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Anan ben David
Anan Ben David (Hebrew: ענן בן דוד, c. 715 – c. 795) is widely considered to be a major founder of Karaite Judaism. His followers were called Ananites and, like modern Karaites, did not believe the Rabbinic Jewish Oral Torah, such as the Mishnah, to be authoritative.
From the second third of the 7th century and until middle of the 8th, as a result of the tremendous intellectual commotion produced throughout the West Asia by the swift early Muslim conquests and the collision of Islam with the religions and cultures of the world, there arose a large number of religious sects, especially in Persia, Iraq, and Syria. Judaism did not escape this general fomentation; the remnants of Second Temple sects picked up new life and flickered once more before their final extinction, and new sects also arose.
"Anan", which means "Cloud", was never a very common name among Jews, but it is attested in the Bible: the original Anan was one of the Israelites who sealed the covenant after the return from the Babylonian captivity in Nehemiah 10. (Nehemiah 10:26).
Some polemical accounts supply Anan with a typical background story often used of "heretics"—namely, that he was frustrated in a bid for power within the religious community and as a result broke away. According to these accounts, the Exilarch or leader of the Jews in Mesopotamia, probably Isaac Iskawi, died about 760. Two brothers among his nearest kin, probably his nephews, Anan and Josiah (Hassan), were next in order of succession to the exalted office. Eventually, Josiah was elected exilarch by the geonim or leaders of the Talmudic academies in Babylonia and by the notables of the chief Jewish congregations. The choice was confirmed by Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (754–775).
The story continues that Anan was proclaimed exilarch by his followers, an act construed by the Muslim authorities as a rebellion against the authority of the caliph, who had formally invested Josiah with the position. He was arrested by the authorities one Sunday in 767 and was to be executed on the ensuing Friday for high treason.
Luckily for Anan, the story goes, he met in jail a prominent fellow prisoner, the founder of the Hanafi school of Islam, Abu Hanifah. He gave Anan advice which saved his life: He should set himself to expound all ambiguous precepts of the Torah in a fashion opposed to the traditional interpretation and make this principle the foundation of a new religious sect. He must next get his partisans to secure the presence of the caliph himself at the trial, which was not an unusual thing for important prosecutions. Anan was to declare that his religion was different from Rabbinic Judaism and that his followers entirely coincided with him in matters of religious doctrine. This was an easy matter for Anan to say, because the majority of them were opposed to the rabbis. Complying with this advice, Anan defended himself in the presence of the caliph Al-Mansur, who granted his favor.
The story so closely fits polemical clichés about the personal motives of "heretics" that it is open to grave doubt. Moreover, Leon Nemoy notes, "Natronai, scarcely ninety years after Anan's secession, tells us nothing about his aristocratic (Davidic) descent or about the contest for the office of exilarch which allegedly served as the immediate cause of his apostasy." He later notes that Natronai, a devout Rabbinic Jew, lived where Anan's activities took place and that the Karaite sage Jacob Qirqisani never mentioned Anan's purported lineage or candidacy for exilarch. (See Karaite Anthology; Yale Judaica Series 7)
Anan ben David's Sefer ha-Miṣwot or "Book of the Precepts" was published about 770. He adopted many principles and opinions of other anti-rabbinic forms of Judaism. It has been suggested that he took much from the Sadducees and Essenes, whose writings (or at least writings ascribed to them) were still in circulation. For example, these older sects prohibited the burning of any lights and the leaving of one's dwelling on Shabbat; they also enjoined the actual observation of the new moon for the appointment of festivals and celebrated Shavuot, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, on a Sunday.
Anan ben David
Anan Ben David (Hebrew: ענן בן דוד, c. 715 – c. 795) is widely considered to be a major founder of Karaite Judaism. His followers were called Ananites and, like modern Karaites, did not believe the Rabbinic Jewish Oral Torah, such as the Mishnah, to be authoritative.
From the second third of the 7th century and until middle of the 8th, as a result of the tremendous intellectual commotion produced throughout the West Asia by the swift early Muslim conquests and the collision of Islam with the religions and cultures of the world, there arose a large number of religious sects, especially in Persia, Iraq, and Syria. Judaism did not escape this general fomentation; the remnants of Second Temple sects picked up new life and flickered once more before their final extinction, and new sects also arose.
"Anan", which means "Cloud", was never a very common name among Jews, but it is attested in the Bible: the original Anan was one of the Israelites who sealed the covenant after the return from the Babylonian captivity in Nehemiah 10. (Nehemiah 10:26).
Some polemical accounts supply Anan with a typical background story often used of "heretics"—namely, that he was frustrated in a bid for power within the religious community and as a result broke away. According to these accounts, the Exilarch or leader of the Jews in Mesopotamia, probably Isaac Iskawi, died about 760. Two brothers among his nearest kin, probably his nephews, Anan and Josiah (Hassan), were next in order of succession to the exalted office. Eventually, Josiah was elected exilarch by the geonim or leaders of the Talmudic academies in Babylonia and by the notables of the chief Jewish congregations. The choice was confirmed by Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (754–775).
The story continues that Anan was proclaimed exilarch by his followers, an act construed by the Muslim authorities as a rebellion against the authority of the caliph, who had formally invested Josiah with the position. He was arrested by the authorities one Sunday in 767 and was to be executed on the ensuing Friday for high treason.
Luckily for Anan, the story goes, he met in jail a prominent fellow prisoner, the founder of the Hanafi school of Islam, Abu Hanifah. He gave Anan advice which saved his life: He should set himself to expound all ambiguous precepts of the Torah in a fashion opposed to the traditional interpretation and make this principle the foundation of a new religious sect. He must next get his partisans to secure the presence of the caliph himself at the trial, which was not an unusual thing for important prosecutions. Anan was to declare that his religion was different from Rabbinic Judaism and that his followers entirely coincided with him in matters of religious doctrine. This was an easy matter for Anan to say, because the majority of them were opposed to the rabbis. Complying with this advice, Anan defended himself in the presence of the caliph Al-Mansur, who granted his favor.
The story so closely fits polemical clichés about the personal motives of "heretics" that it is open to grave doubt. Moreover, Leon Nemoy notes, "Natronai, scarcely ninety years after Anan's secession, tells us nothing about his aristocratic (Davidic) descent or about the contest for the office of exilarch which allegedly served as the immediate cause of his apostasy." He later notes that Natronai, a devout Rabbinic Jew, lived where Anan's activities took place and that the Karaite sage Jacob Qirqisani never mentioned Anan's purported lineage or candidacy for exilarch. (See Karaite Anthology; Yale Judaica Series 7)
Anan ben David's Sefer ha-Miṣwot or "Book of the Precepts" was published about 770. He adopted many principles and opinions of other anti-rabbinic forms of Judaism. It has been suggested that he took much from the Sadducees and Essenes, whose writings (or at least writings ascribed to them) were still in circulation. For example, these older sects prohibited the burning of any lights and the leaving of one's dwelling on Shabbat; they also enjoined the actual observation of the new moon for the appointment of festivals and celebrated Shavuot, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, on a Sunday.