JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

exilarch
confirmed by an Arab source which adds that the Jews paid
him one-fifth of their income, as well as redemption fees for
male children and animals. At the close of the 12th century the
exilarch of Mosul owned fields and vineyards, in addition to
half of the poll tax which he collected from his community for
the authorities. The exilarchs bestowed honorary titles upon
personalities who supported them. These included: “Friend of
the Nesi’ut (Exilarchate),” “Favorable to the Nesi’ut,” and “Supporter
of the Nesi’ut.”
The Exilarchate Outside Baghdad
From the 11th century, the period of the decline of the Abbasida
caliphate when independent governments were formed in
Mosul, Damascus, and Aleppo, descendants of the Babylonian
exilarch’s family also arrived in these places. As a result of their
descent from the House of David the communities appointed
them as nesi’im over themselves, while they also obtained their
recognition by the authorities as the delegates of the Jewish
community. They appointed officials and dayyanim, judged
the people, collected the poll tax, and received tithes.
YEMEN. During the 12th century the Jews of Yemen were
placed under the formal “authority” of the exilarch of Babylonia
and the Palestinian rosh yeshivah of Egypt. This was
expressed by the fact that the above personalities were mentioned
by the ḥakham before his sermon, the interpreter before
the reading of the Torah, and the person who recited the
blessing at meals. In a document of 1134 concerning Maḍmūn
b. Japheth Hasan Bendar of Aden (d. 1151) there is the expression:
nagid of the Jews of Yemen “appointed by the exilarch
and the academy heads.” It, is however, possible that this refers
to members of the Babylonian exilarch’s household who
came to Yemen. During the 1130s the cousin of the Babylonian
exilarch, who had come from Persia, was in Yemen.
“He promoted himself to [a leading] position and the local
people gave him permission to make decisions in religious
law in the synagogues of all Israel” (S.D. Goitein, in Sinai, 33
(1953), 232). The latter struck the minister who mentioned
the “authority” of *Maẓli’aḥ, the Palestinian gaon of Egypt,
in his prayer. Benjamin of Tudela relates that in his time the
Yemenite community was led by Shalmon ha-Nasi and his
brother Hanan, descendants of David, who “divided up” the
country between themselves. They corresponded with their
relative, the Babylonian exilarch, and addressed their religious
questions to him. It should be noted that during subsequent
periods the nesi’im of Yemen were referred to as resh galuta,
although they had no connections with the Babylonian exilarch
or the House of David.
PALESTINE AND EGYPT. The members of the family of the
Babylonian exilarch who came to Palestine and Egypt were
received with deference, but their status was merely a formal
one without any practical basis in administration. As a result
of the abortive rebellion of the exilarch Zutra against the Persian
king Kavadh I (488–531) and the hanging of the rebel at
the beginning of the sixth century, his wife fled to Palestine.
When his son Zutra II, who was born after the death of his
father, reached the age of 18, he was appointed rosh pirka or
head of the Sanhedrin in Tiberias (520 C.E.). Eight or ten generations
of his descendants succeeded him in this position. At
the close of the tenth and during the 11th centuries members
of the Babylonian exilarch’s household appeared in Palestine
and Egypt. The only one of these who rose to power in Palestine
and combined the functions of nasi and gaon during the
years from 1051 to 1062 was *Daniel b. Azariah of the family
of Josiah b. Zakkai. He left Babylonia because his family had
been deposed by the exilarch *Hezekiah II. Daniel succeeded
the gaon *Solomon b. Judah and supplanted Joseph b. Solomon
ha-Kohen, who was av bet din and to whom the position
of gaon was due. From his seat in Ramleh and Jerusalem he
ruled over the whole of Palestine and Syria, where he was the
judge; he also appointed dayyanim. Even the communities of
Egypt were subordinated to him. After his death the position
of gaon reverted to *Elijah b. Solomon ha-Kohen.
David, the son of Daniel, would not reconcile himself to
the loss of the sovereignty of the House of David over Palestine
and Egypt. He attempted to undermine the Palestinian
academy which had been exiled to Tyre because of the invasion
of the Seljuks in 1071. In 1081 he went to Egypt, where he
was received with respect and his needs were provided for.
However, when he desired to dominate the Egyptian communities
and the coastal towns of Palestine, he clashed with Mevorakh
ha-Nagid. He imposed taxes and ruled with tyranny.
The Fatimid caliph al-Mustanṣir bi-Allah (1036–1094), who
claimed descent from the “Prophet” and favored the descendants
of David, supported him. David was finally deposed in
1094. The Jews of Egypt accepted the formal authority of the
Babylonian exilarch. In 1162 Daniel b. Ḥisdai ordained *Nethanel
b. Moses ha-Levi in Baghdad as gaon and appointed him
to the “bet din ha-gadol in all the provinces of Egypt.” Even
several years later, the name of the exilarch appeared in legal
documents which were traditionally written with the “authorization”
of the nasi. During Maimonides’ time a nasi named
Judah b. Josiah lived in Egypt; he ratified the legal decisions
of Maimonides. There were nesi’im who demanded judicial
powers for themselves, but the community and its leaders rejected
these requests.
During the first half of the 13th century the nasi Solomon
b. Jesse and his brother Hodayah, who had come from
Damascus, lived in Egypt. The latter came into conflict with
a dayyan from France named Joseph b. Gershom, who lived
in Alexandria in the days of *Abraham b. David Maimuni
(1205–1237), over a question of authority. The nasi issued a
ban against the dayyan and anyone who would materially assist
the Frenchman. In the reply of the nagid to the appeal of
the dayyan, which was also ratified by other ḥakhamim, the
tendency to restrict the authority of the nasi and to reduce
it to a merely formal ratification is evident. Even though the
exilarchs considered themselves as the appointees over the
Jews of the lands of dispersion and even though they signed
themselves “the head of all Israel’s exiles,” their intervention
606 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6