Our Lord the Head of the
Captivity of all Israel." He possesses a book of pedigrees going back
as far as David, King of Israel. The Jews call him "Our Lord, Head of
the Captivity," and the Mohammedans call him "Saidna ben Daoud," and
he has been invested with authority over all the congregations of
Israel at the hands of the Emir al Muminin, the Lord of Islam[130].

For thus Mohammed commanded concerning him and his descendants; and he
granted him a seal of office over all the congregations that dwell
under his rule, and ordered that every one, whether Mohammedan or Jew,
or belonging to any other nation in his dominion, should rise up
before him (the Exilarch) and salute him, and that any one who should
refuse to rise up should receive one hundred stripes[131].

[p.62]

And every fifth day when he goes to pay a visit to the great Caliph,
horsemen, Gentiles as well as Jews, escort him, and heralds proclaim
in advance, "Make way before our Lord, the son of David, as is due
unto him," the Arabic words being "Amilu tarik la Saidna ben Daud." He
is mounted on a horse, and is attired in robes of silk and embroidery
with a large turban on his head, and from the turban is suspended a
long white cloth adorned with a chain upon which the cipher of
Mohammed is engraved. 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 inhabitan