Geniza Lab

Letters dealing with communal matters surrounding the dispute between Shelomo b. Yehuda and Natan b. Avraham, glued together and reused for the epistle of Sherira Gaon. Per Gil, copied by Ibn Sughmār for the benefit of the nagid of Qayrawān and his followers (who must have known the work well). The passage describes a gaonic schism at Pumbedita in the 820s that was resolved peacefully when Yosef bar Ḥiyya relinquished the office and contented himself with the position of av bet din, allowing Avraham bar Sherira to reign unchallenged. The message Ibn Sughmār intended the passage to convey: like Yosef bar Ḥiyya, Natan b. Avraham should step down from the gaonate and be content with his former title; like Avraham bar Sherira, Shelomo b. Yehuda's position should be uncontested. (Information from Rustow, Heresy, 314)