The Book of Tobit, also known as the Book of Tobias, is a 3rd or early 2nd century BC work describing how God tests the faithful, responds to prayers, and protects the covenant community. It tells the story of two Israelite families, that of the blind Tobit in Nineveh and of the abandoned Sarah in Ecbatana. Tobit's son Tobias is sent to retrieve ten silver talents that Tobit once left in Rages, a town in Media; guided and aided by the angel Raphael he arrives in Ecbatana, where he meets Sarah. A demon named Asmodeus has fallen in love with her and kills anyone she intends to marry, but with the aid of Raphael the demon is exorcised and Tobias and Sarah marry, after which they return to Nineveh, where Tobit is cured of his blindness.
Rembrandt: Tobit Accusing Anna of Stealing the Kid (1626)
Leaf from a vellum manuscript of Tobit, c. 1240
Illumination with Tobit, Tobias, and the archangel Raphael in an initial O. (14th century AD)
Anna and the Blind Tobit, Rembrandt and Dou (1630)
Nineveh, also known in early modern times as Kouyunjik, was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the largest city in the world for several decades. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country's Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it.
The reconstructed Mashki Gate of Nineveh (since destroyed by the Islamic State)
Artist's impression of Assyrian palaces from The Monuments of Nineveh by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1853
View of the village of "Nunia" or "Ninive", published by Carsten Niebuhr in 1778
Village in Nineveh in 2019