Commentary: On 1 Samuel

This early Judeo-Persian commentary is ascribed to an otherwise unknown Gerson ben Yefet, “the teacher,” although it is not known whether Gerson was the author or just the copyist. This text first criticizes the astronomers and philosophers, then it turns to Christians (Edom) and Muslims (Ishmael). The aversion to non-Jewish knowledge was shared by other Persian Jews in the tenth and eleventh centuries. This text has some affinities to the work of the tenth-century Karaite Yefet ben Eli.