The last gaon of Sura was Samuel ben Hofni, who died in 1034 CE leaving behind a great many writings. At Pumbedita the last gaon was Hai ben Sherira, also called Hai Gaon. He was taught by—and assisted in teaching— his father, Sherira ben Hanina, who was also called Sherira Gaon.
This was during the Abbasid Caliphate, when the Pumbedita Academy had moved to Baghdad. Hai and his father had enemies who caused them to be imprisoned in 997 and had their property confiscated by Caliph al-Qadir. Their troubles were brief, and shortly after their release Sherira named Hai the new gaon.
Hai's promotion was very popular in the community. When Sherira died in 1006, the following Sabbath saw the passage read from Numbers in which Moses asks for an able follower. It was followed by a reading about Solomon with the words altered to read "And Hai sat on the throne of Sherira his father, and his government was firmly established."
Questions from all over where the Jewish Diaspora landed people—Anatolia, France, Germany, the Iberian Peninsula, Ethiopia and India—came to Pumbedita for advice and rulings. More than 800 responses from Hai Gaon helped to codify rules about holidays and civil law.
In his responses he quotes not only numerous Jewish sources. It is clear he was familiar with the Quran, Plato and Aristotle, Greek history, and Persian. He also consulted with the heads of the local Christians—in this case, Assyrian Christians—over the meaning of Psalms 141:5, whose literal translation is:
The righteous beat me [in] kindness. And reprove me, "" My head does not disallow oil of the head, "" For my prayer [is] still about their distress. [source]
His death marked the end of the Gaonim Era, and he has been called the last of the Geonim. (To be fair, there was one more. Hezekiah ben David was elected Gaon at Hai's death, but he was imprisoned and supposedly tortured to death. On the other hand, supposedly a contemporary in 1046 said Hezekiah was the head of Pumbedita. Still, histories of the Eras still say it ended in 1038 with Hai.)
I find that I've mentioned Assyrian Christians before, but haven't gone into any detail about whence they came or what made them different. I'll rectify that starting tomorrow.
