Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha, Pumpedita, or Pumbedisa; arc, פוּמְבְּדִיתָא ''Pūmbəḏīṯāʾ'', "The Mouth of the River,") was an ancient city located near the modern-day city of
Fallujah
Fallujah ( ar, ٱلْفَلُّوجَة, al-Fallūjah, Iraqi pronunciation: ) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Je ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
. It is known for having hosted the
Pumbedita Academy.
History
The city of Pumbedita was said to have possessed a Jewish population since the days of
Second Temple of Jerusalem
The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherite ...
.
The city had a large
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
population and was famed for its
Pumbedita Academy - whose scholarship, together with the city of
Sura, gave rise to the
Babylonian Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cent ...
. The academy there was founded by
Judah ben Ezekiel in the late third century.
The academy was established after the destruction of the academy of
Nehardea. Nehardea, being the capital city, was destroyed during the
Persian-Palmyrian war.
The twelfth-century travel account of
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela ( he, בִּנְיָמִין מִטּוּדֶלָה, ; ar, بنيامين التطيلي ''Binyamin al-Tutayli''; Tudela, Kingdom of Navarre, 1130 Castile, 1173) was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, an ...
gives this description :
:Two days
rom_Mosul_is.html"_;"title="Mosul.html"_;"title="rom_Mosul">rom_Mosul_is">Mosul.html"_;"title="rom_Mosul">rom_Mosul_isJuba,_which_is_Pumbeditha_in_
rom_Mosul_is.html"_;"title="Mosul.html"_;"title="rom_Mosul">rom_Mosul_is">Mosul.html"_;"title="rom_Mosul">rom_Mosul_isJuba,_which_is_Pumbeditha_in_Nehardea">Neharde’a,_containing_about_two_thousand_Jews,_some_of_them_being_eminent_scholars._Rabbi_R._Chen,_R._Moshe_and_R._Eliakim_are_the_principal_of_them._Here_the_traveller_may_see_the_sepulchres_of_R._Jehuda_and_R._Sh'muel_opposite_to_two_synagogues_-_which_they_erected_during_their_lives_-_and_the_sepulchre_of_R._Bosthenai,_the_Exilarch.html" ;"title="Nehardea.html" ;"title="Mosul">rom_Mosul_is.html" ;"title="Mosul.html" ;"title="rom Mosul">rom Mosul is">Mosul.html" ;"title="rom Mosul">rom Mosul isJuba, which is Pumbeditha in Nehardea">Neharde’a, containing about two thousand Jews, some of them being eminent scholars. Rabbi R. Chen, R. Moshe and R. Eliakim are the principal of them. Here the traveller may see the sepulchres of R. Jehuda and R. Sh'muel opposite to two synagogues - which they erected during their lives - and the sepulchre of R. Bosthenai, the Exilarch"> prince of the captivity, of R. Nathan and R. Nachman B. Papa.
Guy Le Strange in his geography of Mesopotamia in the Abbasid era constructed from Ibn Serapion, (ca.900), cites the possible location for Pumbedita:
:The Nahr-al-Badāt (or Budāt) was a long drainage channel taken from the left bank of the Kūfah arm of the Euphrates, at a
day's journey to the north of Kūfah city, probably near the town of Kanṭarah-al-Kūfah, otherwise called Al-Kanāṭīr, ‘the Bridges,’ which doubtless carried the high road across the Badāt. This city of ‘the Bridges’ lay 27 miles south of the great Sūrā bridge of boats, and 28 miles north of Kūfah; and it probably lay adjacent to, or possibly was identical with, the Hebrew Pombedita (Arabic ''Fam-al-Badāt'', ‘mouth of the Badāt canal’)”, mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela as a great centre of Jewish learning in Babylonia.
See also
*
Talmudic academies in Babylonia
References
Talmud places
Babylonia
Jewish Babylonian history
Babylonian cities
{{Jewish-hist-stub