Commentary: On Genesis

Yefet’s commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, written in Judeo-Arabic (or Arabic), combine rationalist theology, linguistic exegesis, and anti-Rabbanite polemic. They were extremely popular among later Karaites. In his comments on the book of Genesis, Yefet discusses the episode where Hagar and Ishmael are cast out. The biblical Ishmael was considered, in the medieval world, to be the progenitor of the Muslims. Here Yefet considers what Genesis 16:11–12 might refer to in Ishmael’s life and what it might therefore imply as a prediction of the future course of Islam.