person · P0277
Chananya Gaon רב חנניה גאון
Gaon of Pumbedita for five and a half years and father of Rav Sherira Gaon — "our father the gaon" of the Iggeret. Through him the Iggeret's author descends from the academy's own succession, closing a gap the atlas had flagged.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- רב חנניה גאון
- Also known as
- Chananya bar Yehudah
- Era
- geonim
- Parents
- Yehudah Gaon (of Pumbedita)
- Children
- Sherira Gaon
II. When
- Traditional
- gaon of Pumbedita 4698–4703 AM
- Academic
- gaon 938–943 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈63 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Pumbedita
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| "In Tevet of the year 1249 [938 CE] reigned after him Mar Rav Chananya the gaon, our father, son of Mar Rav Yehudah the gaon, five and a half years, and he died in the year 1254" (943 CE).
Sherira's entry (Sherira Gaon) records his formation in this house; its corporate reception edge to the academy is left unchanged by that entry's own design.
|
tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| No source names his teacher; his father Yehudah Gaon — himself a head of the academy per the Iggeret — stood at the head of his formation, and Rav Kimoi bar Achai held the chair through his formative window (c. 4655–4675 AM). Kinship the Iggeret states; reception it does not — recorded as inference one remove from attestation.
Derived by era-and-institution (and household) inference, not attested.
|
reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |