Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T16:11:23.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Who Would be Mine for the Day!”: Irano-Judaic Marriage Customs in Late Antiquity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Haleh Emrani
Haleh Emrani*
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Zoroastrians of Babylonia had long lived alongside an important Jewish community whose presence in the region can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (c. 550‒330 BCE). Such long coexistence should justify an interest in the examination of cultural sharing between these two religious groups of Ērānšahr; however, it is just recently that the question of the level of cultural contact between them has become a more important source of inquiry and research by scholars of Iranian history, religious studies and Late Antiquity. The exchanges between the Jews and Zoroastrians of the Sasanian period and their impact on the character of the Babylonian Talmud have been the subject of a number of recent studies, notably by Shaul Shaked, Yaakov Elman, Geoffrey Herman and Shai Segunda, among others. The aim of this article is to contribute to these efforts by exploring the roots of some distinctly Sasanian marriage customs that transcended religious lines and were shared by the rabbinic Jews and Zoroastrians of Ērānšahr.

Keywords

SasanianLate AntiquityMarriage CustomsZoroastrianBabylonianJewishTemporary MarriageIranian
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 2: Sasanian Iran and Beyond: A Special Volume in Honour of Michael G. Morony and His Contributions to Late Antique History , March 2016 , pp. 217 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article is based on a paper presented at Jewish Iranian Legacy: Life, Politics and Culture, at the University of California in Irvine on October 3, 2010. All translations from Middle Persian and Syriac are mine. In cases where translations provided by other scholars differ significantly from those presented, references are provided to the alternate interpretations. Translations of the Talmudic passages are based on Isidore Epstein, Soncino Babylonian Talmud. London: Soncino Press.

References

Ahdut, Eliyahu. “The Position of the Jewish Woman in Babylon During the Period of the Talmud.” PhD diss., Hebrew University, 1999.Google Scholar
Berlin, Adele, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Bundahishn or Knowledge from the Zand from Sacred Books of the East. Translated by West, E. W. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1885.Google Scholar
Chabot, Jean Baptiste. Synodicon Orientale ou recueil des synodes Nestoriens. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1902.Google Scholar
Dhabhar, Bamanji Nasarvanji. The Persian Rivayats of Hormazyar Framarz and Others. Bombay: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, 1932.Google Scholar
Elman, Yaakov. “The Babylonian Talmud in its Historical Context.” In Printing The Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein, edited by Mintz, Sharon and Goldstein, Gabriel M. New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2005 19–28.Google Scholar
Elman, Yaakov. “Marriage and Marital Property in Rabbinic and Sasanian Law.” In Rabbinic Law in its Roman and Near Eastern Context, edited by Hezser, Catherine. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003 227–276.Google Scholar
Elman, Yaakov. “Middle Persian Culture and Babylonian Sages: Accommodation and Resistance in the Shaping of Rabbinic Legal Tradition.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature, edited by Fonrobert, C. E. and Jaffee, M. S. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 165–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elman, Yaakov. “Returnable Gifts in Rabbinic and Sasanian Law.” In Irano-Judaica VI, edited by Shaked, Shaul and Netzer, Amnon. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2008 139–184.Google Scholar
Elman, Yaakov. “The Socioeconomics of Babylonian Heresy.” In Studies in Mediaeval Halakhah in Honor of Stephen M. Passamaneck, edited by Gray, Alyssa and Jackson, Bernard. Liverpool: Deborah Charles, 2007 80–127.Google Scholar
Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva and Jaffee, Martin S. The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gafni, Isaiah M. “The Institution of Marriage in Rabbinic Times.” In The Jewish Family: Metaphor and Memory, edited by Kraemer, David 13‒30. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Herman, Geoffrey, “Ahasuerus, the Former Stable-Master of Belshazzar, and the Wicked Alexander of Macedon: Two Parallels Between the Babylonian Talmud and Persian Sources.” AJS Review 29, no. 2, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, Geoffrey. “Persia in Light of the Babylonian Talmud: Echoes of Contemporary Society and Politics: hargbed and bidaxš,” The Talmud in Its Iranian Context, ed. Bakhos, Carol and Shayegan, Rahim. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010, 61–84.Google Scholar
Herman, Geoffrey. “The Story of Rav Kahana (BT Baba Qamma 117a-b) in Light of Armeno-Persian Sources.” In Irano-Judaica VI : Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture Throughout the Ages, edited by Shaked, Shaul and Netzer, Amnon. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, 2008, 53–87.Google Scholar
Hjerrild, Bodil. Studies in Zoroastrian Family Law: A Comparative Analysis. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003 15–19.Google Scholar
Hjerrild, Bodil. “Succession and Kinship in the Late Sasanian Era.” In Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europæa, edited by Panaino, Antonio and Piras, Andrea. Milan: Mimesis, 2006 479–484.Google Scholar
Kraeling, Carl H. The synagogue. Augmented ed. New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1979.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, D. N. A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Macuch, Maria. Rechtskasuistik und Gerichtspraxis zu Beginn des Siebenten Jahrhunderts in Iran : Die Rechtssamlung des Farroḫmard i Wahrāmān (Legal cases and court practices at the beginning of the seventh century in Iran. The legal collection of Farrohmard i Wahrāmān). Iranica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993.Google Scholar
Macuch, Maria. Das sasanidische Rechtsbuch “Mātakdān I hazār dātistān” (Teil II) (The Sasanian Law Book). Wiesbaden: Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft: Kommissionsverlag, F. Steiner, 1981.Google Scholar
Macuch, Maria. “The Function of Temporary Marriage in the Context of Sasanian Family Law.” In Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europæa, edited by Panaino, Antonio and Piras, Andrea. Milan: Mimesis, 2006 585–598.Google Scholar
Macuch, Maria. “The Pahlavi Model Marriage Contract in the Light of Sasanian Family Law.” In Iranian Languages and Texts from Iran and Turan: Ronald E. Emmerick Memorial Volume, edited by Macuch, Maria Maggi, Mauro and Sundermann, Werner. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 2008 183–204.Google Scholar
Modi, J. J. Mâdigân-I-Hazâr Dâdîstân. A Photozincographed Facimile of a Ms. Belonging to the Mânockji Limji Hoshang Hâtariâ Library in the Zarthoshti Anǰuman Âtashbeharâm. Poona: Trustees of the Parsee Punchayet, 1901.Google Scholar
Morony, Michael G. Iraq after the Muslim conquest, Princeton studies on the Near East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Neusner, Jacob. Talmudic Judaism in Sasanian Babylonia: Essays and Studies. Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity. Leiden: Brill, 1976.Google Scholar
Perikhanian, A. G. The Book of a Thousand Judgements: A Sasanian Law-Book. Translated by Garsoïan, Nina G. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda: Bibliotheca Persica, 1997.Google Scholar
Perikhanian, A. G. “On Some Pahlavi Legal Terms.” In W. B. Henning Memorial Volume, edited by Boyce, Mary and Gershevitch, Ilya 349‒357. London: Lund Humphries, 1970.Google Scholar
Perikhanian, A. G. “Iranian Society and Law,” The Cambridge History of Iran: the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, ed. Yarshater, E. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 627–680.Google Scholar
Satlow, Michael L. Jewish Marriage in Antiquity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Secunda, Shai. “Talmudic Text and Iranian Context: On the Development of Two Talmudic Narratives (b. Nid. 20b; b. San. 37a),” Association for Jewish Studies Review 33 2009 40–70.Google Scholar
Secunda, Shai. “The Sasanian ‘Stam’ Orality and the Composition of Babylonian Rabbinic and Zoroastrian Legal Literature,” The Talmud in Its Iranian Context, ed. Bakhos, Carol and Shayegan, Rahim. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010 140–60.Google Scholar
Shaked, Shaul. “Zoroastrian Polemics against Jews in the Sasanian and Early Islamic Period,” Irano-Judaica II: Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture throughout the Ages. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi institute, 1990.Google Scholar
Shaked, Shaul. “Notes on the Pahlavi Amulet and Sasanian Courts of Law,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute n.s. 7 1993.Google Scholar
Shaked, Shaul. “Between Iranian and Aramaic: Iranian Words concerning Food in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, with Some Notes on the Aramaic Heterograms in Iranian,” Irano-Judaica. Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture throughout the Ages, vol. 5. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi institute, 2003.Google Scholar
Shaked, “‘No Talking During a Meal’: Zoroastrian Themes in the Babylonian Talmud,” The Talmud in Its Iranian Context, ed. Bakhos, Carol and Shayegan, Rahim. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010 161–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaki, Mansour. “The Concept of Obligated Successorship in the Mādiyān Ī Hazār Dādistān.” In Hommages et Opera Minora Monumentum H. S. Nyberg 227‒242. Leiden: Acta Iranica, 1975.Google Scholar
Shaki, Mansour. “The Sassanian Matrimonial Relations,” Sad dar-e nathr. Archiv Orientální 39 1971 322–245.Google Scholar
Tertullian. Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage. Translated by Le Saint, William P., Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation. New York: Newman Press, 1951.Google Scholar
Unvala Ervad Manockji Rustamji. Darab Hormazyar’s Rivayat v. 1. Bombay: The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, 1932.Google Scholar
Weisberg, Dvora E. Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism. Hbi Series on Jewish Women. 1st. ed. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press; Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar