KARAITES. The Karaites (Heb., Qaraʾim; Arab., Qarāʾīyūn) are a Jewish sect that recognizes the Hebrew Bible as the sole source of divinely inspired legislation, and denies the authority of the postbiblical Jewish tradition (the Oral Law) as recorded in the Talmud and in later rabbinic literature. The term, which apparently first occurs in the writings of Benjamin al-Nahāwandī (ninth century CE), is variously interpreted as "scripturalists, champions of scripture" (from the Hebrew qaraʾ, "to read," particularly "to read scripture") and as "callers," that is to say, those who call for a return to the original biblical religion (from the alternate meaning of qaraʾ, "to call, to summon"). Apart from the Samaritans, the Karaites are the oldest surviving Jewish sect and have produced an extensive scholarly literature, much of which has been preserved.

The Rise of Karaite Judaism ("karaism")

Sectarian dissent in Judaism goes back...