Talmudic academies in Babylonia
The Talmudic academies in Babylonia, also known as the Geonic academies, were the center for Jewish scholarship and the development of Halakha during the Geonic era in what is called "Babylonia" in Jewish sources. This term is neither geopolitically nor geographically identical with the ancient empires of Babylonia, since the Jewish focus of interest has to do with the Jewish religious academies, which were mainly situated in an area between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and primarily between Pumbedita, and Sura, a town farther south down the Euphrates. At the time this area was part of the region known as Asōristān or Iraq.
The key work of these academies was the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud, started by Rav Ashi and Ravina, two leaders of the Babylonian Jewish community, around the year 550. Editorial work by the Savoraim or Rabbanan Savoraei, continued on this text for the next 250 years. In fact, much of the text did not reach its final form until around 700. The two most famous academies were located at Sura and Pumbedita; the Sura Academy was originally dominant, but its authority waned towards the end of the Geonic period and the Pumbedita Academy's Geonate gained ascendancy. Major yeshivot were also located at Nehardea and Mahuza.
For the Jews of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the yeshivot of Babylonia served much the same function as the ancient Sanhedrin, i.e., as a council of Jewish religious authorities. The academies were founded in pre-Islamic Babylonia under the Zoroastrian Sasanians and were located not far from the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, which at that time was the largest city in the world. After the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century, the academies subsequently operated for four hundred years under the Islamic caliphate.
The first gaon of Sura, according to Sherira Gaon, was Mar Rab Mar, who assumed office in 609. The last gaon of Sura was Samuel ben Hofni, who died in 1034; the last gaon of Pumbedita was Hezekiah Gaon, who was tortured to death in 1040; hence, the activity of the Geonim covers a period of nearly 450 years. The Geonim were the presidents of the two great rabbinical colleges of Sura and Pumbedita, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the worldwide Jewish community in the early Middle Ages, in contrast to the Resh Galuta who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands.
The three centuries in the course of which the Babylonian Talmud was developed in the academies founded by Rav and Samuel were followed by five centuries during which it was zealously preserved, studied, expounded in the schools, and, through their influence, recognized by the whole diaspora. Sura and Pumbedita were considered the only important seats of learning: their heads and sages were the undisputed authorities, whose decisions were sought from all sides and were accepted wherever Jewish communal life existed.
Geographic area
Jewish sources regularly use the term "Babylonia" when referring to the location of the Talmudic academies in the northern half of Lower Mesopotamia during their activity from the second half of the 6th century to the first half of the 11th century. This region was known to contemporaries as the Sasanian province of Asōristān until the Muslim conquest in 637, after which it becomes known in Arabic as Sawad or al-'Irāq al-'Arabi.The term "Babylonia" from Jewish sources has always been an anachronism, as the area they refer to is in no way identical with the by far more ancient empires of Babylonia. The Jewish sources only concentrate on the area between the two main academies, Pumbedita in the north, and Sura in the south. Both academies, as well as Nehardea and Mahuza, are situated between, or in the immediate vicinity of, the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
History
Background
The history of the Jews in Babylonia is largely unknown for the four centuries covering the period from Ezra to Hillel the Elder ; and the history of the succeeding two centuries, from Hillel to Judah the Prince, furnishes only a few scanty items on the state of learning among the Babylonian Jews. In the chief source of information about the Babylonian schools, Sherira Gaon referred to those dark centuries in his famous letter: "No doubt, here in Babylonia public instruction was given in the Torah; but besides the exilarchs there were no recognized heads of schools until the death of Rabbi ."The principal seat of Babylonian Judaism was Nehardea, where there were some institutions of learning. A very ancient synagogue, built, it was believed, by King Jeconiah, existed in Nehardea. At Huzal, near Nehardea, there was another synagogue, not far from which could be seen the ruins of Ezra's academy. In the period before Hadrian, Rabbi Akiva), on his arrival at Nehardea on a mission from the Sanhedrin, entered into a discussion with a resident scholar on a point of matrimonial law. At the same time there was at Nisibis, in northern Mesopotamia, an excellent Jewish college, at the head of which stood Judah ben Bathyra, and in which many Judean scholars found refuge at the time of the persecutions. A certain temporary importance was also attained by a school at Nehar-Peqod, founded by the Judean immigrant Haninah, nephew of Joshua ben Hananiah, which school could have become the cause of a schism between the Jews of Babylonia and those of Judea and Israel, had not the Judean authorities promptly checked Hananiah's ambition.
Founding of academies
Among those that helped to restore Jewish learning, after Hadrian, was the Babylonian scholar Nathan, a member of the family of the exilarch, who continued his activity even under Judah the Prince. Another Babylonian, Hiyya bar Abba, belonged to the foremost leaders in the closing age of the Tannaim. His nephew, Abba Arika, afterward called simply Rav, was one of the most important pupils of Judah. Rav's return to his Babylonian home, the year of which has been accurately recorded, marks an epoch; for from it dates the beginning of a new movement in Babylonian Judaism—namely, the initiation of the dominant rôle which the Babylonian academies played for several centuries. Leaving Nehardea to his friend Samuel of Nehardea, whose father, Abba, was already reckoned among the authorities of that town, Rav founded a new academy in Sura, where he held property. Thus, there existed in Babylonia two contemporary academies, so far removed from each other, however, as not to interfere with each other's operations. Since Rav and Samuel were acknowledged peers in position and learning, their academies likewise were accounted of equal rank and influence. Thus both Babylonian rabbinical schools opened their lectures brilliantly, and the ensuing discussions in their classes furnished the earliest stratum of the scholarly material deposited in the Babylonian Talmud. The coexistence for many decades of these two colleges of equal rank originated that remarkable phenomenon of the dual leadership of the Babylonian academies which, with some slight interruptions, became a permanent institution and a weighty factor in the development of Babylonian Judaism.When Odaenathus destroyed Nehardea in 259—twelve years after Rav's death, and five years after that of Samuel—its place was taken by a neighboring town, Pumbedita, where Judah bar Ezekiel, a pupil of both Rav and Samuel, founded a new school. During the life of its founder, and still more under his successors, this school acquired a reputation for intellectual keenness and discrimination, which often degenerated into mere hair-splitting. Pumbedita became the other focus of the intellectual life of Babylonian Israel, and retained that position until the end of the gaonic period.
Nehardea once more came into prominence under Amemar, a contemporary of Rav Ashi. The luster of Sura was enhanced by Rav's pupil and successor, Rav Huna, under whom the attendance at the academy reached unusual numbers. When Huna died, in 297, Judah ben Ezekiel, principal of the Pumbedita Academy, was recognized also by the sages of Sura as their head. On the death of Judah, two years later, Sura became the only center of learning, with Rav Chisda as its head. Chisda had in Huna's lifetime rebuilt Rav's ruined academy in Sura, while Huna's college was in the vicinity of Mata Meḥasya. On Chisda's death Sura lost its importance for a long time. In Pumbedita, Rabbah bar Nahmani, Joseph, and Abaye taught in succession. They were followed by Raba, who transplanted the college to his native town, Mahuza. Under these masters the study of the Law attained a notable development, to which certain Judean-Israeli scholars, driven from their own homes by the persecutions of Roman tyranny, contributed no inconsiderable share.
After Raba's death, in 352, Pumbedita regained its former position. The head of the academy was Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, a pupil of Raba. In his method of teaching may be discerned the first traces of an attempt to edit the enormous mass of material that ultimately formed the Babylonian Talmud. Not Pumbedita, however, but Sura, was destined to be the birthplace of this work. After Raba's death, Papa of Naresh, another of his pupils, founded a college in Naresh, near Sura, which, for the time being, interfered with the growth of the Sura school; but after Papa's death, in 375, the college at Sura regained its former supremacy. Its restorer was Rav Ashi, under whose guidance, during more than half a century, it attained great prominence, and presented such attractions that even the exilarchs came there, in the autumn of each year, to hold their customary official receptions. The school at Pumbedita recognized the preeminence of that of Sura; and this leadership was firmly retained for several centuries.
The unusual length of Ashi's activity, his undeniable high standing, his learning, as well as the favorable circumstances of the day, were all of potent influence in furthering the task he undertook; namely, that of sifting and collecting the material accumulated for two centuries by the Babylonian academies. The final editing of the literary work which this labour produced did not, it is true, take place until somewhat later; but tradition rightly names Ashi as the originator of the Babylonian Talmud. Indeed, Ashi's editorial work received many later additions and amplifications; but the form underwent no material modification. The Babylonian Talmud must be considered the work of the Academy of Sura, because Ashi submitted to each of the semiannual general assemblies of the academy, treatise by treatise, the results of his examination and selection, and invited discussion upon them. His work was continued and perfected, and probably reduced to writing, by succeeding heads of the Sura Academy, who preserved the fruit of his labors in those sad times of persecution which, shortly after his death, were the lot of the Jews of Babylonia. These misfortunes were undoubtedly the immediate cause of the publication of the Talmud as a complete work; and from the Academy of Sura was issued that unique literary effort which was destined to occupy such an extraordinary position in Judaism. Ravina II, a teacher in Sura, is considered by tradition the last amora; and the year of his death is considered the date of the close of the Talmud. After his death the Jewish center moved to Pumbedita, where Raba Yossi was the head of the academy. Sura declined in this period as the Jews were persecuted. In Pumbedita the study continued and the academy became the leading one in Babylonia.