Ravina (I)
352 CE–422 CE · Amoraim · Sura (Babylonia)
Ravina I bar Abba was a Babylonian Amora of the sixth generation, active in the academy of Sura during the late fourth and early fifth centuries. A student of Rava and a contemporary of Abaye's school, Ravina became one of the most influential voices in the final era of Amoraic activity. He was known for his sharp logical analysis and his role in the codification of Talmudic discussions, often serving as a decisive voice in disputes between earlier authorities. Ravina lived through a period of significant scholarly consolidation and is remembered as a link between the creative period of the Amoraim and the emergence of the Geonic era. His teachings were preserved extensively in the Bavli, and he is frequently cited alongside Rav Ashi as a final authority on Babylonian law.
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Sura (Babylonia)Babylonia
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Sura (Babylonia) in this era
Under the Sassanid Persian Empire, during the reigns of Shapur II and his successors, Sura was a flourishing center of Jewish learning in Babylonia, home to one of the two great academies that shaped rabbinic Judaism. The Jewish community there enjoyed considerable autonomy under the exilarch, who served as ethnarch and liaison to the Persian crown, and the academy itself was a hub of intellectual ferment where disputes over Jewish law were debated with fierce intensity. While Persian rule could be unpredictable—Shapur II's early reign saw sporadic persecution of Christians and sometimes Jews—the Sassanid system of religious tolerance through centralized oversight allowed the yeshiva to flourish and draw students from across the diaspora. Ravina lived during the academy's golden age, when the work of compiling and systematizing the oral traditions into what would become the Babylonian Talmud was reaching its culmination, even as the wider Roman Empire was convulsing with Constantine's conversion and the rise of Christianity.
About Sura (Babylonia)
Babylonian Geonic academy
In Sura (Babylonia) at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Ravina (I)’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Ravina (I)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
- Anonymous (Sefer Yetzirah author)· 200 BCE–500 CE
- Anonymous (Merkavah Mystics)· 100 CE–500 CE
- Acha of Lod· 280 CE–360 CE
- Rava bar Yosef bar Chama· 280 CE–352 CE
- Acha bar Yaakov· 290 CE–370 CE
- Idi bar Avin· 290 CE–360 CE
- Rami bar Chama· 290 CE–360 CE
- Mana (II)· 290 CE–360 CE
- Nachman bar Yitzchak· 290 CE–356 CE
- Rav Mesharshiya· 300 CE–380 CE
- Yose ben Avin (Yerushalmi redactor)· 300 CE–380 CE
- Rav Papa· 300 CE–375 CE
- Rav Kahana (III, disciple of Rava)· 300 CE–370 CE
- Huna brei d'Rav Yehoshua· 305 CE–410 CE
- Rav Dimi of Nehardea· 305 CE–385 CE
- Tanchuma bar Abba (last great EY Amora)· 310 CE–390 CE
- Zevid of Nehardea· 310 CE–385 CE
- Rav Hama of Nehardea· 310 CE–377 CE
- Amemar· 360 CE–422 CE
- Mar Zutra (Resh Kallah)· 360 CE–442 CE
- Rafram bar Papa· 410 CE–475 CE
Graeco-Roman world
Christian world
Buddhist world
Luminaries & Explorers world
Scientists
Rulers world
- Yazdegerd I· –420 CE
- Gwanggaeto the Great· 374 CE–412 CE
- Yax Nuun Ahiin I (Curl Nose)· –404 CE
- Bahram V· 400 CE–438 CE
- Siyaj Chan K'awiil II (Stormy Sky)· –456 CE
- Attila the Hun· 406 CE–453 CE
- Shapur II· 309 CE–379 CE
- Chak Tok Ich'aak I (Great Jaguar Paw)· –378 CE
- Leo I the Thracian· 401 CE–474 CE
- Ezana of Aksum· –360 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.