SURA

depiction of an ancient or medieval school at Sura, courtesy, notebookm.com

Today, the site of the ancient city of Sura is located in the southern half of Arab-occupied Iraq. At one time, a mixed Assyrian and Jewish town and part of the Assyrian/Babylonian Empires, Sura came under Roman control in the time of Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) during which time, the Assyrians, especially in and around the town, had adopted Christianity giving rise to the Assyrian Church of the East. By the year 253, it was conquered by the Persian Sasanian emperor Shapur I and at some point, Sura became solely inhabited by Jews becoming a major center of Torah scholarship and home to an important yeshiva - the Sura Academy founded by Abba Arikha - which, together with the yeshivot in Pumbedita and Nehardea, gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud in the 5^th/6^th century. Sura was also well-known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes, wheat, and barley.

The town was a Byzantine garrison of some importance in the Persian campaigns of military commander Belisarius. A full account is given of the circumstances under which it was taken and burned by the Persian Emperor Chosroes I (532 CE); incidental mention of the bishop proves that it was then an episcopal see. Its walls were so weak that it did not hold out more than half an hour but it was afterwards more substantially fortified, by order of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Sura declined as a Jewish center in the 6^th and 7^th centuries due to constant subsequent wars and upheavals and remained in ruins ever since. In the 7^th century, the approximate area was conquered and colonized by the Arabs, who introduced Islam, in which state it remains to this day. Sura itself was never again re-inhabited, not by Jews or Christians or anyone else.  

According to Sherira Gaon, Sura was identical to the town of Mata Mehasya, which is also mentioned in the Talmud, but Mata Mehasya is cited in the Talmud many times, either as a nearby town or a suburb of Sura, and the Talmudic academy in Mata Mehasya served as a branch of the Sura Academy. A contemporary Syriac source described Sura as a town that was completely inhabited by Jews, situated between Māḥōzē and al-Hirah in the Sawad. A responsum of Natronai ben Hilai says that Sura was about 3.7 miles from al-Hirah. Today, the Assyrian Christians, the indigenous inhabitants of the land who are mainly followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church, inhabit areas around Sura, the nearest communities being around 40 to 85 miles away. For example, the Chaldean Church of the Virgin Mary is located approximately 44 miles to the north in the town of Hillah. In the town of Ayn al Tamr near Karbala, approximately 80 miles northwest of Sura, is the Al-Aqiser Church, an ancient church built in the 5th century CE and considered to be among the oldest eastern Christian Churches in the Middle East outside of Israel. Until recently it was in active use.