bastion for Karaites all the way through the 19th century. As time passed in contact with these relatively new Sufi ideas many Karaites began to push towards reform. Admiration for the structure of Hanaqas, Sufi schools, and its doctrinal focus on mysticism began to make many Egyptian Jews long to adopt something similar. Abraham Maimonides (1204–1237), who was considered to be the most prominent leader and government representative of all Mamluk Jews, advocated reorganizing Jewish schools to be more like Sufi Hanaqas. His heir Obadyah Maimonides(1228-1265) wrote the Treatise of the Pool, which is a mystical manual written in Arabic and filled with Sufi technical terms. In it he laid out how one may obtain union with the unintelligible world, showing his full adherence and advocacy of mysticism. He also began to reform practices advocating for celibacy and Halwa, solitary meditation, to better tune oneself to the spiritual plane. These were imitations of long held Sufi practices. In fact, he would often portrayed Jewish patriarchs such as Moses and Isaac as hermits who relied on isolated meditation to remain in touch with God. The Maimonides dynasty would essentially spark a new movement, Pietism, amongst Egyptian Jews. Pietism gained a huge following, mainly amongst the Jewish elite, and it would continue to gain momentum until the end of the Maimonides dynasty in the 15th century. Additionally, forced conversions in Yemen, Crusader and Almohad massacres in North Africa, and the collapse of Islamic Andalusia forced large number of Jews to resettle to Egypt, many of whom would join the Pietist movement enthusiastically. This enthusiasm may have been largely practical, as the adoption of Sufi ideas did much to ingratiate the Mamluk Jewish community with their Muslim overlords. This may have appealed to many of these refugees, as some historians state that the Maimonides dynasty itself originated from Al Andalus and resettled in Egypt. Pietism would in some ways become indistinguishable from Sufism. Pietists would clean their hands and feet before praying in the temple. They would face Jerusalem as they prayed. They frequently practiced daytime fasting and group meditation or muraqaba. There was vehement opposition to the revisionism of Pietism just as there was with Hasidism. Opposition was so strong there are records of Jews reporting fellow Jews to Muslim authorities on the grounds that they were practicing Islamic heresy. David Maimonides, brother of Obadyah and his heir, was eventually exiled to