The Assyrians, Foiled at the Gate of Jerusalem, Turned Back By Plague or Black Egypto Kushite Army?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

                             King Sennacherib of Assyria    Attacking Jerusalem                                                       

II Kings:19:35-37) By 701 B.C.E. the Assyrians under King Sennacherib had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and much of Judah in the south. Only Jerusalem under King Hezekiah 720-692 BCE) remained to be conquered, and it was surrounded by enemy soldiers. Without explanation, however, the Assyrians suddenly folded their tents and returned home.

"The later Assyrian rulers Sargon II and his son and successor, Sennacherib, were responsible for finishing the twenty-year demise of Israel's northern ten-tribe kingdom, although they did not overtake the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem was besieged, but not taken. The tribes forcibly resettled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes."  They were the northern part of the Kingdom of Israel, 10 of the 12 tribes of Jacob.  

                                                            

Finding the reason for the survival of Jerusalem has confounded scholars for centuries. What is clear, however, is that if Jerusalem had not survived, Western civilization would have been utterly different. Proposals for the reasons have included disease among the Assyrian troops, which was a plague, perhaps the same of the 12 plagues that hit the Pharoah; troubles elsewhere in the Assyrian empire, the approach of the Egypto-Kushite forces and some combination of the above. or cushites/Kushites.  The account in II Kings is that angels came down and killed 185,000 soldiers in the Assyrian camp.                                                             

      Moses had married  a Midianite, Zipporah, mentioned by name in Exodus,  and they had 2 sons who were killed on the Exodus while young men.  Midianites were a Bedouin tribe related to Abraham.  They traveled with caravans of incense from Gilead to Egypt, closely connected with the Israelites. 

 

Moses' wife is referred to as a Cushite in Numbers 12. Interpretations differ on whether this Cushite wife was one and the same as Zipporah, or another woman.  The Cushite is not mentioned by name.  Kush was a part of Nubia, which stretched from the Upper Nile to the Red Sea.

The information in our Jewish history is that Sennacherib was forced by a plague in his army to return home.  That plague could have been anything that we have experienced in our time of plague history.  I doubt if it had been the virus, COVID 19 or Delta, the follow-up mutated virus.  it could have been the flu, as it came with the army.  

The Naked Archaeologist questioned the theory that the army of Cushites could have come to Jerusalem's rescue.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNhypxWvRmY                           

                             Columnist for the Gazette, Quebec, Montreal, Canada

Another also thought of the Kushites, a journalist, Henry Aubin.  "  At the turn of the eighth century B.C., a mighty Assyrian army entered Judah and fought its way to the very gates of Jerusalem, poised, the prophet Isaiah warned, to "smash the city as easily as someone hurling a clay pot against the wall." But the assault never came; instead, the Assyrian army turned and fled, an event that has been called the Deliverance of Jerusalem. 

Whereas biblical accounts attribute the Assyrian retreat to divine intervention of a plague, journalist Henry Aubin offers an explanation that is miraculous in its own light: the siege was broken by the arrival of an army from Kushite Egypt--an army, that is, made up of black Africans. These Kushites figured in historical texts, Aubin continues, until the late 19th century, when racist scholars expunged them from the record--a process that, Aubin observes, coincided with the European conquest and colonization of Africa. The Kushite intervention assured the survival of the Hebrew people, Aubin asserts, and it deserves to be acknowledged anew. Well-written and carefully developed, Aubin's argument will doubtless excite discussion."  This is probably where Simcha Jacobovici, the Naked Archaeologist, got the idea to question Aubin's theory.  Aubin wrote a book about it, called The Rescue of Jerusalem.  

There are clues to resolving this conundrum in biblical and extra-biblical evidence, including Sennacherib’s annals and the writings of Herodotus. Professor Bellis will lead us to a likely solution to this enduring mystery.                                                          

                                    Zipporah, the Midianite, wife of Moses

I'll throw in my revelation now after finding this information. First, Moses had had 2 wives, Zipporah the Midianite and later, a Cushite wife. Perhaps Zipporah had died.   Because of that union, when the Assyrians were at the gates of Jerusalem, ready to attack and take the city, not only were they hit by a plague, but at the same time, the Cushites attacked them because of that older union with Moses.  How about that?  The Assyrians left for home, never to return again, thinking that the Israelites had since put a curse on them if they ever advanced again.  Then again, that seems like a very long distance for Cushites to travel north to Jerusalem.  

A further check on this history:          

Who was the Ethiopian (Cushite) wife that Moses took (Numbers 12:1)? Is she the same wife as Jethro’s daughter Zipporah whom Moses earlier married (Exodus 2:21), and later came back to him in the desert (Exodus 18)? Also, why were Miriam and Aaron upset at Moses for taking a Cushite wife? Did they not like her simply because she was black?                                        

        The failed attack of the Assyrians on Jerusalem

"The Aish Rabbi Replies:                  

The story of Moses’s Cushite wife is actually quite cryptic. As you observed, we hear earlier of Moses marrying the daughter of Jethro the Midianite. Yet in the Book of Numbers Moses’s sister Miriam is upset about his having taken a “Cushite” wife. Cush is generally translated as Ethiopia (probably the entire region south of Egypt – see Shemot Rabbah 10:2), a place inhabited by blacks. (See e.g. Jeremiah 13:23: “Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard its spots?”) Is this a different wife? And where did she come from?"

Herodotus wrote that the Assyrian army was overrun by mice when attacking Egypt. Some Biblical scholars take this to an allusion that the Assyrian army suffered the effects of a mouse- or rat-borne disease such as bubonic plague. Even without relying on that explanation, John Bright suggested it was an epidemic of some kind that saved Jerusalem.     

In What If?, a collection of essays on counterfactual history, historian Willian H. McNeill speculates that the accounts of mass death among the Assyrian army in the Tanakh might be explained by an outbreak of cholera (or other water-borne diseases) due to the springs beyond the city walls having been blocked, thus depriving the besieging force of a safe water supply.

"An important introductory point is that the Midrash states that when Moses fled Pharaoh (Exodus 2:15), before arriving in Midian, Moses escaped south to the land of Cush. (Note that Moses was presumably a young man when he fled Egypt, in Midian he married and had two small children, and he was 80 on his return to Egypt at the start of the story of the Exodus. Thus, apparently, many of his early adult years are unrecorded in the Torah.) Moses first served the king of Cush and then upon his death became king himself, ruling for 40 years. He was given the former king’s widow as a wife but he refused to live with her or worship the Cushite god (Yalkut Shimoni Shemot 168). "                     

                        Assyrian high priest and Sennacherib,
    Since there was no mention of a Cushite army coming to the rescue of Jerusalem, I can believe that a plague had hit the soldiers as written.  When the flu hits, it can hit hard.  I don't believe any Cushite army was there, so it was not a deleted fact.  We are taught that Moses wrote the Torah (the 5 books of Moses) and that it has remained the exact same writing ever since.  Our scribes cannot make one letter incorrect, for if they do, the whole thing is thrown away and they start over again.  It was not an era of prejudice against Blacks, as what has since happened.  It was an era of trusting in G-d, and this story was an example of that.  Jerusalem was saved by the miracle of the plague.  

Resource:

https://www.benderjccgw.org/event/did-a-kushite-pharaoh-rescue-jerusalem-from-the-assyrians/

https://www.amazon.com/Rescue-Jerusalem-Alliance-Hebrews-Africans/dp/1569472750

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipporah#:~:text=Wife%20of%20Moses,-Moses%20and%20his&text=Moses'%20wife%20is%20referred%20to,him%20a%20polygamist)%20or%20s

uccessively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_siege_of_Jerusalem

Ecological Israelite Principals Over 3,000 years Old That Set the Stage For More

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

                                                 Bountiful Israel Today

When Moses wrote Genesis 1:28) sometime between 1391 BCE to 1273 BCE "Be fruitful and multiply,  fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea,  over the bird in the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth," there was no ecology problem in existence.                                   

             Jewish aliyah in early days clearing the swamps

The land of Israel had been in the Ottoman Empire's hands for the last 400 years up to 1917 and had laid barren, a land of swamps, deserts and mosquitoes; almost uninhabitable.  We say it was waiting for the return of Jews who started returning in 1880 CE.  1948 was the birthday year for Israel, and things had started to improve.  

Ecology is a branch of biology concerning interactions among organisms and their biophysical environment, which includes both biotic and abiotic components. Precepts were already laid out for us by Moses from G-d to follow in connection with our land. 

                                                 

            Safed (Tzfat) where I lived, had a forest just outside the city. Safed was on top of a mountain where at night the sky was pitch          black and the stars were huge.  I planted a tree there, with help.  

Planting trees has had a special holiday called TuBishvat and  is literally 'New Year of the Trees'. In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration.  Of the talmudic requirements for fruit trees which used Tu BiShvat as the cut-off date in the Hebrew calendar for calculating the age of a fruit-bearing tree, Orlah remains to this day in essentially the same form it had in talmudic times. In the Orthodox Jewish world, these practices are still observed today as part of Halacha, Jewish law. Fruit that ripened on a three-year-old tree before Tu BiShvat is considered orlah and is forbidden to eat, while fruit ripening on or after Tu BiShvat of the tree's third year is permitted. 

 The land was a promise to Abraham (e.g.,Genesis 12.7, but really throughout the Torah, The "promised land," a "land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3.17) figures prominently in Jewish thinking (e.g., Psalm 137.1-6, Ezekiel 36.24) Moses, the great prophet, longed even just to see the promised land, as if it were a glimpse of heaven. (Deuteronomy 34.)

First of all, We were on a system of 7 with the 7th day a day of no work. This is the Sabbath.  This gave the land a rest as well as the people, for these people had no rest when enslaved in Egypt, but had to work every day of every year without a break.  

  Actually, the land could be bought and sold, but every 50 years it reverted to its "owners" or "inheritors."  The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine (G-d's) and you are but aliens and my tenants." (Leviticus 25.23) This verse clearly assumes that mankind is custodian or caretaker of land.  This is the law of Yovel, the Jubilee Year.  We are to teach that the land and freedom are Divine gifts and that ownership reverts to those to whom He wills it. (Chinuch).  

People get a respite every 7th year in their work in Israel.  Teachers get a sabbatical every 7th year of teaching and could use it for more education, travel, etc.  It may be so for other professions as well.  (update from my own experience). Israel  has been the only country in the world who does this.   Jews in the Land of Israel must take a year-long break from working the fields every seven years. A "sabbatical" has come to mean an extended absence in the career of an individual to fulfill some goal, e.g., writing a book or travelling extensively for research.

Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, and academics offer the opportunity to qualify for paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called sabbatical leave. Some companies offer unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks; this is a growing trend in the United Kingdom, with 20% of companies having a career break policy, and a further 10% considering introducing one.  In British and Irish students' unions, particularly in higher education institutions, students can be elected to become sabbatical officers of their students' union, either taking a year out of their study (in the academic year following their election) or remaining at the institution for a year following completion of study.

The Jubilee (Hebrew: יובל‎ yōḇel; Yiddish: yoyvl) is the year at the end of seven cycles of shmita (Sabbatical years) and, according to biblical regulations, had a special impact on the ownership and management of land in the Land of Israel.  Every 50th year is the Jubilee Year.  It was a sanctified year that proclaimed freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants.  Each man was to return to his ancestral heritage and each man was to return to his family.   We were not to sow nor harvest its aftergrowth and we were not to pick what was set aside of it for ourselves.  It was a holy year.  We could eat from the field the crop.  

                                                                         

                                                     Shar ha Makim Kibbutz

For 6 years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, and in the 7th, you shall leave it untended and unharvested, and the destitute of your people shall eat, and the wildlife of the field shall eat what I left, so shall you do to your vineyard and your olive grove.  6 days shall you do your activities, and on the 7th day you shall desist, so that your ox and donkey may be content and your servant's son and the traveler may be refreshed. (Exodus 23-10-12)

                                                       

                              Pomegranate  tree in Israel

The age of fruit trees was to be known, as people planted them.  They were not to eat the fruit of the tree until it was 5 years old.  At age 4, the fruit wasn't ready to be eaten but was to be sanctified to laud G-d. (Leviticus23).  We are not to destroy fruit-bearing trees in a war.  The principle is rooted in the Biblical law of (Deuteronomy 20:19–20). “When you lead a siege against a city many days … you may not destroy any tree of hers, to hew an ax against it, for from it you will eat, and you may not cut it off! Is the tree of the field a person, to come before you in the siege? Only a tree that you know is not a tree for food, that one you may destroy and cut off, and build siegeworks…” In the Bible, the command is said in the context of wartime and forbids the cutting down of fruit trees in order to assist in a siege. 

Land was not so much a commodity.  Rather, it was an inheritance for the Israelites and it was core to the covenantal promises that G-d made to them.  G-d's people are not to abuse their inheritance, but to treasure it.  It cannot be bought and sold. (Leviticus 25.)

Since 1948, most of the land of Israel belongs to the State or the Jewish National Fund.  It is not sold to the new villages but is leased, as a rule for 49 years.  Betterment by the Government and/or the Fund has made it possible to direct new villages to specific farming branches.  

The Torah, as our history tells us was written by Moses while on the Exodus, explained all this to us (see above).  The Midrash (finding new meaning in addition to the literal one in the Torah exemplifies the teaching with lessons.  

1. Take care not to spoil or destroy My world.  

      a. This brings to mind the work of Norman Lamm, "Ecology in Jewish Law and Theology."

     b. Eric G. Freudenstein, "Ecology and the Jewish Tradition."

     c. Jonathan I. Helfand, Ecology and the Jewish Tradition: A Postscript."

During Rabbinic Times of the Middle Ages, Waste disposal was a major problem.  Bit of broken glass on public land was known to cause injury.  Saintly men would bury their broken glassware deep down in their own fields.  Other rubbish could be deposited on public land, but only during the winter month when in any event the roads were a morass of mud due to the rains.  

Rabbinic concern for peaceful and clean environment brought out this rule:  a dovecot must not be kept within 50 cubits of a town and no one may keep a dovecot on his own property unless his land extends 50 cubits in every direction around it.  This was to keep the doves from eating seeds sown in the neighboring fields.  

If trees stood before a town grew up around them, they can be cut down, but the owner must be compensated for them.   Carcasses, graves, and tanneries must be kept at a distance of at least 50 cubits from the city.  

A tannery must not be set up in such a way that the prevailing winds can waft the unpleasant odor to the town. 

Goats or sheep must not be raised in the cultivated areas of the Land of Israel because of the damage that might be done to young plants. This one came about to encourage renewed agricultural growth after the devastations to the land caused by the wars with Rome.

"In contemporary Jewish ethics on Judaism and ecology, advocates often point to bal tashchit as an environmental principle. (Jewish vegetarians also point to bal tashchit as one justification for vegetarianism or veganism, arguing that eating meat and raising animals in general is wasteful.) Nevertheless, although bal tashchit may be broadly applied to environmental ethics, its limitation in the case where one may profit through a destructive act makes the application of the laws of bal tashchit to environmental issues complicated."  

There is the prohibition against destroying anything of value, "do not destroy," base on Deuteronomy 20:19, against destroying fruit-bearing trees, now extending to include all cases of wasting things that can be used. Maimonides wrote, "It is not only forbidden to destroy fruit-bearing trees but whoever breaks vessels, tears clothes, demolishes a building, stops up a fountain or wates food, in a  destructive way, offends against the law of "thou shalt not destroy."  This includes animals or even to cause the oil in a lamp to burn too quickly.   

                                                  

Israel had celebrated its 50th year in 1998. "The gala celebration will be broadcast on both major Israeli television channels and in many countries overseas. TV, in fact, may be the best way to watch. The Givat Ram stadium has only 12,000 seats, and 5,000 are reserved for invited guests from the world over, including Vice President Al Gore, as well as Israel's President Ezer Weizman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Israel does have bigger stadiums, but organizers wanted Jerusalem, to drive home the point that this is the Israeli capital, even if most foreign governments have yet to recognize it. "

Among events in the fall will be a mass public assembly on Oct. 6 at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem, intended to renew ''the ancient Jewish tradition of holding mass public gatherings at the temple once every seven years.'' Another event tied to the anniversary will be the Festival of Humor, Laughter and Satire in the Negev city of Beersheva Oct. 6 to 8. Events were going on all year long.  The next Jubilee year will be in 2048, only 28 more years from now.  May it be an amazingly peaceful one.  

Judaism affirms without reservation that the world is G-d's creation and that whoever helps to preserve it is doing G-d's work.  

Resource:

What Does Judaism Say About...? by Louis Jacobs

Tanakh, The Stone Edition

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/26/travel/a-50th-jubilee-for-israel.html

http://www.landwatch.org/pages/perspectives/christiansteward.htm 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_tashchit#:~:text=Only%20a%20tree%20that%20you,to%20assist%20in%20a%20siege.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_BiShvat#:~:text=It%20is%20also%20called%20Rosh,trees%20are%20planted%20in%20celebration.

Update 10/12/2020 -my experience

facts about Israel, Division of information, Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem

What the Yalkut Shemoni Midrash Says That Gives Me Chills

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                  

Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran

Ayatollah Khamenei, head of Iran

Israel faces a great threat;  Iran with money and nuclear power, enough to make an atomic weapon to use on                                                                                         her.
                                                                               

That's the cue for the next star actor to appear on stage from the wings.  It's a midrash that should give us chills.  It's found in the Yalkut Shemoni Midrash.  It is a book composed of " interpretations and explanations of Biblical passages."  Harmless information, right?  The Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis tells us about its shocking information:  
                                                                                       

"In the Yalkut Shemoni it is written that before the revelation of the Mashiach, the world will be in turnoil."  Boy, isn't it now!  "The king of Persia, today's Iran, will provoke the king of Arabia."  This is true.  For the first time ever, Israel and  Sunni Saudi Arabia are talking about teaming up to protect themselves against the Shi'as of Iran.  Iran's potential ability of having atomic weapons is causing all the Middle East Muslim nations to now plan on having their own nuclear plants.  Instead of a world giving up nuclear capabilities, it's now arming itself to the teeth in such eventuality of a berserk nation armed to the teeth.                                                                      

Esther Jungreis, wife of Rabbi, born in Szeged, Hungary, Holocaust survivor

"The king of Arabia will go to Edom. "  This was thought to be the leader of the Christian nations. Perhaps.  What worries me is that Obama has threatened to shoot Israel's planes if they try to go and bomb the nuclear site in Iran.   "  This should be the role of the United States as America has been the world's leader of freedom, though it has slid  lately.

  "Edom" had been a country before Joshua and the 600,000 had entered called Idumea or Mount Seir.  It lay south of the Dead Sea and bordered on the Red Sea at Eilat.  and Ezion Geber.  The Edomites were also Semites, traditionally descendants of Esau who was the father of the Arabs.  Herod I had been King of Judea in 73 BCE to 4 BCE and was the son of Antipater the Idumean by his Nabatean wife, Cypros.  Is this alluding possibly to the Palestinians?  Yes, they do seem to be the cause the nations are speaking  for instead of Israel today.  Of course the Edomites were traditional enemies of Israel in the past as well.  They had fought against Israel's King Saul and were defeated by Israel's King David.  They had many frequent wars, just as they do today.  
                                                                                

  "King Salman of Saudi Arabia will go to Edom to take counsel (sounds to me like Abbas and the Saudis will be in a pact of defense against Iran like Israel may be doing with Saudi Arabia,   while the king of Persia will threaten to destroy the entire world. "   I hope they are not to be in a collusion.  This is exactly what Iran is doing-out to destroy the world, though the P5+1 don't seem to be worried with their Plan signed and sealed with all its standard practice secrets imbedded in it that Congress hasn't been able to view.  They're not the ones under Iran's threats;  Israel and the USA are, but Obama is only worried if his flawed plan does not pass Congress and is not put into effect.  

"Israel will be in a state of panic."  Israel's IDF doesn't panic, but I bet it's on a state of high alert most of the time.  Rabbis will be advising the Knesset members and populace.  The Rebbitzin feels that this is an act to redeem Israel, like buying Israel back,   since so many Muslim nations are not recognizing her after 67 years of existing, and then Israel will not experience any further pain or subjugation.  I'm putting words in her mouth, but am trying to explain hers.

Whew!  How did anyone know this would happen?  This book was compiled from the Tanakh (Bible) most likely by Rabbenu Simeon of Frankfurt-the chief of Rabbis of Frankfurt in 1308. It has been also thought that this midrashic collection relating to all the books of the Bible was compiled by Simeon Ha-Darshan, presumably of Frankfort-on-Main in the 13th century.  The work has preserved many sections from Midrashim which are no longer in existence. A midrash is the finding of a new meaning besides the literal one in the Torah and other books of the Tanakh.  Today it means that found mostly in legend and ethics.    "The aim of the compiler of the Yalkut was to assimilate the bulk of rabbinical sayings at his disposal, following the order of the verses of the Bible." 

Forty years ago we would have never thought there'd be such problems with Iran. The shah of Iran was a great American ally and Israel's best friend in the Middle East.  Before you knew it, the shah was exiled and an Ayatollah appeared in his place causing Iran to be committed to Israel's destruction.  

 Israel has had its 67th birthday in May.  We all pray that she will see her 68th, her 69th and her 120th just for starters and be in a better, safer world.  The United States just had its 239th birthday.  May it live to see it's 240th, its 241st and so on and reach 500 without ever having war touch its soil.  We pray for no loss of life for anyone and for all to live peacefully.  
                                                                         

Ancient Persians 

Persia, today's Iran, had  been a bone of contention for the Jewish people.  It started with the Babylonian Empire's attack and conquest of Judah  by Cyrus in 538 BCE.  For the next 200 years, Jews who were living in Mesopotamia due to their earlier exile by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and in Judah and those left in Israel were under Persian rule.  Many had been taken to Persia, proper.  

It was under Persian auspices that Jews were returned to Judah from exile though it continued to be a Persian province with a little local autonomy.  In the Book of Esther, one can read that Jews were then living throughout the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire and that they were numerous and influential people.  The Babylonian Talmud was written under Persian rule.  
                                                                          

A Persian queen was SHUSHANDUKHT   of Jewish birth.  ' Ernst Herzfeld has speculated that the tomb of Esther and Mordecai in the city of Hamedan might be the tomb of Shushandukht.  Shushandukht was the wife of Yazdegerd I and mother of Bahram V. She was the daughter of a Jewish exilarch.   She created the Jewish neighborhood in the city of Isfahan." In our version of the history, Queen Esther (Hadassah) was the wife of king Ahashueros and the niece of Mordecai who was an advisor to the king.  


It was later that fierce religious persecutions happened under Zoroastrian influence followed b persecutions.  People are always trying to stamp out our religion.  Then the Arab conquest happened in 641/642 CE.  It introduced a new, generally tolerant spirit with some reservations. 

 By the 19th century, however, Persian Jewry was among the most depressed of the world's Jewish communities, even with diplomatic interventions occasionally happening and secured by Western Jewry. and promises by shahs would be overlooked.  Jews started emigrating after 1948 when Israel was created.  Many felt mighty uncomfortable under the strict Islamic regime of Ayatolla Khomeini. 

 Their numbers went from 80,000 in 1978 to 20,000 in 1989.  Today there are from 25,000 to 35,000.  It's not easy to leave.  I knew of a teenager  who left but had to leave secretly on a camel with a waiting group of other teens.  Some were shot dead.  He's a doctor today in New Jersey.  As it was in Germany in the 30s, it's very hard to just pick up and leave your business, your family and friends and home and go off to another land where they don't even speak your language or accept your educational credentials.  There is a lot to consider.  

Resource: The Jewish Press, 7/31/15, p 25 and 59, Time to reach out to our father by Rebbetzin's Viewpoint.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalkut_Shimoni
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0021_0_21181.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/iran.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Saudi_Arabia