Doresh Tov LeAmo – Newspaper in Judeo-Arabic – Lithographed – Eleven Volumes of Issues – Copies of the Researcher ...

Doresh Tov LeAmo – Newspaper in Judeo-Arabic – Lithographed – Eleven Volumes of Issues – Copies of the Researcher and Collector David Solomon Sassoon – Bombay, 1855-1866 – First Newspaper Printed in Hebrew Characters in India – First Judeo-Arabic Newspaper

Doresh Tov LeAmo – Jewish newspaper in Judeo-Arabic. Bombay (Mumbai), 1855-1866. Lithographed. Eleven volumes of issues from all the years of the newspaper's publication.
The English subtitle "The Hebrew Gazette" was added with the eleventh issue.
The newspaper serves as a rich and unique source of information on the history of Iraqi Jews who immigrated to India. The first page of the issues features announcements of births, Brit Milah, weddings and deaths in the community. The newspaper offers reports of local communal events, general and commercial news items, with some news items about the Jewish world beyond India, and historical articles. In the first two years of its circulation, the newspaper usually appeared biweekly, yet later, beginning in 1858, it began appearing weekly. Some issues cover the events of the Great Indian Mutiny.
The newspaper was handwritten mostly in Judeo-Arabic, with some Hebrew, in cursive Baghdadi script, and reproduced in lithograph. The first two issues in 1855 were handwritten by Sassoon son of David Sassoon (see below). The rest of the issues were written by David Chaim David (his signature appears at the end of each issue). The issues were generally 4 pages long, but occasionally, 8-page issues were published, and for special occasions a several-page-long supplement was added (the supplement to issue 26 of year 4 featured a long proclamation issued by the rabbis and notables of Baghdad, containing regulations against extravagance, with over 60 clauses, announced in the synagogues in Tevet 1859 – see full translation in: Avraham ben Yaakov, Minhagei Yehudei Bavel BeDorot HaAcharonim, vol. II, Jerusalem 1993, pp. 180-193).
The front pages have a set layout. Details about the weekly portion and haftarah, and readings from Neviim and Ketuvim, appear below the newspaper title. On most front pages, illustrations of ships sailing, with the inscriptions: "London" and "to China", alongside information on ship departures to these places (a few issues note departures to other cities, such as Liverpool, Marseilles, Basra and others). Several issues offer further handwritten details (such as dates, references to Torah portions and Haftarot, and more).
These volumes of issues were in the possession of the wealthy collector David Solomon Sassoon (his bookplates appear in some volumes).
On 4th July 1908, David Solomon Sassoon published an article in The Jewish Chronicle entitled "A Unique Jewish Newspaper", containing a review of Doresh Tov LeAmo. At the time of writing the article, Sassoon only possessed two volumes of the newspaper, and he writes of his efforts to obtain more issues. Sassoon also mentions that the newspaper only had some twenty-five subscribers, who paid a monthly subscription of two rupee, and he quotes a testimony according to which subscribers would generally destroy the last issue as soon as the next appeared "so that they should not become food for insects!" (a newspaper clipping with this article was pasted on the endpaper of volume III; a galley proof of the article is also enclosed).
Eleven volumes:
• Year 1. Bombay, 1855-1856. Issues 1-27.
• Year 2. Bombay, 1856-1857. Issues 4-11, 13-26. Parts of issues 1-3, 12.
• Year 3. Bombay, 1857-1858. Issues 1-50.
• Year 4. Bombay, 1858-1859. Issues 1-51.
• Year 5. Bombay, 1859-1860. Issues 1-48 (issues 5, 11, 15 may be lacking end).
• Year 6. Bombay, 1860-1861. Issues 2-3, 18, 42, 44-48.
• Year 7. Bombay, 1861-1862. Issues 1, 10, 12, 16, 20-24, 30, 34, 36, 44-45, 48.
• Year 8. Bombay, 1862-1863. Issues 2-6, 9-10, 14-21, 23-27, 29, 35, 38-39, 45. Part of issue 46.
• Year 9. Bombay, 1863-1864. Issues 1, 9, 15, 18-21, 24-28, 30-31, 33-35, 37-39, 46-48, 51. Parts of issues 11, 16, 17, 23, 36 (several other unidentified leaves enclosed).
• Year 10. Bombay, 1864-1865. Issues 4-7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22-26, 29-31, 33-36, 38, 42.
• Year 11. Bombay, 1865-1866. Issues 10,12, 15-20.
11 volumes. Approx. 32-34 cm. Some issues printed on blue paper. Condition varies. Most issues in good condition – stains, tears and wear. Several issues in fair condition and several issues in poor condition – open tears and significant worming, with extensive damage to text, repaired in part with paper and tape. Original bindings from the Sassoon collection, vol. I with a fine, gilt decorated leather binding. Bookplates of David Solomon Sassoon in several volumes. Leaves with handwritten notes and newspaper clippings enclosed (some handwritten by David Sassoon).
A particularly rare newspaper (as mentioned, according to Sassoon, it was printed in several dozen copies only). The NLI catalog only records four volumes: 1, 2, 4 and 5. Recorded in Yaari (HaDfus HaIvri BeArtzot HaMizrach, II, Jerusalem 1940, p. 95) based on the present Sassoon copies. The British Library holds vols. 1, 3, 4, 5 and two issues of vol. 11. Apart from these, we know of no other copies.
Provenance:
1. Sassoon Collection.
2. Valmadonna Trust Library.

Hebrew Passages in Doresh Tov LeAmo
Most of the newspaper is in Judeo-Arabic, yet it occasionally contains passages in Hebrew, including some interesting contents not known from any other source.
Some examples include:
Vol. 3, issue 12, contains the text of the dedication inscribed on the cornerstone laid by David Sassoon for the first synagogue of the Baghdadi community in Bombay – built by David Sassoon.
Vol. 4, issue 38, includes a transcript of a halachic ruling regarding funerals in Bombay.
Vol. 4, issue 43, includes a prayer poem in honor of Queen Victoria (an acrostic of her name), on the occasion of the end of the Great Indian Mutiny.
Vol. 10, issue 5, includes a lamentation poem on the passing of David Sassoon – 6th Marcheshvan 1865.

The Beit David Society of the Sassoon Family
Doresh Tov LeAmo was published by the Beit David Society, founded by Iraqi Jews and named after R. David Sassoon. The society was headed by David Sassoon and his sons. The newspaper was one of the society's important undertakings. It was established by Sassoon, the son of David Sassoon, who wrote the first two issues himself (lithographed on blue paper). In the main article of the first issue, Sassoon son of David Sassoon explains that the newspaper was established to serve the small Baghdadi community in Bombay, whose members were not fluent in English, and its objective was to increase knowledge and education amongst the people and to inform of important news.
Two lithographed leaflets (on blue paper) were bound at the end of this vol. I of Doresh Tov LeAmo. The first leaflet, dated 7th Adar 1855, contains the regulations of the Beit David Society – 22 clauses defining the goals of the society: assistance to the needy, to emissaries from Eretz Israel and boys' schools, supervision of religious matters, taking care of any matter relating to the nations of the world which involves Kiddush Hashem. The regulations are signed (in lithograph) by 11 leaders of the society, headed by David Sassoon.
The second leaflet, dated 21st Adar 1855, contains the society's decision regarding the porging of meat in Bombay. This leaflet is also signed by the 11 leaders of the society (some signatures lithographed and some handwritten).
For more information regarding the Beit David society and the contents of these leaflets, see: Avraham ben David, Yehudei Bavel BaTefutzot, Jerusalem 1985, pp. 60-63.