he modestly ventured to make some objections, in which he betrayed his scholarship. The audience in the school was astounded to find so thorough a Talmudist in the ill-clad captive who had just recovered his freedom. Moses was called upon to explain the passage in question, and also to solve other difficulties. He did this in a thorough manner, to the intense delight of all present. On that very day Nathan declared before those who were under his jurisdiction, "I can no longer be your judge and rabbi. That stranger, who is now so miserably clothed, must henceforth take my place." The rich community of Cordova immediately chose Moses for their rabbinical chief, gave him rich presents and a salary, and placed a carriage at his disposal. When the admiral Ibn-Rumahis heard that his prisoner was so precious to the community of Cordova, he wished to retract the sale in order to get a higher ransom. The Jews appealed to the just Caliph, Abdul-Rahman III, through the Jewish statesman Chasdaï, and represented to him that they would be able, through Rabbi Moses, to sever themselves from the Gaonate of the eastern Caliphate. Abdul-Rahman, who, to his intense regret, had seen considerable sums of money yearly taken out of his land for the Gaonate, _i. e._, to the land which was hostile to him, was glad that a place would now be founded in his own kingdom for the study of the Talmud, and signified to the admiral the wish that he desist from his demand. Thus Cordova became the seat of an important school that was independent of the Gaonate. Moses' former fellow-prisoners also were recognized by the communities of Kahira and Kairuan as eminent scholars, and founded important Talmudical schools in Egypt and in the land of the Fatimide Caliphate. These men undesignedly severed the communities of Spain and of Mahometan Andalusia from the Gaonate. The state of politics and culture eminently fitted Spain or Mahometan (Moorish) Andalusia to become the center of united Judaism, and to take the leadership which Babylon had lost. Egypt was no longer an independent kingdom, but only a province of the Fatimide Caliphate, which had conquered it through the policy of a Jewish renegade. In addition to this, Egypt did not offer a favorable field for higher civilization, but continued to be what nature had made it, the granary of the world. The empire of the Fatimides in north Africa, whose chief town was Kairuan (afterwards Mahadia), at least afforded the principal conditions for the development of Judaism, and might well have become one of its chief centers. The rich community of Kairuan took the liveliest interest in the study of the Talmud, as well as in scientific efforts. Even before Chushiel's arrival they had had schools, and a chief who bore the title of Resh-Kalla or Rosh. Just as they had befriended and honored the banished Exilarch Ukba, they now bestowed the title Rosh on Chushiel, and enabled him to give a stronger impulse to the study of the Talmud.