A tomb of Esther and Mordechai is at Hamadan, within a mausoleum believed to have been built in the 1600s, and is first attested in the 11th century. Benjamin of Tudela visited the city, in which he reckoned there were 50,000 Jewish inhabitants, and described the tomb as in front of the synagogue. Benjamin of Tudela, The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, ed. and tr. A. Asher, New York, 1840, p 57. Shahin Shirazi, in his 14th century Ardashir-nāmah, was the first known Persian Jew to write of the dreams of Esther and Mordechai and of a journey they made to Hamadan, stating they died in the synagogue and within an hour of each other. The narrative of Shirazi may derive from earlier Judaeo-Persian sources, now vanished.W. Bacher, "Le Livre d’Ezra de Schahin Schirazi," Revue des études juives 55, 1908a, pp. 280-313; Idem., Zwei jüdisch-persische Dichter Schahin und Imrani, Strasbourg, 1908b. According to the National Library of Israel, a French explorer at the outset of the 20th century discovered jewels in a niche located in the mausoleum's ceiling, and deposited them in the Louvre. A crown among the cache, it adds, is believed by the Hamadan Jewish community to have belonged to Esther. Neither of these claims appear to be true.
