Journal of Seven Heavens

Journal of Seven Heavens

The Jews of Parthian Babylonia

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Hadi Valipour
Abstract
Tis paper concerns the state of our knowledge about Babylonian Jewry in the Parthian
era.1 One cannot underestimate our task. By the time the Arsacid dynasty was replaced by
the Sasanians, it had existed for over half a millennium, and had ruled directly over the
Babylonian Jews for some 350 years. Its impact on the Jews must undoubtedly have been
great. And yet our knowledge of this period is remarkably limited. Tis leads to the principal purport of this paper. Even as our sources are meager and the potential signifcance of
each source is thereby enhanced, it is incumbent upon the historian to carefully appraise
the quality of each and every source. I shall review the main sources of our knowledge on
this subject2 and probe the kind of information that can be gleaned from them as well as
note their limitations. I shall address, in turn, the contemporary non-rabbinic sources on
the Jews of Parthian Babylonia; the contemporary rabbinic sources; and the Sasanian rabbinic sources.
Keywords
Jews
Babylon
Parthians
Sasanians
Hakham
Talmud
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 03 June 2023
  • Revise Date 25 June 2023
  • Accept Date 09 July 2023