Megilat Saragossa (Scroll for the Purim of Syracuse) [Ottoman Empire; ca. 1800]

1 scroll (3  1/2  x 41  3/4  in.; 90 x 1085 mm). Written in brown ink on parchment in Sephardic square Hebrew script, in 8 columns, 18 lines, on two membranes. Soiled and stained. Housed in a later English silver case (Birmingham:1929) chased with floral motifs and contemporary deco monogram, S.R.

Just as the biblical holiday of Purim was established as a day of thanksgiving commemorating the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia, latter-day Jewish communities celebrated their own escape from oppression or deliverance from persecution by establishing local communal holidays. The details of these localized “Purim” holidays were sometimes recorded for posterity in scroll format in order to be read liturgically as part of the community’s annual celebrations. The present lot is a rare example of a scroll commemorating the events of the 17th of Shevat, 5420 (1420), a special Purim still celebrated by those Sephardic Jews who trace their ancestry back to “Saragossa,” (the Hebrew name for Syracuse in Sicily). The text relates that the Jews of the city were accused by an informer of disrespecting the king by parading before him with empty Torah cases. However, when the king ordered the cases opened, they were found to contain Torah scrolls and the Jews were thus spared punishment.

Please be aware that the present lot includes the later English silver case depicted in the catalog (Birmingham:1929), chased with floral motifs and contemporary deco monogram, S.R.