A brief look at the rise and fall of the Jewish state in Palestine (1)

Abstract:

One of the ancient tribes living in Palestine was named as Hebrew, Israel and the Jews in history. Israel was originally a branch of the Semitic people who initially had nomadic life. In the sixth century BC., they noticed living in the Palestinian Territories and gradually by defeating people of there, settled and created an independent state. The peak of the Jewish state’s power was at the time of Dawood (Peace be upon him) and Solomon (Peace be upon him). Then, this system suffered from internal divisions and eventually split into two separate governments. The two states were also experiencing foreign offensives until the Babylon government attacked them and they completely disappeared and many of them were exiled. In the future with the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire the situation was ready for the return of deported Jews to Palestine and re-independence of them until the Hellenistic period in which Jewish state was established. With the emergence of new powers of Rome in Asia, this Jewish state was targeted as the Roman expansionist desires and also lost its independence. Jewish efforts to recover their lost independence caused complete destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and exiling the majority of them to Palestine.
In this article two things will be discussed briefly. One is the creation of the Jewish state and its history, and the second one is a look at the migration and settlement of Jews in ancient Persia.
Key words: the Jews, the history of Palestine, Persia, Mesopotamia, Jewish areas
The first part: the Jewish states from establishment to collapse
Up to the eighth century BC Palestinian Territories was the original home of Israel. The people before settling in this land were in traffic in the deserts of Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt. Then, they realized the land of Palestine, which at that time was fertile according to Torah (Torah, Exodus 3: 8) – and they tried to be dominant there. (Mallet and Isaac: 1366, 91-114) domination of Israel over Palestine took place gradually and in many cases, it was accompanied by bloody purification of the original inhabitants of this land. Jews were twelve tribes and each tribe was ruled by one sheikh. These tribes were usually independent from inside and the children of Israel had no focused military autonomy. Soon, due to fear of being defeated at the hands of Palestinians, one of the ethnic groups in the Palestinian, Jews concluded to choose a king from themselves. They eventually chose a man named Saul of the tribe of Benjamin as their king (Durant: 1373, 304-305; Male and Isaac: 1366, 91-114) after Saul, Dawood the prophet (Peace be upon him) reached this position and after him, his son Solomon (Peace be upon him) became the king. Solomon died about 930 BC. Rehoboam was the future Israel’s king and son of Solomon (Peace be upon him). Twelve tribes of Israel were in conflicts in his time that led to division the of David (Peace be upon him)’s offspring statement, so that the ten tribes of the twelve tribes of Israel seized most of Palestinian lands in the northern areas and the rest of the land in the southern regions including Jerusalem were in hands of two other tribes that remained loyal to David (Peace be upon him)’s family. The North Country became known as Israel’s kingdom. Although this political realm had more power by having more number of troops, it was always caught in the conflict between the ten tribes from the beginning due to disagreement on the Board of Governors and the lack of religious legitimacy. These conflicts shortened this government’s lifetime (about two hundred years). The South State was called Judah or Judas because of the tribe of Judah, one of the tribe which made this country. As it was mentioned, these two tribes accepted the sovereignty of children of David (PBUH) besides, they dominated the holy city of Jerusalem; these two factors resulted in a political and religious legitimacy to the government of Judea, and it had a longer lifetime compared with its competitor, Israeli Kingdom, and it continued nearly for three hundred and fifty years (Mallet and Isaac: 1366, 91-114). Analysis of Palestine country caused a chronic weakness for Israel's ruling. When the expansion of the Assyrian empire went to the Mediterranean coast these two Jewish states were not safe of Assyrian’s aggression as well. Israel was repeatedly attacked until 722 BC that Assyrians captured Samaria, and this government was totally destroyed. The extinction of this state made Judea as the only independent Jewish state in the south of Palestine, but this country was not safe from foreign invasions as well. Finally, in 586-587 BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Judea and destroyed Jerusalem. Many Jews were transferred to Babylon as captives. This captivity lasted for fifty years (Mallet and Isaac: 1366, 91-114). Zedekiah was the last king of Judea. He was captured, and by the command of Nebuchadnezzar became deprived of the gift of sight and died in captivity in the Babylonian (Hamidi, 1364, 108).
Years later, and with the support of the Achaemenid, Jewish state could be established again that this government lasted until the Roman domination.

Background of Jews’ deportation

The first record in the history about the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine to another area is in time of domination of Assyrians on the land. In the second half of the eighth century BC Tiglath Pileser III (745-727 BC), king of Assyria, in order to suppress the revolt of the Jews in Palestine, he carried out the policy of expelling them from their own home. The banished Jews were settled in Babylon in Mesopotamia. The second time that Tiglath Pileser III applied the migration policies towards Jews was about his invasion to the Kingdom of Israel in 734 to 732 BC. At this time a number of the tribes of Israel united and revolted against the Assyrians. Tiglath Pileser III after the victory over the insurgents exiled tribal leaders to Trans-Jordan. Tiglath Pileser III speaks of several thousands of prisoners that he had fettered them in the region of Galilee. These explanations were all in a table which is remained of him.
Sargon II (705-722BC), son of Shulmanu, has spoken about twenty seven thousand and two hundred and ninety (or two hundred and eighty) captives that were exiled from Samaria. Instead of deported Jews in Samaria, those of other failed nations were settled there as well. According to the Torah, the exiles were settled in areas in Mesopotamia. Many exiles were transformed in the cities of the Medes, which at that time was a vassal of Assyria. They probably were the first Jews who inhibited around Iran. The Jews and their descendants continue to exist till today (Ghirshman: 1388.110; Zarrinkoub: 1386, 71). Assyrian’s exile policy also applied to residents of Judea and many of them moved to various regions in the long rule of the Assyrian. Most of exiles from the Israel’s Kingdom were moved to Upper Mesopotamia along the Habor River (one of the branches of the Euphrates). Since the same period some evidences of Jewish life were also achieved in Nineveh. The archaeological findings of works that are related to ancient Nimrod (in northern Iraq) that depicts captured Jewish craftsmen working with exiled artisans and craftsmen from Phoenicia and other Aramid territories (Encyclopedia of Judaica, vol.06, EXILE, ASSYRIAN and Zarrinkoub: 1386, 71). During the control of Palestinian by Babylon government, kings of Judea were usually the tributaries of Babylonians. as it was mentioned earlier, Zedekiah was the last king of Judea, who was reinstated by the Babylonians on the Jewish monarchy, but when Zedekiah tried to revolt on the Babylonians and become dependence, Nebuchadnezzar, Babel’s king, defeated him in 586 or 587 BC and took him and seventy thousands Jews to Babylon (Hamidi, 1364, 108). Masoudi, historian of Islamic period, knows the number of exiled prisoners to eighteen thousand people (Massoudi: 1378, 53). The captivation and destruction of Jerusalem lasted about 50 years. In 538 BC, Cyrus defeated Nabonidus and dominated Babylon (Encyclopedia of the Islamic world, the entrance of Jerusalem, Hamidi: 1364, 102). He freed Jews whether they want to stay in Babylon or not and return to Palestine, except a few, all Jews preferred to stay in Babylon (Zarrinkoub: 1386, 128; Goldenberg: 2007, 241). After that Jerusalem, the capital of Jews, was under the tutelage of Iran for two hundred years. Darius the Great (486-522BC) divided the country into twenty satrapies (parts). In this division, Palestine was a part of the fifth satrapy that its center was Damascus. Darius appointed Zerubbabel to the Palestine’s Authority who was one of the Jewish princes descended from David (Peace be upon him). Zerubbabel and a man named Ben Sadaq oversaw restoration work of the Temple of Jerusalem (Hamidi, 1364, 133). At the time Solomon's Temple was built and the deportation of Jews out of Palestine was halted and the preparations were provided for Jews to form an independent state in the future. In 333 BC, Alexander and his army conquered the Palestine area, which until then was part of the Achaemenid Empire. With his death during the dominance of the Greek government's the desire for independence increased in Jews. This desire and the conduct of Hellenistic governments led to riots by the Jews in Palestine during the reign of Antiochus IV. The result was that Antiochus IIII suppressed the Jews in 169 BC, and the Temple of Solomon was looted by him and about forty thousand of them were killed, and also in revenge for the uprising he forced them to eat pork (which is forbidden in Judaism) and made them worship the Greek gods in the temples and sacrifice unto the Zeus, Greek God. The Jewish religious practices such as circumcision, holiness of the Sabbath, and such practices were banned and forced Jews to sacrifice to the Greek gods. These practices led to the second Jewish revolt by the leadership of Maccabees and their extensive wars with the Seleucids. In 166 BC, this family could defeat the Seleucid and they were able to achieve independence, however for a brief period. (Levi: 1339, 25; Encyclopedia of Islam, Jerusalem entries)
the independence of the Jewish state was not without risk for them, in a vacuum of the elimination of the Jewish state, Tigran known as the Great King of Armenia made an indecisive attack to the Palestine. Although he was not able to conquer this area, but took the Jews to Armenia, and they became the core of Armenia's small Jewish community (Levi: 1339, 51). Then, the two superpowers, the Roman and Parthian Iran, clashed over control of West Asia. Eventually the Persia withdrew from Palestine in 39 BC, and the total Roman dominance on the area began (Levi: 1339, 64-72), but the period of Roman’s domination over Palestine had many ups and downs. In the year 66 AD, the Jewish people organized a revolt against the Romans on Bar Kokhba’s leadership. This man had a messianic claim as well. In 70 AD the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem commanded by Titus, son of Emperor Vespasyanus, and a large numbers of Jews were killed and many were forced to immigrate to Palestine. Mesopotamia was the destination of these migrants (Encyclopedia of the Islamic world, the entrance to Jerusalem; (Encylopedia of Judaica, Vol. 3, Bar Kochba) this event was the biggest turning point in the history of the Jewish diaspora.

The major Jewish communities in Persia

Jews in the Media
As it was mentioned above, Media was the first exile place of the Jews in Iran and the establishment of the first Jewish community in the area goes back before the establishment of the national government in Iran and the Assyrian domination over this region. The Israelites from the city of Samaria, who were exiled to Media by Assyrian, have been mentioned In the Torah. In the second book it has been said: the Emperor of Assyria took Israelis to Assyria. Some prisoners were settled in the city of Halah, others in Gozan on the Habor River, and the rest were settled in the cities of Media (Torah, the second book of Kings, 18:11). Jewish communities in the ancient Medes were mainly smaller in comparison with other settlements, especially in Mesopotamia. Hamedan in this area was home for a small community of Jews for many years. One of the Jewish population in the area was placed in Nehavand. In the Talmud, Nehavand was named as one of the Jewish communities. Benjamin Tatili, who visited the region in the twelfth century, has mentioned that the four thousand Jews lived in Nehavand (Encylopedia of Judaica, Vol. 3, and NEHĀVAND).
Jews in Adiabene
As it was stated, by destruction of the Seleucid government, the Asian territory of this government was claimed by the governments of Rome and Persia soon. In this situation after several conflicts, the Parthian controlled the major part of Mesopotamia and the Roman controlled Minor Asia, Syria, and Palestine. So far, Mesopotamia was changed into the most important center for Jewish immigration. It is important to state that Parthian state had a Federalism-like system. Parthian kings ruled in the local regions and had a relative autonomy and besides having freedom, they were tributaries of Parthian kings. One of these territories was Adiabene. Adiabene was in northern Mesopotamia- Iraqi Kurdistan- and was one of the territories of Iran in which Jewish were settled there. Adiabene’s first native king named Izates I or Ezzat (died in 54 C.) had accepted the Jewish religion in 22 C. till the first half of the first century, Jewish religion had spread among the inhabitants of this land (Yarshater: 1381, 349, Levi: 1339, 119). Judaism remained the official religion of the Adiabene’s court since 115 C. until Romans gained control over the area and overthrew the dynasty of Adiabene. In such way, recognition of this religion also vanished by Adiabene’s destruction (Encyclopedia of Iranica, entry of Adiabene). With all of these, Judaism prevailed in Adiabene in the second century C. At this time most portion of Jewish community were attracted to Christianity (Gafni, Isaiah, Encyclopedia Judaica, vol.01, ADIABENE)