Jehoshaphat ben Josiah

Jehoshaphat ben Josiah (Hebrew: יהושפט בן יאשיהו) was the son of Josiah ben Saul, the great-grandson of Anan ben David, a Nasi, and a Rosh Yeshivah, during the early ninth century.[1] He lived in Israel where he was head of the Palestinian Yeshiva.[2] Jehoshaphat was nasi and resh galuta of the nascent Karaite movement of Judaism, though it is likely that he was a Rabbanite himself due to his affiliation with the Palestinian Yeshiva.[3] He was the father of Boaz ben Jehoshaphat. His brother Semah was head of the Palestinian Gaonate after him.[2]

References

1. See Pinsker, Simcha (1860). Liḳḳuṭe Ḳadmoniyyot. Vol. 2. p. 53. for a transciption of his lineage, as well as in the Cairo Genizah fragment Moss. I,107.2 (the diagonal text on the left in the image)
2. Gil, Moshe (1992), A history of Palestine, 634-1099, translated by Broido, Ethel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 658 (section 852), ISBN 9780521599849
3. The seemingly incongruous fact that these supposedly Karaite princes served in the Palestinian Gaonate can be explained by the fact that only during the 10th century did Karaites claim Anan as their founder and include these Nesi'im in their pedigree, see Rustow, Marina. "Gaon and Gaonate". Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Leiden: Brill. Retrieved 15 May 2023.