Pumbedita


Pumbedita, literally meaning in Aramaic: "The Mouth of the River," was the name of a city from the area called by ancient Jewish sources Babylonia, close to the modern-day city of Fallujah, in Anbar Province, Iraq.
The city had a large Jewish population and was famed for its Talmudic academy scholarship that, together with the city of Sura, gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud. The academy there was founded by Judah ben Ezekiel in the late third century.
The academy was established after the destruction of the academy of Nehardea. Nehardea, being the capital city, was destroyed during the Persian-Palmyrian war.
The twelfth-century travel account of Benjamin of Tudela gives this description :
Guy Le Strange in his geography of Mesopotamia in the Abbasid era constructed from Ibn Serapion,, cites the possible location for Pumbedita: