Bostanai

Bostanai (also: Bustanai, full name: Bostanai ben Chaninai ; * around 618, † 670 ) was the first Exilarch after the Arab conquest of Babylonia and founder of the Babylonian Exilarch dynasty. The "Exilarch" was the head of the exiled Jews, Aramaic: Resh Galuta, title of the secular leader of Babylonian Jewry from the 2nd to the beginning of the 15th century under Persians and caliphs. The Exilarch came from the House of David , had an autonomous administration, court, jurisdiction, etc.

He is the only Exilech who is known a little more than the name. He was the subject of several sagas and legends. According to a dream tale, the boy Bostanai is the only one from the persecuted family of David who remains alive. According to another legend, after the Arab conquest of Babylonia , Caliph Omar confirmed Bustanai as exilarch, gave him the daughter of a Persian king as his wife and married her sister himself. According to the Sefer ha-Kabbalah by Abraham ibn Daud , this was not Caliph Omar, but Caliph Ali .

literature

• Yearbook Nehemiah Brüll II. 102–112
• Heinrich Graetz , Geschichte der Juden, 3rd edition, pages 113–114, 347, 379–384
• Isaac Halevy, Dorot ha-Rishonim, pp. 314-315
• Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 4, page 1527