Difap ed at this armament, and the progress it had made, fent him exprefs orders to come immediately to court; promising him at the fame time, that if he proved himself the Meffiah, he would acknowledge him as a king fent from heaven. Eldavid, contrary to expectation, obeyed the fummons, and affur- Answer ed the king that he was really the Meffiah: upon which he to the king was immediately clapt into prifon, and was not to be ac- of Perfia. knowledged, till he had by fome miracle extricated himfelf out of it. But whilft the king was deliberating what death to put him to, word was brought to him that the prisoner was fled. He dispatched several couriers after him; who upon their return, affured him that they had heard his voice, but had neither been able to see him or to lay hold on him. The king, fufpecting them to have been corrupted, marched in perfon after him as far as the banks of the river Gozan, where he heard him call them fools, without feeing him. and purfuSoon after that, they perceived him dividing the waters of that ed in vain. river with his mantle, and croffing it. The king began to think indeed that he might be the Messiah; but was diffuaded from it by his officers, who affured him, that it was mere illufion; and fo the army paffed the river without feeing him. pears, THE king wrote immediately upon it to the chiefs of the Betrayed Jewish nation to deliver up Eldavid to him, under the pe- by his fanalty of being all maffacred without mercy. This obliged ther-inthe chief of the captivity to fend a fubmiffive létter to him, law. defiring him to deliver himself up, and fave his nation from destruction: but the impoftor only made a jeft of it, and abfolutely refused it. He continued his hoftilities, till his fatherin-law, being tempted with a promife of 10,000 crowns, invited him to a fupper; and having plied him with wine, cut off his head, and fent it to the king (K). But Zaid Aladin, instead (K) It is not unlikely that this Eldavid was the fame with a David Ben David mentioned by an ancient chronicle (41), who was likewife a Perfian, and appeared about the beginning of the 13th century. He is faid to have been looked upon by the Jews as their king, and to have gathered a vaft army of them under him. The chroni cle adds, that he had formed a (41) Fragm. Hift. an. Chr. 1222, ap. Wurft. Hift. Germ. tom. ii. p. 89. B. XVI. Jews maf inftead of keeping his word, infifted upon having all those facred. Jews delivered up who had ferved with which they en deavouring to excufe themselves from, he caufed a vast number of their nation to be butchered in his dominions2. And thus much may serve for the false Meffiahs of this century: from which the reader may fee the great propenfity of the Jews to run after every impoftor that fets up for a deliverer, and to join with him in taking up arms, and committing all kinds of outrages and difafters againft those whom they called their enemies, because held in fubjection to them, whether Chriftians, Turks, or heathens; and the neceffity there was for every government under which they lived, to keep a watchful eye over them, and to enact wholefome laws, to keep them within due bounds; efpecially as they betrayed no lefs furprising readinefs, for the most part, when under perfecution or difgrace, to abandon their religion for any other offered to them, in order to fave themselves from a prefent danger; but which forced converfions made them only more inveterate and revengeful against those that impofed them upon them, whenever any opportunity offered itself to throw off the difguife, So that nothing could be more impolitic and unnatural, than to oblige fuch men to redeem their lives and liberties at the expence of their religion. But it is time to pafs on to the next century. Decay of WE fhall here again be obliged to join the 13th and the Jews 14th together, to avoid being frequently forced to break during the off the thread of their hiftory, and begin, as we have hi13th and therto done, with those of the eaft, where we fhall find 14th cen- them ftrangely dwindled, both in number and figure, efpeci turies. ally with refpect either to their chiefs, their academies, or learned men, of whom we hardly find any mention. With refpect to the former, R. Petachiah, who travelled thither BEN VIRG. Hift Jud. p. 162. b Itinerar. MS. ap. Wagenf in Sotah. of a rabbinic fable; but if we confider how credulous the Ger mans were of fuch prodigies, and how eager and defirous they were to embrace every rumour of a Meffiah, it is not improba. ble, that having heard of the conqueft and progrefs of Eldavid in Perfia, they might give it out that he was coming full speed to their deliverance, in order to infpire their brethren with hopes of feeing an end of their flavery, if not with fome defign to do the fame in Germany which the other had done in Perfia (42). So that Eldavid and David the fon of David may be probably enough the fame perfon. (42) Bafnag. lib. ix. c. 11. § 14. about 297 about the latter end of the last century, tells us that they Chiefs of were still in being and authority b; but it is moft likely the the captiperfecution lately mentioned, and which was not ended at vity abathe beginning of this, had put an effectual end to them; fince lifbed. which time their affairs have still gone from bad to worse. For foon after that Neffer Ledinillah, Khalif of Bagdad, and a very zealous Mohammedan, as well as a person of confummate avarice, grew jealous of the too great wealth of the Jews, as well as of their too eager zeal after every impostor that set up for a Meffiah, raised an open perfecution against them, and obliged all that would not turn Mohammedans to leave the Babylonifb dominions c; upon which, one part marched away, and the rest chose to stay upon his terms (L). The wars that Jews apofhappened there fince, under Melek al Naffar and his brother, tatize. against Holagu, alias Hulaku, emperor of the Tartars, his killing those two princes, after the taking of Bagdad, helped to complete their ruin there +. JUDEA was no lefs infefted with the wars that raged At peace in between the Christians and Saracens; but that did not hinder Judea. the Jews from having fome fynagogues and learned rabbies in it. Here it was that the famed R. Mofes Nachmanides, or as his name is commonly abbreviated, Ramban, retired, and built C D'HERBEL. Bibl. Orient. fub. voc. ABULPHARAG. Dynast. IX. p. 532. De his vid. fup. vol. v. p. 156, & feq. (L) Among thefe that ftaid was Jofeph the fon of Jahiah, a famed phyfician and mathe. matician, who chofe to diffem. ble for a time, rather than expofe himself to unavoidable mifery. However, he took the firft opportunity he could to turn his effects into money, and retired into Egypt, where Maimonides was ftill alive, and by his affiftance corrected a fyftem of aftronomy, which he had brought with him; and after his death, retired to Aleppo, where he bought an eftate, and married. He died foon after there; and having, as we are told, made an engagement with an intimate friend, that he would come back from the other world to inform him of the state of it, made him (43) Aulpbar. Dynaft. ix. p. 303, ap. Bafnag. lib. ix. c. 16, § 4. a fy R. Mofes a fynagogue (M), and became one of the most celebrated Nachma cabbalifts that age produced. What made him leave his native nides, country, where he was fo efteemed and beloved, for Judea, then so torn with wars, is not easy to guess; unless he perhaps had made himself obnoxious to the Spanish clergy, by the conferences he had had with fome friars, particularly that which was held before the king of Arragon and his court, an. 1263. The time of his death is likewise variously placed; by retires into fome, an. 1300; at which rate he must have lived 106 years; Judea. and by others 40 years fooner; tho' that is eight years before the author of Juchafin makes him to have finished his Expofition of the cabbaliftical law. His other moft confiderable works may be seen in the next note (N). However, the Jews made (M) He was born at Gironna, an. 1194, and at firft ftudied chiefly phyfic, but made afterwards fuch progrefs in the ftudy of the law, that he was ftyled the father of wisdom, the luminary and glory of the crown of holiness; and a fermon which he preached before the king of Caftile, made him be looked upon as the father of eloquence. He at firft feemed to have no opinion of the Cabbalah; but after he came to take a relish to it, he became fo expert in it, that he could find every thing he wanted in the facred books, particularly in the Song of Mofes, and paffed from the fpeculative to the Hammahafith, or active, or operative part of it (44). по of life, a cabbalistical treatise. 7. On faith and truft, likewife cabbaliftical. 8. His expofition of the law, in the fame strain, and more fubtil than the reft. 9. On redemption or deliverance from banishment. 10. His fermon before the king of Caftile on the excellence of the divine law. 11. A treatise on purity. 12. New expofition on the treatife of Bava Batra. 13. On that of Jatzirah, or the creation. 14. On that of the wars of the Lord. 15. On that of Maimonides, called fad Chazakaḥ. 16. Orders of falvation, cabbalistical. 17. Eden the garden of the Lord, ditto. 18. Jaaleb's spring, ditto. 19. A comment on Job. 20. On fome treatifes of the thalmud. 21. A treatise on the (N) 1. A prayer on the ruin end or coming of the Meffiah. of the temple. 2. An epistle on 2. An epiftle on 22. On the pomegranate, cabbathe holiness of marriage, giving liftical. 23. Questions and anfome rules how parents may be- fwers. 24. The lilly of fecrets, a get honeft children. 3. His gar- cabbalistical expofition by numden of defire, another epiftle, in bers. 25. The fquare table. the cabbalitical train. 4. A 26. The law of man, or directhird to his fon, on moral fub- tions how he ought to behave jects. 5. A fourth in defence in fickness, death, mourning, of Maimonides. 6. The treafure and expectation of a future life. (44) Bartoinc. ub. fup. tom iv. Wolf, Bibl. Hæbr. n. 1612. p. 876, & feq. Gantz Txemach, Shalfcleth, Juchafin, &c. no great figure in Palestine, during this interval; and contented themselves with having the free ufe of their schools and fynagogues; and Nachmanides was the only confiderable doctor they had among them. THEY did not fare much better in Egypt, where the invafion which St. Lewis made upon that kingdom, and the revolution that happened foon after under the Mamlukes, did not permit them to thrive either in wealth or learning; they being on the one hand excluded from having any share in public affairs, and on the other, had been obliged to fet afide all thoughts of learning of any kind, infomuch that we read not of one rabbi of any note among them. There R.Simeon was, indeed, one Simeon Duran, in fome city of Afric, who Duran, published fome works, which the reader may fee in the mar- A. C. gin (O); but he was neither Egyptian nor African, but a 1391. native of Spain, whence he had brought with him the com- his works. ment of rabbi Alphez, which he tranflated there; and he did not flourish till the latter end of the 14th century *. THE Jews about Babylon, as well as the difperfed of the Saadòdten tribes eastward, had fuffered much, as we hinted a little dowlah, higher, from the invasion of the Tartars; but at length gained a confiderable refpite under Khan Argunt, by means of a Jewish phyfician named Saaddodowlah, a learned man, and agreeable companion, whom that prince made his prime minifter. The Chriftian hiftorians do him that justice, that he left them in quiet poffeffion of what they had in that empire; but he made ufe of all the, intereft he had with his prince favoured to promote the intereft of his own nation, and procured by Arthem fome confiderable privileges. They did not enjoy them gun, long, before Argun was taken dangerously ill, and died foon A. C. after; and Saaddodowlah, who was hated by the Moslems and 1291. Arabs for his kindness to the Jews, was accused by them of having poisoned him, and maffacred for it; and after him a De hoc vid. BARTOLOC. ub. fup. WOLF. Bibl. Hæbr. N. 1612. p. 876, & feq. • D'HERBELOT. Bibl. Orient. fub voc, +De hoc vid. fup. vol. v. p. 179. 27. His conference with a Dominican friar, mentioned above (45). (0) Befides the verfion mentioned above, he compiled a chronological catalogue of all the ancient rabbies, intitled Maghen Aboth, the Shield of the Fathers, another called Obef. (45) Id. ibid. (46) Bartol, ub, fup_tem, iv, PT 411, murdered. 1327. |