Arthur Zuckerman maintains that Makhir was actually identical with Natronai ben Habibi, an exilarch deposed and exiled in a dispute between two branches of the family of Bostanai in the late eighth century. Zuckerman further identified Makhir (Natronai) with a Maghario, Count of Narbonne (actually Viscount), and in turn with an Aymeri de Narbonne, who lived in the 12th century but whom heroic poetry makes father of William of Gellone (died 813). This William was subject of at least six major epic poems composed before the era of the Crusades, including "Willehalm" by Wolfram von Eschenbach, (who also, in another work, was a chronicler of the search of the Grail).