Iranian Elements in the Demonology of Mountain Jews

Abstract

The author argues that the demonology of Mountain Jews absorbed a variety of elements borrowed from neighbor peoples of the Caucasus, but still its most stable elements are rooted in the cultural world of Iranian peoples. All the corresponding demonology characters have Iranian names that are familiar to the Mountain Jews and are reliably traced through the Mountain Jews etymology. Those are Serovi ( Ser’ovi ), Numnegir, Vechekhur ( Večexur ), among possible others.