Japheth Ben-Said
Japheth Ben-Said [1]
a descendant of the above, and another great Karaite, in all probability also born at Bassra, flourished about 1160-1200. Besides the celebrated work in defense of Karaism entitled Ha-Atakat ha-Tora, which he is supposed to have written about 1167, he wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch and other books of the O.T. Pinsker fancies, and not with. out reason, that this is the Japheth whom the Karaites describe as the instructor of Aben-Ezra, and asserts that Ezra's quotations from the commentary on Exodus 4:20; Exodus 8:13; Exodus 9:16; Exodus 10:5; Exodus 10:21, belong to this Japheth, and not to the former. His commentaries are still in MS., both in the Paris and Leyden libraries. See Pinsker, Likkute Kadmoniot, p. 222 sq. and 185 sq., Supplement; Gratz, Geschichte der Juden, 6, 305 sq.; Kitto, Bibl. Cyclop. s.v. (See Karaites).
