Elijah Bashyazi - Hakham at Adrianople

Hakham At Adrianople

In 1460 Bashyazi succeeded his father as hakham of the Karaite community at Adrianople. From the many letters addressed by him as representative of the Karaite community of Constantinople, from 1480 to 1484, to Karaim communities in Lutsk and Trakai. Neubauer concludes that Bashyazi resided for the most of the time in Constantinople. In these letters he appears as a warm-hearted defender of the Karaite faith. He urges his coreligionists to send young men to Constantinople to study their religious authorities, lest their faith die out, and to lead a pious life; otherwise he would pronounce an anathema on those derelict in their duties. He devoted himself to the improvement of the intellectual condition of the Karaite etc., which, in consequence of internal dissensions on religious matters, was at that time very low.