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156-817: In the aftermath of the 1948 Palestine War , the 1954 Lavon Affair , and the 1956 Suez War , Jewish (estimated at between 75,000 and 80,000 in 1948), and European groups like the French and British emigrated, much of their property was also confiscated (see 20th century departures of foreign nationals from Egypt ). As of 2016, the president of Cairo's Jewish community said that there were 6 Jews in Cairo, all women over age 65, and 12 Jews in Alexandria . As of 2019, there were at least 5 known Jews in Cairo and as of 2017, 12 were still reported in Alexandria. In December 2022, it

312-418: A Jewish priest . His older full-blooded brother was also, like his father, called Matthias. Their mother was an aristocratic woman who was descended from the royal and formerly ruling Hasmonean dynasty . Josephus's paternal grandparents were a man also named Joseph(us) and his wife—an unnamed Hebrew noblewoman—distant relatives of each other. Josephus's family was wealthy. He descended through his father from

468-544: A Joseph Ṭabul is mentioned, whose son Jacob, a prominent man, was put to death by the authorities. The 1648–1657 Khmelnytsky Uprising in Poland forced local Jews to flee to Ottoman lands, including Egypt. The responsa of Hakham Mordecai ha-Levi document how several Ashkenazi women, who arrived in Egypt and became agunot due to the chaos, faced challenges with the validity of their divorce documents . The rabbi accepted

624-655: A Greek Jewish woman from Crete , who was a member of a distinguished family. They had two sons, Flavius Justus and Flavius Simonides Agrippa. Josephus's life story remains ambiguous. He was described by Harris in 1985 as a law-observant Jew who believed in the compatibility of Judaism and Graeco-Roman thought, commonly referred to as Hellenistic Judaism . Josippon , the Hebrew version of Josephus, contains changes. His critics were never satisfied as to why he failed to commit suicide in Galilee, and after his capture, accepted

780-477: A Jewish leader was recognized as ráīs al-Yahūd meaning the head of the Jews in Egypt. Later for a sixty-year rule, three family members of court physicians took the position of ráīs al-Yahūd whose names were Judah b. Såadya, Mevorakh b. Såadya, and Moses b. Mevorakh. The position was eventually handed down from Moses Maimonides in the late 12th century to early 15th centuries and was given to his descendants. As for

936-533: A Jewish majority in the land that would allow them to gain statehood. The Arab inhabitants of Ottoman Palestine who saw the Zionist Jews of the first aliyah settle next to them were not associated with a national movement at the end of the 19th century. Historically, Palestine had never been administered or recognized as a distinct province by any of its Muslim rulers. Starting in 1882, the Ottomans issued

1092-476: A Roman onslaught. In Upper Galilee , he fortified the towns of Jamnith , Seph , Mero , and Achabare , among other places. Josephus, with the Galileans under his command, managed to bring both Sepphoris and Tiberias into subjection, but was eventually forced to relinquish his hold on Sepphoris by the arrival of Roman forces under Placidus the tribune and later by Vespasian himself. Josephus first engaged

1248-604: A brief visit to Rome in the early 60s ( Life 13–17). In the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt, Josephus would have witnessed the marches of Titus 's triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and carrying treasures from the despoiled Temple in Jerusalem . It was against this background that Josephus wrote his War . He blames the Jewish War on what he calls "unrepresentative and over-zealous fanatics" among

1404-526: A brother of the Christian patriarch, who tried to drive the Jews out of the kingdom. Four leading Jews worked and conspired against the Christian, with what result is not known. There has been preserved a letter from this ex-minister to the Jews of Constantinople, begging for aid in a remarkably intricate poetical style. One of the physicians of the caliph Al-Ḥafiẓ (1131–49) was a Jew, Abu Manṣur ( Wüstenfeld , p. 306). Abu al-Faḍa'il ibn al-Nakid (died 1189)

1560-414: A clear sign of the full-fledged shift that took hold. Jews who for the most part were kept segregated from Arab communities first came into contact with Sufism in these state sponsored ceremonies, as they were obliged to attend out of a show of loyalty to the sultan. It is in these ceremonies where many Egyptian Jews first came into contact with Sufism and it would eventually spark a massive movement amongst

1716-619: A compromise with the Arabs, but none proved possible. The peasant-led 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine broke out in the context of increased Jewish migration to Palestine and the plight of the rural native fallāḥīn . It sparked following the murder of three Jewish drivers on April 15, 1936, whose funeral led rapidly spreading disturbances. The revolt began with a general strike among Palestinian Arabs on April 19, 1936, which escalated into intercommunal violence. The brutal suppression of

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1872-515: A decidedly anti-Semitic context with calls for ethnic cleansing. Before that time, state/religious-sanctioned claims of a Jewish pariah were not common. In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Edward Gibbon describes the Alexandria pogrom: Without any legal sentence, without any royal mandate, the patriarch (Saint Cyril), at the dawn of day, led a seditious multitude to

2028-609: A detailed examination of all the available manuscripts, mainly from France and Spain. Henry St. John Thackeray and successors such as Ralph Marcus used Niese's version for the Loeb Classical Library edition widely used today. On the Jewish side, Josephus was far more obscure, as he was perceived as a traitor. Rabbinical writings for a millennium after his death (e.g. the Mishnah ) almost never call out Josephus by name, although they sometimes tell parallel tales of

2184-588: A garrison of troops on the Suez Canal until 1945. Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops did not withdraw until 1946, the same year Syria won its independence from France. In 1945, at British prompting, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia , Syria, Transjordan, and Yemen formed the Arab League to coordinate policy among the Arab states. Iraq and Transjordan coordinated closely, signing

2340-463: A greater degree of political independence than elsewhere. While the Jewish population elsewhere throughout the later Roman Empire frequently formed private societies for religious purposes, or organized corporations of ethnic groups like the Egyptian and Phoenician merchants in the large commercial centers, those of Alexandria constituted an independent political community, side by side with that of

2496-627: A majority of scholars. At the same time, most scholars also hold that that the Exodus probably has some sort of historical basis, and that a small group of Egyptian origins may have merged with the early Israelites, who were predominantly indigenous to Canaan and begin appearing in the historical record by around 1200 BCE. In the Elephantine papyri and ostraca (c. 500 – 300 BCE), caches of legal documents and letters written in Aramaic amply document

2652-475: A massive project of inviting and subsidizing Sufi clerics in an attempt to promote a new state religion. All throughout the country new government-backed Sufi brotherhoods and saint cults grew almost overnight and was able to quell the disapproval of the population. The Mamluk Sultanate would become a safe haven for Sufi mystics all throughout the Islamic world. Across the empire state-sponsored Sufi ceremonies were

2808-679: A mutual defence treaty, while Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia feared that Transjordan would annex part or all of Palestine and use it as a stepping stone to attack or undermine Syria, Lebanon, and the Hijaz . On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution "recommending to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations

2964-595: A new movement, Pietism, amongst Egyptian Jews. Pietism gained a huge following, mainly amongst the Jewish elite, and it would continue to gain momentum until the end of the Maimonides dynasty in the 15th century. Additionally, forced conversions in Yemen, Eighth Crusade and Almohad massacres in North Africa, and the collapse of al-Andalus forced large number of Jews to resettle to Egypt, many of whom would join

3120-670: A person of great experience in everything belonging to his own nation, he attained to that remarkable familiarity with his country in every part, which his antiquarian researches so abundantly evince. But he was controlled by political motives: his great purpose was to bring his people, the despised Jewish race, into honour with the Greeks and Romans; and this purpose underlay every sentence, and filled his history with distortions and exaggerations. Josephus mentions that in his day there were 240 towns and villages scattered across Upper and Lower Galilee , some of which he names. Josephus's works are

3276-671: A request to the North African communities for help to secure the release of a number of captives. The original of the last document has been preserved. He caused the Karaites to be removed from the court. In the mid thirteenth century the Ayyubid empire was plagued with famine, disease, and conflict; a great period of upheaval would see the Golden Islamic Period come to a violent end. Foreign powers began to encircle

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3432-618: A significant amount of the population from all the Jews living in Egypt. Due to the discovery of the Cairo Geniza documents at the end of the 19th century, a lot is known about Egyptian Jews. From private records, letters, public records, and documents, these sources held the information about the society of the Egyptian Jews. The rule of the Fatimid Caliphate was in general favorable for the Jewish communities, except

3588-972: A significant, extra-Biblical account of the post-Exilic period of the Maccabees , the Hasmonean dynasty, and the rise of Herod the Great . He also describes the Sadducees , the Pharisees and Essenes , the Herodian Temple, Quirinius 's census and the Zealots , and such figures as Pontius Pilate , Herod the Great , Agrippa I and Agrippa II , John the Baptist , James the brother of Jesus , and Jesus . Josephus represents an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism and

3744-780: A stop to the escalating violence. The first phase of the war took place from the United Nations General Assembly vote for the Partition Plan for Palestine on 29 November 1947 until the termination of the British Mandate and Israeli proclamation of statehood on 14 May 1948. During this period the Jewish and Arab communities of the British Mandate clashed, while the British organised their withdrawal and intervened only occasionally. In

3900-591: A stream of prohibitions against Jewish settlement and land purchases in Palestine. However, due to the inefficiency of Ottoman bureaucracies, these restriction had little effect. Due to bribes, the Ottoman authorities often supported the Jewish settlers in disputes over land and settlement. Until the 1910s, Zionists encountered little violence, as the Arabs lacked political awareness and were disorganized. Between 1909 and 1914, this changed, as Arabs killed 12 Jewish settlement guards and Arab nationalism, and opposition to

4056-699: A strong spirit of defense growing among Muslim faithfuls to rally victoriously against the Mongols in the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 and consolidating the remnants of the Ayyubid Syria in 1299. In this period of aggressive posturing the ulama were quick to denounce foreign influences to safeguard the purity of Islam. This led to unfortunate situations for Mamluk Jews. In 1300 Sultan Al-Nasir Qalawan ordered all Jews under his rule to wear yellow headgear to isolate

4212-524: A systematic order, proceeding topically and logically" and included all relevant material for their subject. Antiquarians moved beyond political history to include institutions and religious and private life. Josephus does offer this wider perspective in Antiquities . The works of Josephus are major sources of our understanding of Jewish life and history during the first century. His first work in Rome

4368-577: A variety of distinct sectors around the coastal towns. They consolidated their presence in Galilee and Samaria . The Army of the Holy War , under Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni 's command, came from Egypt with several hundred men. Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, al-Husayni organised the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem. To counter this, the Yishuv authorities tried to supply

4524-500: A young man had gone to Egypt to visit a rich uncle, the tax-farmer Mordecai Francis (Azulai, "Shem ha-Gedolim," No. 332); and Abraham Monson . Ishmael Kohen Tanuji finished his Sefer ha-Zikkaron in Egypt in 1543. Joseph ben Moses di Trani was in Egypt for a time (Frumkin, l.c. p. 69), as well as Ḥayyim Vital Aaron ibn Ḥayyim, the Biblical and Talmudical commentator (1609; Frumkin, l.c. pp. 71, 72). Of Isaac Luria's pupils,

4680-550: Is claimed that, after Ptolemy I Soter took Judea , he led some 120,000 Jewish captives to Egypt from the areas of Judea, Jerusalem , Samaria , and Mount Gerizim . With them, many other Jews, attracted by the fertile soil and Ptolemy's liberality, emigrated there of their own accord. An inscription recording a Jewish dedication of a synagogue to Ptolemy and Berenice was discovered in the 19th century near Alexandria. Josephus also claims that, soon after, these 120,000 captives were freed from bondage by Philadelphus. The history of

4836-468: Is damaged in some places. In the Life , Niese follows mainly manuscript P, but refers also to AMW and R. Henry St. John Thackeray for the Loeb Classical Library has a Greek text also mainly dependent on P. André Pelletier edited a new Greek text for his translation of Life . The ongoing Münsteraner Josephus-Ausgabe of Münster University will provide a new critical apparatus. Late Old Slavonic translations of

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4992-423: Is repentance: in later life he felt so bad about the traitorous War that he needed to demonstrate … his loyalty to Jewish history, law and culture." However, Josephus's "countless incidental remarks explaining basic Judean language, customs and laws … assume a Gentile audience. He does not expect his first hearers to know anything about the laws or Judean origins." The issue of who would read this multi-volume work

5148-487: Is unresolved. Other possible motives for writing Antiquities could be to dispel the misrepresentation of Jewish origins or as an apologetic to Greek cities of the Diaspora in order to protect Jews and to Roman authorities to garner their support for the Jews facing persecution. Josephus was a very popular writer with Christians in the 4th century and beyond as an independent source to the events before, during, and after

5304-664: The Haskalah ("Jewish Enlightenment") in the 19th century, when sufficiently "neutral" vernacular language translations were made. Kalman Schulman finally created a Hebrew translation of the Greek text of Josephus in 1863, although many rabbis continued to prefer the Yosippon version. By the 20th century, Jewish attitudes toward Josephus had softened, as he gave the Jews a respectable place in classical history. Various parts of his work were reinterpreted as more inspiring and favorable to

5460-411: The nomen Flavius from his patrons, as was the custom amongst freedmen . Vespasian arranged for Josephus to marry a captured Jewish woman, whom he later divorced. Around the year 71, Josephus married an Alexandrian Jewish woman as his third wife. They had three sons, of whom only Flavius Hyrcanus survived childhood. Josephus later divorced his third wife. Around 75, he married his fourth wife,

5616-500: The Alexandrian Jews dates from the foundation of the city by Alexander the Great , 332 BCE, at which they were present. They were numerous from the very outset, forming a notable portion of the city's population under Alexander's successors. The Ptolemies assigned them a separate section, two of the five districts of the city, to enable them to keep their laws pure of indigenous cultic influences. The Alexandrian Jews enjoyed

5772-679: The Arabian Peninsula . The letter sent by Muhammad to the Jewish Banu Janba in 630 is said by Al-Baladhuri to have been seen in Egypt. A copy, written in Hebrew characters, has been found in the Cairo Geniza . The Treaty of Alexandria, signed on in November 641, which sealed the Arab conquest of Egypt, provided for the rights of Jews (and Christians) to continue to practice their religion freely. 'Amr ibn al-'As ,

5928-520: The Balfour Declaration in November 1917, it was designated as a "national home for the Jewish people", with the stipulation that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." Several factors influenced the decision to support Zionism. Zionist lobbying, led by Chaim Weizmann , played a significant role, along with religious and humanitarian motivations. The fact that

6084-471: The Balfour Declaration . As the numbers and strength of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) grew, tensions between the Jewish and Arab communities deepened. Significant bouts of violence happened during the 1920 Jerusalem Riots , as well as in 1921 and 1929 . In addition to the emerging Palestinian Arab nationalism, the violence also drew on religious inspirations, such as the accusation that

6240-484: The Byzantine Empire rule and the rise of a new state religion: Christianity . There was an expulsion of a large amount of Jews from Alexandria (the so-called "Alexandria Expulsion") in 414 or 415 CE by Saint Cyril , following a number of controversies, including threats from Cyril and supposedly (according to Christian historian Socrates Scholasticus ) a Jewish-led massacre in response. Later violence took on

6396-651: The Egyptians , who, in turn, taught the Greeks . Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which, like that of Rome, resisted monarchy . The great figures of the Tanakh are presented as ideal philosopher-leaders. He includes an autobiographical appendix defending his conduct at the end of the war when he cooperated with the Roman forces. Louis H. Feldman outlines the difference between calling this work Antiquities of

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6552-658: The Jerusalem area, including Bethlehem , with 100,000 Jews and an equal number of Palestinian Arabs, was to become a corpus separatum , to be administered by the UN. The residents in the UN-administered territory were given the right to choose to be citizens of either of the new states. The Jewish leadership accepted the partition plan as "the indispensable minimum", glad to gain international recognition but sorry that they did not receive more. The representatives of

6708-522: The Ottoman sultan, Selim I , defeated Tuman Bey , the last of the Mamelukes. He made radical changes in the governance of the Jewish community, abolishing the office of nagid, making each community independent, and placing David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra at the head of that of Cairo. He also appointed Abraham de Castro to be master of the mint. It was during the reign of Selim's successor, Suleiman

6864-472: The Ptolemaic dynasty , especially around Alexandria . Thus, their history in this period centers almost completely on Alexandria, though daughter communities rose up in places like the present Kafr ed-Dawar, and Jews served in the administration as custodians of the river. As early as the third century BCE, there was a widespread diaspora of Jews in many Egyptian towns and cities. In Josephus 's history, it

7020-658: The Roman army led by military commander Vespasian after the six-week siege of Yodfat . Josephus claimed the Jewish messianic prophecies that initiated the First Jewish–Roman War made reference to Vespasian becoming Roman emperor . In response, Vespasian decided to keep him as a slave and presumably interpreter . After Vespasian became emperor in AD ;69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed

7176-765: The Therapeutae , who lived near Lake Mareotis . The Roman suppression of the Diaspora Revolt (115–117) led to the near-total expulsion and annihilation of Jews from Egypt and nearby Cyrenaica. The Jewish revolt, which is said to have begun in Cyrene and spread to Egypt, was largely motivated by the Zealots , aggravation after the failed Great Revolt and destruction of the Second Temple , and anger at discriminatory laws. Jewish communities are thought to have rebelled due to messianic expectations, hoping for

7332-431: The 17th century. The 1544 Greek edition formed the basis of the 1732 English translation by William Whiston , which achieved enormous popularity in the English-speaking world. It was often the book—after the Bible—that Christians most frequently owned. Whiston claimed that certain works by Josephus had a similar style to the Epistles of St. Paul . Later editions of the Greek text include that of Benedikt Niese , who made

7488-454: The Arab commander, claimed in a letter to Caliph Umar that there were 40,000 Jews in Alexandria at the time. Of the fortunes of the Jewish population of Egypt under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates (641–868), little is known. Under the Tulunids (863-905), the Karaite community enjoyed robust growth. At this time, Jews from North Africa came to settle in Egypt after the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969. These Jewish immigrants made up

7644-419: The Arab population, such as occurred at Lydda and Ramle and the Battle of Haifa , led to the expulsion and flight of over 700,000 Palestinians , with most of their urban areas being depopulated and destroyed . This violence and dispossession of the Palestinians is known today as the Nakba ( Arabic for "the disaster") and resulted in the beginning of the Palestinian refugee problem . The 1948 War came as

7800-484: The Arab state would also have an enclave in Jaffa , which had an Arab-majority population and provided the Arab state with a port on the Mediterranean. With about 32% of the population, the Jews were allocated 56% of the territory (most of it the Negev desert). It contained 499,000 Jews and 438,000 Arabs. The Palestinian Arabs were allocated 42% of the land, which had a population of 818,000 Palestinian Arabs and 10,000 Jews. In consideration of its religious significance,

7956-464: The Arab states. The result of his analysis was Plan Dalet , which was put in place at the start of April, and which marked the war's second phase, in which the Haganah took the offensive. The first operation, Nachshon , was directed at lifting the blockade on Jerusalem . In the last week of March, 136 supply trucks had tried to reach Jerusalem; only 41 had made it. The Arab attacks on communications and roads had intensified. The convoys' failure and

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8112-432: The Arabic language. Mourad Farag was also one of the coauthors of Egypt's first Constitution in 1923. Another famous Egyptian Jew of this period was Yaqub Sanu , who became a patriotic Egyptian nationalist advocating the removal of the British. He edited the nationalist publication Abu Naddara 'Azra from exile. This was one of the first magazines written in Egyptian Arabic , and mostly consisted of satire , poking fun at

8268-401: The Arabs of Palestine supported the Ottoman fight against the Allied Powers also contributed. Additionally, the British believed that a British-backed state would help defend the Suez Canal . At that time, the Arab Hashemites did not seem opposed to Jewish rule over Palestine. After World War I, the League of Nations granted Britain the Mandate for Palestine , which required it to implement

8424-419: The British Empire in Egypt. The war briefly halted Jewish-Arab friction. The British invaded the land in 1915 and 1916 after two unsuccessful Ottoman attacks on Sinai. They were assisted by the Arab tribes in Hejaz, led by the Hashemites , and promised them sovereignty over the Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire. Palestine was excluded from the promise, initially intended to be a joint British-French domain. After

8580-967: The British as well as the ruling Muhammad Ali dynasty , seen as puppets of the British. Another was Henri Curiel , who founded 'The Egyptian Movement for National Liberation' in 1943, an organization that was to form the core of the Egyptian Communist party. Curiel was later to play an important role in establishing early informal contacts between the PLO and Israel. 1948 Palestine war 1949 Armistice Agreements : [REDACTED] Yishuv (before 14 May 1948 ) [REDACTED]   Israel (after 14 May 1948) Before 26 May 1948: After 26 May 1948: Foreign volunteers: [REDACTED]   United Kingdom Arabs : c. 2,000 initially, rising to 70,000, of which: Military engagements Massacres and civilian attacks 1948 Arab–Israeli War Southern front Central and Jerusalem front Northern front International Massacres Biological warfare The 1948 Palestine war

8736-415: The Cairo Sephardi community, endorsed the creation in 1935 of the Association of Egyptian Jewish Youth, with its slogan: 'Egypt is our homeland, Arabic is our language.' Qattawi strongly opposed political Zionism and wrote a note on 'The Jewish Question' to the World Jewish Congress in 1943 in which he argued that Palestine would be unable to absorb Europe's Jewish refugees. Nevertheless, various wings of

8892-413: The Crusaders (1169–93) does not seem to have affected the Jewish population with communal struggle. A Karaite doctor, Abu al-Bayyan al-Mudawwar (d. 1184), who had been physician to the last Fatimid, treated Saladin also. Abu al-Ma'ali, brother-in-law of Maimonides, was likewise in his service. In 1166 Maimonides went to Egypt and settled in Fostat , where he gained much renown as a physician, practising in

9048-446: The Egyptian Jewish community.  This law would be enforced for centuries and later amended in 1354 to force all Jews to wear a sign in addition to yellow headwear. On multiple occasions the ulema persuaded the government to close or convert synagogues. Even major places of pilgrimage for Egyptian Jews such as the Dammah Synagogue were forced to close in 1301. Jews subsequently were excluded from bath houses and were prohibited to work in

9204-399: The Emperor's family name of Flavius . Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship . He became an advisor and close associate of Vespasian's son Titus , serving as his translator during Titus's protracted siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, which resulted in the near-total razing of the city and the destruction of the Second Temple . Josephus recorded

9360-408: The Galileans and by the Romans; he was guilty of shocking duplicity at Jotapata, saving himself by sacrifice of his companions; he was too naive to see how he stood condemned out of his own mouth for his conduct, and yet no words were too harsh when he was blackening his opponents; and after landing, however involuntarily, in the Roman camp, he turned his captivity to his own advantage, and benefited for

9516-445: The Great Jewish Revolt (AD 66–70), including the siege of Masada . His most important works were The Jewish War ( c.  75 ) and Antiquities of the Jews ( c.  94). The Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation. Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Greek and Roman audience. These works provide insight into first-century Judaism and

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9672-444: The Greek also exist, but these contain a large number of Christian interpolations. Author Joseph Raymond calls Josephus "the Jewish Benedict Arnold " for betraying his own troops at Jotapata, while historian Mary Smallwood , in the introduction to the translation of The Jewish War by G. A. Williamson , writes: [Josephus] was conceited, not only about his own learning, but also about the opinions held of him as commander both by

9828-511: The Haganah and Palmach, perpetrated the Deir Yassin massacre , killing at least 107 Arab villagers, including women and children. The event was widely publicized and had a deep effect on the Arab population's morale, greatly contributing to the Palestinian expulsion and flight . At the same time, the first large-scale operation of the Arab Liberation Army ended in a debacle, as they were roundly defeated at Mishmar HaEmek . Their Druze allies left them through defection. As part of Plan Dalet,

9984-417: The Haganah, Palmach and Irgun captured the urban centers of Tiberias , Haifa (See: Battle of Haifa ), Safed , Beisan , Jaffa , and Acre , violently expelling more than 250,000 Palestinian Arabs. The British had essentially withdrawn their troops. The situation pushed the neighbouring Arab states to intervene, but their preparation was not completed, and they could not assemble sufficient forces to turn

10140-460: The Islamic World as the French endeavored on the 7th crusade in 1248 and the Mongol campaigns in the east rapidly making its way into the heartland of Islam. These internal and external pressure weakened the Ayyubid empire. In 1250 following the death of Sultan As-Salih Ayyub , slave soldiers, Mamluks , rose up and slaughtered all the Ayyubid heirs and the Mamluk leader Aybak became the new sultan. The Mamluks were quick to consolidate power using

10296-404: The Jewish population was ordered to hold their ground everywhere at all costs, the Arab population was disrupted by general conditions of insecurity. Up to 100,000 Arabs from the urban upper and middle classes in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, or Jewish-dominated areas, evacuated abroad or to Arab centres to the east. David Ben-Gurion ordered Yigal Yadin to plan for the announced intervention of

10452-557: The Jewish population, there were over 90 Jewish habitations known during the 11th and 12th centuries. These included cities, towns, and villages, contained over 4,000 Jewish citizens. Also for the Jewish population, a little more light is thrown upon the communities in Egypt through the reports of certain Jewish scholars and travelers who visited the country. Judah Halevi was in Alexandria in 1141, and dedicated some beautiful verses to his fellow resident and friend Aaron Ben-Zion ibn Alamani and his five sons. At Damietta Halevi met his friend,

10608-409: The Jewish settlements in the highly isolated Negev and North of Galilee was more critical. This caused the US to withdraw its support for the Partition Plan, and the Arab League began to believe that the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could end the partition. The British decided on 7 February 1948 to support Transjordan's annexation of the Arab part of Palestine. While

10764-428: The Jewish settlements of Galilee , and Operation Kilshon . This created an Israeli-controlled front around Jerusalem. The inconclusive meeting between Golda Meir and Abdullah I, followed by the Kfar Etzion massacre on 13 May by the Arab Legion, led to predictions that the battle for Jerusalem would be merciless. On 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the British Mandate, David Ben-Gurion declared

10920-412: The Jews (cf. Life 430) – where the author for the most part re-visits the events of the War and his tenure in Galilee as governor and commander, apparently in response to allegations made against him by Justus of Tiberias (cf. Life 336). Josephus's Against Apion is a two-volume defence of Judaism as classical religion and philosophy , stressing its antiquity, as opposed to what Josephus claimed

11076-411: The Jews , completed during the last year of the reign of the Emperor Flavius Domitian , around 93 or 94 AD. In expounding Jewish history, law and custom, he is entering into many philosophical debates current in Rome at that time. Again he offers an apologia for the antiquity and universal significance of the Jewish people. Josephus claims to be writing this history because he "saw that others perverted

11232-517: The Jews instead of History of the Jews . Although Josephus says that he describes the events contained in Antiquities "in the order of time that belongs to them," Feldman argues that Josephus "aimed to organize [his] material systematically rather than chronologically" and had a scope that "ranged far beyond mere political history to political institutions, religious and private life." An autobiographical text written by Josephus in approximately 94–99 CE – possibly as an appendix to his Antiquities of

11388-558: The Jews intended to take over the Temple Mount . Despite Arab opposition to Jewish immigration, leading Palestinian families continued to sell land to Zionists throughout the period. At least one quarter of members of the Palestinian Arab Executive benefited financially from such purchases, including the mayor of Jerusalem and the al-Husayni family . The Zionist leaders intermittently attempted to reach

11544-542: The Jews than the Renaissance translations by Christians had been. Notably, the last stand at Masada (described in The Jewish War ), which past generations had deemed insane and fanatical, received a more positive reinterpretation as an inspiring call to action in this period. The standard editio maior of the various Greek manuscripts is that of Benedictus Niese , published 1885–95. The text of Antiquities

11700-477: The Jews, who led the masses away from their traditional aristocratic leaders (like himself), with disastrous results. For example, Josephus writes that " Simon [bar Giora] was a greater terror to the people than the Romans themselves." Josephus also blames some of the Roman governors of Judea , representing them as corrupt and incompetent administrators. The next work by Josephus is his 21-volume Antiquities of

11856-635: The Magnificent , that Hain Ahmed Pasha , Viceroy of Egypt , revenged himself upon the Jews because de Castro had revealed in 1524 to the sultan of his designs for independence. The Cairo Purim of 28 Adar is still celebrated in commemoration of their escape. Towards the end of the 16th century, Talmudic studies in Egypt were greatly fostered by Bezalel Ashkenazi , author of the Shiṭṭah Mequbbeṣet . Among his pupils were Isaac Luria , who as

12012-673: The Mamluk Jews. Now most Egyptian Jews of the time were members of the Karaite Judaism . This was an anti-rabbinical movement that rejected the teachings of the Talmud . It is believed by historians such as Paul Fenton that the Karaites settled in Egypt as early as the seventh century, and Egypt would remain a bastion for Karaites all the way through the 19th century. As time passed in contact with these relatively new Sufi ideas many Karaites began to push towards reform. Admiration for

12168-568: The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab League firmly opposed the UN action and rejected its authority in the matter, arguing that the partition plan was unfair to the Arabs because of the population balance at that time. The Arabs rejected the partition, not because it was supposedly unfair, but because their leaders rejected any form of partition. They held "that the rule of Palestine should revert to its inhabitants, in accordance with

12324-609: The Pietist movement enthusiastically.  This enthusiasm may have been largely practical, as the adoption of Sufi ideas did much to ingratiate the Mamluk Jewish community with their Muslim overlords. This may have appealed to many of these refugees, as some historians state that the Maimonides dynasty itself originated from Al Andalus and resettled in Egypt. Pietism would in some ways become indistinguishable from Sufism. Pietists would clean their hands and feet before praying in

12480-714: The Pool , which is a mystical manual written in Arabic and filled with Sufi technical terms. In it he laid out how one may obtain union with the unintelligible world, showing his full adherence and advocacy of mysticism. He also began to reform practices advocating for celibacy and Halwa, solitary meditation, to better tune oneself to the spiritual plane. These were imitations of long held Sufi practices. In fact, he would often portrayed Jewish patriarchs such as Moses and Isaac as hermits who relied on isolated meditation to remain in touch with God. The Maimonides dynasty would essentially spark

12636-504: The Rabbinites at Alexandria and two at Rosetta . A second Karaite, Moses ben Elijah ha-Levi , has left a similar account of the year 1654, but it contains only a few points of special interest to the Karaites. Joseph ben Isaac Sambari mentions a severe trial which came upon the Jews, due to a certain qāḍī al-ʿasākir ("generalissimo," not a proper name) sent from Constantinople to Egypt, who robbed and oppressed them, and whose death

12792-403: The Roman army at a village called Garis , where he launched an attack against Sepphoris a second time, before being repulsed. At length, he resisted the Roman army in its siege of Yodfat (Jotapata) until it fell to the Roman army in the lunar month of Tammuz , in the thirteenth year of Nero 's reign. After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat fell under siege, the Romans invaded, killing thousands;

12948-442: The Roman forces and became prisoners. In 69 AD, Josephus was released. According to his account, he acted as a negotiator with the defenders during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, during which time his parents were held as hostages by Simon bar Giora . While being confined at Yodfat (Jotapata), Josephus claimed to have experienced a divine revelation that later led to his speech predicting Vespasian would become emperor. After

13104-644: The Spaniard Abu Sa'id ibn Ḥalfon ha-Levi. About 1160 Benjamin of Tudela was in Egypt; he gives a general account of the Jewish communities which he found there. At Cairo there were 2,000 Jews; at Alexandria 3,000, whose head was the French-born R. Phineas b. Meshullam; in the Faiyum there were 20 families; at Damietta 200; at Bilbeis , east of the Nile, 300 persons; and at Damira 700. Saladin 's war with

13260-594: The Zionist enterprise, increased. In 1911, Arabs attempted to thwart the establishment of a Jewish settlement in the Jezreel Valley, and the dispute resulted in the death of one Arab man and a Jewish guard. The Arabs called the Jews the "new Crusaders", and anti-Zionist (and, occasionally, anti-Semitic ) rhetoric flourished. During the war, Palestine served as the frontline between the Ottoman Empire and

13416-509: The Zionist forces switched to the offensive in April 1948. In anticipation of an invasion by Arab armies, they enacted Plan Dalet , an operation aimed at securing territory for the establishment of a Jewish state. The second phase of the war began on 14 May 1948, with the termination of the British Mandate and the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel . The following morning,

13572-420: The Zionist movement had representatives in Egypt. Karaite Jewish scholar Mourad Farag  [ fr ] (1866–1956) was both an Egyptian nationalist and a passionate Zionist. His poem, 'My Homeland Egypt, Place of my Birth', expresses loyalty to Egypt, while his book, al-Qudsiyyat (Jerusalemica, 1923), defends the right of the Jews to a State. al-Qudsiyyat is perhaps the most eloquent defense of Zionism in

13728-635: The absence of legal authority made it necessary to intervene to protect Arab lives and property. The Palestinians' Arab Higher Committee rejected the Partition Resolution and any kind of Jewish state and refused to negotiate with "the Zionist Project." Josephus Flavius Josephus ( / dʒ oʊ ˈ s iː f ə s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἰώσηπος , Iṓsēpos ; c.  AD 37  – c.  100 ) or Yosef ben Mattityahu ( Hebrew : יוֹסֵף בֵּן מַתִּתְיָהוּ )

13884-460: The actions of both parties with accuracy." Josephus confesses he will be unable to contain his sadness in transcribing these events; to illustrate this will have little effect on his historiography, Josephus suggests, "But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only." His preface to Antiquities offers his opinion early on, saying, "Upon

14040-654: The adoption and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union", UN General Assembly Resolution 181(II) . This was an attempt to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning Palestine into "Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem". Each state would comprise three major sections;

14196-459: The ancient geography of the region: Outside of the Scriptures, Josephus holds the first and the only place among the native authors of Judaea; for Philo of Alexandria, the later Talmud, and other authorities, are of little service in understanding the geography of the country. Josephus is, however, to be used with great care. As a Jewish scholar, as an officer of Galilee, as a military man, and

14352-658: The ancient homeland. The first wave of Zionist immigration, dubbed the First Aliyah , lasted from 1882 to 1903. Some 30,000 Jews, mostly from the Russian Empire , reached Ottoman Palestine. They were driven both by the Zionist idea and by the wave of antisemitism in Europe, especially in the Russian Empire, which came in the form of brutal pogroms . They wanted to establish Jewish agricultural settlements and

14508-591: The appointment, the Jewish population that fled to Moab , Ammon , Edom and other countries returned to Judah. ( Jeremiah 40:11–12 ) However, before long Gedaliah was assassinated, and the population that was left in the land and those that had returned ran away to Egypt for safety. ( 2 Kings 25:26 , Jeremiah 43:5–7 ) The numbers that made their way to Egypt are subject to debate. In Egypt, they settled in Migdol , Tahpanhes , Noph , and Pathros . ( Jeremiah 44:1 ) Further waves of Jewish immigrants settled in Egypt during

14664-409: The attack of the synagogues. Unarmed and unprepared, the Jews were incapable of resistance; their houses of prayer were leveled with the ground, and the episcopal warrior, after rewarding his troops with the plunder of their goods, expelled from the city the remnant of the unbelieving nation. Some authors estimate that around 100 thousand Jews were expelled from the city. The expulsion then continued in

14820-479: The background of Early Christianity . Josephus's works are the chief source next to the Bible for the history and antiquity of ancient Israel , and provide an independent extra-biblical account of such figures as Pontius Pilate , Herod the Great , John the Baptist , James, brother of Jesus , and Jesus of Nazareth . Josephus was born into one of Jerusalem's elite families. He was the second-born son of Matthias,

14976-427: The city with convoys of up to 100 armoured vehicles, but the operation became more and more impractical as the number of casualties in the relief convoys surged. By March, al-Husayni's tactic had paid off. Almost all of Haganah 's armoured vehicles had been destroyed, the blockade was in full operation, and hundreds of Haganah members who had tried to bring supplies into the city were killed. The situation for those in

15132-506: The city, al-Jawdariyyah, was designated for Jewish residency. Al-Hakim, hearing allegations that some mocked him in verses, had the whole quarter burned down. In the beginning of the 12th century, a Jewish man named Abu al-Munajja ibn Sha'yah was at the head of the Department of Agriculture. He is especially known as the constructor of a Nile sluice (1112), which was called after him "Baḥr Abi al-Munajja". He fell into disfavor because of

15288-579: The community was of mixed Judahite and Samarian origins, and they maintained their own temple, functioning alongside that of the local deity Khnum . The documents cover the period 495 to 399 BCE. According to the Hebrew Bible, a large number of Judeans took refuge in Egypt after the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah in 597 BCE, and the subsequent assassination of the Jewish governor, Gedaliah . ( 2 Kings 25:22–24 , Jeremiah 40:6–8 ) On hearing of

15444-685: The context of early Christianity . A careful reading of Josephus's writings and years of excavation allowed Ehud Netzer , an archaeologist from Hebrew University , to discover what he considered to be the location of Herod's Tomb , after searching for 35 years. It was above aqueducts and pools, at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to the Herodium , 12 km south of Jerusalem—as described in Josephus's writings. In October 2013, archaeologists Joseph Patrich and Benjamin Arubas challenged

15600-456: The culmination of 30 years of friction between Jews and Arabs during the period of British rule of Palestine when, under the terms of the League of Nations mandate held by the British, conditions intended to lead to the creation of a Jewish National Home in the area were created. Zionism formed in Europe as the national movement of the Jewish people. It sought to reestablish Jewish statehood in

15756-524: The difference between history and philosophy by saying, "[T]hose that read my book may wonder how it comes to pass, that my discourse, which promises an account of laws and historical facts, contains so much of philosophy." In both works, Josephus emphasizes that accuracy is crucial to historiography. Louis H. Feldman notes that in Wars , Josephus commits himself to critical historiography, but in Antiquities , Josephus shifts to rhetorical historiography, which

15912-413: The documents, enabling the women to remarry. According to Manasseh b. Israel from 1656, "The viceroy of Egypt has always at his side a Jew with the title zaraf bashi , or 'treasurer,' who gathers the taxes of the land. At present Abraham Alkula holds the position". He was succeeded by Raphael Joseph Çelebi, nagid of Egypt and rich friend and protector of Sabbatai Zevi . Sabbatai Zevi was twice in Cairo,

16068-673: The end of the war, the State of Israel had captured about 78% of former territory of the mandate, the Kingdom of Jordan had captured and later annexed the area that became the West Bank , and Egypt had captured the Gaza Strip . The war formally ended with the 1949 Armistice Agreements , which established the Green Line demarcating these territories. During the war, massacres and acts of terror were conducted by and against both sides . A campaign of massacres and violence against

16224-432: The entourage of Titus. There, he became a Roman citizen and client of the ruling Flavian dynasty . In addition to Roman citizenship , he was granted accommodation in the conquered Judaea and a pension. While in Rome and under Flavian patronage, Josephus wrote all of his known works. Although he only ever calls himself "Josephus" in his writings, later historians refer to him as "Flavius Josephus", confirming that he adopted

16380-578: The establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel , to be known as the State of Israel . Both superpower leaders, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin , immediately recognised the new state, while the Arab League refused to accept the UN Partition Plan, proclaimed the right of self-determination for the Arabs across the whole of Palestine, and maintained that

16536-408: The existence of an active synagogue and identifies one of its officials as having come from Palestine. This period likely saw an increase in immigration from Syria Palaestina , as indicated by the rising number of inscriptions, letters, legal documents, liturgical poetry, and magical texts in Hebrew and Aramaic from the fourth and fifth centuries. The greatest blow Alexandrian Jews received was during

16692-436: The fall of Jerusalem , and the subsequent fall of the fortresses of Herodion, Macharont and Masada and the Roman victory celebrations in Rome, the mopping-up operations, Roman military operations elsewhere in the empire and the uprising in Cyrene . Together with the account in his Life of some of the same events, it also provides the reader with an overview of Josephus's own part in the events since his return to Jerusalem from

16848-574: The family of Saladin and in that of his vizier al-Qadi al-Fadil , and Saladin's successors. The title Ra'is al-Umma or al-Millah (Head of the Nation or of the Faith), was bestowed upon him. In Fostat he wrote his Mishneh Torah (1180) and The Guide for the Perplexed , both of which evoked opposition from Jewish scholars. From this place he sent many letters and responsa ; and in 1173 he forwarded

17004-465: The first being the 1947–1948 civil war , which began on 30 November 1947, a day after the United Nations voted to adopt the Partition Plan for Palestine , which planned for the division of the territory into Jewish and Arab sovereign states. During this period the British still maintained a declining rule over Palestine and occasionally intervened in the violence. Initially on the defensive,

17160-499: The first two months of the Civil War, around 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured, and by the end of March, the figure had risen to 2,000 dead and 4,000 wounded. These figures correspond to an average of more than 100 deaths and 200 casualties per week in a population of 2,000,000. From January onwards, operations became increasingly militarised. A number of Arab Liberation Army regiments infiltrated Palestine, each active in

17316-462: The founder of the Arabs , the connection of "Semites", "Hamites" and "Japhetites" to the classical nations of the world , and the story of the siege of Masada . Scholars debate about Josephus's intended audience. For example, Antiquities of the Jews could be written for Jews—"a few scholars from Laqueur onward have suggested that Josephus must have written primarily for fellow Jews (if also secondarily for Gentiles). The most common motive suggested

17472-408: The heavy expenses connected with the work, and was incarcerated in Alexandria, but was soon able to free himself. A document concerning a transaction of his with a banker has been preserved. Under the vizier Al-Malik al-Afḍal (1137) there was a Jewish master of finances, whose name, however, is unknown. His enemies succeeded in procuring his downfall, and he lost all his property. He was succeeded by

17628-449: The identification of the tomb as that of Herod. According to Patrich and Arubas, the tomb is too modest to be Herod's and has several unlikely features. Roi Porat, who replaced Netzer as excavation leader after the latter's death, stood by the identification. Josephus's writings provide the first-known source for many stories considered as Biblical history, despite not being found in the Bible or related material. These include Ishmael as

17784-614: The ingathering of the exiles and the reconstruction of the Temple. A festival celebrating the victory over the Jews continued to be observed eighty years later in Oxyrhynchus. It was not until the third century that Jewish communities were able to re-establish themselves in Egypt, although they never regained their former level of influence. By the late third century, there is substantial evidence of established Jewish communities in Egypt. A papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, dated to 291 CE, confirms

17940-460: The latter portion of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah 's reign. The foundation of Talmudic schools in Egypt is usually placed at this period. One of the Jewish citizens who rose to high position in that society was Ya'qub ibn Killis . The caliph al-Hakim (996–1020) vigorously applied the Pact of Umar , and compelled the Jewish residents to wear bells and to carry in public the wooden image of a calf. A street in

18096-494: The life of Jesus of Nazareth . Josephus was always accessible in the Greek-reading Eastern Mediterranean. His works were translated into Latin, but often in abbreviated form such as Pseudo-Hegesippus 's 4th century Latin version of The Jewish War ( Bellum Judaicum ). Christian interest in The Jewish War was largely out of interest in the downfall of the Jews and the Second Temple, which

18252-765: The lives of a community of Jewish soldiers stationed there as part of a frontier garrison in Egypt for the Achaemenid Empire . Established at Elephantine in about 650 BCE during Manasseh 's reign, these soldiers assisted the Twenty-sixth Dynasty pharaoh Psamtik I of the Nile Delta in his campaigns against the Twenty-fifth Dynasty pharaoh Tantamani of Napata . Their religious system shows strong traces of Babylonian religion , something which suggests to certain scholars that

18408-563: The loss of Jewish armoured vehicles had shaken the Yishuv leaders' confidence. 1,500 men from Haganah's Givati brigade and Palmach 's Harel brigade conducted sorties to free up the route to the city between 5 April and 20 April. The operation was successful, and two months' worth of foodstuffs were trucked into Jerusalem for distribution to the Jewish population. The operation's success was aided by al-Husayni's death in combat. During this time, paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi , supported by

18564-564: The national treasury. This repression of the Jewish community would continue for centuries. In all the religious fervor of the period the Mamluks began to adopt Sufism in an attempt to assuage dissatisfaction with traditional Sunni Islam facilitated solely by the Sultan. At the same time the Mamluk government was unwilling to relinquish control of religion to a clerical class. They endeavored on

18720-484: The nearby regions of Egypt and Palestine followed by a forced Christianization of the Jews. The Muslim conquest of Egypt at first found support from Jewish residents as well, disgruntled by the corrupt administration of the Patriarch of Alexandria Cyrus of Alexandria , notorious for his Monotheletic proselytizing. In addition to the Jewish population settled there from ancient times, some are said to have come from

18876-450: The official census published in 1898 (i., xviii.), there were in Egypt 25,200 Jews in a total population of 9,734,405. At the turn of the 20th century, a Jewish observer noted with 'true satisfaction that a great spirit of tolerance sustains the majority of our fellow Jews in Egypt, and it would be difficult to find a more liberal population or one more respectful of all religious beliefs.’ During British rule, and under King Fuad I , Egypt

19032-666: The other ethnic groups. Strabo reported that the Jews of Alexandria had their own ethnarch , who managed community affairs and legal matters similarly to a head of state. The Hellenistic Jewish community of Alexandria translated the Old Testament into Greek. This translation is called the Septuagint . The translation of the Septuagint itself began in the 3rd century BCE and was completed by 132 BCE, initially in Alexandria , but in time elsewhere as well. It became

19188-466: The patronage of Romans. The works of Josephus provide information about the First Jewish–Roman War and also represent literary source material for understanding the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls and late Temple Judaism. Josephan scholarship in the 19th and early 20th centuries took an interest in Josephus's relationship to the sect of the Pharisees . Some portrayed him as a member of

19344-708: The people of Tiberias appealed to King Agrippa 's forces to protect them from the insurgents. Josephus trained 65,000 troops in the region. Josephus also contended with John of Gischala who had also set his sight over the control of Galilee. Like Josephus, John had amassed to himself a large band of supporters from Gischala (Gush Halab) and Gabara , including the support of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Josephus fortified several towns and villages in Lower Galilee , among which were Tiberias, Bersabe , Selamin , Japha , and Tarichaea , in anticipation of

19500-480: The philosophical school of the Pharisees as a matter of deference, and not by willing association. The works of Josephus include useful material for historians about individuals, groups, customs, and geographical places. However, modern historians have been cautious of taking his writings at face value. For example, Carl Ritter , in his highly influential Erdkunde in the 1840s, wrote in a review of authorities on

19656-454: The prediction came true, he was released by Vespasian, who considered his gift of prophecy to be divine. Josephus wrote that his revelation had taught him three things: that God, the creator of the Jewish people, had decided to "punish" them; that "fortune" had been given to the Romans; and that God had chosen him "to announce the things that are to come". To many Jews, such claims were simply self-serving. In 71 AD, he went to Rome as part of

19812-508: The priestly order of the Jehoiarib , which was the first of the 24 orders of priests in the Temple in Jerusalem . Josephus calls himself a fourth-generation descendant of " High Priest Jonathan", referring to either Jonathan Apphus or Alexander Jannaeus . He was raised in Jerusalem and educated alongside his brother. In his mid twenties, he traveled to negotiate with Emperor Nero for

19968-493: The primary source for the chain of Jewish high priests during the Second Temple period. A few of the Jewish customs named by him include the practice of hanging a linen curtain at the entrance to one's house, and the Jewish custom to partake of a Sabbath-day 's meal around the sixth-hour of the day (at noon). He notes also that it was permissible for Jewish men to marry many wives ( polygamy ). His writings provide

20124-652: The provisions of ... the Charter of the United Nations". According to Article 73b of the Charter, the UN should develop self-government of the peoples in a territory under its administration. In the immediate aftermath of the UN's approval of the partition plan, explosions of joy in the Jewish community were counterbalanced by discontent in the Arab community. Soon after, violence broke out and became more prevalent. Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals came fast upon each other, resulting in dozens killed on both sides. The sanguinary impasse persisted as no force intervened to put

20280-485: The release of some Jewish priests. Upon his return to Jerusalem, at the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War , Josephus was appointed the military governor of Galilee . His arrival in Galilee, however, was fraught with internal division: the inhabitants of Sepphoris and Tiberias opted to maintain peace with the Romans; the people of Sepphoris enlisted the help of the Roman army to protect their city, while

20436-488: The respective Karaite and Rabbanite communities, among whom traditionally intermarriage was forbidden. They dwelt in Cairo in two contiguous areas, the former in the harat al-yahud al-qara’in , and the latter in the adjacent harat al-yahud quarter. Notwithstanding the division, they often worked together and the younger educated generation pressed for improving relations between the two. Individual Jews played an important role in Egyptian nationalism . René Qattawi, leader of

20592-555: The rest of his days from his change of side. In the Preface to Jewish Wars , Josephus criticizes historians who misrepresent the events of the Jewish–Roman War , writing that "they have a mind to demonstrate the greatness of the Romans, while they still diminish and lessen the actions of the Jews." Josephus states that his intention is to correct this method but that he "will not go to the other extreme ... [and] will prosecute

20748-549: The revolt by the British significantly weakened the Palestinian Arabs in advance of the 1948 war. Particularly after the White Paper of 1939 , the Zionist paramilitary organizations Irgun , Lehi , and Haganah carried out a campaign of acts of terror and sabotage against British rule. Among these attacks was the 1946 King David Hotel bombing carried out by the Irgun which killed 91 people. Following World War II,

20904-491: The same events that Josephus narrated. An Italian Jew writing in the 10th century indirectly brought Josephus back to prominence among Jews: he authored the Yosippon , which paraphrases Pseudo-Hegesippus's Latin version of The Jewish War , a Latin version of Antiquities , as well as other works. The epitomist also adds in his own snippets of history at times. Jews generally distrusted Christian translations of Josephus until

21060-551: The second time in 1660. It was there that he married Sarah Ashkenazi, who had been brought from Livorno . The Sabbatian movement naturally created a great stir in Egypt. It was in Cairo that Abraham Miguel Cardoso , the Sabbatian prophet and physician, settled in 1703, becoming physician to Kara Mehmed Pasha . In 1641 Samuel ben David, a Karaite, visited Egypt. The account of his journey supplies special information in regard to his fellow sectarians. He describes three synagogues of

21216-466: The sect and as a traitor to the Jewish nation—a view which became known as the classical concept of Josephus. In the mid-20th century, a new generation of scholars challenged this view and formulated the modern concept of Josephus. They consider him a Pharisee but describe him in part as patriot and a historian of some standing. In his 1991 book, Steve Mason argued that Josephus was not a Pharisee but an orthodox Aristocrat-Priest who became associated with

21372-630: The source for the Old Latin , Slavonic , Syriac , Old Armenian , Old Georgian , and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament . The Jews of Alexandria celebrated the translation with an annual festival on the island of Pharos, where the Lighthouse of Alexandria stood, and where the translation was said to have taken place. During the period of Roman occupation, there is evidence that at Oxyrhynchus (now Behneseh), on

21528-470: The structure of khanqahs (Sufi schools), and its doctrinal focus on mysticism began to make many Egyptian Jews long to adopt something similar. Abraham Maimonides (1204–1237), who was considered to be the most prominent leader and government representative of all Mamluk Jews, advocated reorganizing Jewish schools to be more like Sufi Hanaqas. His heir Obadyah Maimonides(1228-1265) wrote the Treatise of

21684-552: The surrounding Arab armies invaded Palestine, beginning the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The Egyptians advanced in the south-east while the Jordanian Arab Legion and Iraqi forces captured the central highlands. Syria and Lebanon fought with the Israeli forces in the north. The newly formed Israel Defense Forces managed to halt the Arab forces and in the following months began pushing them back and capturing territory. By

21840-540: The surrounding Arab states were emerging from mandatory rule. Transjordan , under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I , gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan in 1949, but remained under heavy British influence. Egypt gained nominal independence in 1922, but Britain continued to exert a strong influence on it until the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 limited Britain's presence to

21996-524: The survivors committed suicide. According to Josephus, he was trapped in a cave with 40 of his companions in July 67 AD. The Romans (commanded by Flavius Vespasian and his son Titus, both subsequently Roman emperors ) asked the group to surrender, but they refused. According to Josephus's account, he suggested a method of collective suicide; they drew lots and killed each other, one by one, and Josephus happened to be one of two men that were left who surrendered to

22152-427: The temple. They would face Jerusalem as they prayed. They frequently practiced daytime fasting and group meditation or muraqaba. There was vehement opposition to the revisionism of Pietism just as there was with Hasidism. Opposition was so strong there are records of Jews reporting fellow Jews to Muslim authorities on the grounds that they were practicing Islamic heresy. David Maimonides, brother of Obadyah and his heir,

22308-524: The tide of the war. The majority of Palestinian Arab hopes lay with the Arab Legion of Transjordan's monarch, King Abdullah I . He did not intend to create a Palestinian Arab-run state, as he hoped to annex much of Mandatory Palestine. Playing both sides, he was in contact with the Jewish authorities and the Arab League. Preparing for Arab intervention from neighbouring states, Haganah successfully launched Operations Yiftah and Ben-'Ami to secure

22464-485: The truth of those actions in their writings", those writings being the history of the Jews. In terms of some of his sources for the project, Josephus says that he drew from and "interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures" and that he was an eyewitness to the wars between the Jews and the Romans, which were earlier recounted in Jewish Wars . He outlines Jewish history beginning with the creation, as passed down through Jewish historical tradition. Abraham taught science to

22620-441: The west side of the Nile, there was a Jewish community of some importance. Many of the Jews there may have become Christians, though they retained their Biblical names (e.g., "David" and "Elizabeth," who appear in litigation concerning an inheritance). Another example was Jacob, son of Achilles (c. 300 CE), who worked as a beadle in a local Egyptian temple . Philo of Alexandria describes an isolated Jewish monastic community known as

22776-465: The whole, a man that will peruse this history, may principally learn from it, that all events succeed well, even to an incredible degree, and the reward of felicity is proposed by God." After inserting this attitude, Josephus contradicts Berossus: "I shall accurately describe what is contained in our records, in the order of time that belongs to them ... without adding any thing to what is therein contained, or taking away any thing therefrom." He notes

22932-411: Was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing The Jewish War , he was born in Jerusalem —then part of the Roman province of Judea —to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry . He initially fought against the Roman Empire during the First Jewish–Roman War as general of the Jewish forces in Galilee , until surrendering in AD 67 to

23088-414: Was a celebrated oculist. As for government power in Egypt, the highest legal authority who was called chief scholar was held by Ephraim. Later on in the 11th century, this position was held by a father and son with the names of Shemarya b. Elhanan and Elhanan b. Shemarya. Soon the chief of the Palestinian Jews took over the position of chief scholar for the Rabbinates after the death of Elhanan. Around 1065,

23244-422: Was an account of the Jewish War, addressed to certain "upper barbarians"—usually thought to be the Jewish community in Mesopotamia —in his "paternal tongue" ( War I.3), arguably the Western Aramaic language . In AD 78 he finished a seven-volume account in Greek known as the Jewish War ( Latin Bellum Judaicum or De Bello Judaico ). It starts with the period of the Maccabees and concludes with accounts of

23400-419: Was eventually exiled to Palestine at the behest of other leaders in the Jewish community. Eventually Pietism fell out of favor in Egypt, as its leaders were exiled and Jewish immigration slowed. Per Fenton, the influence of Sufism is still present in many Kabbalistic rituals , and some of the manuscripts authored under the Maimonides dynasty are still read and revered in Kabbalist circles. On January 22, 1517,

23556-428: Was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine . During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the State of Israel , and over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled . It was the first war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the broader Arab–Israeli conflict . The war had two main phases,

23712-473: Was friendly towards its Jewish population, although between 86% and 94% of Jews in Egypt, mostly European immigrants, did not possess Egyptian nationality. Jews played important roles in the economy, and their population climbed to nearly 80,000 as Jewish refugees settled there in response to increasing persecution in Europe. Many Jewish families, such as the Qattawi family, had extensive economic relations with non-Jews. A sharp distinction had long existed between

23868-487: Was in a certain measure occasioned by the graveyard invocation of one Moses of Damwah. This may have occurred in the 17th century. David Conforte was dayyan in Egypt in 1671. In consequence of the Damascus affair , Moses Montefiore , Adolphe Crémieux , and Salomon Munk visited Egypt in 1840, and the last two did much to raise the intellectual status of their Egyptian brethren by the founding, in connection with Rabbi Moses Joseph Algazi, of schools in Cairo. According to

24024-441: Was reported that only 3 Egyptian Jews were living in Cairo. The Hebrew Bible describes a long period of time during which the Israelites (the ancient Semitic-speaking people from whom Jews originate) settled in ancient Egypt , were enslaved, and were ultimately liberated by Moses , who led them out of Egypt to Canaan . This founding myth of the Israelites—known as the Exodus —is considered to be inaccurate or ahistorical by

24180-520: Was the norm of his time. Feldman notes further that it is significant that Josephus called his later work "Antiquities" (literally, archaeology) rather than history; in the Hellenistic period, archaeology meant either "history from the origins or archaic history." Thus, his title implies a Jewish peoples' history from their origins until the time he wrote. This distinction is significant to Feldman, because "in ancient times, historians were expected to write in chronological order," while "antiquarians wrote in

24336-519: Was widely considered divine punishment for the crime of killing Jesus . Improvements in printing technology (the Gutenberg Press ) led to his works receiving a number of new translations into the vernacular languages of Europe, generally based on the Latin versions. Only in 1544 did a version of the standard Greek text become available in French, edited by the Dutch humanist Arnoldus Arlenius . The first English translation, by Thomas Lodge , appeared in 1602, with subsequent editions appearing throughout

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