A Heretic of the Dilāṣian Foreigners

Khalaf ibn Sarjado wrote, in Hebrew, A Heretic of the Dilāṣian Foreigners (Epikoros min ha-nokhrim ha-dilasiyim) in response to the first version, in Hebrew, of Se‘adya Ga’on’s The Manifest Book. The title refers to Se‘adya himself, who was born in the town of Dilāṣ in Egypt. Khalaf also blasts Se‘adya for imposing unnecessary fasts on the Baghdadi community and even charges Se‘adya with violating the Sabbath. The work was lost except for some quotations in later Karaite works. In this excerpt, the Karaite editor, writing in Judeo-Arabic, presents passages from Khalaf’s elegant Hebrew text, narrating some of the arguments between Khalaf and Se‘adya.