person · P0221
Sherira Gaon רב שרירא גאון
Gaon of Pumbedita for nearly forty years and author of the Iggeret (Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon) — the chain of transmission writing its own history. Scion of the academy's leading family (he traces his line through its geonim and, by family tradition, to the exilarchic house of David), he appointed his son Hai av beit din and passed the gaonate to him.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- רב שרירא גאון
- Also known as
- Sherira bar Chananya
- Era
- geonim
- Received the mesorah from
- Academy of Pumbedita
- Transmitted the mesorah to
- Hai Gaon
- Children
- Hai Gaon
- Parents
- Chananya Gaon
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 4666–4766 AM
- Academic
- c. 906–1006 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈100 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Pumbedita
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| His epistle to Kairouan (987 CE) — answering "how was the Mishnah written... and how were the savoraim ordered after Ravina" — is the earliest systematic history of the Oral Torah's transmission, and the source this atlas leans on throughout the Babylonian era. | tradition | ★★★★★ | |
| He was formed within Pumbedita's scholarly dynasty — the Iggeret itself speaks of "Mar Rav Yehudai Gaon, our elder, father of our father" among the academy's past heads — and rose through its offices to the gaonate (c. 968).
His father Chananya, gaon of Pumbedita, is not yet in the atlas; the reception edge is drawn corporately to the academy.
|
tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| "In the year 1279 [968 CE] I was installed in the gaonate, and we have installed Hai our son as av beit din these two years" — the Iggeret's closing lines, the succession chronicle arriving at its own author. | tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| No source names Sherira's personal teacher. His own Iggeret names his father Chananya Gaon and grandfather Yehudah Gaon as heads of Pumbedita and his house as the academy's leading family — formation under his father is as near to attestation as inference comes — and Mevasser Kahana held the academy's own gaonate through his boyhood, in the schism his family's wing of the metivta followed.
Derived by era-and-institution (and household) inference, not attested; the corporate received_from edge to the academy is left in place as the attested layer.
|
reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| Sherira ben Chanina was born around 906 CE into a family of former exilarchs that claimed descent from the House of David.
The Davidic descent is the family's own claim.
|
tradition external | ★★★☆☆ | |
| In 997 CE Sherira and Hai were imprisoned and their property confiscated by the Abbasid caliph al-Qadir following accusations from opponents.
The exact accusation is unknown; the imprisonment is reported in both encyclopedic accounts.
|
external | ★★★★☆ | |
| Abraham ibn Daud reports that Sherira died around 1006 at the age of one hundred.
The exact date and age are traditional.
|
tradition external | ★★★☆☆ |