The Persecution of Iranian Jews during the Reign of Shah ʿAbbās II (1642-1666)
The persecution of Iranian Jews during the reign of the Safavid Shah ʿAbbās II (1642—1666) has been well-known since the pioneering studies on the subject by Wilhelm Bacher. Recent research is slowly narrowing the gap in our knowledge about the Jews of Medieval Iran. An important Jewish source of in...
| Published in: | Hebrew Union College annual |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
HUC
1982
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual
Year: 1981, Volume: 52, Pages: 275-309 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The persecution of Iranian Jews during the reign of the Safavid Shah ʿAbbās II (1642—1666) has been well-known since the pioneering studies on the subject by Wilhelm Bacher. Recent research is slowly narrowing the gap in our knowledge about the Jews of Medieval Iran. An important Jewish source of information, the Judaeo-Persian chronicle Kitāb-i Anusī ("The Book of Forced Conversion"), hereinafter referred to as the KA, remains invaluable for its accounts of events between 1617 and 1661 relative to the fate of Iranian Jewry. The author, Bābāī ibn Luṭf, lived during the reign of Shah ʿAbbās II and he either witnessed many of the events he narrates or was close to those who did. The Kitāb-i Anusī ("The Book of Forced Conversion") of Bābāī ibn Luṭf is, in the absence of other material, the major source for the history of Iranian Jews at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It deals primarily with the periodic persecution of Jews in Iran between 1617 and 1661. Written soon after 1661 the Kitāb-i Anusī proves to be a reliable historical document in so far as its accounts can be correlated with other sources. This study analyzes three events described in the Kitāb-i Anusī which are corroborated by other sources and concludes that the nature and extent of this corroboration indicate the high degree of reliability one can place in this source. It is very likely, therefore, that many of the events of the Kitāb-i Anusī which deal with Jewish communal problems and cannot be corroborated by other sources, are accurate as well. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual
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