The biblical book of Esther culminates in the successful intervention of Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai to save their people from the destruction planned for them by the wicked vizier Haman, but gives no report on the death of either of them. To this day, a tradition persists that Esther and Mordechai are buried in a tomb located at the center of Hamadan (ancient Ecbatana) in western Iran.

Benjamin of Tudela in the mid-twelfth century mentions that Esther and Mordechai were buried in Hamadan and that their tomb was “in front of a certain synagogue,” but the …