Bassevi Basurto
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
May 2, 1634. He entered business early in ultimately became very wealthy, and stood in high favor with the emperors Rudolph II., Matthias, Buntzlau life,
and Ferdinand
whom
he, with other Jewish rendered financial assistance, particularly to Ferdinand, who needed large sums of money for the prosecutiou of the Thirty Years' II.,
to
capitalists, frequently
war
(1618-48). Bassevi, in recognition of his services, was raised to the nobility by Ferdinand, receiving the title " von Treuenberg," and a coat of arms consisting of a blue lion with eight red stars on a field of blue (according to Graetz or of black, according to Lieben). Ferdinand also bestowed upon him the right "to engage in any business whatever, in any part of the empire, whether cities, towns, or market-places, in Prague and Vienna, and other places where Jews are allowed to reside or are not to acquire property and to reside anywhere he pleases. His property
any form
be free from taxes, imposts, and duties he is allowed to reside in the imperial quarters and he is responsible to no tribunal, except that of the marshal of the court." Privileges were also granted to him by Rudolph and Matthias, all of them being hereditary. The supposition that he was minister of finance to Ferdinand is unfounded. As a representative of the Jewish community, reference to Bassevi is first found in 1616. He alin
to
ways exerted
his influence in behalf of the Jews of the empire and of Italy and it was due to his efforts, combined with those of other Jewish capitalists, that the Hebrew quarter in Prague was protected by a military guard against the attacks of the soldiery after the decisive battle of White Moun;
tain,
Bohemia, in 1621.
Bassevi was a warm friend of Rabbi Lippman Heller, and befriended him during the latter's arrest (July 5, 1629) and dismissal from office (Aug. 14, 1629) contributing from his own funds one-fifth of the fine of 812,000 imposed upon Heller. Bassevi was very charitable, and gave large sums for the support of the poor of Palestine. On account of some trouble, the nature of which is not known, Bassevi in 1631 removed from Prague to Gitschin, where lie lived for a year. He died, as stated above, at Jung-Buntzlau, Bohemia. Bibliography Gratz, Gettch. der Juden, x. 40 et seq., 47 et seq.; Lippman Heller, Koa Teshuot, pp. 4, 5, 9; Kalmann Lieben, Gal 'Ed. pp. 23-27 G. Wolf, Die Juden Unter Ferdinand II, in JahrhuehfRr die Gesch. der Juden und
des Judenthums,
238-239.
i.
A. R.
d.
BASSIN, ELIEZER:
Missionary at Jassy, Rumania born about 1840 in the government of Mohilev, Russia. In 1869 he went to Constantinople, where he made the acquaintance of English missionaries who persuaded him to embrace Christianity. He was the author of a work entitled " The Modern
Hebrew, and the Hebrew Christian," London, 1882. The work opens with an interesting autobiography relating the difficulties the author had had to overcome, after having been transferred from Constantinople to Russia as a deserter. One part of the book deals with the Jew ish religion and Jewish ritual cereT
In many passages the author gives information concerning the religious opinions of the Jews monies.
of Russia, and especially of those of the sect Habad,
586
founded at the end of the eighteenth century by Solomon Sneerson. In September, 1881, Bassin published a German paper entitled " Eintracht," pleading the cause of the Jews against the anti-Semitic agitation in Germany. Bibliography The Modem Hebrew and the Hebrew Chris:
tian, as above. I.
s.
BASSORA
Br.
City in a vilayet of the same name in Asiatic Turkey, about 54 miles from the Persian gulf and 1£ miles west of the Shatt al-'Arab; founded by the Arabs in 636. Nothing is known of the early history of the Jews in this city, but the eminence to which it rose, especially as a center of
must have early attracted them thither. Together with Wasit it was under the spiritual jurislearning,
Of the names of the diction of the school at Sura. Jews who lived there very few are known.
learned
Masarjaweih, one of the leading physicians and the oldest translator (883), was a Basrian also probably Mashallah, one of the first Arabic astrologers (770820), if his pupil Al-Khayyat is to be trusted, who calls him "Al-Basri" ("Z.D. M. G." liii. 428, 434). R. Joseph bar Satyah (942) settled in Bassora when the school at Sura was finally closed (Sherira, " Letter," ed. Neubauer, i. 40).
Benjamin of Tudela (twelfth century) gives the number of Jews there as about 2,000; and he found They these to be learned men and rich merchants. seem to have suffered with the other inhabitants during the Tatar invasion. It is said that 10,000 of them in Bassora, Mosul, and Hisn-Kef fell before the sword of Tamerlane (fourteenth century see Jost's " Annalen," 1839, p. 197). Texeira, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, does not mention Jews
there at
all.
The modern community seems
from the According to
to date
middle of the eighteenth century.
new
settlement was made by In 1854 Petermann found only thirty Jewish families, in a population of 5,000. On Shabuoth, he relates, all the inhabitants make pilgrimages to the grave of Ezra ("Reisen," i. 152; local
tradition,
the
Jews from Bagdad.
compare Pethahiah of Regensburg, " Travels, " p. 51). Benjamin II. ("Eight Years in Asia and Africa," p. 137) relates that " a devastating epidemic decimated the population, so that a whole portion of the city is empty and the houses fallen into ruins. In the middle of these ruins stand four synagogues, of which, however, three are unused and empty." According to the latest official statistics, there are 1,900 Jews in the city of Bassora and its surrounding villages, and 4,500 in the vilayet, which has a general population of 950,000. There are Jewish rabbis in the cities of Bassora, Amara, and Muntefik of the vilayet there are two schools at Bassora, two at Amara, and one at Nasiriyyah (Cuinet, "La Turquie d'Asie," iii. 209, 220). The chief trade of the Jews is in dates. The Alliance Israelite Universelle gives to the Talmud Torah school at Bassora (attended by about 150 pupils) an annual subvention of five hundred francs ("Bulletin All. Isr." No. 24, The rabbis in 1900 were Hakam Judah and p. 137). Hakam Ezra. Bibliography Graetz, History of the Jews, iii. 98, 147, 202, 437. G.
