060027 SE Tobiads Incorporated - An Ancient Multinational Company and Its Impact on Judaism (2017W)

The Tobiads are a family that created and ran an multinational corporation between the fifth and the second century B.C.E. The Tobiad company encompassed in its commercial operations the region between Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Tobiad family influenced Jewish history, culture, and religion between the fifth and second century B.C.E. significantly. Literary, documentary, epigraphic, and archeological evidence allows to reconstruct the history of the Tobiad family. This class will trace this family and business history in the context of the Hellenistic and Mesopotamian states and cultures it encompasses.