JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

exilarch
2. Ḥisdai I b. Bustanai
1. Bustanai d. 670
3. Bar Adai b. Bustanai
4. Ḥisdai II b. Bar Adai
5. Solomon b. Ḥisdai II c. 733– 759
6. Isaac Iskoi b. Solomon
7. Judah (Zakkai b. Aḥunai) d. before 771
8. Natronai b. Ḥavivai 771
9. Moses
10. Isaac Iskoi b. Moses
11. David b. Judah c. 820 – 857
12. Judah I b. David c. 857
13. Natronai after 857
14. Ḥisdai III b. Natronia
15. Ukba c. 900– 915
16. David b. Zakkai c. 918– 940
17. Josiah (Hasan) b. Zakkai 930 – 933 (?)
18. Judah II b. David 940
19. Solomon b. Josiah c. 951– 953
20. Azariah b. Solomon
21. Hezekiah I b. Hezekiah I ?
22. David I b. Hezekiah I ?
23. Hezekiah II b. David I before 1021–1058
24. David II b. Hezekiah II 1058– d. c. 1090
25. Hezekiah III b. David II from c. 1090
26. David III b. Hezekiah III
27. Ḥisdai IV b. David III d. before 1135
28. Daniel b. Ḥisdai IV c. 1150 –1174
29. Samuel of Mosul? 1174 (?)– c. 1195
30. David (b. Samuel ?) d. after 1201
31. Daniel
32. Samuel (b. Azariah ?) 1240 (?) –1270 (?)
1, 2– 6 H. Tykocinski, in: Devir, 1 (1923), 178, 179.
7 Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon, ed. by B.M. Lewin (1921) 104.
8 ibid., L. Ginsberg, Geonica, 1 (1909), 16 ff.
9, 10 A. Harkavy ed. Teshuvot ha-Geonim (1887), 378.
11, 12 S. Abramson, Ba-Merkazim u-va Tefuẓot (1965), 11–14.
13 Harkavy, loc. cit.
14 Abramson, op. cit., 10.
15, 16 J. Mann, in: Tarbiẓ, 5 (1934), 150 ff.
17 ibid., 164; Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon, 117.
18 – 22 Mann, in: Sefer Zikkaron... S. Poznański (1927), 19, 20, 21.
23 ibid., 21–22, S. Assaf, in: Tarbiẓ, 11 (1940), 152 ff.
24 – 25 Mann, in: Sefer... Poznański, 22–23.
26 Mann, Texts, 1 (1931), 208.
27 Abramson, in: KS, 26 (1950), 93.
28 ibid., 93, idem, in: Perakim, 1 (1967/68), 14.
29 – 32 Mann, in: Sefer... Poznański, 24 – 25.
Abramson, in: Perakim, 1 (1967/68), 16.
List of Babylonian exilarchs during the Middle Ages.
[Abraham David]
The advent of the Sassanids, in 226 C.E., necessitated the
provision of a new political foundation for Jewish self-government.
At first, the Jewish administrators continued as before,
hoping to hoodwink the Sassanids and forcibly to keep
the Jews in line. R. Shila, for example, administered lashes to
a man who had intercourse with a gentile woman; the man
informed against him, whereupon a government agent (parastak)
investigated the case. Shila persuaded the agent that he
was loyal, and then murdered the informant (Ber. 58a). But
in a similar situation, R. *Kahana had to flee to Palestine (BK
117a), for, Rav told him, “Until now the Greeks [Parthians]
were here, who did not punish bloodshed, but now the Persians
are here, and they will certainly cry, ‘Rebellion, rebellion!’”
For their part, the Sassanids under Ardashir I (226–42),
who were closely associated with the cult of Ormuzd and
Ānahīta, thought they could forcibly convert the various peoples
of Babylonia and Mesopotamia to their religion. So for the
first two decades of Sassanian rule, no modus vivendi could
be reached. *Shapur I (242–272) chose a different, more tolerant
policy, encouraging Mani to preach a syncretistic religion
of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus (but not Moses!) to appeal to
the several major groups of the empire, and seeking to conciliate
the Jewish community as well. The Jewish government
was given a legitimate role in administering Jewish affairs,
when it promised to abide by state law in matters of concern
to the state, specifically rules of land tenure and payment of
taxes. The agreement of *Samuel and Shapur I, summarized
by Samuel’s teaching that “the law of the government is law,”
was closely adhered to by the Jewish regime, which enjoyed
a secure position, with few, brief interruptions, for the next
four centuries. It is not known what role, if any, the exilarch
played in the negotiations preceding this agreement. If there
was one Jewish government in Babylonia, as seems plausible,
then Samuel must have been acting in its behalf. But rabbinic
traditions, which are the only ones to survive, do not mention
the participation of the contemporary exilarch, Mar *Ukba I,
in the matter.
Rabbinic opinion on the third-century exilarchate was
divided. In the early part of the century, it is clear that the leading
rabbis were subordinate to the exilarch. Rav was forced
by him to administer market prices, which Rav held was not
a proper function of the agoranomos, or market supervisor.
Samuel deferred to the exilarch Mar Ukba. It was, after all, the
exilarch who had earlier employed rabbinically trained functionaries
in the courts and bureaus of Babylonia in late Arsacid
times. He had done so probably to circumvent the local Jewish
strongmen, typified by Anilaeus and Asinaeus in the first century,
and the Parthianized Jewish nobility referred to above,
in the second century. The rabbis appealed to the people on
the basis of their knowledge of Mosaic revelation, which, they
held, was unique to their schools, and they moreover affirmed
the exilarch’s claim to Davidic origin. At the outset, therefore,
the rabbinate and the exilarchate were closely allied against
the centripetal forces of feudal autonomy represented by local
Jewish upper-class landholders. By the last third of the
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