Revolt against Heraclius

The Revolt against Heraclius (613–617) was a Jewish insurrection against the Byzantine Empire coming into aid of the Persian invaders.

Revolt

The Jews of Palestine joined Persia in a revolt against Emperor Heraclius in order to liberate Jerusalem and to be able to control it autonomously. The main battle was in Jerusalem, where the city fell to the combined forces of the Persians and the Jews after a 20-day siege. The Christian population of Jerusalem was then massacred. Jews were given permission to run the city and they effectively did so for the next five years. Reports indicate that at the time 150,000 Jews were living in 43 settlements throughout Palestine.

Benjamin of Tiberias was the Jewish leader who aided the Persians in their battles. [ [http://www.davidsconsultants.com/jewishhistory/history.phpstartyear=610&endyear=619 David Consultants - Jewish History] ]

Aftermath

The Jews of Jerusalem gained autonomy to some degree, but became frustrated with its limitations and anticipating its loss, betrayed the Persians and offered to assist the Byzantines in return for amnesty for the revolt.

In 625, the Byzantine army reconquered the territory. Amnesty was granted to Benjamin of Tiberias and the Jews who had joined the Persians.

In 628, after the defeat and death of Khosrau, Heraclius came as victor into Jerusalem. The Jews of Tiberias and Nazareth, under the leadership of Benjamin of Tiberias, changed sides and joined him as allies. According to Eutychius, the Emperor would have kept peace with them had not fanatic monks instigated him to a massacre. Only a few Jews escaped into Egypt or sought refuge in caves and in forests. [Eutychius, ii. 241] In atonement for the violation of an oath to the Jews, the monks pledged themselves to a fast, which the Copts still observe. [While the Syrians and the Melchite Greeks ceased to keep it after the death of Heraclius; Elijah of Nisibis ("Beweis der Wahrheit des Glaubens," translation by Horst, p. 108, Colmar, 1886) mocks at the observance.] Heraclius is said to have dreamed that destruction threatened the Byzantine Empire through a circumcised people. 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. [Pertz, "Monumenta Germaniae Historica," i. 286, vi. 25; compare Joseph ha-Kohen, "'Emeḳ ha-Baka," tr. Wiener, p. 5] 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). [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.]

In 629, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius marched into Jerusalem at the head of his army. 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. His solution was to disperse the Jews as Titus had in the Jewish Revolt, and so a massacre of the Jews in Jerusalem ensued and tens of thousands of Jews were put to flight from Palaestina to Egypt.

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 foced baptism and massacre of the empire's Jews. [God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Lewis, publisher Norton 2008 page 69]

In 638, the Byzantine Empire lost control of the territory of Palaestina to the Arabs. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

References

ources

* Katz, Shmuel. "Battleground (1974)", p. 97.
* [http://www.usd.edu/erp/Palestine/history.htm Palestine History] .
* [http://www.alsadiqin.org/history/The%20Persian%20conquest%20of%20Jerusalem%20in%20614CE%20compared%20with%20Islamic%20conquest%20of%20638CE.pdf The Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614 compared with Islamic conquest of 638 ] .