Page 24 - Journal of the Cenral Asian Society (1960)

208 l-ISCMEI. 101 |7| I'KKM AN <;il.r AND ITS JI WISH SETTLEMENTS 209

come down to us, observes that “Kish is a considerable market, silence* could well be attributed to the inadequacy of sources.
being the point to which the Indian merchants and those of the It might, however, indicate the actual disappearance of the
islands bring their commodities while the traders of Mesopo­ Jewish communities in this area, through migration, perhaps to
tamia, Shinear, Media, Yemen and Persia import all sorts of India, through transplanting toother parts of Persia during the
silk and purple clothes, flax, cotton, and other objects of ex­ Seljuk and Mongol rule, or through disintegration and dis­
change .... The inhabitants of the island live by what they solution. Only about four hundred years after Benjamin of
gain in the capacity of brokers to l>olh parties. Five hundred Tudela, in the 16th century, new light breaks through and the
Jews live in Kish."'5 i V available sources confront us again suddenly with the presence
The reference in the Gaonic literature by R. Hai Gaon (990- of Jews in the area of the Persian Gulf.
1038), the famous leader of Jewry of his time, to “Jews on the The reestablishment of the Jewish association with the region
islands of the Persian Sea" (o*id Vp qm "n) might indicate that of the Persian Gulf from the 16th century on seems to be. to a
R. Hai had knowledge of scattered Jewish colonies in that great extent, due to two factors, namely, the establishment of
region.'6 If these “islands" could be taken as including also the I the Portuguese colonial empire in the Orient and the new policy
island of Kish, we have here documentary evidence that the of the Persian Shah. Abbas the First (1587-1629).
Jewish settlement there existed over a hundred years previous After the discovery of the sea route to India around the Cape
to Bcnvamin of Tudela’s visit. of Good Hope, the Portuguese, the pioneers of the maritime
Katifa, belonging to the Bahrain territory, also had a nations in Europe, became the first European nation to establish
considerable Jewish settlement in Medieval Islam. Katifa was a foothold in the Persian Gulf. D’Albuquerque. the Portuguese
famous for its pearl fishery, and Benjamin of Tudela's descrip­ viceroy of India, recognized the importance of the Persian Gulf
tion of it shows that this trade was controlled by Jews, of whom t when he stated that “there are three places in India which serve
live thousand were supposed to have lived there.'7 as marts of all the commerce of merchant-wares in that part of
. the world, and the principal keys of it: The lirsl is Malacca, the
3 second is Aden the third is Ormuz at the entry and
exit of the trade of the Persian sea. This city of Ormuz is ac­
Till? PORTUGUESE POWER IN THE PERSIAN GULF cording to my idea the most important of them all. Ormuz by
reason of its commerce and navigable position is very much
The association of Jews with the Persian Gulf from the end "i*
renowned throughout the whole world.
of the 12th century on seems to have been interrupted; at least When the Portuguese penetrated into the waters of the Pet>ian
no mention of them is made in the extant sources. 'Phis complete Gulf and conquered in 1507 the island of Ormuz, Jews, mostly
of Portuguese origin, appear with them on the scene. Jews, then
M The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela,- cd. .\. Asher. New York
1840. Yol. I. p. 136, Yol. II. p. 175. as always the great travelers on land and sea, participated
“See J. .Mann: The Kesponsa of ihc Babylonian Gconim as a source of actively in the exploration of the Portuguese colonial empire
Jewish history in J. Q. R. 1917, n. s.. Yol. VII. p. 471. L. Ginzbcrg: lieonica.
New York 1909, Yol. II, p. 279, which does not contain the reference to the •* Sec \fonso D’Albuquerquc. "The Commentaries ... Haklux t Society
islands of Persia. Publications. London. 1S83. Yol. IY. p. 185. The Portuguese king* Mxled
1 * About the reliability of Benjamin of Tudela's figures ami data pertaining themselves "Lords of the Conquests. Navigation and Commerce of India.
to the trans-Tigris territories see A. 'I*. Wilson: Early Spanish and Portuguese Ethiopia, \rabia anti Persia” (sec Wilson. I. c. p. 111). G. \\. h. Stripling
Travelers in Persia. London 1927. pp. 4-7; also P. Borchardt in Jnlirburh d. The Ottoman Turks and the Arabs (1511-1574) t’niw «»f III. Press 1942 (with a
.hied. Lit. lies. Frankfort «»-ni. 1924, p. 20.
very valuable bibliographx).
;