LEON NEMOY
ANAN BEN DAVID
— A re-appraisal of the historical data —
Forty-five years have passed since Samuel Poznanski published
his essay ,,Anan et •ses ecrits", in which he re-examined ‫ י‬anew all
the data then available as to Anan's life and teaching. Since Poznanski. with his customary conscientiousness, distincly acknowledged
his dependence upon the earlier researches ‫ י‬of Abraham Harkavy,
this essay has been rightfully regarded as the mature judgement of both
these eminent scholars together.
Since that time much new information on Anan's teaching has
come to light, notably Harkavy's, Schechter's, Mann's, and Sokolov's publications of portions of Anan's ‫ ס פ ר ה מ צ ו ת‬, and the additio•
nal data on Anan's views contained in the Kitab al-anwdr
of al-Qir‫־‬
qisSni. Na new facts about Anan's life and personality, however, are
contained in all these documents, so that our knowledge of the personal history of the Karaite pater ecclesiae
remains still the same;
n d subsequent articles on Anan (notably in the several Jewish encyclopedias) follow the conclusions reached- by Harkavy and Poznariski fairly closely. In fact, I myself have done the same in my short
sketch of Anan in the Universal
Jewish
Encyclopedia,
published only
a few years ago.
The summation reached by Poznanski, coinciding fully with that
reached by Harkavy, was ,,que les documents caraites sont alteres a
dessein d'une fagon invraisemblable; que les documents rabbanites.
au contraire, s'inserent Jogiquement dans le cours des choses et peuvent, par consequent, revendiquer une plus grande vraisemblance".
Such categorical statement by two major authorities in the field of
Karaitology. backed by their vast erudition in both Karaite and Rabbanite literature, is obviously not a matter to be disagreed with lightly,
nor one to be questioned without serious and compelling motives.
And yet, as I read and re-read the earliest accounts of Anan's life
available to us, I could not suppress an increasingly uncomfortable
1
2
t
8
4
6
6
7
a
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» REJ, XLIV (1902), pp. 161-187; XLV (1902). pp. 50-69. 176-203.
REJ. XLIV. p. 161 : ,Comme on le verra . . . je m'appuie souvent sur Harkavy.".
2
8
Studien und Miiteilungen aus der Kaiserlichen Oeffentlichen Bibliothek zu St.
Petersburg, VIII Teil. St. Petersburg. 1903.
* Documents of Jewish Sectaries, vol. II, Cambridge. 1910.
Journal of Jewish Lore and Philosophy, I (1919). pp. 329—353.
Bulletin (Izvestiya) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Section
6
0
of
Huma-
nistic Studies. VII (1928). pp. 243—253. The codex from which this portion was taken
is an exceedingly curious one, from a paleographical point of view.
‫ י‬Edited by L. Nemoy. New York, 1939—43. 5 volumes.
8 1939-43. vol. 1. p. 293.
• REJ, XLIV. p. 161.