Note 1099 — Chapter XIII · MANES AND THE MANICHAEANS

Josephus, Antiquities, Bk XX. cc. 2-4, breaks off his history at the critical point. The Book of Esther is, perhaps, sufficient proof of the capacity of the Oriental Jews for provoking periodical pogroms at least as freely as their co-religionists in modern Russia. Johnson (Oriental Religions), Persia, 1885, p. 410, quotes, apparently from Firdûsi, that the “old Persian nobles” were driven by Ardeshîr’s reforms into Seistan, where they were the ancestors of the present Afghan clans. As some of these clans call themselves the Beni Israel, it is possible that the Jews rather than the nobles were expelled on this occasion, as happened before under Cyrus.