1. Under Shah Abbas I (Safavid ruler of Iran- ca. 1600's), the forced conversion of Jews to Islam was introduced. We have two accounts recorded of one certain case- one by Pietro Della Vallet (an Italian traveler in Isfahan, in a letter to the cardinal of Rome) and the other by Babi Ben Lotf (a Jewish poet?) :
The king gathered some people, ready to feed them to man-eating dogs if they chose not to convert. One Jew, Molla Abba (sp?) declared he would not convert and was thrown in front the dogs. The dogs shyed away from him. At this point, a Muslim convert explained that Molla Abba wasn't attacked because he was wearing tzitzit. They stripped Molla Abba of his tzitzit and threw him back in front of the dogs. He was quickly devoured.
I'm not sure what to make of that, especially considering I heard this story during a [secular] lecture. But it is an interesting piece of recorded history.
2. Also under Shah Abbas I: The Messiah Contract. Mashiach found it's way into political contracts. I won't expound more here.
3. The origins of "assassin":
The Hashashiyyun (remember those hash-loving Shi'ites?) belonged to the Shi'i Ismailia. They opposed the Sunni caliphate (in the case I was studying, this referred to the Seljuks) and aspired to bring an end to the Sunni caliphate by killing the leaders. They would indoctrinate their men (with the assistance of hash of course) to assassinate them.
European folk had a difficult time pronouncing this term, Hashashiyyun, and it thus evolved into the term "assassin."
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
"Shah Abbas"- I just wanted to mention, something I was wondering about recentely is that if anything, I would have expected Khumeini to place himself or someone he approves of as "Shah", but not to dismantle the whole institution and create a democracy where a president is voted..?
Yeah, that's weird story about tzitzit; I cringe to guess at what it's suggesting..
And what the heck is a Messiah contract?
Shah Abbas I (Safavid ruler of Iran- ca. 1600's), the forced conversion of Jews to Islam was introduced
Khumeini set up a democracy? I thought he was trying to imitate hell.
Hell for the Jews. The Jews in every Arab country were suspected of being, and were(!) sources of Western influence in the Islamic world. This was obviously very true in Iran; the Jews were unapologetic modernizers, and almost all couln't stay in the kind of religious climate which developed.
Yet it's known that till today a reasonably sizable community remains in Iran, and many of the new generation who were born into the new regime actually seem to commend it over western liberalism (unless they were just forced to say that. ..it's also well known that many of them harbor support of the Jewish state which is illegal to verbalize)...
More than just the Jews.
And I don't believe they all necessarily represented Western ideals.
If they want to keep their head on their neck, they better not say they support Israel. That's well known. (During this past Gaza War, I came across this irony: a couple of Muslim papers stating support for Israel... and a Jewish run newspaper in Iran stating support for the Arabs.)
Haha. It's pretty surprizing (Arab) Muslim papers supported Israel though..(?)
And what about the Messiah Contract. I couldn't find it online. What the hell is it supposed to mean?
Eh, don't feel like writing it out now.
Post a Comment