Daniel HaBavli

Daniel ben Saadia ha-Bavli (1170-1220) was a 13th-century talmud scholar from Damascus, a student of Samuel ben Ali, and an opponent of Maimonides. He campaigned against Maimonides' works and sent letters to his son Abraham Maimonides questioning his father after his death, and accusing him of heresy for not believing in evil spirits. Abraham published his answers, and refused to excommunicate Daniel, but David ben Samuel, the exilarch, later did so. He critiqued both the halakhic and ideological aspects of Maimonides' work, and wrote a commentary on Ecclesiastes that was a veiled polemic against him, which brought him into conflict with Maimonides' student Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta. Although Daniel corresponded with Abraham from Damascus, he likely had roots in Iraq and his teacher was the head of the torah academy in Baghdad. His name appears in the Tahkemoni of Judah al-Harizi concerning the Damascene Jewish community, which praises his mind as an "ever-flowing spring...in his wisdom, he smashes cedar trees." Al-Harizi may have removed this after Daniel's excommunication.