Hezekiah Gaon

Who is Hezekiah Gaon?

Hezekiah Gaon was the last Gaon of the Talmudic academy in Pumbedita from 1038-40.

Hezekiah was a member of the exilarchal family, son of David,who was son the of Zakkai,who was the son of Avraham, who was the son of Nathan, son of David a Rabbi, whose father was Hazub. He was elected to the office of principal after the murder of Hai Gaon, but was denounced to a fanatical government of the Buyyids, imprisoned, and tortured to death. With him ended his family, with the exception of two sons who escaped to the Iberian Peninsula, where they found a home with Joseph ben Samuel, the son of Samuel ha-Nagid. The death of Hezekiah also ended the line of the Geonim, which began four centuries before, and with it the Academy of Pumbedita. The Spanish poet Hiyya al-Daudi was descended of one of the Hezekiah's sons, named David.