Person
Mar bar Rav Chanan of Iskiya מר בר רב חנן מאישקיא
the first Gaon of Pumbedita
Mar bar Rav Chanan of Iskiya is the first name in the list of the Geonim. Sherira sets him at the head of Pumbedita in 4349, and from that year the age is reckoned that would last four hundred years.
What exactly happened in 4349 the letter does not explain. The Savoraim ended, the academies of Sura and Pumbedita worked side by side again, and their heads came to be called Geonim—from "rosh yeshivat geon Yaakov", "head of the academy of the pride of Jacob". The title meant not a degree but an office: a Gaon answered communities throughout the dispersion, and his answer was law where no other authority reached.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Documents of the period
- Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon — head of Pumbedita from 4349
- Jewish Encyclopedia, «Gaon» — the synchronistic table of the heads of Sura and Pumbedita from Sherira's account
Basis: documents and evidence.