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Bozorg Synagogue, Isfahan, Iran
The Bozorg (بزرگ, בוזורג) Synagogue in Isfahan (Esfahan, אספהאן, اصفهان), Iran.
Introduction: Located in the Jubareh Jewish district, the Bozorg Synagogue’s façade blends into the landscape in a remarkable manner. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is part of a complex of three synagogues (Bozorg, Jima‘ati and Mulla Rabi) which share an entrance and a corridor.i We will now delve into the history of this synagogue, built around 1908,ii before exploring the history of Jews in Isfahan in Persia (modern-day Iran).
Description
The Synagogue: The exterior of the synagogue displays the influence of Persian architectural style. It reinforces the integration of the synagogue with the city of Isfahan. This Jewish place of cult is unrecognizable from the outside due to its scale and to the fact that it is covered with thatch, like other buildings.iii Noteworthily, most synagogues in Isfahan, including the Bozorg synagogue, are geographically close to the Friday Mosque and city center, which expresses the “integration” and “protection” of Jews in the city.iv The focus of the synagogue is on the interior. A long corridor distinguishes mentally and physically the outside from the inside.v The bimah, a platform from which the leader recites the prayers, is traditionally set surrounded by chairs.vi It may seem surprising that the Bozorg synagogue, like almost all synagogues in Isfahan, was built after the nineteenth century while Jews had been in Isfahan since several millennia. For the Bozorg synagogue, it appears that it was built atop an older synagogue. Furthermore, the synagogue was built during the rule of Aqa Najafi Esfahani (1846–1914), a prominent Shiʿite religious leader. Despite his reputation of being very zealous, he offered some freedom to the Jews, which enabled the building of multiple synagogues.vii But, why was the Bozorg synagogue part of a three-synagogue complex? A possible explanation may be the fact that it reflects the cultural diversity of the community. viii We will now focus on the history of Jews in Isfahan.
History of the Jews in Persia, and particularly Isfahan: According to the common belief, Jews have resided in Persia since 586 B.C.E., when exiled Jews left
Jerusalem due to the destruction of the First Temple and went to Babylonia.[i]
The beginning of Jewish history in Isfahan is quite blurry. According to the Pahlavi legend, Jews founded a quarter in Isfahan whereas, according to the Armenians, Jews arrived in Isfahan due to king Shapur II’s forcible moving of them from Armenia to Persia.ix In 641, when Arab forces conquered Persia, they faced a significant Jewish population in Isfahan to the point that the Jewish quarter was surnamed al-Yahūdiyya, “the city of the Jews.” x When Isfahan became the capital of the Safavids in 1598, the Jews prospered economically. They worked as craftsmen and merchants. Under Shah Abbas I and Shah Abbas II, Persian persecution and forced conversion marked the Jewish community in the 17th century. Under the Qājār dynasty (1794–1925), due to the transfer of the capital from Isfahan to Teheran, Jews in Isfahan lost much of their cultural and political significance. xi However, it is under this era, in the 19th century, that most synagogues were built, due to expanded religious freedom.xii
A turning point in the history of Jews in Persia took place when the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) opened its chapter schools, the first one in Isfahan being established in 1901.xiii Before the establishment of Alliance schools in Persia, almost every Jewish community offered an educational institution for children (the maktab) where exclusively religious subjects were taught.xiv The Alliance, which represented Western civilization, offered a new set of values to Iranian Jewry, “based on French-universal and Haskalah Jewish principles.”xv The Alliance chapters opened in a favorable economic context. Indeed, Iranian trends in urbanization as well as discoveries of oil reinforced the necessity of a European-educated labor force. AIU officials were also efficient in defending the Jews at a time when central Jewish authorities were powerless to promote change.xvi Also, while the Jews’ Muslim neighbors were not able to get a European education, the Jewish children were able to get one, so the Jewish community was grateful to AIU for the educational opportunities it offered.xvii Despite educational differences between the Muslim and Jewish communities, a certain syncretism existed between the two. Since the eighth century, the use of Judeo-Persian, the Persian Jews’ literary language which was close to courtly Persian language, also epitomizes this acculturation.xviii The symbiosis between the Muslim and Jewish communities can be best expressed by the fact that, in local dialect, Jews referred to synagogues as ‘masjid’ (mosques).xix Since the mid-20th century, following a general Iranian trend, the Jewish community in Isfahan has generally decreased from 10,000-12,000 Jews in 1948 to 3,000 in 1979 to 1,500 at the end of the 20th century. Many Jews moved to Israel.xx
Isfahan, Iran
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Sources
Notes
[i] Mohammad Gharipour, “The Question of Identity: The Architecture of Synagogues in Isfahan, Iran” (Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality Symposium, Toronto, 2014), 1–3, accessed June 23rd 2017, http://www.acsforum.org/symposium2014/papers/GHARIPOUR.pdf.
[ii] Mohammad Gharipour and Rafael Sedighpour, “Synagogues of Isfahan,” in Sacred Precincts, ed. Mohammad Gharipour (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 184, accessed June 23rd 2017, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/well/detail.action?docID=1875454.
[iii] Gharipour, “The Question of Identity: The Architecture of Synagogues in Isfahan, Iran,” 3.
[iv] Gharipour and Sedighpour, “Synagogues of Isfahan,” 200.
[v] Ibid., 189.
[vi] Ibid., 191.
[vii] Ibid., 186–88.
[viii] Ibid., 194.
[ix] Vera B. Moreen,“Iran/Persia,” ed. Norman A. Stillman, Encyclopedia of Jews in the IslamicWorld, October 1, 2010,http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/iranpersia-COM_0011520?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world&s.q=Persia.
[x] Walter Joseph Fischel, “Isfahan: The Story of a Jewish Community in Persia,” in The Joshua Starr Memorial Volume, Conference on Jewish Relations (New York, 1953), 111–12. Accessed via the Inter-Library Loan on June 23rd, 2017.
[xi] Walter Joseph Fischel and Amnon Netzer, “Isfahan,” ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, Encyclopaedia Judaica (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), accessed June 23rd 2017, http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=mlin_m_wellcol&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX2587502450&asid=ccf15180e0f04e80844ae0778047241e.
[xii] Ibid., 80.
[xiii] Gharipour and Sedighpour, “Synagogues of Isfahan,” 186–88.
[xiv] Fischel and Netzer, “Isfahan,” 80.
[xv] Avraham Cohen, “Iranian Jewry and the Educational Endeavors of the Alliance Israélite Universelle,” Jewish Social Studies 48, no. 1 (1986): 17. Accessed via the Inter-Library Loan on June 23rd, 2017.
[xvi] Ibid., 18.
[xvii] Ibid., 29–30.
[xviii] Ibid., 35–36.
[xx] Vera Basch Moreen, “Judeo-Persian Literature,” in A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations, ed. Abdelwahab Meddeb and Benjamin Stora, From the Origins to the Present Day (Princeton University Press, 2013), 962, accessed June 23rd 2017, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fgz64.80.
[xxi] Gharipour, “The Question of Identity: The Architecture of Synagogues in Isfahan, Iran,” 4.
[xxii] Amnon Netzer and Hayyim J. Cohen, “Isfahan-Contemporary Period,” ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, Encyclopaedia Judaica (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), 80, accessed June 23rd 2017, http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=mlin_m_wellcol&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX2587502450&asid=ccf15180e0f04e80844ae0778047241e.
Works cited
Cohen, Avraham. “Iranian Jewry and the Educational Endeavors of the Alliance Israélite Universelle.” Jewish Social Studies 48, no. 1 (1986): 15–44.
Fischel, Walter Joseph. “Isfahan: The Story of a Jewish Community in Persia.” In The Joshua Starr Memorial Volume, Conference on Jewish Relations., 111–28. New York, 1953. Accessed via the Inter-Library Loan on June 23rd, 2017.
Fischel, Walter
Joseph, and Amnon Netzer. “Isfahan.” Edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. Encyclopaedia Judaica. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Accessed June 23rd, 2017. http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=mlin_m_wellcol&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX2587502450&asid=ccf15180e0f04e80844ae0778047241e.
Gharipour, Mohammad. “The Question of Identity: The Architecture of Synagogues in Isfahan, Iran,” 1–4. Toronto, 2014. Accessed June 23rd, 2017.
http://www.acsforum.org/symposium2014/papers/GHARIPOUR.pdf.
Gharipour, Mohammad, and Rafael Sedighpour. “Synagogues of Isfahan.” In Sacred Precincts, edited by Mohammad Gharipour, 178–202. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Accessed June 23rd, 2017. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/well/detail.action?docID=1875454.
Moreen, Vera B. “Iran/Persia.” Edited by Norman A. Stillman. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, October 1, 2010. http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/iranpersia-COM_0011520?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world&s.q=Persia. Accessed June 23rd, 2017.
Moreen, Vera
Basch. “Judeo-Persian Literature.” In A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations, edited by Abdelwahab Meddeb and Benjamin Stora, 962–69. From the Origins to the
Present Day. Princeton University Press, 2013. Accessed June 23rd, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fgz64.80.
Netzer, Amnon, and Hayyim J. Cohen. “Isfahan-Contemporary Period.” Edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. Encyclopaedia Judaica. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Accessed June 23rd, 2017. http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=mlin_m_wellcol&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX2587502450&asid=ccf15180e0f04e80844ae0778047241e.
Coordinates via M.G. and the Isfahan Synagogues Project.
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