews (Lond. 1870, 8vo). (J. il. W.)
Kare'ah (linh.Kare'ach, HTp, hald; Sept. Kap?;£ v. r. Kapis or Knp£« ; in 2 Kings xxv, 23, Kapii v. r. KcfpZ/S', Auth.Yers. "Careah"), the father of Johanan and .Jonathan, who attached themselves for a time to the loyal party under Gedaliah, the Babylonian gover- niir of Jerusalem (Jer. xl, 8, 13, 15, IG; xli, 11, 13. 14, IG ; xlii, 1,8; xliii, 2, 4, 5). B.C. ante 588.
Karelia (also Carena, Quarena, Carentana) is the name of an ecclesiastical fast formerly observed in the Roman Catholic Church, forty days in length, and was generally imposed by bishops or monastic authorities for various venial sins. The Karenist was confined to bread and water, and deprived of all other temporal conven- iences and enjoyments, as well as all association with the world. See Aschbach, Kirchcn-Le.r. iii, C89.
Karens, the name of a people of India, occupying various portions of Burmah between 28^ and 10° N. lati- tude, and 99° and 93° E. longitude. The name Karen is of Burmese origin, and designates a class of the IMon- golian family of tribes who call themselves Pgah Ken- zau, a term meaning man. They first became known to Europeans in A.D. 1824-7. They appear to be iden- tical with the Kak/u/en.11, which Kincaid thinks to be only another name for Karen. He says that all these tribes, through the whole extent of the Shan country, and farther north, are called Kakhyens. They are found from the JIartabau (iulf inward as i'ar as the Burman
population has ever extended. They are numerous about Rangoon and Ava, and are known to extend at least two hundred and fifty miles east of Ava. These tribes are supposed to number about five millions.
Or if/in. — There is much doubt as to their origin. There are amongst them many distinct traditions which would point to a Thibetan source. Slason (in his Tcn- nasserini) says that they regard themselves as wander- ers from the north, and as having crossed " a river of running sand," by which name he says Fa Hian, the Chinese pilgrim who visited India about the 5th cen- tury, constantly speaks of the great desert to the north of Burmah, and between China and Thibet. Bruce says that they are of Turanian stock, and allied with the Ta- mulians of India an<l the inhabitants of Thibet (p. 145, 147). A portion of northern Burmah and Yunnan has been suggested as the probable original seat of the Ka- ren race. Many authorities consider them as the abo- rigines of much of Burmah. Amongst the reasons as- signed for this view are ,the following: (1) They re- ceived from the Burmese their name of Karen, Mhich means Jirrt or aboriginal. (2) Their habits are much more primitive than those of the Burmese, and they dir.- like their subjugation to the latter. (3) They have tra- ditions distinctly fixing their early location on the east- ern side of a body of water which they call Kuiv or KIto, which is so ancient a term that they have lost the mean- ing of it altogether, but the tradition itself shows that this was the Bay of Bengal. (4) The Jloans or Ta- laings, a people Mho are older residents than the Bur- mese in Farther India, sa}^ the Karens were in the coun- try when thej^ first entered it, and were known as Be- loos or wild men by their forefathers (Journ. American Oriental Society, vol. iv).