Person
Mar Rav Mari ha-Kohen of Nehar Pekod מר רב מרי הכהן מנהר פקוד
head of Sura before Rav Yehudai Gaon
Mar Rav Mari ha-Kohen took Sura in 4511 (751). He is the third head of the academy from Nehar Pekod in sixty years, and a kohen—the list marks the standing.
His place in the chain matters more than anything we know of him. After him Sura is taken by Rav Yehudai Gaon, with whom begins what the geonic age will be remembered for: not argument, as in the Talmud, but a finished ruling—what is to be done in practice. Before Rav Yehudai we see a succession of names; after him, books. Mar Rav Mari stands exactly on that border.
He left no words of his own: no responsum, no account. A name, a standing, a town and a year—and that is the whole man.
On the timeline
4349 · 589 CEThe Beginning of the Geonic Era4510 · 750 CEThe Flowering of the Geonic Age and the Sheiltot of Rav Achai
Places
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.