ABSTRACT
The Babylonian Talmud is full of Iranian words, and motifs and images faminar in Iranian religions. If, however, the Jewish magicians who made the magical bowls had Jewish clients, then Jews had names indistinguishable from those of Iranians and Aramaeans. The Jews likely to participate in Iranian culture seem to have been of a high estate. The description of Jews wearing very high hats calls to mind the tall pointed cap, or hood, bashlyk, brought by the Iranians from the Siberian steppes. Professor Nina Garsoian observes that the Middle East of late antiquity was divided into three cultural units: Hellenistic-Roman, Iranian, and, in-between the two, the mixed 'third world' of Semites, Armenians, and other, smaller peoples. Furthermore, when the rabbinic literature refers to Iranian festivals, its information is garbled and inaccurate. In fact, the rabbis allude to only a few of the Iranian religious holidays, and of these, in particular, two were days on which taxes had to be paid.
