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.

[p.63]

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