Editing Saadia Gaon (section)

===Appointment as Gaon===
His dispute with Ben Meir was an important factor in his call to Sura in 928. The Exilarch insisted on appointing him as Gaon "head of the academy" despite the weight of precedent (no foreigner had ever served as Gaon before) and against the advice of the aged Nissim Nahrwani, a [[Resh Kallah]] at Sura, who feared a confrontation between the two strong-willed personalities, Exilarch David and Saadia. Nissim declared, however, that if David was determined to see Saadia in the position, then he would be ready to become the first of Saadia's followers.<ref>Yuchasin, section 3, account by Nathan the Babylonian.</ref> Another factor against Saadia's appointment was his relatively undistinguished family, compared to the familial legacies of certain rabbis and their oral traditions.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFTqDwAAQBAJ |title=Wisdom on the Move: Late Antique Traditions in Multicultural Conversation: Essays in Honor of Samuel Rubenson |date=2020-06-08 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-43074-7 |pages=227 |language=en}}</ref> 

Under his leadership, the ancient academy of Sura founded by [[Abba Arikha]] entered upon a new period of brilliancy.<ref>Letter of Sherira Gaon.</ref> This renaissance was cut short by a clash between Saadia and David, much as Nissim had predicted.

In a probate case, Saadia refused to sign a verdict of the exilarch, which he thought unjust, although the Gaon of [[Pumbedita]] had subscribed to it. When the son of the exilarch threatened Saadia with violence to secure his compliance and was roughly handled by Saadia's servant, open war broke out between the exilarch and the gaon. Each [[Herem (censure)|excommunicated]] the other, declaring that he deposed his opponent from office. David ben Zakkai appointed Joseph ben Jacob Gaon of Sura and Saadia conferred the exilarchate on David's brother Hasan (Josiah; 930).

Hasan was forced to flee and died in exile in [[Greater Khorasan]], and the strife that divided Babylonian Judaism continued. Saadia was attacked by the exilarch and his chief adherent, the young but learned [[Aaron ibn Sargado]] (later Gaon of Pumbedita, 943-960), in Hebrew pamphlets. Fragments of these pamphlets show a hatred on the part of the exilarch and his partisans that did not shrink from scandal. Saadia did not fail to reply.