Crimean Karaites

This article is about an ethno-religious group. For the Jewish religious movement, see Karaite Judaism. For the Karaylar Mongolian tribal confederation, see Kerait.

Crimean Karaites
къарай, karaj

Karaite men in traditional garb, Crimea, 19th century.
Total population
~2,000
 Ukraine 1,196[1]
 Poland 346[2]
 Lithuania 241[3]
 Russia 205[4]
Languages
Karaim, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian
Religion
Karaite Judaism, Christianity

The Crimean Karaites or Krymkaraylar (Crimean Karaim: Кърымкъарайлар sg. къарай – qaray; Trakai Karaim: sg. karaj, pl. karajlar, Hebrew: קראי מזרח אירופה, Turkish: Karaylar), also known as Karaims and Qarays, are an ethnic group derived from Turkic-speaking adherents of Karaism, historically residing in the Crimea peninsula. Some Krymkaraylar moved to Eastern Europe on the course of the 13th century, and later spread across the territory of the former Russian Empire, notably to territories of modern Lithuania and Poland. "Karaim" is a Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Polish name for the community.

Origins

Cemetery near Feodosia (Crimea)
Former Karaim Kenesa in Kiev

Turkic-speaking Karaites (in the Crimean Tatar language, Qaraylar) have lived in Crimea for centuries. Their origin is a matter of great controversy. Some regard them as descendants of Karaite Jews who settled in Crimea and adopted a form of the Kypchak tongue (see Karaim language). Others view them as descendants of Khazar or Cuman, Kipchak converts to Karaite Judaism. Today many Karaims deny Israelite origins and consider themselves to be descendants of the Khazars.[5] Specialists in Khazar history question the Khazar theory of Karaim origins,[6][7] highlighting the following facts among others:

Some modern Karaims seek to distance themselves from being identified as Jews, emphasizing what they view as their Turkic heritage and claiming that they are Turkic practitioners of a "Mosaic religion" separate and distinct from Judaism. On the other hand, many scholars state that the phenomenon of claiming a distinct identity apart from the Jewish people appears to be no older than the 19th century, when it appeared under the influence of such leaders as Avraham Firkovich and Sima Babovich as a means of escaping anti-Semitism.[10] In addition, Karaim works written before that time strongly suggest that Crimean Karaites previously considered themselves Jews.[11]

Whatever their origin, from the time of the Golden Horde onward, they were present in many towns and villages throughout Crimea and around the Black Sea. During the period of the Crimean Khanate some of the major communities could be found in the towns of Çufut Qale, Sudak, Kefe, and Bakhchisaray.

History

Middle Ages

According to some opinions, the upper stratum of the Khazar society converted to Judaism in the 8th–9th centuries CE. The extent of this conversion and its scope is not known. With the collapse of the Khazar Khanate, a group of the Khazars, who took part in a failed rebellion, joined the Magyars in the invasion of Hungary, and settled there at the end of the 9th century CE. An interesting relic of this Khazar settlement was discovered in Transylvania (today Romania) in the 20th century. It is called the Alsószentmihály Rovas inscription. It was transcribed by the archaeologist-historian Gábor Vékony.[12] According to the transcription, the meaning of the two-row inscription is the following:[13] (first row) "His mansion is famous." and (second row) "Jüedi Kür Karaite." or "Jüedi Kür the Karaite."

This is seem by some as proof that at least a part of the Khazars were Karaites. (See Inscription in Khazarian Rovas script)

Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

According to Karaims tradition,[14] Grand Duke Vytautas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania relocated one branch of the Crimean Karaites to Lithuania where they continued to speak their own language. In fact the Lithuanian dialect of Karaim language differs significantly from the Crimean one.[15] The Lithuanian Karaites settled primarily in Vilnius and Trakai, as well as in Biržai, Pasvalys, Naujamiestis and Upytė – smaller settlements throughout Lithuania proper. The Lithuanian Karaites also settled in lands of modern Belarus and Ukraine, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Karaite communities emerged in Halicz and Kokizow (near Lwów) in Galicia as well as in Łuck and Derazhne in Volhynia.[16][17][18] Jews (Rabbinites and Karaites) in Lithuanian territory were granted a measure of autonomy under Michel Ezofovich Senior[19] management, except Trakai Karaims that refused to comply, citing differences in faith. Later all Jews including Karaites[20] were submitted to Rabbinite "Council of Four Lands" (Vaad)[21] and "Council of the Land of Lithuania" taxation (1580–1646), while Turkic speaking Karaites, considered by Yiddish speaking Rabbinites as apostates, were in a subordinate and depressed position; that was one of the reasons for their dislike of Rabbinites. In 1646 Trakai Rabbinites were expelled from the town by Karaites request. In spite of that in 1680 Rabbinite community leaders were to defend the Karaites of Shaty (near Trakai) against blood accusation. In agreement, signed by representatives Rabbanites and Karaites in 1714, the parties pledged to respect the mutual privileges and resolve disputes without the involvement of the non-Jewish administration.

According to Crimean Karaite tradition, originated in the 20th century inter-war Poland[22] their forefathers were mainly farmers and members of the community served in the military forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,[23] as well as the Crimean Khanate. On the other hand, according the historical documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Crimean Karaites main occupation was usury[24] and they were granted special privileges including exemption from the military service[25] while in Crimean Khanate the Karaites were repressed like other Jews, which included prohibition of horse riding.[26]

Some famous Karaim scholars in Lithuania included Isaac b. Abraham of Troki (1543–1598), Joseph ben Mordecai Malinovski, Zera ben Nathan of Trakai, Salomon ben Aharon of Trakai, Ezra ben Nissan (died in 1666) and Josiah ben Judah (died after 1658). Some of the Karaim became quite wealthy.

During the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Karaims suffered severely during the Chmielnicki Uprising of 1648 and the wars between Russia and Commonwealth in the years 1654–1667, when many towns were plundered and burnt, including Trakai, where in 1680 only 30 families were left, and Derazhne. The destruction of the Karaite community in Derazhne in 1649 is described in a poem (both in Hebrew and Karaim language) by a leader of the congregation, Hazzan Joseph ben Yesh'uah Ha-Mashbir[27] Catholic missionaries made serious attempts to convert the local Karaims to Christianity, but ultimately were largely unsuccessful.

Russian Empire

Karaim kenesa in Trakai (modern day Lithuania).

19th-century leaders of the Karaims, such as Sima Babovich and Avraham Firkovich, were driving forces behind a concerted effort to alter the status of the Karaite community in eyes of the Russian legal system. Firkovich in particular was adamant in his attempts to connect the Karaims with the Khazars, and has been accused of forging documents and inscriptions to back up his claims.

Ultimately, the Tsarist government officially recognized the Karaims as being of Turkic, not Jewish, origin. Because the Karaims were judged to be innocent of the death of Jesus, they were exempt from many of the harsh restrictions placed on other Jews. They were, in essence, placed on equal legal footing with Crimean Tatars. The related Krymchak community, which was of similar ethnolinguistic background but which practiced rabbinical Judaism, continued to suffer under Tsarist anti-Jewish laws.

Solomon Krym (b. 1864, d. 1936), a Crimean Karaite agronomist, was elected in 1906 to the First Duma (1906–1907) as a Kadet (National Democratic Party). On November 16, 1918 he became the Prime Minister of a short-lived Crimean Russian liberal, anti-separatist and anti-Soviet government also supported by the German army.[28]

Since the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Empire the main center of the Qarays is the city of Eupatoria. Their status under Russian imperial rule bore beneficial fruits for the Karaites decades later.

During the Holocaust

In 1934, the heads of the Karaite community in Berlin asked the Nazi authorities to exempt Karaites from the regulations; on the basis of their legal status in Russia. The Reich Agency for the Investigation of Families determined that from the standpoint of German law, the Karaites were not to be considered Jews. The letter from the Reichsstelle fur Sippenforschung gave the official ruling in a letter which stated:

The Karaite sect should not be considered a Jewish religious community within the meaning of paragraph 2, point 2 of the First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law. However, it cannot be established that Karaites in their entirety are of blood-related stock, for the racial categorization of an individual cannot be determined without ... his personal ancestry and racial biological characteristics

— [29]

This ruling set the tone for how the Nazis dealt with the Karaite community in Eastern Europe. At the same time, the Nazis had serious reservations towards the Karaites. SS Obergruppenfuhrer Gottlob Berger wrote on November 24, 1944:

"Their Mosaic religion is unwelcome. However, on grounds of race, language and religious dogma... Discrimination against the Karaites is unacceptable, in consideration of their racial kinsmen [Berger was here referring to the Crimean Tatars]. However, so as not to infringe the unified anti-Jewish orientation of the nations led by Germany, it is suggested that this small group be given the opportunity of a separate existence (for example, as a closed construction or labor battalion)..."

Despite their exempt status, confusion led to initial massacres. German soldiers who came across Karaites in Russia during the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa, not aware of their legal status under German law, attacked them; 200 were killed at Babi Yar alone. German allies such as the Vichy Republic began to require the Karaites to register as Jews, but eventually granted them non-Jewish status upon being instructed by Berlin.[30]

On interrogation, Ashkenazi rabbis in Crimea told the Germans that Karaites were not Jews, in an effort to spare the Karaite community the fate of their Rabbanite neighbors.[31] Many Karaites risked their lives to hide Jews, and in some cases claimed that Jews were members of their community. Many Karaites were recruited for labor battalions.[32]

Karaim cemetery in Warsaw, established in 1890.
Karaim cemetery in Trakai.

In Vilnius and Trakai, the Nazis forced Karaite Hakham Seraya Shapshal to produce a list of the members of the community. Though he did his best, not every Karaite was saved by Shapshal's list.

Post-War

After the Soviet recapture of Crimea from Nazi forces in 1944, the Soviet authorities counted 6,357 remaining Karaites. Karaites were not subject to mass deportation, unlike the Crimean Tatars, Greeks, Armenians and others the Soviet authorities alleged had collaborated during the Nazi German occupation. Some individual Karaites were deported.

Assimilation and emigration greatly reduced the ranks of the Karaite community. A few thousand Karaites remain in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Poland. Other minor communities exist in Israel, Turkey, the United States, and Great Britain.

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.

As time went on, some of these communities spread throughout the region, including to Crimea. According to Karaite tradition, all the Eastern European Karaite communities were derived from those in the Crimea,[33] but some modern historians doubt the Crimean origin of Lithuanian Karaites.[34][15] Nevertheless this name, "Crimean Karaites" is used for the Turkic-speaking Karaites community supposed to have originated in Crimea, distinguishing it from the historically Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic-speaking Karaites of the Levant, Anatolia, and the Middle East.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.

Lithuania

Kenesa in Vilnius

The local Karaim communities still exist in Lithuania (where they live mostly in Panevėžys and Trakai regions) and Poland. The 1979 census in the USSR showed 3,300 Karaims. Lithuanian Karaim Culture Community was founded in 1988.

According to the Lithuanian Karaims website the Statistics Department of Lithuania carried out an ethno-statistic research entitled "Karaim in Lithuania" in 1997. It was decided to question all adult Karaims and mixed families, where one of the members is a Karaim. During the survey, for the beginning of 1997, there were 257 people of Karaim nationality, 32 of which were children under 16.

Religion

Until the 20th century, Karaism was the only religion of the Karaims,[35] During the Russian Civil War a significant number of Karaims emigrated to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary and then France and Germany.[36][37] Most of them converted to Christianity. The Karaims' modern national movement philanthropist M.S. Sarach was one of them.[38]

The Crimean Karaites' emancipation in the Russian Empire caused cultural assimilation followed by secularization. This process continued in the USSR when most of the kenesas were closed.[39]

In 1932 Star of David was removed from Trakai Kenesa cupola by Shapshal's' order.[40] Some years later it was also removed from the iron gate [41]

In 1928 secular Karaim philologist Seraya Shapshal was elected as Hacham of Polish and Lithuanian Karaims. Being a strong adopter of Russian orientalist V. Grigorjev's theory about the origin of the Crimean Karaites Khazarian, Shapshal developed the Karaims' religion and historical dejudaization doctrine[42]

In the mid 1930s, he began to create a theory describing the Altai-Turkic origin of the Karaims and the pagan roots of Karaite religious teaching (worship of sacred oaks, polytheism, led by the god Tengri, the Sacrifice). Shapshal's doctrine is still a topic of critical research and public debate.

He made a number of other changes aimed at the Karaims' Turkification and at erasing the Karaite Jewish elements of their culture and language.[43][44] He issued an order canceling the teaching of Hebrew in Karaite schools and replaced the name of the Jewish holidays and the months of the Turkic-speaking (see the table below).

According to Shapshal, Crimean Karaites were pagans who adopted the law of Moses, but continued to adhere to their ancient Turkic beliefs. In addition, he claimed that the Karaites had revered Jesus and Mohammed as prophets for centuries. In the Post-Soviet period, Shapshal's theory was further developed in modern Karaylar publications[45](e.g. "Crimean Karaites legends") and was officially adopted by the Crimean Karaim Association as the only correct view of the Karaims' past and the present in 2000.[46]

Evolution of Crimean Karaite Holiday Names in the 20th century

Traditional Hebrew name (1915)[47][48]Secondary name Modern Turkic name[49] Turkic name translated to English.[50][51]
«Pesach» Hag ha -Machot ( Unleavened bread festival) Tymbyl Chydžy Unleavened bread («Tymbyl») festival
«Omer» Sefira(Counting of the Omer)
San Bašy Counting Beginning
Jarty San Counting Middle
«Shavuot» Hag Shavuot (Feast of Weeks,) Aftalar Chydzy Feast of Weeks
The 9th of Tammuz Fast Chom Hareviyi (4th month fast) Burunhu Oruč First Fast
The 7th of Av Fast Chom Hahamishi (5th month fast) Ortančy Oruč Middle Fast
The 10th of Av Fast Yom hа-Churban -The Destruction Day ( of the Solomon's Temple) Kurban Sacrifice
«Rosh HaShana» Yom Teru'ah" (The blowing of horns day) Byrhy Kiuniu Horns Day
«Yom Kippur» literally «The Day of Atonement» Bošatlych Kiuniu The Day of Atonement
«Fast of Gedalia» Chom Hashviyi (5th month fast) Omitted
«Sukkot» literally «Tabernacles» . The other name :«Hag Ha Asif» («Harvest festival») Alačych Chydzy or Oraq Toyu Tabernacles festival or Harvest festival
Tenth of Tevet fast Chom Haasiri ((10th month fast)) Oruč Fast
«Purim» « Lots». Kynyš Three-cornered shaped sweet filled-pocket cookie.[52]
---------------------------- Was not considered as Holiday Jyl Bašy The beginning of the Year

Genetics

Leon Kull and Kevin Alan Brook led the first scientific study of Crimean Karaites using genetic testing of both Y chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA and the results showed that Crimean Karaites are indeed partially of Middle Eastern origin and related to other Jews.[53][54]

Culture

Language

Karaim is a Kypchak Turkic language being closely related to Crimean Tatar, Armeno-Kipchak etc. Among the many different influences exerted on Karaim, those of Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian were the first to change the outlook of the Karaim lexicon. Later, due to considerable Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian influence, many Slavic and Baltic words entered the language of Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Russian Karaims. Hebrew remained in use for liturgical purposes. Following the Ottoman occupation of Crimea, Turkish was used for business and government purposes among Karaims living on the Crimean peninsula. Three different dialects developed: the Trakai dialect, used in Trakai and Vilnius (Lithuania), the Lutsk or Halych dialect spoken in Lutsk (until World War II), and Halych, and the Crimean dialect. The last forms the Eastern group, while Trakai and Halych Karaim belong to the Western group. Currently only small minority of Karaim can speak Karaim Language (70 Crimean dialect speakers,[1] 118 Trakai dialect speakers, and about 20 Halych dialect speakers)

Cuisine

[55]

Kybyn

The most famous Crimean Karaite culinary dish is Kybyn (Russian:Кибина pl. Кибины, Karaim: kybyn pl. kybynlar, Lithuanian: Kibinai). Kybynlar are half moon shaped pies of leavened dough with a stuffing of chopped beef or mutton, baked in Dutch or baking sheet. Other meals common for Crimean Karaites and Tatars are Chiburekki, Pelmeni, Shishlik (These are most often made from mutton).

Ceremony dishes, cooked for religious holidays and weddings are:

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About number and composition population of Ukraine by data All-Ukrainian census of the population 2001". Ukraine Census 2001. State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  2. ↑ Ludność. Stan i struktura demograficzno-społeczna.Narodowy Spis Powszechny Ludności i Mieszkań 2011.
  3. ↑ Lithuanian 2011 Population Census in Brief
  4. ↑ Russian Census 2010: Population by ethnicity (Russian)
  5. ↑ Blady 113–130.
  6. ↑ Golden 2007a, p. 9
  7. ↑ Brook 2006 p. 110-111, 231.
  8. ↑ Erdal, Marcel (1999). "The Khazar Language". In: Golden et al., 1999:75–107
  9. ↑ A. Harkavy, Altjudische Denkmaler aus der Krim, mitgetheilt von Abraham Firkowitsch, SPb., 1876.
  10. ↑ Miller ___.
  11. ↑ Yitzhak of Troki's "Hizzuk Emunah" or a Crimean Karaite poem from 1936
  12. ↑ Vékony, Gábor (2004): A székely rovásírás emlékei, kapcsolatai, története [The Relics, Relations and the History of the Szekely Rovas Script]. Publisher: Nap Kiadó, Budapest. ISBN 963-9402-45-1
  13. ↑ Vékony, Gábor (1997): Szkíthiától Hungáriáig: válogatott tanulmányok. [From Scythia to Hungary: selected Studies] Szombathely: Életünk Szerk. Magyar Írók Szövetsége. Nyugat-magyarországi Csoport. Ser.: Életünk könyvek, p. 110
  14. ↑
    «…ובשנת 1218 תתקע"ח לאלף החמשי וויטולט דוכוס הגדול של ליטא ערך מלחמה על הטטארים והשיג באי קרים ונלחם וישב שבי ויקח עמו מקירים 483 משפחות קראים ויוליכם לליטא ויצו לבנות להם עיר ויקרא אותה טראק החדשה ויתן להם כתב חרות ושדות ואדמה ויושיבם בעיר ההיא 330 משפחות...…»(
    «… At 1218 Witold, Grand Duke of the Lithuania made war against the Tatars, reached the Crimea island , fought, captured and took with him 483 Karaite families and led to Lithuania and ordered to build for them a town , called New Troki and gave them the freedom and the fields and the lands and settled in this town 330 families …») .Abraham Firkovich//The Hebrew monuments of the Crimea, p.252— Wilna 1872(ספר אבני זכרון המאסף רשימות המצבות על קברי בני ישראל בחצי האי קירים אשר אסף ורשם… כמהר״ר אברהם פירקאוויץ ירו׳ נר״ו.)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Tatiana Schegoleva. Karaites of Crimea: History and Present-Day Situation in Community
  16. ↑ Nosonovsky, M. & Shabarovsky, V. (2005). "Караимская община XVI-XVIII веков в Деражном на Волыни". Vestnik EUM 9: 31–52.
  17. ↑ Шабаровський, В. В (Shabarovsky, V.V.) (2013). Караїми на Волині (Karaites in Volhynia, in Ukrainian). Lutsk: Tverdynya.
  18. ↑ Shapira, Dan & Lasker, Daniel, J. (2011). Eastern European Karaites in the Last Generations. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute and the Center for the Study of Polish Jewry and its Culture.
  19. ↑ Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland – A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era – by Magda Teter
  20. ↑ «He-Avar» («Хе-Авар») Magazine, Petrograd, № 1, 1918
  21. ↑ Jacob Mann, “Karaica”, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, no. 11,Philadelphia, 1935; Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė – Verbickienė, Žydai Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės visuomenėje: sambūvio aspektai, Vilnius, 2009; Idem, Ką rado TrakuoseŽiliberas de Lanua, arba kas yra Trakų žydai, in “Lietuvos istorijos studijos”, no. 7, 1999.
  22. ↑ Кизилов М. Ильяш Караимович и Тимофей Хмельницкий: кровная месть, которой не было, (М. Kizilov. Ilyash Karaimovich and Timofey Khmelnitsky: the blood feud that never took place) Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in publication Фальсификация исторических источников и конструирование этнократических мифов.«Hачиная приблизительно с межвоенного периода и вплоть до наших дней, караимские националисты стараются представить мирное караимское население Восточной Европы в роли «неустрашимых и храбрых воителей» , что едва ли одобрили их богобоязненные исторические предки, которые были преимущественно торговцами и ремесленниками».
  23. ↑ Karaims and Tatars – 600 years in Lithuania
  24. ↑ Древние привилегии литовско-волынских караимов, извлеченные из актов замка Луцкого 1791 г«Но вникнув в смысл привилегии Витольда замечаем, что в древние времена тамошние Караимы более всего занимались заимодавством; да, и по сие время зажиточные люди этого общества не оставляют этого прибыльного промысла; и отдавая свои капиталы в рост, в обеспечение их берут у своих должников в арендное содержание мельницы, корчмы, а чаще всего ссудят под заклад движимого имущества».
  25. ↑ Древние привилегии литовско-волынских караимов, извлеченные из актов замка Луцкого 1791 г«В следствие того они били челом его Королевской милости, что издавна еще при Великом Князе Витольде и при Сигизмунде и при отце нашем Короле Казимире его милости, жиды [Троцкие] (i.e Karaite Jews) никогда на войну не хаживали и не посылали».
  26. ↑ P. S. Pallas Bemerkungen auf einer Reise in die Südlichen Statthalterschaften des Russischen Reichs (1799–1801)
  27. ↑ Nosonovsky, M. (2011). "The Karaite Community in Derażne and its Leader Hazzan Joseph ben Yeshu'ah". Eastern European Karaites in the Last Generations: 17–35.
  28. ↑ Fisher, Alan W. (1978). The Crimean Tatars. Hoover Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-8179-6662-1. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  29. ↑ YIVO archives, Berlin Collection, Occ E, 3, Box 100, letter dated January 5, 1939.
  30. ↑ Semi passim.
  31. ↑ Blady 125–126.
  32. ↑ Green passim.
  33. ↑ The Karaite Encyclopedia by Nathan Schur (Frankfurt, 1995)
  34. ↑ Ahiezer, G. and Shapira, D. 2001.'Karaites in Lithuania and in Volhynia-Galicia until the Eighteenth Century' [Hebrew]. Peamin 89: 19–60
  35. ↑ Катехизис, основы Караимского закона. Руководство по обучению Закону-Божию Караимского юношества. — СПб., 1890.
  36. ↑ Album «Archive of the Dmitri Penbeck’s family» – compiled by V. Penbek — Simferopol-Slippery Rock, 2004. — C. 24
  37. ↑ Кропотов В. С. Военные традиции крымских караимов — Симферополь, 2004. — C. 75
  38. ↑ Virtual Karaim Museum
  39. ↑ Mikhail Kizilov «Karaites and Karaism: Recent Developments» , Graduate School for Social Research, Polish Academy of Sciences.CESNUR 2003 Conference, Vilnius, Lithuania
  40. ↑ "...its cupola was originally surmounted by a shield of David, but the removal of this emblem was ordered someten years ago by the local hakham [i.e. Szapszał] as smacking too much of tradi-tional Judaism. The offending symbol, however, still remains on the iron gate, from which it could hardly be removed without causing a conspicuous blemish...”Published in : ISRAEL COHEN, Vilna, Philadelphia 1943, pp. 463–464
  41. ↑ Seraphim, Peter Heinz. Das Judentum im Osteuropäischen Raum, 1938 "...126. Das Wappen der Karaimen am Eingang zu ihrer "Kenessa" in Troki bei Wilna..."
  42. ↑ Roman Freund «Karaites and Dejudaization» (Acta Universitas Stockholmiensis. 1991. – №30).
  43. ↑ М. Кизилов, «Новые материалы к биографии Шапшала»// Материалы девятой международной конференции по иудаике (2002), с. 255—273.
  44. ↑ E.g compare the Trakai kenassa gate in 1932 and today File:Trakai Kenesa.JPG
  45. ↑ A. Malgin. "Jews or Turks. New elements in Karaims and Krypchaks identity in modern Crimea" (2002)
  46. ↑ «Попытки приписать крымским караимам чуждые этнос и религию, смешение этнических крымских караимов с караимами по религии, искажение истории — оскорбляют национальные чувства и создают предпосылки для национальных и религиозных конфликтов.» («Attempts to attribute the Crimean Karaites alien ethnicity and religion, mixing ethnic Crimean Karaites with the Karaites on religion, the distortion of history – offend the national feelings and create the conditions for national and religious conflicts») Караи (крымские караимы). История, культура, святыни. — Симферополь, 2000.
  47. ↑ КАРАИМСКИЙ КАТИХИЗИС ВКРАТЦЕ/ Сост. М. Я. Фиркович. — Мелитополь:1915г( Karaite Catechism briefly/ M.J Firchovich. – Melitopol 1915 )
  48. ↑ THE BRIEF CATECHISM -THE INSTRUCTIONS for basic education of karaite children in the Law of God and the brief history of karaism //Y B. Shamash(Translation from Russian of КРАТКИЙ КАТИХИЗИС/ Сост. Я. Б. ШАМАШ)
  49. ↑ «Lithuanian Karaim Calendar»
  50. ↑ Караимско-русско-польский словарь / Н. А. Баскаков, А. Зайончковский, С. Ш. Шапшал, 1974,
  51. ↑ Crimean Karaites Holidays (Ukrainian Karaites Site )
  52. ↑ Ю. А. Полканов, А. Ю. Полканова, Т. А. Богославская, Национальная кухня крымских караимов (караев).Традиционная пища как выражение этнического самосознания(Crimean Karaites national cuisine. Traditional food as an expression of ethnic identity)
  53. ↑ Kevin Alan Brook, Leon Kull, and Adam J. Levin, "The Genetic Signatures of East European Karaites," August 28, 2013,
  54. ↑ Kevin Alan Brook, "The Genetics of Crimean Karaites," Karadeniz Araştırmaları №42 (Summer 2014): pp. 69–84, pdf
  55. ↑ Virtual Karaim Museum
  56. ↑ «Lietuvos karaimai: Religija: Šventės».»
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 «Календарь караимов-тюрков,праздники и памятные даты»(«Karaites Turks Kalendar») vs the Lithuanian one «Lietuvos karaimai: Religija: Šventės»

Bibliography

External links