Sa‘īd ibn Bābshād

The poet Sa‘īd ibn Bābshād lived in either Iraq or Persia. There are very few explicitly Jewish components in his work. He was likely a Karaite, and some have suggested that he came under the influence of the ideas found in the Rasā’il ikhwān al-ṣafā’ (Epistles of the Sincere Brethren). The Sincere Brethren (sometimes called the Brethren of Purity) were a ninth- or tenth-century Islamic group, possibly affiliated with the Ismā‘īliyya movement, who espoused rationalism and often sought to educate nonelites in their doctrines. This may also be the intent of Sa‘īd’s poems.