Salmiya

I have reported on my five visits of Esfahan in Central Iran many times. The city is famous for being one of the most beautiful in the world. Its final grandeur arose in the early 17th century when the Safavid Shahs’ architecture culminated in magnificence which has not been seen before. It is not so well-known that Esfahan was colonized already during the Achaemenid reign by Jews. When Cyrus the Great freed them from Babylonian captivity in 539 BCE, some of the exiled went to the Northeast until they settled at the Zayandeh-Rud, where they founded Yahudiyah, now Jubareh, the Jewish Quarter. I have posted previously some astonishing discoveries I had made when strolling along the tree-lined alley in the old city of Esfahan last November. The more than 2000 years old Jewish cemetery in Pir Bakran and its still active synagogue are other amazing examples of the important contribution Jews played in Iranian history. After the fall of the Achaemenian Empire upon Alexander’s conquest, th...

Cyrus II encouraged the Jews in Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, knowing well that imperial generosity will grant stability in the empire’s periphery. It is interesting to note that the Jews declined. Too comfortable had life been in the Diaspora, several generations under better circumstances than in Judah. It was Darius I (522-486 BCE) who ordered the construction of the temple, as a fortress, as a proper place for administration, and, of course, to worship Yahweh. Yehud was, after the conquest of Egypt, no longer a marginal province. Darius appointed Zerubbabel as local governor who was a Davidide. This period is covered in the Tanakh in the Books of Haggai, Zechariah 1-8, and Isaiah 56-66 (the Third Isaiah). Darius’ strong influence as a lawgiver who respected local laws (see, for instance, his carved-in-stone, multilingual inscriptions in Behistun ) expedited the canonization of Yehud’s religious texts, of course. For the short period between Cyrus and Darius, Cambyses ...