Page 17 - Journal of the Cenral Asian Society (1960)

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222 fiscii ki. [201
the bazars of Isfahan, the capital of the Persian empire at that
time, had become the object of praise by many European
visitors.54 Another typical "Jewish” occupation at that time was
that of "entertainer” at the courts of the nobles; as professional
dancing boys, musicians, flutists, singers, Jews performed a
strange task at official banquets.55 Jewish women also arc re­
ported to have participated actively in the economic life; they
acted as midwives, and as consultants to the ladies in the harem,
giving recipes for love potions and magic concoctions, telling
fortunes for which they received high enumeration.5*
Jews participated also in the manufacturing of that article
which was most in demand by the merchants of Europe (and
particularly of England) who came to Persia at that time —
namely, silk. Silk, the oil of that time, was the attraction for
the various trade companies which were organized then.57 Persian
silk, produced mainly in the northern provinces of Gilan and
54 See Th. Herbert I. c. p. 234; Tavernier I. c. p. 15.1: Fryer, 1. c. Vol. II.
p. 247; Ogilby, I. c. p. 9, p. 20.
“ Until laic in the nineteenth century Jews did function in such capacity as
"entertainers*’. See E. G. Browne: .1 lV«r Amongst the Persians, London, f
1893. pp. 241, 243. 320/323.
56 J. Chardin. \ of. \ I, p. 27, p. 132. "Lcurs femmes (juives) se glissant dans
les serails font accroitre aux so lies et simples creatures qui y gouvernent par dealing with the internal trade. Though it is evident from the
les charines de leur beaute. qu*i!s savent predire I'avcnir et qu’ils leur pro-
diront ce qui leurarrivcra qu’ils composcnt des breuvages pour se fa ire aimer,
pour faire hair lcurs ri vales, pour fair avoir des enfants cl pour cmpOclicr den
avoir: et par lellcs cl scmblables illusions, ils sc foni hicn payer."
It might be of interest to quote the following passage of the Dutch ir.ixclcr
Th. Salmon: Historic und Geographic des Ge^enuaerti^en Sfnat tn Pcrsien
t739 p. 262. "Die Benjancn (Indians) in Pcrsien uebertreffen die Juden wfc
im Schacher «o aucli in der Anzahl; sie haben den Gddwechsel von ganz
Pcrsien in Hacndcn and haben die Juden beinahe von alien Pacht, Wcchscl
und Ncgotio verdraengt, .so dass diese in Persicn cincn armen and vcrachleicn
Haufen ausniachcn: wcil sie bci dcr Handiung nun nichts verdienen koennen,
*o legen sie sich auf Wahrsagcn und allcrlci solche schwarz geachtete Kuenslc;
sondcrlich suchen ihre Frauen sich im Harem daniit einzuschlciclien und fucr-
nchmlich mit Licbestraencken wollen sie den armen Wcibern gern bcistchcn,
ihnen die Gunst dcrer . . . zu erweeken und zu crhalten . . ."
•w See Chardin I. c. Vol III, pp. 1-3: La Grande marchandisc dc Perse cst
la Sovc.......... .Sec \. Minnrsky: A Manuel of Snfuvid Administration in
Journal of Central Asian .Society. London 1944. p. 97.
[211 PERSIAN GUI.I’ ANU ITS JEWISH SETTLEMENT* m
Mazanclarnn became the playball in the political activities of
European, mostly English, trade concerns, organized in the
Muscovy Company, the Levant Company, and, last, not least,
in the East India Company.Jl It can be assumed that the struggle
for the trade routes and the efforts of the East India Company
to transfer the "silk route” from Gilan and the Caspian Sea over
Aleppo and then across the Mediterranean to a new route via
Isfahan, Siraf. Ear, to the port of the Persian Gulf, Bander
Abbas and then by sea to England, must have affected the
commercial interests of all groups concerned, Armenians, Jews
and others who were active in the silk trade. It is this which
might explain somehow the "sudden appearance", or the growth,
of the Jewish settlements along the shores of the Persian Gulf.
We are informed that in Mazandaran "silk is fabricated by a
society of Jews”, that in Shiraz "Jews arc manufacturing stuffs of
gold and silk”,5’ that the Jews of Isfahan used to bring "very fine
woolen thither from Tabriz”,4* and the Jews of Ear were "famous
for the manufacturing of silk and especially of silk girdles”.6'
How far the Jews participated in the external over-sea trade
of the 17th century cannot yet be established. According to
Tavernier, only the Armenians were the bearers of the foreign
trade, "negoze etranger”, while the Jews and Persians were
r sources that the main agents and factors of the East India
Company were Armenians residing in Persia, helping to increase
and to explore new markets for the British-Persian trade, there
are enough indications to show that Jews, too, in the region nf
the Persian Gulf and elsewhere were engaged in oversea trade
t* On the Levant Company see the excellent study of Alfred C. Wood:
.1 History nf the Levant Company, Oxford 1935: concerning the employment of
Jews bv the Company sec pp. 115, 155—256; 214—218. On the English Last
India Company whose main stations were in Isfahan. Basra and Bander Abbas
sec Sh. A. Khan: The East India Trade in the XVIlilt Century, Oxford 1923.
p. 249 IT. On the Muscovy Company sec Jonas Hanwav: .In Histaruol Ac­
count of the British Trade Over the Caspian Sea, Dublin 1754. Vol. I, p. 399 IT.
J* Cornelius de Bruin 1. c. Vol. II. P- T6.
*• A. Olearius: Voyages and Travels, 1669, p. 165: also J. Ogilbv: .1 Des-
i riptiun of Persia. London 1673, p. 9 IT.
11 Tavernier: " Voyages en Perse . . .. p. 239, 259.