O our God, You have loved us

Tuviah ben Moses, known by the epithet ha-avel (the mourner) or ha-ma‘atik (the translator), was one of the founding leaders of Byzantine Karaism. Tuviah studied with leading Jerusalem Karaite scholars, particularly Yûsuf al-Basïr, and translated many Karaite works from Arabic to Hebrew. His letters that survive in the Cairo Geniza record information about his life and travels. By 1048, Tuviah had come to lead the Karaite community in Byzantium, but he continued to travel to Egypt and maintained communication with Karaites throughout the world. Tuviah was a liturgical poet and Karaite legal authority, but his lasting legacy is to be found in bringing Karaism from the Arabic world to Byzantium, both in written and in institutional forms.