JEWS-on the day of judgment the Persians will argue that "we have con-
structed many bridges, conquered many great cities, we were engaged
in many wars, all for the sake of Israel to enable them to study the
Law."73 Although Jews paid poll taxes in return for religious toleration
and were protected by the state, they were also responsible for the
defense of their own towns^74 and, on occasion, were enrolled in the
Sasanian army,75 This is an important difference from the Islamic
period when protected minorities were not required to fight.
As far as the Jews themselves were concerned, the legitimation of
the exilarch's authority lay in the belief that he was a descendant of
David and would be the ancestor of the Messiah.^76 Allegiance was
expressed by including the exilarchs in the Aramaic prayer that blessed
the leaders of the community. The development of an alliance between
the scholars (Amoraim) who produced the Babylonian Talmud and
the house of the exilarch enabled exilarchs to base their rule on the
religious authority of Judaic law. One of the scholars in the retinue
of the exilarch (A. rabbanan di-be resh galutha) acted as judge at his
court (Heb. hakham, A. dayyan di baba) and advised him on ritual
matters. This relationship was closest in the late fourth and early fifth
~enturies when the exilarch Huna bar Nathan co-opted the Rabbinic
movement by accepting the decisions of Rabbi Ashi (370-427) at Mata
Mehasia as authoritative, allowed him to ordain festivals and fasts,
and had the annual fall festival in honor of the exilarch held at Mata
Mehasia. The most practical consequence of this alliance was the
employment of rabbis trained in the schools as judges, market in-
spectors, and poll-tax collectors in the government of the exilarch,77
In the administration of law, exilarchs and rabbis were concerned
with ritual requirements, social and economic relationships, and ob-
ligations to the state. Although the exilarch's jurisdiction over criminal
cases included murder, the Sasanian authorities normally carried out
death sentences. In the fourth century, the exilarch 'Uqba bar Ne-
73 Ibid., p. 2. But it is also said that on that occasion the Persians will be answered
that they really did all these things for their own profit.
74 Newman, Agricultural Life, pp. 128, 186. Jews were expected to maintain the walls
and gates of their towns and to form a mounted guard for their defense.
7S Neusner, History, p. 106. There were Jews in the army whom Qubadh I sent
against the Byzantine army of Belisarios in 531.
76 Ibid., p. 246. Neusner (Talmudic Judaism, p. 115) suggests that self-rule had mes-
sianic implications.
77 A. Goode, "The Exilarchate in the Eastern Caliphate, 637-1258," JQR, n.s., 21
(1940),151; Neusner, History, pp. 46,139-40,194,245,272; idem, Talmudic Judaism,
p.135.