Nader Shah returns from Persian war with India with great treasure of gold and gems. He consequently builds a treasure fortress in the city of Mashad to house his winnings. Trusting his Jewish constituents, Nader Shah compels 20 Jewish families from across Persia to move to Mashad to guard his new–found treasures.
Over a hundred years later, after forced conversion in 1839 CE, subsequent to a local Shiite pogrom during Ramadan, the Jews of Mashad de facto became Persian marranos. Practicing their Jewish faith sub rosa (secretly), unerringly and uncompromisingly in Mashad—generation after generation. Through the 1800s and the 1900s, the Mashadi hang–tough.
To some extent, after several years their Jewish practice had presumably become an “open secret” in Mashad. In any event, all concerned—both the Jews and the respective governing bodies—maintained the charade for political reasons. The community maintained secret synagogues and kosher butchers. They married–off their daughters at very young age into fellow Mashadi families, to avoid any suitors or other issues with the local populace.
They are considered 100 percent Jewish by the Jewish community at–large. In the ‘60s, many started emigrating to the USA from Iran (latter–day Persia). There are USA constituencies of the Mashadi in Queens and nearby, in Great Neck, Long Island. Around 4,000 live in the USA, and another 1,200 out of the USA. Notwithstanding their historical religious valor, the ongoing Mashadi intense devotion post–Persia/Iran to focus marrying within the quite–quite–small Mashadi community is a dangerous recipe for genetic trouble.
In any event, today, 300 years after Nader Shah built his treasure fortress, many Mashadi find themselves in the gem business, their “family business,” worldwide.