The Book of Lights and Watchtowers: On Jewish Sects and Christianity

This excerpt from the Judeo-Arabic The Book of Lights and Watchtowers (Kitāb al-anwār wa-’l-marāqib) enumerates the differences among Jewish sects, including the followers of ‘Anan ben David, an eighth-century proto-Karaite leader. Al-Qirqisānī attributes the crucifixion of Jesus to the Rabbanites, whether as a mistake or out of a polemical desire to pin that accusation on that sect rather than his own. He cites several rabbis and events whose details have been lost, making his account important for the history of Karaite and Rabbanite thought.