David ben Zakkai (II)
DAVID BEN ZAKKAI (II)
DAVID BEN ZAKKAI (II) (d. c. 1216), exilarch in *Mosul, Mesopotamia. David and his cousin Samuel, descendants of the exilarch Josiah b. Zakkai, were community leaders in Mosul. *Pethahiah of Regensburg, who visited Mosul about 1175, states that they owned fields and vineyards and collected taxes from the local Jews. In 1174 after the exilarch *Daniel b. Ḥasdai died leaving no sons, there was a disagreement among the communal leaders in Baghdad over the choice of his successor. Some favored David, while others supported Samuel. Apparently Samuel was appointed exilarch in Baghdad and David in Mosul. It was either he or his kinsman David, son and successor of Samuel, who about 1215 complied with a request from Joseph ibn *Aknin, the disciple of Maimonides, to excommunicate *Daniel ha-Bavli for his attacks on his master. He was still alive in 1216, when he was visited in Mosul by the poet Judah *Al-Ḥarizi, but the date of his death is unknown. He was succeeded as exilarch in Mosul by his son Daniel and afterward, by Daniel's son *David ben Daniel.
bibliography:
Mann, Texts, 1 (1931), index; idem, in: Sefer Zikkaron … S. Poznański (1927), 23, 25, 26–27, 37; S. Poznański, Babylonische Geonim (1914), index.
[Tovia Preschel]