The Jewish Court in Fustāt

The Jewish court in Fustāt (Old Cairo) was a Rabbanite court that handled the legal affairs of Jews in the community, largely under the aegis of the Palestinian academy and their geonim (located in Tiberias and then in Syria), until the late eleventh century. It may have existed alongside other courts affiliated with the Babylonian academies in Baghdad. In the 1070s, the local head of the Jewish community, Mevorakh ben Se‘adya (b. ca. 1040), took a more authoritative role in the local court system by appointing judges in Alexandria and Fustāt himself. His successor, David ben Daniel ben ‘Azariah (b. ca. 1058), established a high court (bet din gadol) in Fustāt that would hold legal authority without Palestinian oversight. The autonomy of that court continued, though it eventually merged with the Palestinian academy after the academy moved to Fustāt in 1127.