Page 20 - Journal of the Cenral Asian Society (1960)

216 fisciiki. (14|
|15| PKKSIAN r.Ul.l- AND ITS JIAVISII SKTTI.KMKNTS 217

5
(ponn) and lias left us a very vivid account of his visit and
his sojourn there. It can hardly be assumed that at that time a
Grograpiucal Distrimution from the 16tii Cf.ntury on
Yemenite Jew would have spent any length of time in a place
The renewal in the 16th century of the link between the Persian in which there was no Jewish community.
Gulf and Jewish settlements is significantly connected with the That there actually was a Jewish community in Ormuz at that
city and island which began in these centuries to play the central time is reliably stated by the Portuguese traveler Pedro
role in the Indian-Furopean trade, namely Hormuz or Ormuz. Teixeira. himself of Jewish origin. While studying the Persian
Just as Kish was supplanted by Katifa. so Katifa and all the language and the history of Persia in Ormuz (1593-1507), Pedro
other trading centers of the Persian Gulf in turn were superseded Teixeira had ample opportunity to acquaint himself with the
from the 14th century on by Ormuz. It became the most promi- population in this place. "The people of Ormuz,” he writes, “all
nent center of Indian trade, the meeting place of the merchants speak Persian . . . and all the natives arc Moors . . . Besides there
of all European nations trading with India and the Far Hast, are many Christians. Portugueses. Armenians. Georgians, Jacob­
the rendezvous of mercatores tot ins orbis, among whom Jews ites. Nestorians. and many Heathens .. . and about one hundred
were
also mentioned.11 and fifty houses of Jews.”1*
The Jewish settlement in Ormuz from the 16th century on is That this rather considerable Jewish community in Ormuz
well attested, by Hebrew as well as by European sources. still existed a generation later is well confirmed by the Spanish
Probably for the first time in Hebrew literature it is mentioned I envoy Garcias de Silva Figueroa17 who visited Ormuz in 1617 and
in a Responsum14 sent to Rabbi Moshe Alshaikh in connection still found among the population of 2500-3000 families "about
with the visit to Ormuz (ronn) by a Jewish merchant, Yahuda i one hundred Jewish families.” He also met therewith a Jew by the
Gabbav from Brusa (Turkey) (nona), who entertained business I name of Isaac, who functioned as "collcctcur” on behalf of the
l
connections with the Jews of the Persian Gulf. Ormuz is also government and who is described as one "who spoke very well
mentioned in the "Sefer ha-Mussar” by the Yemenite Jew, his Hebrew language and who showed that he was very much
traveler and poet. Zakharya ben Saadya az-Zahiri15 who in the acquainted with the Old Testament”. This Jewish "collecteur”.
second half of the 16th century spent full six months in Ormuz apart from speaking Persian, was also well versed in Spanish
since he. together with others, had originally come from Alep|>o.
11 There exist innumerable descriptions of Ormuz, hut we need not enu-
mcrate them here. See Wilson. 1. c. Bibliography. Tripoli, or Constantinople, and were descendants of Spanish
14 The Responsa of Moshe Alshaikh, ed. Yenetia, 1605, paragraph 118. Jews.1*
I owe this reference to my late friend. Hr. Alfred Freimann of the Hebrew I'ni-
versity in Jerusalem. A systematic search in the Responsa literature of the been published by If. Brody in Malnwuei Mistarim (Cracow 1894). pp. 9-11.
time will undoubtedly furnish further important data. The name of the city 20-26; by Kehaty in Zion. vol. iii (1929). 43-53: J. Schirman in Yedioth
of Ormuz is also mentioned, as Prof. L Baer kindly pointed out to me. in ha-Mnchan Ir-fftkrr ha-Shirah (Jerusalem 1936). p. 186. and by the present
David ha-Reubeni's Sippur; but without any reference to a Jewi>h community writer in Tarhiz. vol. vi, (1935). pp. 177-81 and .Sinai, vol. iii (1940). p. 231.
in Ormuz. See the edition of A. S. Ashcoly, Jerusalem 1940. pp. 77 and 228. n. 26 Through the courtesy of Professor Alexander Marx and Mr. M. Lutzky
The correction of Formosa (mom!)) into Ormus seems very likely, see Ashcolv I had been able to use the manuscript of Sefer ha-Mussar o( the Jewish 1 heo-
1. c. p. 67. 250. See also A. Neubaucr: Mediaeval Jewish Chranitles. Oxford logical Seminary Library. New York.
1895. Yol. II. p. 173. p. 180. 0 Sec about his work Note 28 1. c. p. 168.
11 See the author's work entitled Sefer ha-Mussar. Chapter IX. still only avail­ L’.lmbassade de Don Careia de Silva Figueroa en Perse, translated from
able in manuscript. The author refers to Ormuz in ch. 4. 9 and 19 (:ioitn). Cf. Spanish l>y A. tie Wicqfort. Paris 1667, pp. 41-42.
I). S. Sassoon: Ohel David, vol. ii, p. 1023-33 (No. 905); -elected chapters have Figueroa I c. p. 42. See also A. Olearius: I*uyut»e and Travels London
1009, p. 165; O. Dapper: Asia. Nurenbcrg 1081, Veil. II, p. 50.