Exilarch

The exilarch^[a] was the leader of the Jewish community in Persian Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) during the era of the Parthians, Sasanians and Abbasid Caliphate up until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, with intermittent gaps due to ongoing political developments. The exilarch was regarded by the Jewish community as the royal heir of the House of David and held a place of prominence as both a rabbinical authority and as a noble within the Persian court.

Within the Sasanian Empire, the exilarch was the political equivalent of the Catholicos of the Christian Church of the East, and was thus responsible for community-specific organizational tasks such as running the rabbinical courts, collecting taxes from Jewish communities, supervising and providing financing for the Talmudic academies in Babylonia, and the charitable re-distribution and financial assistance to needy members of the exile community. The position of exilarch was hereditary, held in continuity by a family that traced its patrilineal descent from antiquity stemming from king David.^[1][2][3]

The first historical documents referring to it date from the time when Babylonia was part of the late Parthian Empire. The office first appears during the 2nd century and continues to the middle of the 6th century, under different Persian dynasties (the Parthians and Sassanids). In the late 5th and early 6th centuries, Mar-Zutra II briefly formed a politically independent state where he ruled from Mahoza for about seven years. He was eventually defeated by Kavadh I, King of Persia and the office of the exilarch was diminished for sometime thereafter.^[4] The position was restored to prominence in the 7th century, under the rule of the Arab Caliphate, and the office of exilarch continued to be appointed by Arab authorities through the 11th century.

The exilarch's authority came under considerable challenge in 825 during the reign of al-Ma'mun who issued a decree permitting a group of ten men from any religious community to organize separately, which allowed the Gaon of the Talmudic academies of Sura and Pumbedita to compete with the exilarch for power and influence, later contributing to the wider schism between Karaites and Rabbinic Jewry.

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