Sura

SURA. - A Mesopotamian city, on the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite Callinicum in Osroene, at the beginning of the Diocletian road that led from S. to Palmyra, Damascus, and Bostra. Belisarius's imperial troops were routed there by the Persians (531). There was a flourishing Jewish community there, in which the principal Babylonian academy had its seat.

The rabbinic Academy of S. was founded around 219 by the amora Abbâ Arekâ (v.), or Rab, who directed it until his death (247), and was succeeded by his friend Mar Bêmü'el Jarḥînâ'ah (165-257), then by Hônâ' (d. 297); at the death of R. Hisdā' (309) the Academy of S. closed; it was reopened in Mātā Mēbasjā' (a locality identified with S. or situated in the vicinity of S.) by the great Rab Āšī (352-427), who headed it for 52 years (375-427). Āšī, the most celebrated of the amoraim (v.), is the substantial author of the Babylonian Talmud, later completed or edited by his continuators, under the direction of Rābīnā' II ben Hūnā' (d. 500); the names of 60 learned colleagues or pupils of Āšī are known. The heads of the Academy of S. were the first to assume the title of gā'ōn, a dignity that was probably instituted after the Arab conquest (636-642); around 658 the head of the Academy of S., Mār ben Mār Hūnā', was recognized by the caliphate as the spiritual head of all the Jews; such were his successors. The heads of the analogous Academy of Pumbēditā (founded by Jēhūdhāh ben Jēhēzāgī' around 265) also held the dignity of gā'ōn. Through the work of the gē'ōnīm, masters and judges, of S. and of Pumbēditā, the Talmud became the official code of all Judaism.

Under Arab rule, the Jewish communities in Mesopotamia enjoyed four centuries of prosperity. The greatest of the gē'ōnīm, the glory of S., where he died (942), was Sa'adhijāh. Another celebrated gā'ōn of S. (probably from 855 to 874) was 'Amrām ben Šešnā', who, besides many Tēšābīh (responsa 4), compiled the oldest preserved formulary of prayers for the whole year, the Sēdher Rab 'Amrām, fundamental for the subsequent development of the Jewish liturgy. The last gā'ōn of S. was Šemū'ēl ben Hopīni, upon whose death (1034) the Academy of S. moved to Baghdad (that of Pumbēditā died out with the gā'ōn Haj ben Šerīrā', d. 1038) and lost its importance for Judaism as a whole. In 1040 the last exilarch (rōš gālūthā') of the Babylonian Jewish communities disappears.

Antonino Romeo