Ukba (Ukva), Mar
UKBA (Ukva), MAR
UKBA (Ukva), MAR , *exilarch in the late ninth-early tenth centuries. Ukba was appointed exilarch in succession to his uncle Zakkai b. Aḥunai (d. c. 890), as Zakkai's son *David, who later became known for his dispute with R. *Saadiah Gaon, was then very young. A violent controversy broke out between Ukba and the rosh yeshivah of *Pumbedita, R. Judah b. Samuel, who acted as Gaon from 905 to 917, over the question of the income of the academy from the region of *Khorasan. As a result of the interventions of the wealthy communal leaders *Netira and his father-in-law *Joseph b. Phinehas, Mar Ukba was banished from 909 to 916. According to *Nathan ha-Bavli, he was banished to *Kermanshah, in the east of the Abbasid Empire. After a time Ukba returned to *Baghdad, but the interventions of Netira and his father-in-law caused him to be banished for a second time. According to *Abraham b. Nathan ha-Yarḥi (Sefer ha-Manhig, ch. 58), it is known that he settled in *Kairouan, where he received all the honors due an exilarch. The position of exilarch was left vacant until the appointment of David b. Zakkai.
bibliography:
Neubauer, Chronicles, 2 (1895), 78–79; Mann, Texts, 1 (1931), 209, 229; idem, in: Tarbiz, 5 (1934), 148–54; Goode, in: jqr, 31 (1940/41), 159. add. bibliography: H.Z.(J.W.) Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa, 1:207–8; M. Gil, Be-Malkhut Ishmael, 1:208–16; M. Ben-Sasson, in: Tarbut ve-Ḥevrah be-Toledot Yisrael bi-Ymei ha-Beinayim (1989), 143–44, 150, 155, 181–88.
[Abraham David]