The Medieval Church · 937
The Book of Lights and Watchtowers
Kitab al-Anwar wa-l-Maraqib
Jacob al-Qirqisani
What it is
A Karaite legal code prefaced by a survey of every Jewish sect the author knew of, from the Sadducees to his own day — and including a notably level-headed account of Jesus, whom he describes as a righteous man whose followers later made claims he had not made.
Why it lasted
The fullest medieval Jewish description of Christian origins written without polemical heat, and a major source for the Karaite movement, whose scripture-only principle Christian Hebraists would later compare to their own Reformation.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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