Geonim
Geonim (Hebrew: גְאוֹנִים, lit. 'Excellencies', [ɡe(ʔ)oˈnim]; also transliterated as Gaonim; sing. Gaon, גָאוֹן, 'Excellency') were the chiefs of the Sura and Pumbedita Academies, the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia during the Abbasid Caliphate. They were generally accepted as the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community worldwide in the Early Middle Ages, in contrast to the Resh Galuta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: רֵישׁ גָּלוּתָא, lit. 'Head [of the] Exile') who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands.