History of the Jews in Baghdad
The history of the Jews in Baghdad spans over a millennium, tracing back to the founding of the city in the 8th century under the Abbasid Caliphate.
Throughout the Abbasid era, Baghdad emerged as a center for Jewish learning and religious leadership, hosting prominent figures and scholars.
However, periodic restrictions under certain caliphs impacted Jewish civil rights, with policies enforcing distinctive dress and barring public worship.
Baghdad's Jewish community continued to thrive under various Islamic regimes, despite facing intermittent hardships, such as forced conversions and massacres during the 13th and 14th centuries under Mongol and other foreign invasions.
In the 20th century, political changes in Iraq, culminating in the rise of the Ba'athist regime, led to the decline of the Jewish population in Baghdad as emigration increased.
Despite facing challenges, Baghdad’s Jewish community has left a rich legacy, evidenced by the historic synagogues, schools, and enduring cultural traditions that shaped the city’s history.
According to Arab tradition, the town of Baghdad was founded in the middle of the eighth century by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur.
Situated on the left bank of the Tigris, the town was in close proximity to the two centers of Jewish spiritual life, Sura and Pumbedita.
These regulations were first renewed by Harun al-Rashid (786-809), who ordered that Jews and Christians should wear distinguishing marks on their clothing, refrain from riding on horseback, and suffer other similar humiliations.
Aaron ben Samuel ha-Nasi of Babylon, the mystic of the ninth century, came to Italy from this city (Graetz, "History of the Jews," Hebrew transl., v., Appendix, p 46).
Ishmael of Ukbara (c. 840) came from a place seven miles from the city; and Sahl ben Matzliah (eleventh century) preached publicly in the streets against Rabbinical Judaism.
He was answered in the same way by Jacob ben Samuel,[10][11] Abu Imran al-Za'farani [he] the founder of a new sect, was born in Baghdad in the ninth century.[12][13]).
[4] At the time of the Caliph al-Mutadid, the Jews of Baghdad fared well on account of the kind treatment accorded to them by the vizier 'Ubaid Allah ibn Sulaiman.
Ibn Ezra's son Isaac, who probably came with him, and was baptized, wrote in Baghdad (1143) a poem in honor of another convert, Nathaniel Hibat Allah ("Kokbe Yiẓḥaḳ," 1858, p. 23; Graetz, "History of the Jews," Hebr.
The reputation of Samuel seems to have spread far and wide; for we learn that Rabbi Moses of Kiev came from Russia especially to receive information from him (Epstein, in "Monatsschrift für die Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums," xxxix.
It was this same Samuel who, in later years, was a determined opponent of Maimonides, and who made Baghdad for the time a very hotbed of anti-Maimonist intrigue (Graetz, ib.
Maimonides' pupil, Ibn Aknin, had formed a plan of opening a school at Baghdad for the purpose of propagating his master's teachings.
Maimonides, however, advised him against such an action, as he wished to spare him the opposition which he knew Ibn Aknin would encounter (Grätz, "Geschichte der Juden," vi.
150[28] (MS. Bodleian 2424 and MS. in collection of E. N. Adler), who lived before the middle of the thirteenth century, traveled as far as Baghdad, where he met the head of the yeshiva ("Jewish Quarterly Review," xii.
Arghun (1284–91), however, had a Jewish physician in Baghdad, Sa'ad al-Daulah, who was consulted in all financial matters by the sultan; but upon the death of Arghun, the position which the Jews had gained through Sa'ad al-Daulah was quickly lost, and the streets of the city flowed with Jewish blood (see "Revue Etudes Juives," xxxvi.
Armenian intrigues, however, occasioned his fall, and he was put to death between the years 1820 and 1826 at Adalia in Asia Minor (Franco, "L'Histoire des Israélites de l'Empire Ottoman," p. 132[36]).
[4] Baghdad was a cultural center of Jewish learning with, in the early nineteenth century, the largest library of the city being in the hands of the astronomer, poet and communal leader Solomon Ma'tuk.
"[40]In the mid-nineteenth century, the reign of Dawud Pasha of Baghdad saw the leading Jewish families of the city persecuted by the Ottoman governor.
[42] David Sassoon would come to be seen as the leader of the Baghdadi Jewish trading diaspora and his friend and relative Ezekiel Judah in Calcutta would establish synagogues.
On March 27, 1845, a "herem" (ban) was launched against all who had any connection with the missionaries (compare "Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland," 1848, ii.
The women and young children were at that time engaged in manufacturing what is called the "agabani," a garment made of European stuffs embroidered with India silk.
The high priest Joshua (Zechariah 3:1) is said to have been buried here; and, according to Teixeira and J. J. Benjamin, the Jews are accustomed to make pilgrimages thither every month.
A memorial on the subject was addressed to the marquis of Salisbury Oct. 25, 1889, on behalf of the Jewish Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, as a result of which the governor was removed.
During the last years of the nineteenth century, a few Hebrew books have been printed in Baghdad, especially by Solomon Behor Ḥuṣain [he]; e.g., ספר פתרון חלומות (the second part of Solomon Almoli's work), 1892; מרפא לעצם of Isaac Farḥi;[50] the story of Esther (קצת אסתר), told in Arabic by Joseph al-Shamsani; תהלה לדויד of Sasshon Mordecai Moses;[51] and מעשה נסים on the wonders which happened in Palestine, taken from the שערי ירושלם.
At the side of the tomb are two ancient synagogues, one of which contains a sacred scroll, which some persons claim was the property of the prophet, and others that of Anan, the founder of Karaism.
