They consequently treated Moses with great deference, surrounded him with splendor, and recognized him as their head. Religious questions which had hitherto been sent to the Babylonian schools, henceforth were directed to Moses. From all parts of Africa, eager students flocked to his school. There now arose a strong desire for thorough Talmudical knowledge, which would enable them to dispense with the Babylonian teachers. Chasdaï gave orders for copies of the Talmud to be bought at his expense in Sora, where many lay idle and unused. These he distributed amongst the pupils, whom he doubtless furnished with means of subsistence. Thus Cordova became the Andalusian Sora, and the founder of the school there had the same significance for Spain as Rab had for Babylon. Although he bore the modest title of judge (Dayan), he yet performed the various functions of a Gaon. He ordained rabbis for the various communities, as it appears, by the ceremony of laying on the hands (Semicha); he expounded the Law, the highest appeal was made to him in legal cases, and he could excommunicate rebellious members of the community. All these functions devolved upon the rabbis in later times. Thus Spain became in many ways the center of Judaism. Several apparently accidental events contributed to this result, and the aroused self-importance of the Spanish Jews did not allow this supremacy to depart from their midst; in fact, they took the greatest pains to assert and to deserve it. The prosperity of the Cordova Jewish community made it possible for them to make the Andalusian capital the center of all undertakings. Cordova numbered several thousand rich families, well able to vie with the Arabs in display. They clothed themselves in silk, wore costly turbans, and drove in splendid carriages. They rode on horses, and adopted the manners of chivalrous society, which distinguished them from the Jews of other lands. It cannot be denied, however, that some of them owed their wealth to their trade in Slavonian slaves. These they sold to the Caliphs, who gradually formed their body-guard from them. After Moses' death (965) the community of Cordova was threatened with a division on account of the succession. On the one side was Moses' son Chanoch, who, when a child, had shared his parent's captivity, and had seen his mother throw herself into the sea. His rival was Joseph ben Isaac Ibn-Abitur, who was the distinguished pupil of Moses. He possessed sound knowledge of Arabic literature, was a tolerable poet, and a native of Spain. But Chanoch possessed no attainments except knowledge of the Talmud, and the advantage of being the son of a man who had been highly esteemed.