THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bag-dad
transl.
of a
,
iii.
new
Abu Imran al-Za'farani,tho founder was born in Bagdad in tbe nintli cen-
311).
sect,
tury (Graetz, ib. iii. 508). At the time of the calif Al-Mutadid the Jews of Bagdad fared well on account of the kind treatment accorded to them by the vizier 'Ubaid Allah ibn Sulaiman. The heads of the community were Joseph ben Phiueas and Natira (Graetz, ib. iii. 27-1). The
gaon Aaron ibn Sargada (943-960) came from Bagdad, and it was here that his relative, Kasher ibn Abraham, was called upon to settle a dispute in which he had become involved (Graetz, ib. iii. 306, About the year 950 the grammarian Dunash 308). ben Labrat was in Bagdad; and in this city the gaons Hai, Ivimui bar Rab Ahai, and Yehudai bar Samuel were officials (TIJ33 JOXl T'H) before going to Pumbedita. According to Hai (died 1038) the Bagdad Jews of his day were accustomed to say the 'Abodah of the Day of Atonement both at the morning and musaf service (Graetz, ib. iii. 166). It is also probable that the exegete and traveler Abraham ibn Ezra visited Bagdad between the years 1138 and 1140 (see his commentary to Ex. xxv. 18). Ibn Ezra's son Isaac, who probably came with him, and was baptized, wrote in Bagdad (1143) a poem in honor of another convert, Nathaniel Hibat Allah ("Kokbe Yizhak," 1858, p. 23; Graetz, "History of the Jews," Hebr. transl., iv., Appendix, p. 47). During the twelfth century the Jews of Bagdad attained again some measure of self-government. The calif Al-Muktafi appointed a wealthy man, Samuel ben Hisdai, exilarch in Bagdad. He gathered the taxes, paying a certain portion over into the and all important apstate treasury In the pointments had to receive his saneTwelfth tion. Both Benjamin of Tudela and Century. Pethahiah of Regensburg visited Bagdad, and have left interesting information regarding the Jews there. According to Benjamin, there were at his time in the city 23 synagogues, 1,000 Jewish families, and 10 yeshibot (rabbinical schools). According to Pethahiah, however,
"
At Bagdad
built
there are three synagogues, besides that
by Daniel on the spot on which the angel
stood on the brink of the river, as is written the Book of Daniel." Pethahiah adds: "The head of the academy lias many servants. They flog any one not immediately executing his orders thereHe is clothed in gold and fore people fear him. colored garments like the king his palace also is hung with costly tapestries like that of the king." The most prominent heads of the yeshibot were David Alroy at that time Ali and his son Samuel. studied under Ali at the time Hisdai was exilarch (Wiener, " 'Emek ha-Baka," pp.' 27, 167; "Shebet Yebudah," ed. Wiener, p. 50; Sambari, inNeubauer, "Medieval Jewish Chronicles," i. 123; Graetz, "History of the Jews," Hebrew transl., iv. 317). The reputation of Samuel seems to have spread far and wide; for we learn that Rabbi Moses of Kiev (3Vp) came from Russia especially to receive information from him (Epstein, in "Monatsschrift," xxxix. 511, It was this same Samuel 512; Graetz, ib. iv. 44). who, in later years, was a determined opponent of Maimonides, and who made Bagdad for the time a very hotbed of anti-Maimonist intrigue (Graetz, ib. .
.
in
.
436
Appendix, p. 34). Maimonides' favorite pupil, Ibn Akuin, had formed a plan of opening a school at Bagdad for the purpose of propagating his masMaimonides, however, advised him ter's teachings. against such an action, as he wished to spare him the opposition which he knew Ibn Aknin would encounter (Gratz, "Gescli. der Juden," vi. 362). Daniel,
the son of Hisdai, followed his father in office:
but he left no son and though two of his cousins in Mosul pretended to hold office, the short-lived recrudescence of the resh galuta was at an end (Griitz, "Gesch. der Juden," vi. 460; Hebrew transl., The anonymous author iv. 459, Appendix, p. 59). of the Hebrew -Arabic Diwan published in "HeHaluz," iii. 150 (MS. Bodleian 2424 and MS. in collection of E. N. Adler), who lived before the middle of the thirteenth century, traveled as far as Bagdad, where he met the head of the yeshibah ("Jewish Quarterly Review," xii. 115, 202). The Jews of Bagdad diminished largety in numbers and influence, not only because of the general movement of the Jews toward Europe and because of the Crusades, but also through the storming of Arghun (1284-91), howthe town by the Mongols. ever, had a Jewish physician in Bagdad, Sa'ad alDaulah, who was consulted in all financial matbut upon the death of Arghun ters by the sultan the position which the Jews had gained through Sa'ad al-Daulah was quickly lost, and the streets of the city flowed with Jewish blood (see "Revue Etudes Juives," xxxvi. 254). With the fall of the Abbassid power the eastern
went to ruin. Very little is known concerning the Jews of Bagdad during the following period, and we can only find a few notes here and there in the works of travelers who have passed through In 1400 the city was besieged by Tamerthe place. lane, and many Jews who had taken refuge here from other villages perished (Jost, " Annalen," 1839, Pedro Teixeira, at the beginning of the p. 197). seventeenth century, found in Bagdad 20,000 to 30,000 houses, of which 200 to 300 were inhabited by Jews. He says that they lived in a certain part of the town in which their " karris " (synagogue) was situated. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Ezekiel Bagdagli was the richest banker in the city. He became involved in politics and went to Constantinople, where he exercised great influence Armenian inas a court banker ("saraf bashi"). trigues, however, occasioned his fall, and he was put to death between the years 1820 and 1826 at Adalia in Asia Minor (Franco, "L'Histoire des Israelites de califate
1
'Empire Ottoman,"
The
p. 132).
Benjamin II. was in Bagdad in 1847, and tells us that the Jews at that time numbered 3,000 families and were living in happy circumstances. They were under a " hakam bashi " appointed by the Sublime Porte. Their dayyanim or rabbinical chiefs were Jacob ben Joseph, Elijah Obadiah, and Rabbi Abdola (Abdallah). Every male Hebrew of the community paid a tax which In Modern varied between 15 and 120 piasters per Times. year. Raphael Kassin was hakam bashi, and next to him in rank was the nasi Joseph Moses Reuben. The yeshibah had then sixty pupils, who were in the charge of Abdullah ben traveler
