The caretaker of Bukhara

Available for over a year

Abram Iskhakov is the caretaker of the oldest synagogue in Bukhara, one of the sacred cities of Islam. He is keeper of a Torah inscribed on deer velum and kept safe for 1000 years, or so the story goes. Abram has a powerful voice and recites for us a very special prayer, the Haqqoni, recited at both Jewish and Muslim mourning services in Persian, the language of his city and of Central Asian Jews from Samarkand to the borders of China. What does Haqqoni tell us about the culture of Central Asia? And as the Bukharan Jewish population migrates across the world, what is becoming of the Haqqoni? With thanks to Benjamin Yusupov and Meitar for their recording of Haqqoni, Abram Tolmasov for use of his Samarkand recording from 1987, and Grigory Manyuk and Magrifilm for their Bukhara wedding recording of 1997. Recording of Rakhimakhan Mazokhidova by kind permission of Paul Balmer at Music on Earth Productions. Producer/presenter and by Monica Whitlock (Photo: Abram Iskhakov, caretaker of the oldest synagogue in Bukhara. Credit: Zilola Saidova)