EJIW Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World 5 volumes including index Executive Editor: Norman A. Stillman Th e goal of the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World is to cover an area of Jewish history, religion, and culture which until now has lacked its own cohesive/discreet reference work. Th e Encyclopedia aims to fi ll the gap in academic reference literature on the Jews of Muslims lands particularly in the late medieval, early modern and modern periods. Th e Encyclopedia is planned as a four-volume bound edition containing approximately 2,750 entries and 1.5 million words. Entries will be organized alphabetically by lemma title (headword) for general ease of access and cross-referenced where appropriate. Additionally the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World will contain a special edition of the Index Islamicus with a sole focus on the Jews of Muslim lands. An online edition will follow aft er the publication of the print edition. If you require further information, please send an e-mail to [email protected] EJIW_Preface.indd 1 2/26/2009 5:50:12 PM Australia established separate Sephardi institutions. In Sydney, the New South Wales Association of Sephardim (NAS), created in 1954, opened Despite the restrictive “whites-only” policy, Australia’s fi rst Sephardi synagogue in 1962, a Sephardi/Mizraḥi community has emerged with the aim of preserving Sephardi rituals in Australia through postwar immigration from and cultural identity. Despite ongoing con- Asia and the Middle East. Th e Sephardim have fl icts between religious and secular forces, organized themselves as separate congrega- other Sephardi congregations have been tions, but since they are a minority within the established: the Eastern Jewish Association predominantly Ashkenazi community, main- in 1960, Bet Yosef in 1992, and the Rambam taining a distinctive Sephardi identity may in 1993. Emulating Sydney’s example, the prove problematic for the next generation. Sephardi Association of Victoria, established With the implementation of the White in 1965, opened the Sassoon Yehudah Sep- Australia policy in 1901, Jews from non- hardi synagogue in Melbourne in 1975. Its European countries were classifi ed as unde- founding members were Egyptian and Iraqi. sirable immigrants. Nevertheless, a small and Out of a general population of twenty ethnically diverse Mizraḥi community began million and an estimated Jewish population to emerge in the post–World War II era. Th e of 100,000 to 120,000, the majority Ashke- fi rst wave of Mizraḥim came from Asia, pre- nazi, the Sephardi community of about fi ve dominantly Baghdadis dislodged by the war to seven thousand represents a fragmented and postwar independence movements. Fol- minority, seeking to maintain cohesion within lowing a secret report in 1948 warning that its ranks while making valuable contributions many of the Indian Jews who wished to immi- to the host country in every domain. Retain- grate were “coloured,” the Immigration Minis- ing a distinctive Sephardi identity is becom- try, under Arthur Calwell, decided to prohibit ing increasingly problematic for the younger entry to all Jews from Asia and the Middle generation because of the lack of adequate East, except in special circumstances. Sephardi educational facilities. Th e growing Th e second wave consisted mainly of Jews socialization of Sephardi youth with the from Egypt. Some were able to enter the dominant Ashkenazim in synagogues, Jewish country in 1948, but aft er the 1956 Suez crisis, day schools, and Zionist organizations, and they found it diffi cult to obtain landing per- the subsequent rate of intermarriage will fur- mits. Strong representations by the leader of ther dilute their sense of identity. the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Sydney D. Einfeld, led the government to Bibliography accept those with relatives or sponsors in Gale, Naomi. “Sephardim and Sephardic Iden- Australia. Einfeld also pleaded the case of tity in Sydney,” Journal of the Australian Jewish Iraqi/Indian and Moroccan Jews. From the Historical Society 11, pt. 2 (1991): 331–351. 1960s, Israeli Sephardim with family connec- . Th e Sephardim of Sydney: Coping with tions in the country were granted admission. Political Processes and Social Pressures (Sussex: Some Turkish Jews entered Australia in the Sussex Academic Press, 2005). early 1970s, following immigration treaties Jupp, James. Immigration (Sydney: Sydney between the two countries. Th ey all called University Press, 1991). themselves Sephardim. Rutland, Suzanne D. Edge of the Diaspora: Two In Adelaide and Perth, Sephardim have Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Australia merged with the Ashkenazi community, (Sydney: Collins Australia, 1988; 2nd ed. Syd- whereas in Sydney and Melbourne, they have ney: Brandl & Schlesinger, 1997). © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 EJIW Also available online – www.brill.nl EEJIW_Preview.inddJIW_Preview.indd 1 22/26/2009/26/2009 1:55:451:55:45 PPMM 2 preview Samra, Myer. “Th e Founding of Bet Yosef: Con- ous attacks on Iran by Russia and the Otto- fl ict and Community among Sephardi Jews in mans, and the internecine warfare waged by Sydney” (Case Study: Human Action in Com- contenders to the Safavid throne. During the plex Organisations, May 2005). short and incomplete (Sunni) Afghan occu- . “Yisrael Rhammana: Constructions of pation of Iran (1722–1731), Jews and other Identity among Iraqi Jews in Sydney, Australia” non-Shīʿī minorities seem to have fared better (Ph.D. diss., University of Sydney, 1988). than during the reigns of the increasingly intolerant late Safavid shahs. During this cha- Racheline Barda otic age, some of the leaders of the Jewish community of Kashan, pressed by rapacious taxes and outright plunder instigated by Tahmāsp̣ Qulī Khān (the future → Nādir Shah, Bābāī b. Farhād r. 1736–1747), decided to convert to Islam in order to preserve their wealth and, perhaps, their lives. Th ey and the rest of the Jewish Bābāī b. Farhād was the author of Kitāb-I community, whom they coerced to join them, Sar-Guzasht-i Kāshān dar bāb-i ʿibrī va became → anusim (Heb. forced converts), goyimi-yi sānī (Th e Book of Events in Kashan outwardly practicing Islam but secretly faith- Concerning the Jews; Th eir Second Conver- ful to Judaism. Bābāī b. Farhād was caught up sion), a Judeo-Persian chronicle in verse cover- in these events. According to his own account, ing selected events during the reigns of the he penned a petition asking Shah Tahmāsp̣ II Safavid shahs Sultan Ḥusayn (1694–1722) to restore Jewish religious freedom, but the and Ṭahmāsp II (1722–1731). communal leaders did not send it, thinking it → Bābāī b. Farhād was the author of Kitāb-i better to deal with Tahmāsp̣ Qulī Khān, the Sar-Guzasht-i Kāshān dar bāb-i ʿibrī va Goy- shah’s general, rather than with the shah him- imi-yi Sānī (Th e Book of Events in Kashan self. Th is worked out well, because Tahmāsp̣ Concerning the Jews; Th eir Second Conver- Qulī Khān eventually allowed the Jews to resume sion), the second Judeo-Persian chronicle in their faith upon payment of further “fi nes.” verse known thus far. It covers selected events Nothing is known about Bābāī b. Farhād between 1721 and 1731 during the reigns of beyond the meager information in his chroni- → → the Safavid shahs( Safavid shahs) Sultan cle, because no other work of his has surfaced. Ḥusain (1694–1722) and Tahmāsp II (1722– He clearly came from a relatively well educated 1731). Bābāī b. Farhād acknowledges that his family, but his learning, as judged from the lit- inspiration to record mostly contemporary erary and analytical features of his chronicle, events, some of which he witnessed, came was inferior to his grandfather’s. His writing of → from Kitāb-i Anusī (Th e Book of a Forced a petition to the shah and its rejection by the Convert), the fi rst Judeo-Persian chronicle, community’s leaders suggests that he occupied → composed by his grandfather Bābāī b. Lutf.̣ a low position in the communal hierarchy. While the emphasis of Bābāī b. Farhād’s chronicle is on the brief (approximately Bibliography seven-month) period of apostasy of the Jews Bacher, Wilhelm. Les Juifs de Perse au XVIIe → of Kashan, his hometown, it also describes et au XVIII siècles d’après les chroniques de the hardships Iranian Jews endured in other Babai b. Loutf et de Babai b. Farhad (Paris: A. towns, notably → Isfahan and → Hamadan, Durlacher, 1907). along with a few important events external to Moreen, Vera Basch. Iranian Jewry’s Hour of the Jewish community. Peril and Heroism: A Study of Bābāī Ibn Lutf’ṣ Bābāī b. Farhād lived in a turbulent period. Chronicle (1617–1662) (New York and Jerusa- He witnessed the downfall of the Safavids at lem: American Academy for Jewish Research, the hands of the Afghans (1722), simultane- 1987). EEJIW_Preview.inddJIW_Preview.indd 2 22/26/2009/26/2009 1:55:461:55:46 PPMM preview 3 Moreen, Vera Basch. Iranian Jewry During the Jews have so melted into the rest of the popu- Afghan Invasion: Th e “Kitāb-iSar-Guzasht-i lation that it is impossible to distinguish them.” Kāshān” of Bābāī b. Farhād (Stuttgart: Franz In 1852, it was estimated that there were Steiner Verlag, 1990). fi ft een hundred baḥusiṃ in Algeria. Th e Alge- . “Th e Kitab-i Anusi of Babai ibn Lutf rian baḥusiṃ eked out their livelihood from (Seventeenth Century) and the Kitab-i Sar peddling and jewelry smithing; those in Tuni- Guzasht of Babai ibn Farhad (Eighteenth Cen- sia from agriculture. Th e baḥusiṃ were gen- tury): A Comparison of Two Judaeo-Persian erally illiterate and knew little about Judaism. Chronicles,” in Intellectual Studies on Islam, Th ey swore by Sīdnā Mūsā (Ar. Our master ed.