From http://web.archive.org/web/20041015202259/www.imninalu.net/history02.htm
...from the previous page
The "Persian Millennium"
Babylon fell in 3222 before Persians and Medes. This fact marked the end of Semitic hegemony in the Middle East for about 1200 years, that is until Arabs' take-over in history. Meanwhile, Iranic and European peoples have shared the rule over the region. Persians and Medes took possession of Babylon's empire without fighting: as reported in Daniel 5:30 and confirmed by history, a general of king Kurush (Cyrus) took the city by night. The Achaemenids' empire -that is the Persian kings' name- extended from India to Ethiopia, as it is also written in the book of Esther, in which there is the only Bible mention of "Hodu", Hebrew name of India. This place-name here means specifically the Indus Valley, that land which Persians called "Sindh" and Arabs "Hind" (it is not indeed a Sanskrit word; India's national name is Bharat). A distinctive feature of Persians and Medes was their religion without temples, whose rites were held by the Magi, a sort of caste appointed for such service (as well as Levites in the Hebrew system).
The king Kurush and following monarchs allowed deportees' return to their homeland, but only a minority of them took advantage of such concession: Hebrews in Babylon had achieved a good social and economic position. Those who returned back to Eretz Yisrael belonged mainly to those deportees of the Kingdom of Yehudah by Nebukadnezzar. Since this historical time, they are recognized as "Jews"... About the other Hebrews, instead, we have no more historical accounts. Jews rebuilt Yerushalayim and the Temple, restoring the worship system, and compiled definitively the Holy Scriptures (Tanakh). They gave a definitive feature to "Judaism" (see Culture and Spirituality, Torah). But it was not recovered acquaintance with fluent Hebrew, which became a liturgical language only. Jews had already adopted Babylonian-Aramaic as their own language. In this way, Hebrew language was missing until recent times: the fact that today in Eretz Yisrael it is spoken the language of Mosheh, David and the Prophets is a real miracle without comparison in linguistic history of mankind.
That was a thriving period and many Jews settled in the different provinces of the empire. Other Hebrews may have assimilated outward features of the Magi's worship... and it is in this period that the cultural identity of the people which at present we know as Roma begins to shape: in Persia, a Hebrew people or anyway a people very close to Israelites was assimilating peculiarities of Persian culture and of fire-worshippers (see Culture and Spirituality, Roma and Torah ), defining their own identity in a way that it would not be modified, not even after a period of stay in India. In the Book of Esther it is reported an indictment against Jews which is still applied to Roma: "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of the kingdom, whose laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws..." (Esther 3:8). In 3440 Alexander the Great conquered the whole empire and enlarged its frontiers towards the east, pushing on farther than the Indus Valley.
Macedonian rule was rather brief, except in the Mediterranean area, which was snatched from the East for many centuries under Greek, Roman and Byzantine rule (see Diaspora). Mesopotamia remained bound to Persia until 4411. In 3510, the Seleucids (Macedonians) were droven out by another Iranian people coming from Khorassan: Parthians, who ruled over Mesopotamia and Iran for almost five centuries. Their sovereigns, called Arsacids, set their capital in Ctesiphon, not far away from present Baghdad. By the beginning of their rule, the Magi enjoyed great prestige, but subsequently they became discredited. People who did not belong to their extraction practised "magic", alchemy and other performances connected with fire-worship. In the period in which Arsacids ruled over Persia and Mesopotamia, the spreading of Christianity began. Christianity was embraced by the whole of peoples like Chaldeans, Assyrians, Armenians and very probably also by Roma.
In 3984 the Arsacids were defeated by the Sassanids, Persians who claimed belonging to Achaemenid origins. They restored ancient Persian culture and extolled the Magi' role. The Sassanids launched harsh persecutions against religious minorities, which spread in Persia since the Arsacids' rule. This would have been a good reason for Jews and Roma to emigrate in India. It is very probable that Roma were Christians then - they were already Christians at their arrival in Europe, therefore their conversion could have not taken place in India, and not even in the islamic Middle East. Nevertheless, Roma's exodus from Mesopotamia and Persia towards India would have not been completed in a single event, but after several subsequent migrations. Part of them chose to settle in Rajasthan, others in the Indus Valley, that is to say Sindh, from where it is supposed to come the word "Sinti", "those of Sindh", that they adopted as their own ethnic name.
As just written above, it is not an Indian word, but Persian. The last stage of Roma's exodus would have occurred with the coming of islam in 4411, when the Sassanids' kingdom fell before Arabs. Therefore, the time of Roma's stay in India may be much shorter than what is usually thought, perhaps four or five centuries only, until some event called them back to "return" to the West. Such event has probably been muslims' invasion of India. This would also explain the linguistic "gap" between Indian and Greek words: the crossing through muslims' territory should have been completed hastily, by which there has not been enough time to adopt language terms and even less to learn any of the rudiments of Persian worship system, already banished.Here concludes Roma's probable history before their arrival in India. About the history that follows, I do not intend to add anything to what is just written...
Go to "O Vurdón" (Historical Outline)
Go to "Patrin" (A Brief History of the Roma)
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Diaspora
Alexander's empire dissolved after his death, and was divided among his generals. From such division in a first stage emerged four kingdoms; two of them concerned closely Hebrew people: the Ptolemies' one, settled in Egypt, and the Seleucids' one, which originally was the largest but after the Parthians' invasion it lost the whole East (see The "Persian Millenium"), and had to settle headquarters in Syria. Eretz Yisrael's territory was first allotted to Ptolemies though strongly contended by Seleucids, subsequently passed under their rule. It was in the times of these monarchs that Jews had undergone further persecutions, mainly since 3585 with the ascent of Antiochus "Epimanes", and many Galileans fled to the East.
Jews, leaded by the Hasmonean family, achieved independence and restored the worship at the Temple. The Jewish State, however, had not a long-lasting independence and fell under the rule of an emerging foreign power: Rome. Judea was a Roman province for a little more than one century. On 9th Av 3830, Romans demolished the Temple and the city of Yerushalayim, and Jews were scattered throughout the empire: this event marked the beginning of the great Diaspora.Romans wanted to wipe the memory of the name of Israel out of history, and according to the name of a people which by that time was already unidentifiable as disappeared several centuries before, the Philistines (Pelesati), they called Palestine the country of Eretz Yisrael. This absolutely illegitimate and improper name is still used even though there is not any basis, neither ethnical nor historical, to keep such name. In the beginning the Diaspora concerned the whole Roman Empire besides Hebrews already living in the East.
Then it happened also the expulsion of Jews out of the imperial frontiers, and they had to emigrate in Northern Europe, the Danube and Eastern steppes.The Diaspora caused some changes within Israelite community: in the beginning, Hebrews were recognized according to the tribes to which they belonged, twelve of them besides the priestly tribe of Levi. The Diaspora generated different social and cultural developments, according to the nations were Jewish communities settled, and today Israelites are divided into language/culture groups which have not any link with the ancient tribes: the "Mizrachim" (Easterners), not to mistake with "Mizrayim" (Egyptians), of Aramaic language; the "Sepharadim" (Mediterraneans), from Sepharad, Hebrew name of Spain, of Ladino-Spanish language; the "Ashkenazim" (Northerners), of Yiddish language; the "Betha Israel" (Ethiopians); the Yemenite Jews; the Jews of India. About these last ones I would like to mention some historical outlines.
Jews of India are at present distinguished in three groups that, although being excluded from India's caste system because of their Hebrew origin, have developed a code of rules within them by which the three communities and their subgroups cannot intermarry. They are: the Jews of Kochin, the B'ney Yisrael and the Baghdadis. These last ones, whose language is Arabic or Persian, reached India about two centuries ago, coming from the Middle East. As their immigration in India took place in rather recent times, I would only linger on a brief history of the other two groups.
1- The Kochin Jews settled in Southern India (Kerala) since ancient times, although it is not known exactly since when. They have adopted Malayalam as their own language. This region of the subcontinent is very probably the Bible's land of Ophir, and tradition holds that Jews of Kochin are descendants of immigrants that, during the times of King Shlomoh, were traders and seamen who chose to settle in Ophir as well as other Hebrews had already settled in Sheva/Teyman (Yemen).
Others instead say that they come from Hebrews exiled in India after the deportations: that of the Kingdom of Israel in 3039 under Assyrian rule, that of the Kingdom of Yehudah in 3174 under Nebukadnezzar, or else after the destruction of the Temple by Romans in 3830, that is, by the beginning of the great Diaspora. Kochin Jews have lived generally in a more peaceful way than their compatriots in other countries, because they have enjoyed respect from Indian society and even the protection of their princes. Such quiet was altered by the raids of Arab invaders in 4284. In this period also, some Sepharadim Jews arrived in India fleeing from persecution in Europe and Middle East, and the Portuguese occupied some territories by the Indian western coast and set up there the inquisition. Only protection given by the raja of Kochin allowed Jews to get away from slaughter. At present, almost all Jews of Kochin emigrated in Eretz Yisrael.
2- B'ney Yisrael: it seems that they have arrived in India through a different way, because they live in the northwest and speak Mahrati language. They had lost their Jewish identity, and only because they practised some outward expressions of Hebraism (circumcision, Shabbath, and partially, kashrut) they were recognized as Israelites. It is only about two centuries ago that the B'ney Yisrael have been "re-judaized" by some Baghdadis, who taught them the Torah and built synagogues for them. Before this time, the B'ney Yisrael had not any own religion, just like Roma...
It is not to be excluded the possibility that they may also descend from those Hebrews sent to Ophir by King Shlomoh, who may subsequently have emigrated to the north, but it is much more likely that their origin is to be found in the deportations. The fact that they have lost their Hebrew identity leads to the hypothesis that they may descend from deportees of the Kingdom of Israel that Assyrians settled in Media and that subsequently they emigrated in India after persecutions happened in Persia (see "The Persian Millennium").
Hebrews of the Kingdom of Israel were less observant of the Torah than those of Yehudah, and this fact would explain their loss of Hebrew identity.Taking account of these details, it seems that the history of the B'ney Yisrael is very similar to that of Roma: the B'ney Yisrael were considered to be an Indian ethnic group, without knowledge that they are indeed Israelites; they kept some Hebrew traditions, though less than those observed by Roma! May they both be the same people? Roma settled just to the east of the Persian border, the B'ney Yisrael went on farther... Roma returned back to the West, and this fact prevented them from being "re-discovered", as it happened to the B'ney Yisrael, who remained in India. It is noticeable that Roma of India have been recognized as such just because of Roma's existence in the West, in the same way that the B'ney Yisrael have been identified as Hebrews because of the existence of Jews in other countries.
Migrations of Roma and Hebrews to India
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Shoah
"They lay crafty plans against your people... they say: ‘come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more'."Tehilim 83:3-4 (Psalm 83:3-4)
This verse of the Hebrew Scriptures reports the mind of ancient peoples, but has been always a topical interest within western societies and also within islamic system towards Israelites. This attitude has been handed down in the course of time and has crossed all borders throughout every nation. Romans tried to wipe out from memory the name of Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim, and have left this inheritance to European states.The history of Israelites and then also that of Roma has always been a succession of grievous periods and quiet times, of persecutions and exiles. The inquisition, expulsion decrees, ghettos, pogroms,...Many Jews and Roma found asylum in Russia, where society was much more tolerant and even hospitable, although when government authorities have not always been alike.
Nevertheless, both peoples have been scattered in all European states and persecutions have never ceased definitively, until reaching the darkest period of the whole history of mankind: the Shoah, the "desolation" rather than "holocaust", which implies a voluntary sacrifice.Once again, Jews and Roma find themselves sharing the same grievous experiences (did nazis have proofs of a Semitic origin of Roma? It is indeed paradoxical that a people which is considered to be Aryan has been slaughtered in the name of racial purity of Aryans and under the Aryan emblem, the swastika). I do not think that it is necessary to write here about all what happened during the Shoah, but I want to assert that the hideous crimes committed by nazis are ascribable to all European states and the Vatican, that were aware of the facts that were happening and have not tried to prevent them. They have given tacit consent to the extermination policy and have taken action only when it was too late. The distressful view left at the end of that war reminds us of the vision of Prophet Yehezk'el, ch. 37: "The Lord brought me out by the Spirit... and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones... there were very many upon the valley, and lo, they were very dry. And the Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, can these bones live?'... these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say: ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off !'...
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The State of Israel
...Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live...!' And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them... and the Spirit came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host...Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you O my people, and I will bring you home into Eretz Yisrael'." (Yehezk'el 37:1-14)And so it was; from those dry bones arose a nation: Medinat Yisrael.
This resurrection did not happen without struggle: it was since a long time before that, according to the Balfour Agreement, the British Mandate of "Palestine" should have given up its place to the Hebrew State. This agreement was not respected by the British government, which gave more than 80% of that land as a present to muslims. A territory that, before Jewish immigration did not interest anybody; Eretz Yisrael was since Romans' times an arid and almost uninhabited country, a desert where only some Bedouins passed by... Jews began to buy at very expensive prices their own land, and that aroused Arabs' policy of parallel immigration.
These Arabs, coming from neighbouring countries, began to settle in Eretz Yisrael in opposition to Jewish immigration. In this way was born a nationality created "on purpose", the Palestinians, who are not an ethnic entity at all, but a mixture of Arabs from various origins, Arabs like their relatives who remain in Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, etc.The Shoah became a reason by which the nations were no longer able to deny Jews' right to their own homeland, and the British Mandate had to hand over the remainder of that country to the people of Israel. A people that had just come through slaughter, that was impoverished and unarmed, had to take possession of a strip of land that nine islamic nations were ready to occupy by the armed forces. The West had in this way believed to liquidate the Jewish issue, entrusting muslims to complete what nazis left unfinished. That State, born in war on 5 Iyar 5708, achieved victory over an enemy that was about forty times stronger, an enemy that continued to take up arms because it cannot admit the existence of a free and democratic State in the Middle East; therefore, a new aggression took place in 5727. Once again, in only six days, the people of Israel inflicted a heavy defeat to the armed forces of seven nations, and re-conquered what by legitimate right belongs to Israel: Yerushalayim city, all the land to the west of the Jordan river, the Golan...A new attempt to annihilate Israel happened in 5734, in the war of Yom Kippur. Israel could have resolved definitively the problem and rendered the enemy harmless, but western nations have still interfered until now to stop the Israeli Army and save the humiliated dignity of muslim states. The conspiracy against Israel goes on, but Israel will overcome...
AM YISRAEL HAI !
THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIVES !
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