Mar Zutra, son of Mar Zutra from the seed of David, was appointed head of the Sanhedrin in the Land of Israel in the year 4284. And after him six generations whose years we do not know, and these continued for 120 years until the year 4400 to creation [(the calculation is not exact, it should be 4405)], for then the [knowledge of] any person in the Land of Israel who descended from the holy seed of the kings of the house of David was lost [(Shir HaShirim, page 36, section 1)].