RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESSome of Anan's disciples went on to create the Karaite sect, which
included mQst anti-Rabbinic Jews by the ninth century after they dropped
Anan's more ascetic and literal requirements. Their differences in ob-
servance provided an alternative form of ritual life that served to create
and preserve a communal identity. In fact, Qirqisani shows how minor
differences in ritual and everyday life also distinguished Rabbinic Jews
in Iraq from those in Syria. In the tenth century there were Karaite
Jews at Basra and Baghdad, in Khuzistan, Fars, the Jibal, and Khur-
asan.l12
CONCLUSIONSIn general, it is possible to describe the Jews of Iraq in terms of a
fully developed religious community. Jews had their own social insti-
tutions and a way of life that was given religious approval by the
Talmud. They had their own burial customs and cemeteries, a court
system for their religious law, schools, synagogues, dietary require-
ments, charity, and communal property. Furthermore, they were usu-
ally allowed to govern themselves under the exilarch and the rabbis.
There are really two main considerations which point to the emergence
of genuine religious communities in the late Sasanian period. The first
is the way an identity and way of life were spread among the lay
members of the community by the religious leaders themselves. In the
case of the Jews, this is demonstrated by the way the rabbis used the
office of market inspector to enforce dietary laws among the general
Jewish public, by the way they used the courts to apply Talmudic law
to daily life, and by the way they used the schools to spread Rabbinic
Judaism through their disciples. Weekly congregational worship was
also an important means for reinforcing a communal identity. The
second consideration lies in the way the realization of Talmudic re-
quirements led to the formation of closely knit communities that were
increasingly isolated from the members of other religions around them.
In this respect it is important to note the creation of interfaith social
boundaries by the late Sasanian period.
As a result, once the loss of Jews on the fringes of the community
through conversion to Christianity had been accounted for, the lo-
cation and size of the Jewish community in Iraq remained remarkably
stable. In effect, it survived fairly intact into the Islamic period with
III Nemoy, "Qirqisani," pp. 379-81, 392-95.