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Abaye

rabbi

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ304924
Source-derived summary

Abaye (or Abbaye) (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַבַּיֵי, romanized: abbayē) was an amora of the fourth generation of the Talmudic academies in Babylonia. He was born about the close of the third century and died in 337.

Biography

Abbaye, according to Talmudic tradition, was the rosh yeshiva (academic head) of Pumbedita Academy until his death. He was known as a modest and honest man, supporting himself through farming. He lived most of his life in poverty. Abbaye was born as the only son of Kilil. His father died before Abbaye was born, and his mother died during childbirth; he was adopted by his uncle, Rabbah bar Nahmani.

Abbaye was a descendant of Eli, upon whose descendants it was decreed that they would die young. Abbaye lived about sixty years according to Rosh Hashanah 18a.

His name

Abbaye was often called "Nahmani" by his friends.

Editorial summary

“Abaye” enters the record as rabbi. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Abaye and rabbi can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 143-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The authority record carries competing date values—0278, 0280—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Abaye and rabbi.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Abaye” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Abaye and rabbi provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q304924. VIAF identifies the subject as 283303622. The Library of Congress control number is n2004060564. Authority coordinates are 32.991, 35.517. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Abaye”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Abaye primary sources, Abaye archive and Abaye research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Abaye”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Abaye” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.