Mar Sar Shalom ben Boas

Kohen Ṣedeq Bar Ivomay Gaon

Kohen Ṣedeq Bar Ivomay (or Ikhomay) Gaon was head of the Sura yeshiva in Iraq from 838 to 848 (alternatively, 832 to 843). From the few sources attributable to him with a measure of confidence, it appears that Kohen Ṣedeq was one of the Babylonian authorities consulted on legal matters by the heads of the Jewish community of Qayrawan. A ruling of his on a liturgical question is also cited by the Andalusian scholar Isaac ben Judah ibn Ghiyyāth, and the reference therein to “the seder of Rav Kohen Ṣedeq” has led to the suggestion that he was one of the first to compile a prayerbook. Another of his responsa, concerning circumcision, reveals a respectful attitude toward local custom even when it diverged from the practice of the Babylonian academies.

Arnold Franklin

Bibliography

Abramson, Shraga. Ba-Merkazim uva-Tefuṣot bi-Tequfat ha-Ge’onim (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1965).

Gil, Moshe. The Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

Havatzelet, Me’ir. Ha-Rambam veha-Ge’onim (Jerusalem and New York: Sura, 1967).

Tykocinski, Hayyim. Taqqanot ha-Ge’onim, trans. and ed. Me’ir Havatzelet (Jerusalem and New York: Sura and Yeshiva University, 1959).

Citation Arnold Franklin. " Kohen Ṣedeq Bar Ivomay Gaon." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 24 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>