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406 and

of the fact that the Persians kiss each other upon the hand, and not upon the mouth (Tan., ed. Briber,

was only the Magi

—

wrongly called NOldeke rightly explained, were contemptuously called " magicians " (" haberim" or " habrin ") by the Jews, who hated and persecuted the latter. The Maudoeaus, however, chiefly residing in southern Babylonia, also felt deep hatred against the Jews (W. Brandt, " Die Mandaische Reiv.

110).

It

"Guebers"

406

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

— who,

as

ligion," Leipsic, 1889; Lagarde,"Mittheilungen," iv.

143 Jewish sources contain nothing upon this point). Besides these, there were Arabs living in the land or on its borders (Niddah 47a, Kid. 72s), called also Ishmaelites or Nabatfeans: intercourse with them, related as they were to the Jews, must have been amicable. But all this changed when the Arabs became masters of the country by them all the inhabitants who were not Moslems were treated with contempt, if not with cruelty. The Christians experienced this more sharply than the Jews (in the predominantly Jewish district Nehardea, there were no Christians in olden times Pes. 56«). The constitution of the Nestorian Church had for the Arabs great similarity to that of the Jews with their exilarchs and heads of academies. Hai Gaon had friendly intercourse with Strange to say, the Catholicus of the Nestorians. the only one of these nationalities to exert a detrimental influence upon Judaism was Mandreism, to which many of the superstitions and the belief in magic, found throughout the Talmud, must undoubtedly be ascribed. Evidences of Their this are the magic bowls used in cornInfluence, mon by both Jews and Maudseans. Layard first found them (" Discoveries," p. 509), since which they have repeatedly been encountered; and the American Nippur expedition unearthed a great number of them (Stubbe, "Jiidisch-Babylonische Zaubertexte," Halle, 1895, p. 8; Lidzbarski, "Ephemeris fur Semitische Epigraphik," 1900, p. 89 " Amer. Journal of Archeology," The illustration of one of these bowls, 1900, iv. 482). given on page 402, is from the " Revue des Etudes Juives. " Arabic influence was undoubtedly much more powerful but this confined itself to the field of science, and did not intrude upon religion. Babylonia was always a fertile country, yielding produce of every kind. Both Jewish and non- Jewish writers describe its wealth of date-palms (Pes. 87* et seq.); cedars are said to have been brought thither from Palestine (Lam. R. i. 4). The Commerce locust (insect) is also said to have been and Trade, imported thence (Yer. Ta'an. iv. 69*). Olive-oil, however, was lacking; its place being supplied by sesame-oil (Shab. 26a).









Linen was widely manufactured (Ta'an. 296); and there was a special Babylonian purple material (Gen. R. lxxxv. 14; Tan., Mishpatim. 17), well known in commerce under the name of " Babylonicum. " These fabrics (Pandects xxxiv. 2, 25) were brought by the Jews to Alexandria (Isaac Voss upon Catullus, The Jews evidently contributed to Babyp. 196). lonia's foreign commerce, which in the earliest days was centered in Seleucia and Ctesiphon. In later

days, when Bagdad rose to prominence, markets had already been held there (Streck, I.e. p. 52)— of course,

with the assistance of Jews (Kohut, "Aruch."

vi. 10)

— and there was a special Jewish quarter there, with a " Jews' Bridge " (Yakut, iv. 1045, 11— see Bagdad). To-day trade is still mainly in the hands of the Jews in these localities, as, for instance, in Bassora (Ritter,

"Erdkunde,"

x. 180).

especially in

rich,

Their industry made the Jews Mahuza (Gutschmid, "Kleine

There were no laws in Babylonia (Git. 586) but, devoted as they were to trade, the Jews did not shrink from such lowly occupations as that of canal-dredging; indeed, the Babylonian Talmud mentions all kinds of handiwork as having been followed by Jews, and even by distinguished scholars among them. Their connection with agriculture is not quite so clear, although it is quite certain that there were farmers among them. The Talmud mentions the interesting fact that the Palestinian Jews gave one-third of their yearly offering ("terumah") "for Babylon, Media, the distant provinces, and all Israel" (Yer. Shek. There was no stone in Babylonia (Midr. iii. 47c). Teh. xxiv. 10); bricks were, therefore, used for building, and Jews were employed in their manuSchrif ten, " v. 677).

in restraint of

commerce



facture.

The Jews are reported as having erected handsome synagogues and colleges the pillars of the college at Pumbedita being particularly praised ('Er. 226). The learned of Babylonia dressed more elegantly and were prouder in demeanor than those of Pales;

The climate was healthful, so that was no leprosy in Bab} lonia

tine (Shab. 1456). it

was

said that there

r

(Ket. 776).

History



The

earliest

accounts of the Jews

exiled to Babylonia are furnished only by the scanty details of the Bible certain not quite reliable sources seek to supply this deficiency from the realms of

legend and tradition. Thus, the so-called " Small Chronicle " (Seder 'Olam Zutta) endeavors to preserve historic continuity by providing a genealogy of the Princes of the Exile ("Reshe Galuta") back indeed, Jeconiah himself is made to King Jeconiah a Prince of the Exile (Neubauer, "Medieval Jew. Chronicles, " i. 196). The " Small Chronicle's " statement, that Zerubbabel returned to Palestine in the Greek period, can not, of course, he regarded historical. Only this much can be considered as certain viz., that the descendants of the Davidic house occupied an exalted position among their brethren in Babylonia, as, at that period, in Palestine likewise. At the period of the revolt of the Maccabees, these Palestinian descendants of the royal house had emigrated to Babylonia, to which an obscure notice by Makrizi (in De Sacy, " Chrestomathie Arabe," i. 100) probably refers (Herzfeld, " Gesch. des Volkes Yis;



rael,"

ii.

396).

was only with Alexander's campaign that accurate information concerning the Jews in the East reached the western world. Alexander's army contained numerous Jews who refused, from religious It

scruples, to take part in the reconstruction of the

Babylon (Josephus, accession of Seleucus Nicator, 312 B.C., to whose extensive empire Babylonia belonged, was accepted by the Jews and Syrians for many centuries as the commencement of a new era for reckoning time, called "minyan shetadestroyed

Belus

"Contra Ap."

i.

temple

22).

in

The