AGA

AGA, family name of Crimean Karaites, originating in the title given to the holder of an important office (Turk.). The first person to go under this name was Samuel ben Abraham (1717–1770), the son of abraham ben josiah yerushalmi , the prominent Karaite scholar of the Crimea. Samuel lived in Chufut-Kale and was the leader of its community, also known by the title rosh ha-golah (exilarch). He was a "court Jew" in the court of Tatar Khan Qirim Giray, who appointed Samuel to mint coins for the Khanate in 1768. Samuel protected the interests of his community before the officials. He wrote a number of liturgical poems and some of them were included in the Karaite siddurs. Unknown persons murdered him on his way from Bakhchisarai, the capital of the Khanate, near Chufut-Kale. He had three sons: Eliezer, Benjamin, and Simḥah. His son BENJAMIN AGA (d. 1824) was a leader and intercessor for the community of Chufut-Kale. He also was appointed to mint coins for the Khanate in the court by the new Khan, Shahin Giray. In 1781 Benjamin leased the custom duties on the sale of wine. He became one of the Khan's unofficial court advisers. Like his father, he protected his community's interests. In 1777 he succeeded in annulling a harmful decree of Devlet Giray, the pretender to the Khan's throne, who falsely accused the Karaites of stealing the Khan's money. Benjamin corresponded with Karaite leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Constantinople, and Jerusalem and financially supported their communities in times of distress. Following the Russian annexation of the Crimea he continued to serve as the official head of the community and to represent it before the Russian authorities. In 1795 Benjamin was chosen together with two other community leaders of the Crimean Karaites to travel to St. Petersburg on a special mission to the government. Their delegation won exemption for Crimean Karaites from the double taxation imposed on all the Jews of the Russian Empire, and to secure other rights, such as the purchase of immovable property. In 1806 Benjamin reestablished, together with his brother Simḥah, a publishing house in Chufut-Kale. Benjamin was an expert in Karaite halakhah and an authority on the Karaite calendar. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Akhiezer, in: M.Polliack (ed.), Karaite Judaism (2003), 737–39; F.E. Miller and J.S. Luzki, Iggeret Teshu'at Yisrael (1993); S. Poznanski, Ha-Kara'i Avraham ben Yoshiyahu Yerushalmi (1894), 5; S. Pigit, Iggeret Nidhḥei Shemuel (1894), 6–10; Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 1535, 1582, index. (Golda Akhiezer (2nd ed.)