Mar Zutra II
Mar Zutra II · Historical & Religious Figures
Exilarque de Babylonie qui conduisit vers 495 une révolte armée contre l'empire sassanide et gouverna sept ans un territoire juif de fait indépendant autour de Mahoza — l'un des très rares épisodes de souveraineté juive entre la chute du second Temple et 1948
vers 480, Mahoza (Babylonie sassanide) — 502, Mahoza
Babylonie sassanide (Irak)
Mar Zutra II is recognized among Jewish contributors to Historical & Religious Figures — Exilarque de Babylonie qui conduisit vers 495 une révolte armée contre l'empire sassanide et gouverna sept ans un territoire juif de fait indépendant autour de Mahoza — l'un des très rares épisodes de souveraineté juive entre la chute du second Temple et 1948
Origins and early life
Mar Zutra II was born about 480 in Sasanian Babylonia, the posthumous son of the exilarch Mar Zutra I and a descendant, according to the tradition the Babylonian community held for centuries, of the house of David; he was a Jew, head of the Jewish community, and never anything else.
Work and career
The exilarch was the recognized political chief of the Jews of the Persian empire, ruling under the shah's authority, and Mar Zutra inherited the office as a child, his grandfather Mar Hanina acting for him. His youth fell in the reign of Kavadh I and the upheaval of the Mazdakite movement, whose social radicalism destabilized the empire and, according to the sources, produced attacks on the Jewish community and demands its leaders judged intolerable.
Around 495, at about fifteen by the chronology of Sherira Gaon, he raised an armed force of some four hundred men and took control of Mahoza, the great Jewish city on the Tigris, and its surrounding district, levying taxes and governing without Persian authority for roughly seven years. This fiche states plainly that the sources for the episode are late and partly legendary — Sherira Gaon writes four centuries afterwards, and modern historians differ on the dates and on how far the independence extended — but the core is accepted: for a few years there was a Jewish polity in Babylonia.
Kavadh crushed the revolt in 502; Mar Zutra and his grandfather were executed, tradition says crucified on the bridge of Mahoza, and the exilarchate was suppressed for a generation. His posthumous son, Mar Zutra III, went to the Land of Israel and became head of the academy at Tiberias.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: Sherira Gaon, Iggeret (lettre historique, Xe siècle) ; Encyclopaedia Judaica, « Mar Zutra II » ; Jacob Neusner, A History of the Jews in Babylonia
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Exilarque de Babylonie qui conduisit vers 495 une révolte armée contre l'empire sassanide et gouverna sept ans un territoire juif de fait indépendant autour de Mahoza — l'un des très rares épisodes de souveraineté juive entre la chute du second Temple et 1948
Source: Sherira Gaon, Iggeret (lettre historique, Xe siècle) ; Encyclopaedia Judaica, « Mar Zutra II » ; Jacob Neusner, A History of the Jews in Babylonia
