Jacob Qirqisani (Heb. Ya'akov ben Ephraim ha-Tzerqesi; Arab. Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Qirkisani) was a Jewish Karaite dogmatist and exegete who flourished in the first half of the tenth century. He was a native of Circassia, which at the time probably still fell under Khazar overlordship ( his nickname Qirqisani means "man from Circassia"). He seems to have traveled throughout the Middle East, visiting the centers of Islamic learning, in which he was well versed. In 937 Qirqisani wrote an Arabic work on the precepts—under the title Kitab al-Anwar wal-Marakib (known in Hebrew as Sefer ha-Me'orot, or Sefer ha-Ma'or), with the subtitle Kitab al-Shara'i' (Sefer Mitzvot Gadol)—and a commentary entitled al-Riyad wal-Hada'iq (Sefer ha-Gannim we-Pardesim, or Sefer ha-Nitztzanim), on those portions of the Pentateuch which do not deal with the laws. Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Karaite Judaism is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the Tanakh as the sole scripture, and rejection of the Oral Law (the Mishnah and the Talmuds) as halakha (Legally Binding, i. ... Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas) is belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization to be authoritative and not to be disputed or doubted. ... This article discusses textual hermeneutics. ... Circassia, also known as Cherkessia in Russian, is a region in Caucasia. ... The Khazars were a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia who adopted Judaism. ... A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Tom is short for Thomas). ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( â–¶ (help· info)), the submission to God) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions and the worlds second-largest religion. ... A Precept (from the Latin præcipere, to teach) is a commandment, instruction, or order intended as an authoritative rule of action. ... Look up Pentateuch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For a detailed discussion about the contents of the Pentateuch, see the article Torah. ...

Kitab al-Anwar

Of these two volumes the more important is the former, which not only provides valuable information concerning the development of Karaism, but throws light also on many questions in rabbinical Judaism. It comprises thirteen treatises, each divided into chapters, and the first four treatises form an introduction to the whole work. In the first treatise, of eighteen chapters, Qirqisani gives a comprehensive survey of the development of the Jewish sects, the material for which he drew not only from the works of his predecessors, as David ibn Merwan al-Muqammash, whom he mentions, but also from his personal experiences in the learned circles in which he moved. The enumeration of the sects is given in chronological order, beginning with the Samaritans, and concluding with the sect founded by Daniel al-Qumisi. Qirqisani declares the Rabbinites to be a Jewish sect founded by Jeroboam I, although it did not make its appearance until the time of the Second Temple. Zadok, the founder of the Sadducee sect, in his excursuses against the Rabbinites, revealed part of the truth on religious subjects, while Anan ben David disclosed the whole. However, in spite of Qirqisani's admiration for Anan, he often disagrees with him in the explanation of the precepts. Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī;; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished, (in knowledge). In the ancient Judean schools (and among Sefaradim today) the sages... Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people with around 15 million followers as of 2006 [1]. It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. ... Samaritans are both a religious and an ethnic group. ... Jeroboam (increase of the people), the son of Nebat an Ephrathite (1 Kings 11:26-39), was the first king of the break-away ten tribes or Kingdom of Israel, over whom he reigned twenty-two years. ... Drawing of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great A stone (2. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The sect of the Sadducees (or Zadokites and other variants) - which may have originated as a political party - was founded in the 2nd century BC and ceased to exist sometime after the 1st century AD. Their rivals, the Pharisees, are said to have originated in the same time period, but... Anan Ben David is often considered to be the founder of the Karaite movement (a form of Judaism that split off from rabbinic Judaism due to its rejection of the oral law), or at least the founder of one of the main groups forming the Karaite movement. ...

View of Christianity

It is noteworthy that Qirqisani includes Christianity among the Jewish sects. In the third treatise (ch. xvi.) he says that "the religion of the Christians, as practised at present, has nothing in common with the teachings of Jesus." According to Qirqisani, the Christianity of his day originated with Paul, who ascribed divinity to Jesus and prophetic inspiration to himself. It was Paul that denied the necessity of carrying out the Commandments and taught that religion consisted in humility; and the Nicene Council adopted precepts which occur neither in the Law, nor in the Gospels, nor in the Acts of Peter and Paul. Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recounted in the New Testament. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Look up Paul in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Divinity has a number of related uses in the field of religious belief and study. ... A prophet is a person who has directly encountered God, of whose intentions he can then speak. ... This article is about the list of religious and moral imperatives. ... Council of Nicaea can refer to: First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 Second Council of Nicaea in AD 787 This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... Look up Peter and peter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Philosophy and Theology

Qirqisani devotes a great portion of the first treatise to attacks upon the Rabbinites, in which he does not show himself impartial; but he is not blind to the faults of the Karaites. In the last chapter he draws a sad picture of the spiritual condition of Karaism in his time. "You can scarcely find two Karaites of one and the same opinion on all matters; upon almost any point each has an opinion different from those of all the rest." He deplores the neglect by the Karaites of the study of rabbinical literature,which, according to him, would furnish them with weapons for their controversies with the Rabbinites. Here Qirqisani is referring to the discrepancies frequent in haggadic and mystic literature, such as the "Shi'ur Qomah," which, indeed, he often uses in his attacks against the Rabbinites.

The second treatise, of twenty-eight chapters, discusses the duty of applying critical methods to the study of religious matters. Qirqisani is the first Karaite known to have been a firm believer in the study of the sciences, and he criticizes those who, although accepting the fundamental principle of independent inquiry and research, are against the demonstrative sciences of dialectics and philosophy. Reason is the foundation upon which every article of faith is based, and from which all knowledge flows. The third treatise, of twenty-three chapters, is a critical review of adverse religious sects and Christianity. In the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters Qirqisani refutes the doctrine of metem-psychosis, though among its exponents was Anan, who wrote a work on the subject. For Qirqisani, the solution of the question, much debated by the Mu'tazili Kalam, concerning the punishments inflicted upon children is not to be found in the doctrine of metempsychosis, but in the belief that compensation will be given to children in the future world for their sufferings in this. The scope of this article is limited to the empirical sciences. ... In classical philosophy, dialectic (Greek: διαλεκτική) is an exchange of propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses) resulting in a synthesis of the opposing assertions, or at least a qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue. ... Philosopher in Meditation (detail), by Rembrandt Philosophy is a field of study that includes diverse subfields such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics, in which people ask questions such as whether God exists, whether knowledge is possible, and what makes actions right or wrong. ... Mutazilah (Arabic المعتزلة al-mu`tazilah) is a theological school of thought within Islam. ... Kalam (علم الكلم)is one of the religious sciences of Islam. ...

In the fourth treatise Qirqisani expounds, in sixty-eight chapters, the fundamental principles leading to the comprehension of the particular religious prescriptions. The remaining treatises are devoted to the precepts themselves, which are arranged in systematic order. Qirqisani quotes the views of the earliest Karaite authorities (as Anan, Benjamin Nahawendi, Daniel al-Qumisi, etc.), which he often refutes. Belonging to the Ba'ale ha-Rikkub, he is particularly severe in his views on the laws of Incest, and he combats the opinion of his contemporary Jacob ben Ephraim al-Shami, who permitted marriage to the daughter of one's brother or sister.

Extant manuscripts

Most of the "Kitab al-Anwar" and the beginning of the "Al-Riyad wal-Hada'iq" are still extant in manuscript, in the Firkovich collection in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg (Nos. 1142-1444). The first treatise of the "Kitab al-Anwar," dealing with the Jewish sects, was published by Abraham Harkavy in the memoirs of the Oriental section of the Archeological Society (viii. 1849). Various fragments of seven treatises (ii.-vi., viii., ix.-xii.) are found in the British Museum (Oriental MSS. Nos. 2,524, 2,526, 2,578-2,582). They were analyzed by Poznanski, who published the text of chapters xvii. and xviii. of the third treatise, dealing with the doctrine of metempsychosis, and chapter xxxv. of the fifth treatise, in which Qirqisani discusses the question whether it is permitted to read on the Sabbath books written in other than Hebrew characters (Kohut Memorial Volume, pp. 435-462; "Steinschneider Festschrift," pp. 195 et seq.). The text of the sixteenth chapter of the third treatise, dealing with the criticism of Christianity, was published by H. Hirschfeld in his chrestomathy. A dissertation on the Decalogue by Qirqisani, and which Steinschneider supposes to be the first chapter of the sixth treatise, beginning with proofs of the existence of God, is found in the Bibliothèque Nationale (No. 755). Both the "Kitab al-Anwar" and the "Al-Riyad wal-Hada'iq" were abridged, the former by a certain Moses ben Solomon ha-Levi. Harkavy deduces from quotations that Qirqisani translated the Bible into Arabic, wrote commentaries on the Book of Job and on Ecclesiastes, and wrote a work on the unity of God("Kitab al-Tauhid"). Abraham (Avraham) Firkovitch (1786-1874) was a Lithuanian Karaite of Crimean Karaite (Karaim) descent, born in Lutsk, Volhynia. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... Also called Avraam Yakovivich Harkavy (in Russian) and Avraham Eliyahu ben Yaakov Harkavy (in Hebrew), Russian-Jewish historian and orientalist. ... The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ... Metempsychosis is a doctrine among some followers of Eastern teachings which expresses the theory of transmigration, that the human spirit may incarnate from one body to another, either human, animal, or inanimate, which is very different from the doctrine of reincarnation, which holds that man is an evolving being progressing... This article concerns the Sabbath in Christianity. ... This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. ... This article is about the list of religious and moral imperatives. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Ecclesiastes, Qohelet in Hebrew, is a book of the Hebrew Bible. ... Monotheism (in Greek μόνος = single and θεός = God) is the belief in the existence of one God, or in the oneness of God. ...

Resources

• "Ḳirḳisani, Abu Yusuf Ya'ḳub al-". Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906, which contains the following bibliography:

• Geiger, Melo Chofnajim, p. 74;
• Munk, in Israelitische Annalen, iii. 76, 93;
• Delitzsch, to Aaron ben Elijah's 'Etz ha-Hayyim, p. 313;
• Dukes, Beiträge, i. 28;
• Steinschneider, Cat. Leyden, pp. 181, 185;
• idem, Hebr. Bibl. xx. 107, xxi. 13;
• idem, Hebr. Uebers. p. 449;
• idem, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden, § 43;
• Pinsker, Liqkuṭe qadmoniyyot, i. 169, ii. 201;
• Fürst, Gesch. des Karäert. ii. 140;
• Firkovich, Bene Reshef, pp. 20, 21;
• Harkavy, Meassef Niddahim, pp. 2, 16;
• idem, Studien und Mittheilungen, iii. 44;
• idem, in Memoiren der Orientalischen Abtheilung der Archœologischen Gesellschaft zu St. Petersburg, 1894, viii.;
• Poznanski, Die Qirqisani Handschriften im Brit. Mus. in Steinschneider Festschrift, 1896, pp. 195-218;
• idem, "Aus Qirqisani's Kitab al-Anwar", in Kohut Memorial Volume, pp. 435-462;
• idem, "Jacob ben Ephraim", in Kaufmann Gedenkbuch;
• Bacher, in J. Q. R. vii. 687 et seq.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ...