ABSTRACT
The Karaites play an important role in a study of ibn Ezra’s Introductions, because they raise the very issue which concerns him most: the status of commentary in the Jewish tradition and the relative importance of Oral and Written Torah. Through his sometimes viciously sarcastic comments on the Karaites, it becomes evident that ibn Ezra actually wishes to define himself by their approach. He often criticises in them tendencies which one suspects he recognises in himself, but which he endeavours to curb, in order to safeguard rabbinic tradition and the continuity of the Jewish community, as he sees it. It is noteworthy that elsewhere in his Torah commentaries, ibn Ezra adopts a far more respectful approach to individual Karaite exegetes. This is all the more surprising, since ibn Ezra is generally regarded, together with Sa‘adiah Gaon, as the most virulent critic of the Karaite stance. In his Introductions, however, he maintains that he will be ‘no respecter of persons’1 in exegetical matters, and he certainly keeps to this assertion.
