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The persecution of Iranian Jews during the reign of the Safavid Shah ʿAbbās II (1642—1666) has been well-known since the pioneering studies on the subject by Wilhelm Bacher. Recent research is slowly narrowing the gap in our knowledge about the Jews of Medieval Iran. An important Jewish source of information, the Judaeo-Persian chronicle Kitāb-i Anusī ("The Book of Forced Conversion"), hereinafter referred to as the KA, remains invaluable for its accounts of events between 1617 and 1661 relative to the fate of Iranian Jewry. The author, Bābāī ibn Luṭf, lived during the reign of Shah ʿAbbās II and he either witnessed many of the events he narrates or was close to those who did. The Kitāb-i Anusī ("The Book of Forced Conversion") of Bābāī ibn Luṭf is, in the absence of other material, the major source for the history of Iranian Jews at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It deals primarily with the periodic persecution of Jews in Iran between 1617 and 1661. Written soon after 1661 the Kitāb-i Anusī proves to be a reliable historical document in so far as its accounts can be correlated with other sources. This study analyzes three events described in the Kitāb-i Anusī which are corroborated by other sources and concludes that the nature and extent of this corroboration indicate the high degree of reliability one can place in this source. It is very likely, therefore, that many of the events of the Kitāb-i Anusī which deal with Jewish communal problems and cannot be corroborated by other sources, are accurate as well.
Hebrew Union College Annual is the flagship journal of Hebrew Union College Press and the primary face of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to the academic world. From its inception in 1924, its goal has been to facilitate the dissemination of cutting-edge scholarship across the spectrum of Jewish Studies, including biblical studies, rabbinics, history, liturgy, literature, philology, law, philosophy, and religion.
Hebrew Union College Press , founded in 1921, publishes books across the entire spectrum of Jewish Studies and interest. The Press’s publications include literature, poetry, history, Bible, Rabbinics, language, philosophy, and religion, with special attention to historical monographs and bilingual editions that present Hebrew or Yiddish texts along with English translations. Their flagship journal, the Hebrew Union College Annual, founded in 1924 and to this day one of its field’s most esteemed journals, is devoted to publishing the finest scholarship in Jewish Studies, ancient and modern.
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