It might be quite difficult to summarize ancient history into one blog post, but here goes. (DISCLAIMER: I’m not a historian, I just try to put pieces together. If I make a mistake, or misunderstood something, please reach out to me!)
So how did a group of Jews end up in Central Asian cities like Bukhara?
Short Answer :
There are two possibilities. Either from the Assyrian Captivity in 7th Century BCE or the Exile by the Babylonians in the 5th Century BCE. In my opinion both possibilities may have occurred as well.
Long Answer :
It’s important to note that the Jews of Iran, Central Asia, and Afghanistan were all considered one community until the 16th century, when they were split into 2 categories: The first being the community of Iranian Jews and the second being the community of the Jews of Central Asia and Afghanistan. The Jews of Central Asia and Aghanistan later became 2 separate communities in the mid-18th century.
Here’s a recap of what happened: The nation of Israel finally arrived to the land of milk and honey and eventually they got exiled on numerous occasions from the land of Israel.
Joshua, the successor of Moses, led the nation into the holy land to battle against the kings who refused to leave the land. Joshua and the Israelite’s had defeated all 31 kings and eventually settled into the land as the 12 tribes of Israel. The land was run on Judges and Prophets for 400 years before the Prophet Samuel anointed King Saul to be the first king of Israel. Shortly after came the notable King David.
King David united the twelve tribes and named the land, The United Kingdom of Israel. His son, King Solomon, took over and built the First Temple in Jerusalem. After King Solomon’s reign, the Israelite’s divided the kingdom into two separate monarchies. They were called, the Northern Kingdom of Israel (The 10 Tribes), and The Kingdom of Judah (Tribes of Judah and Benjamin). These kingdoms are also known as Judea and Samaria respectively.
After 200 years of the split of the two kingdoms, the Assyrians came and conquered only the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The 10 tribes were exiled in 2 phases and eventually became known as the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel”. (First theory of how a group of Jews got to the city of Bukhara over time. Bukharian Jews claim they are either from the Tribes of Nephtali or Issachar.)
About a century and a half later, Babylonians took over the Assyrians, conquered the Kingdom of Judah, exiled the rest of the Jews in numerous phases to Babylonia (Modern day Iraq) and eventually destroyed the First Temple of Jerusalem along with it.(Second theory of how a group of Jews got to the city of Bukhara over time.)
Well that wasn’t so bad, right?? So what happened after the fall of the Babylonian Empire? Who else did the Jews of Central Asia/Bukhara have to experience for the next 2500 years? What happened and how did they manage to survive?
Let’s address Bukhara. What is so important about this city and where is it today?
Bukhara is a city actually located on the Silk Road in Central Asia. It was known to be the hub of Central Asia for trade, religious study, and scholars. The city itself is about 2,500 years old. It is believed by legend that the city of Bukhara was founded by mythological kings of the first Indo-Iranian dynasty, called the Pishdadian dynasty. According to archaeological findings it is predicted that the city dates back to 500 BCE. The city has gone through numerous empires since then.
These are the years that various empires/rulers had control of Central Asian cities such as Bukhara.
500-336 BCE Achaemenid Empire (1st Persian Empire)
336–323 BCE Macedonian Empire (Alexander the Great)
323 – 256 BCE Seleucid Dynasty (Hellenists)
256-125 BCE Greek-Bactrian Kingdom
1st – 4th Centuries Kushan Empire
5th-6th Centuries Ephtalites State
Unknown-751 Bukhar Khudahs
751-892 Abbasids (3rd Arab Caliphate)
892-999 Samanid Dynasty
999-1200 Qarakhanid Khanate
1200-1220 Khwarazmian dynasty (Persian descendants of Turkic Slave Soldiers)
1220-1370 Mongol Empire (Gengis Khan)
1370-1506 Timurid Empire (Tamerlane)
1506-1785 Khanate of Bukhara
1785-1920 Emirate of Bukhara/ Tsarist Russia
1920-1924 The Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic
1924-1991 Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
1991 – Present Uzbekistan
How were the Jews of Central Asia/Bukhara treated under the Persian/Greek Empires?
500-336 BCE Achaemenid Empire
We’ll begin our history of Bukhara with Achaemenid Empire (1st Persian Empire). When they defeated the Babylonians, they allowed the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem 23 years later. Some went back to Jerusalem and some went further east within the Empire. The second temple was eventually and finally built. Shortly thereafter, the story of Purim occurred within the Persian Empire. There were approximately 700-800 thousand Jews scattered throughout the Persian Empire at this time. Some say that at the peak of the Persian Empire, Jews comprised about 20% of the population. Some of those Persian Jewish communities are today’s Iranian, Iraqi, Kavkazi, Georgian, and Bukharian Jews.
336–323 BCE Macedonian Empire
Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire and took over the city of Bukhara along with the victory. Surprisingly, Alexander did not change much of the lifestyle for the Jews in a negative way. As long as the Jews remained loyal and payed their taxes he would allow them to live freely. Alexander had a positive view of the Jews because of Aristotle. Here is the time-frame where Greek culture had an impact on the Jews.
323 – 256 BCE Seleucid Dynasty
When Alexander the Great died unexpectedly, his empire broke into two. They were the Seleucid and Ptelomaic Dynasties. The Seleucids were the ones to take control of the side where Bukhara resided. Not much is known of how the Seleucid Dynasty treated the Jews of Bukhara, but we do know that later in history they had control of Jerusalem. It is noted that they respected the Jewish culture and protected Jewish Institutions of Jerusalem. However when leaders changed, persecutions began towards the Jews of Jerusalem and that led to the Maccabees pushing the Seleucids away from Jerusalem with a successful revolt. It is not clear if this had an affect on the Jews of Bukhara as a result.
What other cultures and religions did the Jews of Central Asia/Bukhara experience?
256BCE – 4th Century CE
It is noted by some, that for the first 10 centuries, the Jews of Central Asia in general were allowed to live peacefully as an accepted minority. During the Seleucid, Greek-Bactrian, and Kushan reign of the city of Bukhara, the city was the cult center for worshiping the goddess Anahita of Indo-Iranian origin.
5 Century – 751 CE
When the Ephtalites and later the Bukhar Khudahs had control over the city of Bukhara, the main religions followed were Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism and Nestorianism (Form of Christianity). It’s interesting to note that Zoroastrianism shares a number of beliefs with Judaism. Also, it’s interesting to note that Manichaeism was partly influenced by Judaism.
751 – 892 Abbasids
The Islamic armies came to Bukhara around the year 650 , however the Abbasids (3rd Arab Caliphate) truly had not claimed control of Bukhara until after the Battle of Talas in 751. It was not until a century later that Islam was the main religion of Bukhara. This is the time period where Arabic began being commonly spoken in Bukhara. The Jews and other non-Muslims were called dhimmis and had to pay a separate tax called the jizya. The treatment of the dhimmis really depended on who the ruler was at the time. It’s interesting to note that some dhimmis managed to find positions in the Caliphates Treasury in order to help in the area of finance.
892 – 999 Samanid Dynasty
When Samanids claimed Bukhara as it’s territory, they managed to revive the Persian language while still supporting the Arab culture. It was claimed that the language in this region was Persian by the Samanids. They were Iranian based that followed Sunni Islam. The Samanids promoted arts, which attracted scholars to advance science and literature when they made Bukhara it’s capitol.
999 – 1200 Qarakhanid Khanate
Qarakhanids were of Turkic descent which led to the people of Bukhara from speaking mostly Persian to speaking the Turkish language. Islam and its civilization flourished under this empire. It was during this time that these Turks were also gradually assimilating into the Perso-Arab culture. Recently, there have been discoveries of journals from this time period that show how Jewish Merchants had a role in commerce under the Qarakhanid Khanate. In 1170, Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish Traveler from Europe, wrote of the populous Jewish community in Samarkand and claimed that there were about 50,000 Jews in that city. He also claimed they were wise and wealthy.
1200-1220 Khwarazmian Dynasty
Khwarazmian dynasty were Persian descendants of Turkic Slave Soldiers. They were quickly defeated by Genghis Khan and lost territory of Bukhara in 1220.
1220-1370 Mongol Empire (Genghis Khan)
Genghis Khan was known as the greatest conqueror of all time. How did his reign impact the Jews under the Mongol Empire? There is a traditional history, according to Bukharian Jews, that after Genghis Khan took over Iran, many Jews fled to the cities of Samarakand and Balkh, adding onto the existing Jewish populations of those cities. The Mongols were known to be very tolerant of most religions. However, Genghis Khan had referred to Jews and Muslims as “slaves”. Initially, circumcision and eating kosher were forbidden by the Mongols but that seems to have later changed due to the change of rulers.
1370-1506 Timurid Empire (Tamerlane)
Under Timurid Empire the Jews seem to have been protected very well. Several hundred Jewish families moved from Bukhara to Samarkand. They reportedly lived near the heart of the city, Registan. The Jews seemed to be very loyal to this empire and at times Jewish physicians offered their services to the state army. Jews were never oppressed in any way under Timur. They were able to own houses, land, and they were even allowed to be farmers. Their main occupations were skilled craft workers, local merchants, and doctors. At this time, Samarkand became a major Jewish center and Jews dominated the textile and dye industry of this region. A Jew could be identified by his blue hands because of the dye.
1506-1785 Khanate of Bukhara
The Khanate of Bukhara was under the control of Uzbek Turks who claimed to be descendants of Genghis Khan. They moved the capitol city from Samarkand back to Bukhara and slowly the city of Samarkand became very desolate. The Uzbek Turks were less tolerant of the Jews than the Timurid Empire. The Jews had to live in their own section and were restricted strictly from living anywhere else. This section was called the Jewish Quarter or, makhallai yahudiyon. Jews had to wear yellow and black clothes in order to stand out from everyone else and persecutions occurred as well. They had to pay an annual tax and in addition, the head of the house hold would get slapped publicly when the tax was paid as a reminder that the Jews were below the Muslims.
During the 16th Century (1500s), many Persian Jews moved to Bukhara as the forced conversions there became too overwhelming. The Afgan and Bukharian Jews were officially cut off from the Iranian Jews due to the political regimes as well.
In 1620 the Synagogue of Bukhara was built and still stands today. It was built due to a technicality of land ownership by a persistent Jewish widow who refused to sell the land. She remains anonymous, but eventually she made a deal to sell the land as long as the officials agreed to build a Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Bukhara for Jews to pray in.
In 1720, Samarkand was hit by a devastating earthquake and many made the move to Bukhara because of it. In the Mid-1700’s, the Bukharian Jews were now isolated from the Afghan Jews due to political tensions between the Khanate of Bukhara and the Afghan Rulers. Bukhara city was now solidified as the hometown for almost all Bukharian Jews. At the same time there was an increase of forced conversion for the Jews in Bukhara. The Islamic leaders of Bukhara tried very hard to convert Jews to Islam. It led to many publicly pretending to be converts, but secretly being Jews. These Jews were called “challas”, which meant “neither this or that”. They’d still be discriminated by the Muslims because of their Jewish origins, and now they would be an outcast by the remaining Jews for converting.
1785-1920 Emirate of Bukhara/Tsarist Russia
Due to the forced conversions and isolation of other Jewish communities, the Bukharian Jewish life drastically fell in late 1700’s. In 1793, Rabbi Joseph Maman Maghribi of Moroccan decent, from the city of Safed, came to Bukhara and stayed there for the next 30 years. He single-handedly saved Judaism amongst the Bukharian Jews. He was deeply saddened that the Bukharian Jews have forgotten how to properly follow the laws of Kashrut. He brought the regular study of the Zohar, which is the main work of Kabbalah.
In the early 1800s, Jewish population was rising in Bukhara and a second Jewish quarter was permitted. Around 1820 a third Jewish quarter was established in Bukhara. In 1839, Jews of Mashhad, Iran had gone through the Allahdad incident, which was a violent riot against the Jews to force them to convert to Islam. Jewish homes of Mashhad were raided, the Jews were violently attacked, girls were abducted, and the synagogue was burned down. About 30 – 40 people have died because of this riot. A portion of the Mashhadi Jews had migrated to The Emirate of Bukhara as a result.
In 1843, Jews had collected enough money to purchase land in Samarkand and had established a Jewish Quarter there, near Registan. By the 1850s many other Jewish quarters were established in other cities nearby such as Marghelan, and Dushanbe. At this time the community was made up of about 2,500 families under the Emirate of Bukhara. It was also in the 1850s, that Bukharian Jews of the Russian-controlled Turkestan region, began migrating to Jerusalem where they eventually established the Bukharian Quarter in Jerusalem in the 1880s.
In the mid-1860s the Russians started gaining control of many parts of Central Asia such as the region of Turkestan and the city of Tashkent. They had peace treaties with the Emirate of Bukhara that explicitly mentioned how the Jews of Bukhara should live freely. The Russians were initially very friendly with the Jews of Central Asia in the newly conquered lands. Jews had good trade relations with the Russians prior, which also contributed to the Russians being so friendly. Simultaneously, the Jews that were still under the Emirate of Bukhara, were not treated well and were even blamed that the Emirate was fallen to the Russian Tsar. In the 1880s, Russia began to pass anti-Jewish legislation due to the increase of competitive traders and industrialists and these anti-Jewish legislation’s lasted until the First World War.
The creation of the Trans-Caspian Railway had finally connected the Jews of Bukhara, Tashkent and Samarkand with European Jewry after about a thousand years of separation. In 1905, due to pogroms in Kiev and Odessa, Bukhara saw an influx of European Jews fleeing persecution. The railway allowed Jews of Bukhara to travel and buy land in Jerusalem. They would either live there or keep to visit in case there was a persecution to make them leave Bukhara.
In 1918 until 1920, the Jews of the Emirate of Bukhara had endured numerous of violent riots against them due to siding with the Bolsheviks in hopes that they would be able to live more freely under the Russians.
1920-1924 The Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic
The short lived Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic allowed Jews to live freely until the Soviet Union took over in 1924.
1924-1991 Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
Though illegal, during the 1920’s and the 1930’s about 4000 Bukharian Jews had emigrated to Jerusalem. Since the late 1920’s the Soviets actively fought Judaism. They actively wanted to close down Synagogues and religious schools. A number of Jewish leaders were jailed in 1936-1938 which had a devastating effect on the Jewish Community. This temporarily halted during the Second World War. During World War II, a large influx of European Jewish Refugees fled to Tashkent.
After the creation of Israel in 1948, antisemitism intensified in the region of Central Asia. It intensified even more-so after the 6 Day War in 1967. The Soviets forbade Jews to be able to make Aaliyah to Jerusalem, however about 8000 Jews managed to do so from 1972 until the first half of 1975. In 1989 the Soviet Union collapsed and by 1991 Uzbekistan became its own independent Republic.
1991 – Present Uzbekistan
Though, Bukhara City was under Uzbekistan, at this point, many Bukharian Jews also lived in many of the surrounding countries such as Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. Due to the fear of further persecutions, almost all Bukharians as well as the Ashkenazim left the region of Central Asia and there are very few left there today.
There you have it! I hope you enjoyed, and if you read this in it’s entirety, please feel free to send me a message and express your thoughts!
