According to the Sefer Ha-Kabbalah of Abraham ibn Daud, Chushiel was one of the four scholars who were captured by Ibn Rumaḥis, an Arab admiral, while voyaging from Bari to Sebaste to collect money "for the dowries of poor brides." Ḥushiel was sold as a slave in North Africa, but he and the other three rabbis were ransomed by Jewish communities in Alexandria, Cordoba, and Kairouan. On being ransomed, Ḥushiel went to Kairouan, an ancient seat of Talmudical scholarship (Harkavy, Teshubot ha-Ge'onim, Nos. 199, 210). There his Talmudical knowledge gained for him the position of president of the bet ha-midrash (A. Neubauer, M. J. C. i. 67 et seq.)—probably after the death of Jacob ben Nissim.