Kurdish- Jewish Kingdom of Adiabene

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The Stele of Harir Mountian This stele is situated in Harir Mountain 90km north east of Hawler. ,2 km from Harir itself. It is carved on a rock at a height of 50 meters with 2.5 meters in length. A picture of a standing man (fighter) appears on it, putting a conical hat on his head and wearing a long garment that looks like a trouser. He is holding a long spear with his left hand and has stretched his right arm out towards the front ( as he is hailing) .The way of sculpturing and the dressing show that the stele is from the Parthian era ( 139 BC-226 AD), representing Kurdish king Izatt III, king of Hidyab, the country to which Erbil stood as its base. He ordered that it should be careved to commemorate some of his victories in this territory. It is very similar to the relief of Mirquli in the Piramagron Mountain near sulaimania and the one near Amedia in Southern Kurdistan. (( Erbil Kannan Rashid Mufti Director general of Antiquities 1998) Menistry of Culture. Directorate General of Antiquities. )) The illustrious Kurdish royal house of Adiabene , was converted to Judaism in the course of the 1st century BC, its appears, a large number of Kurdish citizens in the kingdom ( see Irbil in Encyclopaedia Judaica). The name of the Kurdish king Monobazes ( related etymologically to the name of the ancient Mannaeans), his queen Helena, and his son and successor Izates ( derived from Yazata, angel), are preserved as the proselytes of his royal house. ( Ginzberg 1968, VI.412). In fact during the Roman conquest of Judea and Samaria (68-67 BCE), Kurdish Adiabene was the only country outside Israel that sent provisions and troops to the rescue of the besieged Galilee (Grayzel 1968, 163) - an inexplicable act if Adiabene was not already Jewish]. The Latinized term Adiabene is a corruption of the Kurdish tribal name Hadahaban or Hazawan/ Hazawand. This populous Kurdish tribe had arrived in central Kurdistan in the 3rd century BC from the southern Zagros. Some remnants of the Hadhabanis were still found in the southern Zagrous in the late medieval era . The Hadhabanis quickly established their political and military superemcy in the region, and took ancient Orbium as their capital, imparting for a time their own ethnic name to the city Arbela came to be known as Haza until the Sasanian conqueror of the kingdom, Ardashir I , renamed it after himself, Notar Artakhsher. Despite their eventural eclipse by the Sasanians in the 3rd century AD, the Hadhabais rose again in the 11th century, giving rise to the Ayyubid dynasty of king Saladin ( see Medieval History *Izady, The Kurds, 1992, Taylor & Francis. By the 4th century,Adiabene had become largely Christian, and the church records of this period are among the most valuable historical records, clarifying this period of Kurdish history ( see Judaism http://www.kurdistanica.com/?q=node/105 and Christianity http://www.kurdistanica.com/?q=node/97 ). The tombs of Biblical prophets like Nahum in Alikush, Jonah in Nabi Yunis (ancient Nineveh), Daniel in Kirkuk, Habakkuk in Tuisirkan, and Queen Esther and Mordechai in Hamadân, and several caves reportedly visited by Elijah are among the most important Jewish shrines in Kurdistan and are venerated by all Jews today. Source: -Izady, The Kurds, 1992, Taylor & Francis. -Rashid, Kanaan, Erbil, 1998, Hewler, Kurdistan. -Zammua, Dilshad, Subartu, 2009, Hawler, Kurdistan. -Edmons, Some Ancient Monuments on the Iraqi-Persian Boundry, Iraq,vol 28. -Baqir, Taha & Safer , Fauad, Guidance to the land of Civilazations,Baghdad,1966. .................................................................................. Further Readings and Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica, entries on Kurds and Irbil/Arbil; Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 5th cd. (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968); Jacob Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, vol. I (London, 1932); Yona Sabar, The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982); Paul Magnaretta, "A Note on Aspects of Social Life among the Jewish Kurds of Sanandaj, Iran," Jewish Journal of Sociology Xl.l (1969); Walter Fischel, "The Jews of Kurdistan," Commentary VIII.6 (1949); Andre Cuenca, "L'oeuvre de I'Aflance Israelite Universelle en Iran," in Les droits de I'education (Paris: UNESCO, 1960); Dina Feitelson, "Aspects of the Social Life of Kurdish Jews," Jewish Journal of Sociology 1.2 (1910); Walter Fischel, "The Jews of Kurdistan, a Hundred Years Ago," Jewish Social Studies (1944); Solomon Grayzel, A History of the Jews (New York: Mentor, 1968); Paul Kahle, The Cairo Geniza (Oxford, 1959); Jacob