AARON BEN JUDAH KUSDINI

AARON BEN JUDAH KUSDINI (or Kosdani, i.e., "of Constantinopole"; end of 12th century), Karaite scholar. Of his works only a responsum addressed to Solomon b. David, the Karaite nasi in Cairo, concerning the law of incest is known. In it Aaron reveals himself a zealous partisan of the highly restrictive catenary (rikkuv) theory of forbidden marriages favored by the early Karaite authorities. Solomon rejected his views. The responsum is quoted by Karaite writers, who call Aaron ba'al ha-derashot ("the author of homilies") but no homilies from his pen have as yet been found. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Neubauer, Aus der Petersburger Bibliothek (1866), 55, 117; Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 140–1, 291. (Leon Nemoy)