Note 50 — INTRODUCTION

Ibn Ezra visited Cyprus before his arrival in London in 1158, when he wrote the Sabbath Epistle. It is not unlikely that the heterodox practices of the sect of whom Benjamin here speaks had been put forward in certain books to which Ibn Ezra alludes, and induced him to compose the pamphlet in defence of the traditional mode of observance of the Sabbath day. This supposition is not inconsistent with Graetz's theory, vol. VI, p. 447. See also Dr. Friedlander, Ibn Ezra in England, J.Q.R., VIII, p. 140, and Joseph Jacobs, The Jews of Angevin England, p. 35.