Daniel al-Qūmisī, an early Karaite communal leader, scholar, and biblical exegete, was born in Damghan, in the province of Qumis, in northern Persia in the second half of the ninth century and lived for a time in Khurasan. Little is known about his life. Around 880, Daniel settled in Jerusalem, becoming part of the community of Mourners of Zion (avele Ṣiyyon), who followed a strict regimen of prayer and asceticism to commemorate the destruction of the Temple and hasten its restoration. Scholars are now of the opinion that the Karaite sect did not coalesce until the mid- to late nint…