Research on Karaim/Karaite religious music. New horizons

Abstract

In this paper a short summary is given of the history of research into Karaim/Karaite religious music up to this day, and possible new horizons for future investigations are outlined. It is argued that a related field of research, namely lingustics, with its recent input into Karaite grammatical thought can help open new possibilities for musicological research, too. Two main figures of Karaite intellectuals from the Near East in the early 11th century, ʿAbū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf ibn Nūh and ʿAbū al-Faraj Hārūn ibn Faraj, are introduced. Their treatises on the Bible and its Hebrew language, together with other works of their followers, as discovered in the Firkovich collections from St. Petersburg, represent the Karaite way of theoretical thought on these subjects, including the way of reading (chanting) the Bible with the help of Masoretic accents. So an investigation into mediaeval theories and their comparison to living traditions of liturgical chant of modern Karaim/Karaite communities can bring new understanding of the Karaite musical heritage and can also be instrumental in pursuing the evolution of Karaite religious identity throughout ages in different geographical areas.