 While still young, Rav Ashi became the head of the Sura Academy, his great learning being acknowledged by the older teachers.It had been closed since Rav Chisda's death (309), but under Rav Ashi it once again became the intellectual center of the Babylonian Jews.Ashi contributed to its material grandeur also, rebuilding the academy and the synagogue connected with it in Mata Mehasya, sparing no expense and personally superintending their reconstruction.