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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic Script

Aiagou

edge of handicrafts. The Arad congregation led those of Hungary, both in the number of its mechanics and iu the variety of trades represented. The inspiration of the movement originated with Chorin, who in this matter took his stand upon Tal-

two teachers. Their language was a mixed dialect of Tataric and Persian. Under the rule of the Tatar

"From this congregation," lie seventy-eight young men have gone forth to follow various handicrafts, and in addition several have devoted themselves to such professions as the law permits. Some of these latter already have large practises as physicians and surgeons." In a letter to Gabriel Ullmann, president of the Pesth congregation, he names the trades that Diversity were followed by the Jews of Arad of there were goldsmiths, tanners, con-

improved somewhat.

mudic

precepts.

wrote in 1831,

Trades,

"

fectioners, furriers, coopers, watchcase-

makers, braid-makers, soap-boilers, horseshoe-makers, smiths, locksmiths, gunsmiths, bookbinders, painters, tailors, pipe-mounters, glaziers, shoemakers, saddlers, etc. Philanthropic interests were taken charge of by the Humanitatsverein, founded in 1830, and enlarged later by a women's society with similar aims; their special charge being the excellent Jewish hospital, a creation of the Hebrah Kaddishah, which was first organized in 1790 by Chorin. After Chorin's death, 1844, the Arad congregation, which in 1839 aggregated 812 souls, called Jacob Steinhardt as their temporary rabbi and school-superintendent. A year and a half later he became chief rabbi, and was followed in 1885 by Alexander Rosenberg, previously rabbi in Kaposvar. During the whole of the last half of the nineteenth century the Arad congregation developed and prospered. All branches of congregational activity kept pace with the numerical growth of the congregation, which in 1860 aggregated 2,700 souls, and which since then has doubled. The affairs of the congregation are conducted according to well-devised rules schools have been reorganized additional benevolent institutions have been established, of which the Orphan Home deserves especial mention and a home for pensioned employees of the congregation has been opened.





Bibliography: Jahrbuch iXur die Israelitisclien Kultusgemeinden in TJngovrn,i.H Ben-Chananja, vi. 133 et seq. D. E.

K

ARADUS

A

(Arados, I Mace. xv. 23) Phenician city on the island now called Ruad, eighty miles north of Sidon. It is the Arvad of Ezek. xxvii. 8, 11, the Armad of Tiglath-pileser III., and is also mentioned on the Egyptian monuments. Jews had migrated thither in Maccabean times (I Mace. xv. 23).

See Arvad. W. Max

Bibliography





MUller,

Asien und Europa,

Pietschmann, Geschichte der PlUinizier, pp. 36 j.

(ARA.K)



Village in the district of

traveler

Judah Chorny

Ky-

When

the

visited the place in 1868,

he

Daghestan, Transcaucasia, Russia.

found eighty Jewish families

there,

who

lived in a

separate part of the village. Their chief occupation was the cultivation of tobacco on land rented from They had a synatheir Mohammedan neighbors. gogue, and used the Sephardic rite. Fifty school-

children were instructed in religion and

Hebrew by

In 1900 the Jewish popula-

Arag was 710. Polygamy is still practised among the inhabitants. Up to 1868 the names of the rabbis (who had suction of

ceeded one another) were: Moses, Mattithiah, Bez-

Hanukah, Johai, Moses of Gursi, and Ezekiel, still holding office. Among their names

alel,

who was

the following are Caucasian

Valbikah, Vanavsha, Gulbahar, Desdeyul, Zarungul, Momari, Mamali, Tzaatchair, Kuztaman, Luzergal, Shachatav, Tazagil,



Tavriz.

Bibliography: Judah Chorny, Sefer ha^Massaot, 262 Budushchnost, 1900, No. 52.

pp. 256-



H. R.

ARAGON



An

independent medieval kingdom,

later a province of Spain, in the northeastern part

of the Iberian peninsula. Its population included as early as the ninth century. In' Saragossa (which until 1118 was under the rule of the Moors),

Jews

in Jaca, Huesca, Barbastro, Daroca, Tarazona, Calatayud, Monzon, Lerida, and other cities of Aragon, the Jews in early times lived under special fueros or laws. Aragon passed through the same phases of church development and culture as southern France, until the time of Jaime I. and the circumstances of the Jews there corresponded exactly with those of their French brethren. Their industry, learning, and wealth secured for them the protection and favor of their rulers. Pedro II. of Aragon, who, owing to his frequent wars, was usually in debt, was often compelled to borrow money of his Jewish subjects,

and to mortgage the greater portion of his possessions and revenues to Under them. Under Pedro's son and sucJaime I. cessor, Jaime I. surnamed " el Batallador" (the Fighter) and "el Conquistador " (the Conqueror), the political and legal position Jaime I. issued of the Jews was an enviable one. the following decree " All Jews and Saracens dwelling in our domains belong to the king and are, with all their possessions, under the king's especial proAny one of them who shall place himself tection. under the protection of a nobleman shall lose his head; and all his possessions, wherever they be, Position

,



shall be forfeited to the king."

As a consequence,

no Jew or Saracen could become a bondman to any nobleman; nor could Jews or Saracens be called prisoners or serfs (captivi or servi) even of the king, because, according to the law, they had full liberty of movement.

The Jews

G. A. B.

jk.

ABAG urin,

p. 186 et seq.

Khans they were burdened with heavy taxes, their position being almost that of slaves. With the annexation of the province by Russia their condition

of

Aragon thus stood

in direct relation

with the king and under the jurisdiction of the crown, as represented by the haile-general, under whose authority stood the bailes of all the towns and hamlets of the country. They were permitted to buy and but for trade with Christians sell among themselves a special permission from the baile was necessary. Similarly, Christians were prohibited from buying or taking in pledge the goods of Jews. The Jews lived in the " Juderias, " or Jews' quarters, outside of which they could not dwell without royal permission nor