When Jews Found Refuge in the Sikh Empire

In the first half of the 19th century, visitors to the Sikh Empire, centered in modern-day Pakistan, were amazed by the splendor of its royal court. London’s Victoria and Albert Museum describes it as “one of the most magnificent in the whole of India.” Ranjit Singh, the maharaja who ruled in opulence, maintained a solid gold throne for state occasions, though he usually preferred to eschew luxury and often sat on the floor with his subjects.

Ranjit Singh was a brilliant military leader and statesman known as “The Lion of the Punjab.” He was a member of the Sikh faith, a monotheistic religion which developed in the 1400s in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. The Sikh Empire he forged stood for 50 years, until it was conquered by British East India forces in 1849. During Ranjit Singh’s rule, the Sikh Empire was known for religious tolerance. In the annals of the region’s bloody history, his rule stood out as a golden age of peace and security.

The Golden Throne of Ranjit Singh, about 1820-30, Museum no. 2518(IS)

In an almost forgotten episode of both Jewish and Sikh history, the Sikh Empire Ranjit Singh founded came to the aid of Jews in their hour of need. In the midst of horrific anti-Jewish violence miles away, the Sikh Empire opened its doors to Jews, helping save hundreds of lives. The Sikh Empire became a home to a now long-forgotten Jewish community in the heart of Pakistan’s Punjab region.

Jews in a Holy Iranian City

While the Sikh Empire was flourishing, over a thousand miles to the northwest a very different region was engaged in long-running fights and violence. In the early 1800s, the city of Mashhad - today Iran’s third largest city - was a semi-autonomous region, buffeted by local fighting and struggles between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

In the annals of the region’s bloody history, Ranjit Singh’s rule stood out as a golden age of peace and security.

Regarded as a holy city by Shi’ite Muslims, no non-Muslim was allowed to live in Mashhad. Nevertheless, Mashhad was home to a small Jewish population who were caught up in the region’s struggles. The story of how this unlikely Jewish community came to be was a testament to the region's war-torn history.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh

Even though Mashhad was a tortuous, months-long journey away from the regions of the Sikh Empire, the Jews of Mashhad were intimately linked to the homeland of the Sikhs. A generation earlier, the fearsome Persian ruler Nader Shah had conquered the Punjab region, as well as other vast swathes of territory in India. Known for his bloody cruelty, Nader Shah tortured and killed his enemies with abandon - Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others - and plundered as many priceless riches as he could from the Indian subcontinent.

Shah brought his treasures back to Mashhad for safekeeping. There was only one problem: Nader Shah was a Sunni Muslim and the majority of the population of Mashhad were members of the Shi’ite branch of Islam. He feared that local Shi’ites would turn on him and steal his riches. So, in 1741, Shah turned to nearby Jewish communities, forcing scores of Jewish families from their homes and communities to move to Mashhad, where they were compelled to guard his spoils.

The fact that Mashhad, as a holy Muslim city, was closed to non-Muslims didn’t bother Shah at all: He ordered a special quarter constructed for the Jews, separating them from the rest of the city. This ghetto was known as the “Idgah,” or “place of celebrations.” The Jews were considered dhimmis, people who were tolerated but had to put up with a lesser status than the Muslim majority, display obsequiousness to their Muslim betters, and pay special taxes.

For over 90 years, the Jews of Mashhad nonetheless flourished, building a vibrant community filled with a central synagogue, Jewish schools, and cultural institutions. Many of Mashhad's Jews worked as international traders, bringing vital industry to their corner of Persia. Yet they were often barely tolerated, resented for their separate religion and for their material success by their Muslim neighbors.

A Persian Pogrom

Anti-Jewish sentiment in Mashhad finally boiled over on March 27, 1839, two days before the start of Passover. Local Shi’ite Muslims had just celebrated a Muslim festival remembering the death of Imam Hussein, founder of the Shi’ite sect of Islam. Religious fervor was bubbling throughout the Muslim neighborhoods. Tragically, all it took was the actions of one teenage boy to bring it to a violent pitch.

A Jewish woman had consulted a local Muslim doctor about ways to cure what he diagnosed as a case of leprosy. Bizarrely, the doctor advised her to use dog blood as part of a cure. When he heard this, a local Muslim teenaged boy began yelling that a Jewish woman had taken a dog and named it Hussein, like the founder of their religion. Anu: The Museum of the Jewish People, in Tel Aviv, describes what happened next:

…try and visualize the picture. Thousands of Muslims are observing the (religious holiday) in the mosques, which includes self-flagellation and bloodletting to commemorate the suffering of their holy one, Hussein. And at the height of this ecstatic ritual, they hear that the dhimmi, who were residents of inferior status - and in this case the Jews - had dared to disrespect one of the holiest Muslims by naming a dog Hussein….

Shi’ite Muslims rampaged through the Jewish ghetto, attacking everyone they could find. The attackers raped Jewish women, kidnapped Jewish children, and murdered over 30 Jews during the pogrom. They burned down the town’s synagogue and stole Jewish property as they devastated the community. Finally, the attackers gave the Jews of Mashhad a devastating choice: either convert to Islam en masse, or else the mob would kill the Jews’ children.

About 300 of Mashhad’s Jews converted to Islam; local Muslims called it the Allahdad, or “God’s justice.” For generations, the Jewish community maintained their Jewish traditions and way of life in secret, much like the secret Jews of Spain during the Inquisition. Hundreds of Jews fled. Given their region’s historic links with the Punjab area, and the well-known openness of the Sikh Empire which ruled the Punjab at the time, many Jews fleeing Mashhad sought refuge there, particularly in the city of Rawalpindi, near the present-day Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

A Jewish Home in a Sikh Heartland

Once in Rawalpindi, the fleeing Jews of Mashhad settled in Rawalpindi's Babu Mohallah neighborhood. It was located close to the city’s main railway station, so it was an ideal location from which to continue working in international trade.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh on horseback, unknown artist, Punjab, 1838-1840. Museum no. IS.112-1953

Transplanted to a new land, the Jews of Mashhad were no longer barely-tolerated hated interlopers as they had been back in Persia; in the Sikh Empire, these desperate Jewish refugees now enjoyed a level of security and respect they'd never had in Mashhad. The Jewish refugees built a beautiful synagogue and a communal hall in Rawalpindi, and flourished for over a century. Ranjit Singh, who founded the Sikh Empire, died in the same year that his kingdom welcomed Mashhad's Jews. Yet his legacy of openness and tolerance ensured that the Mashhad Jews remained safe in their new home.

Mashadi Jewish Community Synagogue, The Jewish Museum London

Jews remained in Rawalpindi long after the death of the Sikh Empire in 1849. Yet the tolerance and acceptance that the Sikh Empire showed to these desperate refugees should never be forgotten. In a terrible moment of deadly danger, the Sikh Empire opened its doors, saving the lives of hundreds of Jews.

Few Memories Today

With the partition of the Indian subcontinent into two nations, Pakistan and India, in 1947, most of the area’s Jews fled to India, settling predominately in Bombay, and later moving to Israel. Nearly all of the Jews who remained in Rawalpindi left in the 1960s.

Saif Tahir, a writer in Pakistan, visited the old Jewish neighborhood in Rawalpindi in 2016 and found it completely devoid of Jews; locals were too afraid to even talk about the Jews who once lived in their city. He did find one old synagogue that was still standing; the exterior of the building was adorned with Jewish stars of David. Tahir noted that it looked much like a synagogue in India built by Jews from Iraq and Iran in the 1800s.

The haven that the Jews of Mashhad found in 1839, when Rawalpindi was part of a progressive, open Sikh Empire, is long gone. The welcome and safety that they received there, when Rawalpindi was part of an expansive and open Sikh Empire, deserve to be remembered today.

Click here to read this version in Punjabi.