ations of the laxity of the orthodox. The argument they employ is
the same which Kirkisani attributes to Zadok. It is, however, the obvious
argument, if the principle of analogy be admitted in the interpretation of
the law; it is common in the Karaite books, and is ascribed to the
Samaritans also.(89) Kirkisani also says that the Zadokites absolutely
forbade divorce, which the Scripture permitted, agreeing in this with the
Christians and with the Isawites, whose founders, Jesus and Obadiah of
Ispahan,(90) had likewise forbidden it. We are not told expressly that our
sect prohibited divorce, but their prohibition of remarriage during the
life of the divorced wife would have the same effect. Finally, Kirkisani
says that the Zadokites fixed all the months at thirty days each,(91) and
that they did not count the Sabbath among the seven days of the
celebration of the Passover and the Tabernacles, making the feast consist
of seven days exclusive of the Sabbath. Substantially the same statements
are made about the Zadokites by another Karaite author, Hadassi, who
flourished in the middle of the twelfth century, and perhaps derived his
information from Kirkisani.

What the "Zadokite" writings really were to which these authors refer is
not known. It is certain, however, that both the Karaites and their
opponents took them to be Sadducean works. In the passage about Zadok,
part of which Dr. Schechter quotes (see above), Kirkisani says: "After the
appearance of the Rabbanites (the first of whom was Simeon the Just), the
Sadducees appeared; their leaders were Zadok and Boethus.... Zadok was the
first who exposed the Rabbanites," etc.(92) Zadok's disclosure of a part
of truth was followed by the full discovery of the truth about the laws by
Anan, the founder of the Karaites. Not only do the opponents of the
Karaites stigmatize Anan and his followers as the remnants of the
disciples of Zadok and Boethus, but the older Karaites expressly claim
this origin. Thus Joseph al-Basir (first half of the eleventh century)
says that, in the times of the second temple, the Rabbanites, who were
then called Pharisees, had the upper hand, while the Karaites, then known
as Sadducees, were less influential.(93) The Karaite author of an
anonymous commentary on Exodus preserved in manuscript in St.
Petersburg(94) polemizes against a disciple of Saadia, the great _Malleus
Karaeorum_, about the proper way of determining the beginning of the
months (and c