Abraham ibn Daud אברהם אבן דאוד הלוי

Sefer ha-Kabbalah, the Book of Tradition, was written about 1161 with a purpose: to show the Karaites that the oral teaching had passed down in an unbroken chain, link by link, from Sinai to the academies of Spain. Hence its shape, and hence the care with which it must be read: it is a book that argues, not merely one that records.

We draw on it constantly. It is ibn Daud who transmits the tale of the four captives—a ship out of Bari seized, scholars sold to different corners of the Mediterranean, each becoming the head of the community where he landed. Historians dispute whether it happened so; but the picture of how Jewish learning passed from Babylonia to Spain and North Africa comes from here.

Besides history he wrote philosophy: al-Aqida al-Rafia, in Hebrew Emunah Ramah, of 1168—an attempt to reconcile Aristotle with the Torah a generation before Maimonides.

Of his death the Jewish Encyclopedia writes carefully: "according to general tradition he died a martyr about 1180". Neither the date nor the circumstances are documented. His birthplace is disputed as well: some say Toledo, others Cordova.