The "Cup of Joy"—the oldest surviving kiddush cup—is one of the most remarkable medieval objects to appear at auction in recent years. As a test.mes nt to cross-cultural influences along the Silk Route and an extraordinary example of the luxury arts of the Seljuk period, it is unparalleled. Most unique, however, is an inscription in Hebrew on the body, which gives the name of the owner and wishes him a long life. This cup embodies powerful evidence of a longstanding Jewish community in Khurasan, on the fabled Silk Roads at the very heart of Asia, a presence which has only begun to come to light through the rediscovery of its material culture in recent decades.

Given that this cup can be securely dated to the 11th-12th century, it is almost certainly the earliest extant kiddush cup known, and one of the earliest surviving medieval Jewish ritual objects from anywhere in the Islamic world.

This is an object which bridges cultures and constitutes a profound witness to a period of cooperation and openness between people of different faiths.

This cup was designed to both fit into the palm of a hand and to be a practical yet luxurious serving vessel for wine. The body has been hammered out of a single sheet of silver, with the overall design carried out through a combination of repoussé and chasing, while the decoration has been carved into the surface and inlaid with niello. The rim is flat and vertical, with a very slightly out-turned lip. The body is essentially hemispherical in form, although the sides continue vertically downward from the rim for some way. The body is divided into twelve flutes, each divided by a deep groove, tapering to a triangular point at the base where it curves to meet the foot. Of cylindrical, slightly concave form, the foot is indented vertically as well as at top and bottom, creating an elegant, ribbed pattern. On the inside base of the bowl is a six-petalled flower executed in repoussé, which would only have been seen when the cup was empty or tilted for use. The overall form of the cup, with the hemispherical body on a rounded concave foot, is paralleled in slightly later inlaid Khurasani brasses. Among the best-known of these are the "Wade Cup" in the Cleveland Museum of Art and the "Vaso Vescovali" in the British Museum.^[1]

The inscriptions around the rim are written in a series of six slightly cusped rectangular cartouches, each of which is followed by a roundel containing a bird in profile, alternating facing right and left. Each flute on the body is decorated, alternating between a calligraphic cartouche above a small bird in a teardrop-shaped element, and a large bird (probably a peacock) in a vase-shaped element above a small rectangular field with vine scrolls. One rib also contains a Hebrew inscription just below the rim. The overall effect is one of symmetry, with a regular spacing of birds in roundels or teardrop shapes contrasting with rectangular elements containing calligraphy and vine scrolls.

The Arabic inscriptions on the cup offer general blessings to the owner. The inscription around the rim is written within cartouches in a relatively wide, cursive naskh script and some letters or parts of words have been split between cartouches or dropped entirely. The background is largely filled with a thick, scrolling design of vine leaves, leaving space for only a small amount of niello to show. This part of the inscription reads:

The inscription around the body is written in an angular kufic script, with an emphasis on ascenders (particularly alifs and lams) ending in a serif which flattens against the top of the cartouche. The restrained style of the kufic inscription on the cup is closely matched by an inkwell, dated to the 11th century, which was excavated from the site of the royal palace of Ghazni and has three trapezoidal silver plates attached to the shoulder, bearing an inscription reading bi’l-yumn wa’l-bara[ka].^[2] The vine scroll is less apparent here than on the rim inscription, but the same process of splitting words or dropping parts is apparent. The inscription reads:

A number of points can be gathered from these inscriptions. The first is the combination of naskh and kufic, which is typical of Khurasani silver from this period. The same pairing can be seen, for example, on a gilded and nielloed silver jug sold in these rooms in 2021 where the band around the rim is in a loosely written naskh while that around the shoulder is in a more restrained floriated kufic.^[3] On a silver bottle in the Hermitage, which Marshak dates to the 11th century, there is an even greater contrast between the small, highly mannered kufic inscriptions on the neck and body, and the large, free-flowing naskh around the shoulder.^[4] A brass casket shows the continuation of this style into the late 12th or early 13th century, where bands of naskh at the shoulder and base are separated by a "belt" of cartouches containing kufic inscriptions, themselves divided by roundels.^[5]

A second point is the combination of phrases found across the two inscriptions. During the 10th and early 11th century, the opening phrase employed on Khurasani silver and bronze vessels was baraka wa yumn (“blessing and fortune”), likewise seen on Samanid epigraphic pottery. By the mid-11th century and into the 12th, the preferred expression was bi’l-yumn wa’l-baraka, as inscribed on the present cup. In his study of a silver bottle in the Hermitage, Marshak divides 11-12th century silver vessels into "western" (Iranian) and "eastern" (Khurasani, Khwarezmian, and Transoxianian) groups. One of the key diagnostics of the former group is the use of the phrase ‘izz wa iqbal, while the latter group employs bi’l-yumn wa’l-baraka. By the early 12th century, interactions between the two metalworking schools took place in Khurasan as the Great Seljuks brought both Iran and Central Asia under their rule. Marshak places the silver into approximately the same period as that proposed for the bowl, partially because both phrases (with slight variations) are found on its body. ^[6] By the 12th century this combination of phrases was also found on inlaid bronzes.^[7]

The final observation to be made about the Arabic inscriptions is the inclusion of what appear at first to be mistakes, especially in the kufic inscription around the body. These include the splitting of the word baraka ("blessing"), where the final kaf and ta marbuta are written in the following cartouche, or surur ("joy"), where the final waw and ra are either missing or written separately. These can either be read as abbreviations of the original word, or new words entirely— birr ("devotion") and sirr ("esoteric knowledge"). This ambiguity is relatively common in metalwork of the period, and has been interpreted as evidence of a taste for the mystical in the popular culture of the t.mes .^[8]

What makes this cup unique is the Hebrew inscription, engraved and inlaid with niello, which has been placed at the top of one of the cup’s ribs. It sits just below the rim and above a kufic cartouche. The inscription reads:

However, as the name Simchah also means "joy," there is another possible reading of the second line of the inscription:

The calligraphy appears to be of the Mesopotamian or Persian style, and of the 11th-12th century. This fits entirely with the proposed date of production for the cup, and adds weight to the scientific evidence that this inscription is contemporary to the cup. Interestingly, the Hebrew shows the influence of the Arabic-script majority culture in the region, with a shin the second stroke of which points to the right, the aleph taller than the other letters, the combining of bet and nun, and the shape of the nun and zadik. It is therefore clear that the Persianate culture of eastern Khurasan was a welcoming one into which the writer felt comfortable at least partly assimilating.

The report by Dr. David Northover on the niello notes that both the Hebrew and Arabic inscriptions contain ternary sulphide niellos of copper, silver and lead, appropriate for the proposed dating of the cup. Moreover, he states that the proportions of these three elements in the niello of the Hebrew inscription are very close to those of the Arabic, and that the two inlays could be close in date. This would bear out the assumption that the Hebrew inscription is that of first owner of the cup, either the patron who commissioned it or the person to whom it had been gifted. The Hebrew appears to have made use of scrap metal such as bronze to make the niello, which accounts for the slight differences in composition.

The Hebrew name Simchah, designating a male, is attested to on several Jewish tombstones discovered near the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan dating to the early medieval period.^[9] In addition, the Persian name Shadhi ("joy"), and its variant Shadhan are also found on Jewish tombstones of this period, suggesting an atmosphere of intercultural diglossia in which Hebrew and Persian could be used interchangeably depending on the social setting.^[10]

Although secondary to the bold inscription bands around the rim and body, the bird and vine scrolls on the cup are important for better understanding the possible meanings it carried as well as identifying other comparable pieces. The motif of birds in roundels or rounded shapes is commonly seen on silver from eastern Khurasan and its surrounding regions and ultimately derives from Sassanian royal iconography.

The kingly associations of birds in roundels clearly survived into the early Islamic period, as seen on textiles and fine metalwork,^[11] and by the t.mes that our cup was produced this design had simply become part of the general metalworkers’ repertoire, although perhaps with some lingering aura of nobility. A 10th century silver jug exemplifies this step towards birds in roundels as pure pattern, and shows the link between earlier pieces and those of the 11th and 12th century. More directly comparable to those on our cup are the birds on a silver and niello handled cup in the Hermitage Museum.^[12] With their long, rising tails, slender profile and erect posture, the larger birds in vase-shaped elements around the body of the cup are almost certainly peacocks.

It is even possible that Simchah may have made a connection between the peacocks and the name of his father—Salman—as the name would have been understood by members of the Jewish community as a parallel to Sulayman, the Arabic rendering of Solomon. This illustrious monarch of the Hebrew Bible is credited, among other things, with importing peacocks (Hebrew: tukkiyim) from Tarshish (Kings I 10:22). More generally, in the Qur’an Sulayman is associated with birds including the hudhud (hoopoe) and salwa (quail). The presence of birds, especially peacocks, on this cup can be seen to carry both royal and mystical significance when seen in this light.^[13] The royal element in particular is evoked by a very fine tray bearing the title of a ruler of Khwarazm, south of the Aral Sea, attributed to 1034- 41. It features a teardrop-shaped device in each corner containing a standing bird with two long feathers forming its tail, exactly like those featured on the main body of the bowl.^[14]

The vine scrolls in rectangular elements which are placed on the cup at the base of alternating ribs point to connections with slightly earlier pieces from Khurasan or Transoxiana. The closest match is with the ornamentation found on the niello-inlaid jewelry from the "Sayram-Su Hoard," discovered near the city of Shymkent in modern day Kazakhstan. The fragmentary nature of the pieces, which were probably collects ed to be recycled, makes an exact dating for the group difficult but they certainly pre-date the Mongol invasion of the 1220s.^[15] The relatively tight and fleshy forms of the vine scrolls on the jewelry closely parallel those on the cup.^[16] The vines also subtly reference the intended contents of the cup, as well as the widely-held connotations of gardens, fertility, and even Paradise itself.^[17]

Kiddush, a Jewish blessing recited over wine, is an important and regularly occurring ceremony in Jewish religious life marking the sanctification of the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. It is also recited at the havdalah service designating the end of the Sabbath and festivals, as well as at important life cycle events such as marriages and circumcisions. Reflecting the religious significance of the Kiddush ceremony, Kiddush cups are customarily produced as luxury objects, made from silver or other fine materials. While certain ritual objects— such as Hanukkah lamps and Kiddush cups—were essential for Jewish ceremonies, Jewish law offered little guidance on their specific materials and form. Rather, rabbinic law is more concerned with the cleanliness of the vessel and its functional purpose in containing the wine than the actual design. Consequently, the cup itself can take many forms and often reflects the tastes and techniques of the majority culture.^[18] Jewish communities most commonly adopted and adapted objects from the societies in which they lived.

Wine has been a central part of the Sabbath ritual and access was essential for far-flung Jewish communities in the Middle East. Around the t.mes that the cup was made, the Tunisian Jewish trader Abraham ben Yiju, who was living in Malabar on the western coast of India, had a bottle of wine for Kiddush in his luggage when he travelled out and another one sent to him via Aden, testifying to its centrality in medieval Jewish religious life.^[19]

The technique of inlaying silver with niello was used in Persia under the Sassanian dynasty (226-642), and its survival into the early Islamic period is described in written sources. Silver and niello appear to have been used for inscribed finger rings among the zurafa’ ("refined ones") of 10th century Baghdad, and one of the doors of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was decorated with silver and niello plaques bearing the name of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-33).^[20] This points to a specific taste for this kind of metalwork in the imperial center at a relatively early stage, which would fit with the Abbasid cultural reorientation towards the Iranian plateau and an increased interest in Sassanian ceremonial.

Finds of hoarded precious metal objects have provided a helpful, but necessarily incomplete, idea of the types of objects made around the same t.mes as this cup. Perhaps the earliest of these is a group of silver vessels bearing the name of the amir Abu’l-Abbas Valkin ibn Harun, now in the Archaeological Museum, Tehran, comprises what appears to be a tableware set of eleven items including bowls, saucers, a ewer, a cup, a bottle, a vase, a cup, and a dish.^[21] This can be dated to around the year 1000, based on the similarity between the inscriptions on the vessels and dated inscriptions on stone from Luristan, Iran.^[22]

A group in the British Museum, known as the "Nihavand Hoard" after its assumed findspot near the city of Hamadan in western Iran, consists of around 40 precious metal objects, one of which bears an inscription naming "the Chamberlain, the eminent Abu Shuja InjuTakin." This name is distinctly Turkish and along with the titulature suggests that the owner was a relatively high-ranking courtier of the Seljuk period. The hoard includes an exquisite 11th century gold cup inscribed in kufic with two couplets of a wine poem and decorated with birds and arabesques.^[23] The rest of the hoard is entirely composed of silver objects decorated with gilding or niello. These include horse trappings, parts of weapons, an amulet case, and belt elements.^[24] Given their diminutive proportions and light weight, these pieces can be associated with the military elite of the t.mes , who would have spent much of their t.mes on campaign. Of particular note is the juxtaposition of the gold cup with Bacchic poetry and a silver amulet case with Qur’anic verses, which is typical of the interplay between faith and pleasure in the lifestyle of the Seljuk elite.^[25]

Perhaps the most spectacular grouping is the "Harari Hoard," once owned by the collects or Ralph Harari and now in the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem. This group of silver and niello inlaid objects is extremely luxurious, containing incense burners, caskets, cups, a bowl, rosewater bottles, and horse trappings.^[26] The pieces reflect the high life of the medieval Persianate world, suggesting an emphasis on the enjoyment of wine, rosewater, and incense. Although apparently found together in northern Iran it consists of two separate groups, one made in late 10th century Khurasan, the other around a century later in northern Iran.^[27]

Other important examples of Khurasani silver in museums outside of Russia include a unique medical box now in the Linden-Museum Stuttgart, attributed to the 11th-12th century. This remarkable object is rectangular in shape and contains five compartments for different aromatics or materia medica, including camphor and musk. Its aesthetic, however, is quite different to the cup, with a much heavier use of niello as well as gilding.^[28] Somewhat closer to the cup’s aesthetic is a lidded jug attributed to the first half of the 12th century in the David collects ion, Copenhagen.^[29] Perhaps the latest in the group of silver vessels produced in Iran and Khurasan is the bottle in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. This piece provides the link between the niello-inlaid silver vessels made from the early Islamic period onward with the bit.mes n- and metal-inlaid brasses of 12-13th century Herat.

By the mid-12th century, silver was replaced by inlaid brass, probably as the result of a major silver shortage which affected the entire Islamic world. This probably forced the silversmiths of Khurasan, especially Herat, to turn to brass as a cheaper and more readily available material which suited their needs as well as the requirements of the market.^[30] This provides a natural terminus ante quem for our cup.

Silver objects from the medieval Islamic world are exceptionally rare. Despite their obvious importance as part of the elite lifestyle, only around one hundred high-quality silver objects made before 1500 are still extant. One reason for this is religious in origin. According to a hadith (Prophetic Tradition), Muslims are forbidden from eating or drinking from gold and silver vessels. The use of precious metals for serving food and refreshments was deeply-rooted in the pre-Islamic Middle East, as seen in the spectacular products of the Sassanian and Soghdian realms which today take pride of place in the world’s great museums.^[31] Its continued popularity is shown by an edict of al-Hajjaj, the Umayyad governor of Iraq and Iran from 694-714, banning this practice. Around the t.mes that this cup was made, an encyclopedic work was produced which gave over an entire chapter to the lawful uses of precious metal vessels, showing that such religious anxieties had not disappeared in the Islamic world.^[32] Such proclamations could only serve to underline the wide spread of the practice, and as with the consumption of wine, the prohibition of gold and silver vessels was mostly honored in the breach.

Perhaps more important for understanding the rarity of these vessels today is their inherent value. As with jewelry, fashions changed and while bronze or other less precious metals might not be worth recycling, silver was inherently scarce. If someone wished to, for example, honor someone or mark an occasion with the presentation of a silver cup, it would be far more economical to simply melt down an old or damaged heirloom piece than pay for new metal as well as the cost of shaping and decorating it. In addition, the practice of burying the dead with grave goods, which has provided rich finds for archaeologists working on Ancient Egypt, China, or Europe, is largely avoided in the Islamic world. Except when buried as hoards, gold and silver pieces tended to remain in circulation and were subject to the depredations of t.mes .^[33]

That this cup has survived to the present day, against all the odds, is nothing short of miraculous.

The other means by which fine silver vessels from Khurasan survived is a fascinating story. They played an essential role in the economy of the "Fur Roads," a long-distance system of trade which linked the luxury markets of Central Asia and the wider Islamic world with the Siberian hunters and trappers who procured furs and pelts from the forests of the north.^[34] As a result, many of the finest surviving early medieval Islamic silver vessels are now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, to where they were transferred after being found in the north of Russia.^[35]

As might be expected, large-scale working of precious metals took place near the mines where the raw materials were excavated. Medieval historians point to the rich mineral wealth of Afghanistan and Central Asia in their accounts.

A further point develops from another medieval Jewish ceremonial object, from Ghur in central Afghanistan. A yad (Torah pointer) dated to the pre-Mongol period bears an inscription referring presumably to its owner, "David, son of Moses, goldsmith" (see Jewish material culture of the eastern Islamic lands, below). The term used for his profession is the Persian word zargar rather than the Hebrew equivalent.^[47] This points to the Jewish community of 12th and early 13th century Afghanistan as being involved in the working of precious metals, which would support the notion that whoever carried out the engraving and niello inlaying on the cup was a member of the Jewish community specializing in luxury metalwork. Given that Ghur apparently had a large, settled Jewish community, including at least one craftsman working in precious metal, it is conceivable that this or another urban center could also be the place of production for our cup. The heavy involvement of minority groups in the jewelry and metalwork business is paralleled elsewhere in this period, most notably in Mosul, Iraq, where there is evidence for Jewish and Christian jewelers well into the period of Mongol domination.^[48]

Contrary to the popular image of the medieval world as a harsh and inflexible place where people followed religion to the letter and never crossed ethnic, religious, or class divides, it was quite the opposite. Nowhere was this more keenly felt than in Khurasan around the t.mes that this cup was made. This region was a melting pot of cultures and faiths. Local Sunni and Shia Muslims rubbed shoulders with settled communities of Jews and Christians, while people from across Eurasia mingled in the great urban entrepôts. While Islam was increasingly a unifying factor, especially as conversion increased under the Seljuks, this did not.mes an that pre-existing local customs were abandoned.

Perhaps the clearest evidence for the convivial, relaxed culture of medieval Khurasan—and indeed, of the Islamic world in general—is its wine culture. This is beautifully expressed on the gold cup found in the Nihavand Hoard, which is inscribed with the verses of the 10th century poet Ibn al-Tammar al-Wasiti:

Although it is correct to argue that drinking alcohol is forbidden in Islam—for which one could point to banning prayer for the intoxicated (Q.5:90-1), or bracketing strong drink with games of chance as an evil to be avoided (Q.2:219)—it is also true that literary and historical sources from across the premodern Islamic world are replete with drunken sultans, bibulous judges, and tipsy viziers. Wine poetry, such as on the bowl mentioned above, could be licentious but at the same t.mes the potential for mystical readings was fully explored by those of a more Sufi bent.^[50]

"Khurasan," which originally meant "sunrise" or "east," has had several different.mes anings over the centuries. In the broadest sense, it could refer to all the Islamised lands from the eastern half of Iran and into Central Asia. In the more reduced sense (which is intended in this essay) it refers to what is now northeastern Iran, most of Afghanistan, the southern half of Turkmenistan, and some small parts of western Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In this definition, its eastern border ends at the river Oxus, with the great cities of Bukhara and Samarkand sitting on the other side (hence the Arabic Mawarannahr, "what is beyond the river" and the English Transoxiana, "across the Oxus"). To the north, along the banks of the Oxus as it reaches the Aral Sea, is the region of Khwarazm, which in the medieval period was a wealthy kingdom with its capital at Gurganj.

Most of Khurasan fell under Arab control during the 7th century, although its eastern regions resisted longer and some, like Balkh, did not fully submit for nearly a century. Conversion to Islam was also a protracted affair, as the new rulers engaged with a diverse group of conquered peoples and their faiths, including Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism. By the early 9th century, the Samanid dynasty (819-1005) seized control of Khurasan and Transoxiana, nominally recognizing the authority of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad but effectively ruling independently. Under their rule, New Persian was developed, written in the Arabic script, and this was where the national poet of Iran, Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi, began writing the epic Shahnama ("Book of Kings"). This set the scene for our cup, where Arabic was the language of adab ("culture" or "refinement") and Persian the everyday language.^[51] Subsequently, Khurasan was fought over by the Ghaznavids (977- 1186), a Turkic dynasty who ruled from Ghazni in Afghanistan, and the Seljuks, a confederation of Turkic tribes who entered the settled lands of Iran and Central Asia and formed a great empire, of which Khurasan was the core. During this period, the major cities of the region—Nishapur, Balkh, Herat, and Merv—were crucibles of cultural and artistic developments, driving advances in everything from poetry, science, and rhetoric to fine ceramics, textiles, and metalwork. ^[52] These urban centers contained all the necessary ingredients for creating a cup as fine as Simchah ben Salman’s—an educated, diverse, well-to-do middle class which wanted fine objects, and highly-skilled and creative craft.mes n who could fulfil their needs.^[53]

The Silk Road was in reality part of a series of smaller, interconnected networks which stretched from Western Europe to China and Southeast Asia, and from the Equator to the Arctic. Among the many peoples who travelled these routes—traders and priests, free and enslaved, Arab and Turk, Muslim and Zoroastrian—were Jewish merchants. Some of the earliest finds of a Judeo-Persian text is a letter written around 791, found at Dandan Uiliq in the Taklamakan Desert of western China. Given the extensive use of Soghdian loanwords, and the find of a Jewish prayer document elsewhere at the site, Jewish traders appear to have travelled at least as far as the Central Asian borders of China at this early stage.^[54] Cities such as Bamiyan, Balkh, and Nishapur were key waypoints on the Silk Roads, where the settled Jewish communities could meet with people from across the known world to swap stories, make deals, and perhaps even learn something of one another.

The center of Jewish life in Khurasan was the city of Balkh and its environs. Located in what is now the far north of Afghanistan, it was for centuries one the greatest cities of the region, referred to as the "mother of cities" for its great antiquity, size and wealth. The Jewish community was believed by medieval Muslim historians as having been settled there by the Neo-Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II after his destruction of Jerusalem in 568 BCE. Balkh was also believed to have been where the prophet Jeremiah fled in search of safety, and the site of the prophet Ezekiel’s grave. During the Islamic period, the community was required to maintain a public garden, and in the 11th century Mahmud of Ghana imposed a special tax upon them, which was limited to no more than 500 dirhams. The community appears to have participated in long-distance trade into the 13th century, with a Jewish merchant from Balkh recorded as travelling to India.^[55] One of the seven main city gates of Balkh was named the Bab al-Yahud ("Gate of the Jews"). The modern city of Maymanah, situated to the southwest of Balkh, is recorded as being originally named al-Yahudiyya or al-Yahudan ("the Jewry") in the 10th century. Even the classical Arabic names for the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, the Jayhun and the Sayhun, were apparently based on the names of the Gihon and the Pison, two of the rivers of Paradise mentioned in Genesis.^[56]

The medieval Islamic historians are unequivocal in their descriptions of a large and flourishing Jewish community in this part of Afghanistan. More recently, the discovery of surviving documents from early medieval Bamiyan and its rural hinterlands, have proved that these communities existed and provided new insights into their everyday lives. The "Afghan Geniza" or "Bamiyan Papers" consists of several hundred pages of texts and documents from the 11th-13th century. The earlier part of the cache dates to the first half of the 11th century and represents a family archive of business dealings, receipts and general correspondence as well as more personal texts. The latter part dates to the late 12th and early 13th century and is more heterogeneous in nature, containing administrative and tax matters alongside personal letters, Jewish and Muslim religious texts, and mixed literary documents. The Jewish community appears to have been highly literate, using a combination of Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Arabic, Early New Persian, and Early Judeo-Persian. Much of this archive has since been acquired by the National Library of Israel.^[57]

One fascinating find within these texts is the appearance, in an account book of Yehuda ben Daniel, of a man named Simchah ben Shlomo. ^[58] He is recorded as owing money for silk garments, wheat, and further unidentified goods. Given that Shlomo and Salman are simply different ways of rendering the same name, could we have found the patron of our cup? The book is dated 1018-28, which fits within the proposed dates for the cup’s production. It remains a tantalizing possibility, but one which (for now) cannot be proven.

A delightful piece of evidence for the shared vinous culture of Jews and Muslims in medieval Khurasan is provided by another document from the Afghan Genizah. Rather than a legal document or account book, this is a Persian poem in which the author (who is probably a Muslim) addresses Abu’l-Hasan Siman-Tov ben Yehuda, a prominent.mes mber of Bamiyan’s community, with a panegyric. After flattering him in ever extravagant terms, the poet arrives at his real point—that he hopes Siman-Tov will send the wine he previously promised and has probably forgotten. This vignette exemplifies how the buying, selling, gifting, receiving, and above all enjoyment of wine crossed religious and ethnic boundaries at this t.mes .^[59]

Another astonishing survival of an even earlier Jewish presence in Afghanistan is the Afghan Liturgical Quire. Found in a cave near Bamiyan in 1997, this is the oldest known Hebrew codex, dating to the early 8th century. It preserves the oldest known examples of three Jewish prayer texts—the Passover Haggadah, a siddur (prayer book), and piyyutim (liturgical poetry)—and so completely revolutionizes our view of both the Hebrew book and the practice of Jewish prayer.^[60]

The 12th century rabbi and traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, has left a remarkable account of the Jewish presence in Khurasan, which is worth quoting at length. He states that when travelling from Shiraz eastwards:

Although Rabbi Benjamin’s numbers may be somewhat exaggerated, they provide evidence that there were large numbers of Jews in Khurasan and Transoxiana during this period, and that they were wealthy members of society. This would be a natural and obvious setting for the Jewish-Islamic cultural crossover which led to the creation of our cup. Although he is correct in stating that there was a Jewish community in Nishapur, his flight into vague rumor suggests that he may not have witnessed it, whereas his descriptions of Ghazni and Samarkand are remarkably detailed.

There is some evidence that the communities of eastern Khurasan maintained a link with the religious authorities in Iraq and may even have originated there. Among the cache of documents in the Afghan Genizah is a page of the commentary on Isaiah chapters 33-4, composed in Judeo-Arabic by the great scholar and community leader Rav Sa’adiya Gaon (882-942). This 11th century copy of the text suggests that at least some Jewish inhabitants of Bamiyan were well-versed in Judeo-Arabic culture and had brought this work with them from an Arabic-speaking area, most likely Iraq.^[62] In addition, there are two instances where the term shaliakh ("messenger") is used on the tombstones from Jam, implying that the deceased were not settled in the region but had come from further afield. It is possible that these individuals may have been sent by the Babylonian authorities, possibly to collects funds, and had died before returning. This would speak to the wealth and size of the community, as well as its strong connections to the exilarchate of Baghdad.^[63]

Interestingly, even the Seljuk rulers themselves seem to have had a Jewish connection. Although by the 12th century they were unimpeachably Sunni Muslim, the Seljuks originated in the Khazar state, the elite of which converted to Judaism in the 8th century. This appears to echo in the distinctly Old Test.mes nt names of the first generation of Seljuk leaders—Mikha’il (Michael), Dawud (David), and Isra’il (Israel)—and suggests that at least some of their ruling class may have converted to Islam from Judaism rather than shamanism.^[64]

As an unequivocally Jewish ceremonial object from the early medieval period, this cup is exceptionally rare.

Nothing this early appears to survive from Europe, where the oldest known surviving kiddush cups appear to be from the first half of the 15th century, and even other ceremonial objects are no earlier than the 14th century. Older examples may exist, but unless an object carries a Hebrew inscription or other unambiguous cultural marker there is rarely anything to distinguish it from the culture of the gentiles within which the community was settled.^[65] Such adaptation to local culture can be seen just as clearly in the cup from Khurasan as it can be in later cups from Central Europe, where wealthy members of the Jewish community used fine silver cups exactly like those of their Muslim or Christian counterparts. Were it not for the Hebrew inscription on this cup, supported by the scientific evidence that it was placed there around the t.mes the cup was manufactured, there would be absolutely nothing to distinguish this from other pieces of fine silver made in eastern Khurasan.

The most closely comparable object to the present piece is another kiddush cup, made around a century later at the other end of the Seljuk domains. The cup is of conical form, made from joined sheets of brass and inlaid with silver. The Hebrew inscription around the rim, of which only a portion is still decipherable, has been read as “Shlomo the Tblisian… make a kiddush and let them drink.” This indicates that the cup was probably made in Georgia in the decades before the Jewish community there was dispersed by the Mongol invasion of 1236.^[66]

Another piece which recently came to light is a bronze yad (Torah pointer), which apparently came from the Ghur province of central Afghanistan (see page 23 for image). This is not only the oldest known example of its type, but also carries inscriptions in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Persian which name "David, son of Moses, goldsmith." The similarities in the form of the writing, as well as its content, to a Jewish tombstone from Ghur dated 1192 suggest a similar date for the yad, with the Mongol invasion of 1222 a probable terminus ante quem as this led to the uprooting of the Jewish community there.^[67]

Although they were not intended as ceremonial objects per se, an important physical trace of the Jewish community of Jam is found in its gravestones. First discovered as early as 1946, more inscriptions came to light over the following decades with the majority found while attempting to protect the Ghurid minaret of Jam. Dating from 1115 to 1246, these inscriptions are concrete material evidence shedding light on the cultural, historical, and linguistic world which this community inhabited.^[68]

The "Cup of Joy," inscribed with the name of Simchah ben Salman in the 11th-12th century, represents the earliest extant kiddush cup. In itself, that would make it an object of unique importance for Jewish, and indeed world, history. The fact that it can be securely placed in eastern Khurasan, perhaps in what is now Afghanistan, is truly sensational. Along with new evidence for the vital part which Jewish communities played in the eastern reaches of the Islamic world, it bears witness to a period of exceptional openness and collaboration between Jews and Muslims. What is clear from this cup, as well as from the Afghan Liturgical Quire found in Bamiyan, and the yad from Ghur, is that it is the Middle East and Central Asia, not Europe, which are providing the greatest insights into Jewish history. That this object has survived the vicissitudes of the last nine hundred years—the rise and fall of dynasties, the devastation wreaked by the Mongols, and the creation of modern nation states—in such fine condition is a test.mes nt to its beauty and importance. Whether it was hidden underground to escape rampaging armies or survived as a cherished family heirloom, it has clearly been treated with great respect.

Perhaps the most fitting conclusion to this essay is simply to paraphrase the inscriptions on the cup, and call the same blessings down on its new owner as they did for Simchah ben Salman:

Sotheby’s would like to thank William Greenwood, formerly of the British Museum, Museum of Islamic Art Qatar, and Zayed National Museum, for his scholarship and expertise in the cataloging of this lot.