Cajal Dynasty To The Pahlavi Dynasty In Iran Jewish Research (1794-1979)

This paper mainly analyses the condition of Iranian Jews in Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasty of Iran in 1794-1979.Iranian Jew is the oldest piece of the Jews' diaspora,already had history of more than 2000 years up to now. Babylonian Exile in 586B.C. start the history of Iranian Jews and Jews' diaspora to the whole world.From then on,Iranian Jews experienced Persia Empire,Hellenizatic Age,Parthia Empire and Sassanid Empire before Islam emerged,and Arab Empire,Mongolia and Timur Empire,Safavid Dynasty and so on after Islam emerged.In 1794,they walked into Qajar Dynasty.In 1925,they walked into Pahlavi Dynasty.The Islam Republic was established after the 1979 Iranian revolution.Its history has continued to this day and still goes on.All along these more than 2000 years,with the changemant of the management to Jews of every dynasty and the growth and decline of the factor of religion,society,and so on,the living behavior of Iranian Jews hanged in the balance,their scale was small and large.Because it covers a large extent in space and time and the deta is not plenty,this paper mainly analyses the condition of Iranian Jews in Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasty on the base of a overview on their living condition of Iranian Jews from their emerging to Qajar Dynasty and using the research result of domestic and foreign scholars,trying to see it clearly and generally.This paper consists of five chapters:Section One overviews the condition of Iranian Jews before Qajar Dynasty.This period can be divided into two periods demarcated by the emergement of Islam.The former period includes Babylonian Exile,Persia Empire,Hellenizatic Age,Parthia Empire and Sassanid Empire;the later includes Arab Empire,Il-Khanid Dynasty, Timur Empire, Safavid Dynasty and Nadir Dynasty.Section Two introduce the condition of Iranian Jews in Qajar Dynasty.After its founding in 1794, Qajar Dynasty ruled with a rod of iron.The clergy of Shiah obtained sovereign power which is equal to royalty.Thus the Jews underwent grievous persecutions.They were poor generally,were poor in culture and education level.Many Jews were forced to conversed to Islam and became Marranos.However,up until the later stage of Qajar Dynasty(from 1870s),the anti-semitism situation of Iran relax somewhat as a result of the gradual improvement of Iranian economic,politic and social condition,the begainning of attention and support from western Jews,who exerted pressure on Iran government,and the enhance of Qajars'control force to the country.Their economic,cultural and educational condition improved in a certain extent.During the 1905-1911 Constitutionalism Revolution of Iran,Jews won liberation to a great degree,and some of them emigrated from Jews' ghetto.However,the idea of "nasty" about Jews in people's mind is rooted and it's hard to be eradicated at once.The mind and activity of Anti-Semitism surrvived.Section Three discusses the condition of Iranian Jews in Pahlavi Dynasty.Reza Khan(1925-1941),who was the founder of Pahlavi Dynasty,practised comprehensive modernized reform which was characterized by secularization and nationalization.He improved the condition of Jews,Armenians and Zoroastrians,and ignored "nasty".The living condition of Jews improved greatly.But in the later period of Reza Khan's rule,his nationalism idea was influenced greatly by Germany's and turn to Anti-Semitism.Mohammad Reza Pahlavi(1941-1979),who is the second king of Pahlavi Dynasty,also practised secularization and modernization in Iran.He carried on his father's early days'toleration plicy to Jews.The condition of Iranian Jews was greatly improved and reached the height during White revolution(1963-1979),which was "the golden age of Iranian Jews".In this period,the Jews almost completely enjoyed cultural and religional autonomy.Their economy developed unprecedentedly.They nearly enjoyed equal politic rights with Muslim.In 1948,Israel was founded.Its relation with Iran developed well.It urged many Jews immigrated from Iran,which influenced Iran greatly.The people moved away are mostly poor,and the people leaved behind are mostly rich.Thus,the overall status of Jewish communities improved at some extent.The conclusion part give an analysis of the characters of the management to Jews of Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasty,and compare their Anti-Semitism with Christian European's.As it were,whether in Christian European or in Iran of Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasty,the condition of Jews varied with place and time.In some places and some time,Jews lived quietly,richly,safely and comfortably.But in other places and other time,Jews were killed,exiled,fored to converse to Islam or became slaves.Finally,the appendix gives a statistics of the population of Iranian Jews in Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasty,whose object is to get a intuitionistic understand about them.