Mar Rav Chanina of Nehar Pekod מר רב חנינא מנהר פקוד
head of Sura from 4449
Mar Rav Chanina took Sura in 4449 (689). The year stands apart: the Jewish Encyclopedia, printing Sherira's list, notes plainly that before 689 even the numbers he gives are not beyond dispute—and from this point the count becomes firm. So Mar Rav Chanina is the first head of Sura whose year we can state without hedging.
His byname points to Nehar Pekod, a settlement on one of the canals near Sura. The heads of the academies came from such places constantly: Sura itself was small, while the circle of learning around it stretched across the whole district, from canal to canal.
He left no words of his own. What is known is the year and the place he came from—and in this stretch of the list even that much is firmer than it was a century earlier.
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Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon — the list of the heads of Sura 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.