Rav Chushiel of Kairouan רב חושיאל בן אלחנן
Chananel's father and Kairouan's teacher, whose arrival legend and letter tell differently
Kairouan learned to read the Talmud from a newcomer. Avraham ibn Daud tells, in the Sefer ha-Qabbalah, of the four captives: four sages sailing the sea, seized by an admiral, each ransomed by a community—so learning spread to new lands, and Chushiel fell to Kairouan. The tale is beautiful and late: ibn Daud wrote a century and a half after.
And in the Cairo Genizah a letter of Chushiel himself was found, to Shemarya ben Elchanan in Egypt—warm, in his own hand. From the letter it appears he came of his own accord, no man's captive. We do not choose for the sources: the legend is called a legend, the letter a letter.
What follows is beyond dispute: Chushiel's house became the school of the Maghreb. His son Chananel wrote the first running commentary on the Talmud; his student Rav Nissim the Mafteach; and at Chushiel's death Shmuel ha-Nagid held mourning in Granada.
On the timeline
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Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Avraham ibn Daud, Sefer ha-Qabbalah — the tale of the four captives—a legend set down a century and a half later
Documents of the period
- Chushiel's letter from the Cairo Genizah — he came of his own accord; the ties with Egypt; his own hand
Basis: Talmud and midrash.