The Djedids are so called because they were "new" Muslims - newly converted from Judaism. It is the name for a relatively small group of Jews from Mashhad, Iran, who were more or less forced to accept Islam. Many of them subsequently left Iran for Tsarist Central Asia where they formed a separate group, although they partly also merged with Bukharan Jews. They prospered in international trade between the Tsarist Empire, Iran and Afghanistan, with the apex of their fortunes situated shortly before the outbreak of World War I. Because of the war and later as a consequence of the Revolution, decline set in.
