Nathan ben Isaac Ha-Babli

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Nathan ben Isaac ha-Kohen ha-Babli was a Babylonian historian of the 10th century. He was the author of a history of the exilarchate that gives many interesting details in regard to the exilarchs, particularly his contemporary Ukba. Extracts from this history were published by Samuel Shullam in his edition of Zacuto's Yuḥasin (Constantinople, 1546), as well as by A. Neubauer (M. J. C. ii. 83 et seq.). Since Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome, the author of the Aruk, is quoted in Zacuto's Yuḥasin (ed. Filipowski, p. 174, London, 1856) as "Nathan ha-Babli of Narbonne," H. Grätz (Gesch. 3d ed., v. 288, 469-471) mistook the latter for Nathan ben Isaac ha-Kohen ha-Babli and ascribed to him an Aruk similar to that written by Nathan b. Jehiel. Grätz even went so far as to identify Nathan ben Isaac with the fourth of the four prisoners captured by Ibn Rumaḥis (see Ḥushiel ben Elhanan), assuming that he settled afterward at Narbonne.