<<       >>

Encyclopaedia Judaica

Jews in Iraq 04: Jewish community and cultural life in Iraq until 1948

Structure of the Jewish communities - Jewish poets and Jewish writers in Iraq

from: Iraq; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 8

presented by Michael Palomino (2007)

<Community Life.

[The nasi as community leader - the "King of Israel"]

From ancient times until 1849 every community of the large towns was headed by a nasi who was responsible for relations between the community and the authorities. The nesi'im were appointed by the local governors. The most important of them was the nasi of Baghdad, who, on the strength of his duties, also headed the governor's treasury and was referred to as *sarraf bashi ("chief banker"), as well as nasi of the state.

According to the traveler David d'Beth Hillel (1827) it was at first customary that the nasi was to be a descendant of Kind David and that the office was passed from father to son. When the nasi rode on his horse through the streets of the town, it was proclaimed: "Nations! Render honor unto the son of David", they called him "King of Israel" (W. J. Fischel, in: Sinai, 5 (1939), 231).

[New leader titles for the Jewish communities]

This custom was abolished at the beginning of the 18th century and the pasha appointed nesi'im who were not descendants of David, but from the wealthy and the notables. The nesi'im imposed fines, punished by beating those who rebelled against their authority, removed dayyanim from their positions, and imposed their fear on the people.

The traveler *Benjamin the Second (1848) wrote of the nasi of Baghdad:

"his authority was so greatly honored and exalted that had he only wished to deviate slightly from the ways of justice, it was within his power to overrule not only Jews but also Muslims" (Masei Yisrael, (1859), 45). Between 1849 and 1932 every community in the large towns was headed by a chief rabbi known as *hakham bashi. This title was later abolished and the community of Baghdad was headed by the "chief of the rabbis" (ra'is al-hakhamim) and the "chief of the community" (ra'is al-ta'fa), who was a secular personality.

RABBIS.

Over the last three centuries Babylonian Jewry produced many eminent and renowned rabbis and writers in every branch of halakhah, homiletics, ethics, Kabbalah, and biblical and Talmudic commentaries. The most prominent of these were: R. Zedakah *Hozin, R. Sasson b. Mordecai Shindookh, R. Abdallah *Somekh, and R. Joseph *Hayyim of the *al-Hakam family.

HEBREW EDUCATION.

Hebrew education was at first restricted to the talmudei torah and the hadarim (ustadhim), both public and private. In 1840 a rabbinical seminary, Bet (col. 1451)

Zilkha, was established in Baghdad. Dozens of distinguished rabbis who later held rabbinical positions in several oriental countries, including Palestine, were educated there (see R. Abdallah *Somekh). From 1864 various schools for boys and girls, which propagated education and vocational training, were opened by Alliance Israélite Universelle. In 1907 a "Schools' Commission" was established in Baghdad. It supervised the schools of the Jewish community, from the kindergarten to the secondary school level, both public and private.

PAYTANIM [[Jewish poets]], POETS, AND WRITERS.

Continuing the earlier tradition, from the 16th to 20th centuries many paytanim and poets wrote dozens of religious and secular poems on various subjects: in honor of the festivals, the fasts, religious ceremonies, kinot ("dirges"), and ethical poems, in honor of distinguished personalities or events, and the like. Many poems were written in the Arabic-Spanish meter. Some of them were printed in the siddurim and in books of pizmonim which were published in the oriental countries; a large number of them are extant in manuscript.

In recent years A. Ben-Ya'akov has collected some of these liturgical poems in his two works, Shirah u-Fiyyut shel Yehudei Bavel ba-Dorot ha-Aharonim (1970) and Kehillot Yehudei Kurdistan (1961), with introductions and detailed bibliographies. In many poems the influence of the poets of Safed, the Kabbalah of R. Isaac Luria, or of Italian poems is present. Many poems are imitations of those of R. Israel Najara, who greatly influenced the poets of the oriental countries.

Several were also written in the style of modern poetry. Among the most outstanding poets and paytanim were: R. Ezra b. Ezekiel ha-Bavli of the first half of the 18th century; R. Salih *Mazliah (d. 1785) and his son Nissim (d. after 1816); R. Sasson b. Mordecai Shindookh (1747-1830); R. Abdallah ibn Khidr ibn Suleiman Hinin (d. 1859); R. Joseph Hayyim (d. 1909) of the al-Hakam family; R. Sasson b. Israel (1820-1911); R. Manasseh b. Saliman Shahrabani (1881-1960), who wrote over 800 poems and piyyutim; David Zemah (b. 1902); R. Abraham-Baruch and R. Saliman (the sons of R. Elijah *Mani), who immigrated together with their father to Palestine in 1856; the scholar Saul b. Abdallah *Joseph, who lived in Hong Kong; Ezekiel Hai b. Ezra Albeig, who moved to the U.S., and others.

[Books of Jewish authors in Iraq]

During the 20th century, Jewish intellectuals, authors, and poets made an important contribution to the Arabic language and literature by writing books and numerous essays. Those worthy of note include:

-- Ezra Haddad (b. in Baghdad 1903), an author, educator, and journalist, who translated into Arabic "The Travels of R. Benjamin of Tudela" (1945), thereby opening up Jewish history to Arabic literature.

-- Anwar Saul, a jurist, author, and poet in Arabic, who was considered the leading Iraqi raconteur; he drew his stories from the lives of the common people and published two collections of stories: al-Hisad al-Awwal ("The First Harvest", Baghdad, 1930) and Qisas al-Gharb ("Stories from the West", Baghdad, 1937). He also translated "Willam Tell" into Arabic.

-- Murad Mikhael, an educator, author, and poet, wrote the epigrams al-Muruj wa-al Sakhra ("Gardens and Deserts", Baghdad, 1931).

-- Shalom Darwish, a jurist and author, describes the life of the various classes in Iraq in his two books of stories;

-- Salim Sha'shu' (b. 1926) is an author and poet; after his immigration to Israel, he was a regular contributor to the Israel Radio programs in Arabic.

-- Shalom Katav, a young poet who immigrated to Israel, is a teacher.

[Jewish Newspaper in Iraq - Jewish journalists]

Between 1909 and 1948 eight newspapers were published by Jewis in Iraq, one of the in Hebrew, Yeshurun (1921), and the remainder in Arabic. Actually, several daily newspapers were edited by Jews and the Jewish participation in them was considerable. In Baghdad there were more than six Hebrew printing presses, which published about 500 books and pamphlets.

[A.B.-Y. / H.J.C.]> (col. 1452)

========

Sources

Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Iraq, vol. 8, col. 1451-1452

<<       >>