A Richly Decorated Marriage Contract from Bukhara

Ink and gouache on parchment

(24 x 15 ½  in.; 610 x 390 mm) Celebrating the wedding of Ruben the son of Benjamin to Tova the daughter of Moses on Tuesday 20^th of Kislev, 5577 (= December 10, 1816)



few scattered stains, creased with a few tears, repaired

ONE OF THE ONLY KNOWN PROFUSELY DECORATED MARRIAGE CONTRACTS FROM THE COMMUNITY OF BUKHARAN JEWS

Jews from Central Asia known as Bukhara take their name from their spoken Tajik-Persian dialect of Bukhori. During the 18th century, Bukharan Jews faced considerable persecution. Jewish centers were closed down and the Muslims of the region forced conversion on the Jews, dramatically decreasing the Jewish population. In 1793, Rabbi Yosef Maimon, a Sephardic Jew from Tetuan, Morocco and prominent kabbalist in Safed, traveled to Bukhara and found the local Jews in difficult circumstances. He decided to settle there and assist the community. Rabbi Maimon became a spiritual leader, aiming to educate and thereby increase the Jewish community's observance and faith in Judaism. He changed their Persian religious traditions to Sephardic Jewish tradition. Rabbi Maimon is an ancestor of the late Shlomo Moussaieff.