Inhalt: | Introduction. Houman M. Sarshar -- Chapter 1: New Vistas on the History of Iranian Jewry in Late Antiquity: Patterns of Jewish Settlement in Iran. Parvaneh Pourshariati -- Chapter 2: LoterĀʾi: Martin Schwartz -- Chapter 3: The Intellectual and Polemical Dimensions of Hovot Rafa'el by El'azar Hayim b. ha-Dayyan Eliahu. Vera B. Moreen and David Yeroushalmi -- Chapter 4: Two Wars, Two Cities, Two Religions: The Jews of Mashhad and the Herat Wars. Haideh Sahim -- Chapter 5: The Origins of the Decorated Ketubbah in Iran and Afghanistan. Shalom Sabar -- Chapter 6: The Material Culture and Ritual Objects of the Jews of Iran. Orit Carmeli -- Chapter 7: The Things They Left Behind. Judith L. Goldstein -- Chapter 8: Voices of Marginality: Diversity in Jewish Iranian Women's Memoirs and Beyond. Jaleh Pirnazar -- Chapter 9: Flights from History in Gina Barkhordar Nahai and Dalia Sofer's Fiction. Nasrin Rahimieh -- Chapter 10: Fantasies of Flight and Inclusion: Gina Nahai's Reclaiming of Jewish Iranian Identity in the American Diaspora. Mojgan Behmand. "Living continuously in Iran for over 2700 years, Jews have played an integral role in the history of the country. Frequently understood as a passive minority group, and often marginalized by the Zoroastrian and succeeding Muslim hegemony, the Jews of Iran are instead portrayed in this book as having had an active role in the development of Iranian history, society, and culture. Examining ancient texts, objects, and art from a wide range of times and places throughout Iranian history, as well as the medieval trade routes along which these would have travelled, The Jews of Iran offers in-depth analysis of the material and visual culture of this community. Additionally, an exploration of modern novels and accounts of Jewish-Iranian women's experiences sheds light on the social history and transformations of the Jews of Iran from the rule of Cyrus the Great (c. 600-530 BCE) to the Iranian Revolution of 1978/9 and onto the present day. By using the examples of women writers such as Gina Barkhordar Nahai and Dalia Sofer, the implications of fictional representation of the history of the Jews of Iran and the vital importance of communal memory and tradition to this community are drawn out. By examining the representation of identity construction through lenses of religion, gender, and ethnicity, the analysis of these writers' work highlights how the writers undermine the popular imagining and imaging of the Jewish 'other' in an attempt to create a new narrative integrating the Jews of Iran into the idea of what it means to be Iranian. This long view of the Jewish cultural influence on Iran's social, economic, political, and cultural development makes this book a unique contribution to the field of Judeo-Iranian studies and to the study of Iranian history more broadly."--Bloomsbury Publishing |
