Casiphia
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(silvery; perhaps alluding to white or snowy mountains) (Ezra 8:17; 2 Esdras 8:44-45) - the place or district where Iddo lived and to which Ezra sent messengers from the river Ahava. The source suggests that the name may be related to Caspian, once applied not only to the sea but also to a mountain chain and a whole region. Its location was unknown. Because many Jews still lived at Isfahan, in the suburb called Yahudiyah, 'city of the Jews,' and more than two hundred poor Jewish families lived at Hamadan, or Ecbatana, awaiting the Messiah, the source tentatively placed Ezra's Casiphia in Media, or Atropatene. It also notes the Jewish colony at Rages in Media in Tobit 1:14-16, whose ruins lay several hours southeast of Tehran.