Chiskiya, the great grandson of the quarrelsome Exilarch David ben Zaccaï, was appointed head of the school. But the glory which it was thought he would shed upon the school could not make itself visible. Chiskiya had many implacable enemies who were jealous of his elevation. They slandered him at court, for what reason or under what pretext is unknown. The political power of the Eastern Caliphate was at that time in the hands of Jelal Addaulah. He had wrested from the phantom caliph the title of "King of kings," and exacted tribute from both Jews and Christians. The great Sultan may have made use of the just or unjust complaint against Chiskiya for his own profit. The last Gaon was imprisoned, tortured probably, that he might discover his treasures, robbed of all his property, and then executed (1040). Thus the Gaonate came to an end through the oppression of the weak Caliphate. Babylonia had played its part in Jewish history, and for a long time it sank into complete oblivion. Chiskiya's two sons were also in danger of arrest, but they escaped, and after traveling about for a long time, settled in Spain, where they were respected as the last members of the House of David, and under the name Ibn-Daudi, devoted themselves to the cultivation of the muses. Jewish Spain thus became the heir of Judæa, Babylonia, and northern Africa, and greatly increased its inheritance for succeeding generations. There the exiled sons of the Jewish-Chazar princes, and of the Exilarchs, found a refuge. At the head of the community of Andalusia was Samuel Ibn-Nagrela (or Nagdela), a man distinguished for wisdom, virtue and position, the first of the succession of Jewish teachers coming after the Geonim. He united in his person all the virtues of the three men who had made Jewish Spain famous. He was like Chasdaï, a generous chief and a patron of learning, like Moses ben Chanoch, a thorough Talmudist, and like Dunash ben Labrat, a poet and grammarian. The life of Samuel (Ishmael) Halevi Ibn-Nagrela was remarkable. He was born in Cordova (in 993), whither his father had emigrated from Merida, and studied the Talmud in the school of Chanoch. Jehuda Chayuj, the father of Hebrew philology, instructed him in the subtleties of the Hebrew language, and the Andalusian capital, which was then the center of culture, offered him sufficient opportunity to make himself master of Arabic. When he was 20 years old, in consequence of civil war, he and many others were obliged to quit Cordova. The Barbary chieftain, Suleiman, having defeated the Arabs and the Sclavonian body-guard of the Caliphs in battle, destroyed the beautiful buildings of the capital with African fury, permitted the women to be violated, and reduced the richest families to beggary (April, 1013). The noble Jewish families emigrated to Granada, Toledo, and even to Saragossa, to escape this persecution. Samuel Ibn-Nagrela settled in the port of Malaga.