JEWSJews in high regard and considered them equal to the prophets. Con-
sequently, his followers were respected by Rabbinic Jews, observed
holidays in the same way, and intermarried with them.^109
The most direct challenge to Rabbinic authority lay in denying the
validity of the Oral Law, as the ancient Sadducees had done. The
original Sadducee position was that only what was in written Scripture
was obligatory, and they did not feel bound to observe mere custom.
Although Sadducees ceased to exist as an identifiable group after the
destruction of the Temple, the term was applied in the Talmud to
those who rejected the authority of Oral Law and who were also called
minnim.110 This position was revived and applied in the showdown
between the exilarch and the gaons in the later eighth century over
the authoritative control of the Rabbinic community through its law.
The occasion was a dispute over the succession to the exilarchate in
about 767, when the Gaonim and the leaders of the synagogues sup-
ported a younger, less learned, and more obedient member of the
family of the exilarch instead of the older, more independent, and
hostile brother, Anan ben David. Anan's faction supported him as
rival exilarch; but when they tried to force the issue by appealing to
the caliph, al-Man~iir, he imprisoned Anan instead. Anan was even-
tually allowed to emigrate with his followers and to settle at Jerusalem
as the leader of his own sect. This appears to have been the first time
that the Islamic government intervened actively in the internal affairs
of the Jewish community in Iraq. It did so in support of the Gaonim,
and afterwards the exilarchate became elective.
Anan's claim to religious authority rested on his rejection of the
Oral Law in favor of using his own discretion to derive an alternative
ritual and legal system from Scripture. His requirement of observing
the new moon to determine the beginning of each month and that
Pentecost be held on a Sunday, which he shared with the ancient
Sadducees, served to create a separate ritual calendar that distinguished
his followers from Rabbinic Jews. He shared with the followers of
Abii 'Isa and Yudghan the recognition of Jesus and Mul}.ammad as
prophets and the prohibition of most kinds of meat to mourn the
destruction of the Temple,111
109 Nemoy, "Qirqisani," p. 382.
110 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIII. x. 6; Paul, Qumran, pp. 63, 67-68; Rod-
kinson, Talmud, I, "Sabbath," 163.
111 Baron, Social and Religious History, V, 109-13; Graetz, History, Ill, 129-34;
A. Harkavy, "Anan Ben David," lE, I, 553-56.