he Jewish world their
guidance was sought and their opinions solicited on a vast variety of
subjects, mainly, but not exclusively, religious and literary. Amid the
growing complications of ritual law, a desire was felt for terse
prescriptions, clear-cut decisions, and rules of conduct. The
imperfections of study outside of Persia, again, made it essential to
apply to the Gaonim for authoritative expositions of difficult passages
in the Bible and the Talmud. To all such enquiries the Gaonim sent
responses in the form of letters, sometimes addressed to individual
correspondents, sometimes to communities or groups of communities. These
Letters and other compilations containing Halachic (or practical)
decisions were afterwards collected into treatises, such as the "Great
Rules" (_Halachoth Gedoloth_), originally compiled in the eighth
century, but subsequently reedited. Mostly, however, the Letters were
left in loose form, and were collected in much later times.

The Letters of the Gaonim have little pretence to literary form. They
are the earliest specimens of what became a very characteristic branch
of Jewish literature. "Questions and Answers" (_Shaaloth u-Teshuboth_)
abound in later times in all Jewish circles, and there is no real
parallel to them in any other literature. More will be said later on as
to these curious works. So far as the Gaonic period is concerned, the
characteristics of these thousands of letters are lucidity of thought
and terseness of expression. The Gaonim never waste a word. They are
rarely over-bearing in manner, but mostly use a tone which is persuasive
rather than disciplinary. The Gaonim were, in this real sense,
therefore, princes of letter-writing. Moreover, though their Letters
deal almost entirely with contemporary affairs, they now constitute as
fresh and vivid reading as when first penned. Subjected to the severe
test of time, the Letters of the Gaonim emerge triumphant.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GAONIM.

Graetz.--III, 4-8.

Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_, p. 25.

CHAPTER VI

THE KARAITIC LITERATURE

Anan, Nahavendi, Abul-Faraj, Salman, Sahal, al-Bazir, Hassan,
Japhet, Kirkisani, Judah Hadassi, Isaac Troki.

In the very heart of the Gaonate, the eighth century witnessed a
religious and literary reaction against Rabbinism. The opposition to the
Rabbinite spirit was far older than this, but it came to a head under
Anan, the son of David, the founder of Karaism.