muel, the Head of
the great Academy, whose authority over all the communities
in Asia became paramount. Samuel had an only daughter, who
was learned in the Scriptures and the Talmud. She gave
instruction through a window, remaining in the house, whilst
the disciples were below, unable to see her.]

[Footnote 131: The office of Exilarch had but recently been
revived, and the Mohammed here referred to may have been
Mohammed El Moktafi, the Caliph Mostanshed's predecessor.]

[Footnote 132: The Alans throughout the Middle Ages occupied
Georgia and the regions of the Caucasus. As to the Iron
Gates which Alexander made, Yule in commenting on Marco
Polo's text (_Travels of Ser Marco Polo:_ edited by Sir
Henry Yule, 3rd edition, London, John Murray, chap, iii)
says that Benjamin was the first European traveller to
mention this pass. Benjamin and Marco Polo both record the
general belief currrent at the time that the Pass of Derbend
was traversed by Alexander. It is still called in Turkish
"Demis-Kapi" or the Iron Gate, and the Persians designate it
"Sadd-i-Iskandar"--the Rampart of Alexander. Lord Curzon,
however, in his valuable work _Persia and the Persians_,
vol. 1, p. 293, proves conclusively that the pass through
which Alexander's army marched when pursuing Darius after
the battle of Arbela could not have been at Derbend. Arrian,
the historian of Alexander's expeditions, writes that the
pass was one day's journey from Rages (the noted city
mentioned in the Book of Tobit) for a man marching at the
pace of Alexander's army. But Derbend is fully 500 miles
from Rages. In Lord Curzon's opinion, confirmed by Spiegel,
Droysen and Schindler, the Sirdara Pass, some forty miles
from Teheran on the way to Meshed, must have been the defile
which Alexander's army forced. I think it will be found that
Marco Polo's geography is less reliable than that of
Benjamin. In the third chapter referred to above, Marco Polo
speaks of the Euphrates falling into the Caspian Sea.]

[Footnote 133: Probably the Oxus, called by the Arabs
"Gaihun." Rabad I, a contemporary of Benjamin, speaks of the
land of Gurgan in his Sefer Hakabalah. The Nestorian
Christians are probably here referred to.]

[Footnote 134: It is interesting to compare this account
w