The history of the Jews of Iran is one of the most important chapters of Jewish history, yet it is also the most obscure, because little of it has been published. Considering the vastness of the Persian Empire during ancient times, Iran must be reckoned second only to Israel in importance to the study of Jewish history.

After the Assyrian onslaught, the ten lost tribes were moved to the east, toward the Persian Empire. Babylon, the former hub of Judaism, was an Iranian province for more than a thousand years, including the period during which the Talmud was written. Indeed, Iranian cultural influences are manifest in the Babylonian Talmud, which is, in essence, an "Iranian Talmud."

Iran, where the Jews are living for over 2700 years, is the land of the beginning of Diaspora. Based on historical facts, the first Jews exiled from their homeland settled in Iran and from there they moved to other countries such as India, China and Russia.
Iran is the birthplace of the Karaite movement in Judaism which spread throughout the world. During the Middle Ages, Iranian Jews were active contributors to the scholarship of the Islamic world an important factor in the European Renaissance.

This book, as the first comprehensive source on an important topic, not only describes briefly the history of Jews in ancient Iran (Persia) but covers all other periods, particularly the 19th and 20th centuries.