Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

History, Politics, and Messianism: David Ha-Reuveni's Origin and Mission

2011; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 35; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s036400941100002x

1475-4541

Moti Benmelech,

Medieval and Classical Philosophy

In the last weeks of 1523, a colorful traveler arrived in Venice from Alexandria: “Dark in aspect, short in stature, gaunt, his language Hagarish [Arabic] and a little Jewish. … He wore striped silk according to the custom of the Ishmaelites, and on his head a white scarf, with which he covered his head and most of himself.” The traveler presented himself to local Jews and community leaders as “David,” the ambassador of an independent Jewish state on the Arabian peninsula, where he claimed that his brother, King Joseph, ruled over the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half the tribe of Menashe. The “Jewish ambassador” announced that he was on his way to Rome to hold a state meeting with the Pope, as an emissary of the Seventy Elders, the advisers of his brother the king. He added, of course, that he needed money.