Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part i | civilisations
According to the scholar M. Zand, the first reliable evidence of the presence of Jews
in Central Asia dates back to the beginning of the 4th century AD. The evidence is a
story from the Babylonian Talmud about the sojourn at MRGW’N (Merv) of Samuel
Bar Bisena, an amora (scholar) and member of the Religious Academy in Pumbedita
(or Peroz or Shadur – a city in Mesopotamia). According to the story, during a visit
to Merv, Samuel refused to drink alcohol with his fellow men, because he doubted its
ritual purity. According to M. Zand, this indicates that Jews had been living in Merv
for several generations, as they had begun to forget the ritual rules regarding alcoholic
beverages. The belief that Jews lived in Merv before the 4th century AD has been
confirmed by the discovery of an unfired clay vessel in Merv’s citadel, the Erk-Kala, the
top of which has a Parthian inscription in black ink with tamga-shaped signs below. The
stratigraphic conditions of the discovery of this vessel allowed the archaeologist Z.I.
Usmanova to date it to the 1st–3rd centuries AD. According to the Iranist V.A. Livshits,
the inscription consists of four words that read: ‘Property of Pacores, son of Yosa’, in
which the name ‘Yosa’ is an ancient Hebraic diminutive, a hypocorism of ‘Joseph’.
The second Parthian inscription, made in black ink on the body of the vessel,
dates from the 2nd–3rd centuries AD, but only the name MYLK has been preserved.
However, according to V.A. Livshits this inscription is in fact Semitic and not Parthian.
These two inscriptions are now considered to be the earliest evidence of the
presence of Jews in Margiana and Central Asia in general. M. Zand, as well as other
researchers, attribute their appearance in this region to trade on the Silk Road. This is
entirely plausible, although there were probably other circumstances that prompted
the migration of Jews to other lands, and especially to Central Asia. An example is the
uprising of the Jewish people led by Bar Kokhba (AD 132–135) against the Romans
during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and the subsequent brutal suppression and
annihilation of Jews, which prompted them to flee their home.
According to the scholar J. Neusner, Jews played an active role in the Parthian
kingdom in the early centuries AD and according to the historian B.N. Mukherjee
this was also true of areas adjacent to north-west India. Many of them were involved
in trade between China and Rome.
Recently, Mukherjee revealed a gem from a private collection of a Prakrit inscription
in Kharosthi and Brahmi script, which according to him reads as Yudevadanu and
which he interprets as a phrase meaning ‘sanctuary of the Jews’ (an interpretation of
this phrase as ‘belonging to the teachings of the Jews’ is also possible). According to
Mukherjee, this gemstone is evidence of the presence of Jews in North-West India in
the 1st or 2nd century AD.
The excavation of a synagogue at Dura-Europos (present-day Syria), celebrated for
its frescoes, suggests that the city was a major Jewish centre in the first centuries AD.
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