Page 26 - Journal of the Cenral Asian Society (1960)

204 FISCHEt. I2J Ml IT KSI.VN ISUl.r \Ml ITS JEWISH SETTLEMENTS 205

In his study on “The Jewish Factor in Medieval Civilization" >irrtvh of const land along tlu% Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf
Salo BaronJ remarks that “a more thorough investigation of all from Basra down to the south, and including many small islands,
localities where Jews were found and of the number, absolute had already under the control of Sassanid Persia a very complex
and relative, of Jews inhabiting them would undoubtedly shed population, which consisted of Zoroastrians, Christians, Arab
new light on the importance of the Jewish factor in their evolu­ tribesmen and Jews. The origin of the Jewish settlement un­
tion." Though referring only to the Jews in Medieval Europe, doubtedly goes back to the early Christian centuries. If we
this statement can and should be applied also to the Jews of accept the assumption that Oriental Christianity spread first
other continents, particularly to the Jews in the Islamic Orient. into places where Jewish communities were already in existence,
Oriental Jewry in the various countries and at various historical I then Bahrain and the Hast coast of Arabia in general must have
It will require, however, lengthy and difficult research to give
had a Jewish population at a very early date.6
a satisfactory answer to the manifold demographic problems of
The Jewish settlement in Bahrain came into the brighter light
periods, but no effort should be sparer! to obtain with the help of history, however, only when Islam started its victorious march
of the available sources, scattered and scanty though they are through Arabia and when Mohammed dispatched his troops
a clear conception of the geographical distribution, the numerical to conquer this Persian-controlled territory. On that occasion,
strength, and the sociological, economical and cultural structure in the year 650. the Jews in Bahrain, more exactly in its capital,
of the Jewish communities in the Islamic Orient in general. Hajar. are expressly mentioned in Arabic sources7 as having
The most fruitful method for the elucidation of “The Jewish refused to accept Islam. They preferred to pay the poll-tax
%
factor in Medieval Islam" seems to be a regional approach, (Jizya) and to accept the status of “Aid adh-Dhimma" (protected
a method previously employed for areas such as Kurdistan and people): and as such the> could continue their religious existence
Khorasan,4 which by its very concentration on a specific geo­ undisturbed for many centuries. Qirqisani, the Karaite scholar
graphical area, by its deliberate limitation to one region, offers and traveler of the tilth century/ and other sources/ furnish
the greatest possibility of a reliable and factual presentation.
Hu* |>ru\ im v ..I Kir*, which will l»c dealt with separately. For Basra, xe
I >. S. Sa**«"'»n rite lli>i**r\ of the Jews in Basra in J. Q. R., Yol. XYII N.S.,
2 P>27. pp. 4U7-40T S. II. I.'iii^ri}:)*: Four tcnlurics of Modern Iraq. Oxford
1925.
Geographical Distribution before the 16th Century ♦See K So-n Laintireiic. History of the Expansion of Christianity. New
York. 1947. \ .*1 I. pp. 51-5.?. pp. 104-254. \. Mingana: The Early Spread
In turning first to the geographical distribution of Jewish ri Christianit\ a Central Asia and the Far East, Manchester. 1925. and the
settlements in this region5 it appears that one of the earliest well known -italic* of Noeldeke. Sacli.m and Lnlxiurt.
: See al-Hel.idhori: Fuluh aUlnldan. ed. dc Gocjc, Leyden. 1866. pp. »7.
Jewish communities was at Bahrain. Bahrain, the small
<>: 78. II: 79 5. M. Spcrber: Die Schreiben Mohanimeds an die Staemme
\raliien>. in Mitt. d. Sent./. Orient. Spraehen, Berlin. 1916, Yol. 19. pp. 22,
* Proceedings of the Amerieun Academy for Jewish Reseunh. New York.
25. 42.
1942. Yol. XII. p. 4. ' See Y.fiplb al-Oirqbani. Kitab a/Anwar wal-Mardqib (Code of Karaite
4 See the present writer’s studies: “The Jews of Kurdistan, a hundred years Law) c*l. Le«'n Neniov, New York 1949, Yol. I. pp. 145, 15: 140. i.
Ago” in Jewish Social studies. New York. 1944, Yol. VI. pp. 195-226. and "The » Isiakhri. Kitab Masdlik at- Mamdlik, ed. dc Gocjc, Leyden I8i0. and 2nd
Jews of Central Asia (Khorasan) in Medieval Hebrew and Islamic Literature” ed. by J. H. Kramers. Lexdon 1927. p. 19. and particularly the Persian note
in Historic Judaica, New York. 1945. Yol. VII. pp. 29-50. 19;i. See F. Wue- tenfold. Hahrein and J a mama mull arabisthen Ceo^raphen,
* The investigation of the prc-lslamic association of Jews with the Persian 1S74. p. 177. Yaqiit: Mu'jam al-Huldan eel. F. \Yttcslcnfeld, Leipzig, 1866-74.
Gulf area has been excluded here. Excluded, also, is Bitdtir and the coa-a of
Yul. IY. p. 955. >. v. Ilajar.

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