RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESLakhm, and established a new school there.^85 Consequently, wealthy
Jews joined the Persian aristocrats in the revolt of Bahram Chflbln
(590-91) against Hurmizd IV, and the schools were reopened briefly.
Such collaboration compromised them and proved disastrous for wealthy
Jews and the exilarchate after the restoration of Khusraw Parvlz in
- Many of them perished in the massacre of Jews at Mada'in after
Khusraw returned. The exilarch Haninai (581-89) had been killed at
the end of the reign of Hurmizd IV, and this office was not continued
under Khusraw Parvlz.86
From 690 until the end of Sasanian rule in Iraq, there was no exilarch
and no Jewish government. The suppression of semi autonomous Jew-
ish administrative institutions was part of Khusraw Parvlz's antiaris-
tocratic policy of centralization. Jews were probably again subject to
Persian law as in the late fifth-century persecution. According to the
letter of Rabbi Sherira, there were years of persecutions and troubles
at the end of the Sasanian period when the rabbis were unable to hold
sessions.^87
In such circumstances, the revival of the exilarchate after the Islamic
conquest was part of the general relaxation of the centralization of
the late Sasanian period. There was no question of applying Islamic
law to the Jews. The religious and social regulations in the Qur'an did
not apply to non-Muslims, and the Qur'an itself (Sura 5 :43-48,62:5)
regards the Torah and the Gospels as the sources of divine law for
Jews and Christians, to be used by them for judgment. Although the
account is legendary, it should be noted that the question of the ex-
ilarchate was brought to the attention of the Muslim authorities by
Bostanai (d. ca. 660) himself, whose position had been usurped by his
guardian during his minority. Only then did the Islamic government
confirm his authority to appoint judges and the heads of the schools.
It was probably 'All who sold Bostanai a captive Persian princess
called Izdundad for fifty-two thousand dirhams.^88
This union provided the pretext for the break between the exilarch
and the rabbis in the late seventh century. The issue depended on
85 Goode, "Exilarchate," p. 153; Neubauer, Geographie, pp. 351-52; Neusner, His-
tory, pp. 112, 138.
86 Goode, "Exilarchate," pp. 153-54; Neusner, History, pp. 107, 112, 125-26; Theo-
phylactus Simocatta, Historiae, v. 7, 5-8 (p. 201).
87 Neusner, History, p. 127.
88 Baron, Social and Religious History, Ill, 89, 270; lbn Daud, Book of Tradition,
p. 45; L. Ginzberg, "Bostanai," JE, Ill, 330-31; Goode, "Exilarchate," pp. 154-55.
Bostanai is supposed to have been the posthumous son of Haninai.