A History of the Jews in Baghdad

by David Solomon Sassoon

Please note: The publication of this book has a typo on the cover for the author’s name.  It is the only paperback printed copy of this title currently available. The Museum felt the book, originally published in 1949, was a relevant addition to further the story related the Sassoons exhibition at The Jewish Museum despite this obvious error.

The book deals with the history of the Jews in Baghdad, from the first mention of the place in the Talmud until recent times, and contains additional chapters on customs and usages, superstitions and proverbs, and also chapters on the settlement of Bagdad Jews in India and the Far East. The work describes the internal history of the Jews in Baghdad their communal, social and intellectual life. The work bases itself almost exclusively on Jewish sources these include many manuscripts from the Sassoon collection used here for the first time. The author an eminent scholar, who worked with untiring zeal collecting documents on Jewish history and building up the famous Sassoon collection of manuscripts at Oxford University. We are fortunate to have a short history of the Jews in Baghdad from his pen, a milestone book which laid the foundation stone for future writers on the subject.

Paperback
256 pages