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JAZIRAT IBN ?UMAR

(2008)

JAZIRAT IBN ?UMAR, town located N. of *Mosul in northern *Iraq . During the reign of the *Abb?sid Caliphs and the Crusades, Jaz?rat ibn ?Umar was an important town which maintained close commercial ties with *Armenia . From the earliest times, a large Jewish population existed in this region which was known as "Kardu." *Benjamin of Tudela , in the second half of the 12th century, stated that there were 4,000 Jews residing there. He added that the town was located near the Ararat Mountains, where Noah's ark rested, and that ?Umar ibn al-Kha???b made a mosque out of the ark.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

J. Obermeyer, Die Landschaft Babylonien (1929), index; A. Ben-Jacob, Kehillot Yehudei Kurdistan (1961), 22, 24–25, 30.

[Eliyahu Ashtor]

 


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.