Samuel of Nehardea

A friend of King Shapur I and Rav's rival in the Talmud's debates, he formulated the principle 'the law of the land is the law'.

In the third century Samuel directed the Nehardea academy in Babylonia and was a friend of the Persian king Shapur I; his controversies with Rav are central to the Babylonian Talmud. He is responsible for a long-lived political principle in Jewish tradition: 'the law of the land is the law', that is, the laws of the society Jews live in bind them and at times even override Jewish law.1 In the third century CE the Sasanian kingdom, successor to the Parthians in Iran and Mesopotamia, made leaving Roman rule more feasible. Under Shapur I (c. 240 to 270) the Sasanians defeated the Romans, captured the emperor himself and took territory inhabited by many Jews. Shapur and his successors seemed hospitable; rabbinic literature makes him a close friend of the sage Samuel.2