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Fading into Mysticism, the last Messiahs


Saura ben Ishak[1] (713-721) was the grandson of Yaakov (Ka'b Al-Ahbar) and the son of the Exilarch Ishak, Serenus, In 720CE, Serene promised to recapture the Holy Land. He also urged that the Talmud be abolished. Khalif Yezid, Omar's successor, arrested this "Messiah" and handed him over to the Jews in Pumpedita for punishment. Natronai ben Nehemia (Gaon) urged the Jewish community to readmit their brethren into the fold. They eventually did so, though they were initially reluctant. He claimed to some that he was the messiah and that he came to liberate the Jews or to return them to their ancient land. To others he claimed that he was the emissary of the messiah or the son of God. Active at the time of the Muslim conquest of Spain, he attracted followers as far away as Spain and Gaul, chronicles reports that all the Jews abandoned their property and left Spain to join him in Syria. One of the Geonim, Natronai I, accused Saura of leading his followers to sectarianism, abandoning prayer, enjoying non-kosher food and drink, doing work on the second days of holidays, and writing marriage contracts that were not in accordance with Jewish law. The Calif, Yazid II ibn adb-al Malikh (720-724), ordered him to be killed. His followers then sought rabbinic permission to return to Judaism and asked the Gaon Natronai whether they needed ritual immersion again upon their return. Although some rabbis wanted to turn them away because they did not follow the proper laws of divorce and marriage, especially the proper rules of consanguinity, too closely related by blood. Natronai ruled that even though they were sinners who went out to an evil culture, denied the teachings of the rabbinic sages, desecrated the Jewish holidays and commandments, and contaminated themselves with unkosher food, it would be better to receive them than to reject them. Natronai urged that Saura's followers be flogged and fined by the Jewish court, then after they were afflicted they should stand in the synagogues and agree that they would never rebel again. Natronai also warned that their marriages should be investigated and any that were in accordance with Rabbinic law should be annulled and the children declared mamzers, children of a forbidden union, not allowed to marry in the Jewish community. Their marriage contracts should also be examined to make sure that they were proper and if not, they should be rewritten. Accounts of Saura circulated for many centuries.

Ishaq (Abu 'Isa) al-Ra'i al-Isfahani was the son of Yakuv Ovadiah, and the grandson of the Exilarch Ishak. He preached in Isphahan[2], from about 680 or 740, depending on whether the Khalif mentioned was the Marwan I or II, both of whom reigned during struggles between the Umayyids and the Abbasids. He declared that he was an elevated prophet established by God and the final one of the five emissaries of the messiah, perhaps also the messiah as well. His followers confessed belief in Muhammed and Jesus. According to the twelfth century account by Maimonides, he was of the davidic line and attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, medieval code for a lot, and that he and his followers went out armed and killed anybody who bothered them. According to legends, he drew a line with a myrtle branch to protect his followers when they fought, he cured a leper, banned divorce completely, despite the generous provisions of Jewish and Islamic law, required prayer seven times a day, based on Psalms 119, forbade eating meat and drinking wine based on the behavior of Rechabites in Jeremiah 35:5, and used a solar calendar while the rabbis used a combined solar-lunar calendar. After he attacked the government, the governmental forces launched a war against him, killing him at Rai. Nevertheless, some of his followers claimed that he had not been not killed, and was only hiding in a cave. Reports about this movement continued for many centuries, some, as mentioned, reached Maimonides who reported them in his letter to Yemen, written at the end of the twelfth century (Stillman, 242).

Judah of Hamadan, (Yudghan al-Ra'i), about 720 or 756-785 was the son of Isaq abu Isa. He attracted disciples, the Yudganites, who called him, Ro'i, usually interpreted as my shepherd, but it also could be connected with Rai, the place where Abu Isa died since the Yudganites claimed that Yudgan was chosen leader after of Abu Isa. Yudgan declared himself to be a prophet; the Yudganites, believed he was the messiah. Various sources attributed to Yudgan practices such as asceticism, excessive prayer, a ban on meat and liquor, a belief in transmigration of souls or reincarnation, a relaxation of Sabbath and holiday observance, and the complete negation of all the commandments for Jews in the diaspora. Finally, Yudgan and nineteen followers were killed in battle. Yudgan's teachings later reached the attention of Saadia Gaon who attacked them in his Book of Beliefs and Opinions, the earliest Jewish philosophical work of the middle ages (Emunot vedeot 6:7) and Abraham ibn Ezra, the famous Spanish Jewish scholar, who also attacked them.

These movements show a high level of syncretism between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, highly political and militant tendencies among groups of Jews, a passionate connection between Jews throughout the world with the land of Israel, and the attempt of Rabbinites to maintain stability. These movements are proof that the Jews of the Middle East had not been repressed by Christianity, Islam, or even Jewish leaders. These movements did not arise at times of acute distress or trouble; they seem to have come at times of change, times of rising expectations. In fact, going against the conventional wisdom which associates messianic figures with times of deprivation, it can be argued on the basis of much evidence from Jewish history that messianic movements do not arise at times of great distress but at times when hope is rising. Reports about these movements continued to circulate among Jews for centuries providing opportunities for both subsequent inspiration as well as for polemics against them.

The question remains what happened to all their followers. The Judaic followers of the Prophet who lost any Jewish identity merged with the majority of Muslims. Those who, for ethnic, or religious reasons were unable to merge with the Muslims became the Karaites, The Karaites trace their heritage to the Jews of Arabia, and before that to the Sadducees. They were not one group, but consisted of several, some of which were called Ananites, Baalei Mikra, and Benai Mikra. At the same time that Jewish messianic movements arose under Islam, Rabbinic Judaism was severely threatened by Karaism. Like Khawarjites, and perhaps because of them, Karaites, from the Hebrew verb Qara, meaning the Readers or literalists. These literalists claim to have retained the true meaning of the Bible (and for some the Qur'an). This group challenged rabbinic authority, and until the Saadia Gaon, it appeared that they might succeed.

The Karaites were given a boost by the nephew of the sixth Exilarch of the Bustenai line, Anan ben David. Documents written much after his own time, sometimes by rabbis, describe much of what was known about his life.[3] He born in the middle of the eighth century to a learned and aristocratic Jewish family. His uncle was the Exilarch, and, when he was denied the position of Exilarch in favor of his own younger brother Hananiah, he tried to set up a rival Exilarchate, but he was jailed by the Khalif, Abu Jaafar Abdullah al-Mansur, 754-775. In jail he met and received advice from a Muslim cleric, also under arrest, to do what was necessary to obtain an audience with the Khalif and declare that he represented a new religion that, like Islam, determined the new month by observing the moon, unlike rabbinic Judaism which did it on the basis of calculations. This Muslim cleric, identified as al-Numan ibn-Thabit Abu Hanifah (699-767), the founder of one of the major schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, the Hanafis, a school that was dedicated to using judgment and reason in determining the law. Many studies of the Karaites focus on the profound similarities of the development of their legal procedures alongside those of the emerging schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The similarities of Anan to the Hanifis, if not due to direct influence, represented only the first stage. In Anan's name the contradictory principles were put forth, "Forsake the words of the Mishnah and the Talmud and I will compose for you a Talmud of my own. Search throughouly in the Torah and do not rely upon my opinion." This statement reflected the view of Muhammed ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (769-820), founder of another school of Islamic jurisprudence, the Shafiites, who believed that his opinion should not be accepted without question.

Four hundred years later, about 1160, David Alroy or Al-Rai (the Edessian), who was born in Kurdistan, declared himself a Messiah. By taking the title Al-Rai he claimed his authority from the "true" Exilarch line of Abu Isa. Taking advantage of his personal popularity, the disturbed and weakened condition of the Caliphate, and the discontent of the Jews, who were burdened with a heavy poll tax, he set out upon his political schemes, asserting that he had been sent by God to free the Jews from the Moslem yoke and to lead them back to Jerusalem. For this purpose he summoned the warlike Jews of the neighboring district of Adherbaijan and also his coreligionists of Mosul and Baghdad to come armed to his aid and to assist in the capture of Amadia. From this point his career is enveloped in legend. His movement failed, and he is said to have been assassinated, while asleep, by his own father-in-law. A heavy fine was exacted from the Jews for this uprising. After his death Alroy had many followers in Khof, Salmas, Tauris, and Maragha, and these formed a sect called the Menahemists, from the Messianic name "Menahem," assumed by their founder.

The last of the Exilarchic Messiahs was Shabbatai Zvi, the son of a wealthy merchant from Smyrna. He gave the boy the best Jewish education possible. Shabbatai possessed a captivating personality but he was easily influenced by others. He grew up to believe that he had a special calling by God to perform great deeds. He set out on an attempt to capture Turkey. The Jews there awaited his arrival excitedly. Many muslims came to believe in him too. When he arrived he was immediately arrested. The Sultan did not kill him however and was treated quite well. This favor by Turks only fanned the flame of enthusiasm further. Jewish communities all over the world sent emissaries with proclamations of Shabbatai's messiahship. A Polish kabbalist came to visit Shabbatai and debate Torah with him. He denounced Shabbatai for fomenting sedition. Shabbatai was taken to the Sultan, where he denied that he was the messiah. He was given the choice of death or conversion to Islam. On September 15, 1666, Shabbatai, the messiah, converted to Islam. The Jews reeled in shock at these events. While some accepted the fact that they had been misled, others clung to their Messiah, believing somehow that the conversion as part of his messianic mission. In a form of self censure, they destroyed all the records relating to what had happened. They went underground with their hopes, as other leaders tried to take his place.

References

  1. These paragraphs are based on "Medieval History under Islam", JUICE History 7, by the World Zionist Organization.
  2. Ibid
  3. Marcus, no. 47