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Monday, October 5, 2009

Well it was too good to be true.

Meir Javedanfar, writing at The Guardian, says many of the supporting facts just aren't true as stated, and it sounds pretty convincing (as convincing as the original evidence at least): Ahmadinejad has no Jewish roots

...Professor David Yeroshalmi, author of The Jews of Iran in the 19th century and an expert on Iranian Jewish communities, disputes the validity of this argument. "There is no such meaning for the word 'sabour' in any of the Persian Jewish dialects, nor does it mean Jewish prayer shawl in Persian. Also, the name Sabourjian is not a well-known Jewish name," he stated in a recent interview. In fact, Iranian Jews use the Hebrew word "tzitzit" to describe the Jewish prayer shawl. Yeroshalmi, a scholar at Tel Aviv University's Center for Iranian Studies, also went on to dispute the article's findings that the "-jian" ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews. "This ending is in no way sufficient to judge whether someone has a Jewish background. Many Muslim surnames have the same ending," he stated.

Upon closer inspection, a completely different interpretation of "Sabourjian" emerges. According to Robert Tait, a Guardian correspondent who travelled to Ahmadinejad's native village in 2005, the name "derives from thread painter - sabor in Farsi - a once common and humble occupation in the carpet industry in Semnan province, where Aradan is situated". This is confirmed by Kasra Naji, who also wrote a biography of Ahmadinejad and met his family in his native village. Carpet weaving or colouring carpet threads are not professions associated with Jews in Iran.

According to both Naji and Tait, Ahmadinejad's father Ahmad was in fact a religious Shia, who taught the Quran before and after Ahmadinejad's birth and their move to Tehran. So religious was Ahmad Sabourjian that he bought a house near a Hosseinieh, a religious club that he frequented during the holy month of Moharram to mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hossein...

Hey, it was fun while it lasted.

James Taranto jokes:

...Meir Javedanfar argues in London's Guardian that the claim is a myth, and we must confess we are a bit skeptical. Sabourjian sounds to us like an Armenian name to us. This revelation may end up complicating Tehran's relations with Ankara.

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Ahmadinejad Jewish? No, Says Israeli Scholar.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/16900

No, not a joke. The Telegraph sounds pretty sure, actually. If true, the great Jew-hater of our generation is as Jewish as Karl Marx and a lot of other such people whose parents converted out of the faith -- actually... Read More

1 Comment

If he writes for the Guardian then it must BS.
:-)

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