Rav Bosai רב בוסאי
head of Pumbedita in the mid-seventh century
Rav Bosai headed Pumbedita in the mid-seventh century—the years when Babylonia was already under the caliphate while the academy went on working as it had under the Persians.
Nothing more is known of him. Not one of his responsa survives, not one account of him was handed down. In the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon he is named in the succession of the heads of Pumbedita—and that is the whole of what we may say.
The name is worth keeping straight for another reason: it is easily confused with Bustanai ben Haninai, the Exilarch of the same years. They are different men holding different offices: Bustanai was head of the exile, the community's secular head under the caliph, while Rav Bosai headed the academy.
On the timeline
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Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon — the list of the heads of Pumbedita by name and year
- Seder Tannaim ve-Amoraim — the list of the Savoraim and the first heads of the academies, put together about a century before the Epistle: the same chain, attested independently of Sherira
Basis: documents and evidence.