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Bukharian Jews are an ethno-linguistic group (or “eda”, which is community in Hebrew), a part of the Jewish people that formed in Central Asia. Their native language is Judeo-Tajik, which at times has been known as “local-Jewish”, Yahudi, Bukhori, and sometimes considered a dialect of Tajik or Judeo-Persian languages. Bukharian Jews are the descendants of ancient Israelites, a part of whom were exiled after the destruction of the northern Israelite (722 BCE) and Judean (586 BCE) kingdoms, and also after the Roman conquest of the Hasmonean Jewish kingdom in 70 CE. These exiled Jews settled in Central Asia, which was the eastern periphery of the Persian Empire.
Presence of Jews in Central Asia and pre-Islamic Communities
Most likely, Jews first appear in Central Asia during the era of the Persian Achaemenid (559-330 BCE) and Arsacid Empires (248 BCE-224 CE). Primary sources of the Jewish presence in Central Asia do not exist at this time. However, there are analogous letters of the Jewish community in Mtskheta in Georgia, dating back to the Achaemenids in the 4th century BCE, serving as a reminder of the Jewish presence “in all of the Persian provinces”, as written in the biblical Book of Esther.
Israeli historian M.Zand hypothesizes that Jews settled in the Central Asian provinces of the Persian Empire during this period. Jews speaking the Parthian language came from Jerusalem in the ranks of the exiled, the Christian work Acts of the Apostles writes. A similar testimony can also be found in the Talmud, in the tractate Sanhedrin 106b.
The first primary account of Jews in Central Asia dates to the beginning of the 4th century CE. It is recalled in the Talmud by Rabbi Shmuel bar Bisna, a member of the Talmudic academy in Pumbeditha, who traveled to Margiana (present-day Merv, near Bairam-Ali in Turkmenistan) fearing that wine and alcohol produced by local Jews was not kosher. The presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on ossuaries (coffins containing bones) from the 5th and 6th centuries, uncovered between 1954 and 1956.
Islamic Period to the 16th Century
The Arab conquest of Central Asia lasted almost a hundred years, from the mid-600s to the 740s, and it was accompanied by the implantation of Islam as the dominant religion of the conquered territories. Despite Arab literature from this period that repeatedly mentioned Jews from this region who converted to Islam, the majority of the Jewish population remained faithful to the religion of their ancestors, becoming virtually the sole confessional group in the region that preserved its pre-Islamic faith.
Muslim law considered Jews as “People of the Book” and allowed them to hold on to their religion under Muslim rule, under condition of paying a higher tax and observing certain restrictive measures. Jews were required to wear distinctive clothing; synagogues could not be built higher than mosques, etc.
The most common occupations of the Jews, in addition to trade, were crafts: dyeing, tanning business, and embossing work. The dyeing of fabric into indigo blue was considered a specifically Jewish occupation. Jews also worked in construction, tailoring, baking, etc.
During the years of 1218 to 1220 there were devastating Mongol conquest by Genghis Khan, which resulted in formation of the Chingizid dynasty. Towards the end of the 14th century, Central Asia came under the control of Timur (Tamerlane), the founder of the Timurid dynasty. All of these up heavals, however, did not bring about the disappearance of the region’s Jewish communities, whose situation under Muslim rule remained stable.
