The Givat Shaul neighborhood in Yerushalayim is named after Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar (1817-1906) who in 1893 became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi (Rishon Lezion) of Eretz Yisroel as well as Chacham Bashi of the Ottoman Empire. Together with his Ashkenazi counterpart, Rabbi Shmuel Salant, he worked to improve the lives of the Yishuv. The Elyashar family was one of the most distinguished Jewish Spanish families. The name Elyashar comes from the city “ Ijar” where the family lived in Spain. They were referred to as IL IJAR which evolved into Eliachar or Elyashar.
Megillas Paras
Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar was named after his paternal grandfather Rabbi Yaakov Elyashar (Eliachar) who is the hero of our historical account of what has become known as the Purim of Basra. In the possession of Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar was a manuscript entitled Megillas Paras, composed by his grandfather describing in an acrostic Hebrew poem a miraculous event that took place on the second of Nissan, 5536 (1776) in Basra, Iraq. The colophon of the Jerusalem manuscript reads in Hebrew the following:
“Megillas Paras Uzmanah lebeis Chodesh Nissan asher seeder Ba’al Hanes….” The Scroll of Persia and its date, the second of the month of Nissan which was implemented by the one who performed the miracle….
The colophon relates that the owner of the manuscript, Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar has copied the Megillah to be read by his family and future descendants to commemorate and give thanks for the nes that took place in Basra through his grandfather Rabbi Yaakov Elyashar. This minhag of reading this Megillah, writes the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, should be celebrated every year on the second of Nissan until the coming of Moshiach.
A copy of this Megillah was included in Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar’s Sefer Ish Emunim published in Yerushalayim 1885.
David Sassoon Visits Basra and Purchases the Megillah
David Sassoon, the famous bibliophile (1880-1942)* was in the possession of another manuscript of the same Megillah which he found on his visit to Basrah. He was traveling from Bombay to Baghdad in 1910 when he purchased the manuscript during his stop at Basra. He records his visit to that city in his Hebrew diary Massa Bavel:
“ I also visited a small synagogue built in 1898, called Slat Bet Hibub, From there I went to a fourth synagogue which is situated in the Fowl market and called accordingly Slat Shuk el-Jeej. There was a genizah in this synagogue which I went up to with great difficulty but didn’t find anything special. All the Sifrei Torah are in gold and silver plated wooden boxes, the work of Jewish craftsmen. Each synagogue has Tzedakah boxes nailed to the walls designated for the grave of Rachel Imenu, Yechezkel Hanavi, Ezra HaSofer, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai and various charities. The spiritual leaders of the community are Chacham Yehudah Abdallah and Chacham Ezra Shochet but there is no yeshiva in town and to my regret the Jews here do not keep Shabbos properly. They number about 1500. The trade of the town deals primarily with indigo, silks, linen and metals imported from India and Europe and is largely in Jewish hands . They also export horses, dates, sheepskin, and Turkish and Persian products. The Jews of Basra also own extensive plantations of dates and I saw them busily occupied in supervising the sorting and packing of the dates in millions of small card boxes and cartons for shipment all over the world. The export of horses is busiest in October and November. We were told that the ships leaving Basra are each packed with about 200 horses, causing passengers to remain closeted in their cabins for the duration of their journey. Since we planned to return to Bombay in the beginning of November this was not cheerful tidings. These horses are sent to Moslem merchants in Bombay who train them as hunting and racing horses.
“I was able to buy some manuscripts but not old ones. One of them is especially interesting and is called Megillas Paras, which is read on the day that is called the day of the miracle. .”
Basra, Venice of the Middle East
Basra is situated about 350 miles from Baghdad ; a port city called the Venice of the Middle East because of its many canals, it used to be a flourishing cultural and commercial center. Jews had been living there for more than two and a half millennia, since Nevuchadnezzar, King of Bavel exiled them there.
At one time Basra boasted a large Jewish community. By the twelfth century, when the city was visited by Benjamin Tudela, he found there 10,000 Jews as well as a gravesite attributed to Ezra Hasofer located to the north of the city. Jews from other countries as well as from Baghdad and Basra would make pilgrimages to Ezra’s Kever annually for Shavuos.
In addition to the descendants of the original Jews who immigrated there, Basra throughout the years attracted Jewish refugees from the Iberian Peninsula as well as from Iran and Syria.
In the Zemira we sing on Shabbos entitled Dror Yikra by Dunash Ibn Labrat, we refer to Basra in the third Stanza when we sing “Droch Purah besoch Batzrah.”( Tread the wine press in Basrah)….Netotz Tzarai..(Shatter my enemies)…..
Hashem did shatter our enemies…
Karim Khan Leads Massacre of Jews
Our story takes place in the eighteenth century when Basra, part of the Ottoman Empire was ruled by Sueliman Pashah who was very good to the Jews. The community flourished under its leader Rabbi Yaakov ben Aharon, a very wealthy court Jew who owned a fleet of ships that operated on the Euphrates River.
At the time Basra’s port served as a conduit for goods exported and imported from central Arabia, western Persia and northern Syria. Jewish merchants were some of the richest traders
In 1747 upon the death of the Shah Nader, Persia (which name became Iran in 1935) fell into a state of civil war. Karim Khan Bozorg (The Great in Persian), who had been a general of the Shah, took advantage of the vacuum and usurped the Kingship. He never called himself Shah or king but rather “Vakil ar-Raayaa (representative of the subjects or advocate of the people). He came from a Kurdish family without any distinguishable lineage and was not descended from royalty. It is for this reason, historians believe that he went by a lower title such as Vizier. Karim Khan established the Zand dynasty taking over not only Persia but also neighboring Iraq.
During this time, Rabbi Yaakov ben Elyashar was sent from Chevron as a Meshulach to Baghdad and Basra to collect money for the Jews of Eretz Yisroel . He arrived in the fall of 1773 in Basra and was not able to leave because of a thirteen month siege of the city by 30,000 soldiers of Karim Khan, led by Karim Khan’s brother.
In his Megillas Paras which historians have come to use as a source for information about Basra during this period, Rabbi Eliyashar documents the torture, cruel treatment and imprisonment of the Jews, the rape of their women and the looting and pillaging of their homes. Many of the Jewish women jumped into raging fires to avoid being taken advantage of by the barbaric soldiers.
The Ottoman Empire was defeated by Russia in 1774 and so could not offer much assistance to its almost autonomous eastern provinces in their defense against the Persians. Suleiman Pasha together with the Jews tried to defend Basra from its enemies but the siege that lasted for 13 months caused a tremendous famine. Basra finally succumbed. The gates were opened to the Persian army on the 27th of Nissan 1775. On the first day of Iyar, Karim Khan established his rule over Basra imposing very high fines on the people, particularly on the Jewish community. The Jews had to pay 128,000 Tumans while the Christians owed 18,000 Tumans. Karim Khan had Suleiman Pasha, his family and household and Jacob Aaron his wife and children arrested and taken hostage Shiraz which declared the capital of Persia.
Rabbi Yaakob Chaim Elyashar from Chevron who had been in Basra for more than a year now declared a fast for repentance and ordered the Jews to gather in the synagogue and to pray special prayers, which he arranged. They davened that Hashem save them from the hands of the wicked Karim Khan and his men.
This victory over Basra was not enough for Karim Khan. He sought more conquests and more glory. However, when Karim Khan went out to fight against the neighboring Ottoman Arab tribesmen, his army suffered defeat and he had to retreat to Basra, after sustaining great losses. Karim Kahn then gathered a new army and went again to fight the Ottoman Arabs, but Karim Khan and his army were ambushed by the Arabs between a swamp and the Euphrates. Karim Khan’s army was slaughtered in great numbers . Karim Khan barely escaped with his life and returned to Basra with the beaten remnants of his army. The Persian leader again plotted to fight against the Ottomans. But his battle-weary soldiers had enough and were sick of war. They plotted to kill Karim Khan. On the 27th day of Adar, thirteen days after the commemoration of the original Purim, the wicked Persian Vizier was found dead, poisoned by his own army.
The remnants of his army began to leave Basra under the cover of darkness and returned to Persia in secret. On the second day of Nissan, in the year 5536 (1776), the Jews of Basra woke up in the morning to discovered that not one of Karim Khan’s men remained in the city. Great was the rejoicing of the Jews of Basra at the death of Karim Khan and the miraculous disappearance of the Persian soldiers. They gathered in their synagogue to offer thanks to Hashem and as per the instructions of Rabbi Yaakov Eliashar, resolved to observe that day, as the day of the miracle by reading the Megillah he composed on an annual basis and celebrate the day with a festive meal.
Not long after, Rabbi Yaakov Elyashar and his wife returned to Eretz Yisroel with their newborn son Eliezer Yerucham and settled in Tzfas.
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A copy of Megillas Paras was published by David Sasson in the 1927 edition of the Jewish Quarterly Review. Meir Benayahu, the son of the late Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim, devoted a book in Hebrew to the Megillah. It is entitled Rav Yaakov Elyashar VeChiburo, Megillas Paras.
Today there are no Jews in Basra to commemorate their miracle. Seventy nine year old Selima Nissim was the last Jew to live in Basra. She was air-lifted to Israel in 2003.
*The article entitled “David Sassoon, Bibliophile Par Excellence,” by this writer appeared in Inyan Magazine, July 16,2014.