Bag-dad
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Baginsky, Benno
shaded by eight gigantic trees. The high priest Joshua (Zech. iii. 1) is said to have been buried here and, according to Teixeraand Benjamin the Second, the Jews are accustomed to make pilgrimages thither every month. The shrine is maintained by the contributions of the Jews in Bagdad and in India, and is used not only as a synagogue, but as a burying place for the rabbis. One of the latter had been buried there in the year 1889, and because of a dispute as to whether the property really belonged to the Jews or to the Mohammedans, a persecution of the former was set on foot, and the principal Jews of the city, including the chief rabbi, were imprisoned by direction of the governor. memorial on the subject was addressed to the marquis of Salisbury Oct. 25, 1889, on behalf of the Jewish Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, as a result of which the governor was removed. Other tombs similarly visited by the Jews of Bagdad are that of Ezra, near Ourna (Kurna), between Bagdad and Bassorah, and that of Daniel, near Hillah. In 1899 the Jews numbered 35,000 souls, with about 30 to 35 synagogues known by the name of "Torah." Each Torah had a hakam, a "mu'allim kabir" (senior teacher), and a "mu'allim saghir" (junior teacher). The Alliance Israelite Uni verselle founded a school for boys there in 1865, which in 1899 had 254 pupils; in 1895 the same body founded a school for girls which in 1899 had 132 pupils. There is also a Jewish apprentices' school fo the education of Bagdad boys along industrial lines. The study of English has been encouraged by a foundation made by Silas Sassoon, a member of the Sassoon family which has its origin in Bagdad, David Sassoon, the founder of the family, having been born there, 1793. During the last years of the nineteenth century a few Hebrew books have been printed in Bagdad, especially by Solomon Behor Husain; e.g., fnriB "ISD
A
JYlDlpn (the second part of Solomon Almoli's work), 1892; DVyi5 KE1D of Isaac Farhi the story of Esther (iriDK nvp), told in Arabic by Joseph al-Shamsani
of Sasshon Mordecai Moses; and rvyyo CDJ on the wonders which happened in Palestine, taken from the D^E'lT' ,-l5JK>- Of earlier works may be mentioned pnv niJIp ISD of David Salih Ya'kob, published by Rahamim, Reuben Mordecai & Co., 1867, and D^JJIB* "bwo "ISD. printed by Judah Moses
TVlS i"6nn
Joshua, 1874. Bibliography of
p. 85; J. J.
Benjamin
Popular belief declares this to be the almond-trees. tomb of the high priest Joshua mentioned in Zechariah
iii.
Haggai
i.
1, etc.
The Jews of Bagdad make
once a month. Distant a journey of two days and a half southward of Bagdad is Hilleh, where the ruins of ancient Babylon are shown, and near by is a well, called by the natives " Daniel's Well," into which, according to local tradition, DanNear the bank of the Euphrates iel was thrown. is Kabur Kepil, a village having a tomb which it is At the side of the said is that of the prophet Ezekiel. tomb are two ancient synagogues, one of wdiich contains a sacred scroll, which some persons claim was the property of the prophet, and others that of Anan, the founder of Karaism. This synagogue also pilgrimages to
it
The
contains a genizah.
village
is
said to contain
tombs of Zedekiah and other kings of Judah, and of Three hours' journey from the prophet Zephaniah. Bagdad, again toward the south, and not far from the Tigris, the tomb of Ezra the Scribe is shown, venerated equally by Jews and Arabs. It is covered
now
with inscriptions
illegible.]
M. Fe.
g.
BAGlS-IA VILIiE
Village in the canton Bagedepartment of Ain, Prance. It was inhabited by Jews in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and in 1331 they were divided into elder and
le-Chalet,
younger. Bibliography
Inventaire Sommaire des Archives Departementales. Cote d'Or, iii. 6740, 6748, 0749, 6750, 6753, 6755. I. L. G.
BAGI A
prominent Karaite family lived in Constantinople in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. The family name, which is variously written Badschi (Furst, "Geschichte des
Karaerthums," iii. 14), Pegi, Poki (Neubauer, " Aus der Petersburger Bibliothek," p. 55), is, according to Steinsclmeider("HebraischeBibliographie," xx. 94), derived from the Turkish "Bak" (pronounced "Bag"). The following members of the family are those best known Scholar; lived at Constantinople Elijah. Bagi He is in the first half of the seventeenth century. He was the also called Aphida or Aphda (&OSN). author of the following works; (1) "Hilkot Shehitah, " ritual laws concerning slaughtering of animals (2) " Biur Aseret Tkkarim, " a commentary on the ten " Miktab Eliarticles of belief of the Karaites (3)
'
In addition to the authorities quoted aboveTudela, Itinerary, ed. Asher, Index, s.v. Travels of Rabbi Petachla, ed. A. Beniseh, pp. 15, 25, 31, 81 G. Le Stranfre, Baghdad under the Alibam.de Caliphate, p. 150. Oxford, 1900; M. Streck, Die Alte Landschaft Babylunien naeh den Arabischen Oeographen, Leyden, 1900,
Benjamin
438
II.,
Eight Years in Asia and Africa,
pp. 109 ct seq., Hanover, 1859; W. Sehur, n"nn nunc, p. 7, Vienna, 1882 ; Morris Cohen, JeiiMli Home Life in Bagdad, in the Reports ol the Anglo-Jewish Association, 1880, p. 74, 1881, p. 71, 1883, p. 29, 1886, p. 88; compare also ibid. 1889, p. 18 (Cohen's articles have been reprinted in Allg. Zeit. des Judentfiums, xliv. 538 etseq.).
G.
yahu," selections of literary essays, letters, and poems. These three works are mentioned by Simha Luzki in his catalogue "Orah Zaddikim."
Isaac Bagi: Crimean scholar; lived ginning of the seventeenth century. tioned
by Luzki
Joseph,
(I.e.
at the be-
He
is
men-
21b).
ben Moses ha-Kohen Bagi
Turkish
scholar; lived at Constantinople at the end of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth.
He was
the author of the following works men-
[Bagdad and its vicinity possess a certain number large mosque, of antiquities of Jewish interest.
tioned
consecrated to the memory of el-Kader, called the Great. According to local Jewish tradition this is none other than R. Jose ha-Galili. One hour's journey from the city, there is a mausoleum surrounded by eight
the assertion of many Rabbinites that the Karaites are a remainder of the Sadducees; (2)"Iggeret" (Let-
A
containing a tomb, a holy marabout,
is
Abd
by Luzki:
ful City),
ter),
(1)
"Kiryah Ne'emanah"
an apology for Karaism,
(Faith-
in refutation of
a decision on a marriage question;
(3)
"Keter
of Priesthood), six dissertations on various subjects; (4) " Shulhan Haberim " (Table of
Kehuna " (Crown
