Crimean Karaites

Karaites
къарайлар, karajlar

Karaite men in traditional garb, Crimea, 19th century.
Total population
1,600+
Regions with significant populations
Israel	~500[1]
Ukraine (excluding Crimea)	481[2][3]
Crimea	295[4]
Poland	346[5]
Kazakhstan	231[6]
Russia (excluding Crimea)	215[4]
Lithuania	192[7]
Languages
Karaim, Crimean Tatar, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian
Religion
Karaism, previously Karaite Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Constantinopolitan Karaites, Karaite Jews, Krymchaks, Samaritans, Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Crimean Tatars, Urums, Turkic peoples

The Crimean Karaites or simply Karaites (Crimean Karaim: Кърымкъарайлар, Qrımqaraylar, singular къарай, qaray; Trakai dialect: karajlar, singular karaj; Hebrew: קראי מזרח אירופה; Crimean Tatar: Qaraylar; Yiddish: קרימישע קאַראַיִמער, romanized: krimishe karaimer), also known more broadly as Eastern European Karaites, are a traditionally Turkic-speaking Judaic ethnoreligious group^[8][9] indigenous to Crimea.^[10][11][12] Nowadays, most Karaim in Eastern Europe speak the dominant local language of their respective regions.^[13]

The Karaite religion, known in Eastern Europe as Karaism, split from mainstream Karaite Judaism in the 19th and 20th centuries.^[14] Most Karaites in the region do not consider themselves to be Jews, associating the ethnonym with Rabbinical Jews alone, but rather consider themselves to be descendants of the Khazars, non-Rabbinical Judeans, or other Turkic peoples.^[15]

Research into the origins of the Karaites indicates they are of ethnic Jewish origin and are genetically closely related to other Jewish diaspora groups.^[16][17] Some researchers believe they originated in Constantinople and later settled in the Byzantine Principality of Theodoro.^[18]

A closely related group, the Slavic Karaites, were formally accepted into the Karaite ethnoreligious community of Crimea after the deposition of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917. They are descendants of ethnic Russian Subbotniks.^[19][20] However, most Slavs claiming to be Karaites in Eastern Europe are not members of the Karaite ethnoreligious community, and are not accepted as legitimate Karaites.