Constantinopolitan Karaites
Karaite community developed in Istanbul
The Constantinopolitan Karaites or Greco-Karaites are a Karaite community with a specific historical development and a distinct cultural, linguistic, and literary heritage stemming from their residency in the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. There are numerous commonalities between the community and the Rabbinical Romaniote Jews.
History
Karaites have lived in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) for more than a thousand years. Smaller settlements in the surrounding area of Constantinople have existed as well, such as the Karaites of Adrianople, who themselves descend from the Constantinopolitan community. While having close relations and daily interactions with the Grecophone Byzantine Christians and the Romaniote Jews, they nonetheless developed their own unique Karaeo-Greek dialect of the Yevanic language; this dialect was used by elder members of the community until recently. The Karaite Elias Afeda Beghi compiled a glossary on the Hebrew Bible with Hebrew words translated into Greek. Other works of Greco-Karaite literature are also known.
Language
Until recently, the Constantinopolitan Karaites spoke Karaeo-Greek. Their Hebrew has some special features which connect them with the Tiberian Hebrew of the Tiberian Masoretes.
Influence on Karaite Judaism
In spite of the small size of this community, the Constantinopolitan Karaites have had a great influence on the Karaite Judaism through their literary output.
The public source identifies “Constantinopolitan Karaites” as karaite community developed in Istanbul. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Constantinopolitan, Karaites and Karaite.
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This entry incorporates text from “Constantinopolitan Karaites” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.