ABSTRACT
Born in Egypt in 882 CE, Sa‘adyah ben Joseph al-Fayyumi emigrated to Palestine around the beginning of the tenth century, studying with a leading Hebraist in Tiberias before migrating to Iraq. His incisive mind, erudition, and forceful personality were early apparent and his intervention on behalf of Iraqi Jewish authorities in a calendar dispute with the Palestinian Jewish leadership (921–922) brought him wide recognition. In 928, the Exilarch, or Head of the Babylonian Jewish community, David ben Zakkai, appointed him Gaon (Head) of the Yeshiva (academy) of Sura in Baghdad. Within two years, however, Sa‘adyah and the Exilarch became embroiled in a politico-economical dispute that quickly escalated into a community-wide affair, with each side issuing bans of excommunication. When reconciliation between the parties was effected some six years later, Sa‘adya again became the undisputed Gaon of Sura, continuing in this post until his death in 942.
