Sura (Babylonia)

Sura was an ancient city in southern Babylonia on the western bank of the Euphrates . It existed until about the 11th century.

There was a Jewish academy in Sura, which, along with Pumbedita, was the most important center of Jewish learning in Babylonia. Most of the Babylonian Talmud was written here .

city

The area was known for its high fertility. Vines, fruit, wheat and rye were grown and cattle was raised in the Sura region; the fields were irrigated from the Euphrates.

academy

In 225 Rav Abba Arikha founded the academy in Sura. Until the end of the 3rd century this held a leading position and was then surpassed by Pumbedita. At the time of Rav Aschi (352–427), Sura again gained importance. After the death of Rav Aschi, one of the most important authors of the Babylonian Talmud, the religious significance of Sura diminished. As a result of the religious persecution under the Persian kings Peroz I and Yazdegerd II , the number of scholars and students decreased.

After the Islamic expansion , the Surah academy regained importance when the exilarch Solomon ben Chisdai appointed Samuel, the head of the Pumbedita academy, to be a Gaon of Surah in 730 . One of Sura's nicknames from this period is Yeshivat Resch Galuta ( aram. " Yeshiva des Exilarchen"). At the beginning of the 10th century the Academy moved from Sura to Baghdad , but was given a leading role again under Saadia Gaon , who was appointed its director in 928. Up until the 10th century, the majority of Surah was populated by Jews. However, when Benjamin of Tudela toured the area around 1170, he found no more Jewish settlement here and described the city as a field of ruins.

literature

Encyclopedia Judaica , Vol. 15, pp. 521-523

Individual evidence

↑ Michael Krupp : The Talmud. An introduction to the basic script of Judaism with selected texts. Gütersloher Verlags-Haus, Gütersloh 1995, ISBN 3-579-00772-6 , p. 91.
^ Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (ed.): History of the Jewish people. From the beginning to the present. 5th edition of the complete works extended by an afterword, special edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55918-1 , p. 524.

[1] Michael Krupp : The Talmud. An introduction to the basic script of Judaism with selected texts. Gütersloher Verlags-Haus, Gütersloh 1995, ISBN 3-579-00772-6 , p. 91.

[2] Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (ed.): History of the Jewish people. From the beginning to the present. 5th edition of the complete works extended by an afterword, special edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55918-1 , p. 524.