Outstanding Karaite Scholars from Kukizów
Outstanding Karaite Scholars from Kukizów

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the Karaite community of Kukizów throughout the period of its existence from the late 17th to the early 19th century and seeks to reclaim a place in history for a small group of its members. The community which consists mostly of immigrants from Troki and generations of their descendants has been studied but still little is known about them. Despite being a small and impoverished community in a remote location for most of their existence, the community produced several prominent figures in the history of Polish-Lithuanian Karaites. This achievement could be attributed to the high social, economic and religious status of the community’s founders. Most known studies have focused on the literary output of Mordecai ben Nisan, highlighting the prolific nature of his writing as well as the originality of his thinking. The Karaite literature also features many other outstanding scholars from well-known Karaite families with family connections to Kukizów, such as Łabanos, Harodi, Tzitz Ora, Hashoim (in the Crimea they were called ‘Lutzki’, ‘Kukizovi’, i.e., from Lutsk, from Kukizów). However, the current Karaite literature offers little more than a biographical or bibliographical survey of these personalities and the Karaite community of Kukizów. The scant data available about the Karaites of Kukizów reveals little about the life of this community. This article aims to offer a novel glimpse into the economic and social history of the Karaites of Kukizów through the prism of the personal correspondence from Abraham Firkowicz’s archives.

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