BOKHARA AND BALKH.

Mullah Pinehas the elder, who is Chief Rabbi of the community at Bokhara, called on me with the rest of the Rabbies. He informs me, that the ancient Rabbis of Bokhara asserted, that Bokhara is the Habor, and Balkh the Halah of 2 Kings xvii. 6; but that they lost their written accounts in the time of Tshingis Khan. On my arrival at Balkh, I was told by the Mussulman Mullahs, collected together in the room of Aishaan Khoja, that Balkh had been built by a son of Adam, and its first name had been Hanah, and afterwards Halah; though later writers designate it as Balakh, or Balkh. These united accounts, of the Mussulman Mullahs on the one hand, and of the Jews on the other, serve to shew, not only that Bokhara and Balkh are the same as Halah and Habor, but likewise (as the Jews of Balkh and Samarcand assert) that Toorkestaun must be the land of Nod, and Balkh the situation where Nod stood. (Genesis iv. 17.)

Is it not very remarkable, that the Jews in the land of Nod, where Cain dwelt, the Jews I say, who slew the antitype of Abel, Jesus Christ, should wear a mark by order of the King of Bokhara, as Cain of old wore a mark; in order that no Mussulman may give them the Salaam, i. e. Peace.*

Thou, my nation! thou art a fugitive and a vagabond on earth, even in the land of Nod, (which word means fugitive;) an exile and an outcast from on high. But the blood of Jesus Christ cries more powerfully, and better things, than the blood of Abel; and he soon will make darkness light before thee, and crooked things straight: Jesus Christ shall bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness, out of the prison-house. And though now it is prohibited, by order of the King of Bokhara, to give you the Salaam, you shall soon dwell in that city, where thy officers shall be peace, and thy exactors righteousness, governed by Jesus Christ, the King of Jerusalem!

JEWS OF BOKHARA.

The Jews of Bokhara know only thus much of their history: the Children of Israel, they say, emigrated from Babylon to divers parts of Persia, and settled especially at Sabzawar, two days journey from Meshed. Long before the time of Tshingis Khan, and in his time, the Jews of Sabzawar were carried to Balkh and Samarcand. When Samarcand fell in ruins, a great number of them went to Bokhara, where there were already many, who originally had come from Babylon, and of whom many had emigrated to China, which they call Tsheen Patsheen, and with whom they soon ceased to have any communication at all; but they assert, that they had taken their genealogies with them to China. The Jews of Bokhara, and the surrounding places, Shahr-Sabz, Balkh, Sa

* A friend of mine at Malta gave however a most excellent interpretation of "the sign" given to Cain: namely, God assured him by a miracle, that nobody should kill him.

marcand, Toshkand and Kokan, fell into great ignorance, forgot their laws, rites and customs, and did eat the meat of the Mussulmans indiscriminately. There was no Rabbi among them, who was able to teach them the Law of Moses and the Prophets, or who was able to tell them what was clean and unclean, until Joseph Mooghrebee, the African, or, as the Jews of Bokhara pronounce his name, Joseph Maarabee from Tituan, arrived at Bokhara. As I know the satisfaction with which many of my nation trace the history and genealogy of their celebrated Rabbis, I shall give a detailed account of the descent and connexions of Rabbi Joseph Mooghrebee.

RABBI JOSEPH MOOGHREBEE OF TITUAN.

Rabbi Joseph of Tituan, of the family of Maimon, was the son of Rabbi Moshe Maimon; his wife, while he remained at Tituan, (for it will be seen that he had another at Bokhara,) was called Sarah, and their son, born at Tituan, Jehudah: his elder brother remained at Tituan; another brother, Rabbi Shlome Maimon, went to Egypt; Baruch Maimon, another of his brothers, came to Soleemanea, where, refusing to comply with the desire of the King's daughter, he was put to death. Rabbi Joseph Mooghrebee who came to Bokhara, was the disciple of Jehudah Ephraim Monzoyego, a relation of Jehudah Koriath. He went from Tituan to Jerusalem, thence to Bagdad, and from thence to Bokhara; and arriving in the latter place he preached: "Woe is me, Oh my brethren! to find you in such a condition, that you have forgotten the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and the words of the wise men!" He refused to eat of their meat for six months, during which time he taught them to kill animals according to the law of the Jews, ordered them to perform ablution, induced them to send a man to Constantinople, Wilna, Leghorn and Capusta (in Poland), the seat of Jews residing in that country, for the purpose of purchasing talmudical books; he sent for a Sopher, who wrote for them the Law of Moses upon parchment; he then took under his instruction several young men, and thus made of Bokhara, as they expressed themselves, a little Jerusalem. He married at Bokhara a second time, though his wife at Tituan was still alive; he spent there 61 years, lived to the age of eighty-one, and died lamented by every Jew of Bokhara, by whom he is styled the 'Light in Israel.' His more initiated disciples however, tell some anecdotes about him, which makes me doubt his orthodoxy: for instance, he told them that it was no sin to drink milk immediately after meat, provided that none of the unlearned Jews were present; that the religion of Moses may be divided into two parts: the one part to be taught to all, and another part reserved for the wise men. Rabbi Pinehas Ben Simha, a young man of extraordinary talents, tells me, that his

*

* Sopher, is a fine-writer, who writes the five books of Moses upon parchment, which are deposited in the ark of the synagogue, called the 'Holy Ark;' every sabbath day they read from it a certain portion, called a 'Parasha."

continued prayer had been: "Oh Lord, King of the worlds, when will the time come, that the followers of Jesus will take possession of these countries!" But still he had the bigotry to destroy the New Testament, which came here a few years ago from Orenburg. He knew mathematics and astronomy, and was an enthusiastic freemason, as it appears. Rabbi Pinehas Ben Simha is his son-in-law, and a man of most extraordinary talent; he is now convinced of the truth of the Gospel, and several others with him. Rabbi Joseph Mooghrebee's sons, Abraham and Isaac, are not endowed with the talents of their father; they are bigotted, and proud of being the sons of Rabbi Joseph Mooghrebee. He was considered by the Mussulmans as a great Mullah, and he proved to them, that the Jews were possessors of the revealed book of Moses, which saved them from slavery.

As Reuben of Meshed, my landlord, was generally drunk, I left his house, which he very unwillingly acceded to, from fear of Goosh-Bekee; but I told him, that I would inform Goosh-Bekee that I did so of my own accord: I went to live in the caravan-seray of the Affghauns, belonging to Mullah Bedr-Addeen.

Mullah Joab Ben Mullah Babay, a Jew, born at Meshed, called on me; he was for a long time Hakem, i. e. Judge at Arandajah, in the province of Dere Kase Khan in Mooltan. The name of the Prince in that country, under whom he was employed, is Mahmood Khan Belooje Pehrawee. I bought from him a translation of the Pentateuch into Persian, with the original written over every word in Arabic letters; it was translated by order of Nadir-Shah. I sent it as a present to the British and Foreign Bible Society.

I proclaimed the truth of the Gospel to this feeling Jew; he wept, but the rest contradicted. I sang with him in Hebrew the following words, found in the Jewish liturgy:

Our Father, our King, we have sinned before thy face; Our Father, our King, there is no King unto us but Thou; Our Father, our King, accomplish it for thy name's sake. Mullah Joab was well acquainted with Mr. Morecroft at Cabool.

JEWS OF SAMARCAND.

Several Jews came to me from Samarcand, which is only 35 English miles from Bokhara. The Jews from Sabzawar settled there before they came to Bokhara. Rabbi Abraham Galeb is chief Rabbi at Samarcand. Rabbi Awaz Badal Halafda is Nasi at Samarcand. Isaac Cashee from Meshed resides there; he is a Sooffee after the manner of the Jews of Meshed, and I learn that he has a great many disciples: even Jews from Bokhara visit him to hear him read the poems of Hafiz, to which he gives an allegorical meaning.

JEWS FROM KOKAN.

Several Jews from Kokan came to me; there are about 100 Jews there, but only one of them is married, the rest are merchants from Bokhara.

POPULATION OF THE JEWS IN TOORKESTAUN.

Bokhara, 2000 families; Samarcand, 300 families; Balkh, 100 families; Shahr-Sabz, 300 families; Kokan, 105 souls; Orgauntsh, 8 souls: in all, 2700 families, or 13,600 souls.

The name of the Rabbi at Shahr-Sabz is Rabbi Shemuel Ben Hananiah Cohen, and the name of their Nasi, (Prince,) is Mullah David Boy.

ter.

HISTORY OF MOHAMMED, AS CURRENT AMONG THE JEWS OF BOKHARA. Mohammed was the son of a rich citizen of Mecca, Abd-Ullah by name. His mother Emina was a Jewess of dissolute characHe was born in the city of Yetrib, which after this took the name of Medinet Al-Nabi, i. e. the City of the Prophet. Mohammed was born six months after the death of his father. As his mother was a Jewess, he was instructed in the Law of Moses; and after her death, he was instructed by Christians; which accounts for his religion being a mixture of both. He was after this made slave by the Arabs; they sold him to a rich merchant, who treated him with the greatest kindness, and sent him with camels laden with merchandise to Egypt, Assyria and Palestine; on which journies he had opportunity of conversing about religion with Jews and Christians. Having observed that he was suspected by his master of having robbed him, he ran away, and joined a gang of robbers, of whom he became a chieftain. He was a man of a terrible figure, with a thundering voice. He after this contrived that poison was administered to his former master, and he married his widow. But as he had been affected with epileptic fits, his wife desired to be divorced. First he pretended that wine drinking was the reason of those fits, and therefore left off the use of wine. But as this sickness still continued, he said to his wife, that the angel Gabriel was coming to him to teach him a new religion, which caused him so much terror, that all his strength failed him at such moments. And always after the fits were over, he was heard saying, "In the name of the most merciful and pitiful God." On account of those fits, he abstained from wine, as well as from eating pork. He taught a dove to take food from his ear, which he had filled with bread; and he said to the people, that the Holy Spirit inspired him by means of the dove. He then composed the Koran, with the assistance of a Monk and a Jew. He likewise accustomed a bullock to eat food out of his hand; he bound the Koran between its horns, and summoned the people; and whilst he was preaching, the bullock was sent among the astonished people, who perceived a book between his horns: he then took it off from its horns, and said, that it had come from heaven.

ISAIAH FROM JERUSALEM.

Some years ago, Isaiah, a Polish Jew from Jerusalem, came to Bokhara; he informed the Jews there that the Arabs had been called the Hagarim before the time of Mohammed, which means the descendants of Hagar; but Mohammed called them Sarahim, i. e.

descendants of Sarah; on which account they were also called Sa

racens.

MULLAH JOAB'S OBSERVATION.

Mullah Joab made the following beautiful observation: "We Jews have reason to rejoice that we are scattered abroad among all nations, and that we are a proverb and a byword among all nations; for we perceive by it the exact fulfilment of prophecy, saying, "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other;' which encourages us firmly to believe, that the rest of the prophecies, respecting the future privileges of Israel, will not disappoint us; for it is said, 'And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time, to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." " I then observed, "And thus you can see, my brethren, that likewise those prophecies must have been fulfilled, that The Son of Man must have been cut off, but not for himself,' and that he was to be 'despised and rejected of men,' and that only your looking to him will be the way to your redemption, when the Lord shall take from you the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh; for only by having such a heart turned to God, you will be able to enjoy the privilege of being again citizens of Jerusalem."

Mullah Joab expounded the words in Isaiah xi. 12, "And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth," in the following manner: outcast, in Hebrew means cast to one place; and therefore they must be found in one country of the earth gathered together. PD dispersed, implies a being scattered in divers countries.

JEWISH RENEGADOES AT BOKHARA.

There are at Bokhara about 300 families of Jews turned to Mohammedanism; the Osbek do not intermarry with them, and they therefore take the daughters of the above described Gholoom, or slaves of Persians. They are employed as spies by Government.

MR. MORECROFT.

It is the general opinion of the Jews of Bokhara, that Morecroft was poisoned by order of the late King of Bokhara, Shah Hydar; but the Jews and Mussulmans of Balkh, and Goosh-Bekee deny it. The King observed to Goosh-Bekee, “We must give to Joseph Wolff permission to travel through our country, in order that we may get rid of the bad name which is cast upon us by the death of Morecroft."

SYNAGOGUES AT BOKHARA.

The four synagogues at Bokhara are in a deplorable state: small, ruined, and only one of them fit for a place of worship.