They were indeed involved in the silk trade, but they also traded live stocks. Like the Armenians and the Baniyans (Indians) they were involved in the overseas trade, but probably at a more modest level. The Iranian Jewry had the advantage of having co-religionists in other lands, and as a result could establish commercial links with less difficulty than the Muslim Iranians. We know that they carried out transactions with the Jews of the bordering Ottoman Empire. They also conducted trade with India, where there were small Jewish communities living near the trading posts such as those of Cochin. The Spanish traveller Moses Pereyra de Paiva had met two Iranian Jews in the region; one was from Shiraz and the other from Hamadan. The Jewish merchants followed the same trajectory as the Armenians from Iran to India.
Pietro della Valle conversed with one of them during a journey which had began at Hormuz. Indeed, these commercial ships generally left from Hormuz, where in 1596 there dwelled about 150 Jewish families. Their number seems to have remained unchanged by 1617, when Garcia de Silva Figueroa visited the trading post. He mentions a certain Isaac, who spoke Spanish and Hebrew, and was the tax collector of the government. This last observation of the Spanish traveller is important as this demonstrates that the commercial activities of the Jews had won them some political influence. This is further corroborated by the Chronicle of the Carmelites, in which a Jew is mentioned acting as an Iranian ambassador to Europe. His name was Joseph and he was probably chosen for his linguistic skills. His task had been to carry letters to Pope Gregory XIII and the Iberian kings on behalf of the Persian court and the missionaries in Iran.
Joseph’s fluency in Spanish lets us deduce that the Jews of Spain had not only immigrated to the Ottoman Empire, but that the economic prosperity of Iran had also attracted a few of them. Antonio de Gouvea mentions his encounter with one of them. Moreover, there were a few Jews from the Ottoman lands who had settled in Iran, such as Mulla Massih, who was originally from Palestine, but was born in Iran. In 1618, he was the physician of the Shah. We hear about another Jewish physician at the court, under the reign of Shah Safi. His name was Hakim Davud. He had accompanied David of Abarquh during his audience with the Shah in 1629 for reversing the decree that had forced Jews to embrace Islam. Medicine was a profession in which the Jews excelled since the appearance of Islam in Iran, and the Jews were illustrious in this field at least until the end of the Mongol period. There are references to other Jewish physicians in the Safavid period, like Yehudah b. El'azar, but as they were not connected to the court, there has not been much elaboration on their situation. The Jewish presence at the court was not limited to physicians, as Chardin testifies that there were Jewish women in the harem acting as midwives and fortune-tellers. Therefore, as during the Abbasid period, the Jews could gain access to the court and defend the interests of their community.
Moreen believes that Chardin’s statements are spurious and that he invented these episodes, basing them on his experience in Europe. However, there is no reason for us to disbelieve Chardin. Indeed, there were times when the Jews would appeal to the court to act in their favour, therefore Jewish women could well have been visiting the royal harem regularly. The presence of the Jews is attested in the two other important trading posts of Iran, such as Gombroon (Bandar Abbas) and Bandar Kung. Chardin noted a relatively significant Jewish community in Gombroon and Abbé Carré mentioned their presence in Bandar Kung.
Apart from Hormuz and Lar, Shiraz, Kashan and Yazd were the other towns where there was a significant and active Jewish community. Shiraz had about six hundred or seven hundred Jewish families, most of which earned their living by selling wine. The well-to-do families of the community were engaged in silk manufacture. Kashan, according to Chardin, had ten synagogues, but Babai b. Farhad provides us with the more reliable figure of sixteen synagogues. It is certain that Kashan was a prosperous town in the 17th century, thanks to the flourishing commerce of silk, textile and rug weaving. The Jewish elite, of which Babai b. Farhad names several individuals, must have been involved in one of these trades to build a fortune.
There is an allusion to their participation in the silk trade, as on one occasion some wealthy Jews are mentioned distributing fine silk in order to win the authorities’ sympathy. Financially, they were wealthy enough to succour their coreligionists in Hamadan, when the Jews of Hamadan were put under pressure by the Ottoman occupying forces (cir.1730). Babai b. Farhad says that a certain Meir Levi, Aharon Khunkar and Eliyahu brought several purses of coins to Hamadan for this purpose.
Early Islamic Philosophical Figures in Persia: Abu Sulayman Muhammad Ibn Tahir Sijistani
