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composed after the close of the Talmud, was curiously enough compiled
in Palestine, whither Achai had migrated from Persia. The Sheeltoth
("Inquiries") contain nearly two hundred homilies on the Pentateuch. In
the year 880 another Gaon, Amram by name, prepared a _Siddur_, or
Prayer-Book, which includes many remarks on the history of the liturgy
and the customs connected with it. A contemporary of Amram, Zemach, the
son of Paltoi, found a different channel for his literary energies. He
compiled an _Aruch_, or Talmudical Lexicon. Of the most active of the
Gaonim, Saadiah, more will be said in a subsequent chapter. We will now
pass on to Sherira, who in 987 wrote his famous "Letter," containing a
history of the Jewish Tradition, a work which stamps the author as at
once learned and critical. It shows that the Gaonim were not afraid nor
incapable of facing such problems as this: Was the Mishnah _orally_
transmitted to the Amoraim (or Rabbis of the Talmud), or was it
_written down_ by the compiler? Sherira accepted the former alternative.
The latest Gaonim were far more productive than the earlier. Samuel, the
son of Chofni, who died in 1034, and the last of the Gaonim, Hai, who
flourished from 998 to 1038, were the authors of many works on the
Talmud, the Bible, and other branches of Jewish literature. Hai Gaon was
also a poet.

The language used by the Gaonim was at first Hebrew and Aramaic, and the
latter remained the official speech of the Gaonate. In course of time,
Arabic replaced the Aramean dialect, and became the _lingua franca_ of
the Jews.

The formal works of the Gaonim, with certain obvious exceptions, were
not, however, the writings by which they left their mark on their age.
The most original and important of the Gaonic writings were their
"Letters," or "Answers" (_Teshuboth_). The Gaonim, as heads of the
school in the Babylonian cities Sura and Pumbeditha, enjoyed far more
than local authority. The Jews of Persia were practically independent of
external control. Their official heads were the Exilarchs, who reigned
over the Jews as viceroys of the caliphs. The Gaonim were the religious
heads of an emancipated community. The Exilarchs possessed a princely
revenue, which they devoted in part to the schools over which the Gaonim
presided. This position of authority, added to the world-wide repute of
the two schools, gave the Gaonim an influence which extended beyond
their own neighborhood. From all parts of t