Jacob Qirqisani (c. 890 – c. 960) (Arabic: ابو یوسف یعقوب القرقسانی ʾAbū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Qirqisānī, Hebrew: יעקב בן יצחק הקרקסאני Yaʿaqov ben Yiṣḥaq haQarqesani) was a Karaite dogmatist and exegete who flourished in the first half of the tenth century.
His patronym "Isaac" and teknonym "Joseph" reflect no more than the genealogy of the biblical patriarchs (see Kunya), while his surname has been taken as referring to either ancient Circesium in eastern Syria, or Karkasān, near Baghdad, though no Karaite community is known in either place,[1] or as "the Circassian".
The first volume of Qirqisani's Kitāb al-Anwār wal-marrāqib is the most important, which not only provides valuable information concerning the development of Karaism but throws light also on many questions in Rabbinic Judaism.
In the first treatise, of eighteen chapters, Qirqisani gives a comprehensive survey of the development of Jewish religious movements, the material for which he drew not only from the works of his predecessors, as David ibn Merwan al-Mukkamas, whom he mentions, but also from his personal experiences in the learned circles in which he moved.
In opposition to them, Zadok, a disciple of Antigonus of Sokho and founder of a sect (either the Sadducees or Essenes) revealed part of the truth on religious subjects, while Anan ben David disclosed the whole.
It was Paul that denied the necessity of carrying out the 613 commandments and taught that religion consisted in humility; and the First Council of Nicaea adopted precepts which do not occur in the Law, Gospels, or Acts of the Apostles.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters, Qirqisani refutes the doctrine of gilgul (metempsychosis), though among its exponents was Anan ben David, who wrote a work on the subject.
Qirqisani quotes the views of the earliest Karaite authorities such as Anan ben David, Benjamin Nahawandi, and Daniel al-Qumisi, which he often refutes.
The first treatise of the Kitab al-Anwar, dealing with the Jewish sects, was published by Abraham Harkavy in the memoirs of the Oriental section of the Archeological Society (viii.
of the fifth treatise, in which Qirqisani discusses the question whether it is permitted to read on Shabbat books written in other than the Hebrew alphabet (Kohut Memorial Volume, pp.
A dissertation on the Ten Commandments by Qirqisani, which Steinschneider supposes to be the first chapter of the sixth treatise beginning with proofs of the existence of God, is found in the Bibliothèque Nationale (No.