Crypto-Jews of Bukhara Rituals, Magics and Curse Spells.

Bukharan Jews represent one of the most ancient ethnoreligious communities in Central Asia. Their origin is relatively obscure, but it probably dates back to the time of the Achaemenid Empire, more precisely from the era after Cyrus II. The latter, during the expansion of his empire, indeed conquered Babylonia, where a Jewish community lived in captivity. The Jews then spread throughout the Persian Empire, including obviously in Central Asia. Since then the Bukharan Jews were in an intense sociocultural and economic with their host communities and after the Islamization of the region also with their Muslim neighbours. In some aspects the Bukharan Jews differ from their coreligionists in the Middle East and particularly in Iran. These aspects refer predominantly to specific characteristics which apparently reflect the degree of sociocultural assimilation of the Bukharan Jews within a vast Central Asian ethnographic context. This essay aims to elucidate some of the less studied aspects of these minorities and in particular that of so-called Crypto-Jews, including way of life, habits, costumes and traditions prior and after the annexation to the Tsarist Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]