David ibn Merwan al-Mukkamas

David (abu Sulaiman) ibn Merwan al-Mukkamas al-Rakki (Arabic: داود إبن مروان المقمص translit.: Dawud ibn Marwan al-Muqamis; died c. 937) was a philosopher and controversialist, the author of the earliest known Jewish philosophical work of the Middle Ages. He was a native of Raqqa, Mesopotamia, whence his surname. Harkavy derives his byname from the Arabic "ḳammaṣ" (to leap), interpreting it as referring to his asserted change of faith (Grätz, Gesch. Hebr. transl., iii.498). This is uncertain. The name is written "אלקומסי" in Masudi's Al-Tanbih (ed. De Goeje, p. 113), in a Karaitic commentary to Leviticus, and in a manuscript copy of Jefeth's commentary to the same book (Jew. Quart. Rev. viii.681), and is perhaps a derivative from the city of Ḳumis in Taberistan (Yaḳut, iv.203). Another Karaite bears the name "Daniel al-Ḳumisi," and in Al-Hiti's chronicle this name is also spelled with a ẓade (Jew. Quart. Rev. ix.432).


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