Elazar ibn Shmuel al-Hurga, Alluf al-Andalus & Resh Kallah - Evidence Citation?

Private User we're missing a generation here on Geni.

It should go:

Hasdai
-- Isaac (missing)
---- Ezra
------ (unknown?)

And here is another oddity: according to GENI, Moshe ben Hanoch (Moshe ben Hanokh, Gaon of Cordoba) is the 2nd great grandson of...Elazar ibn Shmuel al-Hurga!

Well that's what you know who did. He created (often) fictitious profiles that connect real people together in strange ways.

Yes, also that Abu Hasdai Yitzhak ibn Ezra ibn Shaprut and Hasdai apparently converted to Islam. Interesting. Will look into that. Almost nothing can be taken for granted.

Private User, the Ezra (supposed father of Isaac) may not have been named Ezra. The Ben Ezra surname is a very famous Jewish one also shared by, for instance, Abraham Ibn Ezra (whose father was not Ezra). Ezra was the head of the Jewish community in Babylonia who returned to Eretz Israel after the first exile and rebuilt the Temple. There's a likelihood that the surname could come from here (it is written as Ibn Ezra Ibn Shaprut, not the other way around). Of course, the question is why Elazar Ben Samuel Al-Hurga doesn't use it, but we don't know yet.

Private User, it is interesting that there is a line between Elazar and Moshe Ben Hanoch. It's also not unlikely and could provide the link between the academies of Sura and Lucena. This is getting above my pay grade, but will continue looking.

Private User, Private User, apologies for the long hiatus. I have been trying to research but have not gotten much more information. We still don't know the relationship between Eleazar Ib Shmuel al-Hurga and Babylonia. What I have been able to get some more interesting information through two main sources: 1. Sefer Ha-Qabbalah (SHQ) and 2. The Jews of Moslem Spain(JMS) is the following:

Sar Shalom Ben Boaz, who the genealogy says was the father of Eleazar Ibn Shmuel al-Hurga, was the son of Hophni Kohen Sedeq Ben Ivomai. In other genealogies, I have seen Eleazar appear as the son of Hophni; which is not correct. This is according to SHQ. Sar Shalom Ben Boaz is also the father of Natronai HaKoken (or Natronai Gaon), making Eleazar and Natronay brothers.

In JMS there's a quite detailed biography of Eleazar Ibn Shmuel al-Hurga. Eleazar corresponded often with Natronai (his alleged brother) on questions of Halacha. It says that at some point in time, Eleazar managed to travel to Babylonia through Kairawan and learn directly from the Babylonian Geonim. Eleazar was so appreciated and knowledgeable that it was then he gained the title of Resh Kallah. At that time, the division between Judaism and Karaitism was at its apogee and Eleazar helped Natronai with his arguments against Adnan who was the leader of the Karaitists. To me, the fact that this Eleazar appears in Al-Andalus and easily corresponds and travels back to Babylonia as if were a trip around the corner is just formidable. And here comes a piece of information that makes this even more interesting.

A scion of the Exilarch family called Natronay Bar Havivay (699-773) was the first known Babylonian scholar to come to Al-Andalus. He could recite the Talmud by heart, and that's how the first copy of the Talmud in Arabic appeared in Al-Andalus. Natronay was a disciple of Y'hudai, the head of the Academy in Sura, and a scholar. After failing to keep the post of Exilarch he left Babylonia and exiled himself to the West. This is an important piece of information because it highlights that the communication of the Academies of Sura, Pumbedita, and Nehardea with Al-Andalus was quite early and so common that such well-known people could think of emigrating to a place so far away. Incidentally, Natronay's father (Y'hudai Exilarch Ben Natronay) had left Pumbedita for Southern France at around the same time. Natronay's son would also establish himself in Narbonne later on.

So, we have Babylonian Geonim and other scholars traveling between Babylonia and Spain/France long before we discover Eleazar Ben Shmuel al-Hurga. This makes me think of two possibilities. One, that Eleazar was the son of Sar Shalom Ben Boaz and that given that his brother would become the Gaon, decided to travel to Al-Andalus as there were waves of immigration to Al-Andalus due to the Ummayad-Abassid wars. Perhaps the idea was to establish an academy there given the large number of correspondence that came from these communities. The second, more distant, possibility is that Samuel is related to Natronay Bar Havivay.

I don't think we will be able to find an exact link at this point. I am in contact with two professors of Medieval studies in Israel and I have posed this possibility to them, but not received anything back as of yet.

At any rate, very interesting!

Wonderful and amazing information. I look forward to hearing what the professors can say.

These are fantastic sources, Jorge Barriga.