Dark side of the moon: Overview of the Geonic Period.

The first thousand years of the ‘common era’ in English History tends to be understood a bit like this: The Romans conquered around 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire fell in around 400 CE, nothing much happened for the next 600 years with the exception of the odd Viking raid and a King Arthur story, then William conquered in 1066. The murky period popularly known as the ‘Dark ages’, which covers around 500 years of history, is similarly mysterious in Jewish circles. We know about the Amoraim (who wrote the Talmud) and the Rishonim (Medieval commentators) and are vaguely familiar with the fact that there were some people known as the Geonim who lived in between but that’s about it. 

Considering that the period of the Amoraim finished in the late 5^th century and the medieval era of the Rishonim didn’t really begin until the end of the 10^th/ beginning of the 11^th, that’s quite a big gap. The equivalent time period would extend back to before the publication of the Shulchan Aruch in 1575. I’ve decided that I will divide my posts into what I consider ‘informative’ historical overviews pertaining to events of a particular period, and ‘opinion’ pieces, which will identify themes and issues and try to understand their enduring contemporary significance. I will try and post one of each per week. This periodic overview probably comes under the first category.

So who were the Geonim and why do we know so little about them?

The title ‘Gaon’ in this instance refers to the heads of the academies of Sura and Pumpeditha in Babylonia, made famous by their founders in the times of the Talmud, Rav and Shmuel. The Gaonate was recognised by the Jews as the highest authority of instruction from the end of the sixth century to the middle of the 11^th. Extending far beyond their localities, the academies became the cultural centres of world Jewry, including the Jews living in the land of Israel. In the 7th and 8th centuries Islamic expansion meant that for the duration of this period over 90% of Jews lived under Islamic rule. This led to a fruitful and fascinating intermingling and to some extent synthesis of cultures. It also created new and hitherto unknown challenges living beside a people that were similarly monotheistic. Exposure to Aristotelian and Platonic strands of philosophy as well as a shared Arabic language and culture presented challenges to a previously unquestioned religious identity. 

In terms of tolerance, although there were occasional persecutions from local authorities, for the most part the Jewish community maintained its integrity; although it suffered from various restrictions and discriminatory taxes, freedom of religion was seldom infringed. 

So what was the function of the Geonic academies?

One of the primary tasks of the Gaonate was to interpret the Halacha/Jewish law in the form received from the Savoraim (based on savora in Talmud Yerushalmi which means a scholar competent to render decisions) who had helped to complete and edit the Talmud, which was the ultimate and universally accepted source of legal authority in the Jewish communities.[1] The academies became a supreme court and source of instruction for all Jewry. Thousands would assemble in the kallah months of Elul and Adar to hear lectures on Halacha and during those months Geonim would answer questions sent to them from the diaspora. I may touch on the topic of how this was structured in later posts. The academies served a largely religious function, with the political representation of the Jewish community being fulfilled by the Exilarch (Rosh Beit Galuta), who had been appointed by local rulers to oversee the needs of the community since Talmudic times. Occasionally there were tensions between the two bodies, as we will see in the time of R. Sa’adia Gaon, but overall the relationship remained relatively stable. The Gaon was usually appointed after rising through a hierarchy of positions until they achieved highest office.  

Part of the reason little is known about the period spanning the 6^th to 8^th centuries is due to a lack of significant source material. We only really know about the Savoraim and the names of the Geonim up until the 9th century from the 15,000 word letter of R. Sherira Gaon in around 987 CE. In addition, most of the written source material from the academies were responsa answering specific halachic questions. Whilst responsa can certainly be used to understand social and economic issues, many of those which have survived have been heavily edited over time, leaving the halachic issue at hand and excluding some of the more peripheral details. With the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, more material has become available which has shed light onto some of the details of Jewish life but the picture remains fairly blurred.

As we mentioned before, the term ‘Gaon’ did not necessarily imply greatness in scholarship but the academies certainly produced many leading scholars such as R. Sherira, Ahai and Hai Gaon. Their works, and in particular those of R. Sa'adia makes it easier to understand a bit more about the late Geonic period. 

Interestingly, these leading Geonim in terms of scholarly output  lived between the late 9th and 11th centuries during a time where the Gaonate had already declined as the cultural religious centre of world Jewry. A sign of its public decline was that from the 9^th century onwards most of the Geonim no longer lived in the cities of the two academies. They lived in Baghdad, the centre of the authorities and the residence of the Exilarch. However, by then the mission statement of spreading the Talmud had lessened in importance with new centres and scholars emerging in other communities. In addition, independent-minded scholars were making legal decisions on their own and had stopped sending questions to the Babylonian academies. According to R. Abraham ibn Daud, the Gaonate ended with the death of R’ Sherira in 1038 after years of gradual decline.

The period is notable for a number of things that will be investigated in upcoming weeks, for example: The Karaites and the fight against Karaism, the influence of Islam and inter-communal interaction, the arrival of secular philosophy and its effect on the Jewish communities. My more personal examination of this period will focus on aspects of the life, writings and challenges of R. Sa’adia Gaon. [2]

[1] In general, secession groups remained on the periphery at the beginning of this period. The Karaite movement didn’t begin until the mid-8^th century, and this will be discussed subsequently.

[2] My sources for this period are: The Encycopedia Judaica (1971ed.) under Geonim, Sa’adia Gaon, Savoraim; Henry Malter’s 1921 Biography of Sa’adia, Robert Brody’s 2012 updated biography on Sa’adia; Brody's book The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture  published in 1998. In addition I have found some useful excerpts in the Cambridge book on medieval Jewish philosophical writings as well as plenty of quotes found in the above books. Let's also not forget Wikipedia :-). For those that care, I have spelt Gaon with an 'a'and with an 'e' according to how it sounds phonetically. For those that don't, please ignore above sentence.