Person
Rav Aha of Difti רב אחא מדפתי
the man who was not chosen head of Sura
The account stands in Bava Batra 12b, and the Talmud does not prettify it. So one sees that the chair did not always go to the worthiest, and that this was remembered.
He was Ravina II's constant opponent in halakhah and served for a time as hakham to the exilarch Mar Zutra. A student of Meremar. The sources give no years: it is said only "the sixth generation, the fifth century".
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Batra 12b — the election of Mar bar Rav Ashi outside the walls of the academy
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the generation, the service to the exilarch, and the disputes with Ravina II
Basis: Talmud and midrash.