Page "Judaism" Paragraph 172

Like the Sadducees who relied only on the Torah, some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in the Mishnah ( and developed by later rabbis in the two Talmuds ), relying instead only upon the Tanakh.

These included the Isunians, the Yudganites, the Malikites, and others.

They soon developed oral traditions of their own, which differed from the rabbinic traditions, and eventually formed the Karaite sect.

Karaites exist in small numbers today, mostly living in Israel.

Rabbinical and Karaite Jews each hold that the others are Jews, but that the other faith is erroneous.