Ya'qub al-Qirqisani on Jewish Sects and Christianity

Ya'qub al-Qirqisani, «the greatest Karaite mind of the first half of the tenth century» (Leon Nemoy), opens his opus magnum, the Kitab al-anwar wal-maraqib (The Book of Lights and Watchtowers), with a survey of Jewish sects and Christianity which represents the most reliable (and sometimes the unique) source of our knowledge of the developments of Jewish religious history from ancient times to the author's own day. After an evaluation of Qirqisani's work as an historiographic source, this book presents an English translation of the masterly introduction premised by Harkavy to the editio princeps of Qirqisani's text (this essay, written in Russian, has remained inaccessible to most scholars) together with a complete English translation of Kitab al-anwar, Book I.