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A 14th-century Karaite view of Jewish history and philosophy of religion 25*

As regards Christianity, it is well known that the tradition relies on
the testimony of four individuals, namely the four Evangelists, who Yefet
characterises in the same terms used by al-Qirqisānī.30 They profess the
Trinity (one substance, ma‘nā, in three hypostases, aqānīm), and many
other tenets repugnant to reason, which contrast starkly with Jewish tenets,
well rooted in historical experience and faithful reports.

Yefet concludes his polemic against other religions with a significant
and innovative citation of Yehuda ha-Levi’s Kuzarī, by means of excerpts
from its first and third books. He introduces the work in an understated way,
describing it as ‘one of the stories that is recounted in universal history’ (lit.
mā jā’a fī khabar akhbār al-‘ālam), concerning the King of the Khazars,
‘possessing superior intellect and zealous in religious observances’ and who
saw an angel saying to him in a dream: ‘Thy way of thinking is pleasing to
God, but not thy way of acting’. Yefet’s incorporation of the Kuzarī in his
Book of Commandments is significant, since it is the earliest indication thus
far that ha-Levi’s work was read and cited by Karaites.31 Yefet’s carefully-
chosen citations and his interpretation of the Kuzarī are also innovative and
revealing: he leaves open the possibility that the King’s adoption of Judaism
was the adoption of Karaite Judaism, and he precedes Eliyahu Bashyatzi
by a century and a half in referring to the Khazars in the context of Karaite
history.32 Finally, Yefet’s excerpts are significant textual witnesses to the

a somewhat different argument against the i‘ jāz doctrine in Kitāb al-anwār
3.15.12 (ed. Nemoy, 298–299), where he explains that the doctrine is really
a rather limited proof, since those unfamiliar with Arabic cannot attest to
its truth.
30 Kitāb al-anwār 1.8.7 (ed. Nemoy, 45–46).
31 As is known, the work was already perused by the polymath Ibn Kammūna:
cf. R. Pourjavady and S. Schmidtke, A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad:
‘Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna and His Writings (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 9; L.
Nemoy, “Contributions to the Textual Criticism of Judah ha-Levi’s Kitāb
al-Khazarī,” Jewish Quarterly Review, NS 26 (1936): 221–226. For an
overview of the Khazar affair, cf. P.B. Golden, H. Ben-Shammai, A. Róna-
Tas, eds., The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives (Leiden – Boston:
Brill, 2007).
32 On Bashyatzi’s mention of the King of the Khazars, see the introduction by