Page 21 - Journal of the Cenral Asian Society (1960)

214 fisciii-i. [121 M-M PKHSIAN r.l'I.F \NT> ITS IHWISII SKTT1.KMKNTS 215
were enabled to settle on Persian soil and to establish a new city
(
on the Caspian Sea, Farahabad, the City of Joy. It is probably
to that period that the Judaco-Pcrsian chronicler refers when he
states that "the epoch of Shah Abbas was the time of peace,
when the wolves became the friends of the sheep, and when
the Zoroastrians and non-believers, the Christians and the
Jews, the Frenchmen and the Armenians, the Georgians and
other strangers, lived in mutual harmony in the shadow of his
throne.”**
It can hardly be assumed that the immigration of Jews into
Persia, be it as temporary visitors or as permanent settlers, was
of any considerable size despite the encouraging attitude of Shah
Abbas’ policy towards the newcomers. We have no means of
ascertaining the absolute and correct numbers of the Jewish
population for any period in the history of Persia. Arab and
Persian geographers of the first centuries of Islamic rule have
given us merely some statements concerning the relative strength
of Jews in some of the Persian provinces. Thus we are informed
that in the province of Jibal "Jews are more numerous than
Christians"; that in Khorasan there are "many Jews and a few
Christians”; that in the province of Khusistan "Christians are
few and Jews are numerous”; while in the province of Fars, "the
Zoroastrians arc more numerous than the Jews and there arc &
only a few Christians”.*7 The figures given by Benjamin X ,J The Travels of Pedro Tcixcirn (with his chronicle of the Kings of Ormuz)
of Tudela in the 12th century concerning some Jewish com­
munities in Persia seem to be too exaggerated to be taken as
reliable.
The first more concrete estimates as to the numerical strength
of Jews in Persia we obtain, however, only in this period of the
* See the Judaeo-Persian Chronicles of Babai b. Lutf and Babai b. Farhad,
publ. in extracts by \V. Bacher: Les Juifs de la Perse an XVII et an XVIII
Siecles. Slrassburg 1907: and the Armenian Chronicle of Arakel of Tabriz.
The chapter on the Persian Jews in the Armenian Chronicle was published in
Russian translation in Jeter. Starina Vol. X. Petersburg 1918, pp. 60-76. .See
also Abraham Galante in Hamrnora, Istanbul 1935.
*• Al-Muknddasi: Oescriptio Imperii Moslemici ed. de Goeje in Bibl. Grog.
Arab.. Vol. Ill, Leyden 1906, pp. 394, 12:1. c. 323, 3; 414, 16; 439, 9; sec also
Istakhri I. c. p. 139, 12-17.
i i
!
16th century. Pedro Teixeira (1580),a informs us that theft* are
“some 8,000-10,000 families of Jews throughout all the provinces
of Persia”. That this figure apparently remained static for a
whole century, we learn from the French traveler. J. Chardin
M670), who speaks of about ”9,000-10,000 Jewish families” and
in another passage he asserts that "there are about 50,000-55.000
Jews in Persia".**
How this number was divided amongst the various provinces
cannot be determined, though we know from the Judaco-Persian
chronicles of Babai ibn I.utf and Babai ibn Farhad and from
Armenian sources that Jews were distributed over more than 50
communities in Persia.This is also confirmed by John Fryer,1'
who writes that "in all the cities of Persia there are abundance
of the Jewish nation” and more specifically by C hardin, who
says "this race of Jews is dispersed today in Media, in Myrcania,
in the land of the Parthes, in the two Caramaniens. along tltc
Persian Gulf and in some other localities".'*
In limiting our research to the region of the Persian Gulf we
have now to investigate where exactly these Jewish settlements
"along the Persian Gulf” were situated which have become so
prominent in the time of the Safavid dynasty.
transl. anti c«l. by \V. F. Sinclair with additional notes hv I). \V. Ferguson,
in Hakluyt Society Publications, London 1901. p. 252. See al-*o J. Stevens:
The History of Persia .... extract ed from Teixeira, London 1715. p. 592.
\l»out this Portuguese traveler of Jewish origin see M. Kay-erling: Pedro
Teixeira in J. J. Benjamin's II account of Right Years in Asia and Africa
< 1846-1855) Hannover, IS59, pp. 1-6. Teixeira's lxx>k contains many valuable
details about Jewish communities in Baghdad. Ana. Aleppo, etc., an indication
of his continuous interest in his former co-religionists.
> *’ Fiiymrj cii Perse ed. L. bangles. Paris 1811. Vol. VI. pp. 152-156, Vol. X.
p. 242.
"* See Note 26 alx>ve and my study on "Jews in Persia in the Seventeenth
Century" in Zion (Quarterly for Research in Jewish History) Jerusalem. 1957.
Vol. II. p. 270 :T.
" John Fr\cr: .\ Xcw Account of Fast India and Persia (1672-1681). ed.
\\. Crooke. Hakluyt Publ. Society, London 1902, Vol. II. p. 216. See al-o
p. 550 and Vol. Ill, p. Jb and 125.
•* Chardin: Inyfigej, ed. Amsterdam 1755. Vol. Ill, p. 426-423.