Ahai of Shabha

Achai Gaon (also known as Ahai of Shabḥa or Aha of Shabḥa, Hebrew: רב אחא [אחאי] משַׁבָּחָא) was a leading scholar during the period of the Geonim, an 8th-century Talmudist of high renown. He enjoys the distinction of being the first rabbinical author known to history after the completion of the Talmud.^[1] Ahai of Shabha is the author of the She'iltot.

As he never actually became the Gaon of either of the two academies, the description "Gaon" attached to his name is a misnomer. When the gaon of Pumbedita died, Aḥa was universally acknowledged to be the fittest man to succeed him. But a personal grudge entertained by the exilarch Solomon bar Ḥasdai induced the latter to pass over Aḥa, and to appoint Natroi Kahana ben Amuna,^[2] Aḥa's underling, a man considerably his inferior in learning and general acquirements. Angered by this slight, Aḥa left Babylonia and settled in Israel, about 752 or 753, where he remained until his death. Despite Steinschneider's erroneous assertion^[3] that he died in 761, the exact date of his death is unknown.