The Stateless Central Asian Merchant: The Life of Haim Aghajan Abraham Based on his Journal 1897-1986

 

Dahlia Abraham-Klein's book about her Central Asian Jewish grandfather is provides interesting insight into the Kaifeng Jews.  They call their leaders Mullahs*, as did the Jews of Kaifeng; this community was extremely adaptive and mobile, making a living in the tasks that presenting themselves, and spreading risk where they could.  This community of Central Asian Jews realized that conditions in one place would not remain favorable.  So they learned languages, spread their families to different cities and even countries, so if conditions deteriorated in one place, they could move to another.  They married other families in similar circumstances, strengthening bonds and adding to communal safety.  

One of the things that struck me about this account is who far afield Central Asian merchants, and their families, would and could travel.  These Persian speaking Jews also traveled and settled in China, with the same spirit of travel and creative disruption that modern Central Asian Jews employed.

* interestingly, Central Asian Jews sometimes travel to the Holy Land and were labeled hajji.  Of course, they did not go to Mecca, but Jerusalem.  It seems the term hajj was used more in the generic sense of the Arabic word: The term stems from the Arabic verb ḥajja ("to set out" or "to make the pilgrimage") and serves as an honorable title or prefix for one who has fulfilled this religious obligation.  Did the Jews of Kaifeng engage in such pilgrimages? There is no evidence that they did.  The Kaifeng community has been viewed as static.  Jews might have visited Kaifeng in small numbers, but no Jews left.  Is this true?  What about the title shaliach, messenger, found next to several men in the Memorial Book?