(all of them), and the woven vestments of Aaron and his sons. Frankel thinks that Joshua ben Hananiah (early 2nd century) was the first hakham, but he does not sufficiently support this assertion. The office seems to have existed in Palestine as long as the academy of the nasi. An amora of the fourth century recounts the following rule of etiquette, still observed in his time: "When the hakham appears in the academy everyone present must rise as soon as he comes within four ells of him, and must remain standing until he has gone four ells beyond". It is hardly possible that the office of hakham existed in Babylonia, where the relation of the exilarch to the heads of the academy was entirely different from that existing in Palestine between the latter and the nasi. Here hakham was merely the term for a Jewish scholar who studied chiefly oral traditions, while the terms sofer and qara were applied to Bible scholars. In the Seder Olam Zutta, every exilarch is accompanied by a hakham, who probably had charge of the religious affairs of the exilarchate; but as this work originated in Palestine, the author probably applied Palestinian conditions to Babylon. The Syrian Aphrahat, who had met only Babylonian Jews, mentions a man "who is called the 'hakkima' of the Jews", but this too may mean "the wise man" of the Jews. The plural, hakhamim, is generally used in the Talmud, and also by the Tannaim, to designate the majority of scholars as against a single authority. The Aramean equivalent is "rabbanan." Among the Sephardim Among Sephardi Jews, particularly Spanish and Portuguese Jews, hakham is the official title of the local rabbi, but it is not known how old the title is. Shlomo ibn Aderet addresses some of his responsa to people with lehakham Rabbi..., others again with "larab Rabbi...", but it is possible that lehakham simply means "to the wise." The surname Hacham is found among both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews, including variations such as Hachami, Hachamovich, Hachamson. In Muslim countries In the Muslim world, a rabbi was often called a because al-Rab is one of the names of God in Islam and may have caused offense due to misunderstanding. Thus the Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire was called the Hakham Bashi (Hahambaşı ). Although the word is derived from the common Semitic root , the second consonant is