al-Hejaz, also Hijaz ( '''', literally "the barrier") is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined primarily by its western border on the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. As the site of Islam's holy places the Hejaz has significance in the Arab and Islamic historical and political landscape. The region is so called as it separates the land of Najd in the east from the land of Tihamah in the west.

History

Evidence suggests that the northern part of Hejaz was part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea.

The Biblical story of the Garden of Eden is in Genesis 2:10-12: ''"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone."''

Havilah is usually associated with either the Arabian Peninsula or north-west Yemen, but in the work associated with the Garden of Eden by Juris Zarins, the Hejaz mountains appear to satisfactorily meet the description. The Hejaz includes both the Cradle of Gold at Mahd adh Dhahab () and a potential source of the now dried out Pishon River that used to flow north east to the Persian Gulf via the Wadi Al-Batin system. Archaeological research led by Farouk El-Baz of Boston University indicates that the river system, now prospectively known as the Kuwait River, was active 2500–3000 BC.

Due to the presence of two holy cities in Hejaz, the region went under numerous empires throughout its modern history. Hijaz was later at the centre of the Caliphate, before its capital was moved to Damascus. The region was then under the control of regional powers such as Egypt and the Ottoman Empire through much of its later history, after which the Hejaz had a brief period of political independence in the early 20th century.

In 1916, Sharif Hussein ibn Ali, a descendant of Muhammad, proclaimed himself king of an independent Hejaz, as a result of the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence. The ensuing Arab Revolt successfully overthrew the Ottoman Empire. In 1924, however, ibn Ali's authority was usurped by Ibn Saud of the neighboring region of Nejd, uniting it into what became known as the Kingdom of Hijaz and Nejd and later the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Geography

Geographically, the region is located along the Great Rift Valley. The region is also known for its darker, more volcanic sand. Depending on the previous definition, Hejaz includes the high mountains of Sarawat which topographically separate Najd from Tehamah. Bdellium plants are also abundant in the Hijaz.

Cities

Jeddah

Makkah al-Mukarramah

Medina

Ta’if

Yanbu' al Bahr

Al Bahah

Tabuk

Badr Hunayn

Rabigh

See also

Hijaz mountains

Hejazi Accent

Hejazi turban

Mizmar (dance)

Kingdom of Hejaz

Hejaz railway

Hijaz scale

Hijazi script

Nejd

Notes

Category:Geography of Saudi Arabia

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Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Munir Bashir
background	solo_singer
born	1930Mosul, Iraq
died	September 28, 1997Budapest, Hungary
instrument	lute, oud
genre	Middle Eastern music
occupation	Musician
years active	1953 and 1954–1997
notable instruments	Oud }}

Munir Bashir (, Syriac: ܡܘܢܝܪ ܒܫܝܪ) (1930 – September 28, 1997) was an Syriac musician in Iraq and one of the most famous musicians in the Middle East during the 20th century and was considered to be the supreme master of the Arab maqamat scale system.

He created different styles of the Arabian short scaled lute, the oud. He was one of the first middle eastern instrumentalists known to Europe and America. Bashir’s music is distinguished by a novel style of improvisation that reflects his study of Indian and European tonal art in addition to oriental forms. Born in Iraq, he had to deal with numerous disruptions of violent coup attempts and multiple wars that the country went through. He would eventually exile to Europe and become noticeable first in eastern nations such as Hungary and Bulgaria.

Life

Early life

Munir Bashir was born in Mosul, situated in northern Iraq. According to different references he was born in a period of time from 1928 to 1930. Bashir is descended from a family of Assyrian heritage. His father Abd al-Aziz and his brother Jamil had good reputations as oud-soloists and vocalists; Jamil wrote an important textbook for the oud. The family started musically educating young Bashir at his age of five, Bashir's father began to instruct him and his older brother Jamil in the basics of ud. His father, who was also a poet believed that a pure tradition of Arab music had devolved in Baghdad. He first learned to play the violoncello, a European instrument that had become a popular bass-instrument in Arabian music during the end of the 19th century. He simultaneously was taught playing the oud. The lute plays a similar role in Arabian music as the piano does in European music: it is the instrument used to impart the most important theoretical aspects in music.

Due to a blend of many different styles and traditions there is a rich musical history in northern Iraq. In this milieu Bashir came in contact with Byzantine, Kurdish, Assyrian, Turkish, Persian, and traditional Abbasidian music.

Moving to Baghdad

At the age of six talented Bashir was sent to the Baghdad conservatory, founded 1934 by the distinguished Iraqi musicologist Scharif Muhyi ad-Din Haydar Targan (1892 – 1967). Already during his studies, but especially after his degree, Bashir paid his attention to documenting and preserving the traditional musical styles of his country. Due to the turbulent Iraqi history and other reasons these styles were overridden by “Western” ones, especially commercial ones.

In 1951, Bashir took a teaching assignment at the new founded Académie des Beaux-Arts in Baghdad, besides his editorial work for the Iraqi broadcasting.

Exploring outside of Iraq

Bashir always had an ambivalent relationship to his country: On the one side he felt deeply rooted in the rich cultural heritage of Mesopotamia, on the other side the Iraq had no phases of inner stability during the musicians lifetime. Especially the 1950s and 1960s — the last years of the Hashemite monarchy and a time of military coups following the fall of Faisal II. in 1958 — forced Bashir to work abroad.

His reputation had already arrived in Beirut, therefore he was contracted as accompany and "star-soloist" by the legendary Lebanese chanteuse Fairuz immediately when he arrived at the Lebanese capital in 1953. He got to know US and Latino American popular music but intensified his attempts of investigating Middle Eastern musical traditions. Due to his profound musicological knowledge he gained teaching assignments at the musical colleges of Baghdad and Beirut.

The years 1953 and 1954 marked the beginning of Bashir's career as an instrument virtuoso. His first concert as a soloist took place 1953 in Istanbul, in the next year the 24-year-old was featured in Iraqi television. 1957 he started several tours leading him to most of the European countries. The difficult political status of his country and the resulting problematic working parameters for musicians forced him to leave the country permanently.

Budapest

After a sojourn in Beirut, Bashir settled down in Budapest in the beginning 1960s, where he established a place of residence until his death. He married a Hungarian, his son Omar was born 1970 in the Hungarian capital. His son went on to be a musician as well. This city was attractive for the Iraqi not only because of its status as European music metropolis, but for giving him the opportunity to study at the ''Franz Liszt-Conservatory'' (Liszt Ferenc Zeneakadémia) under supervision of Zoltán Kodály, where he did his doctorate in musicology in 1965. Kodály had rendered outstanding services to the preservation of traditional Hungarian songs in collaboration with Béla Bartók. This well corresponded to Bashir’s aims and methods concerning his engagement for traditional folk music of his home country.

After Kodály’s death in 1967 Bashir spent some time in Beirut again. But he was repelled by the development of the Arabian music, which was marked by progressive degeneration and commercialisation, due to the incompetent and uncritical dealing with western influences. Considering, that the popular chanters were responsible for these trends, he refused to take engagements from them.

Messenger of Iraqi music

In 1973, the Iraqi ministry of information appointed Bashir to its culture committee; the regime of the Baath party was not well established at that time and made Bashir to a cultural figure of integration of the Christian-Catholic minority. Also because of his international popularity, Bashir, who rather presented himself apolitical, seemed to be a suited personality for representing the different ethnic, religious, and political groups of his home country. In 1981 — Saddam Hussein was already in power and the actual forces passing over to the Sunnites — the regime also supports the formation of Bashir’s ''Iraqi Traditional Music Group'' that dedicates itself to the diversity of the Iraqi culture.

In 1987 — during the Iran–Iraq War — Bashir succeeded in realising a long-cherished project: For the first time the ''Babylon International Festival of dance, music, and theatre'', which Bashir was leading for several years, took place.

But Bashir himself rarely spent his time in Baghdad and finally left the country after the First Gulf War in 1991. Guest performances mainly in Europe offered him a big open-minded audience, and therefore an excellent platform for the presentation of his meanwhile very original and mature style of improvisation and composition. Most of his records were also recorded in Europe. In his last years he aimed at making his son Omar his musical successor. A duo-recording of Bashir and Omar made in February 1994 is considered to be a classic of Bashir’s Œuvre, because of its exemplary combination of traditional – mainly folk – material mixed with improvisation.

Munir Bashir died of heart failure in 1997 in Budapest at the age of 68, a short time before his planned departure to his Mexican tour.

Instrumental style

General characteristics

In the long history of the oud, Munir Bashir is one of the most important players. His style noticeably differs from other oud-players, for example from the urban “showmanship” in the “typical Egyptian” style of Farid Al Attrach, or from the heavily jazz-oriented music of Lebanese Rabih Abou-Khalil, who is very popular in Europe.

Especially in the field of soloistic improvisation (Arabic: ''taqsim'') over the common scales (''maqam'', plural ''maqamat'') in Arabian music, his colleagues considered him to be an unsurpassed master. It surely attributes to Bashir’s pioneering work, that nowadays oud-players are able to give solo-concerts all over the world.

But during his musical development he fought against the cliché, that the oud is the oriental equivalent to the condescendingly smiled at western “campfire guitar”.

Tunings

In many musical idioms it belongs to the tradition of stringed instruments to work with different tunings, adapted to the demands of the piece of music. Therefore it is not surprising, that Bashir experimented with a lot of tunings. A common tuning of the Arabian oud — “Arabian” in contrast to the almost identical Turkish instrument, that has a slightly different history — is:

Based on older traditions of the Iraqi oudist-school (for example the one of his older brother) Munir Bashir developed a typical tuning, that is named after him:

Noticeable is the doubling of the actual “highest” course in F by another one, that is higher, but is tuned one octave lower. This trick enables a special full sound of the high melody course and complies with Bashir’s interest in melodic forms.

Another tuning of this kind was developed by members of the Bashir family: The player uses an F-course on the bass strings, tuned another octave lower as in the above mentioned example; optional two F-strings can be put on, tuned in an octave-interval. Using this special tuning the melody course in the center of the fingerboard is framed by the bass courses. Tuned this way the oud has a really full sound and enables unusual melodies, but such a complex tuning system makes high demands on the picking and stopping techniques of the musician.

Picking technique

Like with other instruments of the lute-family (among such different instruments like the mandolin and the sitar) the player makes the sound by picking the strings with a plectrum (pick). The Arabian term for the pick is ''reesha'', which originally was made of a pinfeather of an eagle. One impressive aspect of Bashir was the precision of his risha. His style emphasized a clean risha, while most other oud players have a heavy risha. The ''reesha'' is held in the palm of one’s hand, resulting in a difficultly learnable picking technique; furthermore the doubled strings have a less controllable attack than single strings.

Therefore the inevitable rhythmic reliability in fastest, asymmetric accented, melodies is a special trademark of virtuosos. Generalizing: Arabian music is much more interested in rhythmical patterns that are more complex than European ones. Bashir's virtuosity of picking can easily be understood, when he shows his ability to apply the abovementioned scordatura, with its string pairs tuned in octaves, in an improvisation in the fast 10/8 metre, without the immense stopping problems of this method becoming hearable.

Bashir's dealing with foreign musical forms appears also in his experiments with alternative picking techniques. He made the fingerpicking, cultivated on the guitar — especially in flamenco — to an essential attribute of his mature style. But after a few experiments, he gave up using a thumb-plectrum (''mizrab'') that he got to know during his studies of the Indian sitar.

Ornamentation

Bashir's preferred improvisational type, the ''taqsim'' improvisation pulls its attractiveness out of the intelligent and strictly regulated ornamentation of melodies or familiar melodic fragments. Therefore a ''taqsim'' evolves out of different, but less artful criteria, than in modern jazz, where an improvisation takes place inside of a relatively strict metric, harmonic, and formal raster. But similar to jazz-improvisation, some distinct patterns can be assigned to their originator. On this note, a connoisseur of Arabian music is able to recognize a lot of “bashirisms”, analogue to a jazz-fan, who undoubtedly identifies the influence of Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker in special melodic phrases.

Expansion of the ambitus

As mentioned above, the oud belongs to the family of short scale lutes. The widest interval that can be stopped between the open string and the end of the fingerboard is a fifth (quint); though it is possible to play wider intervals on the same string by stopping tones on the top of the corpus. Although Bashir has not invented this slightly unorthodox technique, he has integrated it into his style in an exemplary manner.

Also, before Bashir, the usage of flageolets did not belong to the traditional playing techniques of the oud, even though this technique actually is characteristic for stringed instruments.

Foreign influences

Bashir's occasionally polemic engagement for the authentic means of expression of Arabian music not only resulted from a rigorous inner view. He was a comprehensive educated and interested musician, who showed a notedly open-mindedness for non-Arabian styles in his lifetime; whereas he paid special attention to European and northern Indian (Hindu music.)

This profound knowledge enabled him to incorporate foreign influences into his music not as incoherent quotations, but to include them in a convincing way.

Bashir's working mode is pointed out with an extra spectacular example: His composition ''Al-Amira al-Andaluciyya'' (“The Princess of Andalusia”), that can be heard on the duo-recording of Bashir and his son Omar, has an opening motif that is very unusual for its Arabian context.

The C-major arpeggio (motif a) that opens the piece would be an extra banal phrase in European music, but played on the oud it represents a totally unusual musical gesture, because there are no such major triads of that form used in Arabian music. Then the playing around the note C (motif b) points to the musical connotation (Andalusia, for centuries a province of the caliphate, and homeland of the flamenco), that was intended by the composer. With the help of only two notes (Db and Bb) the major triad changes into the Phrygian mode that is very typical for the flamenco, whereas the tremolo-like ornamentation of the leading Db supports this effect. Then the line descending to G (motif c) establishes the key for the further improvisations. This key is called ''maqam Hijaz Kar Kurd'' and has the following (simplified) structure: The asymmetric setup of this scale requires a different leading of the ascending and descending melody lines, and is well suited for flamenco-like improvisations, because the flamenco style is characterized by a typical ambivalent and unstable reference to the major/minor-tonality. The last one naturally is unknown to Arabian music that has no harmony.

During the progressing improvisations Bashir uses another virtuosity effect by playing many chords. These so-called rasgueados are an indispensable element of style of the flamenco guitar. But on the fretless oud it is very difficult to intonate them correctly.

Influences and reception

Relevance for Arabian music

Munir Bashir emerged into the scene at a time that was anything but fortunate for Arabian music. Because of his professional experiences he was more conscious of these difficulties than many of his colleagues, who often tended towards retreating into niches or more or less resignedly accepting these conditions. Bernard Lewis, the British historian, refers to the musician as an example of a Middle Eastern, who has understood to meet the influence of the Western culture on the basis of equal collaboration. Bashir sought and found new possibilities of musical expression by standing up for the traditions of “his” music and by dealing with older forms.

On a more technical level, Bashir put his improvisations in the context of ''maqamat'', which were never used outside of Iraq, or which fell into obscurity during the 20th century.

Criticism

Bashir's integration of foreign elements of style led to a lack of understanding and criticism of the traditionalists. As reported by the music journalist Sami Asmar, Bashir was accused of chumming up to his western audience by preferentially making music in extra simple ''maqamat''. It was explicitly stated that Bashir abuses the ''maqamat Rast'' and ''Shadd Araban'' that way.

{| align=center |- | | |}

Indeed it is right, that ''maqam Rast'' is a very basic scale in Arabian music, comparable to C-Major in western music. For western listeners this tonality — approximately the Dorian scale with quartertone intervals — is anything else but catchy. In ''Shadd Araban'' it is the use of two 1½ intervals, that makes the scale abstractly sounding for western ears.

Apart from the sparsely convincing assumptions on which these criticisms are based, those are not supported by Bashir's recordings. In these recordings there are no signs of a preference for the aforementioned scales, and there is no evidence for other behaviour at Bashir's live performances. In contrast it is more easily verifiable that Bashir preferred even such scales, which enabled huge melodic freedom, and which implicate a strong tonal ambivalence for the European ear that is used to harmony – as shown above for the ''Hijaz Kar Kurd''.

Honours

Bashir, especially in his latter years, received international honors for his musical opus and his engagement for the dialog of cultures. Amongst others he was vice president of the UNESCO International Music Council, knight of the French Legion of Honour, and secretary general of the Arabian music academy in Baghdad.

Discography

Recital – Solo de Luth Oud, Live in Geneva

Munir Bashir & the Iraqi Traditional Music Group

Recital; Solo de Luth Oud (Live in Geneva)

Maqamat

En Concert a Paris (Live in Paris)

Meditations

Flamenco Roots

Concert in Budapest

Raga Roots

Oud Around the Arab World

The Stockholm Recordings

Duo de 'Ud (with Omar Bashir)

L'Art du 'Ud (The Art of the Ud)

Literature

Sami Asmar: ''The Musical Legacies Of Sayyid Makkawi, Munir Bashir and Walid Akel.'' in: ''Al-Jadid. A Review and Record of Arab culture and arts.'' Los Angeles 4.1998, H 23.

Habib Hassan Touma (1996). ''The Music of the Arabs'', trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-88-8.

Painting

Painting of swiss artist Otto Kohler > www.ocolere.ch

References

External links

Music theory, biography

Munir Bashir International Foundation

Munir Bashir Discography & Music

Website of the oud-expert Dr. David Parfitt

Comprehensive website about the oud

Excellent, easy to understand introduction of Arabian music theory

Encyclopedia of the Orient

Saramusik

Audio samples

Excerpt of the duo-improvisation with Omar over the folk-song''Fog en-Nakhel''

Category:1930 births Category:1997 deaths Category:Assyrian people Category:Iraqi Assyrian people Category:Arab Christians Category:Iraqi Christians Category:Iraqi musicians Category:Iraqi oud players Category:Oud players Category:People from Mosul Category:Syriac-language singers

ar:منير بشير de:Munir Baschir es:Munir Bashir fr:Mounir Bachir ru:Башир, Мунир sv:Munir Bashir

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
Name	Sabina Rakcheyeva
Birth date
Birth place	Baku
Occupation	Violinist
Nationality	}}

Sabina Rakcheyeva (, born 1976, Baku) is an Azerbaijani violinist, soloist, concertmaster and a member of the European Cultural Parliament.

Life

Rakcheyeva began studying violin at the age of six. In 1997, Sabina was named Best Violinist of the Year at the Youth Music Competition in Baku. She graduated magna cum laude from Azerbaijan State Music College (1994) and Baku Music Academy (2000). Rakcheyeva auditioned for a jury at Juilliard School, performing the pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georges Bizet, Niccolò Paganini and Dmitri Shostakovich and became the first Azerbaijani to be admitted there. She made her mark as a world-class classical fiddler.

At Caspian Jazz and Blues Festival 2003 in Baku Rakcheyeva debuted as a jazz violinist. In 2008 Rakcheyeva's trio performed mugams and world classical music at the concert in London dedicated to 90th anniversary of composer Gara Garayev. On the 91st anniversary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 2009, Rakcheyeva and her group gave a concert in Monterey, California, performing the Western classic music and pieces of Azerbaijani folklore samples "Sari Galin" and "Lachin".

Member of the European Cultural Parliament, winner of “The Best Violinist of the Year” competition in Baku, first recipient of “Artist in Residence” Award from the Fund of Mutual Understanding in New York and a scholarship from Italian Ministry of Culture, violinist Sabina Rakcheyeva is first ever Azerbaijani to be accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. She appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Azerbaijan, Europe and the United States, performed in more than forty countries and was featured on BBC, CNN, Voice of America Radio and U.S. Government Television.

Sabina began studying violin at the age of six. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Azerbaijan State Music College (1994), Baku Music Academy with Bachelor’s (1998) and Master’s (2000) Degrees in Performance and Teaching and has completed Master’s Program at Juilliard School in New York in 2002 and Royal Conservatory of Belgium in 2007. She also holds Certificates in Performance from Academia Chigiana (Italy) and Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts (France). She has studied with Masao Kawasaki, Franco Gulli, Stephen Clapp, and Mikhail Kugel and has played in master classes for Mstislav Rostropovich, Joseph Silverstein, James Buswell, Gerard Poulet, Mauricio Fuks, Robert Levine, Harvey Shapiro and Charles Neidich.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan on the crossroads of East and West, Sabina is passionate about fusion of Eastern and Western music and has performed her improvisations on traditional Mugham to the great critical acclaim. She was interviewed and recorded her own compositions for the BBC World Music Archives. Sabina is also very fascinated by Jazz; her experiences in this direction include master class with jazz violinist Regina Carter, performances with Bell Canto Trio (Holland) and Stian Carstenson at Caspian Jazz and Blues Festival and collaboration with Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin at Verbier Music Festival. Ms. Rakcheyeva’s major solo and chamber music engagements include performances at the UNESCO Hall in Paris, Conway Hall in London, United Nations General Assembly Hall, Carnegie Hall, St. Paul Chapel at Columbia University and Lincoln Center in New York.

Since 2000 she has regularly participated in the UBS Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland where she performed chamber music with Dmitri Sitkovetski and Michel Dalberto. She has also played in such prestigious festivals as Chamber Fest and Focus! Festival (New York, USA), Sarasota (Florida, USA), Jeunesses Musicales (Germany), Verbier (Switzerland), Menton (France), Salzburg (Austria), Tuscan Sun (Italy), Flanders (Belgium), Proms (Great Britain), Miyazaki (Japan), Beijing (China).

An advocate orchestra player, Ms. Rakcheyeva was a concertmaster of the International Youth Chamber Orchestra in Germany. She is a founding member of UBS Verbier Orchestra, where she has played with such renowned conductors as James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Yuri Temirkanov, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Kent Nagano, touring all over Europe, North and South Americas, and Asia. She has performed at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Forum Grumaldi in Monaco, Opera House in Barcelona, Tonhalle in Zurich, Frankfurt Opera, Carnegie Hall in New York, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Santory Hall in Tokyo. In 2002 Ms. Rakcheyeva participated in the Internationales Orshesterinstitut and performed with members of Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Music Festival. In 2003-2005, she joined the New European Strings Orchestra for performances at Toscan Sun Festival in Italy.

Among her recent projects were series of concerts and recordings for EMI in North America, Europe and Far East as a member of Verbier Chamber Orchestra with renowned violinist Maxim Vengerov. Soon she plans to release a CD featuring her own compositions and improvisations. Apart from performing, she is interested in Cultural Diplomacy and currently, is a PhD Candidate at School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She is a founder of Sabina Rakcheyeva Ensemble, who is creating its unique voice through improvisations and taking its influences from the musical traditions of the East and West. A strong believer that “art can change the world”, Sabina addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2003 on behalf of the Music Youth. She was honored to perform for the renowned musicians and cultural leaders Mstislav Rostropovich and Daniel Barenboim and for the Presidents of the European Commission, Azerbaijan, Russia, Romania, United Nations Secretary-General and Prince of Liechtenstein. Most recently, she participated and performed at Colloquiums on European and International Affairs in Liechtenstein and Belgium as well as "Transformational Diplomacy: Shaping the Future of International Relations" Symposium in London. In May 2008, Sabina was nominated for the membership at the European Cultural Parliament (ECP), the only European Forum for artists and intellectuals from all parts of Europe. In June 2008 Sabina was invited to perform at the 90th Anniversary Session of the Azerbaijani Parliament in Baku as well as being selected to join the Symposium of Young Cultural Leaders in Berlin where she performed her compositions at the Bundestag. In July 2008 Sabina took a part in a Conference on "Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations" in Vienna and performed at the Austrian Ministry of European and International Affairs.

Fascinated by the cross-cultural collaborations, Sabina has taken part in projects with dancers, poets, painters and architects. In 2008 she created a project "BACH to BAKU" which brought together music improvisation and a live painting. It was first introduced in London and later, in Azerbaijan and was broadcast on National TV stations. In September 2008 Sabina was invited to the Architectural Biennale in Venice to perform at the dinner in an honour of one of the most prominent architects of our time Zaha Hadid.

In October 2008, on the invitation of Wilton Park, Sabina took part and performed at the conference on New Challenges of Public Diplomacy and in March 2009 was a guest speaker and presenter at the Symposium Cultural Diplomacy : Clash or Conversation organized by the University of Southern California. Further 2009 concert appearances included Colburn Performing Arts Center (Los Angeles), Museum of Arts “La Mirada” (Monterey), Singapore Conservatoire, 100 Jazz Club and The House of Lords in London.

Sabina is a member of the Advisory Board (Arts&Culture;) at the European Azerbaijan Society and has recently initiated and coordinated a first Azerbaijani Cultural Weekend in London in November 2009 which attracted the audience of nearly two thousand people over two days. Sabina speaks fluently English, Russian, and Azerbajani with some Italian, French and Turkish languages.

Notes

External links

Ástor Piazzolla, "Oblivion" by Rakcheyeva trio

Kara Karayev, "Pastorale" by Rakcheyeva

"Sari Galin" by Rakcheyeva's trio

Category:Azerbaijani violinists Category:1976 births Category:People from Baku Category:Living people

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
Group	Mizrahi Jews (יהדות המזרח''Yahadut HaMizrach'')
Poptime	4,500,000 - 5,000,000 (estimate)
Regions	3,500,000 - 4,000,000 (including those of mixed ancestry) Middle East
Region1
Pop1	25,000
Region2
Pop2	<400
Region3
Pop3	<400
Region4
Pop4	<100
Region5
Pop5	<100
Region6
Pop6	<50
Region7
Pop7	<50 Central Asia & Caucasus
Region8
Pop8	15,000
Region9
Pop9	12,000
Region10
Pop10	1,000
Region11
Pop11	500
Region12
Pop12	100 Americas & Europe
Region13
Pop13	400,000
Region14
Pop14	250,000
Region15
Pop15	7,000
Region16
Pop16	7,000
Region17
Pop17	2,000
Langs	Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Marathi, Manipuri, Judeo-Malayalam, Dzhidi, Judæo-Arabic, Georgian, Bukhori, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri and Judæo-Aramaic
Rels	Judaism
Related	Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions and Arabs. }}

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, (), also referred to as Edot HaMizrach (Communities of the East; Mizrahi Hebrew: '''') are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus. The term ''Mizrahi'' is used in Israel in the language of politics, media and some social scientists for Jews from the Arab world and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority countries. This includes Jews from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kurdish areas, the eastern Caucasus, India, and Ethiopia. Sometimes, Sephardi Jews such as Jews from Morocco, Algeria, or Turkey are erroneously grouped into the Mizrahi category for some historical reasons.

Despite their heterogeneous origins, Mizrahi Jews generally practice rites identical or similar to traditional Sephardic Judaism, although with some differences among the minhagim of the particular communities. This has resulted in a conflation of terms, particularly in Israel, and in religious usage, where "Sephardi" is used in a broad sense to include Mizrahi Jews as well as Sephardim proper. Indeed, from the point of view of the official Israeli rabbinate, the Mizrahi rabbis in Israel are under the jurisdiction of the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel who, in most cases, is a Mizrahi Jew. Today they make up more than half of Israel's Jewish population, but before the mass immigration of 1,000,000 mostly Ashkenazi immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s they made up over 70% of Israel's Jewish population.

History and usage

"Mizrahi" is literally translated as "Eastern", מזרח (Mizraḥ), Hebrew for "east." In the past the word "Mizrahim," corresponding to the Arabic word ''Mashriqiyyun'' (Easterners), referred to the natives of Syria, Iraq and other Asian countries, as distinct from those of North Africa (''Maghrabiyyun''). For this reason some speakers object to the use of "Mizrahi" to include Moroccan Jews.

The term Mizrahim or ''Edot Hamizraḥ'', Oriental communities, grew in Israel under the circumstances of the meeting of waves of immigrants from the Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Oriental Jewish communities. In modern Israeli usage, it refers to all Jews from North African and West Asian countries, many of them Arabic-speaking Muslim-majority countries. The term came to be widely used more by so-called Mizrahi activists in the early 1990s. Since then in Israel it has become an accepted semi-official and media designation.

Many "Mizrahi" ("Oriental" Jews) today reject this (or any) umbrella and simplistic description and prefer to identify themselves by their particular country of origin, or that of their immediate ancestors, e.g. "Iranian/Persian Jew", "Iraqi Jew", "Tunisian Jew", etc., or prefer to use the old term "Sefardic" in its broader meaning.

Other designations

Many Jews identify all non-Ashkenazi Jews as Sephardim, in modern Hebrew "Sfaradim". This broader definition of "Sephardim" as including all or most Mizrahi Jews is also common in Jewish religious circles. The Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders in Israel have also joined the Mizrahi-Sefardic rite collectivities.

The reason for this classification is that most Mizrahi communities use much the same religious rituals as Sephardim proper. The prevalence of the Sephardic rite among Mizrahim is partly a result of Sephardim joining some of their communities following the 1492 expulsion from Sepharad (Spain and Portugal). Over the last few centuries, the previously distinctive rites of the Mizrahi communities were influenced, superimposed upon or altogether replaced by the rite of the Sephardim, perceived as more prestigious. Even before this assimilation, the original rite of many Jewish Oriental communities was already closer to the Sephardi rite than to the Ashkenazi one. For this reason, "Sephardim" has come to mean not only "Spanish Jews" but "Jews of the Spanish rite", just as "Ashkenazim" is used for "Jews of the German rite", whose ancestors spoke the Judeo-German, Yiddish language, whether or not they originated from Germany.

Many of the Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain resettled in greater or lesser numbers in many Arabic-speaking countries, such as Syria and Morocco. In Syria, most eventually intermarried with and assimilated into the larger established community of Arabic-speaking Jews. In North African countries, by contrast, where the Sephardim came to outnumber the pre-existing Mizrahi Jew communities it was some of the latter who assimilated into the more prosperous and prestigious Sephardic communities. In Morocco a distinction remained with the purely Sephardic ''Gerush Castilia'' of the Spanish-speaking northern strip who kept their Judeo-Spanish language known as Haketia. Either way, this assimilation, combined with the use of the Sephardic rite, led to the popular designation and conflation of most non-Ashkenazic Jewish communities from the Middle East and North Africa as "Sephardic", whether or not they were descended from Spanish Jews, which is what the terms "Sephardic Jews" and "Sepharadim" properly implied when used in the ethnic as opposed to the religious sense.

In many Arab countries, older Arabic-speaking Jewish communities distinguished between themselves and the newer arrivals speaking Judeo-Romance languages, that is, Sephardim expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. The established Arabic-speaking Jews called themselves Musta'arabim (Arabic for Arabizers), while the newer Sephardi arrivals called them ''Moriscos'' (Ladino for Moorish).

The term "Arab Jews" is controversial, used for self-identification by some members of the communities concerned but strongly opposed by others due to its political, social and ideological implications (see Arab Jews).

Language

thumb|left|Kurdish Jews in Rawanduz, northern Iraq, 1905. Most of the so-called Oriental Jewish or Mizrahi communities spoke Arabic, although Arabic is now mainly used as a second language, especially by the older generation. Most of the many notable philosophical, religious and literary works of the Jews in the Orient were written in Arabic using a modified Hebrew alphabet.

Among other languages associated with Mizrahim are Judeo-Persian (Dzhidi), Georgian, Bukhori, Kurdish, Judeo-Berber, Punic language, Juhuri, Marathi, Judeo-Malayalam and called by some Judeo-Aramaic dialects. Most Persian Jews speak standard Persian.

Neo-Aramaic is a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew. It is identified as a "Jewish language", since it is the language of major Jewish texts such as the Talmud and Zohar, and many ritual recitations such as the Kaddish. Traditionally, Aramaic has been a language of Talmudic debate in yeshivoth, as many rabbinic texts are written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. As spoken by the Jews of Kurdistan, Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects are descended from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, as could be seen from its hundreds of reflexes in Jewish Neo-Aramaic.

By the early 1950s, virtually the entire Jewish community of Kurdistan—a rugged, mostly mountainous region comprising parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the Caucasus, where Jews had lived since antiquity—relocated to Israel. The vast majority of Kurdish Jews, who were primarily concentrated in northern Iraq, left Kurdistan in the mass aliyah (emigration to Israel) of 1950-51. This ended thousands of years of Jewish history in what had been Assyria and Babylonia.

In 2007, an important book was published, authored by Mordechai Zaken, describing the unique relationship between Jews in urban and rural Kurdistan and the tribal society under whose patronage the Jews lived for hundreds of years. Tribal chieftains, or aghas, granted patronage to the Jews who needed protection in the wild tribal region of Kurdistan; the Jews gave their chieftains dues, gifts and services. The text provides numerous tales and examples about the skills, maneuvers and innovations used by Kurdistani Jews in their daily life to confront their abuse and extortion by greedy chieftains and tribesmen. The text also tells the stories of Kurdish chieftains who saved and protected the Jews unconditionally.

Post-1948 dispersal

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and subsequent establishment of the state of Israel, most Mizrahi Jews (900 000) were either expelled by their Arab rulers or chose to leave and immigrated to Israel. Roughly half of Israeli Jews are of Mizrahi origin.

Anti-Jewish actions by Arab governments in the 1950s and 1960s, including the expulsion of 25,000 Mizrahi Jews from Egypt after the 1956 Suez Crisis, led to the overwhelming majority of Mizrahim leaving Arab countries. They became refugees. Most went to Israel. Many Moroccan and Algerian Jews went to France. Thousands of Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian Jews immigrated to the United States and to Brazil.

Today, as many as 40,000 Mizrahim still remain in communities scattered throughout the non-Arab Muslim world, primarily in Iran, but also Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. There are few remaining in the Arab world. About 5,000 remain in Morocco and fewer than 2,000 in Tunisia. Other countries with remnants of ancient Jewish communities with official recognition, such as Lebanon, have 1,000 or fewer Jews. A trickle of emigration continues, mainly to Israel and the United States.

Absorption into Israeli society

Refuge in Israel was not without its tragedies: "in a generation or two, millennia of rooted Oriental civilization, unified even in its diversity,” had been wiped out, writes Mizrahi scholar Ella Shohat. The trauma of rupture from their countries of origin was further complicated by the difficulty of the transition upon arrival in Israel; Mizrahi immigrants and refugees were placed in rudimentary and hastily erected tent cities (Ma'abarot) often in development towns on the peripheries of Israel. Settlement in Moshavim (cooperative farming villages) was only partially successful, because Mizrahim had historically filled a niche as craftsmen and merchants and most did not traditionally engage in farmwork. As the majority left their property behind in their home countries as they journeyed to Israel, many suffered a severe decrease in their socio-economic status aggravated by their cultural and political differences with the dominant Ashkenazi community. Furthermore, a policy of austerity was enforced at that time due to economic hardships.

Mizrahi immigrants arrived with many mother tongues. Many, especially those from North Africa and the fertile crescent, spoke Arabic dialects; those from Iran and Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) spoke Persian; Baghdadi Jews from India arrived with English; the Bene Israel from Maharashtra, India arrived with Marathi, Mizrahim from elsewhere brought Georgian, Gruzinic, Tajik, Juhuri and various other languages with them. Hebrew had historically been a language only of prayer for most Jews not living in Israel, including the Mizrahim. Thus, with their arrival in Israel, the Mizrahim retained culture, customs and language distinct from their Ashkenazi counterparts.

Disparities and integration

The cultural differences between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews impacted the degree and rate of assimilation into Israeli society, and sometimes the divide between Eastern European and Middle Eastern Jews was quite sharp. Segregation, especially in the area of housing, limited integration possibilities over the years. Intermarriage between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim is increasingly common in Israel and by the late 1990s 28% of all Israeli children had multi-ethnic parents (up from 14% in the 1950s). It has been claimed that intermarriage does not tend to decrease ethnic differences in socio-economic status, however that does not apply to the children of inter-ethnic marriages.

Although social integration is constantly improving, disparities persist. A study conducted by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS), Mizrahi Jews are less likely to pursue academic studies than Ashkenazi Jews. Israeli-born Ashkenazim are up to twice more likely to study in a university than Israeli-born Mizrahim. Furthermore, the percentage of Mizrahim who seek a university education remains low compared to second-generation immigrant groups of Ashkenazi origin, such as Russians. According to a survey by the Adva Center, the average income of Ashkenazim was 36 percent higher than that of Mizrahim in 2004.

Notable Mizrahim

Business people

Nissim Gaon, Swiss businessman born in Sudan

Charles Saatchi, advertising executive and art collector (born in Iraq)

Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, advertising executive and former chairman of the British Conservative Party

Michael Kadoorie, businessman from Hong-Kong several generations but of Iraqi descent

Isaac Mizrahi, fashion designer (Egyptian Jew from Brooklyn)

Shlomo Moussaieff, Jewellery Designer/ Judaic Collector and Expert (Bukharian)

Lev Leviev, Israeli businessman of Bukharian descent

David and Simon Reuben, British businessmen born in India, from a family of Baghdadi Jews

Edmond Safra, banker from Lebanon

Shlomo Eliyahu, Israeli businessman

Entertainers

Paula Abdul, American singer and choreographer (Syrian Jewish descent)

Joe Amar, Israeli singer

Etti Ankri, Israeli pop singer

Zohar Argov, Israeli popular singer, called "the King" of the "Mizrahi" music (Yemenite)

Gali Atari, Israeli singer and actress, won the Eurovision Song Contest (from a Yemenite family)

Ehud Banai, Israeli singer and composer

Evyatar Banai, Israeli singer and composer

Yuval Banai, Israeli rock singer and composer

Yossi Banai, Israeli singer and actor (from a Persian Jewish family settled in Jerusalem)

Meir Banai, Israeli singer

Shlomo Bar, Israeli singer and composer

Sonia Benezra, French Canadian radio and TV personality

Lili Boniche, French-Algerian singer

Patrick Bruel, French pop singer

Yizhar Cohen, Israeli singer, won the Eurovision Song Contest (Yemenite family)

Emmanuelle Chriqui, Canadian actress

Shoshana Damari, Israeli singer (Yemen born)

Dana International, (Cohen) Israeli pop singer, won the Eurovision Song Contest (Yemenite family)

David D'or, Israeli pop and concert singer, countertenor (from a Jewish Libyan family)

Gad Elmaleh, Moroccan comedian, film director, and humorist

Yehoram Gaon, Israeli singer and actor.

Eyal Golan, Israel charm pop singer

Zion Golan, Israeli singer (Yemenite descent)

Hélène Grimaud, French-born concert pianist/author of Berber-Jewish father & Corsican-Jewish mother

Sarit Hadad, Israeli singer, from a Jewish family from Tunisia and Azerbaijan(Mountain Jew)

Ofra Haza, Israeli pop and oriental singer (Yemenite family)

Moshe Ivgy, Israeli cinema and theatre actor

Malika Kalantarova, Famous Tajik-Bukharian dancer (People's Artist of USSR)

Chris Kattan, U.S actor (son a Jewish-Iraqi origin father)

Chemda Khalili, singer and co-host of Keith and the Girl

Fatima Kuinova, Soviet-Bukharian singer (Merited Artist of USSR)

Mélanie Laurent, French actress and director

Yehezkel Lazarov, Israeli actor

Claude Lelouch, French cinema director

Enrico Macias, French singer and composer

Miri Messika, Israeli pop singer

Haim Moshe, Israeli-born "Mizrahi" and pop singer (Yemenite)

Shoista Mullojonova, Bukharian legendary Shashmakom Folk Singer (People's Artist of Tajikistan)

Farhat Ezekiel Nadira (Nadira), Bollywood actress of the 1940s and 50s (Baghdadi Jew from India)

Yaël Naïm, French-Israeli singer

Achinoam Nini ("Noa"), Israeli born, Yemenite pop singer

Kobi Oz, pop singer,composer and writer

Avi Peretz, Israeli Oriental and pop singer

Moshe Peretz, Israeli singer of "Oriental" and pop music

Rita, Iranian born, Israeli pop singer

Berry Sakharof, Israeli singer and composer

Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian and actor (Syrian Jewish descent)

Boaz Sharabi, Israeli singer (born, Yemenite, Tunisian & Moroccan ancestry)

Harel Skaat, Singer and "Kokhav Nolad" ("Israeli Idol") contestant (Yemenite descent)

Bahar Soomekh, Persian Jewish-American actress

Subliminal, Israeli rapper of Persian/Tunisian descent

Shimi Tavori, Israeli singer

Ninette Tayeb, Israel singer, won "A Star is Born" (Kokhav Nolad) Contest (Moroccan/Tunisian descent)

Avi Toledano, Israeli pop singer and composer, with Sefardic Moroccan roots

Elliott Yamin, American singer (Jewish Iraqi father)

Idan Yaniv, Israeli singer of Bukharian descent (Israeli Artist of 2007)

Yaffa Yarkoni, Israeli singer (from a Caucasian Jewish family)

Ariel Zilber, Israeli singer and composer (son of a Yemenite Jewish-origin mother)

Murray Perahia, famous pianist and conductor, born in Brooklyn.

Boaz Mauda, Israeli singer (Jewish Yemenite descent)

Shiri Maimon, Israeli singer (Jewish Moroccan descent)

Medicine and therapy

Baruj Benacerraf - American scientist born in Venezuela, from a Moroccan Jewish family, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Yisrael Mordecai Safeek, American physician executive: Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner.

Shalomim Y HaLahawi, Licensed Naturopathic Physician, Diplomat of the American Association of Integrative Medicine, Medical researcher, Author and Ordained Rabbi. Born of Southwestern Arabian(Oman) and Northeast African Jewish family

Politicians and military

Yekutiel Adam, Israeli general (from a Caucasian Jewish family)

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israeli general, current Israeli minister of Infrastructure, former minister of Defense and Israel Labor Party chairman, (Iraqi Jew), commonly called by his Arabic name "Fuad"

Aryeh Deri, former leader of Shas Party and minister of Internal Affairs, (Moroccan Jew)

Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi, Minister of Post and Speaker of Knesset 1970s and 80s, ethnicity/country of origin: Yemen

Les Gara, Democratic member of the Alaska State Legislature, former deputy state attorney general (Iraqi parents)

Dalia Itzik, former Knesset speaker

Avigdor Kahalani, former minister of Internal Security and decorated IDF tank commander

Moshe Katsav, former President of the State of Israel and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iran

David Levy, former minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister (Moroccan Jew), minister of housing and transports

Shaul Mofaz, former Israeli Minister of Defense and chief of the IDF General Staff, Iranian Jew

Yitzhak Mordechai, retired IDF general, former minister of Defense and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iraq

Dorrit Moussaieff, First Lady of Iceland (Bukharian Jew)

Abie Nathan, Israeli peace activist

Yitzhak Navon, fifth president of Israel and former minister of Education, from a Sephardic Jewish family

Shlomo Hillel, was speaker of the Knesset, minister

Amir Peretz, current Knesset member and former Israeli Minister of Defense, Labor Party chairman, and chairman of the Histadrut, ethnicity/country of origin: Morocco

Silvan Shalom, former Israeli minister of Foreign Affairs, minister of Treasury and Deputy Prime Minister, Tunisian Jew

Meir Sheetrit, current Israeli minister of Internal Affairs and former Deputy Prime Minister, minister of Treasury and of Education

Moshe Levi, Israeli general, chief of the Idf General Staff

Shlomo Ben Ami, Israeli historian, diplomat and diplomat, was minister of police

Gabi Ashkenazi, Israeli general, chief of the IDF General Staff

Dan Halutz, Israeli general, chief of the IDF General Staff

Moshe Shahal, minister and lawyer

Moshe Nissim, was Israeli finance and justice minister

Eli Cohen, Israeli spy in Syria

J. F. R. Jacob, Indian general, distinguished himself in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Shimon Sheetrit, Israeli lawman and politician, was justice minister, professor of law

Ran Cohen, politician from the left liberal party Meretz, former MK

Nissim Dahan, rabbi and politician from Shass party, was minister of health

Shalom Simhon, Israeli politician, from Labor party, minister of agriculture

Itzhak Peretz, Israeli rabbi and politician, among the founders of Shas founders, was a government minister

Benny Mazouz from a family from Djerba, Tunisia

Religious figures

Baba Sali, venerated rabbi born in Morocco

Ovadia Yosef, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel and spiritual leader of Shas

Mordechai Eliyahu, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel

Amnon Yitzhak, Orthodox rabbi of Yemenite origin

Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi), Co-founder of Bukharian Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem

Sports and game players

Yossi Benayoun, Israeli football player at Chelsea FC

Doron Jamchi, Israeli basketball player

Oded Kattash, Israeli basketball player

Robert Mizrachi, poker player, Iraqi Jew

Michael Mizrachi, poker player, Iraqi Jew

Eli Ohana, Israeli football player

Haim Revivo, Israeli football player

Shahar Zubari, Israeli Olympic medalist in Windsurfing.

Writers and academics

Michel Abitbol, noted historian and professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Erez Bitton, Israeli Hebrew poet

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, French physicist, Nobel Prize winner (from an Algerian Jewish family)

Jacques Derrida, French philosopher (of Algerian Jewish descent)

Sami Michael, Israeli Hebrew writer (born in Iraq)

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, psychotherapist

Samir Naqqash, Israeli Jewish writer in Arab language (born in Iraq)

Yehouda Shenhav, Israeli sociologist (born in an Iraqi Jewish family, Shahrabani)

Saba Soomekh, professor/writer

A.B. Yehoshua, Israeli Hebrew writer, professor (from a Sefardic family originating from Morocco)

Avi Shlaim, Oxford University scholar; author specialising on the Israel-Palestine conflict and Zionism. Shlaim is originally from Iraq.

Ella Shohat, Israeli-American sociologist and author

Albert Memmi, French-Tunisian writer

Eli Amir, Israeli Hebrew writer

Smadar Lavie, Israeli anthropologist

Hélène Cixous, French writer

Jacques Attali, French thinker and author

Shimon Adaf, Israeli Hebrew poet and writer

Ronit Matalon, Israeli Hebrew writer, from a Sephardic Egyptian family

Orly Castel Bloom, Israeli Hebrew writer (from an Egyptian Jewish family)

Baruj Benacerraf, American-Venezuelan medical scientist, Nobel Prize, from a sephardic family with Moroccan roots

Haim Sabato, Israeli rabbi and Hebrew writer

Rachel Shabi, British/Israeli journalist and author of "Not the Enemy, Israel's Jews from Arab lands" about Mizrahi Jews in Israel

Sasson Somekh, Israeli Arabologist

Nissim Ezekiel, Indian poet and art critic

Andre Chouraqui, French-Israeli thinker and writer

See also

List of notable Mizrahi Jews and Sephardi Jews in Israel

References

Bibliography

External links

Organizations

World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries

Sephardic Pizmonim Project Music of Mizrahi Jews.

JIMENA Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa

Multiculturalism Project - Middle Eastern and North African Jews

Hakeshet Hademocratit Hamizrachit - An organization of Mizrahi Jews in Israel

Harif: Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (British-based)

Articles

Mizrahi Wanderings - Nancy Hawker on Samir Naqqash, one of Israel’s foremost Arab-language Mizrahi novelists

The Middle East's Forgotten Refugees A chronicle of Mizrahi refugees by Semha Alwaya

The Forgotten Refugees

Moshe Levy The story of an Iraqi Jew in the Israeli Navy and his survival on the war-ship Eilat

My Life in Iraq Yeheskel Kojaman describes his life as a Mizrahi Jew in Iraq in the 50s and 60s

Audio interview with Ammiel Alcalay discussing Mizrahi literature

Excerpt from ''The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times'' by Norman Stillman

Etan Bloom, ''The Reproduction of the Model ‘Oriental’ in the Israeli Social Space; the 50s and the speedy immigration.'' Tel-Aviv Univ. M.A in the Unit for Culture Research, 2003. (Hebrew, with summary in English.)

Saul Silas Fathi Full Circle: Escape From Baghdad and the Return by Saul Silas Fathi, A prominent Iraqi Jewish family's escape from persecution.

Tablet Magazine">Road From Damascus, Tablet Magazine

Communities

Bukharian Jews Bukharian Jewish community (English and Russian)

PersianRabbi.com Persian Jewish community

Kurdish Jewry (Hebrew)

The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center Disseminating the 3000 year old heritage of Babylonian Jewry (English and Hebrew)

Iraqi Jews Iraqi American Jewish Community in New York. Perpetuating the history, heritage, culture and traditions of Babylonian Jewry.

Tradition of the Iraqi Jews (mostly Hebrew, with links to recordings)

Sha'ar Binyamin Damascus Jewry (Hebrew and Spanish)

Jews of Lebanon

Historical Society of Jews from Egypt

Harissa.com Tunisian Jewish site (French)

Zlabia.com Algerian Jewish site (French)

Dafina.net Moroccan Jewish site (French)

The Nash Didan Community Persian Azerbaijany, Aramaic speaking community (Hebrew, some English and Aramaic)

Category:Jewish ethnic groups Category:Ethnic groups in Israel Category:Semitic peoples

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