A Concise History of the Jews of Iran

Freed in 539 BC by Cyrus the Great from captivity in Babylon, the majority of Jews returned to Israel, while a minority chose to remain in Babylon, a few thousand of whom gradually left to settle in Iran. These two Jewish communities, from Babylon and Iran, are those which experienced the longest exodus of the Jewish people, more than twenty-six centuries.
From the invasion of Iran by the Arabs in 642 AD, the Jews, like other religious minorities, were given the status of DHIMMI, a status devolved to non-Muslims in the land of Islam, which in addition to a special tax, deprived them of numerous rights, while periodically adding oppressions.

But it was from 1502, under the Safavid and Quâjâr dynasties, that state anti-Semitism was established, by promulgating new restrictive regulations every day, followed with fervor by the people, the situation of the Jews deteriorated day by day: oppression, abuse, inhuman treatment, humiliation and deprivation, even massacres and pillaging were their daily lot, enjoying no protection.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, two major events came to their aid: the establishment of the Constitutional Monarchy in Iran, finally granting them status as a recognized religious minority, and the opening of the Schools of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, bringing them education, emancipation and dignity. Thus, almost freed from so many restrictions, Jews found a place in the sun in Iranian public life, and actively participated in the momentum of modernism in Iran.