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Jews of the Bilad al-Sudan (Judeo-Arabic: ) describes West African Jewish communities who were connected to known Jewish communities from the Middle East, North Africa, or Spain and Portugal. Various historical records attest to their presence at one time in the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires, then called the Bilad as-Sudan from the Arabic meaning ''Land of the Blacks''. Jews from Spain, Portugal, and Morocco in later years also formed communities off the coast of Senegal and on the Islands of Cape Verde. These communities continued to exist for hundreds of years but have since disappeared due to changing social conditions, migration, and the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. == Early history == According to most accounts, the earliest Jewish settlements in Africa were in places such as Egypt, Tunisia,and Morocco. Jews had settled along the Upper Nile at Elephantine in Egypt. These communities were augmented by subsequent arrivals of Jews after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, when 30,000 Jewish slaves were settled throughout Carthage by the Roman emperor Titus. Africa is identified in various Jewish sources in connection with Tarshish and Ophir.〔Tamid, 32b, and the parallel passage, where, "African land", is evidently the same as Carthage〕 The Septuagint,〔Isaiah 23:1〕 and Jerome,〔on Ezekiel 25:7〕 who was taught by Jews, and very often the Aramaic Targum on the Prophets, identify the Biblical Tarshish with Carthage, which was the birthplace of a number of rabbis mentioned in the Talmud. Africa, in the broader sense, is clearly indicated where mention is made of the Ten Tribes having been driven into exile by the Assyrians and having journeyed into Africa.〔Mek., Bo, 17; Tosef., Shab. vii. 25; Deut. R. v. 14; and especially Sanh. 94a〕 Connected with this is the idea that the river Sambation is in Africa. The Arabs, who also know the legend of the Beni Musa ("Sons of Moses"), agree with the Jews in placing their land in Africa. As early as Roman times, Moroccan Jews had begun to travel inland to trade with groups of Berbers, most of whom were nomads who dwelt in remote areas of the Atlas Mountains. Jews lived side by side with Berbers, forging both economic and cultural ties ;some Berbers even began to practice Judaism. In response, Berber spirituality transformed Jewish ritual, painting it with a belief in the power of demons and saints. When the Muslims swept across the North of Africa, Jews and Berbers defied them together. Across the Atlas Mountains, the legendary Queen Kahina led a tribe of 7th century Berbers, Jews, and other North African ethnic groups in battle against encroaching Islamic warriors. In the 10th century, as the social and political environment in Baghdad became increasingly hostile to Jews, many Jewish traders there left for the Maghreb, Tunisia in particular. Over the following two to three centuries, a distinctive social group of traders throughout the Mediterranean world became known as the ''Maghrebi'', passing on this identification from father to son. According to certain local Malian legends a mention in the ''Tarikh al-Sudan'' may have recorded the first Jewish presence in West Africa with the arrival of the first Zuwa ruler of Koukiya and his brother, located near the Niger River. He was known only as Za/Zuwa Alayman (meaning "He comes from Yemen"). Some local legends state that Zuwa Alayman was a member of one of the Jewish communities that were either transported or voluntarily moved from Yemen by the Ethiopians in the 6th century C.E. after the defeat of Dhu Nuwas. The ''Tarikh al-Sudan'', states that there were 14 Zuwa rulers of Kukiya after Zuwa Alyaman before the rise of Islam in the region.〔''Tarikh es-Soudan'', Paris, 1900, by Abderrahman ben-Abdall es-Sadi (trad. O. Houdas) pages 5-10〕 There is though debate on whether or not the Tarikh es-Soudan can be understand in this manner. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jews of Bilad el-Sudan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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