The Jewish scholar Abba Arika (ca. 175-ca. 247), also known as Rav, founded a yeshiva, or academy, in Sura, Babylonia. The school remained an important center of Jewish learning until the 11th century.

Abba Arika was born to an aristocratic family in Kafri, Babylonia. As a young man, he went to Palestine to study at the academy of the eminent rabbi Judah I. Rabbi Judah had compiled the Mishna, a work containing the Oral Law, or body of unrecorded Jewish teachings or traditions. After acquiring considerable knowledge, Abba returned to Babylonia, where he became an inspector of markets and a lecturer at the academy at Nehardea. About 219 he moved to Sura on the Euphrates River and opened his own academy. His school gained an excellent reputation and attracted many students; in time its importance as a center of learning surpassed that of the academies in Palestine. Abba became known...