Yeshiva of Palestine

Jewish historiography gave the geonic period its name on the basis of the title gaon (Heb. pride) that designated the heads of the Babylonian yeshivot in Sura and Pumbedita (see Yeshivot in Babylonia/Iraq). Thanks to documents found in the Cairo Geniza, it is now known that there was also a yeshiva in Palestine in this era, and it too was headed by a gaon. Like its counterparts in Babylonia, this yeshiva was called Yeshivat Ge’on Yaʿaqov (Academy of the Pride of Jacob), and it functioned throughout the early Muslim period in Palestine, from the Musl…