All these writers, however, are entirely eclipsed by the commanding personality of the most famous of the Geonim, Seadiah ben Joseph (q.v.) of Sura, often called al-Fayyumi (of the Fayum in Egypt), one of the greatest representatives of Jewish learning of all times, who died in 942.
Petrie found painted sherds of Cretan style at Kahun in the Fayum, and farther up the Nile, at Tell el-Amarna, chanced on bits of no fewer than Boo Aegean vases in 1889.
Characteristic Cretan pottery of this period was found by Petrie in the Fayum in conjunction with XIIth Dynasty remains, and various Cretan products of the period show striking coincidences with XIIth Dynasty styles, especially in their adoption of spiraliform ornament.
Three years later he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return lived in retirement in the Fayum until 1399, when he was again called upon to resume his functions as cadi.
Opened in 1895 this museum possesses an important collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, found not only in the city but in all Lower Egypt and the Fayum.