Exilarch - Holders of The Office - Later Traces

Later Traces

The title of exilarch is found occasionally even after the Babylonian exilarchate had ceased. Abraham ibn Ezra speaks of the "Davidic house" at Baghdad (before 1140), calling its members the "heads of the Exile." Benjamin of Tudela in 1170 mentions the exilarch Hasdai, among whose pupils was the subsequent pseudo-Messiah David Alroy, and Hasdai's son, the exilarch Daniel. Pethahiah of Regensburg also refers to the latter, but under the name of "Daniel ben Solomon"; hence it must be assumed that Hasdai was also called "Solomon." Yehuda Alharizi (after 1216) met at Mosul a descendant of the house of David, whom he calls "David, the head of the Exile."

A long time previously a descendant of the ancient house of exilarchs had attempted to revive in Egypt the dignity of exilarch which had become extinct in Babylon. This was David ben Daniel; he came to Egypt at the age of twenty, in 1081, and was proclaimed exilarch by the learned Jewish authorities of that country, who wished to divert to Egypt the leadership formerly enjoyed by Babylon. A contemporary document, the Megillah of the gaon Abiathar from the land of Israel, gives an authentic account of this episode of the Egyptian exilarchate, which ended with the downfall of David ben Daniel in 1094 .

Descendants of the house of exilarchs were living in various places long after the office became extinct. A descendant of Hezekiah, Hiyya al-Daudi, Gaon of Andalucia, died in 1154 in Castile (according to Abraham ibn Daud). Several families, as late as the 14th century, traced their descent back to Josiah, the brother of David ben Zakkai who had been banished to Chorasan (see the genealogies in pp. 180 et seq.). The descendants of the Karaite exilarchs have been referred to above.