Trudy Gold
The Radhanites: International Merchants and Traders: Beginnings of the Jews in China

Trudy Gold - The Radhanites: International Merchants and Traders: Beginnings of the Jews in China

- Okay, what I’ve decided to do, as you know that the next big tranche of lectures, we will be giving, which starts in about a week and a half, is actually France. And with France it’s going to be our main thrust for about three months and that will include our day lectures that are the 5:30 lectures and some of the evening, but of course we’ll be continuing with the politics, et cetera. But for a long time, I’ve been fascinated by the byways of Jewish history, and many of you will know, and I hope Lionel and Holter is listening, that Lionel used to organise tours to China when we were involved with the LJCC. And I think one of the highlights of my life was going with 55 students, to the whole… Oh, we went on a tour over China and we went to the University of Nanjing and the University also of Jinan, where we met students from the Jewish Studies Faculty, who sang “Shalom Aleichem,” I think it’s one of the highlights of my life. So what I’m going to do today, I’m going to be talking about the Radhanites, who are the most extraordinary group of Jewish merchants, who were really the link between the East and the West, and they were the first to actually go to the kingdom of Khazaria, were they responsible for the conversion of Khazaria? We’re going to talk about that, and they are the ones who went to the end of the Silk Route, which of course was China.

So what does the word Radhan mean? Most of our information actually from them, comes from Arab sources, but the Radhanites are incredibly important in history because not only were they the merchants who traded between the East and the West, they also were the ones who, having Jewish contacts all along the route, brought information from community to community and obviously created new communities, and what does the word mean? Again, because it’s early mediaeval history, there are controversies, the majority of people think it comes from a Persian word, ra, which means the way, and dhan, which mean one who knows. So the Radhanites were those who knew the way. There is another theory that they come from the Rhone Valley, and there is yet another theory that they came from a ancient region of what is now Iraq called Iraqdhan, but that one isn’t given much credence, the one that’s given much credence is the Persian word. So let’s have a look at their trade routes. Well, that is by the way, let’s have a look at the trade routes now. If you could , there are no pictures of them, so Judith, if you go to that, that is actually the best relief is just all we have on them, but if you have a look on your map, if you expand it, you can see some of the trade routes. It appears, and this is very much verified by the Muslim writer who writes about it, a man called Ibn Khordadbeh who writes about them, as far as he’s concerned, they start in France, some backtrack to under Luthia, just follow the blue routes, and then there are three or four routes. Sometimes they went by sea from a French port around what is now Marseille, and then you can see they go all the way overland to China or have a look at some of the other routes, where they cross the Mediterranean and they go down the Red Sea, and then they go to India.

You see that route? And there is another route that takes them via Constantinople, there are four major trading routes. And I cannot estimate just how important these merchants were because in the ends, they are going to be the linkage between the empires of the West and the empires of the East. Now, they’re not just merchants, they’re the bringers of news, and they are granted privileges by many of the people whose lands they cross because they are absolutely essential to trade. They create, you can see from that picture, and remember, look at the period when they’re meant to be in… it’s about 150 years when they’re at their height, and for 150 years, the trade between the East and the West is dominated by this very interesting group of Jewish traders. Now, what were, according to this Arabic geographer, a man called Ibn Khordadbeh, who lived from about 820 to 913, he tells us what they dealt in. They crossed India, as I said, their roots terminate in China, which they called Al Sindh, they brought back spices, exotic goods, camphor, aloe, wood, cinnamon, musk, they also bring back the precious jewels from the East, from India, and how is it that they are a group of Jewish merchants? Well, they either create or link up with Jewish communities along the whole of the Silk Route. You can make the case that the Radhanites might well have been involved in the earliest Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe. Because if you think about it, look at those trade routes, work out how long it took to go on those journeys, look, you’re talking about a couple of years.

They’re going to have to stop, they’re going to have to… they’re going to have to trade with the people on-route, they’re also going to have to rest, and they’re going to have to provision themselves. And really, they are, if you like, the liaison between the Jewish communities all along the route. They bring news, marriage contracts were negotiated, and don’t forget that the Jewish communities, and later on today I’m going to talk about the Jewish community in China itself, it gave them unrivalled access to the goods of the East because what these Radhanites had with the Jewish merchants, wherever they are on with the Jewish settlers, wherever they are on the Silk Routes or on whatever trade route they took, they had a common religion and a common culture, and also they had at least one language in common. And also we know that they created a worldwide system of commercial credit because obviously, they could credit on communities who could credit on other communities, now, if you think about it, the Jews exiled from their homeland around 2,000 years ago, particularly with the rise of the Christian world and the problems, to put it mildly, that the Jews had with Christened, what happens is that they are forced out of most trades and professions. You can’t be part of the Christian guilds, you can’t own land, et cetera, et cetera. So what is left for Jews is trading and money lending and this particular group are incredibly important. And we also know from the Arabic writer, that they had many, many languages. He talks about the languages they spoke, he talks about Arabic, he talks about Latin, of course, Hebrew, but some of them also knew European languages, so it’s incredibly important.

So you have this sophisticated group of merchants, travelling from east to west, west to east, linking up as it were, all the Jewish communities on-route, bringing back news and also warning of dangers in certain situations because can you imagine what Europe was like at this stage? Now let’s talk a little bit about the main source, which is Ibn Khordadbeh, can we go on the slide, please? Yes, now unfortunately, there is no picture of him but so what I’ve given you, is that his sultan was actually Khalif al-Ma'mun, and we do have pictures of him and he is actually the sultan who is ascribed to be the partner to Scheherazade in Arabian Nights. And in his book, he tells of the languages, he actually quotes, I’m quoting from his volume, “Who journey from west to east to west, partly on land, partly by sea.” Now, he also says every spice to Europe comes through them and they are the mediators. Now, we know a little bit about this man, we know he grew up in Baghdad and he was the son of Abdullah who had converted to Islam. You’ve got to remember, this is just the birth of Islam, Islam as a modern… Islam is the baby of the monotheistic religions, it dates itself from 622 of the common era and it becomes one of the most proselytising religions in the world, within 100 years of Muhammad’s death, it creates the largest land empire the world has ever seen. So we know about him, he grew up in Baghdad, we also know that he had a very cultivated education because the Abbasids who ruled in Baghdad, who had… they converted to Islam, they were an incredibly cultured group of people.

So at a time when Europe is really in the Dark Ages, you have Islam and Judaism far in advance culturally. And we also know that he had a very good musical education and he was also appointed to head up the Intelligence Service, first in the Province of Jibal and then in Baghdad. And this is when he writes his book, it’s called the “Book of the Roads of the Kingdoms.” And he’s really doing it for his master, remember, he is in charge of their Intelligence Service, the English didn’t create one, reign of Elizabeth I. So he describes the various peoples who are within his master’s empire, because that’s quite vast. He also describes the peoples of lands, cultures of Southern Asia, and he also talks about the… he talks about the peoples of Malaysia and Java, he talks about what is now Korea, they’re all referred to in this incredible work. And he actually was one of the earliest people to record the Viking raids because the Vikings were also trading with the East. And he talks about a group called the Rus, who traded in the Black Sea and the Caspian, and I’m quoting, “They transport their wares by camel as far as Baghdad.” So he’s an incredible source for information about this particular period of history, and he talk in the roads to the kingdom, he expands on what the Radhanites, the Jewish merchants export. He talks about the rare silks, the sables, the mongoose furs, all sorts of leather, swords, and this is what the people in the Eastern wear and he brings back, what does he bring back from the West?

Well, he brings back for the West, remember, he’s bringing back the exotic fruits, the corals, a lot of gemstones, they bring back spices, healing ointments, musk, which is a perfume that evidently is extracted from deer’s gland, so he’s very detailed about the kind of trade. He also tells a wonderful story and remember that his sultan is the man who is enraptured by Scheherazade, of course, a wonderful favour of that time, but also gives you a notion of how advanced the civilization was. Now, a word on women, it has to be said, the Radhanites also traded in slaves. Particularly bringing back Slavic women, pagan Slavic women to the courts of the Muslim rulers, and particularly to Iberia, where these fair skin Slavic women were of course very desired in the Bahrain. Look, by today’s standard it’s absolutely disgusting but that was one of the commodities, tragically, people were one of the commodities that merchants traded with, well, all the way up and some say that there are still, and of course we know that tragically, child slavery still exists. So let me tell you now the story of Isaac, who was a Radhanite merchant. He was actually sent by Charles Martel, by Charlemagne, I beg your pardon, as an interpreter to the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, and of course the legendary character. And evidently, according to the “Book of the Roads,” there’s a huge festive reception and he sends Charlemagne an incredible present, an enormous white elephant.

Now, Isaac was the… Isaac is the translator, this is the Radhanite, so you see, they’re not just traders, they’re also emissaries for various kingdoms, and in this case, he’s an interpreter and he’s instructed to care for it. And when they… after about a long, long journey with the elephant, they arrive at Charlemagne’s palace in Aachen, thousands came to see the elephant, who he had… the elephant had been trained to eat from Isaac’s hands. So we know that they’re very important in diplomatic missions, we also know about them from another source. Again, this source is written after the end of the Radhanites, but I think it’s important to mention it, and that’s Benjamin of Tudela because I wanted to give you, look, what was it that Luis Navia said? The tragedy of Jewish history, it’s too much martyrology. But actually, there have been some incredibly exciting periods of Jewish history, the Radhanites are adventurers, they are the merchant adventurers who set up this incredible network and spread Jewish communities really throughout the whole of the Silk Route, some of the communities would already have been there, but we know that they expanded and created far many communities. So I wanted to include in this Benjamin of Tudela because he’s so important as a scholar, as a writer, as a travel writer, and he goes East a century before Marco Polo. So let’s, can we move on to Benjamin of Tudela, if you don’t mind, Judy?

These are his travels, these are the travels of Benjamin of Tudela. Of course, he comes from the Spanish Peninsula, he doesn’t go as far as China, but the point is he’s going to write about other peoples he’s heard about. And we know that he was born in Castile, we know that he visits Europe and Africa, and we also know that like the Radhanites, he had a vast knowledge of languages. His book was originally written in Hebrew, and it was later translated into Latin. It became very important in the Renaissance, Renaissance, the rebirth of learning, people were fascinated and so it was translated into Latin and then into many European languages. It inspired the scholars of the Renaissance and don’t forget also the journey to the new world, the invention of the of the Sexton, which meant that people would travel the oceans again. So anyone who’d been a great traveller, what he wrote about was very important. What was the purpose of his journey? It seems that he might have been on a trip to the land of Israel. We know that he sets out on his journey in 1165, obviously we think there was also a commercial motive because he does show a very strong interest in coral. So we could presuppose, he’s a gen merchant and he also writes a very good descriptions of all the Jewish communities he meets on-route. And was this also to provide Jews a guide as to whose hospitality could be found? Because the dates he’s writing 1130 to 1163, this is after the first Crusade.

There’s a huge upswing of anti-Jewish feeling promoted by church further and the attempt to win back the Holy Land from the Muslims. Consequently, he is letting Jewish communities know where there are safe places. And he also wanted them to know where they could find hospitality, where they could have their Shabbat, where they could find their kosher food. And he also evaluates the places, he begins, we know he begins in Zaragoza, those of you who love travelling, he went to Barcelona, Girona, France, he sails from Marseilles, then to Italy, he goes to Girona, Lucca, Pisa, Rome, and then he goes to Greece and Constantinople, Asia, in Asia, and just think about the dates, this is in… he’s doing this in the 1160s, 1150s, I beg your pardon, he visited Syria, Lebanon and Baghdad. Persia, he goes to the Arabian Peninsula, Khaybar, you see the Khaybar? Khaybar was of course the Black Stone, which was worshipped before Islam, and then he returns to Spain. He also, and this is I find absolutely fascinating, he describes a significant Jewish community in Ethiopia. He visited Mosul, he gave a very wonderful description of Nineveh, in all, this man on his travels, visited 300 cities, Susa, Sura, Pumbedita, where he also gathered information. And it’s there that he got far more information about the Jews of China and Tibet. Now, he also gave us our first accounts of a very strange tribe called the Al-Hashishin. Now, of course, and they were the hemp smokers, and that’s where the word assassin came from, they were the assassins.

And so his book is written, “The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela.” And his emphasis really is on Jews and on their leadership, and the customs, the various different customs of the Jews in the places he travels to, and he’s more interested in urban life than the countryside, he also talks about the life of the non-Jewish population, he talks a lot about the good relationship between Jews and Muslims. Well, he would, wouldn’t he? He’s living on the Muslim rule and he thinks that Muslim rule is far more favourable to the Jews than Christianity, which of course it was. Look, this wonderful trade route does begin to fail and it fails, and why does it become unstable? It becomes unstable because there’s a lot of change of dynasties including Khazaria, and also there’s a change in China. So along with that, you see the rise of the Italian city-states, the Foggers, Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi, all have mercantile ability but the Jewish communities in Central Asia, along the old Silk Route still continue to flourish. And in fact, Benjamin of Tudela, he heard of Samarkand, which of course in today is Pakistan, and he describes a community of 50,000 Jews. And this is information he gathers when he’s travelling, remember, he never made it there, but he does say that amongst them are the rich and wise men. So it’s really the fall of Khazaria and the fall of the dynasty in China, which is going to finish off the wonderful story of the Radhanites.

But I really wanted to bring it to your attention because this is on one level, we talk about Jewish scholarship and Jewish and we talk about scholarship, we talk about the importance of the written word, but don’t forget, you also had this incredible period that lasted nearly 200 years, where you had these extraordinary merchants, what a journey when they took off probably away for at least two years? They must have been very, very tough characters. They practised their Judaism, and we know that, and we know how important it was to stop at Jewish settlements, which could have called… which of course could cover their needs. But now, in this long tale of extraordinary stories, I want to turn to Khazaria if we could turn to the next slide, if you don’t mind, Judy. Ah, now this is a fascinating tale and there’s a huge amount of controversy about Khazaria. Now, you see where it is, it’s a huge kingdom, it covers, of course, today, what is Hungary, it covers what is part of Hungary, what is part of the Ukraine, you can see how big it is? It borders the Byzantine Empire, it borders the Euros, now, this is a very controversial subject and scholars have had very strong blows about the story of Khazaria, so what I’m going to try and do is go through the middle.

The word Khazaria, it’s meant to be a Turkic word, so we think that the Khazarians were originally of Turkish origin, and what it seems to have been, is they are a conglomerate of nomads from the steppes, from the Russian steppes. But after about 630, gradually the tribes come together and an embryonic state begins to form. Now, in fact, we know that gradually it becomes important, how do we know this? Because the status, the Sassani Shahr, there’s a wonderful document where he talks about the three phones, the Sassanate Shahr talks about his throne, he talks about the throne of the King of China, the King of be Byzantine and the King of Khazaria. We also know that it was a jewel kingship, the governance, according to Arabic sources, there was a lesser king and a greater king. And you’ll know from your trade routes, that this was an area that the Radhanites would cross. Now, we also know that sometime in the 8th century, either the rulers or the whole kingdom converted to Judaism up until, most historians believe that it was probably the aristocracy and that the ordinary folk, still followed the old pagan Turkish, the old pagan Turkic religion. But it does seem that certainly a section of society, converted to Judaism. And we also know this from a man called Ibn Rustah, who was a 10th century Persian explorer, I can’t find any bas-relief of him, I’m afraid, he was and we know that… we know that he wrote a lot about Khazaria and also from his accounts of travels, he was even aware of the British Isles, and we know that he travelled to Novgorod with the Rus and he had a very good secondhand knowledge of the Khazars.

At the peak of the empire, it had a very… it was very sophisticated, it had a very centralised fiscal administration and a large standing army, and it exacted tribute to about 25 different nations or tribes that inhabited the lands between the Caucusus, the Euros, and the Ukrainian steppes. So you see that vast area of land and the kings of Khazaria are exacting tribute. And it’s estimated that there are about 25 ethnic groups living as Khazarian, and they’re made up into two groups, the White Khazars and the Black Khazars and that is about the colour of their skin. Their economy, it seems they had a very stable, they had a standing army to keep the country safe, but they had a very stable economy, and a lot of it came from the import-export of foreign wears and also the huge revenues that they derived from taxing, from the taxes they were paid for transit. So this is where, I think a very plausible explanation, is that in fact it was probably the Radhanites who were responsible for the conversion. We also know that they had a very sound domestic economy, extensive agriculture, the fishing of the Volgas, also sheep, we know they reared sheep, so it’s a very sophisticated, interesting group of people in control and they furnished slaves for the Muslim courts. And unfortunately, that is where the Radhanites came in. So the trade disputes in their kingdom were handled by a commercial tribunal of seven judges. We know two for each of the monotheistic inhabitants, we know that there were Christians living in their area, there are Jews and there are Muslims.

Look where they are, this is what they control. And we know that there were two Jewish judges, two Christian judges, two Muslim judges, and one judge for the pagans. But we also know that in the end, the empire collapses and it’s from the Chronicle of Rus that we find out about the collapse of Khazaria and about the vanquishing of them by Rus. And it’s associated with a man, with the Rus commander, of course the Russian commander centred on Kiev, the nightmare of the political situation that we find ourselves in Eastern Europe, this is where the notion of the ghastly Putin’s notion of the centrality of Ukraine to Russia, because Rus was centred on Kiev. And there’s a real story about him because he was a pagan, he is the prince of Novgorod, and he is the grand Prince of Kiev and ruler of Kiev and Rus and he converts to Christianity. There is a story, the same story is told with Khazaria that the three monotheistic religions told their tale and the rulers of Khazaria chose Judaism. What happened with Rus was different. The Rus and what happened was when the Jews put their case, now this is a story, but it is in the Russian Chronicles, he rejected Judaism because… and this is what he says in the Chronicles, “As you lost Jerusalem, God has rejected you.” So what he did was to settle on Eastern Christianity, which of course made things much more difficult for the Jews. And the campaign of Rus completely devastated Khazaria, and we know that many of them fled, much of the population would’ve been absorbed into the conquerors and into the surrounding tribes.

But let’s talk a bit more about Judaism. There is a letter from Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who was the foreign secretary to Abd al-Rahman III, the Caliph of Cordoba. Those of you who’ve been to wonderful Cordoba, this is the height of the Empire of Cordoba and Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the great Jewish scholar and doctor and also foreign minister to the Caliph, there is a letter between him and Joseph Khagan, the King of Khazaria. And according to this, Abraham ibn Daud of Toledo, in his “Book of Traditions,” Rabbinic students from Khazaria studied in Spain. And this is what it says, “You’ll find the communities of Israel spread a wall broad where live Khazar peoples who have become proselytes. The Khazar king, Joseph, sent a letter to Hasdai ibn Shaput and informed him that he and all his people followed the Rabbinic faith. We have seen descendants in Toledo and they have told us the remnants of them is of the Rabbinic belief.” Now, the problem is there isn’t much archaeological evidence, it’s an incredibly charged topic, and of course the other issue is the whole notion that eastern European Jewry, perhaps are descended from Khazaria. Now, the argument against that I think is a very strong argument, because Polish Jewry, remember Jews begin moving in huge numbers into Poland, 12, 1300s, it’s the language, they spoke as sort of middle German. And I don’t think there is any example in history where a minority language becomes the language of the majority, but it’s an interesting tale and it’s still quite a controversial story, but in everything that I understand, the conversion would probably have happened because of the Radhanites.

Now, of course, where was the end of the Silk Route? And let us now move to Sino, China. Now this is a quotation I’m using from Professor Xu Xin, and he is the professor of Jewish studies at the University of Nanjing, he is a man, and if Lionel’s listening, Lionel and I worked with him a lot, and not only did we take tours, please don’t forget that we ran, and I’ve mentioned this to you before, we ran seminars in China on Jewish history and culture and of course on Holocaust studies, and this was through IHRA, I-H-R-A, but what was fascinating, is how the Chinese today are fascinated by the Jews. Now, I’m going to read you Xu Xin’s analysis in his book on “The Jews of Kaifeng,” “As the biggest and most important empire of the Orient, China has an uninterrupted history going back nearly 5,000 years. Its tremendous cultural influence is not due simply to the size of its population or the extent of its territory, but to the remarkable continuity of Chinese civilization. In contrast, the Western cultural stream chronicles the rise and fall of successive nations that each in turn make contributions and then receded into comparative obscurity. Equally important, just as the Jewish cultural tradition has been of world historical significance in certain spheres, so to Chinese civilization, so to Chinese civilization has had a strong impact on the development of world civilization.

For centuries, the Chinese viewed themselves as more culturally advanced than their neighbours, an island of civilization in the midst of a sea of barbarians.” That is a message, this is from a professor of history at the University of Nanjing. And that is something we… if we forget it, we are in peril. I’ve had so many conversations with Chinese academics and diplomats and an absolute extraordinary conversation with a Chinese diplomat, who actually said, “I like the Jews, they’ve never hurt China.” Even though we’re a tiny spec in the world’s population, in fact, when you measure our world population of about 14 million, when the Chinese measure their population, their margin of error is actually 14 million. But the point is, in many ways there’s a problem here because the Chinese have taken on the stereotype that all Jews are rich and clever. And in the English Language Bookshop in Shanghai, when we were last there, there was a picture of Einstein and my colleague Jerry Gotel, he’d learnt Mandarin, he was made a professor there, professor of Jewish history in China, fascinating, and we went in there and he spoke to the manager of the bookshop, because we wanted to look at the English language books. And he pointed to a picture of Einstein and he said, “Einstein, youtai, youtai, clever people,” youtai means Jew. So you’ve got this fascinating sort of back picture of the Jews in China. Anyway, can we go on, please? Here you have, here you have a… this is of course Xi'an. So during the Tang Dynasty 618 to 907, this is the height of the Tang. And remember the Radhanites collapse, read one of the other reasons the Radhanites collapsed, was the Tang Dynasty fell, so while Europe is still in the Dark Ages, I’ll never forget this, London in the year 1000, well, think what London was like, they just about laid the cornerstone of Westminster Abbey, 40,000 people living in wooden houses.

Imagine what this city, the centre of the Tang Dynasty, it was the centre of the Royal house and it’s the cultural capital of East Asia, and it’s by far the largest city in the world, it’s estimated over a million people lived in this city around the year 900. And we also, we know a lot about it, it was a very open society, that goes back to the Han Dynasty of 206 BCE, to 220 CE, for about 500 years, that it’s actually the Han Dynasty, who had sent invoice to the many lands, welcomed foreign visitors, welcomed traders, welcomed diplomats, and had lots of communication with the outside world. But it’s really during the expansion of the Tang Dynasty, and China during this expansion, never forget, it reached the borders of Iran. And also don’t forget the Turkish incursions into Central Asia. There were a huge number of embassies in Xi'an, there are diplomats, there are merchants, there are students and missionaries. The one thing that I’ve discovered the Chinese hated, were missionaries. One ambassador said to me, “It is so rude.” It’s fascinating, they have a completely different welcome shun, whereas Christianity wanted to save the souls, that’s why they converted, to the Chinese, it was a total imposition. And don’t forget, these embassies did bring with them foreign worship, Islam, Christianity, and all sorts of pagan religions. It didn’t upset the Chinese.

The Chinese government tolerated them, China was strong, China was big, and China tolerated it, and actually, this prosperity, which lasts for hundreds of years, it lasts for nearly 400 years, it attracted visitors. And then many, many people came as visitors, they stayed there and there was a large Muslim presence during the Tang Dentistry, it was a real, real melting pot. And all foreign settlers were designated Chinese minorities, and it was believed that they actually could be very useful and enrich China, and China, I would suggest to you that at this stage, China was the major, it was the major power in civilization. And of course the major channel of communication was the Silk Road. And who was involved on the Silk Route? The Radhanites, so it’s transcontinental trade, which is in the main, in the hands of these Jewish merchants, who up, this is the end of the Silk Route, or the beginning from the Chinese point of view. And if you think about the power of silk, I mean the main attraction of China was always silk. It goes back to the first century of the common era when Julius Caesar appeared at the theatre in a Chinese silk toga. It led to a huge demand of the silks and the gems and the spices of China. And so before the opening of the sea routes at the end of the Middle Ages, the Silk Route is what links China with the central and Western Asia as far as the Eastern Mediterranean.

And so for the West, Xi'an is at the end of the route, and to China, Xi'an was at the beginning of the route. And I think it’s interesting if you look at how the Chinese see the world or how the West sees the world, and of course we know that in the 13th century, Marco Polo accompanied his father to China along the Sylvan, I beg your pardon, along the northern Silk Route, Constantinople, then he crossed Khazaria, but it was no longer Khazaria, south via where there was a large Jewish community and Samarkand, remember, we learned that already from Benjamin of Tudela, there were 50,000 Jews there. So as according to the Babylonian Talmud, we know that Jews have settled in cities on the route to China as early as 4th century. So these are the communities not created by the Radhanites, but linked by the Radhanites, who also created more communities. And then there’s a Chinese document of the 9th century, it notes, quote again, “Jewish merchants spoke many languages.” Again, the Radhanites, and these are the languages they list, Arabic, Persian, Latin, French, Spanish and Slavic. And we also know that at this stage, the Chinese used bilingual coins with Chinese inscriptions on one side and submitting letters on the other side. Now, as all… but the problem was, the 10th century was a bad time in Chinese history. Can we go on to the… can we go on though? Here you see the Song Dynasty, and unfortunately the Tang Dynasty falls and the country… Can we go back to it? Can you go back to that one? And the country splits into five states and not for five years was the… not for 50 years was China reunified, and it’s going to be unified properly under the Song Dynasty, who officially come to power in 960 and they link it. And what you are now going to see, and they are going to create a new capital and that capital is Kaifeng. So it’s reunited and they have a commercial and agricultural revolution, they manage to stabilise society, they want to revive trade with the other countries and the emperors again, you have had this period of our anarchy, but it’s back again, and again you’ve got this openness towards foreigners, so many foreigners now decide to settle in Chinese cities.

And all sorts of inventions in ship building and navigation meant that they could export goods by sea from the Coast of Africa. And of course the most important city was the capital, Kaifeng. So it’s situated in Henan Province, it’s a few miles south of the Yellow River, which is the second largest river. And since 560, they had built a grand canal, which gave easy access. And so it’s a terribly important trading centre. Let’s have a description, please. “Kaifeng is surrounded by level land in all directions. It is a convergence of roads which connect it with the Chu River to the south and the Han River to the west, and the Qi River to the east. Neither great mountain rages nor big rivers isolate it from surrounding regions, in fact it’s communications are aided. These waterways team with boats, the bow of one touching the stem of another, whilst men, carts and animals join the roads in an endless flow from every corner of the country,” and that is from a Chinese poet, 1049 to 1100, Quin Fuen, who is a poet of the Song Dynasty. So that tries to give, I’m trying to give you a notion of a very teaming agricultural commercial centre, which is vibrant and full of life. And we know that Jews begin to migrate to Kaifeng, when it’s this highly centralised feudal power. It’s technically very, very advanced. It’s a very polished society, deeply rooted in Confucianism, the civil service, their civil service was several hundred years old and it selected officials on the basis of examinations, it’s very well established. So Jews at first, they come as traders, but then they settle there. Why did they settle in Kaifeng?

We haven’t, I think for the reasons I’ve told you, we know that there was an inscription erected in… They arrive, we know that they arrive in the Song Dynasty and can we have a look at the steely, please? Can you go on? Oh, these are, of course, I just brought these in to show you, these of course were the Chinese representatives of the Mongols, who were a constant scourge of the Chinese. Can you go on, please, Judy? And here you see a steely. Now this is a steely which announces the arrival, this is actually erected in 1489, but it tells on the inscription when they arrive. They talk about how they arrived during the Song Dynasty, and another description of 1512 states that there were Jews settling there as far back as the Han Dynasty, and there are other… there are many other inscriptions which deal with the entry of Judaism at the time, and not necessarily with the time, but I think it makes most sense that the settling happens here at this time. So the majority of scholars believe that the Chinese, the Jews arrive in China during the Song Dynasty and that they find a… they actually found a community in Kaifeng because… and we know that this community is going to go on and on and on, and we can now date certain things. We know that the first synagogue was established in 1163, we know that during the Ming Dynasty, it’s the golden age of the Jewish community, they’re very integrated in society, we know that there was quite a lot of assimilation, we know that Jews became involved in public affairs, we also know that they didn’t use much Hebrew in their services and their ritual incorporated both Jewish and Confucian thought, but we do know that they practised circumcision, they wore blue skull caps to distinguish them from the Muslims who wore white skull caps, we also know that they kept their own variety of Shabbat and the festivals, and their own variations of the dietary laws, they were called by the citizens of the city, the sect who plucks out the sinews.

And the other source we have is the most peculiar source, it’s actually from an Italian Jesuit called Matteo Ricci, who came to Kaifeng looking for Christians. And of course he’s very happy, he thinks he’s found people who worship and then to his horror, he discovers in fact that they are Jewish. We also know that in 1642, there’s a flooding of the Yellow River, which destroys much of the city and kills half the community, it kills much of the population, and it was not rebuilt until 1663. But China by the 18th century, China is in decline. The overland routes of trade have lost their importance, and the new rulers of the Qing dynasty in the 18th, 19th centuries, they become increasingly xenophobic. Now why do they become increasingly xenophobic? Well, it’s obvious, because the Western powers are all eye in China. They want the goods of China, they want the land and also they want to Christianize the Chinese. So in 1725, the missionaries are expelled, in 1860, we know that the synagogue was dismantled, and when it all started up again, because now there is an Institute of Jewish Studies, and what is fascinating, there are now about 200 people in Kaifeng, who consider themselves Jews that they are the descendants of the community, obviously what happened was the majority of Jews in China assimilated. Now, when we were there, which was quite a few years ago now in Chinese in terms of political developments, it was through a period of liberalism. I mean, remember we were over there teaching and some of our PhD, some of Jerry’s PhD students were studying aspects of the time when they were as all sorts of fascinating extracts of Jewish history and of course Holocaust studies, which I’ve mentioned to you before, because they wanted to understand about the Nanjing Massacre in terms of how the Jews have dealt with the show up.

But unfortunately, there is less liberalisation now, and not only that, you could always talk about Jewish history and civilization, mistakes were made as far as the Chinese authorities were concerned, and the teaching about Judaism. But the point is, that’s not the end of the story of China and not next time, but quite in, I think it’s Saturday week, I’m going to be talking about rescuers from the East to Chinese and the Japanese, and I’m going to be talking about how Shanghai became a great haven in China, there was another Jewish community in Harbin, these were Jews escaping the pogroms into Manchuria, so there is an interesting history of the Jews in China, certainly not the horror that they faced in the West and an interesting but what I find fascinating, you could actually make the case that the Jews of China, the Jews of Kaifeng, the Jews of Xi'an happened to the majority of them, China was good to them, so they assimilated. But anyway, I wanted to go off track today and I wanted to talk about what I think is a very exhilarating period of history, and interesting what I call the byways of Jewish history, and once in a while, either myself or one of my colleagues will be doing this to sort of add a bit of spice to the mix. So let’s have a look at the questions, let me have a look.

Q&A and Comments:

Oh, I think what’s happened, a lot of you have told me where you come from. Toronto, Naples, Canada, London, Dallas, Canada, Canada, New York, Montreal, San Francisco, Seattle, Gilford, my goodness, this is fabulous. I’m going on, I’m going on and on and on because I want to get questions.

Q: Would we consider doing a series on the Jews of Baghdad and Lapel?

A: We will be doing more Sephardi history and I will be turning to my colleague, Lyn Julius for that.

Yes, Monica, Lyn Julius has a website, Lyn is coming in to give some lectures. When we are dealing with France, she will be dealing with the Jews of Algeria and also the expulsion from the Arab countries.

Yes, Ina’s saying how brave they must have been to travel.

Q: “What was the language the traders used as they travelled?”

A: That’s a very, very good point. Now, they would’ve from what we know, how did they communicate with the other communities, they would’ve used Hebrew with the other communities, depends where they came from. From Spain, we know that in Spain, Jews used after the Arab conquest, they used Arabic. They certainly spoke, we know that the Radhanites, most of them spoke six or seven languages.

I know about this book, Bernard, thank you very much. Yes, they spoke Hebrew, yes, yeah.

Jewish carpets, this is from Adrian, “They could stop at the local synagogues as an introduction to local Jewish traders.” Yes, of course, Adrian, you are totally right. If you think about it, they’ve got the common language and they’ve got the common culture, you turn up at the synagogue on a Shabbat and you already have the contact.

Q: This is from Shelly, “Did an individual trade… did an individual trader have had different wives and families in many places they travelled?”

A: Who knows, that’s a very difficult question to answer. Up until polygamy was practised, it was Gershom… It was Rabbi Gershom at Mytes in 1100, who forbade polygamy in the Jewish world. But we know that in certain of the Islamic countries, Jews practised polygamy.

Q: “You say converted to Islam, from what religion?”

A: Ah, this is fascinating. When Islam went on the march, Jews and Christians were considered people of the book, they didn’t have to be converted by the sword, pagans had to be converted. The Pagans, yes, you answered it, Michelle.

Q: “Is today this book available to us now?”

A: Yes, it is.

Michelle says, “Benjamin of Tudela is a mediaeval TripAdvisor.” I do not know anyone, maybe Wendy actually, who’s travelled to 300 cities. That’s an interesting question. Is there anyone on lockdown, who’s actually been to 300 cities? That was Benjamin of Tudela.

Nicks is telling us, “At the British Library exhibition of the Silk Route, there was a scroll in Persian written in Hebrew letters,” yeah.

Oh, this is lovely, Adrian’s telling us, “Jewish traders speaking Hebrew would go to the synagogue to get introduction to local merchants, have a document of surety from their local rabbi, which is the origin of the check.” Yes, yeah. “The Arabs to this day,” this is from Soul, “Referred to Jews as Kayabas, where they were farming particularly dates at a very fertile oasis at the time of Muhammad.” Yes, of course there were three Jewish tribes, weren’t there, in Mecca.

Q: Now, this is lovely from Soul, “Can you imagine how many marriages they arranged of Jews between the communities?”

A: Yeah, it’s one way of getting rid of troublesome children, isn’t it? The Jewish community in Ethiopia is not a surprise. The Ram Ram’s brother from similar time period, travelled in the same fashion, but to the far East before he died on the ship in a great storm, I think.“ Thank you very much, Rose.

This is from Adrian, "Vasco da Gama made the sea route to India, which is more profitable, safer and quicker than the overland.” Yes, of course, that destroyed the trade, didn’t it? The overland trade. Frankly, if you were travelling though, it’s a more interesting way of travelling. Benjamin, they would’ve travelled…

Q: Ira asked a good question, “Did Benjamin of Tudela and other merchants travel alone or groups of people to carry goods in a ?”

A: Of course they would’ve travelled in groups, it would not have been safe otherwise. If you think of the… if you think of the caravans, the great caravans with the camels, and think of how tribesmen, they could be attacked by all sorts of people, so they had to go in numbers.

This is from Myrna, “According to Ruth Goertz, a Canadian historian, China was very accepting of the Jews who concentrated in Kaifeng and have a thriving population for many years until intermarriage diluted the population. They were tolerated because they didn’t proselytise. I believe she authored a book on the history of Kaifeng.” Yes, there are, Myrna, some very good books on Kaifeng, and there’s also… Yeah, now the point is, the Jews do not proselytise, that is a very important point. That’s one of the reasons the Chinese have a better notion of Jews than they do of Christians and Muslims, because they hate proselytization. They think that… they have a pretty strong sense of their own civilization.

Q: “Where is the map of Khazaria from?”

A: Asks Eve, I will, I think, it’s not a Martin Gilbert map, I think my colleague picked it up for me, I will check for you.

Q: “Would you explain how currency work? Would you explain how…”

A: I think a lot of it would’ve been done in barter, but also gold, gold coins, coins, coins. Linda is from Israel.

“Professor Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv wrote the book, "The Invention of the Jewish People,” in which he claimed all Ashkenazi Jews and Israelis are descended from Khazar convents,“ yes, this is terribly controversial. And there was a… Oh, who was the writer who wrote "The Thirteenth”?

Arthur Koestler wrote “The Thirteenth Tribe,” very few historians take that on. It’s an interesting idea. Professor Xu Xing sounds like he’s from Xuping, sorry if I misspelt that.

“Sand uses this theory to deny the legitimacy of Zionism.” Oh, don’t let us go down that route, what a pity?

This is Boris, “My grandparents were in China in 1941 when they left Germany, their names engraved. My younger daughter visited a few years ago, my eldest daughter mentioned her book, "Epitaph of No Words,”“ oh, Boris, that’s so interesting. Now let me… what I’m going to be doing, I think Sunday week, I’m going to be talking, when I talk about Sugihara, I’m going to be talking about Shanghai. And of course Shanghai, part of it was an open city and many Austrian and German Jews made it to Shanghai. So I’ll be talking about that and of course it’s a fascinating story and there are films made on it now.

This is from Joy, "One of my sons was born with a mole on his body, the paediatrician I consulted, that was a sign he descended from the Khazars. He was an expert in Jewish history. The mole disappeared, my son now lives in China, speaks Mandarin, runs a large electronic business,” well, that’s an extraordinary tale. I don’t understand how the paediatrician said he was a descendant from the Khazars, look, we don’t even know if the whole population converted or just the aristocracy. Because of language and customs, it’s far more unlikely that the Ashkenazi Jews descended from the Jews of Germany.

Q: What occupations did the Jews of Kaifeng practise?

A: Some of them were traders, some of them merchants, traders, but they also went into all other… some in agriculture, much wider because they weren’t… In the Christian world, Jews were circumscribed in what they could go into.

Joy, “Last bit, he was an active member of the Habad in Chenza.” You know, Habad is unbelievable. I meet, whenever I used to travel in the far distant corners of the world, there was always Habad. When we toured in Donetsk Petros in the Ukraine, that terrible area which is so rubbish now, we were there one year and we were… the head of the joint was a rabbi who was the Habad rabbi in Donetsk. And they’re very active, they’re an extraordinary bunch of people, never forget though, Shneur Zalman of Liadi who created them what he said. Do you remember he followed the Russian Army at the time of Napoleon’s invasion, and he said, “I would rather my people suffer and be persecuted under the Czars, than live in peace under Napoleon because Napoleon will be the end of the Jewish people.”

Steven, yes, not just so, yes, of course, pepper, horse, spice, I didn’t mention the explosives, I’m sorry, I should have done, “And don’t forget, pepper is Chinese, spice,” yes, thank you for that, Steven.

Q: Sally from Denver. “Are you going to cover the role of the Sassoon family in the building of Shanghai?”

A: We are going to have a lecture on the Sassoon family, hopefully by the man who wrote the latest book.

Q: “Are there any Chinese who’ve…?”

A: Yes, the Jews in Kaifeng we met some of them, yes. Zena’s from New Hampshire.

Oh, Carol’s saying, “And this is for you Wendy, these lectures made during COVID made COVID manageable,” Thank you, Los Gatos, California. Oh, I’ve had an invitation from Serena to Colorado, Chicago.

Q: “Did women travel?”

A: Not on the Silk Route. Unfortunately, women would’ve travelled as Slavic women, as slaves, no. When you look at the role of women, it’s a completely different story from Seattle.

Oh, this is from Barbara, “I live in Jerusalem on Tudela Street. I’ve also published a guide to Jerusalem in Mandarin.” Yes, the Chinese are now great travellers, aren’t they?

Q: Thelma from Philadelphia, “Were the Russians of Viking origins? I learned from Tamara, that Novgorod was established by the Vikings.”

A: Yeah, originally they were probably Viking, yeah. And I know Tamara, I used to work with her in Belarus through the good offices of a man called Jack Khagan, a wonderful man who was in the Bielski Brigade, Jaime, and he, thank God, survived but lost most of his family, all his family, and when he came to England, he then went back later on as a freeman of the City of London to the mayor of Novogrudok, remember what kind country Belarus is, and he helped Tamara set up a Jewish section of the museum in Novogrudok. I dunno, are you associated with that group? Yes, we are going to do Shanghai.

This is from Nanette, “A relative of my father was in the Polish Army and somehow managed to get to Shanghai. How he got to Shanghai, I never learned but it was a long journey.” Well, Nanette, it’s interesting, we don’t know, I can’t talk about your father, but I know it’s quite likely he might have got a transit visa. And I’ll be talking about that on Sunday, from Sugihara, who was the Japanese council, there was also a Dutch council, they were giving visas to Curacao. But to get to Curacao, you had to cross Russia and then of course they find out that Shanghai’s an open city, the whole of the Mir Yeshiva made it.

This is from David, “I lived in Shanghai from 2010 to ‘13, and found that Jews in Israel were greatly respected.” Yes, they are. This is from… “About 20 years ago, we travelled to China, sponsored by the Chinese Gov office, China through Jewish eyes, artan culture oriented in Kaifeng, street signs in Hebrew, mezuzahs were still on the door place, although no one we spoke to knew why, their shrines included a menorah, their industry was making blue card keepers for sales to , fascinating,” yes, it is fascinating, isn’t it?

Q: Romaine, “Do you agree Judaism is so integrated into our life, it’s hard to extinguish?”

A: Yes, yes.

David’s telling us, “Rabbi Gershom’s ruling applied only to the Ashkenazi.” Well, yes, David, I know. And wasn’t it to fall into Abeyance in the year 2100?

Q: “Did Jews become Chinese in appearance because of assimilation into marriage?”

A: Yeah, I guess so. Oh, Susan remembers a very old photograph in the mid 19th century of Jews outside the synagogue in Kaifeng. What a shame, they had only a few decades to wait until there was an influx, of Russians coming at the beginning of the 20th century. Yeah, it would’ve invigorated their Jewish lives, yeah.

Q: “Did not the Magician of Lublin have several wives?” “What goods did they take with them to trade?”

A: Well, the goods of the West and the goods of the East?

Q: “Did the Jews move to Africa via China?”

A: I’d have to check the map, sorry, Barry.

Leo Hanin, “A friend of my sister’s other was a Lithuanian Jew whose family moved to be with relatives in Harbin till World War I. Living in Harbin, Shanghai, Cobain, Japan, back to Shanghai during World War II, went Israel, back to Shanghai, then Los Angeles where he died. Look him up on the internet, he sounds fascinating,” Robert.

Yes, we will have lectures on the Sassoon and the Kadoories, thank you very much.

“The Sassoons were involved in the opening trade,” Yes, they were I’m afraid.

Q: Anna from Chicago, thank you. “Are there DNA studies that can determine the origin of Ashkenazi Jews?”

A: You’ll be pleased to know that in, I think, it’s the week after next or soon, we’re going to have a lecture on Jewish genealogy and all these questions will be answered. There are so many questions that have come up on genealogy that we decided to make this a strand. Boston, thank you.

Yes, yes, Erica, there were Jewish communities in Manchuria. Yes, they fled the pogroms. “The ex-president of Benebred was one such.” Yes, thank you.

Yes, Suzie, I reckon Atkins of Shanghai’s a brilliant good.

Q: “What about salt, isn’t the most important commodity of all, essential for life? Now, where would salt would’ve come from?”

A: Poland, that was actually the currency of Poland. So thank you all, and it’s wonderful to know that there are people all over the world, I’d love to think I could start travelling again, but maybe there comes a time in life when you can’t do those routes.

Thanks a million, Jude, and I will see you all soon, lot’s of love.