Of the Jews in China, Mendelssohn writes that “although the early Jewish colonies in China reached the size of other settlements of the race in Asia, there can be little doubt that few of the other outlying communities established in that continent surpass them in point of antiquity.” There are those who assert that there were Jews in India from the times of King Solomon, the first Jewish King to encourage traders among his subjects and thus to develop that commercial element among the Jews which has so often imperilled the very existence of that nation. There is a tradition that at some period, the date of which is obscure, the black Jews revolted against the domination of their white brethren, who, by that time, had greatly diminished in numbers.” Regarding a community of black Jews in India, Mendelssohn notes that a “race known as the Black Jews of Cochin came into existence.

In “The Jews of Asia,” Mendelssohn compiles the history of Jews in the Asian countries of India, China, Turkey, Palestine, Persia, Yemen, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia. This library of rare Jewish books became his source for his two monumental works on Jewish history, one titled “The Jews of Africa,” and the other the present 1920 volume “The Jews of Asia.” His success in the diamond business allowed him to pursue his interest in collecting rare and antiquarian books on Jewish history in Africa and Asia. Sidney Mendelssohn (1860-1917) was a Jewish diamond merchant in South Africa, who eventually retired from business to England. From the 10th to 16th centuries, when Jews of Europe were living under persecution from bigots, robber kings, the conversionists, Inquisitors, and Crusaders, their brethren in the Far East, in the lands of the predecessors of the Great Mogul and other potentates of India, Jews were enjoying idyllic times and lives of peace and plenty.

Flowers in the blood by gay courter