ABSTRACT
The Romaniots, whose musical tradition is the subject of this paper, constitute the original old Jewish communities of the territories of the Byzantine Empire, where they had dwelt for hundreds of years. In view of the specific circumstances of Jewish history, the Romaniots, like the great number of primary and secondary traditions spread over the four corners of the earth, experienced the effect of a very influential factor. According to the historian of Byzantine Jewry, Andrew Sharf: “Byzantium, in its great age”, that is to say the period subsequent to the great changes undergone in the twelfth century, “was a land of rank, not of status: a feudal hierarchy with its infinity of social categories did not exist; Jewish life was sensibly influenced by this sort of open society, they were an integral element of the population”. The Karaites constitute a Jewish religious movement that came into being at the beginning of the eighth century in Persia.
