Geonim (Hebrew: ืึฐืืึนื ึดืื, lit.โ'Excellencies', [ษกe(ส)oหnim]; also transliterated as Gaonim; sing.โGaon, ืึธืืึนื, 'Excellency') were the chiefs of the Sura and Pumedita Academies, the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia during the Abbasid Caliphate. They were generally accepted as the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community worldwide in the Early Middle Ages, in contrast to the Resh Galuta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ืจึตืืฉื ืึธึผืืึผืชึธื, lit.โ'Head [of the] Exile') who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands.
The title is derived from gei'on (ืึฐืืึนื, 'pride' or 'majesty'), a Biblical Hebrew term found in Psalm 47:5, Nahum 2:3, Amos 6:8, and Amos 8:7, among other texts of the Hebrew Bible. In Modern Hebrew, the term (ืืืื) translates to "genius". The Geonim played a prom...
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