User:Dranoel26/Jewish Princedom in feudal France (article)
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A vassal Jewish Princedom in feudal France (768-900 CE) was established in Narbonne (Septimania) by the Carolingian king Pepin as a reward for Jewish cooperation in the Frankish conquest of the city in 759 CE from the Umayyad Saracens. The dynasty of Jewish rulers was later also confirmed by Pepin's son Charlemagne and endowed with significant lands and privileges. The Jewish rulers were recognised by the Carolingians also as Counts and Dukes of Toulouse (Aquitaine) and Barcelona (Spanish March). The first ruler is Makhir of Narbonne, a likely a descendant of the Babylonian Exilarch Bostanai, of the 7th century CE.
The princedom played an important role as a buffer zone in the border area between the Moslem caliphate south of the Pyrenees and the christian Frankish Empire in the north. Its counts played influential roles in the imperial military campaigns in the Spanish March and a Aquitaine and at the Carolingian court in Aachen.[1][2]
This article is summarising the Zuckerman's Princedom thesis[1] which is under ongoing critical debate and parts of which were disputed by some historians.