Karaite Judaism - History - Russian Karaimi (Qaraylar)

Russian Karaimi (Qaraylar)

During the late 19th century, Russian Karaites began to be differentiated from Rabbanite Jews, which freed them from various anti-Semitic laws that affected Jews. The Tsarist governor of the Crimea told the Karaite leaders that, even though the Tsarist government liked the idea that the Karaites did not accept the Talmud (which the church taught was the reason the Jews did not accept Jesus), they were still Jews and responsible for the death of Jesus and subject to the new antisemitic laws. The leaders, hearing that, devised a ruse by which they could be freed of the oppressive laws and told him that the Karaites were already settled in the Crimea before the death of Jesus. The Tsarist government then said that, if they could prove it, they would be free of the oppressive laws. Avraham Firkovich was charged by the community leaders to gather anything that could help "prove" that they were not in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus and, thus, not responsible for his death. Through his work he helped establish the idea amongst the Tsarist authorities that the Karaites were descendants of the exiled northern kingdom of Israel and therefore were already in exile for centuries before the death of Jesus and were thus not responsible for it. Through referring to the tombstones in Crimea (and altering the dates) and the gathering of thousands of Karaite, Rabbanite, and Samaritan manuscripts, including one Rabbanite document from the southern Caucasus that claims that the Jews there were descendants of the exiles from the northern Kingdom of Israel.

While that ruse did help relieve the Karaites of many of the oppressive laws, they still were second class citizens. A new ruse was to convince the Tsarist government that the Karaites actually were descendents of Turks/Mongols of Khazar origin that were converted to the Karaite religion by descendants of exiles from the northern kingdom of Israel and thus Karaites were otherwise not Jewish descended. These actions convinced the Russian Czar that Karaite ancestors could not have killed Jesus; that thus their descendants were free of familial guilt (which was an underlying reason or pretext given at that time for anti-Semitic laws).

All this was for external consumption. Within the community Ḥakhamim still taught that the Karaites were and have always been a part of the Jewish people, prayer was in Hebrew, the lineage of Kohanim, Levites, and families of Davidic descent were meticulously preserved, books printed in Hebrew adamantly stated that the Karaites were Jews.

In 1897, the Russian census counted 12,894 Karaims in the Russian Empire.

By the early 20th century, most European Karaites were no longer very knowledgeable about the religion and Seraya Szapszal, a Karaite soldier of fortune who had been the tutor to the son of the last Qajar Shah of Persia and a Russian spy, managed to get himself elected Chief Ḥakham of the Karaites in the Russian Empire (by that time, due to Russian regulations, the position was more of a political one than a spiritual one), and influenced by the Pan-Turkic movement in Turkey (see Dan Shapira's work on the subject), made his position into that of an Emperor-priest, changing the title Ḥakham to Ḥakhan (being a cross between the Turkic titles Khaqan and Khan), forbade the use of Hebrew, introduced pagan elements (such as the worship of sacred oaks trees in the cemetery), and claimed that both Jesus and Muhammad were prophets (thus appeasing both the Russian Orthodox Tsarist government and the Muslim Turkic peoples).

After the Bolshevik Revolution, atheism became official state policy and Karaite religious schools and places of worship were the very first religious institutions closed by the Soviet government. After that the only information about the Karaites that was allowed to be taught were the Szapszalian doctrines, and the official definition according to Russian law (carried over from Tsarist law) was the erroneous one that the Karaimi were the Turkic descendants of the Khazars and not Yevrei (the word in Russian for Rabbanite Jews) or Zhidi (the pejorative word in Russian for Rabbanite Jews). Not all European Karaites (Qaraylar, Qaray in Qarayça ; Karaim, Karaimi in Russian) accepted the Szapszalian doctrines. Some Hakhamim and a small part of the general Karaite population still preserved their Jewish heritage, but most dared not oppose Szapszal openly due to his official standing vis-à-vis the Soviet government.