Then he appears before the Caliph and kisses his hand, and the Caliph rises and places him on a throne which Mohammed had ordered to be made for him, and all the Mohammedan princes who attend the court of the Caliph rise up before him.  And the Head of the Captivity is seated on his throne opposite to the Caliph, in compliance with the command of Mohammed to give effect to what is written in the law—­“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a law-giver from between his feet, until he come to Shiloh:  and to him shall the gathering of the people be.”  The authority of the Head of the Captivity extends over all the communities of Shinar, Persia, Khurasan and Sheba which is El-Yemen, and Diyar Kalach (Bekr) and the land of Aram Naharaim (Mesopotamia), and over the dwellers in the mountains of Ararat and the land of the Alans[132], which is a land surrounded by mountains and has no outlet except by the iron gates which Alexander made, but which were afterwards broken.  Here are the people called Alani.  His authority extends also over the land of Siberia, and the communities in the land of the Togarmim unto the mountains of Asveh and the land of Gurgan, the inhabitants of which are called Gurganim who dwell by the river Gihon[133], and these are the Girgashites who follow the Christian religion.  Further it extends to the gates of Samarkand, the land of Tibet, and the land of India.  In respect of all these countries the Head of the Captivity gives the communities power to appoint Rabbis and Ministers who come unto him to be consecrated and to receive his authority.

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They bring him offerings and gifts from the ends of the earth.  He owns hospices, gardens and plantations in Babylon, and much land inherited from his fathers, and no one can take his possessions from him by force.  He has a fixed weekly revenue arising from the hospices of the Jews, the markets and the merchants, apart from that which is brought to him from far-off lands.  The man is very rich, and wise in the Scriptures as well as in the Talmud, and many Israelites dine at his table every day.

At his installation, the Head of the Captivity gives much money to the Caliph, to the Princes and the Ministers.  On the day that the Caliph performs the ceremony of investing him with authority, he rides in the second of the royal equipages, and is escorted from the palace of the Caliph to his own house with timbrels and fifes.  The Exilarch appoints the Chiefs of the Academies by placing his hand upon their heads, thus installing them in their office[134].  The Jews of the city are learned men and very rich.

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