judaism beyond the rabbis 305
contrast interpreted all biblical references to angels as indicating natural
forces under divine control. Emphasis on a reliance on scripture gave
space for a great deal of variety in independent interpretation of the
biblical texts, which Benjamin may indeed have welcomed. Al- Kumisi
was one of the first to offer rationalist readings of the biblical texts. His
Karaite successors quite rapidly built up their own traditions, justified
as the ‘yoke of inheritance’ endorsed by communal consensus and
thereby distinguished from the Rabbanite claim that their oral Torah
had an authority equal to that of the written text. Hence the Karaite
historian al- Kirkisani in the tenth century attributed to Anan (probably
fictitiously) the injunction to ‘search thoroughly in the Torah’ and ‘not
rely on my opinion’. A multiplicity of ideas was not a matter for regret:
For this accusation ... attaches to them [the Rabbanites] only since they
claim that all their teachings come by tradition from the Prophets. If things
are so, there should be no disagreement; the fact that disagreement has
arisen is a criticism of what they claim. We on the other hand arrive at
knowledge by means of our intellects, and where this is the case, it is
undeniable that disagreement will arise.^25
Information about other dissenting forms of Judaism which may be
seen as forerunners of Karaism from before the time of al- Kirkisani can
be picked up only from brief remarks in his history. The Ukbarites (from
near Baghdad), a short-lived movement in the second half of the ninth
century, are said (among other distinctive practices) to have begun their
Sabbaths on Saturday mornings at dawn rather than on the Friday
evening like other Jews. In Ramleh in the land of Israel in the same
period, Malik al- Ramli struck a blow for kosher cuisine by taking an
oath on the site of the Temple that chickens had been used as Temple
sacrifices and could therefore be eaten – thus contradicting the view of
Anan that the chicken should be identified with the dukhifat in Leviticus
11:19 which was prohibited, and the view of al- Kumisi that ‘he who
fears God must not use any bird for food except turtledoves and young
pigeons, also wild pigeons, “until such time as the teacher of righteous-
ness shall have come”, forasmuch as all those who eat forbidden fowl or
fish shall perish and be reduced to nothing on the Day of Judgement.’^26
By the time of al- Kirkisani in the mid- tenth century a distinctive set
of Karaite doctrines was beginning to emerge, and by the twelfth cen-
tury the other dissident groups disappeared or merged into the Karaite
movement, with a gradual suppression of the individualism which had
characterized the movement in its early period. The principle that all