Late Karaite Popular Poems from the Genizah and Sufism

The Judaeo-Arabic popular literature found in the Genizot of Cairo, found to be of much importance to the study of intercultural relationships between Jews and Muslims during Middle Ages and pre-modern period. The aim of this lecture is to introduce a new and unknown material regarding the influence of Sufi ideas on Karaites in Ottoman Egypt.

The lecture is focused on a few unknown Judaeo-Arabic popular poems found in the Genizot. It seems that the poems were popular especially among Karaites as most of the manuscripts in question are included in the Firkovitch collection, i. e. were removed from the Karaite Genizah, found in Dar Simha synagogue of Cairo. The popularity of these poems among Karaites is also supported by indications that show that the poems were used for liturgical purposes by the Karaite community of Cairo, at the time they were copied (or even earlier).

While two of the poems in discussion reflect conceptual influence of Sufi ideas, like a repeated appeal to the soul (Yā Nafs) to abandon the lusts of this world, one of the texts (al-Qaṣīda al-Fiyyāšiyya) is a verbatim Judaeo-Arabic copy of an Arabic Sufi song composed by the 16th century Moroccan Sufi poet Sidi ‘Uthman b. Yahya.

These popular Judaeo-Arabic poems from the Firkovitch collection join further examples from the Firkovitch collection of Sufi essays copied by Karaites. However, these poems indicate the adaptation of Sufi ideas during the Ottoman period, a period on which we have less information concerning the mentioned influence, and also can indicate the prevalence of Sufi material among all sections of the Karaite community of Cairo at this period by being popular and common texts.