Simeon Qayyāra was a rabbinical scholar in ninth-century Iraq and the author of Halakhot Gedolot. He probably came from Basra, and his cognomen, Qayyāra, can be interpreted as “seller (or maker) of tar” (Ar. qār or qīr). He probably lived in the mid-ninth century, and the information about him given by Abraham ibn Da’ud in his Book of Tradition (Heb. Sefer ha-Qabbala) cannot be correct. The French and Ashkenazi tradition erroneously interchanges Simeon Qayyāra with Yehuday Gaon, attributing Halakhot Gedolot to Yehuday. In the late halakhic literature, Simeon is simply called baʿal hala…

Daniel Ibn al-Māshiṭa was a theologian and critic of Moses Maimonides' philosophy at the beginning of the thirteenth century. His name first came to be known from a marginal note to a passage in the commentary of Abraham Maimonides on Genesis. In discussing his father's interpretion of Jacob's struggle with the angel ( Guide II, 42), Abraham attributes a point of criticism to Ibn al-Māshiṭa's Taqwīm al-Adyān (Ar. The Rectification of Religion). Part of this work, which was written in 1223, is in the Firkovich collection in St. Petersburg.As is clear from the title and introduction,…

Bustanay (Ḥaninay) ben Kafnay (ca. 618–670),  frequently cited erroneously in some sources and by later scholars as Bustanay ben Ḥaninay,  was the first exilarch (Aram. resh galuta) after the Muslim conquest of the Sassanid empire. Most of the sources about him are legendary and tendentious, and the few historical facts they provide are doubtful. According to an anonymous gaonic responsum from the tenth century, Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb(r. 634–644) confirmed Bustanay in the office of exilarch and gave him Azdadwar, th…

Dosa ben Saʿadya was the gaon of the academy of Sura in Baghdad from 1012 until his death in 1018. He was the younger son of the great Saʿadya Gaon. In a letter written in 928, Saʿadya mentions his older son, She'erit, but not Dosa. Presumably he was born later, probably around 935, and thus was only a boy when his father died in 942. Dosa was at least seventy-five when he became head of the academy after the death of Samuel ben Ḥophni Gaon in 1012, but he had long held a privileged status in the academy and had been given half of the contributions it received. In 953, She'erit and Dosa compiled a list …

Daniel ben Saʿadya ha-Bavli was a rabbinic scholar and pupil of Samuel ben Eli Gaon who lived in Baghdad and Damascus in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. In Damascus, where he probably moved after the death of Samuel ben Eli (1194), he was noted for his eloquent preaching. The Andalusian poet and traveler Judah al-Ḥarīzī heard him there in 1220 and praised him in his Taḥkemoni (46).Like his teacher Samuel ben Eli, Daniel ben Saʿadya, was a determined critic of Maimonides. He sent forty-seven refutations and questions on the Mishne Torah and another thirteen questions on Sefer…

Joseph bar Ḥiyya became gaon of the Pumbedita yeshiva in Iraq in 825 and before this was av bet din (chief justice) under Abraham ben Sherira (816–828). He was nominated for the gaonate when Sherira was deposed in connection with the exilarchic succession dispute between David ben Judah and Daniel ben Saul.  He and Abraham ben Sherira apparently took opposite sides in the dispute, but it is uncertain which claimant each supported. They eventually agreed to share the leadership of the academy as co-geonim, but with Abraham enjoying superior status on public occasions. In his Epistle, Rav S…

Yehuday ben Naḥman Gaon headed the Sura academy in Baghdad from 758 to 762. According to the Epistle (Heb. ’ Iggeret) of Sherira Gaon, Yehuday was originally associated with the Pumbedita academy, but the exilarch Solomon ben Ḥisday selected him for Sura because none of its members was a suitable candidate. Yehuday’s brother Duday concurrently served as gaon in Pumbedita (761–764). Sherira states that Yehuday was blind, and this tradition was frequently repeated by French and Ashkenazi scholars.Yehuday Gaon was regarded as a prodigious figure, as indicated by the praises…

Abū ʾl-ʿAlā Israel ben Samuel Gaon ha-Kohen was the son of Samuel ben Hophni. During his father’s tenure as gaon of the Sura academy, he was the academy’s secretary and scribe (Heb. sofer). Several of Samuel’s letters with Israel’s signature have survived in the Cairo Geniza. When Samuel ben Hophni died in 1013, he left a will asking his successor as gaon, Dosa ben Saʿadya, to take care of “the boy,” meaning to give Israel a share in the contributions received by the academy. This request met with some opposition, as exemplified by a letter from 1015 which mentions an order by Hay Gaon not to se…

Samuel ben Ḥophni (d. 1013) was the gaon of the Sura yeshiva and an original exegete, theologian, and halakhist who continued in the Judeo-Arabic cultural and literary path forged by Saʿadya Gaon. Ben Ḥophni was a scion of a family that occupied a leadership position at the Pumbedita yeshiva in the tenth century. His grandfather Kohen Ṣedeq ben Joseph was gaon of Pumbedita from 917 to 935. His uncle Neḥemiah was gaon from 960 to 968, and his father, Neḥemiah’s younger brother, had been av bet din (chief judge of the court). Around 998, Samuel was selected to succeed Ṣemaḥ Ṣedeq b…

Amram ben Sheshna was gaon (Heb. head) of the academy of Sura in the second half of the ninth century. According to Sherira Gaon in his historical Epistle (Heb. Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon), Amram served as gaon in Sura after Naṭronay bar Hilay and before Naḥshon  bar Ṣadoq, a period of eighteen years. Sherira adds that Amram had a dispute with Naṭronay sometime before his accession and as a result left the academy to found his own school. He remained there until Naṭronay’s death, and then returned to Sura to become gaon. None of these details fits in with the Epistle’s chronological fra…