Karaims

The Karaims - Karailar

In the 9th century the Karaism separated from the mainsteam Judaism in Mesopotamia and obtained an independent status, apart from the other Jewry, under the Muslim rule. Later on, the Karaims moved to Egypt and Crimea to live there among the Muslim peoples. In Egypt they adopted Arabic for daily use as well as Tataric in Crimea.

In 1392 the Grand Duke of Lithuania made the group of the Crimean Karaims to move to Lithuania where they continued to speak their Tataric dialect in private life as the sect's own internal language while old Hebrew remained in the spiritual use. The Karaites have practiced their own ceremonies of belief as well.

The invention of the Khazar origin, that was established in the 18 th century, freed the Karaims from the Russian military service which all the Jews had to do, and thereafter the East European Karaites regarded temselves beeing a parallel religion to Christianity derived from Judaism as well. Due to their recognised status, not even the Nazis of the World War II didn't extinct the Karaims while all European Jewry underwent the holocaust.

The Karaite population has remained quite small in numbers while the Karaites have lived in small englaves in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, and the additional wars and plagues decreased them, too. The majority Karaims have immigrated to Israel and the USA, and there they have adopted an attitude of a Jewish sect while a few Karaites still living in the Eastern Europe have kept the conception of the distinctive Khazar origin.

External Links

[ http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/karaims.shtml The Karaims]

[ http://www.turkiye.net/sota/karaim.html The Karaim home page]

[ http://www.turkiye.net/sota/karhist.htm Karaims: Origin and History]

[ http://www.turkiye.net/sota/karalit.html The Karaims of Lithuania]

[ http://www.karaite-korner.org/main.shtml What is Karaism ?]

[ http://www.karaite-korner.org/history.shtml Karaism is the original Judaism which has existed throughout history under various names incl. Righteous, Sadducees, Boethusians, Ananites and Karaites, all of whom obeyed the Torah with no additions.]