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Sherira b. Ḥananya

מטא-דאטא

Gender
Male
Active dates
968–1006 CE
Social role
Jewish communal official
Other name
Sherira b. Ḥanina

Description / Bio

Gaʾon of the yeshiva of Pumbedita in Baghdad. Born ca. 906; rose to the gaonate in 968, and stepped down in 1004 when his son, Hayye, assumed the gaonate; queries continued to be addressed to Sherira and Hayye jointly. Author of numerous responsa, among them a now famous Iggeret penned in 986 in response to Yaʿaqov b. Nissim Ibn Shāhīn in Qayrawān about the composition of the Mishna and other rabbinic literature and the history of the gaonate.

Alan Elbaum and Marina Rustow, "Sherira b. Ḥananya," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/sherira-b-hananya/, accessed January 17, 2025.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/sherira-b-hananya/