Evyatar ha-Kohen

Evyatar ben Elijah ha-Kohen, son of a Palestinian gaon and scion of a leading Palestinian Jewish family, was a prominent communal leader. In 1067, Evyatar was in Fustāt (Old Cairo), and then in Jerusalem from around 1070 to early 1072. After his father’s death in 1083, he took over as gaon of the Palestinian academy, which was then in Tyre, Lebanon. Throughout the 1080s and into the 1090s, Evyatar struggled against David ben Daniel, who had declared himself exilarch of the Jewish communities in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. Evyatar composed an account of these events in a narrative called The Scroll of Evyatar (Megilat Evyatar). With the arrival of Crusaders at the end of the eleventh century, Evyatar moved the academy to Tripoli. He was succeeded by his brother as head of the academy.