Pumbedita
Pumbedita was an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq. It is known for having hosted the Pumbedita Academy.
History
The city of Pumbedita was said to have possessed a Jewish population since the days of Second Temple of Jerusalem.The city had a large Jewish population and was famed for its Pumbedita Academy, whose scholarship, together with the city of Sura, gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud. The academy there was founded by Judah ben Ezekiel in the late third century. The academy was established after the destruction of the academy of Nehardea. Nehardea, being the capital city, was destroyed during the Persian–Palmyrian war.
Location
, in his geography of Mesopotamia in the Abbasid era constructed from Ibn Serapion, cited a possible location for Pumbedita:However, this location is too far south and has been rejected by more recent scholarship. Sherira ben Hanina writes that in Arabic the Bedita is called al-Bedei'a. Some scholars have connected Pumbedita to Fallujah, but for no good reason. The twelfth-century travel account of Benjamin of Tudela gives this description:
Al-Anbar is mentioned by Ibn Serapion, and Strange identifies it with "the ruins named Sifeyra". According to William McGuckin de Slane, it lay ten parasangs to the west of Baghdad. However, Michael Jan de Goeje reads Al-Jubbar in place of Al-Anbar, and identifies it with, an identification already made by Jean-Baptiste d'Anville. William Francis Ainsworth reads Aliobar and relates to the also-obscure "Olabus" mentioned by Isidore of Charax.