32 - The history of the Babylonian academies

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The word “academies” in the title translates the Hebrew term yeshivot (singular, yeshivah) and its Aramaic cognate metivata (singular: metivta). These terms are still used today to designate advanced schools of rabbinic learning. More relevant is the fact that medieval Baghdad was home to academies for the study of talmudic tradition called yeshivot/metivata. This fact is relevant because the historiography that has dominated modern scholarship on the subject originated in Baghdad in the ninth through the eleventh centuries. That historiography asserted that the yeshivot of Sasanian Babylonia were similar to the talmudic academies of Islamic Iraq. This view is still the most common one, but it is also the subject of some recent debate. It may be that a new, revised consensus is emerging from this debate. The discussion begins, however, with the traditional view.

The only contemporary evidence available on Jewish education in Sasanian Babylonia appears in talmudic literature. It consists of statements attributed to, and anecdotes about, named individuals who flourished during the third through the fifth centuries. These masters of rabbinic tradition are known as Amoraim and give their name to the amoraic period. In addition, the anonymous, editorial stratum of the Babylonian Talmud may shed light on the immediate post-amoraic era, corresponding to the final century plus of Sasanian rule. Unfortunately, the Amoraim do not appear to have been especially interested in recording the history of their own time. Their main focus was law and religion.