Geographic Distribution
The name "Crimean Karaites" has often been considered as something of a misnomer, as many branches of this community found their way to locations throughout Europe and the Middle East. Historians distinguish between Karaite Jews and Jews who simply left the Levant before the canonization of the Talmud and therefore had no way of being Rabbinic Jews. Whether descended from the non-Rabbinic sects of the Second Temple Period, or from Rabbinate families rebelling against Talmudic rules, these communities started in present day Iran.
As time went on, some of these communities spread throughout the region, one of which was Crimea. According the Karaites' ancient tradition, all the Eastern European Karaite communities were derived from those in the Crimea. Some modern historians doubt the Crimean origin of Lithuanian Karaites. Nevertheless this name, "Crimean Karaites" is used for the Turkic-speaking Karaites community supposed to be originated in Crimea to distinguish it from historically Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic-speaking Karaites of the Levant, Anatolia, and the Middle East (to show the difference between the ethnic group and the religious denomination). For the purposes of this article, the terms "Crimean Karaites", "Karaim", and "Qarays" are used interchangeably, while "Karaites" alone refers to the general Karaite branch of Judaism.
Read more about this topic: Crimean Karaites
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