Everything about History Of The Jews In Iran totally explained
The beginnings of Jewish history in
Iran date back to late biblical times. The biblical books of
Isaiah,
Daniel,
Ezra,
Nehemiah,
Chronicles, and
Esther contain references to the life and experiences of Jews in Persia. In the book of Ezra, the Persian kings are credited with permitting and enabling the Jews to return to
Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple; its reconstruction was affected "according to the decree of
Cyrus, and
Darius, and
Artaxerxes king of Persia" (Ezra 6:14). This great event in Jewish history took place in the late sixth century B.C.E., by which time there was a well-established and influential Jewish community in Persia.
Persian Jews have lived in the territories of today's
Iran for over 2,700 years, since the first
Jewish diaspora when
Shalmaneser V conquered the (Northern) Kingdom of Israel (
722 BCE) and sent the
Israelites into captivity at
Khorasan. In
586 BCE, the
Babylonians expelled large populations of Jews from
Judea to the
Babylonian captivity.
Jews who migrated to ancient Persia mostly lived in their own communities. The Persian Jewish communities include the ancient (and until the mid-
20th century still extant) communities not only of Iran, but of parts of what is now
Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan, northwestern
India,
Kirgizstan,
Pakistan,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan.
Some of the communities have been isolated from other Jewish communities, to the extent that their classification as "Persian Jews" is a matter of
linguistic or
geographical convenience rather than actual historical relationship with one another. During the peak of the Persian Empire, Jews are thought to have comprised as much as 20% of the population.
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According to
Encyclopædia Britannica: "
The Jews trace their heritage in Iran to the Babylonian Exile of the 6th century BC and, like the Armenians, have retained their ethnic, linguistic, and religious identity."
(External Link) But
Library of Congress's country study on Iran states that "
Over the centuries the Jews of Iran became physically, culturally, and linguistically indistinguishable from the non-Jewish population. The overwhelming majority of Jews speak Persian as their mother language, and a tiny minority, Kurdish."
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Cyrus the Great and Jews
Three times during the 6th century BCE, the
Jews (Hebrews) of the ancient
Kingdom of Judah were exiled to
Babylon by
Nebuchadnezzar. These three separate occasions are mentioned in
Jeremiah (52:28-30). The first exile was in the time of
Jehoiachin in
597 BCE, when the
Temple of Jerusalem was partially despoiled and a
number of the leading citizens removed. After eleven years (in the reign of
Zedekiah) a fresh rising of the Judaeans occurred; the city was razed to the ground, and a further deportation ensued. Finally, five years later, Jeremiah records a third captivity. After the overthrow of Babylonia by the
Achaemenid Empire,
Cyrus the Great gave the Jews permission to return to their native land (
537 BCE), and more than forty thousand are said to have availed themselves of the privilege, (See
Jehoiakim;
Ezra;
Nehemiah and
Jews). Cyrus also allowed them to practice their religion freely (See
Cyrus Cylinder) unlike the previous Assyrian and Babylonian rulers.
Second temple
Cyrus had ordered rebuilding the
Second Temple in the same place as of the first, however he died before it was completed.
Darius the Great, after a short lived rule of
Cambyses came in to power of the Persian empire and ordered the completion of the temple. This was done under the stimulus of the earnest counsels and admonitions of the prophets
Haggai and
Zechariah. It was ready for consecration in the spring of 515 BCE, more than twenty years after the return from captivity.
Haman and Jews
In the
Book of Esther,
Haman was an
Agagite noble and
vizier of the
empire under Persian King
Ahasuerus, generally identified by Biblical scholars as possibly being
Xerxes I in
6th century BCE. Haman and his wife Zeresh instigated a plot to kill all the Jews of ancient
Persia. The plot was foiled by Queen
Esther; and, as a result, Haman and his 10 sons were hanged. The events of the Book of
Esther are celebrated on the Jewish holiday
Purim.
Parthian period
Jewish sources contain no mention of the
Parthian influence; the very name "Parthia" doesn't occur. The
Armenian prince Sanatroces, of the royal house of the Arsacides, is mentioned in the "Small Chronicle" as one of the successors (diadochoi) of
Alexander. Among other Asiatic princes, the Roman rescript in favor of the Jews reached
Arsaces as well (I Macc. xv. 22); it's not, however, specified which Arsaces. Not long after this, the Partho-Babylonian country was trodden by the army of a Jewish prince; the
Syrian king,
Antiochus Sidetes, marched, in company with Hyrcanus I., against the Parthians; and when the allied armies defeated the Parthians (
129 BC) at the River Zab (Lycus), the king ordered a halt of two days on account of the
Jewish Sabbath and
Feast of Weeks. In
40 BC the Jewish puppet-king,
Hyrcanus II., fell into the hands of the Parthians, who, according to their custom, cut off his ears in order to render him unfit for rulership. The Jews of Babylonia, it seems, had the intention of founding a high-priesthood for the exiled
Hyrcanus, which they'd have made quite independent of the
Land of Israel. But the reverse was to come about: the Judeans received a Babylonian, Ananel by name, as their high priest which indicates the importance enjoyed by the Jews of Babylonia. Still in religious matters the
Babylonians, as indeed the whole diaspora, were in many regards dependent upon the Land of Israel. They went on pilgrimages to
Jerusalem for the festivals.
The
Parthian Empire was an enduring empire that was based on a loosely configured system of vassal kings. Certainly this lack of a rigidly centralized rule over the empire had its draw backs, such as the rise of a Jewish robber-state in Nehardea (see
Anilai and Asinai). Yet, the tolerance of the
Arsacid dynasty was as legendary as the first Persian dynasty, the
Achaemenids. There is even an account that indicates the conversion of a small number of Parthian
vassal kings of
Adiabene to
Judaism. These instances and others show not only the tolerance of Parthian kings, but is also a testament to the extent at which the Parthians saw themselves as the heir to the preceding empire of
Cyrus the Great. So protective were the Parthians of the minority over whom they ruled, that an old
Jewish saying indicates,
“When you see a Parthian charger tied up to a tomb-stone in the Land of Israel, the hour of the Messiah will be near”. The
Babylonian Jews wanted to fight in common cause with their
Judean brethren against
Vespasian; but it wasn't until the
Romans waged war under
Trajan against
Parthia that they made their hatred felt; so, that it was in a great measure owing to the revolt of the Babylonian Jews that the Romans didn't become masters of Babylonia too.
Philo speaks of the large number of Jews resident in that country, a population which was no doubt considerably swelled by new immigrants after the destruction of Jerusalem. Accustomed in Jerusalem from early times to look to the east for help, and aware, as the Roman procurator Petronius was, that the Jews of Babylon could render effectual assistance,
Babylonia became with the fall of Jerusalem the very bulwark of Judaism. The collapse of the
Bar Kochba revolt no doubt added to the number of Jewish refugees in Babylon.
In the continuous struggles between the
Parthians and the Romans, the
Jews had every reason to hate the Romans, the destroyers of their sanctuary, and to side with the Parthians: their protectors. Possibly it was recognition of services thus rendered by the Jews of Babylonia, and by the Davidic house especially, that induced the Parthian kings to elevate the princes of the Exile, who till then had been little more than mere collectors of revenue, to the dignity of real princes, called
Resh Galuta. Thus, then, the numerous
Jewish subjects were provided with a central authority which assured an undisturbed development of their own internal affairs.
Sassanid period
By the early
third century,
Persian influences were on the rise again. In the winter of 226 CE,
Ardashir I overthrew the last Parthian king (
Artabanus IV), destroyed the rule of the Arsacids, and founded the illustrious dynasty of the
Sassanids. While
Hellenistic influence had been felt amongst the religiously tolerant
Parthians, the Sassanids intensified the Persian side of life, favored the
Pahlavi language, and restored the old
monotheistic religion of
Zoroastrianism which became the official
state religion. This resulted in the suppression of other religions. A priestly Zoroastrian inscription from the time of King Bahram II (276–293 CE) contains a list of religions (including Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism etc.) that Sassanid rule claimed to have "smashed".
Shapur I (
Shvor Malka, which is the Aramaic form of the name) was friendly to the Jews. His friendship with
Shmuel gained many advantages for the
Jewish community.
Shapur II's mother was Jewish, and this gave the Jewish community relative freedom of religion and many advantages. He was also friend of a
Babylonian rabbi in the
Talmud named
Raba (Talmud), Raba's friendship with Shapur II enabled him to secure a relaxation of the oppressive laws enacted against the
Jews in the
Persian Empire. In addition, Raba sometimes referred to his top student Abaye with the term Shvur Malka meaning "Shaput [the] King" because of his bright and quick intellect.
Of course, both
Christians and
Jews suffered occasional persecution; but the latter, dwelling in more compact masses in cities like
Isfahan, were not exposed to such general persecutions as broke out against the more isolated Christians. Generally, this was a period of occasional persecutions for the Jews, followed by long periods of benign neglect in which Jewish learning thrived. In the 5th century, the Jews suffered from persecuton in the reigns of
Yazdagerd II and
Peroz.
Early Islamic period (634 to 1255)
After the
Islamic conquest of Persia, Jews, along with Christians and Zoroastrians, were assigned the status of
dhimmis, inferior subjects of the Islamic empire. Dhimmis were allowed to practice their religion, but were forced to pay taxes (
jizya, a
poll tax, and initially also
kharaj, a land tax) in favor of the
Arab Muslim conquerors. Dhimmis were also required to submit to a number of social and legal disabilities; they were prohibited from bearing arms, riding horses, testifying in courts in cases involving a Muslim, and frequently required to wear clothings, clearly distinguishing them from Muslims. Although some of these restrictions were sometimes relaxed, the overall condition of inequality remained in force until the
Mongol invasion.
Mongol rule (1256 to 1318)
In 1255, Mongols led by
Hulagu Khan began a charge on Persia, and in 1257 they captured
Baghdad, thus ending the
Abbasid caliphate. In Persia and surrounding areas, the Mongols established a division of the
Mongol Empire known as
Ilkhanate. Because in Ilkhanate all religions were considered equal, Mongol rulers abolished the unequal status of the
dhimmiclasses. One of the Ilkhanate rulers,
Arghun Khan, even preferred Jews and Christians for the administrative positions and appointed
Sa'd al-Daula, a Jew, as his
vizier. The appointment, however, provoked resentment from the
Muslim clergy, and after Arghun's death in 1291, al-Daula was murdered and Persian Jews suffered a period of violent clergy-instigated persecutions from the Muslim populace. The contemporary Christian historian
Bar Hebraeus wrote that the violence committed against the Jews during that period "neither tongue can utter, nor the pen write down".
Ghazan Khan's conversion to Islam in 1295 heralded for Persian Jews a pronounced turn for the worse, as they were once again relegated to the status of dhimmis.
Öljeitü, Ghazan Khan's successor, pressured some Jews to convert to Islam. The most famous such convert was
Rashid al-Din, a physician, historian and statesman, who adopted Islam in order to advance his career at Öljeitü's court. However, in 1318 he was executed on fake charges of poisoning Öljeitü and for several days crowds had been carrying his head around his native city of
Tabriz, chanting "This is the head of the Jew who abused the name of God; may God's curse be upon him!" About 100 years later,
Miranshah destroyed Rashid al-Din's tomb, and his remains were reburied at the Jewish cemetery. Rashid al-Din's case illustrates a pattern that differentiated the treatment of Jewish converts in Persia from their treatment in other Muslim lands, except North Africa. In most Muslim countries, converts were welcomed and easily assimilated into the Muslim population. In Persia, however, Jewish converts were usually stigmatized on account of their Jewish ancestry for many generations.
Safavid and Qajar dynasties (1502 to 1925)
Further deterioration in the treatment of Persian Jews occurred during the reign of the Safavids who proclaimed
Shi'a Islam the state religion. Shi'ism assigns great importance to the issues of ritual purity ―
tahara, and non-Muslims, including Jews, are deemed to be ritually unclean ―
najis ― so that physical contact with them would require Shi'as to undertake ritual purification before doing regular prayers. Thus, Persian rulers, and to an even larger extent, the populace, sought to limit physical contact between Muslims and Jews. Jews were not allowed to attend public baths with Muslims or even to go outside in rain or snow, ostensibly because some impurity could be washed from them upon a Muslim.
The reign of Shah
Abbas I (1588–1629) was initially benign; Jews prospered throughout Persia and were even encouraged to settle in
Isfahan, which was made a new capital. However, toward the end of his rule, the treatment of Jews became harsher; upon advice from a Jewish convert and Shi'a clergy, the shah forced Jews to wear a distinctive badge on clothing and headgear. In 1656, all Jews were expelled from Isfahan because of the common belief of their impurity and forced to convert to Islam. However, as it became known that the converts continued to practice
Judaism in secret and because the treasury suffered from the loss of
jizya collected from the Jews, in 1661 they were allowed to revert to Judaism, but were still required to wear a distinctive patch upon their clothings.
Lord Curzon described the regional differences in the situation of the Persian Jews in 19th century: "In Isfahan, where they're said to be 3,700 and where they occupy a relatively better status than elsewhere in Persia, they're not permitted to wear
kolah or Persian headdress, to have shops in the bazaar, to build the walls of their houses as high as a Moslem neighbour's, or to ride in the street. In Teheran and
Kashan they're also to be found in large numbers and enjoying a fair position. In Shiraz they're very badly off. In Bushire they're prosperous and free from persecution."
Another European traveller reported a degrading ritual to which Jews were subjected for public amusement:
At every public festival — even at the royal salaam [salute], before the King’s face — the Jews are collected, and a number of them are flung into the hauz or tank, that King and mob may be amused by seeing them crawl out half-drowned and covered with mud. The same kindly ceremony is witnessed whenever a provincial governor holds high festival: there are fireworks and Jews.
In the 19th century there were many instances of forced conversions and massacres, usually inspired by the Shi'a clergy. A representative of the
Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Jewish humanitarian and educational organization, wrote from
Tehran in 1894: "…every time that a priest wishes to emerge from obscurity and win a reputation for piety, he preaches war against the Jews". In 1830, the Jews of
Tabriz were massacred; the same year saw a forcible conversion of the Jews of
Shiraz. In 1839, many Jews were massacred in Mashhad and survivors were forcibly converted. However, European travellers later reported that the Jews of Tabriz and Shiraz continued to practice Judaism in secret despite a fear of further persecutions. Jews of
Barforush were forcibly converted in 1866; when they were allowed to revert to Judaism thanks to an intervention by the
French and
British ambassadors, a mob killed 18 Jews of Barforush, burning two of them alive. In 1910, the Jews of Shiraz
were accused of ritually murdering a Muslim girl. Muslim dwellers of the city plundered the whole Jewish quarter, the first to start looting were the soldiers sent by the local governor to defend the Jews against the enraged mob. Twelve Jews, who tried to defend their property, were killed, and many others were injured. Representatives of the
Alliance Israélite Universelle recorded other numerous instances of persecution and debasement of Persian Jews.
Driven by persecutions, thousands of Persian Jews emigrated to
Palestine in the late 19th – early 20th century.
Pahlavi dynasty (1925 to 1979)
The
Pahlavi dynasty implemented modernizing reforms, which greatly improved the life of Jews (Charles Recknagel and Azam Gorgin of
Radio Free Europe). The influence of the Shi'a clergy was weakened, and the restrictions on Jews and other religious minorities were abolished. Reza Shah prohibited mass conversion of Jews and eliminated the Shi'ite concept of uncleanness of non-Muslims. Modern Hebrew was incorporated into the curriculum of Jewish schools and Jewish newspapers were published. Jews were also allowed to hold government jobs.
(External Link) However, Jewish schools were closed in 1920s. In addition,
Reza Shah sympathized with
Nazi Germany, making the Jewish community fearful of possible persecutions, and the public sentiment at the time was definitely anti-Jewish, David Littman puts the total figure of emigrants to Israel in 1948-1978 at 70,000. On
March 16,
1979, Habib Elghanian, the honorary leader of the Jewish community, was arrested on charges of "corruption", "contacts with Israel and
Zionism", "friendship with the enemies of God", "warring with God and his emissaries", and "economic imperialism". He was tried by an Islamic revolutionary tribunal, sentenced to death, and executed on May 8, one of 17 Iranian Jews executed as spies since the revolution.
Estimates of the Jewish population in Iran vary. In mid- and late 1980s, it was estimated at 20,000–30,000, rising to around 35,000 in mid-1990s, and estimated at less than 40,000 nowadays, with around 25,000 residing in Tehran. However, Iran's Jewish community still remains the largest in the Middle East outside of Israel.
Opinion over the condition of Jews in Iran is divided. One Jew active in arguing on behalf of a benevolence view of the Iranian Islamic government and society toward Jews is film producer
Haroun Yashyaei, who tells visitors and reporters the Ayatollah "
Ruhollah Khomeini didn't mix up our community with Israel and Zionism," and "Take it from me, the Jewish community here faces no difficulties." Privately many Jews complain to foreign reporters of "discrimination, much of it of a social or bureaucratic nature." The Islamic government appoints the officials who run Jewish schools, most of these being Muslims and requires that those schools must open on Saturdays, the
Jewish Sabbath. Criticism of this policy was the downfall of the last remaining newspaper of the Iranian Jewish community which was closed in 1991 after it criticized government control of Jewish schools.
Further decline of Iran-Israel relations and Holocaust denial
President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and members of the Iranian government have resorted to threats against the State of
Israel and in
Holocaust denial that have added to the precarious nature and insecurity of Iran's small remaining Jewish community.
Ahmadinejad levels charges such as "The Zionist regime is seeking baseless pretexts to invade Islamic countries and right now it's justifying its attacks with groundless excuses," he added. On Aug 3rd, 2006, in a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders, Ahmadinejad called for "the elimination of the Zionist regime". While some media outlets immediately interpreted his words as another threat to "destroy Israel", such interpretations have again been challenged. In the speech, Ahmadinejad said, "although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented". He stated that the Middle East would be better off "without the existence of the Zionist regime". He called Israel an "illegitimate regime" with "no legal basis for its existence" and accused the United States of using Israel as a proxy to control the region and its oil resources; "The Zionist regime is used to reach this objective. The sole existence of this regime is for invasion and attack."
The
International Holocaust Cartoon Competition (2006) was a cartoon contest sponsored by the conservative Iranian newspaper
Hamshahri, to denounce what it called 'Western hypocrisy on freedom of speech'. The
International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust (2006) was a two-day conference that opened on
December 11,
2006 in
Tehran,
Iran. The Iranian Foreign Minister,
Manouchehr Mottaki, said the conference sought "neither to deny nor prove the
Holocaust ... [but] to provide an appropriate scientific atmosphere for scholars to offer their opinions in freedom about a historical issue." The 67 attendees from 30 countries included
Yisroel Dovid Weiss of
Neturei Karta;
David Duke, former
Republican member of the
Louisiana House of Representatives and
Imperial Wizard of the
Ku Klux Klan, Austrian Jew
Moshe Aryeh Friedman and
Holocaust deniers Robert Faurisson and
Fredrick Töben.
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