Levi ben Japheth

Who is Levi ben Japheth?

Levi ben Japheth Heb. Levi ben Yafet ha-Levi; Arab. Abu Sa'id Levi ibn Yafat was a Karaite Jewish scholar who flourished, probably at Jerusalem, in the first half of the eleventh century CE.

Although, like his father Japheth ben Ali, he was considered one of the greatest authorities among the Karaites, who called him "al-Shaikh" (the master), no details of his life are to be found in the Karaite sources. There even exists confusion in regard to his identity; in some of the sources he is confounded with his brother, or his son Sa'id (comp. Pinsker, "Liqqute Qadmoniyyot," p. 119), and also with a Muslim scholar named Abu Hashim (Aaron ben Joseph, "Mibhar," Paris MS.). Levi wrote in Arabic a comprehensive work on the precepts, parts of a Hebrew translation ("Sefer ha-Mitzvot") of which are still extant in manuscript (Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. No. 857; Steinschneider, Cat. Leyden, No. 22; St. Petersburg MSS., Firkovich collection, No. 613).