For more than four centuries, up until the the years between the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956, when a mass emigration of Jews from Egypt took place, the Jews of Cairo would observe a second Purim holiday annually with a fast and megillah, only two weeks after celebrating the regular Purim festival.
Today one can find copies of the special Cairene Megillah in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic in libraries all over the world including Oxford, Cambridge, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, New York and Jerusalem.
Dr. Louis Lowe, an Orientalist and personal secretary of Moses Montefiore, who accompanied the latter on many of his trips, was the first to publish a copy of a Hebrew text of this Purim Megillah in the Prussian Hebrew paper HaMagid, It appeared in three installments, Feb 14, Feb. 21 and Feb. 28 (issues 7-9) in 1866, more than three decades after Lowe had visited Cairo in 1830 and participated there in the celebration of Purim Cairene. The Hebrew text that he published in HaMagid, was the scroll that had been read in the synagogue during his visit to Cairo on the 27th and 28th of Adar of that year.
This Megillah recounts the wonderful story of the deliverance of the Jews of Cairo from their enemies in Adar of 1524.
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The Ottoman Sultan Selim I who is credited with tripling his empire and ruling over a billion acres of land, conquered Egypt in 1517. He then appointed Rabbi David ben Zimra as Chief Rabbi of Cairo and head of the Jewish community. The Radbaz as he was known, authored thousands of rabbinic responsa and many commentaries, was head of the Yeshiva in Cairo and Rebbe of the Ari Zal (Rav Isaac Louria). Sultan Selim I also designated the Jew, Abraham di Castro as the head of the Mint whose job it was to issue coins.
When the sultan passed away three years later from a skin infection (although some historians believe he was poisoned), his twenty-six year old son Sultan Suleiman succeeded him. as the tenth Ottoman Sultan.
Sultan Suleiman like his father before him, worked on expanding his empire and with the aid of his general, Ahmad Shaitan, succeeded in conquering much more territory including Belgrade and Rhodes in 1521 and 1522 respectively. In appreciation of Ahmad Shaitan’s contribution to his victories, Sultan Suleiman appointed him Governor of Egypt in 1523. However, Ahmad Shaitan was not satisfied with this title and desired more power. He wanted to be appointed Vizier which was a much prestigious title and would grant him power as second to the Sultan. He decided to align himself with the Mamluks in Egypt and appointed himself as supreme leader of Egypt.
Ahmad Shaitan demanded that he be declared the new ruler of Egypt in the Khutba, the formal sermon delivered weekly in the mosque and bade the Jewish head of the Mint, Abraham di Castro produce coins in Ahmad’s name.
Abraham di Castro in fear, fled to Constantinople taking with him the written document containing the demand from Shaitan to produce new coins. There he revealed to Sultan Suleiman the evil plan of Ahmad Shaitan. Sultan immediately sent his faithful soldiers to quell the rebellion and rewarded Castro with many presents.
When Ahmad Shaitan discovered that it was a Jew who had betrayed him to the sultan, he decided to take his revenge on the Jewish community.
Ahmad formed an alliance with the son of the last caliph, Al Mutawakil III and promised to make him his deputy once they would win over the supporters of Suleiman. By February 9, Ahmad Shaitan had won a fierce battle against the supporters of the Sultan and established himself in the citadel.
Shaitan announced that all Jews would be massacred on Feb. 23 of that year (1524) unless he was paid a substantial amount of money. Abraham alKukumuni, a Jew, who served as Ahmad Shaitan ‘s Finance Minister had proposed that instead of killing all the Jews, he demand money from them.The Mamluks looted and pillaged the Jewish community, and murdered five Jews. Twelve Jewish leaders including the chief rabbi, Rabbi David ben Zimra were held hostage by Ahmad Shaitan.
The Jews brought whatever money they could muster to Shaitan on the 22nd of Feburary, fearing for their lives. Little did they known then that three Egyptian officers, who were loyal to the Sultan, Mohammad Bek, Janim alHamzawi and al Amir Muhammad, had devised a plan to murder Ahmad. Muhammad Bek attacked Ahmad Shaitan while he was bathing in the bath house. Shaitan, half shaven, fled for his life, on Feb. 22, 1524. By the fourth of March, (28 Adar) he was finally caught and beheaded. The Jews were released from prison and happily celebrated a special Cairene Purim to commemorate their deliverance.
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This special Purim is first mentioned in Yosef Ibn Verga’s appendices to his father’s sefer Shevet Yehudah in 1553, only three decades after the event took place. It is also mentioned in Koreh Hadoros by Rabbi David Conforte who served as a dayan in Cairo in 1671, as well as in Divrei Yosef, the work of Josph Sambari, a seventeenth century Jewish Egyptian historian who was a member of the Mustaarab shul where the Cairene Megillah was read.
An English version of the Megillah is found in Jews in the Medieval World: A Source Book: 315-1791, written by Jacob Rader Marcus and republished by Marc Saperstein. Jacob Marcus writes that the author of the Megillah was a Rabbi Shmuel Sirillus who was a rabbi in Cairo at that time. He is the one who led the Tefillos to Hashem in that city during the frightening time when they were told they were going to be annihilated.
The language in the Megillah is reminiscent of Megillas Esther:
“And it came to pass in the days of King Sulaiman that in those days when King Sulaiman sat on the throne of the kingdom which was in Constantinople the great city, he considered all the provinces of his kingdom and he sent to each province a chief to judge its people in righteousness and equity.
After these things, King Sulaiman promoted one of his chiefs, whose name was Ahmed Shaitan, he placed his seat above all the chiefs that were with him {The Hebrew version says Satan as a pun instead of Shaitan)…… And he sent him to be a ruler over the land of Egypt
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“.And it came to pass when the Jews heard this thing…..they proclaimed a fast and wept and they put earth upon their heads and they put on sack cloth…The couriers went out….
The Jews were assembled and agreed to fast on the twenty-seventh of the month Adar and to make the twenty-eighth day a feast and rejoicing and for sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor because the Holy One had done to them marvels and wonderful things and had helped them out of the hands of those who had sought their life.”
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Dr. Benjamin Hary, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in his Multiglossia in Judeo-Arabic; With an Edition, Translation and Grammatical Study of the Cairene Scroll, has compared many of the manuscripts of the Cairene Purim scrolls which are found all over the world. He states some of these scrolls are devoid of proper names of people and places. It is his belief that these may have been the scrolls which were read during periods when Jews did not feel safe in their environment and were afraid to offend their neighbors while the scrolls that do contain the names of the people and the places were read during peaceful times..
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The Purim of Cairo is only one of the dozens of Purims that have been celebrated by Jews in different communities through the centuries. . There were those that took place in Italy (Ancona when saved from an earthquake in 1690) Romania (when Jews were saved from a decree to burn them in the cemetery1574) and,Rhodes ( in 1840, the gentile child Jews were accused of murdering, suddenly turned up alive) to name just a few. This Purim of Cairo, which had lasted and been celebrated continuously for several hundred years is now joining the other communal Purims which have slowly disappeared into oblivion.
Let us remember however, the important lesson of all these Purims, that which we we recite every Pesach, “Bechol Dor Vador, Omdim Aleinu Lechaloseinu, VeHakadosh Baruch Hu Matzileinu Miyadom! In every generation, there are those that rise to destroy us but Hashem (always) saves us from them.
By Pearl Herzog
AMI