“By Me, Kings Rule”: Babylonian Authority, Abbasid Sovereignty, and the Problem of Political Boundaries in Upper Mesopotamia, 1175-1225

• In Event: Re(de)fining the Boundaries of the “Jewish Community” in Cairo Geniza Documents

Abstract

During the second half of the twelfth century, the Babylonian Yeshiva in Baghdad experienced a revival. As part of a series of administrative reforms during the late-twelfth century, the Abbasid Caliph granted investiture to Shmu’el ben Eli, the gaon of the Babylonian yeshiva. This move was unprecedented; previously only the Jewish exilarch held investiture from the Abbasid caliph, while the Babylonian geonim separated themselves in word and deed from the corruption inherent in relations with gentile political power. By contrast, once the gaon received caliphal investiture as well, the political distinction between the two positions ceased to exist.

In this paper, I draw on the administrative letters of the Baghdad yeshiva found in the Cairo Geniza to consider how the collapse of the pre-existing boundaries between the functions of the exilarch and the gaon—and the absorption of both positions into the Abbasid political realm—affected the Jewish community itself and the claims to authority that its leaders made in relation to each other and in relation to the state. In particular, I focus on their competition for the loyalties of Jewish communities in Upper Mesopotamia (al-Jazīrah), an ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse region torn between rival political and religious institutions in Baghdad and Cairo. I argue that, in response to these political changes, both the gaon and the exilarch re-defined the historic prerogatives of their respective offices and articulated their relationship to Muslim rulers in new ways. In doing so, I demonstrate the relative porousness of the boundaries between Muslim and Jewish governing institutions during the final years of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Author

• Jennifer Grayson, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion