The Black Stone has been described variously as basalt lava, an agate, a piece of natural glass or most popularly a stony meteorite. A significant clue to its nature is provided by an account of the Stone’s recovery in 951 AD after it had been stolen 21 years earlier; according to a chronicler, the Stone was identified by its ability to float in water. If this account is accurate, it would rule out the Black Stone being an agate, basalt lava or stony meteorite, though it would be compatible with it being glass or pumice.

It has been suggested that the Black Stone may be a glass fragment from the impact of a fragmented meteorite some 6,000 years ago at Wabar, a site in the Rub’ al Khali desert some 1,100 km east of Mecca. The craters at Wabar are notable for the presence of blocks of silica glass, fused by the heat of the impact and impregnated by beads of nickel-iron alloy from the meteorite (most of which was destroyed in the impact). Some of the glass blocks are made of shiny black glass with a white or yellow interior and gas-filled hollows, which allow them to float on water. Although scientists did not become aware of the Wabar craters until 1932, they were located near a caravan route from Oman and were very likely known to the inhabitants of the desert. The wider area was certainly well-known; in ancient Arabic poetry, Wabar or Ubar (also known as “Iram of the Pillars” was the site of a fabulous city that was destroyed by fire from the heavens because of the wickedness of its king. If the estimated age of the crater is accurate, it would have been well within the period of human habitation in Arabia and the impact itself may have been witnessed. However, a recent (2004) scientific analysis of the Wabar site suggests that the impact event happened much more recently than first thought and might have occurred only within the last 200–300 years.

Armen Saginian, is an Iranian activist and is one of the leaders of the Iranian people’s revolution which, includes ex-Savak agents (Iranian National Intelligence and Security Organization agents) and other influential Iranians inside and outside of Iran.

Armen Saginian is also the Executive Director and founder of New Horizons, and is the author of the book, “Mission for Mohammed and Islam “. He made an exclusive news-breaking announcement of the Iranian People’s ‘declaration of war’ against the Ahmadinejad government, whom they say, illegally crowned himself the winner of the Iranian national elections held last June of 2009. The Center for Inquiry-West is pleased to announce the creation of an Iranian outreach program. New Horizons aims to promote the ideals of secularism, democracy, and rational inquiry to people of Iranian origin in Southern California and ultimately, throughout the world.

There are nearly one million people of Iranian origin in the Greater Los Angeles area. Many are refugees from the repressive Islamic regime in Iran. The new project–sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism is run by volunteer Armen Saginian from the Los Angeles offices of the Center for Inquiry-West.

On December 10, 2003, in her acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi evoked Cyrus, saying:  “I am an Iranian, a descendant of Cyrus the Great. This emperor proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2,500 years ago that he ‘would not reign over the people if they did not wish it.’ He promised not to force any person to change his religion and faith and guaranteed freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus the Great should be studied in the history of human rights.”

The Persian domination and kingdom in the Iranian plateau started by an extension of the Achaemenid dynasty, who expanded their earlier domination possibly from the 9th century BC onward. The eponymous founder of this dynasty was Achaemenes (from Old Persian Haxāmaniš). Achaemenids are “descendants of Achaemenes” as Darius the Great, the ninth king of the dynasty, traces his genealogy to him and declares “for this reason we are called Achaemenids”.

Bedouin enemies have reacted violently to his efforts to maintain friendly relations with the Jewish community and to demonstrate for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Posters recently have been distributed calling for the death of Sheikh al-Huzeil, although he has said that his tribe has no intentions of converting to Judaism. Several members of his family suffered severe burns after Bedouin opponents set his house on fire.

The Islamic Movement in the south does not want good relations with Jews,” noted Rabbi Dov Stein, who as among those who met with the Sheikh. Rabbi Stein has urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to investigate the threats and calls for incitement. The movement’s northern branch is headed by Sheikh Raad Salah, who has been convicted several times for incitement,

Prior to the rise of Islam the religions of the Middle East were Zoroastrian, Christian, and Judaism. It is believed millions of Arabs were forced to convert to Islam. Historical records depict the slaughter of thousands of Jewish men and the women and children were taken as harem wives and servants. Offspring of these Jewish women would be considered Jewish. It is further believed that when the Messiah comes millions of Arabs will return to the faith of the one God of Israel. This will be known as Armageddon or the spiritual war between Gog and Magog.

To date thousands of Muslims have converted to Christianity and left the Central and Middle East. It is further believed that the Arab or Muslim obsession and occupation of the Biblical Holy Land of Israel will bring about the spiritual demise of Islam. Even more dramatic is the Islamic obsession of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Biblical history tells us about the curse upon those who captured the Holy Ark from the ancient Tribes of Israel and were overcome with insanity. In the 20th and 21st centuries we see Muslims killing each other in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan Gaza, Darfour, Sudan etc. and honor killings globally. If Islam is to survive as a religion it must remove itself from all areas of the Biblical Holy Land. When the Muslims do they will finally experience normal relations amongst each other and the rest of the world.

Iraqi Jews are Jews born in Iraq or of Iraqi heritage. The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity 800 BCE. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world’s oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities. The Jewish community of Babylon included prophets and priests, whose return to Judea was associated with significant changes in Jewish ritual observance. The Talmud which was compiled in Babylonia, identified with modern Iraq.

Babylon and the country of Babylonia are not always clearly distinguished, in most cases the same word being used for both. In some passages the land of Babylonia is called Shinar; while in the post-exilic literature it is called the land of the Chaldeans. In the Book, Babylonia is described as the land in which are located Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh which are declared to have formed the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom. In this land was located the Tower of Babel and here also was the seat of Amraphel’s dominion.

In the historical books of Babylonia as it is frequently referred to and there are no fewer than thirty-one references in the Books of the Jews, though the lack of a clear distinction between the city and the country is sometimes puzzling. Allusions to it are confined to the points of contact between the Israelites and the various Babylonian kings and Nebuchadnezzar as well as Israelite prophets. The interest is transferred to Cyrus though the retrospect still deals with the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar and Artaxerxes.

In the poetical literature of Israel, Babylonia plays an insignificant part and especially it fills a very large place in the Prophets. The Book resounds with the “burden of Babylon” though at that time it still seemed a “far country”. In the number and importance of its references to Babylonian life and history, the Books of the prophets dominate in the Hebrew literature. So important are the references to events in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that within recent times has become a valuable source in reconstructing Babylonian history. The inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar are almost exclusively devoted to building operations and the Book relates to his campaign against Jerusalem.

From the Babylonian period to the rise of the Islamic caliphate, the Jewish community of Babylon thrived as the center of Jewish learning. The Mongol invasion and Islamic discrimination in the middle Ages led to its decline. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Jews of Iraq fared better. The community established modern schools in the second-half of the 19th century.

Three times during the 6th century BCE, the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. The first was in the time of King Jehoiachin in 597 BCE, when, in retaliation for a refusal to pay tribute, the Israelite temple of Jerusalem was partially despoiled and a number of the leading citizens removed. After eleven years, in the reign of King Zedekiah who had been enthroned by Nebuchadnezzar, a fresh revolt of the Judeans took place, perhaps encouraged by the close proximity of the Egyptian army. The city was razed to the ground, and a further deportation ensued. Finally, five years later, the prophet records a third captivity. After the overthrow of Babylonia by the Persians, Cyrus 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.

The earliest accounts of the Jews exiled to Babylonia are furnished only by details of their Books; certain not quite reliable sources seek to supply this deficiency from the realms of legend and tradition. Thus, the “Small Chronicle” (Seder ‘Olam Zuṭṭa) endeavors to preserve historic continuity by providing a genealogy of the Princes of the Exile (”Reshe Galuta”) back to King Jeconiah. Indeed, Jeconiah himself is made a Prince of the Exile. The “Small Chronicle’s” statement is that Zerubbabel returned to Judea in the Greek period, can not be regarded as historical. Only this much can be considered as certain; that the descendants of the Davidic house occupied an exalted position among their brethren in Babylonia, as, at that period, in Palaestina likewise. At the period of the revolt of the Maccabees, these Judean descendants of the royal house had immigrated to Babylonia.

It was with Alexander the Great’s campaign that accurate information concerning the Jews in the East reached the western world. Alexander’s army contained numerous Jews who refused, from religious scruples, to take part in the reconstruction of the destroyed Belus temple in Babylon. The accession of Seleucus Nicator, 312 B.C., to whose extensive empire Babylonia belonged, was accepted by the Jews and Syrians for many centuries as the commencement of a new era for reckoning time, called “minyan sheṭarot,”æra contractuum, or era of contracts, which era was also officially adopted by the Parthians.

This so-called “Greek” era survived in the Orient long after it had been abolished in the West; according to Sherira’s “Letter,” Neubauer, p. 28. Nicator’s foundation of a city, Seleucia, on the Tigris is mentioned by the Rabbis; while both the “Large” and the “Small Chronicle” contain references to him. The important victory which the Jews are said to have gained over the Galatians in Babylonia must have happened under Seleucus Callinicus or under Antiochus III. The last-named settled a large number of Babylonian Jews as colonists in his western dominions, with the view of checking certain revolutionary tendencies disturbing those lands. Mithridates (174-136) subjugated, about the year 160, the province of Babylonia, and thus the Jews for four centuries came under Parthian domination.

Jewish sources contain no mention of Parthian influence; the very name “Parthian” does not occur, unless indeed “Parthian” is meant by “Persian,” which occurs now and then. 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 prescript in favor of the Jews reached Arsaces as well; it is 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 B.C.) 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 B.C.E. 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 ruler ship. The Jews of Babylonia, it seems, had the intention of founding a high-priesthood for the exiled Hyrcanus, which they would have made quite independent of Palaestina. But the reverse was to come about: the Israelites 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 Palaestina. They went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the festivals.

How free a hand the Parthians permitted the Jews is perhaps best illustrated by the rise of the little Jewish robber-state in Neharda’a (Anilai and Asinai). Still more remarkable is the conversion of the king of Adiabene to Judaism. These instances show not only the tolerance, but the weakness of the Parthian kings. The Babylonian Jews wanted to fight in common cause with their Palaestinia brethren against Vespasian; but it was not 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 did not 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.

After the fall of Jerusalem, Babylon would become the focus of Judaism for more than a thousand years. The rabbi Abba Arika, afterward called simply Rab, was a key figure in maintaining Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem. Rab left Palaestina to return to his Babylonian home, the year of which has been accurately recorded (530 of the Seleucidan, or 219 of the Common Era), marks an epoch; for from it dates the beginning of a new movement in Babylonian Judaism—namely, the initiation of the dominant rôle which the Babylonian Academies played for several centuries. Leaving an existing Babylonian academy at Neharda’a to his friend Samuel, the Rab founded a new academy in Sura, where he held property.

Thus, there existed in Babylonia two contemporary academies, so far removed from each other, however, as not to interfere with each other’s operations. Since Rab and Samuel were acknowledged peers in position and learning, their academies likewise were accounted of equal rank and influence. Thus both Babylonian rabbinical schools opened their lectures brilliantly, and the ensuing discussions in their classes furnished the earliest stratum of the scholarly material deposited in the Babylonian Talmud. The co-existence for many decades of these two colleges of equal rank (though the school at Neharda’a was moved to Pumbaditha, now Fallujah) originated that remarkable phenomenon of the dual leadership of the Babylonian Academies which, with some slight interruptions, became a permanent institution and a weighty factor in the development of Babylonian Judaism.

The key work of these academies was the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud, started by Rav Ashi and Ravina, two leaders of the Babylonian Jewish community, around the year 550. Editorial work by the Savoraim or Rabbanan Savoraei (post-Talmudic rabbis), continued on this text for the next 250 years; much of the text did not reach its final form until around 700. Mishnah and Babylonian Gemara together form the Talmud Bavli (the “Babylonian Talmud”). Manuscripts to this day are held in high esteem in the great museum of Babylon.

The three centuries in the course of which the Babylonian Talmud was developed in the academies founded by Rab and Samuel were followed by five centuries during which it was zealously preserved, studied, expounded in the schools, and, through their influence, recognized by the whole Diaspora. Sura and Pumbaditha were considered the only important seats of learning: their heads and sages were the undisputed authorities, whose decisions were sought from all sides and were accepted wherever Jewish communal life existed. In the words of the haggadist, “God created these two academies in order that the promise might be fulfilled, that the word of God should never depart from Israel’s mouth” according to the prophets. The periods of Jewish history immediately following the close of the Talmud are designated according to the titles of the teachers at Sura and Pumbaditha; thus we have “the time of the Geonim and that of the Saboraim. The Saboraim were the scholars whose diligent hands completed the Talmud in the first third of the sixth century, adding manifold amplifications to its text. The two academies lasted until the middle of the eleventh century, Pumbaditha faded after its chief rabbi was murdered in 1038, and Sura faded soon after.

The Persian people were gain to make their influence felt in the history of the world. Ardashir I destroyed the rule of the Arsacids in the winter of 226, and founded the illustrious dynasty of the Sassanids. Different from the Parthian rulers, who were northern Iranians following Mithraism and Zoroastrianism and speaking Pahlavi dialect, the Sassanids intensified nationalism and established a state-sponsored Zoroastrian church which often suppressed dissident factions and heterodox views.

Shapur I (Shvor Malka, which is the Aramaic form of the name) was a friend 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 a relative freedom of religion and many advantages. Shapur was also the friend of a Babylonian rabbi in the Talmud called Raba, and 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 “Shapur [the] King” because of his bright and quick intellect.

Christians, Manicheans, Buddhists and Jews at first seemed at a disadvantage, especially under Sassanian high-priest Kartir; but the Jews, dwelling in more compact masses in cities like Isfahan, were not exposed to such general discrimination 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. By 600, the Jews were increasingly persecuted, and they welcomed the Arab conquest of 632-634.

The first legal expression of Islam toward the Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians after the conquests of the 630s were the poll-tax (”jizyah”), the tax upon real estate (”kharaj”) was instituted. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, sent the famous warrior Khalid bin Al-Waleed against Iraq; and a Jew, by name Ka’ab al-Aḥbar, is said to have fortified the general with prophecies of success.

The Jews may have favored the advance of the Arabs, from whom they could expect mild treatment. Such services secured the Exilarch Bostanai the favor of Umar I, who awarded him a wife, the daughter of the conquered Sassanid Chosroes II as Theophanes and Abraham Zacuto narrate. Jewish records “Seder ha-Dorot,” contains a Bostanai legend which has many features in common with the account of the hero Mar Zuṭra II. The account reveals that Bostanai, the founder of the succeeding Exilarch dynasty, was a man of prominence, who received from the victorious Arab general certain high privileges, such as the right to wear a signet ring, a privilege otherwise limited to Muslims.

Omar and Othman were followed by Ali (656), with whom the Jews of Babylonia sided as against his rival Mo’awiyah. A Jewish preacher, Abdallah ibn Saba, of southern Arabia, who had embraced Islam, held forth in support of his new religion, expounded Mohammed’s appearance in a Jewish sense and to a certain extent, laid the foundation for the later sect of the Shiïtes. Ali made Kufa, in Iraq, his capital, and thither went Jews who had been expelled from Arabia (about 641). The Arabic language rapidly gained ground among the Jews of Babylonia, although a majority of the population of Iraq was of Arab descent. The capture by Ali of Firuz Shabur, where 90,000 Jews are said to have dwelt, is mentioned by the Jewish chroniclers. Mar Isaac, chief of the Academy of Sura, paid homage to the caliph, and received privileges from him.

The proximity of the court lent to the Jews of Babylonia a species of central position, as compared with the whole caliphate; so that Babylonia still continued to be the focus of Jewish life. The time-honored institutions of the exilarchate and the gaonate—the heads of the academies attained great influence—constituted a kind of higher authority, voluntarily recognized by the whole Jewish Diaspora. But unfortunately Exilarch and geonim only too soon began to rival each other. A certain Mar Yanḳa, closely allied to the Exilarch, persecuted the rabbis of Pumbaditha so bitterly that several of them were compelled to flee to Sura, not to return until after their persecutor’s death (about 730). “The exilarchate was for sale in the Arab period” (Ibn Daud); and centuries later, Sherira boasts that he was not descended from Bostanai. In Arabic legend, the resh galuta (ras al-galut) remained a highly important personage; one of them could see spirits; another is said to have been put to death under the last Umayyad caliph, Merwan ibn Mohammed (745-750).

The Umayyad caliph, Umar II, (717-720), persecuted the Jews. He issued orders to his governors: “Tear down no church, synagogue, or fire-temple; but permit no new ones to be built”. Isaac Iskawi II (about 800) received from Harun al-Rashid (786-809) confirmation of the right to carry a seal of office. At the court of the mighty Harun appeared an embassy from the emperor Charlemagne, in which a Jew, Isaac, took part. Charles (possibly Charles the Bald) is said to have asked the “king of Babel” to send him a man of royal lineage; and in response the caliph dispatched Rabbi Machir to him; this was the first step toward establishing communication between the Jews of Babylonia and European communities.

Although it is said that the law requiring Jews to wear a yellow badge upon their clothing originated with Harun, and although the laws of Islam were stringently enforced by him to the detriment of the Jews, the magnificent development which Arabian culture underwent in his time must have benefited the Jews also; so that a scientific tendency began to make itself noticeable among the Babylonian Jews under Harun and his successors, especially under Al-Ma’mun (813-833).

Like the Arabs, the Jews were zealous promoters of knowledge, and by means of translations of the Greek and Latin authors contributed essentially to their preservation. They took up religio-philosophical studies (the “kalam”), siding generally with the Mutazilites and maintaining the freedom of the human will (”chadr”). The government meanwhile accomplished all it could toward the complete humiliation of the Jews. All non-believers Magi, Jews, and Christians were compelled by Al-Mutawakkil to wear a badge; their places of worship were confiscated and turned into mosques; they were excluded from public offices, and compelled to pay to the caliph a tax of one-tenth of the value of their houses. An utterance of the caliph Al-Mu’tadhel (892-902) ranks the Jews, as state servants, after Christians.

The Caliphate hastened to its end before the rising power of the Mongolian Empire. As Bar Hebræus remarks, these Mongol tribes knew no distinction between heathens, Jews, and Christians; and their Great Khan Kublai Khan showed himself just toward the Jews who served in his army, as reported by Marco Polo. Hulagu, the destroyer of the Caliphate (1258) and the conqueror of Palaestina (1260), was tolerant toward Muslims, Jews and Christians; but there can be no doubt that in those days of terrible warfare the Jews must have suffered much with others. Under the Mongolian rulers, the priests of all religions were exempt from the poll-tax. Hulagu’s second son, Aḥmed, embraced Islam, but his successor, Arghun (1284-91), hated the Muslims and was friendly to Jews and Christians; his chief counselor was a Jew, Sa’ad al-Daulah, a physician of Baghdad.

After the death of the great khan and the murder of his Jewish favorite, the Muslims fell upon the Jews, and Baghdad witnessed a regular battle between them. Gaykhatu also had a Jewish minister of finance, Reshid al-Daulah. The khan Ghazan also became a Muslim, and made the Jews second class citizens. The Egyptian sultan Naṣr, who also ruled over Iraq, re-established the same law in 1330, and saddled it with new limitations.

Mongolian fury once again devastated the localities inhabited by Jews, when, in 1393, Timur captured Baghdad, Wasit, Hilla, Basra, and Tikrit, after obstinate resistance. Many Jews fled to other areas during this time. The cumulative effect of the Mongol incursions is that most of the existing Jewish community either died or fled, and the later Jewish community consisted largely of immigrants from other places, principally Aleppo. For this reason the traditions of Iraqi Jewry cannot be regarded as continuous with the Babylonian tradition of Talmudic times, but are a variant of those of Middle Eastern Jews generally.

After various changes of fortune, Mesopotamia and Iraq came into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, when Sultan Suleiman II in 1534 took Tabriz and Baghdad from the Persians, leading to an improvement in the life of the Jews. The Persian reconquest in 1623 led to a much worse situation, so that the re-conquest of Iraq by the Turks in 1638 included an army with a large population of Jews, some sources say they made up 10% of the army. The day of the reconquest was even given a holiday, “Yom Nes” (day of miracle).

Over time, the Turkish rule deteriorated and the situation of the Jews worsened, but the population continued to grow. The persecutions of Daud Pasha, caused many members of the Jewish community, such as David Sassoon to flee. In 1884 there were 30,000 Jews in Baghdad and by 1900, 50,000. The community also produced great rabbis, such as Joseph Hayyim ben Eliahu Mazal-Tov (1834 - 1909).

Before the anti-Jewish actions of the 1930s and 1940s, overall Iraqi Jews viewed themselves as Arabs of the Jewish faith, rather than as a separate race or nationality. Additionally, early Labor Zionism mostly concentrated on the Jews of Europe, skipping Iraqi Jews because of their lack of interest in agriculture. The result was that until World War II, Zionism made little headway because few Iraqi Jews were interested in the socialist ideal of manual labor in Palaestina.

During the British Mandate from 1918, and in the early days after independence in 1932, well-educated Jews played an important role in civic life. Iraq’s first minister of finance, Sir Sassoon Eskell, was a Jew, and Jews were important in developing the judicial and postal systems. Records from the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce show that 10 out of its 19 members in 1947 were Jews and the first musical band formed for Baghdad’s nascent radio in the 1930s consisted mainly of Jews. Jews were represented in the Iraqi parliament, and many Jews held significant positions in the bureaucracy.

In the late 1930s, the situation of the Jews in Iraq deteriorated. Previously, the growing Iraqi Arab nationalist sentiment included Iraqi Jews as fellow Arabs, but these views changed with the introduction of Nazi propaganda and the ongoing conflict in the Palaestina Mandate. Despite protestations of their loyalty to Iraq, Iraqi Jews were increasingly subject to discrimination and harsh laws. On August 27, 1934 many Jews were dismissed from public service, and quotas were set up in colleges and universities. Zionist activities were banned, as was the teaching of Jewish history and Hebrew in Jewish schools. Following Rashid Ali’s pro-Axis coup, the Farhud (”violent dispossession”) pogrom of June 1 and 2, 1941, broke out in Baghdad in which approximately 200 Jews were murdered (some sources put the number higher) and up to 2,000 injured with damages to property estimated at $3 million. There was also looting in many other cities at around the same time. Afterwards, Zionist emissaries from Palaestina were sent to teach Iraqi Jews self-defense, which they were eager to learn.

According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Sa’id, who was influenced by leaders of western democracies stated, “The Jews have always been a source of evil and harm to Iraq. They are spies. They have sold their property in Iraq; they have no land among us that they can cultivate. How therefore can they live? What will they do if they stay in Iraq? No, no my friend, it is better for us to be rid of them as long as we are able to do so.” (A.al-Arif p.893). In 1948, the country was placed under martial law, and the penalties for Zionism were increased. Courts martial were used to intimidate wealthy Jews were detained, Jews were again dismissed from civil service and quotas were placed on university positions; Jewish businesses were boycotted and Shafiq Ades (one of the most important anti-Zionist Jewish businessmen in the country) was arrested and executed for allegedly selling goods to Israel, shocking the community.

Additionally, like most Arab League states, Iraq forbade any legal emigration of its Jews on the grounds that they might go to Israel and could strengthen that state. However, intense diplomatic pressure brought about a change of mind. At the same time, increasing government oppression of the Jews fueled by anti-Israeli sentiment, together with public expressions of anti-Semitism, created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. With very few exceptions, only Jews wore watches. On spotting one that looked expensive, a policeman had approached the owner as if to ask the hour. Once assured the man was Jewish, he relieved him of the timepiece and took him into custody. The watch, he told the judge, contained a tiny wireless; he’d caught the Jew, he claimed, sending military secrets to the Zionists in Palaestina. Without examining the “evidence” or asking any questions, the judge pronounced his sentence. The “traitor” went to prison, the watch to the policeman as reward.” (Haddad p.176).

By 1949, the Iraqi Zionist underground had become well-established (despite many arrests), and they were smuggling Iraqi Jews out of the country illegally at a rate of 1,000 a month. Hoping to stem the flow of assets from the country, in March 1950 Iraq passed a law of one year duration allowing Jews to emigrate on condition of relinquishing their Iraqi citizenship. They were motivated by “economic considerations, chief of which was that almost all the property of departing Jews reverted to the state treasury and also that Jews were seen as a restive and potentially troublesome minority that the country was best rid of. Israel was initially reluctant to absorb so many immigrants, but eventually mounted an airlift operation in March of 1951 called “Ezra and Nehemiah” to bring as many of the Iraqi Jews as possible to Israel, and sent agents to Iraq to urge the Jews to register for immigration as soon as possible.

From the start of the emigration law in March 1950 until the end of the year, 60,000 Jews registered to leave Iraq. In addition to continuing arrests and the dismissal of Jews from their jobs, this exodus was encouraged by a series of bombings starting in April 1950 that resulted in a number of injuries and a few deaths. Two months before the expiry of the law, by which time about 85,000 Jews had registered, another bomb at the Masuda Shemtov synagogue killed 3 or 5 Jews and injured many others. The law expired in March 1951 but was later extended after the Iraqi government froze the assets of departing Jews, including those who had already left. During the next few months, all but a few thousand of the remaining Jews registered for emigration, spurred on by a sequence of further bombings that caused few casualties but had great psychological impact. In Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, some 120,000 Jews were airlifted to Israel via Iran and Cyprus.

The true identity and objective of the masterminds behind the bombings has been the subject of controversy. A secret Israeli inquiry in 1960 found no evidence that they were ordered by Israel or any motive that would have explained the attack, though it did find out that most of the witnesses believed that Jews had been responsible for the bombings. The issue remains unresolved: Iraqi activists still regularly charge that Israel used violence to engineer the exodus, while Israeli officials of the time vehemently deny it. Historian Moshe Gat reports that “the belief that the bombs had been thrown by Zionist agents was shared by those Iraqi Jews who had just reached Israel“. Sociologist Phillip Mendes backs Gat’s claims, and further attributes the allegations to have been influenced and distorted by feelings of discrimination. Journalist Naemi Giladi’s position that the bombings were “perpetrated by Zionist agents in order to cause fear amongst the Jews and so promote their exodus to Israel is shared by a number of anti-Zionist authors, including the Israeli Black Panthers (1975), David Hirst (1977), Wilbur Crane Eveland (1980), Uri Avnery (1988), Ella Shohat (1986), Abbas Shiblak (1986), Marion Wolfsohn (1980), and Rafael Shapiro (1984). In his article, Giladi notes that this was also the conclusion of Wilbur Crane Eveland, a former senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who outlined that allegation in his book “Ropes of Sand”.

The affair has also been the subject of a libel lawsuit by Mordechai Ben Porat, which was settled in an out-of-court compromise with an apology of the journalist who described the charges as true. Iraqi authorities eventually charged three members of the Zionist underground with perpetrating some of the explosions. Two of those charged, Shalom Salah Shalom and Yosef Ibrahim Basri, were subsequently found guilty and executed, whilst the third was sentenced to a lengthy jail term. Salah Shalom claimed in his trial that he was tortured into confessing, and Yosef Basri maintained his innocence throughout.

Gat reports that much of the previous literature “reflects the universal conviction that the bombings had a tremendous impact on the large-scale exodus of the Jews. To be more precise it is suggested that the Zionist emissaries committed these brutal acts in order to uproot the prosperous Iraqi Jewish community and bring it to Israel. However, Gat argues that both claims are contrary to the evidence.

As summarized by Mendes: Historian Moshe Gat argues that there was little direct connection between the bombings and exodus. He demonstrates that the frantic and massive Jewish registration for de-naturalization and departure was driven by knowledge that the de-naturalization law was due to expire in March 1951. He also notes the influence of further pressures including the property-freezing law, and continued anti-Jewish disturbances which raised the fear of large-scale pogroms. In addition, it is highly unlikely the Israelis would have taken such measures to accelerate the Jewish evacuation given that they were already struggling to cope with the existing level of Jewish immigration. Gat also raises serious doubts about the guilt of the alleged Jewish bomb-throwers.

A Christian officer in the Iraqi army known for his anti-Jewish views was arrested, but apparently not charged, with the offences. A number of explosive devices similar to those used in the attack on the Jewish synagogue were found in his home. In addition, there was a long history of anti-Jewish bomb-throwing incidents in Iraq. Secondly, the prosecution was not able to produce even one eyewitness who had seen the bombs thrown. Thirdly, the Jewish defendant Shalom Salah indicated in court that he had been severely tortured in order to procure a confession. It therefore remains an open question as to who was responsible for the bombings, although Gat suggests that the most likely perpetrators were members of the anti-Jewish Istiqlal Party. Certainly memories and interpretations of the events have further been influenced and distorted by the unfortunate discrimination which many Iraqi Jews experienced on their arrival in Israel.

Many years later, the Zionist emissary Yehuda Tager stated that while the main bombings were carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood, later smaller attacks were staged by Yosef Beit-Halahmi, on his own initiative, in an attempt to make it seem as if the activists on trial were not the perpetrators.

Iraqi Jews left behind them extensive property, often located in the heart of Iraq’s major cities. A relatively high number found themselves in refugee camps in Israel known as Ma’abarot. Most of the 10,000 Jews remaining after Operation Ezra and Nehemiah stayed through the Abdul Karim Qassim era when conditions improved, but Anti-Semitism increased during the rule of the Aref brothers and later the Ba’ath Party era, culminating in the 1969 public hanging of 14 Iraqis, nine of them Jews, who were falsely accused of spying for Israel, which led to the departure of most of the remaining Jews.

In the 20th century, Iraqi Jews played an important role in the early days of the Iraq’s independence. The Iraqi Jewish community, numbered at around 120,000 in 1948, and almost all left the country due to persecution following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Most of them fled to the newly founded state of Israel, and today, fewer than 100 Jews remain.

Jewish weaver in Ramadi Iraq, 1918

Emblem of Sassoon Kadoorie, President of the Jewish Community of Baghdad, 1933

Kurdish Jews in Rawanduz, northern Iraq, 1905

It is believed that Jewish communities had an established a presence in Ghana since ancient times. Migrations into western Africa by Jewish traders, merchants, and other groups have been documented by Arab, Jewish, and European travelers and historians. Members of the House of Israel document their arrival in Ghana via a Jewish migration across the Sahara desert, into Mali, where there has been a documented Jewish community in Timbuktu, and further along through the Ivory Coast and into Ghana.

The Sefwi tribe has established ties to worldwide Jewry in the late 20th century and have thus received educational materials about modern Judaism and vital texts such as Tanakhs, Siddurim, etc. The community traces its return to normative Judaism to an individual known as Aaron Ahomtre Toakyirafa. In 1977, Toakyirafa had a vision that the Sefwi people, a tribe of which he was a member, were one of the Lost tribes of Israel. He believed that the Sefwi practiced rituals and had a theology that was unlike that of the surrounding population. He concluded that these customs were of Hebraic origin. They avoided the consumption of pork, or pig-like animals, and observed a day of rest on Saturdays, which coincides with the Jewish Shabbat. Additionally, males were circumsized 8 days after birth, a custom that is identically practiced by Jews the world over. The custom of separation of man and woman during female menstruation was also observed among members of the Sefwi tribe. More recently, the community, largely based in Sefwi Wiaswo and Sefwi Sui and several tribal elders of the Sefwi have begun exploring the possibility of a Jewish ancestry.

There were about 80 Jewish familiesand before 1914 there were about 200 Jews living in Kuwait in one district where the Bank of Trade is now. The Jews also wore the Zboun and Fez although some wore European suits but they covered their head with Fez. They had their own Synagogue and observed Saturday as a sacred day and also had their own Cemetery. There were a few wealthy Jews in Kuwait but most were middle class, being Jewellers or material traders. Among the wealthy Jews were Saleh Mahlab who owned the first ice factory in 1912. Gurgi Sasson and Menashi Eliahou who were traders and financiers.

The Jewish community that came to Kuwait belonged to the ‘Babylonian’ Jews who had lived in Mesopotamia for millennia. Their language was Arabic, and they had traded between Baghdad and India for centuries. The majority were involved in textiles, and they had their own market where people of all origins came to buy the cloth they imported. They usually educated their children in their synagogue. It was a community in flux, with constant comings and goings, rather than a stable group who arrived together and left together, and it was made up of diverse individuals.

Kuwait in the last decades of the nineteenth century had become a dynamic place for its time. There was a building boom in both houses and ships, and business opportunities abounded. The country was peaceful and stable. The combination of services available and economic prospects drew people from surrounding countries searching for a better life. When Sheikh Salem al Mubarak came to power in February 1917 (he was the 9th ruler), he wanted to stop the Jews from dealing with alcoholic spirits. When King Faisal the first came to rule Iraq, most of them went back to Baghdad and few went to India. The King had Jewish acquaintances like Wiseman and Sasson Heskel who became the Minister of Finance in Iraq. During the 1920’s, all the Jews left Kuwait.

The government of Kuwait had approved on building a new city called Madinat al-Hareer or The City of Silk. A super mega-project that will host 1001 m high skyscraper. The super tall tower will include a Muslim Mosque, a Jewish Synagogue and a Christian church under a single roof.

Lebanon and the far south of Syria: the identification with Aleppo is not found in rabbinic literature prior to the 11th century. Both Aleppo and Damascus had Jewish communities early in the Christian era.

In Roman times about 10,000 Jews lived at Damascus, governed by an ethnarch. The attraction which Judaism exercised at that time over the pagans was so great that many men and women were converted to that religion. Many Jews were murdered by the pagan inhabitants upon the outbreak of the great war of liberation. During the conflicts between the Byzantines and the Persians the city frequently suffered heavily. Syria was conquered by the Persians (614) and In 635 Damascus fell into the hands of the Muslims.
The rule of the Umayyads brought a new period of splendor to the city, which now became the capital of that califate. The Jewish community continued, and certainly existed in 970; “for,” says a historian, “Joseph ben Abitur of Cordoba, having lost all hope of becoming the chief rabbi of that city, went to Palaestina in that year, and settled at Damascus”. This period terminated with the advent of the Abbasids, and the city suffered during the following centuries from continuous wars. A large number of Palaestina Jews sought refuge at Damascus from the enormous taxes imposed upon them by the Crusaders, thus increasing the community. Fortunately for the Jews, it resisted the siege of the Second Crusade (1147) on the Holy Land.

In 1128 Abraham ibn Ezra visited Damascus and according to Edelmann, Judah ha-Levi composed his famous poem on Zion in this city. In 1267 Nahmanides visited Damascus and succeeded in leading a Jewish colony to Jerusalem. Benjamin of Tudela visited Damascus in 1170, while it was in the hands of the Seljukian prince Nur ad-Din. He found there 3,000 Rabbinite Jews and 200 Karaites.
Acording to Bacher the Syrian, the twelfth century seat of the Jewish academy was transferred to the city and Safed. The principal rabbis of the city were: Rabbi Ezra and his brother Sar Shalom, president of the tribunal; Yussef ִHamsi, R. Matsliaִh, R. Meïr, Yussef ibn Piat, R. Heman, the parnas, and R. Tsadok, physician. He found “about 10,000 Jews, who have a prince. The head of their academy is Rabbi Ezra, who is full of the knowledge of the Law; for Rabbi Samuel, the head of the Academy of Babylon, ordained him”. It was a Damascus rabbi, Judah ben Josiah, who, toward the end of the twelfth century, was “nagid” in Egypt. At a later period another nagid, David ben Joshua, also came from Damascus.

Benjamin of Tudela visited Aleppo in 1173, when he found a Jewish community of 1,500 (or on another reading 5000) souls with three noteworthy rabbis attending to their spiritual needs: Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Petaִhiah of Regensburg was there between 1170 and 1180, and Alִharizi fifty years later. The former called the citadel the palace of King Nour-ed-din, and stated that there were 1,500 Jews in Aleppo, of whom the chief men were Rabbis Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Yehuda Alharizi, author of the Taִhkemoni has much to say in praise of the Aleppo Jews. In 1195 the leading Jew was Joseph ben Judah, who had migrated from the Maghreb by way of Egypt, where he was the friend of Maimonides, who wrote for him the Guide for the Perplexed. Other men of learning were Azariah and his brother Samuel Nissim, the king’s physician Eleazer, Jeshua, Jachin Hananiah, and Joseph ben ִHisdai. Although he respected them far more than their Damascene counterparts, Alharizi thought little of the Aleppo poets, of whom he mentions Moses Daniel and a certain Joseph; the best was Joseph ben Tsemah, who had good qualities but wrote bad verse. Their piety must have been extreme, for Eleazer is held up to scorn for having traveled on the Sabbath, although at the sultan’s command. Alharizi died in Aleppo and was buried there.

In 1210 a French Jew, Samuel ben Simson, visited the city. He speaks of the beautiful synagogue situated outside the city (Jobar) and said to have been constructed by Elisha. Under Saladin the city enjoyed considerable importance; but upon his death the disturbances began anew, until in 1516 the city fell into the hands of the Turks, since which time it has declined to the rank of a provincial town. It seems probable that Yehuda Alharizi also visited Damascus during the first decade of the thirteenth century. At least he mentions the city in the celebrated forty-sixth “Makamah”. Toward the end of the thirteenth century Jesse ben Hezekiah, a man full of energy, arose in Damascus. He was recognized by Sultan Qalawun of Egypt as prince and exilarch, and in 1289 and in June 1290, in conjunction with his twelve colleagues, he put the anti-Maimonists under the ban.
In 1260 the Mongols conquered Aleppo, and massacred many of the inhabitants, but many of the Jews took refuge in the synagogue and were saved. In 1401 the Jewish quarter was pillaged, with the rest of the city, by Tamerlane; and a Jewish saint died there after a fast of seven months.

The letters of the rabbis of Damascus and of Acre have been collected in the “Minִhat Qena’ot” (a compilation made by Abba Mari, grandson of Don Astruc of Lunel). Estori Farִhi (1313) contents himself with the mere mention of Damascene Jews journeying to Jerusalem. A manuscript of David Kimhi on Ezekiel was written by Nathan of Narbonne and collated with the original by R.Hiyya in Damascus, Ab 18, 1375. The Jewish community of Damascus continued its existence under the sultans (Burjites and Mamelukes) of Egypt, who conquered Syria; for the Jewish refugees of Spain established themselves among their coreligionists in that city in 1492, constructing a synagogue which they called “Khata’ib.” The anonymous author of the “Yiִhus ha-Abot” also speaks of the beauties of Damascus; and of the synagogue at Jobar, “half of which was constructed by Elisha, half by Eleazar ben Arach”.

Elijah of Ferrara (1438) had come to Jerusalem and had a certain jurisdiction in rabbinical matters over Damascus as well. He speaks of a great plague which devastated Egypt, Syria, and Jerusalem; but he does not say how far the Jews of the first named city suffered. Menaִhem ִHayyim of Volterra visited Damascus in 1481, and found 450 Jewish families, “all rich, honored, and merchants.” The head of the community was a certain R. Joseph, a physician.
Obadiah of Bertinoro (1488) speaks in one of his letters of the riches of the Jews in Damascus, of the beautiful houses and gardens. A few years later (1495) an anonymous traveler speaks in like eulogistic terms. He lived with a certain Moses Makran, and he relates that the Damascan Jews dealt in dress-goods or engaged in some handicraft. They lent money to the Venetians at 24 per cent interest.
Maimonides, in his letter to the rabbis of Lunel, speaks of Aleppo as being the only community in Syria where some Torah learning survived, though the effort devoted to it was in his opinion less than impressive.

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardi Jews settled in many of the Islamic countries bordering the Mediterranean, including Syria, which then formed part of the Mameluke sultanate of Egypt. For the most part they founded their own communities, but they often assumed positions of rabbinic and communal leadership in their new homes. A social distinction remained between the newly arrived Sephardim and the native communities, which took several decades to accept them.

Aleppo Jews of Spanish descent have a special custom, not found elsewhere, of lighting an extra candle at Hanukkah: it is said that this custom was established in gratitude for their acceptance by the local community. In both Aleppo and Damascus, the two communities supported a common Chief Rabbinate. Chief Rabbis were usually but not always from Spanish-descended families: in Aleppo there were five in a row from the Laniado family.

The Sephardic Jewish presence was greater in Damascus than in Aleppo, and Damascus also maintained closer ties to the Holy Land. In particular, the Damascus community was strongly influenced by the Safed Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria, and contributed several notable personalities, including ִHayim Vital and Israel Najara. This explains certain differences in customs between the two cities.
An anonymous Jewish traveler who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration, found at Damascus 500 Jewish households; also a Karaite community whose members called them “Muallim-Tsadaqah”; and a more important Rabbinate community, composed of three groups and possessing three beautiful synagogues. One of these belonged to the Sephardim; another, to the Moriscos (Moorish Jews) or natives; and the third, to the Sicilians. In each synagogue there was a preacher, who read the works of Maimonides to the pious every day after the prayer. The preacher of the Sephardim was Isִhaq Mas’ud, that of the natives Shem-ִTob al-Furani, and that of the Sicilians Isaac ִHaber. There were also two small schools for young students of the Talmud, containing respectively thirty and forty pupils.

Sixty Jewish families were living in the village of Jobar, one mile from Damascus, who had a very beautiful synagogue. “I have never seen anything like it,” says the author; “it is supported by thirteen columns. Tradition says that it dates from the time of the prophet Elisha, and that he here anointed King Hazael. R. Eleazar ben Arach (a tannaite of the first century) repaired this synagogue.” In order to indicate, finally, that the city was even then under the Ottoman rule, the narrator adds that the people of Damascus had just received a governor (”na’ib”) from Constantinople.

In 1515 Selim I defeated the Mamelukes and Syria became part of the Ottoman Empire. The “Chronicle” of Joseph Sambari (finished 1672) contains the names of a number of rabbis of note who lived in Damascus during the sixteenth century. He says that the Jewish community lived chiefly in Jobar, and he knows of the synagogue of Elisha (Central Synagogue of Aleppo) and the cave of Elijah the Tishbite. At the head of the community was a certain Abu ִHatseirah (so-called from a peculiar kind of headdress which he wore), who was followed by ‘Abd Allah ibn Naִsir. Of the rabbis of Damascus proper he mentions Joseph ִHayyaִt; Samuel Aripol, author of “Mizmor le-Todah”; Samuel ibn ‘Imran; Joseph al-ִSa’iִh; Moses Najara, author of “Lekaִh ִTob”; ִHayim Alshaich; Joseph Maִtalon; Abraham Galante. In this home of learning there was also a model-codex of the Bible called “Al-Taj” (the Crown). In 1547 Pierre Belon visited Damascus in the train of the French ambassador M. de Fumel. He speaks of the large number of Jews there; but makes the singular confusion of placing in this city the events connected with the famous Ahmad Shaitan of Egypt.

Among the spiritual leaders of Damascus in the sixteenth century may be mentioned: Jacob Berab, who, in the interval between his sojourns in Egypt and at Safed, lived there for some years (c. 1534); ִHayim Vital (1526-1603), for many years chief rabbi of Damascus, and the author of various Kabbalistic works, including “Etz ִHayim”; Samuel ben David the Karaite (not “Jemsel,” as Eliakim Carmoly has it), who visited Damascus in 1641, mentions the circumstance that the Karaites there do not read the Haftarah after the Pentateuch section. Moses Najara; his son, the poet Israel Najara; Moses Galante (died in 1608), the son of Mordecai Galante; and Samuel Laniado ben Abraham of Aleppo were also among the prominent men of the sixteenth century.

The most celebrated rabbis of the seventeenth century were Josiah Pinto, a pupil of Jacob Abulafia, and author of the “Kesef-Nibִhar” and his son-in-law, Samuel Vital, who transcribed and circulated a large number of his father’s Kabbalistic manuscripts. At the same time in Aleppo ִHayyim Cohen ben Abraham wrote “Meqor ִHayyim”, published at Constantinople in 1649, and at Amsterdam by Menasseh ben Israel in 1650. Other Aleppo worthies are Samuel Dwek and Isaac Lopes in 1690 followed by Yehudah Kassin, Isaac Berachah and Isaac Atieh in the eighteenth century.

From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century several Jews of Spanish and Italian origin settled in Syria for trading reasons. Whenever possible, they kept their European nationality in order to be under the jurisdiction of the consular courts under the Ottoman Capitulations, rather than being treated as dhimmis under Islamic law. These European Jews were known as Señores Francos and maintained a sense of social superiority to the native Jews, both Musta’arabi and Sephardi. They did not form separate synagogues, but often held services of their own in private houses. There were also Jews of Baghdadi origin who claimed British nationality through family connections in India.

Some information is obtainable from travellers who visited Damascus during the nineteenth century. Alfred von Kremer, in “Mittel-Syrien und Damaskus” (1853), states that in the municipal government of the city two Christians and one Jew had places; the number of Jews was 4,000, only 1,000 of whom, however, paid the poll-tax; the last Karaite had died there some fifty years previously, the Karaite synagogue being then sold to the Greeks, who turned it into a church. The traveller Benjamin II gives the same number of inhabitants. He describes the synagogue at Jobar (to the north-east of the city) thus: “The structure of this ancient building reminds one of the Mosque Moawiah; the interior is supported by 13 marble pillars, six on the right and seven on the left side, and is everywhere inlaid with marble. There is only one portal by which to enter. Under the holy shrine is a grotto; the descent to which is by a flight of about 20 steps. According to the Jews, the Prophet Elisha is said to have found in this grotto a place of refuge. At the entrance of the synagogue, toward the middle of the wall to the right, is an irregularly formed stone, on which can be observed the traces of several steps. Tradition asserts that upon this step sat King Hazael when the Prophet Elisha anointed him king”.

Benjamin 2nd also speaks of valuable copies of parts of the Bible to be found in Damascus; though the dates he gives (581 and 989) are unreliable. Neubauer mentions a copy of the Bible which belonged to Elisha ben Abraham ben Benvenisti, called “Crescas,” and which was finished in 1382. Damascus had eight chief rabbis during the nineteenth century, namely: (1) Joseph David Abulafia (1809-16). (2) Jacob Antebi (1816-1833). (3) Jacob Perez (1833-48). (4) Aaron Bagdadi (1848-66). (During the next two years the office of chief rabbi was vacant, owing to internal quarrels.) (5) ִHayim Qimִhi of Constantinople (1868-72). (6) Mercado Kilִhi of Nish (1872-76). (7) Isaac Abulafia (1876-88). (8) Solomon Eliezer Alfandari; commonly called “Mercado Alfandari” of Constantinople, who was appointed by an imperial decree in 1888 and was still in office in 1901. A more recent chief rabbi was Nissim Indibo, who died at the end of 1972. Other Damascus Rabbis are Mordechai Maslaton, Shaul Menaged and Zaki Assa.

During the nineteenth century the Jews of Damascus were several times made the victims of calumnies, the gravest being those of 1840 and 1860, in the reign of the sultan Abdülmecit. That of 1840, commonly known as the Damascus affair, was an accusation of ritual murder brought against the Jews in connection with the death of Father Thomas. The second accusation brought against the Jews, in 1860, was that of having taken part in the massacre of the Christians by the Druze and the Muslims. Five hundred Muslims, who had been involved in the affair, were hanged by the grand vizier Fuad Pasha.

Two hundred Jews were awaiting the same fate, in spite of their innocence, and the whole Jewish community had been fined 4,000,000 piastres. The condemned Jews were saved only by the official intervention of Fuad Pasha himself; that of the Prussian consul, Dr. Wetzstein of Sir Moses Montefiore of London; and of the bankers Abraham Salomon Camondo of Ishtanbul [Constantinople] and Shemaya Angel of Damascus. From that time to the end of the nineteenth century, several blood accusations were brought against the Jews; these, however, never provoked any great excitement since the plot was to secure financial pay-offs from the Jews.
Prominent Aleppo rabbis include Eliahu Shamah, Abraham Antebi and Mordechai Labaton in the nineteenth century, Jacob Saul Dwek who died in 1919, followed by Ezra Hamwi and Moses Mizrahi who was prepared to be burnt with the Torah Scrolls but was removed by the Arab mob from the Jamilieh Synagogue during the pogrom of 1947. He was followed by Moses Tawil, Shlomo Zafrani and Yomtob Yedid.

In the nineteenth century the commercial importance of Aleppo and Damascus underwent a marked decline. Beginning around 1850, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, many families left Syria for Egypt, and later moved from there to Manchester in England, often following the cotton trade. Later a considerable number left Manchester for South America, in particular Mexico and Argentina. From around 1908, many Syrian Jews migrated to New York, where the Brooklyn community is now the world’s largest single Syrian Jewish community. For these communities at the present day

Jewish wedding in Aleppo, Syria, 1914.

A Jewish family in Damascus, pictured in their ancient Damascan home, in Ottoman Syria, 1901

Chief Rabbi Jacob Saul Dwek, Av Beit Din of Aleppo, Syria, 1908

A historical journey to visit far-flung Jewish communities was undertaken by Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela from 1165 to 1173 that crossed and tracked some of the areas that are today in the United Arab Emirates, which had also been under the control of the Persians. His trek began as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He may have hoped to settle there, but there is controversy about the reasons for his travels. It has been suggested he may have had a commercial motive as well as a religious one. On the other hand, he may have intended to catalogue the Jewish communities on the route to the Holy Land so as to provide a guide to where hospitality may have been found for Jews travelling to the Holy Land. He took the “long road” stopping frequently, meeting people, visiting places, describing occupations and giving a demographic count of Jews in every town and country.

One of the known towns that Benjamin of Tudela reported as having a Jewish community was in a place called “Kis” located in the area of Ras al-Khaimah, presently located within the area of one the emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Modern Ras al-Khaimah covers an area of 656 square miles (1700 km²) in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula.

Thus, the Samaritans rebelled again under the rule of emperor Anastasius I, reoccupying Mount Gerizim, which was subsequently reconquered by the Byzantine governor of Edessa, Procopius. A third Samaritan revolt which took place under the leadership of Julian Ben Saba in 529 was the most violent. Neapolis’ bishop Ammonas was murdered and the city’s priests were hacked into pieces and then burned together with the relics of saints. The forces of Emperor Justinian I were sent in to quell the revolt, which ended with the slaughter of the majority of the Samaritan population in the cities.

Neapolis, along with most of the Holy Land, was conquered by the Arabs under Khaled ibn al-Walid, a general of the Muslim Rashidun army or Umar ibn al-Khattab in 636 after the Battle of Yarmouk. The city’s name was retained in its Biblical form, Nablus.

Nablus prevailed as an important trade center during the centuries of Islamic rule under the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid dynasties. Under Muslim rule, Nablus contained a diverse population of Arabs and Persians, Muslims, Samaritans and Jews. In the 10th century, Arab geographer al- Muqaddasi, upon seeing a bustling Nablus, nicknamed the city “little Damascus”.

The city was occupied by Crusaders in 1099 under the command of Prince Tancred and renamed Naples. The Muslim and Samaritan populations remained in the city, and were taken advantage of by the city’s Christian resources. In 1120, the Crusaders convened a general a religious council to discuss improper religious customs. During the second half of Crusader reign in Nablus, Muslim forces began launching incursions in order to regain control of the city. In 1137, Arab and Turkish troops stationed in Damascus made an incursion into Nablus, killing many Christians and burning down the city’s churches, but were unsuccessful in this bid to retake the city.

Queen Melisende of Jerusalem who resided in Nablus from 1150 to 1161, so as to resolve a dispute with her son Almaric I. The Crusaders began building Christian institutions in Nablus, including a church dedicated to the Jesus and in 1170 they also erected a hospice for pilgrims.

Crusader rule came to an end in 1187, when the Ayyubids under Saladin captured the city. Syrian and Latin Christians fled Nablus, but the Eastern Christian inhabitants remained. After its recapture by the Muslims, several Crusader churches were converted to mosques. The city’s cathedral was transformed into the Great Mosque of Nablus by the Ayyubids who also built a mausoleum in the old city for the ancient prophets. Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote of Nablus under Ayyubid rule as being a “celebrated city in Filastin having wide lands and a fine district”. He also mentions the large Samaritan population in the city.

The Mamluks converted the Samaritan synagogue built in 362 CE by the high priest Akbon into al-Khadra Mosque and did the same to two Crusader churches which became the an-Nasr Mosque and al-Masakim Mosque. The Mamluk dynasty gained control of Nablus in 1260 and during their brief reign, they built numerous mosques and schools in the city. Under Mamluk rule, Nablus possessed running water, many Turkish bathes and exported olive oil and soap to Egypt, Syria, the Hejaz, several Mediterranean islands, and the Arabian Desert. The city’s olive oil was also used in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Ibn Battuta visited Nablus in 1355, and described it as a city “full of trees and streams and full of olives”. He points out that it grew and exported carob jam to Cariro and Damascus.

Ottoman era
Nablus came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, along with the whole of Filastin (Holy Land). The Ottomans divided the land into six sanjaqs (”districts”): Safed, Jenin, Jerusalem, Gaza, Ajlun and Nablus. These five sanjaqs were subdistricts of the vilayet (”province”) of Damascus. Sanjaq Nablus was further subdivided into five nahiya (subdistricts), in addition to the city itself. The Ottomans did not attempt to restructure the political configuration of the region on the local level such that the borders of the nahiya were drawn to coincide with the historic strongholds of certain families. Nablus was only one among a number of local centers of power within Jabal Nablus, and its relations with the surrounding villages, such as Beita and Aqraba, were partially mediated by the rural-based chiefs of the nahiya. In 1522, a Jewish community re-settled in Nablus.

After decades of minor upheavals and rebellions mounted by some of the Arab tribes in the Middle East, the Ottomans attempted to reassert centralized control over the Arab vilayets. In 1657, they sent an expeditionary force of local Ottoman-aligned Arab families based in various Syrian cities to pacify Nablus. In return for their services, the families were granted agricultural lands around the villages of Jabal Nablus. The Ottomans, fearing that the new Arab land holders would establish independent bases of power, dispersed the land plots to separate and distant locations within Jabal Nablus to avoid clusters of clans. The 1657 campaign succeeded and the Syrian Arab families began to have a foothold in Nablus’ affairs. The largest family were the Nimrs, who originated from villages surrounding Hama and Hims. The other two prominent families were the Jarrars from Balqa and the Tuqans from northern Syria. Eventually gaining the role of nahiya chiefs, they began intermarrying with local merchant and leading religious families. Thus, these new families were integrated into Nablus’ population. Under an arrangement in 1723, the Tuqans and the Nimrs would share and trade leadership of Nablus, and the Jarrars would “indisputably” become the chiefs of the nahiya of Jabal Nablus.

In the mid-1700s, Dhaher al-Omar, an Arab native and ruler of the Galilee and Acre who was hostile toward Ottoman rule, rose to become the most dominant figure in northern Filastin. In order to build up his army, he strove to gain monopoly control over the cotton and olive oil trade of the Levant, which Jabal Nablus fueled. In 1771, during a Mamluk invasion of Syria, al-Omar aligned himself with the Mamluks, allowing him to temporarily besiege Nablus, without gaining ultimate control over the city. In 1773, he again led his army to besiege Nablus, but again to no avail. Nevertheless, from a political perspective, the sieges did succeed in raising Acre’s prominence at Nablus’ expense. Al-Omar’s successor, Jezzar Pasha, maintained Acre’s dominance over Nablus. After his reign ended in 1804, Nablus regained its original autonomy, and the Tuqans, who represented a principal opposing force to Acre’s dominance over Nablus, rose to power.

Egyptian rule and Ottoman revival
After the Egyptians declared independence from Ottoman rule under the leadership of Muhammad Ali, they went on to conquer Filastin in 1831-32. A repressive policy of conscription and taxation was instituted which led to a revolt launched by the prominent Arab clans of Nablus, Hebron and the Jerusalem-Jaffa area. On May 19, 1834, the clans, led by Qasim al-Ahmad — the chief of nahiya Jamma’in notified Egyptian officials that Arab families would no longer supply the Egyptian army with troops. Governor Ibrahim Pasha responded by sending Egyptian forces into the rebelling cities, thus triggering armed conflict with the clans. Nablus sent hundreds of rebels to attack Jerusalem, aided by the Abu Ghosh clan and they conquered the city on May 31, but were routed out by Ibrahim’s forces the next month. The Egyptians then forced the heads of the Nablus clans to leave for nearby villages, and executed Qasim al-Ahmad and his two eldest sons.
The Egyptian occupation of Filastin (Palestine) resulted in the destruction of Acre and thus, the political importance of Nablus increased. The Ottomans wrested back control of Filastin from the Egyptians in 1840-41. As a result, the Abd al-Hadi clan, who originated in Arrabah in the Sahl Arraba region in northern Samaria, rose to prominence. Loyal allies of Jezzar Pasha and the Tuqans, they gained the governorship of Jabal Nablus and other sanjaqs.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Nablus was the principal trade and manufacturing center in Filastin. Its economic activity and regional leadership position surpassed that of Jerusalem and the coastal cities of Jaffa and Acre. Olive oil was the primary product of Nablus and fueled other related industries such as soap making and basket weaving. The city also was the top producer of cotton in the Levant, topping the production from northern cities such as Damascus. Jabal Nablus enjoyed a greater degree of autonomy than other sanjaqs under Ottoman control, probably because the city was the capital of a hilly region, in which there were no “foreigners” who held any military or bureaucratic posts. Thus, Nablus remained outside the direct “supervision” of the Ottoman government. Awi Abd al-Hadi from Nablus was a founding member (in 1911) of al-fatat (al-jam’irrya al-‘arabiyya al-fatat), an organisation with Nationalist aims seeking sovereignty within a crumbling Ottoman Empire.