Muhammad ibn Rumahis () was a Muslim Admiral in 10th Century Spain. He is remembered in Jewish History for capturing of four Babylonian Rabbis and ransoming them to the Jewish communities of

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

Kairouan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( , ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya (reigned 661� ...

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

, and one unidentified other location.

Personal life

He was born somewhere in the north of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, where he was taken captive in a raid by the caliph

Abd al-Rahman III ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil (; 890–961), or simply ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba fr ...

(891-961). When the Caliph became acquainted with his seafaring abilities, he was manumitted and named Admiral of the Caliphate fleet, participating in various actions from 940 until his death in 360 AH (971 CE).

Four Captive Rabbis

According to

Abraham ibn Daud Abraham ibn Daud (; ) was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian and philosopher; born in Córdoba, Spain about 1110; who was said to have been killed for his religious beliefs in Toledo, Spain, about 1180. He is sometimes known by the abbrevia ...

's ''Sefer HaQabbala'', Ibn Rumahis captured a boat containing Shemariah ben Elhanan, Chushiel, father of

Chananel ben Chushiel Chananel ben Chushiel or Ḥananel ben Ḥushiel (), an 11th-century Kairouanan rabbi and Talmudist, was in close contact with the last Geonim. He is best known for his commentary on the Talmud. Chananel is often referred to as Rabbeinu Chananel � ...

;

Moses ben Hanoch Moses ben Hanoch or Moses ben Enoch (in , ''Moshe ben Hanoch'') was a medieval rabbi who inadvertently became the preeminent Talmudic scholar of Spain. He died about 965. Moses was one of the four scholars who went from Sura, the seat of a once ...

; and one other anonymous rabbi while the four were traveling to raise money for the

Talmudic academies in Babylonia The Talmudic academies in Babylonia, also known as the Geonic academies, were the center for Jewish scholarship and the development of Halakha during the Geonic era (from c. 589 to 1038 CE; Hebrew dates: 4349 AM to 4798 AM) in what is called ...

. Knowing the emphasis Jews placed on redeeming captives, ibn Rumahis traveled the Mediterranean, selling Shemariah to the

Alexandrian Jews The history of the Jews in Alexandria dates back to the founding of the city by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Jews in Alexandria played a crucial role in the political, economic, cultural and religious life of Hellenistic and Roman Alexandria ...

, Chushiel to the Jews of Kairouan, and Moshe to the

Spanish Jews Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the fe ...

. This is attributed as the source of the spread of Jewish learning from Babylonia to Spain and North Africa.

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...

posited that the fourth captive was

Nathan ben Isaac HaBabli Nathan ben Isaac ha-Kohen ha-Babli was a Babylonian Jewish historian of the 10th century. He was the author of a history of the exilarchate that gives many interesting details in regard to the exilarchs, particularly his contemporary Mar Ukba. E ...

, who settled, and was presumably sold, to the Jewish community in

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

References

Spanish Muslims Generals of the Umayyad Caliphate 10th-century Arab people 971 deaths Year of birth unknown {{Spain-mil-bio-stub