Map with the Saudi region outlined in red and the 1923 Kingdom in green

This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script.

al-Hejaz, also Hijaz (Arabic: الحجاز‎ al-Ḥiǧāz, 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[link]

Evidence suggests that the northern part of Hejaz was part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea.^[1]

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."^[2]

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 (23°30′12.96″N 40°51′34.92″E / 23.5036°N 40.8597°E / 23.5036; 40.8597) and a potential source of the now dried out Pishon River that used to flow 600 miles (970 km) 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.^[3]

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 proclaimed himself king of an independent Hejaz, as a result of the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence. The ensuing Arab Revolt 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.

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  Flag of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1925–present)

People of Hejaz[link]

People of Hejaz, who feel particularly connected to the holy places of Mecca and Medina, have probably the most strongly articulated identity of any regional grouping in Saudi Arabia. Their place of origin affords them the feeling of being a chosen people and also provides them with special status in the eyes of other Muslims; but it also alienates them from the Saudi state, which invokes different narratives of the history of the Arabian Peninsula. Over the centuries, the inhabitants of Hejaz also created many rituals and ceremonies which further enhance their sense of superiority. Most of the official Salafi clerics look down on these rituals and in many instances consider them to be un-Islamic. Thus, they experienced tensions with people of Najd.^[4]

People of Hejaz has never fully accomadated to Saudi and Wahhabi rule. They have always considered themselves more cosmopolitan than the people of Najd. Since Hejaz, for centuries, was a part of the great empires of Islam from the Umayyads to the Ottomans.^[5]

Geography[link]

The region is located along the Red Sea Rift. 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[link]

See also[link]

	Middle East portal
	Saudi Arabia portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hijaz

Notes[link]

v t e Saudi Arabia topics Index Outline History Ancient Arabia Early Islamic State Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate Ottoman Empire (Caliphate) Emirate of Diriyah Emirate of Nejd Saudi Arabia Geography Regions (Emirates) Governorates Cities Climate Law Basic Law Human rights LGBT rights Women's rights Freedom of religion Mutaween (religious police) Capital punishment Passport Politics King Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prime Minister Cabinet Allegiance Council National Security Council Consultative Assembly Foreign relations Nuclear program Mabahith (secret police) Military Army Navy Air Force Air Defense National Guard General Intelligence Presidency Military ranks Economy Saudi riyal Tadawul (stock exchange) Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Agriculture Companies Energy Irrigation Oil Oil reserves OPEC Transport Telecommunications Tourism Water supply and sanitation Society Censorship Crime Demographics Education Healthcare Human trafficking Obesity Prostitution Religion Terrorism Culture Art Cinema Cuisine Islam Language Media Music Public holidays Sport Television Universities Symbols Flag National anthem National emblem Shahada (national motto) Category Portal WikiProject

Munir Bashir
Background information
Born	1930[1] Mosul, Iraq
Origin	Mosul, Iraq
Died	September 28, 1997(1997-09-28) Budapest, Hungary
Genres	Middle Eastern music
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	lute, oud
Years active	1953 and 1954–1997
Notable instruments
Oud

Munir Bashir (Arabic: منير بشير‎, Syriac: ܡܘܢܝܪ ܒܫܝܪ) (1930 – September 28, 1997) was an Iraqi musician 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.^[2]

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.^[3] 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[link]

Early life[link]

Mosul with its Tigris bridge

Munir Bashir was born in Mosul, situated in northern Iraq.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[3][6] 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[link]

Baghdad in the 1970s

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.^[7]

Exploring outside of Iraq[link]

Beirut, Place de l'Étoile

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[link]

Budapest seen from the Gellért Hill

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.^[7] His son went on to be a musician as well.^[8] 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 under supervision of Zoltán Kodály, where he did his doctorate in musicology in 1965.^[3] 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[link]

In 1973, the Iraqi ministry of information appointed Bashir to its culture committee;^[7] 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 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.^[3]

Instrumental style[link]

General characteristics[link]

In the long history of the oud, Munir Bashir is one of the most important players.^[9] 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 (taqsīm) over the common scales (maqām) in Arabian music, his colleagues considered him to be an unsurpassed master.^[3] 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[link]

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:

audio sample

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[link]

A reesha

As 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.^[10] 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[link]

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[link]

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[link]

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.)^[11]

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.

audio sample

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:

audio sample

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[link]

Relevance for Arabian music[link]

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[link]

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.^[7]

Maqam Rast audio sample

Maqam Shadd Araban audio sample

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[link]

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,^[12] knight of the French Legion of Honour, and secretary general of the Arabian music academy in Baghdad.

Discography[link]

• 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[link]

• 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[link]

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

References[link]

External links[link]

Music theory, biography[link]

• 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[link]

• Excerpt of the duo-improvisation with Omar over the folk-songFog en-Nakhel

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

Life[link]

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.^[1] She made her mark as a world-class classical fiddler.^[2]

At Caspian Jazz and Blues Festival 2003 in Baku Rakcheyeva debuted as a jazz violinist.^[3] In 2008 Rakcheyeva's trio performed mugams and world classical music at the concert in London dedicated to 90th anniversary of composer Gara Garayev.^[4] 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".^[5]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Ástor Piazzolla, "Oblivion" by Rakcheyeva trio
• Kara Karayev, "Pastorale" by Rakcheyeva
• "Sari Galin" by Rakcheyeva's trio

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2011)

Hārūn al-Rashīd هارون الرشيد
Caliph of Baghdad
Reign	14 September 786 – 24 March 809 (&1000000000000002200000022 years, &10000000000000191000000191 days)
Predecessor	Al-Hadi
Successor	Al-Amin
Spouse	Zubaidah
Issue
al-Ma'mun al-Amin al-Mu'tasim al-Qasim
Dynasty	Abbasid
Father	Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Mahdi
Mother	Al-Khayzuran bint Atta
Born	(763-03-17)17 March 763 Rey, Iran
Died	24 March 809(809-03-24) (aged 46) Tus, Iran
Burial	Tus, Iran

Hārūn al-Rashīd (Arabic: هارون الرشيد‎; properly pronounced Hārūn ar-Rashīd; English: Aaron the Upright, Aaron the Just, or Aaron the Rightly Guided) (17 March 763 or February 766 – 24 March 809) was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph that encompassed modern Iraq. His birth date remains a point of discussion, though, as various sources give the dates from 763 to 766).

He ruled from 786 to 809, and his time was marked by scientific, cultural and religious prosperity. Art and music Hamd o Na'at also flourished significantly during his reign. He established the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma ("House of Wisdom").^{[citation needed]}

Since Harun was intellectually, politically and militarily resourceful, his life and the court over which he held sway have been the subject of many tales: some are factual but most are believed to be fictitious. An example of what is known to be factual is the story of the clock that was among various presents that Harun had sent to Charlemagne. The presents were carried by the returning Frankish mission that came to offer Harun friendship in 799. Charlemagne and his retinue deemed the clock to be a conjuration for the sounds it emanated and the tricks it displayed every time an hour ticked.^{[citation needed]} Among what is known to be fictional is The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, which contains many stories that are fantasized by Harun's magnificent court and even Harun al-Rashid himself.^{[citation needed]}

The family of Barmakids which played a deciding role in establishing the Abbasid Caliphate declined gradually during his rule.

Life[link]

Hārūn was born in Rey. He was the son of al-Mahdi, the third Abbasid caliph (ruled 775–785), and al-Khayzuran, a former slave girl from Yemen and a woman of strong personality who greatly influenced affairs of state in the reigns of her husband and sons.

Hārūn was strongly influenced by the will of his mother in the governance of the empire until her death in 789. His vizier (chief minister) Yahya the Barmakid, Yahya's sons (especially Ja'far ibn Yahya), and other Barmakids generally controlled the administration.

The Barmakids were a Persian-Tajik family which dated back to the Barmak of Magi, who had become very powerful under al-Mahdi. Yahya had aided Hārūn in obtaining the caliphate, and he and his sons were in high favor until 798, when the caliph threw them in prison and confiscated their land. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari dates this in 803 and lists various accounts for the cause: Yahya's entering the Caliph's presence without permission, Yahya's opposition to Muhammad ibn al Layth who later gained Harun's favour, Ja'far release of Yahya ibn Abdallah ibn Hasan whom Harun had imprisoned, the ostentatious wealth of the Barmakids and the alleged romantic relationship between Yahya's son and Harun's sister Abbasa.

During the reign of the Harun al-Rashid, the city of Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.

The latter allegation is specified in the following tale; Hārūn loved to have his own sister Abbasa and Ja'far with him at times of recreation. Since Muslim etiquette forbade their common presence, Hārūn had Ja'far marry Abbassa on the understanding that the marriage was purely nominal. Nonetheless, the two consummated the marriage. Some versions have it that she entered Ja'far's bedroom in the darkness, masquerading as one of his slave girls. A child given secret birth was sent by her to Mecca, but a maid, quarrelling with her mistress, made known the scandal. Hārūn, while on a pilgrimage in Mecca, heard the story and ascertained that the tale was probably true. On his return shortly after, he had Ja'far executed, whose body was dispatched to Baghdad, and there, divided in two, impaled on either side of the bridge. It stayed there for three years, when Harun, happening to pass through Baghdad from the East, gave command for the remains to be taken down and burned. On the death of Ja'far, his father and brother were both cast into prison.

This romantic story is highly doubted by Ibn Khaldun and most modern scholars.^[1] The fall of the Barmakids is far more likely due to their behaving in a manner that Harun found disrespectful (such as entering his court unannounced) and making decisions in matters of state without first consulting him.

Hārūn became caliph when he was in his early twenties. Before that, in 780 and again in 782, he had already noninally led campaigns against the Caliphate's traditional enemy, the Byzantine Empire. The latter expedition was a huge undertaking, and even reached the Asian suburbs of Constantinople. On the day of accession, his son al-Ma'mun was born, and al-Amin some little time later: the latter was the son of Zubaida, a granddaughter of al-Mansur (founder of the city of Baghdad); so he took precedence over the former, whose mother was a Persian slave-girl. He began his reign by appointing very able ministers, who carried on the work of the government so well that they greatly improved the condition of the people.^{[citation needed]}

A silver dirham minted in Madinat al-Salam (Bagdad) in 170 AH (786 CE). At the reverse, the inner marginal inscription says:" By order of the slave of God Harun Amir of Believers

It was under Hārūn ar-Rashīd that Baghdad flourished into the most splendid city of its period. Tribute was paid by many rulers to the caliph, and these funds were used on architecture, the arts and a luxurious life at court.

In 796, Hārūn decided to move his court and the government to Ar Raqqah at the middle Euphrates. Here he spent 12 years, most of his reign. Only once he returned to Baghdad for a short visit. Several reasons might have influenced the decision to move to ar-Raqqa. It was close to the Byzantine border. The communication lines via the Euphrates to Baghdad and via the Balikh river to the north and via Palmyra to Damascus were excellent. The agriculture was flourishing to support the new Imperial center. And from Raqqa any rebellion in Syria and the middle Euphrates area could be controlled. Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani pictures in his anthology of poems the splendid life in his court. In ar-Raqqah the Barmekids managed the fate of the empire, and there both heirs, al-Amin and al-Ma'mun grew up.

Due to the Thousand-and-One Nights tales, Harun al-Rashid turned into a legendary figure obscuring his true historic personality. In fact, his reign initiated the political disintegration of the Abbasid caliphate.^{[citation needed]} Syria was inhabited by tribes with Umayyad sympathies and remained the bitter enemy of the Abbasids while Egypt witnessed uprisings against Abbasids due to maladministration and arbitrary taxation. The Umayyads had been established in Spain in 755, the Idrisids in Morocco in 788, and the Aghlabids in Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia) in 800. Besides, unrest flared up in Yemen, and the Kharijites rose in rebellion in Daylam, Kerman, Fars and Sistan. Revolts also broke out in Khorasan, and al-Rashid waged many campaigns against the Byzantines.

For the administration of the whole empire, he fell back on his mentor and long time associate Yahya bin Khalid bin Barmak. Rashid appointed him as his vazier with full executive powers, and, for seventeen years, this man Yahya and his sons, served Rashid faithfully in whatever assignment he entrusted to them.^{[citation needed]}

Al-Rashid appointed Ali bin Isa bin Mahan as the governor of Khorasan. He tried to bring to heel the princes and chieftains of the region, and to reimpose the full authority of the central government on them. This new policy met with fierce resistance and provoked numerous uprisings in the region. A major revolt led by Rafeh bin Layth was started in Samarqand which forced Harun al-Rashid to move to Khorasan. He first removed and arrested Ali bin Isa bin Mahan but the revolt continued unchecked. Harun al-Rashid died very soon when he reached Sanabad village in Toos and was buried in the summer palace of Humaid bin Qahtabah, the former Abbasid governor in Khorasan, situated near the Sanabad village in the Toos region.

Al-Rashid virtually dismembered the empire by apportioning it between his two sons al-Amin and al-Ma'mun (with his third son, al-Qasim, being belatedly added after them). Very soon it became clear that by dividing the empire, Rashid had actually helped to set the opposing parties against one another, and had provided them with sufficient resources to become independent of each other.^{[citation needed]} After the death of Harun al-Rashid, civil war broke out in the empire between his two sons, al-Amin and al-Ma'mun.

Harun al-Rashid receiving a delegation sent by Charlemagne at his court

Both Einhard and Notker the Stammerer refer to envoys travelling between Harun's and Charlemagne's courts, amicable discussions concerning Christian access to the Holy Land and the exchange of gifts. Notker mentions Charlemagne sent Harun Spanish horses, colourful Frisian cloaks and impressive hunting dogs. In 802 Harun sent Charlemagne a present consisting of silks, brass candelabra, perfume, balsam, ivory chessmen, a colossal tent with many-colored curtains, an elephant named Abul-Abbas, and a water clock that marked the hours by dropping bronze balls into a bowl, as mechanical knights—one for each hour—emerged from little doors which shut behind them. The presents were unprecedented in Western Europe and may have influenced Carolingian art.

When the Byzantine empress Irene was deposed, Nikephoros I became emperor and refused to pay tribute to Harun, saying that Irene should have been receiving the tribute the whole time. News of this angered Harun, who wrote a message on the back of the Roman emperor's letter and said "In the name of God the most merciful, From Amir al-Mu'minin Harun al-Rashid, commander of the faithful, to Nikephoros, dog of the Romans. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt behold my reply". After campaigns in Asia Minor, Nikephoros was forced to conclude a treaty, with humiliating terms.^[2][3]

Harun made the pilgrimage to Mecca several times, e.g., 793, 795, 797, 802 and last in 803. Tabari concludes his account of Harun's reign with these words: "It has been said that when Harun al-Rashid died, there were nine hundred million odd (dirhams) in the state treasury."

Al-Rashid sent embassies to the Chinese Tang dynasty and established good relations with them.^[4][5] He was called "A-lun" in the Chinese T'ang Annals.^[6]

In 808, Harun went to settle the insurrection of Rafi ibn Leith in Transoxania, became ill, and died. He was buried under the palace of Hamid ibn Qahtabi, the governor of Greater Khorasan, Iran. The location later became known as Mashhad ("The Place of Martyrdom") because of the martyrdom of Imam ar-Ridha in 818.

Anecdotes[link]

Many anecdotes attached themselves to the person of Harun al-Rashid in the centuries following his rule. Saadi of Shiraz inserted a number of them into his Gulistan, in one telling how Harun enjoined his son to forgiveness.

Al-Masudi relates a number of interesting anecdotes in The Meadows of Gold illuminating the character of this caliph. For example, he recounts Harun's delight when his horse came in first, closely followed by al-Ma'mun's, at a race Harun held at Raqqa. Al-Masudi tells the story of Harun setting his poets a challenging task. When others failed to please him, Miskin of Medina succeeded superbly well. The poet then launched into a moving account of how much it had cost him to learn that song. Harun laughed saying he knew not which was more entertaining, the song or the story. He rewarded the poet.^[7]

There is also the tale of Harun asking Ishaq ibn Ibrahim to keep singing. The musician did until the caliph fell asleep. Then, strangely, a handsome young man appeared, snatched the musician's lute, sang a very moving piece (al-Masudi quotes it), and left. On awakening and being informed of this, Harun said Ishaq ibn Ibrahim had received a supernatural visitation.

Harun, like a number of caliphs, is given an anecdote connecting a poem with his death. Shortly before he died, he is said to have been reading some lines by Abu al-Atahiya about the transitory nature of the power and pleasures of this world.

Popular culture and references[link]

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem which started

  One day Haroun Al-Raschid read
  A book wherein the poet said
  Where are the kings and where the rest
  Of those who once the world possessed?

• O. Henry uses this character in his theme "Turning the tables on Haroun al Raschid."
• Alfred Tennyson wrote a poem in his youth entitled Recollections Of The Arabian Nights. Every stanza (except the last one) ends with "of good Haroun Alraschid".
• Harun al-Rashid was a main figure and character in several of the stories in some of the oldest versions of the One Thousand and One Nights.
• Hārūn ar-Rashīd figures throughout James Joyce's Ulysses, in a dream of Stephen Dedalus, one of the protagonists. Stephen's efforts to recall this dream continue throughout the novel, culminating in the novel's fifteenth episode, wherein some characters also take on the guise of Hārūn.
• Harun al-Rashid is also celebrated in a 1923 poem by W.B. Yeats, "The Gift of Harun al-Rashid".
• A story of one of Harun's wanderings provides the climax to the narrative game of titles at the end of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). In Calvino's story, Harun wanders at night, only to be drawn into a conspiracy in which he is selected to assassinate the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid.
• The two protagonists of Salman Rushdie's 1990 novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories are Haroun and his father Rashid Khalifa.
• In the Sten science fiction novels by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch, the character of the Eternal Emperor uses the name "H. E. Raschid" when incognito; this is confirmed, in the final book of the series, as a reference to the character from Burton's translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.
• In Roald Dahl's story The BFG, the Sultan of Baghdad says he had an uncle called Caliph Harun al-Rashid who disappeared with his wife and ten children.
• The movie The Golden Blade (1952), starring Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie depicts the adventures of Harun who uses a magic sword to free a fairy-tale Bagdad from Jafar, the evil usurper of the throne. After he finally wins the hand of princess Khairuzan she awards him the title Al-Rashid.
• The comic book The Sandman features a story (issue 50, "Ramadan") set in the world of the Arabian Nights, with Hārūn ar-Rashīd as the protagonist. It highlights his historical and mythical role as well as his discussion of the transitory nature of power. The story is included in the collection The Sandman: Fables and Reflections.
• Haroun El Poussah in the French comic strip Iznogoud is a satirical version of Hārūn ar-Rashīd.
• In Quest for Glory II, the sultan who adopts the Hero as his son is named Hārūn ar-Rashīd. He is often seen prophesying on the streets of Shapeir as The Poet Omar.
• Harun al-Rashid appears as the leader of Arabia in the video game Civilization 5.
• Future US President Theodore Roosevelt, when he was a New York Police Department Commissioner, was called in the local newspapers "Haroun-al-Roosevelt".

See also[link]

• Waqifite Shia

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• al-Masudi, The Meadows of Gold, The Abbasids, transl. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, Kegan paul, London and New York, 1989
• al-Tabari "The History of al-Tabari" volume XXX "The 'Abbasid Caliphate in Equilibrium" transl. C.E. Bosworth, SUNY, Albany, 1989.
• Clot, André (1990). Harun Al-Rashid and the Age of a Thousand and One Nights. New Amsterdam Books. ISBN 0-941533-65-4. 
• Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, "Two Lives of Charlemagne," transl. Lewis Thorpe, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1977 (1969)
• John H. Haaren, Famous Men of the Middle Ages [1]
• William Muir, K.C.S.I., The Caliphate, its rise, decline, and fall [2]
• Theophanes, "The Chronicle of Theophanes," transl. Harry Turtledove, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1982
• Norwich, John J. (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. ISBN 0-394-53779-3. 
• Zabeth, Hyder Reza (1999). Landmarks of Mashhad. Alhoda UK. ISBN 964-444-221-0. 

The starting statement that he was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph that encompassed modern Iraq is very incomplete because abbaside caliphate during haroon's reign encompassed at least modern day Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and parts of northern Africa.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Harun al-Rashid

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Harun al-Rashid

• Brentjes, Sonja (2007). "Hārūn al‐Rashīd". In Thomas Hockey et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 474–5. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Harun_al-Rashid_BEA.htm.  (PDF version)
• Page at Islam on Line (Arabic)

Mizrahi Jews

Nouriel Roubini • Shai Agassi • Yossi Benayoun • Dalia Itzik • Harel Skaat
Total population
4,500,000–5,000,000 (estimate) citation needed
Regions with significant populations
Middle East & Africa  Israel 3,500,000–4,000,000 (including those of mixed ancestry)[1][2][3]  Iran 25,000  Egypt <400  Yemen <400  Iraq <100  Syria <100  South Africa <98  Bahrain <50  Azerbaijan 12,000 Central Asia, West Asia, South Asia & the Caucasus  Kazakhstan 15,000  Uzbekistan 12,000  India 9,148  Georgia 8,000  Kyrgyzstan 1,000  Armenia 500  Tajikistan 100 Americas, East Asia, Europe and Oceania  France 400,000  United States 250,000  Brazil 7,000  United Kingdom 7,000  Canada 3,522  Argentina 2,000  Australia 1,000  Belgium 800  Spain 701  Russia 200  Philippines 150  Japan 109  Turkey 100
Languages
Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Marathi, Manipuri, Judeo-Malayalam, Dzhidi, Judæo-Arabic, Georgian, Bukhori, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri and Judæo-Aramaic
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions and Arabs.

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Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim (Hebrew: מזרחים‎), also referred to as Adot HaMizrach (עֲדוֹת-הַמִּזְרָח) (Communities of the East; Mizrahi Hebrew: ʿAdot(h) Ha(m)Mizraḥ) 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 mostly Arab-ruled geographies and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority countries. This includes Jews from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Azerbaijan, Iran/Persia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kurdish areas, Northern and Eastern Sudan, as well as Ethiopia, and within and nearby Israel. 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.^[3]

History and usage[link]

"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).^[4] 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.^[5]

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

Other designations[link]

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[link]

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.^[6]

Post-1948 dispersal[link]

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 emigrated to Israel. Roughly half of Israeli Jews are of Mizrahi origin.^{[citation needed]}

Anti-Jewish actions by Arab governments in the 1950s and 1960s, 25,000 Mizrahi Jews from Egypt left 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 emigrated 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.^[7] 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[link]

This section requires expansion.

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.^[8] 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[link]

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.^[9] 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).^[10] It has been claimed that intermarriage does not tend to decrease ethnic differences in socio-economic status,^[11] however that does not apply to the children of inter-ethnic marriages.^[12]

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.^[13] Furthermore, the percentage of Mizrahim who seek a university education remains low compared to second-generation immigrant groups of Ashkenazi origin, such as Russians.^[14] According to a survey by the Adva Center,^[15] the average income of Ashkenazim was 36 percent higher than that of Mizrahim in 2004.^[16]

Notable Mizrahim[link]

Business people[link]

• 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 [1]
• 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[link]

• 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
• David Blumberg, Music Producer, Clarinetist (Father was of Bukharian descent)
• 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.^[17]
• Eyal Golan, Israel charm pop singer
• Zion Golan, Israeli singer (Yemenite descent)
• David Guetta, French musician (Moroccan 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)
• Saleh and Daoud Al-Kuwaity, Kuwaiti-born Iraqi musicians
• 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)
• Boaz Mauda, Israeli singer (Jewish Yemenite descent)
• Shiri Maimon, Israeli singer (Jewish Moroccan descent)

Medicine and therapy[link]

• Baruj Benacerraf - American scientist born in Venezuela, South America from a Moroccan Jewish family, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Yisrael Mordecai Safeek, American physician, healthcare executive, and author born in South America from a Mesopotamian Jewish family.
• Dr. Shalomim Y. HaLahawi, Licensed Integrative Naturopathic Physician, Diplomat of the American Association of Integrative Medicine, Medical researcher & inventor of Fetal Hemathal Rx, Author and Ordained Rabbi. Born of parents from Southwest Arabia(Dophar, Oman)and Northeast African Jewish family(Mt. Carmel, Israel)

Politicians and military[link]

• 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
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French economist and politician (Tunisian descent)
• Tamir Pardo, Director of the Mossad

Religious figures[link]

• 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
• Yitzhak Kaduri, renowned Mizrahi Haredi rabbi and kabbalist devoted life to Torah from Baghdad, lived to be 108

Sports and game players[link]

• Yossi Benayoun, Israeli football player at Arsenal 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[link]

• 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
• Bernard-Henri Lévy, French philosopher
• Pnina Motzafi-Haller, Israeli anthropologist

See also[link]

• List of notable Mizrahi Jews and Sephardi Jews in Israel
• Mizrahi Hebrew

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Ella Shohat, "The Invention of the Mizrahim," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 5-20
• Zaken, Mordechai (2007). Jewish Subjects and Their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan: A Study in Survival. Boston and Leiden: Brill. 

External links[link]

Organizations[link]

• 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)
• Ha' Yisrayli Torah Brith Yahad, Mizrahi Jewish Int'l Medical Humanitarian NGO recognized by the United Nations Civil Society and Economic Development Division {USA Based)

Articles[link]

• Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989; New Edition, London: I.B. Tauris, 2010).
• Ella Shohat, Le sionisme du point de vue de ses victimes juives: les juifs orientaux en Israel (first published in 1988, with a new introduction, La fabrique editions, Paris, 2006).
• Ella Shohat, Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006).
• Ella Shohat, "Rupture and Return: Zionist Discourse and the Study of Arab Jews," Social Text, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Summer, 2003), pp. 49-74
• Ella Shohat, "The Invention of the Mizrahim," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 5-20
• Ella Shohat, "The Narrative of the Nation and the Discourse of Modernization: The Case of the Mizrahim," Critique, (Spring, 1997), pp. 3-18
• Ella Shohat, "Rethinking Jews and Muslims: Quincentennial Reflections," Middle East Report, No. 178 (Sep.-Oct., 1992), pp. 25-29
• Ella Shohat, "Staging the Quincentenary: The Middle East and the Americas," Third Text (London) (Special issue on "The Wake of Utopia"), 21 (Winter 1992 93), pp. 95 105
• Ella Shohat, "Dislocated Identites: Reflection of an Arab Jew," Movement Research: Performance Journal #5 (Fall-Winter, 1992), p.8
• Ella Shohat, "Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Jewish Victims," Social Text, No. 19/20 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 1-35
• 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.
• Road From Damascus, Tablet Magazine
• [2] The Way, The Prophetic Messianic Voice, by Rabbi Shalomim Y. HaLahawi MD(AM),I-NMD, PsyD. An Introduction to Ancient Mizrahi Jewish beliefs & customs,464 pages [ulu Press, 2007]

Communities[link]

• 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)