The history of Bible translations as part of the Karaim cultural heritage

The Karaites are the followers of Karaitism which spread in the 9th century and via the Byzantine Empire, it reached the Turkic speaking people of the Crimea. Turkic speaking Karaite communities living in Eastern Europe are called Karaim and they define their religion as Karaism. The faith acknowledges the Hebrew Bible and it is highly necessary to read the Bible and to interpret it. Thence, starting from the early stages, the Hebrew Bible had been translating into Karaim as they are also important representatives of basic notions, traditions, religious rituals and perspectives of the communities. However, due to fatal changes in their life, Karaims were forced to not continue their religious rituals during the Soviet Union period. Their prayer houses called kenesa were closed and the old tradition of Bible translations have stopped. In addition, after the places called Qaray Bitiği closed, the richest collection of Karaim manuscripts were transferred to Russian, Polish and Lithuanian libraries and they are hardly accessible. Besides, since Karaims stopped using Hebrew script, they are no longer able to read the earlier translations written with Hebrew alphabet. After the collapse of Soviet Union, prayer houses were reopened and Karaims are now free to practice their religion. Moreover, after a long break, Turcology scholars became interested in Karaim, and the studies on Karaim Bible translations has become popular again. In this sense, the presentation aims to provide a brief overview of the changes in the cognition of the Bible translations among the Turkic-Karaim.