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C h a p t e r  “Designated in the Past and for the Future”: Davidic Dynasts and Medieval Messianic Anticipation In September 1038, in the midst of the Jewish high holiday season, Nathan ben Abraham, the scion of a prominent Palestinian family, was proclaimed gaʾon of the Palestinian yeshiva. Nathan’s appointment to that post was a direct challenge to Solomon ben Judah, who had occupied the gaonate for over a decade. Setting himself up in the town of Ramla, Nathan acted over the next four years every part the incumbent ruler, appointing deputies, issuing legal responsa, and even brazenly signing his letters “Nathan, head of the academy of the pride of Jacob.”1 The displaced Solomon first tried to quell the insurrection by issuing a ban against Nathan and his supporters, a move that proved to be largely futile. And when an attempt to enlist the assistance of the Fatimid authorities resulted in little more than the forced closing of a synagogue in Ramla associated with Nathan, Solomon and his camp seem to have resigned themselves to a tacit accommodation with the upstart. The unauthorized reopening of that synagogue some time later, though, appears to have provided the opportunity for making a second appeal to the caliph, who was now inclined to take more decisive action. According to the terms of the settlement that the two sides finally reached in October 1042, Solomon was reinstated as gaʾon and Nathan was demoted to the rank of av (“head of the court”), a position immediately subordinate to that of gaʾon in the rigid hierarchy of offices within the Palestinian yeshiva. At the same time, Nathan was given a spot alongside Solomon on a new, five-person committee that was charged with supervising the affairs of the yeshiva.2 As Mark Cohen has shown, the clash between Solomon ben Judah and Nathan ben Abraham was more than just a personal dispute between two 132 Chapter  contenders for the office of gaʾon; it was a conflict that for several years embroiled much of Near Eastern Jewish society, arousing sympathies and inflaming passions in towns across the Mediterranean basin. The truly international proportions of the incident are amply illustrated by the pleas that both sides made to the leader of Qayrawān’s Jewish community, the nagid Jacob ben Amram, seeking his personal support and hoping to benefit from his influence with both the Jewish population and the Muslim authorities . Initially the nagid sided with Nathan, even going so far as to urge a Muslim dignitary in Cairo named Abū al-Qāsim Ibn al-Ukhuwwa to help secure for Nathan the backing of the Fatimid government. But after receiving letters from the opposing camp, including several from Solomon himself, Jacob seems to have reversed his position. A letter drafted by members of Solomon’s faction, probably dating from the spring of 1039, requests that the nagid, having agreed to endorse their candidate, now “carry through with the government,” presumably hoping that he would intercede on Solomon’s behalf with the Muslim authorities as he had previously agreed to do for Nathan.3 Though written in the midst of the “contention and rivalry” of the conflict, the letter to the nagid actually opens with a seemingly unrelated bit of encouraging news—a report of the recent arrival in Palestine of the Iraqi-born nasi Daniel ben ʿAzarya. After the customary introductory niceties the letter states: Truly we bring glad tidings to our nagid . . . that out of God’s great goodness and compassion upon us in these times, He has brought us a son of David our king . . . our lord Daniel, nasi of our diasporas, son of . . . ʿAzarya, nasi of our people, grandson of our lord Solomon our exilarch—may our mighty one keep him and our fortress protect him. He has raised up the banner of our teachers, interprets what we have forgotten . . . [and] argues against our unintentional sinner, thereby fulfilling in himself the verse: “And to them who reprove shall be delight, etc. [Proverbs 24:25].” He dislodges our intentional sinner from our territory and closes our breaches. Many reforms he did make and many from sin did turn back like the expiator. He removed the slave girls from the houses, and between pure and impure made a partition wall. Of musical instruments and those who listen to them he disapproved. The soul rejoices in him, and his fame travels inside and outside . . . for fear [of God] and...

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