Bostanai
Encyclopedia
Bostanai was the first exilarch
under Arabian rule; he flourished about the middle of the seventh century. The name is Aramaized
from the Persian
"bustan" or "bostan" (as proper name see Ferdinand Justi
, Iranisches Namenbuch, p. 74). Almost the only exilarch of whom anything more than the name is known, he is frequently made the subject of legends.
Bostanai was the son of the exilarch Hananiah
. Hai Gaon
, in "Sha'are Ẓedeḳ," p. 3a, seems to identify Bostanai with Haninai, and tells that he was given for wife a daughter of the Persian king Chosroes II (died 628), by the calif Omar (died 644). (See Rapoport, in "Bikkure ha-'Ittim," x.83; B. Goldberg, in "Ha-Maggid," xiii.363). Abraham ibn Daud
, however, in his "Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah" (Adolphe Neubauer's Medieval Jewish Chronicles, i.64), says that it was the last Sassanid king, Yezdegerd (born 624; died 651-652; see Nöldeke, "Tabari," pp. 397 et seq.), who gave his daughter to Bostanai. But in that case it could have been only Calif Ali (656-661), and not Omar, who thus honored the exilarch (see "Ma'aseh Bet David"). It is known also that Ali gave a friendly reception to the contemporary Gaon Isaac (Sherira II's "Letter," ed. Neubauer, ib. p. 35; Abraham ibn Daud, ib. p. 62); and it is highly probable, therefore, that he honored the exilarch in certain ways as the official representative of the Jews. The office of the exilarch, with its duties and privileges, as it existed for some centuries under the Arabian rule, may be considered to begin with Bostanai.
fragment, had an unpleasant sequel. The exilarch lived with her without having married her, and according to the rabbinical law she should previously have received her "letter of freedom," for, being a prisoner of war, she had become an Arabian slave, and as such had been presented to Bostanai.
After the death of Bostanai his sons insisted that the princess, as well as her son, was still a slave, and, as such, was their property. The judges were divided in opinion, but finally decided that the legitimate sons of the exilarch should grant letters of manumission to the princess and her son in order to testify to their emancipation. This decision was based on the ground that Bostanai had probably lived in legitimate marriage with this woman, and, although there were no proofs, had presumably first emancipated and then married her.
Nevertheless, the descendants of the princess were not recognized as legitimate 300 years afterward (Hai Gaon, l.c.). The statement in the genizah specimen (see bibliography below) is doubtless dictated by enmity to the exilarch; Abraham ibn Daud's statement (l.c.) is contrariwise prejudiced in favor of the exilarch; but compare genizah fragment published by Schechter In Jew. Quart. Rev. xiv.242-246.
, all of whose descendants you have destroyed except a woman with her unborn boy. The old man whom you saw was David, to whom you promised that you would take care that his house should be renewed by this boy." The Jewish sage, who was the father of the young woman, brought her to the king, and she was assigned to rooms fitted up with princely splendor, where she gave birth to a boy, who received the name "Bostanai," from the garden ("bostan") which the king had seen in his dream.
The veracity of this account was disputed by Rabbi Sherira Gaon
who claimed his own lineage traces to a pre-Bostanaian branch of the Davidic line
.
The genizah fragment says that the incident with the wasp occurred in the presence of the calif Omar, before whom Bostanai as a youth of sixteen had brought a dispute with a sheikh, who filled his office during the exilarch's minority, and then refused to give it up. Bostanai was exilarch when Persia fell into the hands of the Arabians, and when Ali came to Babylon Bostanai went to meet him with a splendid retinue, whereby the calif was so greatly pleased that he asked for Bostanai's blessing. The calif, on learning that Bostanai was not married, gave him Dara, the daughter of the Persian king, as wife; and the exilarch was permitted to make her a Jewess and to marry her legitimately. She bore him many children, but their legitimacy was assailed after their father's death by the exilarch's other sons ("Ma'aseh Bostanai," several times printed under different titles; see Benjacob, s.v.). This legend was made known only in the sixteenth century (compare Isaac Akrish), but the Seder 'Olam Zuṭṭa, composed in the beginning of the ninth century, drew upon the legends of the garden and the wasp (see Mar Zutra
II).
The name "Dara" for the Persian princess in Christian sources occurs also as that of Chosroes' daughter (Richter
, "Arsaciden," p. 554, Leipzig, 1804). The legend glorifying Bostanai probably originated in Babylon
, while the genizah fragment, branding all the descendants of Bostanai as illegitimate, being descendants of a slave and unworthy to fill high office, comes from Palestine. This latter view is of course erroneous, as may be gathered from Hai's remark, above mentioned, for the post-Bostanaite house of exilarchs was not descended from the princess. It is true, however, that the Bostanaites were hated by the scholars and the pious men, probably in part because Anan, founder of the Karaite etc., was a descendant of Bostanai (see Sherira's "Letter," ed. Neubauer, i.33). Benjamin of Tudela
says that he was shown the grave of Bostanai near Pumbedita
.
Exilarch
Exilarch refers to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah and his court into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction...
under Arabian rule; he flourished about the middle of the seventh century. The name is Aramaized
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
from the Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
"bustan" or "bostan" (as proper name see Ferdinand Justi
Ferdinand Justi
Ferdinand Justi was a German linguist and Orientalist.He finished his studies of linguistics at the University of Marburg and the University of Göttingen...
, Iranisches Namenbuch, p. 74). Almost the only exilarch of whom anything more than the name is known, he is frequently made the subject of legends.
Bostanai was the son of the exilarch Hananiah
Hananiah
Hananiah may refer to:*Hananiah, son of Zerubbabel, exilarch*Hananiah of the Book of Daniel*Hananiah , 4th century BC, governor of Samaria under the Achaemenid Empire...
. Hai Gaon
Hai Gaon
Hai ben Sherira , was a medieval Jewish theologian, rabbi and scholar who served as Gaon of the Talmudic academy of Pumbedita during the early 11th century. He was born in 939 and died on March 28, 1038...
, in "Sha'are Ẓedeḳ," p. 3a, seems to identify Bostanai with Haninai, and tells that he was given for wife a daughter of the Persian king Chosroes II (died 628), by the calif Omar (died 644). (See Rapoport, in "Bikkure ha-'Ittim," x.83; B. Goldberg, in "Ha-Maggid," xiii.363). Abraham ibn Daud
Abraham ibn Daud
Abraham ibn Daud was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian, and philosopher; born at Toledo, Spain about 1110; died, according to common report, a martyr about 1180. He is sometimes known by the abbreviation Rabad I or Ravad I. His mother belonged to a family famed for its learning...
, however, in his "Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah" (Adolphe Neubauer's Medieval Jewish Chronicles, i.64), says that it was the last Sassanid king, Yezdegerd (born 624; died 651-652; see Nöldeke, "Tabari," pp. 397 et seq.), who gave his daughter to Bostanai. But in that case it could have been only Calif Ali (656-661), and not Omar, who thus honored the exilarch (see "Ma'aseh Bet David"). It is known also that Ali gave a friendly reception to the contemporary Gaon Isaac (Sherira II's "Letter," ed. Neubauer, ib. p. 35; Abraham ibn Daud, ib. p. 62); and it is highly probable, therefore, that he honored the exilarch in certain ways as the official representative of the Jews. The office of the exilarch, with its duties and privileges, as it existed for some centuries under the Arabian rule, may be considered to begin with Bostanai.
The Dispute among his heirs
The relation of Bostanai to the Persian princess (called "Dara" in "Ma'aseh Bet David," or "Azdad-war" (Nöldeke, "Isdundad"), according to a genizahGenizah
A genizah is the store-room or depository in a Jewish synagogue , usually specifically for worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics that were stored there before they could receive a proper cemetery burial, it being forbidden to throw away writings...
fragment, had an unpleasant sequel. The exilarch lived with her without having married her, and according to the rabbinical law she should previously have received her "letter of freedom," for, being a prisoner of war, she had become an Arabian slave, and as such had been presented to Bostanai.
After the death of Bostanai his sons insisted that the princess, as well as her son, was still a slave, and, as such, was their property. The judges were divided in opinion, but finally decided that the legitimate sons of the exilarch should grant letters of manumission to the princess and her son in order to testify to their emancipation. This decision was based on the ground that Bostanai had probably lived in legitimate marriage with this woman, and, although there were no proofs, had presumably first emancipated and then married her.
Nevertheless, the descendants of the princess were not recognized as legitimate 300 years afterward (Hai Gaon, l.c.). The statement in the genizah specimen (see bibliography below) is doubtless dictated by enmity to the exilarch; Abraham ibn Daud's statement (l.c.) is contrariwise prejudiced in favor of the exilarch; but compare genizah fragment published by Schechter In Jew. Quart. Rev. xiv.242-246.
Legends
The name "Bostanai" gave rise to the following legend: The last Persian king (Hormuzd), inimical to the Jews, decided to extinguish the royal house of David, no one being left of that house but a young woman whose husband had been killed shortly after his marriage, and who was about to give birth to a child. Then the king dreamed that he was in a beautiful garden ("bostan"), where he uprooted the trees and broke the branches, and, as he was lifting up his ax against a little root, an old man snatched the ax away from him and gave him a blow that almost killed him, saying: "Are you not satisfied with having destroyed the beautiful trees of my garden, that you now try to destroy also the last root? Truly, you deserve that your memory perish from the earth." The king thereupon promised to guard the last plant of the garden carefully. No one but an old Jewish sage was able to interpret the dream, and he said: "The garden represents the Davidic lineDavidic line
The Davidic line refers to the tracing of lineage to the King David referred to in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the New Testament...
, all of whose descendants you have destroyed except a woman with her unborn boy. The old man whom you saw was David, to whom you promised that you would take care that his house should be renewed by this boy." The Jewish sage, who was the father of the young woman, brought her to the king, and she was assigned to rooms fitted up with princely splendor, where she gave birth to a boy, who received the name "Bostanai," from the garden ("bostan") which the king had seen in his dream.
The veracity of this account was disputed by Rabbi Sherira Gaon
Sherira Gaon
Rav Sherira Gaon was the head of the Academy of Pumbeditha. He was one of the most prominent Geonim of his period, and the father of Hai Gaon, who succeeded him as gaon.Sherira was born in 906 and died in 1006. Rav Sherira Gaon (Hebrew: רב שרירא גאון or R. Sherira ben Ḥanina Gaon, Hebrew: רב...
who claimed his own lineage traces to a pre-Bostanaian branch of the Davidic line
Davidic line
The Davidic line refers to the tracing of lineage to the King David referred to in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the New Testament...
.
Bostanai at the Court of the King
The figure of the wasp in the escutcheon of the exilarch was made the subject of another legend. The king had taken delight in the clever boy, and, spending one day with him, saw, as he stood before him, a wasp sting him on the temple. The blood trickled down the boy's face, yet he made no motion to chase the insect away. The king, upon expressing astonishment at this, was told by the youth that in the house of David, of which he had come, they were taught, since they themselves had lost their throne, neither to laugh nor to lift up the hand before a king, but to stand in motionless respect (Sanh. 93b). The king, moved thereby, showered favors upon him, made him an exilarch, and gave him the power to appoint judges of the Jews and the heads of the three academies, Nehardea, Sura, and Pumbedita. In memory of this Bostanai introduced a wasp into the escutcheon of the exilarchate.The genizah fragment says that the incident with the wasp occurred in the presence of the calif Omar, before whom Bostanai as a youth of sixteen had brought a dispute with a sheikh, who filled his office during the exilarch's minority, and then refused to give it up. Bostanai was exilarch when Persia fell into the hands of the Arabians, and when Ali came to Babylon Bostanai went to meet him with a splendid retinue, whereby the calif was so greatly pleased that he asked for Bostanai's blessing. The calif, on learning that Bostanai was not married, gave him Dara, the daughter of the Persian king, as wife; and the exilarch was permitted to make her a Jewess and to marry her legitimately. She bore him many children, but their legitimacy was assailed after their father's death by the exilarch's other sons ("Ma'aseh Bostanai," several times printed under different titles; see Benjacob, s.v.). This legend was made known only in the sixteenth century (compare Isaac Akrish), but the Seder 'Olam Zuṭṭa, composed in the beginning of the ninth century, drew upon the legends of the garden and the wasp (see Mar Zutra
Mar Zutra
Mar Zutra was a Jewish Amora sage of Babylon, of the sixth generation of the Amora era. He was a colleague of Amemar and Rav Ashi. He headed the Yeshiva of Pumbedita, and according to the book "Seder Tannaim ve-Amoraim", previous to Rav Aha b. Rava...
II).
The name "Dara" for the Persian princess in Christian sources occurs also as that of Chosroes' daughter (Richter
Richter
Richter can refer to:* the Richter magnitude scale, a scale measuring the strength of earthquakes.* Richter , an electro-rock band from Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Richter as a surname:...
, "Arsaciden," p. 554, Leipzig, 1804). The legend glorifying Bostanai probably originated in Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
, while the genizah fragment, branding all the descendants of Bostanai as illegitimate, being descendants of a slave and unworthy to fill high office, comes from Palestine. This latter view is of course erroneous, as may be gathered from Hai's remark, above mentioned, for the post-Bostanaite house of exilarchs was not descended from the princess. It is true, however, that the Bostanaites were hated by the scholars and the pious men, probably in part because Anan, founder of the Karaite etc., was a descendant of Bostanai (see Sherira's "Letter," ed. Neubauer, i.33). Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...
says that he was shown the grave of Bostanai near Pumbedita
Pumbedita
Pumbedita was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia close to the modern-day city of Fallujah....
.
Bostanai in our Time
There is a street in the Katamon community in Jerusalem named after Bostanai.Sources
This article is an evolution of the corresponding article in the public-domain Jewish Encyclopedia, which gives the following bibliography:- Nehemiah BrüllNehemiah BrüllNehemiah Brüll was a rabbi and versatile scholar.- Life :Brüll received his rabbinic-Talmudic education from his father, Jakob Brüll , who combined wide Talmudic knowledge with acute historical perception...
's Jahrb. ii.102-112; - Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d ed., pp. 113, 114, 347, 379-384;
- Isaac HalevyIsaac HalevyIsaac Halevy may refer to:*Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, first Chief Rabbi of Ireland*Yitzhak Isaac Halevy Rabinowitz, rabbi, Jewish historian, and founder of the Agudath Israel organization*Yitzhak HaLevi ben Mordechai Raitzes, Rabbi of Krakow from 1778 to 1799...
, Dorot ha-Rishonim, pp. 314, 315; - Isaak Markus JostIsaak Markus JostIsaak Marcus Jost was a Jewish historical writer.He studied at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin. In Berlin he began to teach, and in 1835 received the appointment of upper master in the Jewish commercial school at Frankfort-on-the-Main...
, Geschichte der Israeliten, v.228, 316-319; - Felix Lazarus, "Die Häupter der Vertriebenen," in Brüll's Jahrb. x.24-25, 174;
- Margoliouth, in Jew. Quart. Rev. xiv.303-307, giving a genizahGenizahA genizah is the store-room or depository in a Jewish synagogue , usually specifically for worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics that were stored there before they could receive a proper cemetery burial, it being forbidden to throw away writings...
fragment concerning Bostanai; - LehmannLehmannLehmann is a common Germanic surname derived from the German word Lehen, meaning fiefdom. Some Jewish Lehmann families state that the origin of their name is from the German words for "Lion Man"...
, Bostenai (fiction), in his Aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, ii.1; translated into Hebrew under the same title by S. J. F. (Fuenn, Vilna, 1881); - FürstFürstFürst is a German title of nobility, usually translated into English as Prince.The term refers to the head of a principality and is distinguished from the son of a monarch, who is referred to as Prinz...
, in Orient. Lit. xii.51; - Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 610, 1085, 1086.