At the beginning of the nineteenth century, was the richest
banker in the city. He became involved in politics and went to
Constantinople, where he exercised great influence as a
court banker ("
saraf bashi").
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). The traveler
J. J. Benjamin was in Baghdad in 1847, and tells us that the Jews at that time numbered 3,000 families and were living in happy circumstances. They were under a "
Hakham Bashi" appointed by the
Sublime Porte. Their
dayyanim or rabbinical chiefs were ,
Elijah Obadiah, and Rabbi
Abdola (Abdallah). Every male Hebrew of the community paid a tax which varied between 15 and 120
piasters per year.
Raphael Kassin was Hakham Bashi, and next to him in rank was the
Nasi,
Joseph Moses Reuben. The yeshiva had then sixty pupils, who were in the charge of
Abdullah ben Abraham Seumech. Though the Jews inhabited a certain
quarter of the city, to live in that quarter was not compulsory upon them. Of the nine synagogues which J. J. Benjamin mentions, eight were situated in one court; while the ninth was a large building, resting on sixteen columns, called "Bet ha-Keneset Sheik Isaac Gaon," in a side room of which building the body of that saint was interred. The trade of Baghdad with
India was then largely in the hands of the Jews, who had
manufactories in
Calcutta,
Bombay,
Singapore, and
Canton. This is corroborated by the evidence of the Rev.
Henry A. Stern ("
Dawnings of Light in the East," p. 46, London, 1854), who says: This led to many of the leading families, such as the
Sassoon family as the Judah family, descended from
Solomon Ma'tuk, to leave the city for the booming port cities of British India. This was the origin of the trading network and diaspora of Middle Eastern Jews in Asia known as the
Baghdadi Jews. 97, 104), in the year 1890, there were 53,800 Jews in the
vilayet of Baghdad, of whom 52,500 lived in Baghdad, 500 in
Hilla, and 800 in
Kerbela. He gives the number of
primary schools as 52, of synagogues as 22, and of
cemeteries 2. 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 trade in Babylonian and
Assyrian antiquities is largely in the hands of the Jews of Baghdad (
Delitzsch, "
Babylon," 2d edition, 1901, p. 5). iv., No. 20, p. 157; No. 24, p. 188; No. 28, p. 221). The relation of the Jews to their non-Jewish brethren seems, for the most part, to have been amicable. In 1860, however, an attempt was made to deprive the Jews of the
Tomb of Ezekiel, situated a short distance outside of the city, and visited by Jews in the month of
Ab. The
Anglo-Jewish Association interposed in the matter; and the tomb was given back to its proper owners. A similar difficulty arose in the year 1889 with regard to a shrine called "Nabi Yusha" or "Kohen Yusha," situated about an hour's walk from the city in a small building shaded by eight gigantic trees.
The high priest Joshua (
Zechariah ) 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. The shrine is maintained by the contributions of the Jews in Baghdad and in India, and is used not only as a synagogue, but as a burying place for the rabbis. One of the latter had been buried there in the year 1889, and because of a dispute as to whether the property really belonged to the Jews or to the
Mohammedans, a persecution of the former was set on foot, and the principal Jews of the city, including the
chief rabbi, were imprisoned by direction of the governor. 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. In 1899, the Jews numbered 35,000 souls, with about 30 to 35 synagogues known by the name of "Torah." Each Torah had a
ḥakam, a "''mu'allim kabir
" (senior teacher), and a "mu'allim ṣaghir''" (junior teacher). The
Alliance Israélite Universelle founded a school for boys there in 1865, which in 1899 had 254 pupils; in 1895 the same body founded a school for girls which in 1899 had 132 pupils. There is also a Jewish
apprentices' school for the education of Baghdad boys along
industrial lines. The study of
English has been encouraged by a foundation made by
Silas Sassoon, a member of the
Sassoon family which has its origin in Baghdad,
David Sassoon, the founder of the family, having been born there, 1793. the story of Esther (קצת אסתר), told in Arabic by
Joseph al-Shamsani; תהלה לדויד of
Sasshon Mordecai Moses; and מעשה נסים on the wonders which happened in
Palestine, taken from the שערי ירושלם. Of earlier works may be mentioned ספר קרנות צדיק of
David Saliḥ Ya'ḳob, published by
Raḥamim Reuben Mordecai & Co., 1867, and ספר משלי שועלים, printed by
Judah Moses Joshua, 1874. == In the twentieth century ==