THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
mentaries quoted many passages from his opponent. He paid special attention to grammar, and in lexicographical respects his commentaries, which are extant on the entire Old Testament, are very instructive. Like Benjamin Nahawendi, he referred Isa. liii. to the Messiah and his sufferings, in opposition to the Rabbinical exegetes, who, on account of their hostility to Christianity, referred the chapter to the people of Israel. Yafith lived about 915-1008, and wrote his commentaries in the last quarter of the tenth century, apparently composing his <Se/er ha-Mizwot before his commentaries. In the first half of the eleventh century lived Abu al-Faraj Harun of Jerusalem, the author of a grammatical work entitled Mushtamil (" The Comprehensive "), in which he compared Hebrew with Arabic. He also wrote an Arabic commentary on the Bible, in which he explained all difficult words and sometimes entire sentences. To the middle of the eleventh century belongs Jacob ben Reuben, the author of commentaries on the Bible, composed chiefly of compilations from older authorities.
With the first half of the tenth century began the first epoch of Karaite religious philosophy which was based upon the Arabic scholastic theology of the kalam (literally "word"; cf. 3. Relig- logos), a system developed in the secious Phi- ond century of the Hejira, and inlosophy. tended, according to the statements of the Arabs themselves, to harmonize tradition with philosophy. It therefore afforded a means of defending religious doctrines by arguments based on reason, and was primarily directed against the tenets of the heterodox sects, and secondarily against the teachings of the philosophers. Thus Aaron ben Elijah (see below, § 5) could contrast the Mutakallamun (" teachers of the word "), with the " philosophers," or the Aristotelians, whereas the main elements of the kalam were evolved from the Peripatetic philosophy. The Mutakallamun also include the Mohammedan sect of the Mutazilites ("Separatists, Dissenters"; see Mohammedanism), who were founded by Wasil ibn Ata (b. 699/700; d. 748, 749), a contemporary of Anan and the founder of an Islamitic religious philosophy which professed a rationalistic formulation of Mohammedan dogmas in opposition to the liberal belief of traditional orthodoxy. The Karaites were closely allied to this sect, and their teachers even called themselves Mutakallamun.
The first religious and philosophical work of Karaism was the Kitab aVAnwar (" Book of Lights "), written by Jacob al-Kirkisani in 937, and devoted to a summary of the marriage law of the Karaites, so far as it deviated from the rabbinical system. He also wrote a commentary on the Pentateuch, and was followed in the eleventh century by Joseph ben Abraham ha-Roeh, who is mentioned by Maimonides in his Moreh Nebukim as a representative of the kalam and an opponent of Hai Gaon. Joseph was the author of Kitab al- Muhtawi, a philosophical work on " the roots of religion." Hitherto the Karaites, interpreting Gen. ii. 24 to mean that husband and wife form a unit, had made it almost impossible for them to marry among themselves. This theory was abolished by
Joseph and his pupil Joshua ben Judah (Abu al- Faraj Furkan), although an exaggerated application of the method of analogy prohibited marriage within many degrees of affinity which were permitted by the rabbinical Jews. About the middle of the eleventh century Joshua ben Judah wrote an extensive commentary on the Pentateuch and a treatise on the law of marriage. According to his pupil Ibn al-Taras, the works of Joshua promoted Karaism in Spain, although they were soon counteracted by rabbinical Judaism.
In the twelfth century Egypt took the place of Jerusalem as the center of Karaism, and this century also marks decay of Arabo-Karaite literature, for its last representative was the 4. Egypt physician Daniel, who wrote a work and the in 1682 in imitation of the Hobot ha- Crimea. Lebabot (" The Duties of the Hearts "), composed by Bahya of Saragossa in the eleventh century, while Egypt was also the home of the Hebrew poet Moses Dari. There were also many congregations of Karaites in the Crimea, where a community is said to have existed in 1279. Crimean Karaite literature was extremely scanty, and little of it has been preserved, although it is known that the Karaites of the Crimea applied themselves diligently to the study of the law. Since they laid great stress on a sojourn in Jerusalem, which could easily be reached by way of Constantinople, several books of travel were written by Karaites, including Samuel ha-Kadosh ben David (1641-42), Moses ben Elijah ha-Levi (1654- 1655), and Benjamin ben Elijah of Koslov (1785-86). About the middle of the eighteenth century there were 500 families in the Crimea, represented by four communities at Kala, Koslov, Kafa, and Manguf. In the Crimea the Karaites enjoyed special privileges, as when, in 1796, the Empress Catharine remitted half the poll-tax for every young man and also exempted them from military service.
The Karaite community which existed at Constantinople in the early part of the eleventh century, and numbered 500 families in the second half of the following century, is important for the history and literature of the sect. There is no doubt that Karaites lived in Constantinople 5. Constan- at the time of Judah Hadassi (b. at tinople. Jerusalem 1075; d. at Constantinople 1160), who began his Eshkol ha-Kofer (also called Sefer ha-Peles) in 1148. He classified all religion on the basis of the ten commandments and sought to oppose all heresies known to him. In natural history he had no superior among his contemporaries and he gave an extended and valuable account of the progress of philosophy, a subject which he also treated in his Sefer Tcrcn bi- Teren on Hebrew homonyms. Karaite literature was especially promoted by two scholars named Aaron. The first of these was Aaron ben Joseph, whose literary activity falls between 1270 and 1300. He was a physician and wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch, the earlier and later prophets, and the Psalms. His most important work was his commentary on the Pentateuch, entitled Mibhar ("Choice") and completed in 1294. Aaron was likewise the author of a grammatical and exeget-