Jewish revolt against Heraclius
| Jewish revolt against Heraclius | |||||||||
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| Part of the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Byzantine Empire | Sassanid Persian Empire, Jewish allies |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Emperor Heraclius Patriarch Zacharias Abba Modestus |
Shahrbaraz Nehemiah ben Hushiel Benjamin of Tiberias |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| "Formidable" Greek contingent of Jerusalem |
Persian forces; 26,000 Jewish rebels |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| tens of thousands | tens of thousands | ||||||||
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The Revolt against Heraclius was a Jewish insurrection against the Byzantine Empire across Levant, coming to the aid of the Persian during Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628. The revolt began with the Battle of Antioch (613), culminating with the conquest of Jerusalem in 614 by Persian and Jewish forces and establishment of Jewish autonomy. The revolt ended with departure of the Persian troops and an eventual surrender of Jewish rebels to Byzantines in the year 625 (or 628).
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[edit] Background
During an early stage of Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628, Khosrau II decided on a tactical move to establish a military alliance with the Jewish population of the Sassanid Empire, with a promise to re-establish Jewish rule over the Land of Israel (Palaestina province of Byzantine Empire at that time).[1] Following Khosrau II's pact with Nehemiah, son of Jewish Exilarch, a Jewish army, about 20,000 strong, was recruited in Persia and was put in march together with Persian troops towards the Levant.
[edit] Revolt
Following the victory in Antioch, joint Sassanid-Jewish army, commanded by Shahrbaraz, arrived to Palaestina Prima and conquered Caesaria Maritima. Nehemiah's Jewish troops and the Sassanid Persians, commanded by Shahrbaraz, were joined by Benjamin of Tiberias (according to Jewish sources – a man of immense wealth), who enlisted and armed additional soldiers from Tiberias, Nazareth and the mountain cities of Galilee and together they marched on Jerusalem. Later, they were joined by the Jews of the southern parts of the country and supported by a band of Arabs, the united forces took Jerusalem on July 614, after a 20 day siege.[1] According to Antiochus Strategos, tens of thousands of Christians were massacred during the conquest of the city.[2]
[edit] The Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth
Though there are limited sources on what happened in the following years,[3] it appears Jews were given permission to run the city and they effectively did so for the next five years. The Jews of Jerusalem gained complete control over the city, and much of Judea and Galilee became an autonomous Jewish province of the Sassanid Empire. At the time 150,000 Jews were living in 43 settlements throughout the newly liberated territory.
According to Jewish sources, after the conquest of Jerusalem, Nehemiah ben Hushiel had been appointed the ruler of Jerusalem. He began the work of making arrangements of the rebuilding of the Temple, and sorting out genealogies to established a new High Priesthood. Approximately five years later the Persians gave control of the province to the Christians,[4] as their troops left in an act, seen by Jews as betrayal.[citation needed]
[edit] Aftermath
[edit] Restoration of Byzantine rule
The sources greatly diverge on what happened in the aftermath of the revolt. According to some, in 625, the Byzantine army reconquered the territory and amnesty was granted to Benjamin of Tiberias and the Jews who had joined the Persians. In 628, after the defeat and death of Khosrau II, Heraclius came as victor into Jerusalem. The Jews of Tiberias and Nazareth, under the leadership of Benjamin of Tiberias, changed sides and joined him. It is even claimed that Benjamin accompanied the Emperor Heraclius himself during his entry into the city of Jerusalem.
According to other sources, Byzantine return was not peaceful since the very beginning, directly resulting in execution of Benjamin of Tiberias and other revolutionaries by Theodosius in 625.[5]
[edit] Massacres of the Jews (629)
In 629, the situation escalated, resulting in a wide scale massacre of Jewish population throughout Jerusalem and Galilee, ensuing with tens of thousands of Jews put to flight from Palaestina to Egypt. According to Eutychius (887-940), the Emperor would have kept peace with the Jews, had not fanatic monks instigated him to a massacre.[6] However, this detail as well as others cited by Eutychius' are more likely to have been based less on fact than on legends that subsequently developed (such as a story of a "Fast of Heraclius").[7]
Heraclius is said to have dreamed that destruction threatened the Byzantine Empire through a circumcised people (which happened indeed with the Muslim Conquest of the whole Empire in the following centuries). He therefore proposed to destroy all Jews who would not become Christians; and he is reported to have counseled Dagobert, king of the Franks, to do the same.[8] By that time, the situation of the Jews was so desperate that the Tiburtine Sibyl said that the entire community of Jews in the Byzantine Empire would be converted in one hundred and twenty years (by 628).[9])
[edit] Invasion by Arab Islamic armies
After the defeat of the Persian Empire, a new threat, the Arab Islamic Empire, had emerged in the region. Heraclius sought to consolidate and secure his gains. Though he had previously granted the Jews amnesty for their revolt, he would not risk another likely revolt in a war with the Arabs.
Heraclius experienced a most exquisite triumph as he knelt in the rebuilt church to receive the blessings of the patriarch that extraordinary day. Apologists would say afterwards that only because of the adamant demands of the patriarch and the local clergy did the Emperor rescind his pledge of amnesty and reluctantly authorize the forced baptism and massacre of the Empire's Jews.[10]
In 638, the Byzantine Empire completely lost control of Judea to the Arabs. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of Mesopotamia, Levant, and Egypt.
[edit] In Jewish literature
The events of the Persian-Byzantine struggle in the Levant and the consequent Arab conquest had insipred several apocaliptic Jewish writings of the early Middle Ages.[9] Among those one can find the Apocalypse of Zerubbabel, which partly is attributed to the events of Jewish conquest in 614.
[edit] See also
- Jewish-Roman wars 66–136 CE
- Jewish revolt against Gallus 352 CE
- Samaritan Revolts 484–572 CE
- Yehud Medinata
- List of conflicts in the Near East
[edit] References
- ^ a b The Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614 CE compared with Islamic conquest of 638 CE By Ben Abrahamson and Joseph Katz
- ^ Antiochus Strategos, The Capture of Jerusalem by the Persians in 614 AD, F. C. Conybeare, English Historical Review 25 (1910) pp. 502-517.
- ^ G.J.Reinink et.al. The Reign of Heraclius: 610-641 crisis and confrontation. p.103. [1]
- ^ Sharkansky, Ira, Governing Jerusalem: again on the world's agenda, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1996, p.63
- ^ A History of the Jewish People, by Hayim Ben-Sasson (Editor), Harvard University Press, 1985
- ^ Eutychius, ii. 241
- ^ The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3, (CE:1093a-1097a). Published in print by Macmillan, reproduced with permission at http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/cce.
- ^ Pertz, "Monumenta Germaniae Historica," i. 286, vi. 25; compare Joseph ha-Kohen, "'Emeḳ ha-Baka," tr. Wiener, p. 5
- ^ a b Sackur, "Sibyllinische Texte," p. 146, Halle, 1898, seems to refer to these occurrences, since about one hundred and twenty years elapsed from the time of the Persian war under Anastasius, in 505, to the victory of Heraclius in 628. It has been suggested that several Jewish apocalypses refers to this expedition of Heraclius against the Jews.
- ^ David Lewis. God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215, publisher Norton, 2008: p.69
[edit] Sources
- Katz, Shmuel. Battleground (1974), p. 97.
- The Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614 compared with Islamic conquest of 638.
