[3] As for that scanty bit of argument [Kalām] regarding the notion of the unity of God and regarding what depends on this notion, which you will find in the writings of some Gaonim and in those of the Qaraites, it should be noted that the subject matter of this argument was taken over by them from the Mutakallimūn of Islam and that this bit is very scanty indeed if compared to what Islam has compiled on this subject.
This was not because they preferred the first opinion to the second, but because it so happened that they had taken over and adopted the first opinion and considered it a matter proven by demonstrationMaimonides continues in that section to provide a history of Kalamic thought, its sources and subsequent development, and then proceeds to condemn a certain laxity of thought to be found in this philosophical school.
In particular, Maimonides takes strong issue with the Kalamic proof of God's existence and unity from the Creation of the World in time.
[6] He thus regards the Kalamic approach as starting from a position of convenience rather than from an irrefutable premise, and their methodology as being entirely tainted by their eagerness to produce certain results which support their prior beliefs.
Among the personalities associated with the Jewish Kalam are the following, many of whom were Karaites: Jewish Kalam was adopted by the Rabbanite academies of Kairouan, Fustat, Lucena, Toledo and Córdoba as the Talmudic academies in Babylonia (Sura, Pumbedita, Basra, and Baghdad) closed and transferred their intellectual and religious heritage to al-Andalus.
Because the composition of written works was yet uncommon at the time that the Jewish Kalam flourished, there are few surviving books from this era.
[1] Instead, what we have are selected quotes and paraphrases such as found in Maimonides and Saadia, but mostly we have what Wolfson calls "mere names," individuals who are identified as prominent Kalamic thinkers but who left no evidence of their work or lives.