MERV

MERV (modern Baīram Alī), ancient city in Turkmenistan. According to a tradition reported by the 12th-century Muslim historian al-Bayhaqī, Ezra the scribe is said to have traveled from Palestine to Merv, building a synagogue which was still in existence in the 11th century. In connection with tax reforms carried out in the time of the caliph Omar II (717–20), a certain Akiva the Jew, of Merv, is mentioned as being responsible for the collection of taxes from the Jews there. That a Jewish community continued in existence is attested by a disputation held in Merv in 1336 between Christian monks and one of the leaders of the community, and by a judeo-persian dictionary composed there in 1473. Nineteenth-century European travelers (J. Wolff , E.N. Adler , etc.) refer to the numbers and occupations of the Jews in Merv. After the forced conversion of the Jewish community in meshed (1839), many jadīd al-Islām converts found refuge in Merv. No recent information is available. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: W.J. Fischel, in: Zion, 1 (1935), 49–74; idem, in: HJ, 7 (1945), 29–50. (Walter Joseph Fischel)