ספרות קראית: הוצאות לאור במאה העשרים ואחת

For almost four centuries after the first printed books, Karaite literature was rarely available in printed editions, mostly for economic reasons, and Karaites continued to reproduce their treatises in manuscripts. In the first half of the nineteenth century, a Karaite printing press in Gozlёve, Crimea, produced a number of Karaite classics, but they were censored editions of mixed quality. During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, printing of Karaite books continued at a very slow pace. The inaccessibility of the great reservoir of Karaite writings in the Former Soviet Union was a major factor in the lack of Karaite publications for most of the twentieth century. The twenty-first century has seen a relative flourishing of editions of Karaite literature. This has been the result of three factors: the opening up of the libraries in Eastern Europe, especially the Firkowicz collections in St. Petersburg; the scholarly interest in Judaeo-Arabic and non-European Jewries, including Karaites; and the lowering of production costs. The most important venues for the publication of Karaite texts have been Brill, which has produced high quality Karaite textual publications and analyses; the publishing project of Karaite Rabbi Yosef Algamil, whose multiple editions represent all eras of Karaite creativity but are marred by multiple mistakes of transcription and unreliable introductions; and the Karaite communities in Israel and in the United States. In addition, a number of Karaite texts have appeared in editions of other publishers. The future of Karaite publications will be a function of the human and financial resources available to carry out new projects.