The Radhanites (also Radanites, Arabic الرذنية ar-Raðaniyya; Hebrew sing. רדהני Radhani, pl. רדהנים Radhanim) were medieval Jewish merchants. Whether the term, which is used by only a limited number of primary sources, refers to a specific guild, or a clan, or is a generic term for Jewish merchants in the trans-Eurasian trade network is unclear. Jewish merchants were involved in trade between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages (approx. 500–1000). Many trade routes previously established under the Roman Empire continued to function during that period largely through their efforts. Their trade network covered much of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of India and China.
Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 Activities 2.1 Text of Ibn Khordadbeh's account
3 Historical significance 4 End of the Radhanite age 5 See also 5.1 Art
6 Notes 7 References
Etymology[edit]
Several etymologies have been suggested for the word "Radhanite". Many scholars, including Barbier de Meynard and Moshe Gil, believe it refers to a district in Mesopotamia called "the land of Radhan" in Arabic and Hebrew texts of the period.[1] Others maintain that their center was the city of Ray (Rhages) in northern Persia.[2] Cecil Roth and Claude Cahen, among others, make the same claim about the Rhône River valley in France, which is Rhodanus in Latin. The latter claim that the center of Radhanite activity was probably in France as all of their trade routes began there.[3] Still others maintain that the name derives from the Persian terms rah "way, path" and dān "one who knows", meaning "one who knows the way".[4] English-language (or Western) sources added the suffix -ite to the term, as is done with ethnonyms or names derived from place names.
Activities[edit]
The activities of the Radhanites are documented by ibn Khordadbeh, the Director of Posts and Police (spymaster and postman) for the province of Jibal under the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tamid (ruled 869–885), when he wrote Kitab al-Masalik wal-Mamalik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms), probably around 870. Ibn Khordadbeh described the Radhanites as sophisticated and multilingual. He outlined four main trade routes utilized by the Radhanites in their journeys; all four began in the Rhone Valley in southern France and terminated on the east coast of China. Radhanites primarily carried commodities that combined small bulk and high demand, including spices, perfumes, jewellery, and silk. They are also described as transporting oils, incense, steel weapons, furs, and slaves (in particular, the Slavic Saqāliba).
Text of Ibn Khordadbeh's account[edit] These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Roman,[5] the Frank,[6] Spanish, and Slav languages. They journey from West to East, from East to West, partly on land, partly by sea. They transport from the West eunuchs, female slaves, boys, brocade, castor, marten and other furs, and swords. They take ship from Firanja (France[7]), on the Western Sea, and make for Farama (Pelusium). There they load their goods on camel-back and go by land to al-Kolzum (Suez), a distance of twenty-five farsakhs. They embark in the East Sea and sail from al-Kolzum to al-Jar and al-Jeddah, then they go to Sind, India, and China. On their return from China they carry back musk, aloes, camphor, cinnamon, and other products of the Eastern countries to al-Kolzum and bring them back to Farama, where they again embark on the Western Sea. Some make sail for Constantinople to sell their goods to the Romans; others go to the palace of the King of the Franks to place their goods. Sometimes these Jew merchants, when embarking from the land of the Franks, on the Western Sea, make for Antioch (at the head of the Orontes River); thence by land to al-Jabia (al-Hanaya on the bank of the Euphrates), where they arrive after three days’ march. There they embark on the Euphrates and reach Baghdad, whence they sail down the Tigris, to al-Obolla. From al-Obolla they sail for Oman, Sindh, Hind, and China.These different journeys can also be made by land. The merchants that start from Spain or France go to Sus al-Aksa (in Morocco) and then to Tangier, whence they walk to Kairouan and the capital of Egypt. Thence they go to ar-Ramla, visit Damascus, al-Kufa, Baghdad, and al-Basra, cross Ahvaz, Fars, Kerman, Sind, Hind, and arrive in China.Sometimes, also, they take the route behind Rome and, passing through the country of the Slavs, arrive at Khamlidj, the capital of the Khazars. They embark on the Jorjan Sea, arrive at Balkh, betake themselves from there across the Oxus, and continue their journey toward Yurt, Toghuzghuz, and from there to China.[8] Historical significance[edit]
A caravan of dromedaries in Algeria. Much of the Radhanites' overland trade between Tangier and Mesopotamia was by camel. During the Early Middle Ages the Islamic polities of the Middle East and North Africa and the Christian kingdoms of Europe often banned each other's merchants from entering their ports.[9] Corsairs of both sides raided the shipping of their adversaries at will. The Radhanites functioned as neutral go-betweens, keeping open the lines of communication and trade between the lands of the old Roman Empire and the Far East. As a result of the revenue they brought, Jewish merchants enjoyed significant privileges under the early Carolingians in France and throughout the Muslim world, a fact that sometimes vexed local Church authorities.
While most trade between Europe and East Asia had historically been conducted via Persian and Central Asian intermediaries, the Radhanites were among the first to establish a trade network that stretched from Western Europe to Eastern Asia.[10] More remarkable still, they engaged in this trade regularly and over an extended period of time, centuries before Marco Polo and ibn Battuta brought their tales of travel in the Orient to the Christians and the Muslims, respectively. Indeed, ibn Battuta is believed to have traveled with the Muslim traders who traveled to the Orient on routes similar to those used by the Radhanites.
While traditionally many historians believed that the art of Chinese paper-making had been transmitted to Europe via Arab merchants who got the secret from prisoners of war taken at the Battle of Talas, some believe that Jewish merchants such as the Radhanites were instrumental in bringing paper-making west.[11] Joseph of Spain, possibly a Radhanite, is credited by some sources with introducing the so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals from India to Europe.[12] Historically, Jewish communities used letters of credit to transport large quantities of money without the risk of theft from at least classical times.[13] This system was developed and put into force on an unprecedented scale by medieval Jewish merchants such as the Radhanites; if so, they may be counted among the precursors to the banks that arose during the late Middle Ages and early modern period.[14]
Some scholars believe that the Radhanites may have played a role in the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism.[15] In addition, they may have helped establish Jewish communities at various points along their trade routes, and were probably involved in the early Jewish settlement of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China and India.
Much of the Radhanites' Indian Ocean trade was via coastal cargo ships such as this dhow. Besides ibn Khordadbeh, the Radhanites are mentioned by name only by a handful of sources. Ibn al-Faqih's early 10th century Kitab al-Buldan ("Book of the Countries") mentions them, but much of ibn al-Faqih's information was derived from ibn Khordadbeh's work. Sefer ha-Dinim, a Hebrew account of the travels of Yehuda ben Meir of Mainz, named Przemyśl and Kiev as trading sites along the Radhanite route. In the early 12th century, a French-Jewish trader named Yitzhak Dorbelo wrote that he traveled with Radhanite merchants to Poland.[16]
End of the Radhanite age[edit]
The fall of the Tang Dynasty of China in 908 and the destruction of the Khazar Khaganate some sixty years later (circa 968-969 AD) led to widespread chaos in Inner Eurasia, the Caucasus and China. Trade routes became unstable and unsafe, a situation exacerbated by Turkic invasions of Persia and the Middle East, and the Silk Road largely collapsed for centuries. This period saw the rise of the mercantile Italian city-states, especially Genoa, Venice, Pisa, and Amalfi, who viewed the Radhanites as unwanted competitors.
The economy of Europe was profoundly affected by the disappearance of the Radhanites. For example, documentary evidence indicates that many spices in regular use during the early Middle Ages completely disappeared from European tables in the 10th century. Jews had previously, in large parts of Western Europe, enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the spice trade.[17]
Some have speculated that a collection of 11th century Jewish scrolls discovered in a cave in Afghanistan’s Samangan province in 2011 may be a “leftover” of the Rhadanites, who had mostly disappeared by the 11th century.[18]
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Augustus, the first Roman emperor is said to have commissioned "the original travel guide from Isadore of Charax, who obliged by writing The Parthian Stations.
The Jewish traders of the Persian period were finally exemplified by the Rhadanites, whose name probably stemmed from the district of Radhan near Baghdad. The Rhadanites were not mere adventurers. They were Talmudic students and the religious, cultural and social liaison between the world-wide-spread Jewish communities. They were entrusted with the collection of communal donations for delivery to the Geonim of Palestine and Babylonia, halachic scholars who headed great centers of learning to which all Jews aspired to send their sons. The Rhadanites brought she'ltot, queries to the sages on law, ritual, and textual exegesis. They returned with teshuvot, the responsa.
These mercantile messengers created the first world-wide credit system. They became the conduits of credit through which many nations conducted business through time and space. "Letters of Credit" issued on one continent would be surely and securely honored months later They were worldly-wise couriers who had entree into royal courts and were commissioned by kings to carry out royal diplomatic missions. The Rhadanites set the standard for Jewish international traders everywhere.
When Charlemagne sent an embassy in 797 to the Caliph Harun el-Rashid, the Muslim Caliph of Baghdad, a Jew named Isaac served as interpreter; of all the principals among the envoys, Isaac alone survived the trip home, bringing with him to Charlemagne's court a present from the Caliph- an elephant, until then unseen in Europe.
And when Charlemagne wanted exotic foods from the Holy Land, he named a Jew as his imperial purveyor... During the reign of Charlemagne the word 'Jew' had taken on a new meaning. Not only did it signify 'merchant' to many, but it also meant one who was trustworthy and knowledgeable.26
Jewish traders left for China laden with western wares and returned with a variety of exotic eastern products. A geographic treatise, The Book of Roads and Kingdoms written by Ibn Khurdadhbih, manager of the postal and information service in the province of Media, describes some itineraries taken and products carried by the Rhadanites:
They speak Arabic, Persian, Frankish, Andalusian, and Slavonic. They travel from East to West and from West to East by both land and sea. From the West they bring adult slaves, boys and girls, brocade, beaver, pelts, assorted furs, sables and swords. They sail from the land of the Franks on the Western Sea [Mediterranean] and set out for a-Faruma [a port on the easternmost branch of the Nile]. There they transport their merchandise by pack-animal to al-Qulzum [on the Red Sea], 25 parasangs away. From al-Qulzum they set sail for al-Jar [Medina] and Jidda [the present port for Mecca], after which they proceed to Sind [The Indus River valley], India and China. From China they bring musk, aloeswood, camphor, cinnamon, and other products as they make their way back to al-Qulzum.27
Age-old communities of Jews were ensconced along these routes. In the Red Sea, for example, lies the island of Yotabe [now Jijban]. In the fifth century Arabia owned half the island, which was occupied by an Arab prince and his tribe. The other half was a Jewish Free State that had been there from time immemorial.28
Thousands of Jews migrated into Persia and Arabia. Part of these continued north into Afghanistan, Balkh, Samarkand, and Bukhara, in Central Asia, all on the old Silk Route. Some, probably in the 7th century, moved overland from there into northwest China, also known as Chinese Turkestan, where they settled, though not in large number. A few advanced further into North China.29
Both Judaic legends and local lore relating to the Jews devolve upon central Asia, materializing substance out of the dimly apparent mists of the past. Many Jews spread out along the silk route from the Crimea. The ancient Jewish community on that peninsula had split into two rival factions, the fundamentalist Karaites, and those who followed rabbinnic expansions on the Oral Law. Many of the rabbinate Jews moved to Khiva, where 8000 families formed a congregation, and similar sizable groups gathered in Bukhara, Samarkand, and Tashkent, central along the Silk Trade Route.
Bukhara is reputed by local legend to be the Biblical Habor to which the ten tribes of Israel were exiled. Until the recent Aliyah to Israel, Uzbekistan harbored a population of 103,000 Jews whose records document their ancestry back to before the fifth century. Fabulous Samarkand was the hub of this ancient community. By the twelfth century a Jewish population of 50,000 headed by Obadiah carried on a flourishing existence in Samarkand alone.
Three more routes plied by the Rhadanites are described by the Arab postal manager/historian Ibn Khurdadhbih, notably, one through the central Asian region:
Those of them that set out from Spain...[sometimes] take the route behind the Byzantine Empire though the land of the Slavs to Khamlij, the capital of the Khazars. Then they cross the Sea of Jurjan [the Caspian] toward Balkh and Transoxania. From there they continue to Yurt and Tughuzghuzz [an Arabic adaption of Toghuz Oghuz or "Nine Clans," referring to the Turkic confederation of tribes in central Asia] and finally to China.30
Impelled by traumatic experiences under Christian, Byzantine and Islamic regimes, Jews filtered out along the Asian byways that offered freedom from tyranny, freedom to practice their religion and where they were welcome to work and trade. Such a community settled in the capital of ancient China, Kaifeng. A community of 3000 Jews continued to enjoy Chinese hospitality well into the twentieth century.
Jewish traveler/traders brought knowledge and skills to the West. Thus, Jewish traders in India dealt in the India decimal system (with the critical use of zero). They translated Indian mathematics into Arabic and introduced the system to Islamic North Africa, thereafter to become known as the "Arabic number system." It was so dubbed in the West not because the Arabs had invented it, but because the Europeans obtained it from the Arabs!
The world has yet to acknowledge the huge debt owed to the intrepid traveler/traders of the Persian period.
Jewish Dispersion, a Bane and a Boon
The dispersions of the Jews from their homelands proved to be both a bane and a boon. Again and again Jews were ripped from their roots. Again and again Jews were obliged to make a new life in strange surroundings. Nonetheless, some factors worked in their favor. Most importantly, the Jews were a literate people who shared a common language with their relatives and compatriots in other lands. The Jews have not only been the "People of the Book" but the people who, in the main, could read a book. Literacy leads not only to learning but to the transfer of information from persons unknown, even from persons long dead. Importantly, it leads to the ability to communicate over time and space.
The Jews enjoyed a commercial advantage by virtue of familial ties and ability to communicate. Having a common interest, they established commercial liaisons of mutual benefit, and were, often uniquely, able to issue letters of credit that were certain to be honored months later from distant lands.
Throughout the ages the participation of the Jews in the evolution of commerce was far out of proportion to their numbers. Jewish communities were rarely deployed into primitive hinterlands, but in ports that gave them access to their peers abroad, or along trade routes, or in centers at the forefront of the technological revolution. Subsequent displacements widened the web of their commercial contacts. Jews became integral to the international trade of the countries into which they settled or were hurled. Inter-national intercourse became part and parcel of Jewish life.
Erudite Jewish traveler-traders maintained an interchange of Judaic law and cultural precepts between the dispersed communities. Jewish identity was preserved through the links provided by world-girdling sages.
The Canaanites and the Jews
Judaic maritime history begins with the association of the Judahites with the Kinanu, as the so-dubbed "Phoenicians" called themselves. One of many evidences of Judahite exports with the sea-faring Canaanites of Tyre and Sidon, is the appearance of the Judahite royal stamp lmlk ("of the king") on the handles of wine jars in Canaanite cargos and in stock in Carthage. The Carthaginians likewise identified themselves not as a "Punic" people, but as Kinanu.
The lmlk stamp is unquestionably Judahite, It is an abbreviated form of l'melekh, Hebrew for "of the King, " i.e., "a product of the King of Judah." They first appeared in the eighth century B.C.E.
The Canaanites disappeared from maritime activity after the Romans defeated the Carthaginians and conquered the Levant. But the Jews continued as a significant factor in Mediterranean trade. Philo records that one of the four main occupations of the Jews of Alexandria was maritime activity in all its forms. The church father Origen (185-254 C.E.)born in Alexandria, bore witness to the fact that not only did Jewish carpenters, masons, and other workers of Alexandria cease work in observance of the Sabbath, but Jewish sailors likewise would heave to their vessels on that Holy Day.
The Jewish sailors of Alexandria (navicularii) were organized into a corporation, one of the few Jewish guilds organized according to Roman law, When the church began to impose its heavy hand upon artisans associations, the maritime workers and the glassmakers were among the few exempted from conversion to Christianity.
Jews were not only sailors, longshoremen, and captains of vessels, but also shipowners and the financiers of commercial voyages This is confirmed by Synesius (c. 375-413 C.E.), Bishop of Ptolemais, who reported that on his voyage out of Alexandria, the captain and more than half of the crew were Jews.
During the Roman occupation of Egypt Alexandrian Jewish entrepreneurs became deeply involved in the burgeon-ing sea trade with India. Ships carried merchandise up the Nile to be off loaded at and transported across the desert to Egyptian Red Sea ports, then laded onto ships sailing down the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and across the Indian Ocean.
The Romans were not the traders traveling the routes but the overlords who derived a healthy income from the activity of the adventurous entrepreneurs. The Romans collected customs duties at military camps established to "protect" caravans along the African route sometimes amounting to as much as 25% of the value of the goods. An inscription of 90 C.E. at Coptos, Egypt, for example, reveals that " Passes had to be purchased by travelers for themselves, their pack animals and vehicles. Rates varied. Prostitutes using the roads to ply their trade at the ports or in the hydreumata, mines, and quarries in the Eastern Desert paid exceptionally high rates."
"Rich Jews from Alexandria... participated in this Egyptian commerce."1
The trail of Jewish sea-faring traders of the Roman period leads us as far as the southwest coast of India where Jews are said to have disembarked in the year 72 C.E. at Cranganore, an ancient seaport north of Cochin. The Jews adopted the local tongue, Malayalam, except for services, which continued to be conducted in Hebrew and Aramaic.
The Cochin Jews were mainly spice traders, and the few Jewish families who are left still carry on a trade in cardamon, pepper, ginger, turmeric and other spices, just as they did in the early days of the Common Era.
The Jews of India never experienced ant-Semitism. On the contrary, they were treated with respect. Rabbi Joseph Rabban, a Jewish elder of the Cochin community, was appointed Prince of the Indian village of Anjuvannam by King Sri Parkaran Iravi Vanmar. Facsimiles of copper plates listing the honors and privileges granted the rabbi are now sold in the synagogue of Mattancherry, a suburb of Cochin.
The First Diaspora: Persia
The Cochin Jews were carrying on an already ancient Jewish activity. Jewish traders had long since penetrated into India by land routes radiating out from their enclaves in Babylonia.
From the eighth century B.C.E., when the Assyrian ruler Tiglath-Pileser deported 13,150 Israelites to Persia (according to the conqueror himself), to modern times, Jews have been at the forefront of international trade. The subsequent Babylonian exile added many thousands of Judahite families to the Persian/Babylonian milieu. Persia became the pivotal point from which trade between the eastern and the western worlds evolved. The Jews were the common denominator between those worlds.
Jewish bankers made finance capital a factor of Persian industrial development and initiated a system of credit that Jewish traders wove into the world economy. The surviving records of two Jewish banking families are among the most revealing documents of the Persian period. They supplied the credit and capital for the expanding economy of the region. Albert Olmstead, author of the authoritative History of the Persian Empire, took special note that: "Without any doubt, the most important economic phenomenon was the emergence of the private banker and the consequent expansion of credit."1A Previously, until the seventh century B.C.E., credit was available in Persia mainly on a local basis as temple loans to dependents, to be repaid in kind or equivalent, or as advances of grains or other food-stuffs from landlords to their peasant tenants in off season, to be repaid at harvest time. Such loans were generally interest-free, albeit a penalty amounting to as much as twenty-five per cent was imposed if payment was not made when due.
By the mid-seventh century B.C.E., soon after the deportation of the Israelites to the area, financiers appeared who instituted a reformed system of credit whereby interest-bearing capital was offered for private enterprise and for governmental purposes. Most important among the new institutions engaged in such enterprise were the Jewish banking houses of "Murashu and Sons," and of "Egibi and Sons." They expanded the scope of credit from agrarian assistance to the energizing of industry and commerce.
The records of both powerful banking houses reveal astoundingly sophisticated functions. They document credits issued, loans granted, bills of exchange, the founding and financing of commercial enterprises, the purchase of goods, and the acquisition, management, and sale of tracts of land.
The Murashu family stemmed from Judahite deportees. After rooting in Nippur, a commercially important city southeast of Babylon, they became a leading banking family of Mesopotamia. The family was central to the region's economy for at least a century and a half. 730 tablets of the banking house of Murashu and Sons were recovered from the ruins of Nippur. The documents survived because the clay jars in which they were stored had been carefully sealed with asphalt. An ancient map indicates that the Murashu home lay on an important irrigation canal of the Euphrates, the Chebar, that ran through the city of Nippur. The Jewish settlement of Tel-Abib (a precursor of the present Tel Aviv), was located on the same "Grand Canal" of the region. The prophet Ezekiel resided in Tel Abib (Ez. 3:15).
Nippur was excavated from1888 through 1900 by the American archaeologist John Henry Haynes under difficult circumstances. The Americans were forced to build a fortress atop the mound to protect against warring Shiite Moslem tribesmen that threatened their excavations throughout the expedition.
The surviving records of the Murashu business houses are mostly of three sons and three grandsons of the founder, covering a half century between 455 and 403 B.C.E. They make clear that the firm had long been a vital factor in the economy of the region, and continued to be so thereafter. The records provide a piercing view into the Persian/Babylonian economy of the times, as well as of the vital role of Jewish artisans and entrepreneurs active within it.
The regional satrap of Egypt, Arsames, made his headquarters in Nippur at the end of the fifth century. His mail-pouch, containing letters in Aramaic to his Egyptian bailiffs, was also unearthed. They reflect the political and economic importance of the town.2 Arsames is also referred to in Aramaic papyri written by Jews of a contemporary Jewish colony on Elephantine island in the Nile in Upper Egypt.
Tel Abib was one of twenty-eight such Jewish settlements in the immediate Nippur area alone that are featured in the Murashu records. The documents attest to the wide spread of activities of the erstwhile exiles. Included are deeds for land acquisitions, contracts and conveyances of all kinds, insurance, the provision of capital for specific projects. Even securities for imprisoned debtors were dealt with by the prestigious Murashu house. The Murashus managed estates for absentee landlords, hiring labor, paying taxes to the exchequer, and remitting the profits to the landlords. They provided small farm collectives eking out a living along the irrigation canals with equipment for raising water to their farms. They supplied farmers with animals, seed, and implements.
The Murashu documents make evident that many forms of producer's collectives existed. In addition to agrarian cooperatives, the system encompassed "various groups of artisans, for example, carpenters, tanners, ferrymen and shepherds, as well as merchants, scribes, and so on."3 Jews are prominently featured as recipients of this assistance. Some owned land. Others were employed by high-placed Persians and Babylonians or were servants of the crown. There was, for example, a certain Hannani, son of Minahhim, who held the post of "one who is over the birds of the king [Darius II]," that is, one who attended the flocks of fowl belonging to the crown.4 .
Many Jews assumed Babylonian names, as is inevitably the case in a Diaspora. Nonetheless, eight per cent of the clients of the banking families can be identified as Jews from their names alone. This percentage corres-ponds roughly to the proportion of Jews among the official population, which, before the influx of the deportees from Jerusalem and Judah, amounted to over six per cent of the total. The Aramaic form of many other names and sugges-tive facts indicate that the actual percentage was far higher.
For example, a certain Jedaiah mortgaged his land to the Murashu banking house at an annual fee of thirty thousand liters of barley. Three years later, Jedaiah in association with other partners expanded his holdings, paying three times the amount in rent. In 419 B.C.E., Jedaiah's son, Eliada, formed a partnership with a person with a Persian name to become the agents of the steward of the royal domains in the Nippur area.5
Most of the Jews referred to in the Murashu documents were of the lower classes. Some were slaves. They come to our attention because slaves of those times were not treated as mere property without rights, but as persons who retained private privileges as well as responsibilities to their owner. They could independently enter into legal agreements that did not compromise the responsibilities to their lord. Two such slaves, one bearing a clearly Judaic name, were contracted by the head of the house of Murashu to repair the dam of the irrigation canal passing through Murashu property. The contract stipulated that damages would be assessed if the commitment was not fulfilled, a condition that infers that the "slaves" had independent property of their own to be assessed!
Other credits were extended to persons of meager resources. An impoverished woman who made her living by spinning at home was assisted in her endeavors. A Jewish guide was hired for a journey and was promised, in addition to wages and expenses, a bonus upon the successful completion of the trip. A certain Zebadiah was one of five fishermen who, too poor to own their own nets, were enabled to lease nets for a period of twenty days.6
The family name of the other banking house vital to the economy of the area, Egibi, is an Akkadian translitera-tion of Jacob. A trove of the records of the family was fortuitously recovered because its inscriptions were incised upon clay tablets that were baked in a conflagration. The family's misfortune served to enrich the historical record.
The ethnicity of this prestigious Jewish family was brought into question because of the name of the head of the firm, Ittl-Marduk-balatu, who also employed the first name of Istn.7 The theophoric inclusion of the god Marduk in the name was shown to be a fashionable acceptance of Babylonian norms without religious overtones. As noted above, many other confirmed Jews were known to have likewise pragmatically assumed such names. An example of the use of such names is that assumed by a governor of Judah, Sheshbazzar.8
The origins of the family are not doubtful. The Babylonian name of this member of the Egibi family was, in fact, a secondary name. The original and true name of the family was Shirik, an Aramaic name. What appears to have been his first name was Iddina, rendered in Hebrew as Nathan. The ancestor of another member of the family was Bel-iau, a name that obviously invokes the God of Israel.
It is clear that although the Egibi and Murashu families were wealthy Jews, and while other Jews did well at court and in the service of the hierarchy, most Jews were busy at agriculture, crafts, and various enterprises.
There are a number of references to Jewish engineers who earned their living as irrigation experts. All fourteen canal managers known to us by name through these documents were Jews. They were responsible administrators who exercised a technical trade central to the economy of the region.9 Some Jews participated in the military establishment. Thus, the son of a feudatory, Gadalyaw Gedaliah, "volun-teered to serve as a mounted and cuirassed archer in place of a son of Murashu. This Gedaliah is the earliest known predecessor of medieval mailclad and mounted knights."10
The Glassware Route
The activity of the Egibi entrepreneurs in Susa, gateway to India, presages the expansion of trade along the land and sea routes to India and China. The Jews were concentrated in the fertile canal-laced heart of Babylonia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This region, and in particular the Jewish enclaves within the region, formed the hub of a network of trade routes that fanned out across Asia to the East and West. Jewish merchants and artisans established colonies at strategic points along those routes.
Trade between the two extremities of the Eurasian continent had been hitherto circumscribed by two factors. First, there was the barrier of the formidable Pamirs, a north-south mountain range that abutted the even more intimidating Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountains. Beyond the massive mountains a vast desert stretched into the heart of China. The snow-capped mountain chains and the stretches of scorching sands effectively segmented the immense Eurasian land mass.
The most stringent limitation of East-West trade was, however, control over sectors of the east-west passage by fierce tribes such as the Hsuing Nu, the so-called Huns. The Huns were one of a number of Turkic-speaking peoples through whom the caravans had to be cleared for passage. Trade could not be conducted without the intervention of such peoples until Emperor Wu (141-87 B.C.E.) sent his general, Zhang Qien, to secure a passage to the West.
image subtitle here Despite these obstacles, Jewish/Persian entrepreneurs penetrated the massive Chinese market and tapped its resources from the fifth century B.C.E. forward. Glass trade beads appear to be among the earliest trade goods employed for the purpose. Such beads were recovered from Chinese tombs at Lo-Yang, the capital of China in late Zhou times.
Reverend William Charles White was the driving force behind the excavation of the Lo Yang tombs.11 He uncovered a vast collection of grave goods from the royal tombs at Chin-ts-un. They were dated between 550 and 380 B.C.E.12 The beads were the earliest glass objects ever found in China and the first important indication of a burgeoning contact between the Near and Far East.
A great variety of glass beads was recovered. Among them were the ubiquitous eye-beads of the same technique, design, and composition that had been produced in Judah and exported through Tyre and Sidon throughout the Mediterran-ean. These unique beads were composed of concentric circles of differently colored glass, producing a startling impression of staring eyes. Six such "eyes" were usually clustered round a center "eye." Composite eye-beads of this type," wrote Takashi Tanichi of the Okayama Orient Museum, "was fam-iliar to the Eurasian continent and have a wide distribution." He lists numerous sites across southern Russia, the Mediter-ranean and Europe from which examples were recovered "similar to the Iranian or Eastern Mediterranean type."13
Similar eye-beads recovered from a tomb in the Dailaman district of Iran were accompanied by core-formed kohl-tubes similar to those found in Nimrud and Vani (Georgia). All these items were related to those produced in the Land of Israel or Persia and dated "at the earliest" to the sixth century B.C.E.,14 antedating the Lo-Yang beads. These finds, and others that have recently come to light, mark the beginning of what has become known as the "Silk Route."
A favorite Chinese tale appearing in numerous Chinese literary works concerns the boast of traders who arrived from the west at the court of Emperor Tai Wu that they could imitate precious colored stones by melting together certain secret minerals. They offered to manufacture these stones for the emperor if he would grant them mining privileges. They showed the emperor samples of imitation jade and crystals, and intriguing eye-beads that had already been brought to his kingdom. Delighted with the prospect of an infinite supply of precious materials, the emperor accepted the trader's offer and granted them permission to obtain whatever minerals they needed from the near-by hills. According to an oft-quoted version of the story given in the Pai-Shih, a historical work of the fifth century C.E., the glass gems produced by the enterprising traders were of exceptional beauty and brilliance, even superior to the imported variety.
Glass beads and amulets continued to serve as prime trade goods throughout the ages. Amphorae full of glass beads were recovered from a Canaanite vessel that foundered off the coast of Turkey at the end of the 14th century B.C.E.15 The colonization of the world was accomplished largely by means of barrels of beads brought to appreciative primitive peoples. Just as the Near Eastern avidity for lapis lazuli spurred the production of glass imitations at the dawn of history, so imitations of jade spurred trade to the East after the fifth century B.C.E.
The provenance of the beads in the Chinese tombs could only have been the Near East, for glass production was then confined to that area. Glassmaking was as yet unknown west of Asia. "To the Greeks glass was something new; to the Romans, something unknown." noted Thorpe, the glass historian.16 The first mention of glassware in Greek literature relates to the experience of Greek ambassadors to the Persian court. Aristophanes reported in 425 B.C.E. on the amazement of the Greek dignitaries when they were served drinks in bowls made of a brilliant, crystal-like material, for which no word yet existed in their language.17
The first time a Latin word for glassware appeared was almost four centuries later in a speech by Cicero in 54 B.C.E.. He referred to it as an import.
The art of glassmaking did not leave Asia until the Greeks founded the city of Alexandria. Judahite artisans formed the industrial heart of that Ptolemaic city. Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, in a letter to his Consul, identified the glassmakers of Alexandria as Jews:
Some are blowers of glass, others makers of paper, all are at least weavers of linen or seem to belong to one craft or another.
In 296 C.E. The Roman emperor Diocletian decreed fixed ceilings on prices throughout the Empire. Two types of glassware are listed: vitri Ijudaica (Judaic glass), and vitri Alessandrini (glass made in Alexandria).
Thus two Roman emperors testified that glassware then made throughout the Roman Empire were the products of Jewish artisans.
The Linen Route
Linen fabrics (Byssus), produced in the Holy Land by Jews, were likewise vital trade goods along the route to the East. The Chinese fancied linens as much as westerners fancied silks. Linens were therefore as marketable in China as silks were in the West.
It will be noted in the Hadrian missile above that weaving linen textiles and glassmaking were both prime Judaic occupation in Alexandria. This was also true in the Holy Land, where Jewish artisans dominated the inter-related trades of weaving and dyeing. As merchants they prevailed over the market for fibers and fabrics. The Jewish weavers of Beth Shean achieved world-wide fame as a producer of fine fabrics. The Jerusalem Talmud refers to the "fine linen vestments which come from Beth Shean."18
Beth Shean was one of the first Jewish communities overrun by Alexander, and was dubbed "Scythopolis" by the Greeks. Its workshops, and that of weavers in other Judaic communities, supplied the Greeks and subsequently the Romans with products that enabled them to redress the balance of payments for merchandise from the East.
The exemplary quality of textiles and clothes produced by the Beth Shean Jews was noted by Diocletian in his "Edict of Maximum Prices," quoted above in identifying the glassmakers of the era as Jews. The edict paid particular notice to the woven produce of Beth Shean: "Textile goods are divided into three qualities: First, second and third," the statutes provide. "In each group the produce of Scythopolis appears in the first class."19
In a Latin work of the fourth century, Descriptotus Orbis, Beth Shean is described as one of the cities that supplied textiles to the whole world.20
China was part of that world.
The Spice Route
The Chinese, in turn, had unique products of great trade value in the Near East and West. Silk, cinnamon, cassia (the bark from which a form of cinnamon is produced), jade, camphor, and a variety of other Chinese products were valuable products taken in exchange for exotic beads, imitation precious stones, and linen fabrics.
Both India and China were sources of exotic spices, products valued for disguising the taste of rancid food and for preserving food in an era when refrigeration was as yet two millennia away. Spices were also valued for their medicinal properties. Cinnamon, and the bark from which it was ground, cassia, were the most important among the spices traded to the West. Sri Lanka (Ceylon), India, and southern China were the provenances of the varieties of certain evergreen trees whose bark is stripped for the purpose. The twin products were in high demand for use in condiments, employed to enhance the flavor of wine and as a flavoring for food. The aromatic spice was also an ingredient of valuable perfumes for overpowering body odor at a time when plumbing was a rarity, and of unguents for scenting corpses.
The intimate association of the Jews with Far Eastern spices predates the birth of western classical civilization. It is written that Moses was instructed by God himself (Ex. 30:23-25) to compound an olive oil ointment in precise proportions "after the art of the apothecary" with the inclusion of "three principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels."
image subtitle here The etymology of the names of spices reveals the identity of their distributors. For example:
The word kesih (Psalms 45:9 et al) is clearly the model for the Greek Kasia.
The Biblical Kiddh as clearly becomes the Greek kitt, a cheap grade of cassia.
"The word kinnemon (kinnamon in Provs. 7:17 and Cant 4.14) entered Greek as Kinnamomon. A form whose ending possibly arose by the association with the spice amomon."21
We have the testimony of Herodotus, who informs us (3:11) that the words were taken from the "Phoenicians." The etymology of the transcription of spice names from Aramaic and Hebrew into Canaanite ("Phoenician"), and from Canaanite into Greek follows the same route as did the spices themselves. Aramaic-speaking Jewish traders transported the exotic spices from southern Asia to the Canaanite coast from whence they were distributed around the Mediterranean.
The etymological evidence is reinforced by the fact that the Greeks remained ignorant of the source of these spices until a late date. It is not surprising, therefore that the well-traveled Herodotus (485-425 B.C.E.) and later Theophastrus (372-286 B.C.E.) both believed that cinnamon and cassia came from trees that grew in Arabia! It is all the more convincing to learn that Strabo (60 B.C.E.-21 C.E.) and other Greeks of a period in which the Seleucids were already solidly installed in Persia, still cited Arabia as a source of these spices! They also labored under the illusion that the spices also came from East Africa. Strabo considered that the region of Somalia and Ethiopia was the southernmost inhabited part of the world and referred to it as "Cinnamon Country!"
Furthermore, western ignorance about the provenance of spices applied not merely to cinnamon and cassia but to other such biblical standbys as myrrh and frankincense. Herodotus held that winged serpents were charged with protecting frankincense trees (3:107) and that they were assisted by winged bat-like creatures which stood guard over the cassia trees (3:110).
Western ignorance about the source of spices continued into the late Roman period. Two other Greek writers, erudite physicians who discoursed at length over the merits of the exotic substances, Dioscorides (1st century C.E.) and Galen (c. 130-210 C.E) still believed in separate sources for cassia and cinnamon, ignorant of the fact that cinnamon was no more than ground up cassia.
Pliny, Ptolemy, and subsequent Greek scholars eventually became aware that Arabia was not where the tree that provided cinnamon and cassia grew, but they were still under the impression that both India and East Africa were sources for the spices. They were likewise ignorant of the source of another substance derived from leaves plucked from the cassia tree, malabathron. The leaves had pharmaceutical application and the physician Dioscorides presumed that they came from the spikenard plant grown in Mesopotamia.
The spikenard plant figures importantly in the Bible. Its ash was also used for glass production, then exclusively a Judaic art, and its other uses were well known to the Jewish sages of the period. The numerous references to it in the Bible and in other early Judaic literature attest to the familiarity of the Jewish sages with the spikenard plant, its products and its provenance.
It is evident from these strange circumstances that the Jewish traders were adept at keeping secrets!
Judaic Dyers and the Royal Purple
image subtitle here The production and the use of dyes was another set of indus-trial secrets that were of trade value to Jewish traders and artisans. The royal purple (argaman in Hebrew) and the ritual blue (tekhelet in Hebrew) were two particularly important colors in the culture of ancient Israel.22
The science of producing colorants and dyes is a significant factor in the technological evolution of civilization. The use of substances that mark, stain or color are central to the textile, paper, printing and other basic industries. The Jews were integral to these disciplines from the most ancient times.
Dye-manufacture is related to the art of fulling. Before wool can be dyed, the oils have to be removed, a process called "fulling." A number of bleaching and detergent substances ("soaps") were used in ancient Akkadia. The bleacher or "fuller" took his name from the azalog (soapwort plant). He also obtained the necessary caustic alkalis from wood ashes (potash) or plant ashes (soda). The root of the word "alkali" stems from an Akkadian adjective for the ashes of the glasswort plant, kalati, meaning "burnt."
Soap was used only by Mesopotamians in antiquity! Soap was unknown to the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Lack of this knowledge led the Egyptian priests to condemn clothing made of greasy wool as unclean. Textiles made from flax were, in contrast, declared to be the first things that the gods created before moving in to live in the secular world. The value of perfumes to the Egyptian and subsequent European rulers can well be understood.
In Jeremiah we learn that the Judahites had a full knowledge of both the production and use of soap: "For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." 2
Before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, certain districts, markets and streets were inhabited by artisans of the same trade and they had their own synagogue and burial grounds. The fullers, dyers, and weavers occupied prominent and extensive districts, for they were a large portion of the proletariat. Josephus draws attention to the synagogue of the Tarsim, belonging to the weavers of "tarsian" cloth, and to a synagogue of the weavers in Lydda.
The advanced state of the Judaic art and technology of producing textile colorants was revealed by an extraordin-ary find in a cave near the ancient settlement of en-Gedi on the Dead Sea. The Israeli archaeologist, Professor Yigael Yadin, identified the fabrics as clothing or shrouds used by the Bar Kochba rebels who retreated into the cave in the Judahite desert in 135 CE.. Professor Yadin requested Dr. Sidney Edelstein of Dexter Chemical to study the colors of the fabrics. "Never before," stated the astonished Dr. Edelstein, "had such a large varied, old and precisely dated collection of dyed materials been available for analysis."23
The Silk Route
Silk textiles, as is well known, was anciently a major part of trade with China. Silk was not altogether unknown in the Near East before the route to the heart of China was secured. Silk produced from wild Asia Minor silkworms was used among Near Eastern civilizations of the Hellenic period. Sericulture, however, was uniquely a Chinese industry. The process of raising silkworms, reeling off filaments hundreds of meters long from their cocoons, and weaving them into beautiful, remarkably strong and stable fabrics dates back to the beginning of Chinese civilization. A silk fabric found in Zhejiang Province dates back to the astoundingly early date of 2700 B.C.E.
The quality of Chinese silk was far superior to that of locally produced silk. The invention of the drawloom revolutionized Chinese silk industry and it attained exceptional sophistication by the Han period. Marvelous faunal and floral designs and stylized versions of mythical creatures like the feng-huang bird and the dragon adorned the garments of the upper-class Chinese. They clad themselves in silken masterpieces while living and adorned themselves luxuriously for burial after death.24
The Jews learned the secrets of sericulture from the Chinese The production of silk textiles burgeoned in Persia through the first centuries of the Common Era (the Sassanian period), to a point in which silk fabrics were exported not only westward but also to the East! "Once silk became common, fabrics bearing typical Sassanian designs were exported eastward [!] in considerable bulk," wrote C.G. Seligman. The demand for this genre of goods was so great in China. Japan, and in Europe that the Chinese proceeded to produce silks with typical Persian patterns. "The most striking evidence of this is the celebrated 'hunter' silk of the seventh-eighth century from the treasury of the Horiuji Monastery at Nara in Japan."25 The renowned Oriental silks thus contain Jewish iconography!
Jewish sericulturists went from Persia to Alexandria. The Byzantines decided to capture the industry and imported Jewish sericulturists who founded the industry in Thessalonika, and other Greek towns. The Norman Crusader Roger II invaded Greece, and brought the Jewish artisans to Sicily. Later the Spaniards conquered Sicily, and nationalized the industry. During the Inquisition, Jewish sericulturists fled Sicily and brought their expertise to Tuscany, Bologna, Genoa, Venice and Piedmont.
The road into the town of Casale Montferrato in the Piedmont Province of Italy was known into the modern period alternately as "Jew's Alley," and as "Mulberry Lane!"
But that is a subsequent story!
Traders in the Mishnah
Many Mishnah narratives bear on the trade activities of the Jewish sages. While that vast repository of Jewish tradition and law does not address economic matters as such, the anecdotes cited to point up ethical or legal questions incorporate information that cast light on such matters.
For example, we read about the refusal of Beth Shean Jews to leave for Sidon on Saturday to conduct business. Sidon was a port through which eastern imports and locally-produced products were exported.
Other Mishnaic narratives bear directly on the involvement of Jews in international trade. The great halachic sage, Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba, is among those mentioned in the Mishnah who are involved in shipping merchandise to and from the East. R'Chiyya is stated to have dealt specifically with products made of glass, silk, and flax, the three basic goods of East-West trade. It is related that he traveled widely in trading in these indicative products.
R'Chiyya had followed his mentor, the great Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi ("the Prince," 135-219 C.E.) into Palestine from Babylonia. It was a traumatic time. The suppression of the Jews after the crushing of the second Jewish revolt and the destruction of the center of Judaic national culture in Jerusalem created a hiatus that Rabbi Ha-Nasi filled. He became the principal architect of the Mishnah. Judah Ha-Nasi first resided in Beth Shearim, the glassmaking heart of the Galilee, and then to Beth Shean, the center of linen manufacture. R'Chiyya's business also took him to Beth Shean, and to Laodicea (another Jewish weaving center), and into Nabatea. There are references with his dealings in spikenard [mentioned above], a spice from the Himalayas whose import was controlled by the Nabatean Arabs.
Thus the Mishnah reflects the involvement of Jews like Rabbi H-Nasi in the major elements that compose the East-West trade.
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During the 11th–13th centuries, the "Karimis", an early enterprise and business group controlled by entrepreneurs, came to dominate much of the Islamic world's economy.[40] The group was controlled by about fifty Muslim merchants labelled as "Karimis" who were of Yemeni, Egyptian and sometimes Indian origins.[41] Each Karimi merchant had considerable wealth, ranging from at least 100,000 dinars to as much as 10 million dinars. The group had considerable influence in most important eastern markets and sometimes in politics through its financing activities and through a variety of customers, including Emirs, Sultans, Viziers, foreign merchants, and common consumers. The Karimis dominated many of the trade routes across the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean, and as far as Francia in the north, China in the east, and sub-Saharan Africa in the south, where they obtained gold from gold mines. Practices employed by the Karimis included the use of agents, the financing of projects as a method of acquiring capital, and a banking institution for loans and deposits.
I’ve just realised that my reference to the ‘karimi’ could be misunderstood.
If you look online you’ll see there are two groups that may be referred to by that term:
(a) a group of merchants specialising in trading eastern goods. These Karimi are the ones usually said to have begun the idea of Merchant Banks in the medieval sense;
(b) Karaite Jews of the Crimea.
As a rule the second group (Karaite Jews of the Crimea) are *not* meant. Karaites or Karaimi, not Karimi is the usual term there.
Karaite Jews, however, were certainly also to be found in considerable number in fifteenth-century Egypt. The same traveller whose description of the balsam garden I quoted, speaks of them at several points in his narrative and gives details of how their script differed from that used by other Jews.
Historians may have misunderstood any relationship between the two groups, but at present the division stands.
The Karimi of Egypt and India made fabulous fortunes from goods of the eastern trade, but even about this group, let alone about Karaites in the Crimea, information is scarce and argued about.
Nationalistic histories only make things worse by trying to claim or their own nation all credit for such things as inventing merchant-banks.
The attitude is rarely productive of fair studies. If you don’t mind, then, I’ll just point out a couple of online sources. •Here’s the Islamic angle on how banking systems developed. •There’s a pdf entitled ‘Slave Traders and Karimi Merchants during the Mamluk Period ..’ at
mamluk.uchicago.edu/MSR_X-1_2006-Sato-Tsugitaka_2.pdf •This wiki article ‘Merchant Bank’ isn’t too bad. It does at least recognise a wide range of groups, and (unusually) includes discussion of the contribution made by Jews in medieval European history. (Well done, those wiki-ers). •karimi convoys – on the eastern side of the trade. Another pdf - faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/jha/documents/SJhaTradeandInstitutions.pdf
and this relates to Voynich studies because….
of that trade in eastern goods, and specialised fonduks and/or birbar, that may underlie Baresch’s allusion to “thesauros artis medicae Aegyptiacos”
This article is about the headgear of medieval European Jews. For the modern Jewish skullcap, see kippah.
The Jewish hat also known as the Jewish cap, Judenhut (German) or Latin pilleus cornutus ("horned skullcap"), was a cone-shaped pointed hat, often white or yellow, worn by Jews in Medieval Europe and some of the Islamic world. Initially worn by choice, its wearing was enforced in some places in Europe after 1215 for adult male Jews to wear while outside a ghetto in order to distinguish Jews from others. Like the phrygian cap it often resembles, the hat may have originated in pre-Islamic Persia—a similar hat was worn by Babylonian Jews.[1]
Modern distinctive or characteristic Jewish male forms of headgear include the kippah (skullcap), shtreimel, spodik, kolpik, kashkets and fedora; see also Hasidic headwear.
Europe
Daniel in stained glass, Augsburg, Germany, first half of 12th century
This Jewish figure wearing a Jewish hat, in a detail of a medieval Hebrew calendar, reminded Jews of the palm branch (Lulav), the myrtle twigs, the willow branches, and the citron (Etrog) to be held in the hand and to be brought to the synagogue during the holiday of sukkot, near the end of the autumn holiday season. Shape[edit]
The shape of the hat is variable. Sometimes, especially in the 13th century, it is a soft Phrygian cap, but rather more common in the early period is a hat with a round circular brim—apparently stiff—curving round to a tapering top that ends in a point,[2] called the "so-called oil-can type" by Sara Lipton.[3] Smaller versions perching on top of the head are also seen. Sometimes a ring of some sort encircles the hat an inch or two over the top of the head. In the 14th century a ball or bobble appears at the top of the hat, and the tapering end becomes more of a stalk with a relatively constant width.[4] The top of the hat becomes flatter, or rounded (as in the Codex Manesse picture). The materials used are unclear from art, and may have included metal and woven plant materials as well as stiffened textiles and leather.
By the end of the Middle Ages the hat is steadily replaced by a variety of headgear including exotic flared Eastern style hats, turbans and, from the 15th century, wide flat hats and large berets. In pictures of Biblical scenes these sometimes represent attempts to portray the contemporary dress of the (modern) time worn in the Holy Land, but all the same styles are to be seen in some images of contemporary European scenes. Where a distinctive pointed Jewish hat remains it has become much less defined in shape, and baggy. Loose turbans, wide flat hats, and berets, as well as new fur hat styles from the Pale of Settlement, remain associated with Jews up to the 18th century and beyond
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Mena: International Bullion Brokers from Babylon During the Roman empire a large part of the Babylonian population migrated to Rome as slaves and servants. The Babylonians became the most successful banking and merchant families in Rome. Babylonian blood even enter Roman noble Patrician families. roman writer Juvenal complained that the Babylonian Euphrate river was flowing in the Roman Tiber river. After the fall of the Western empire the Babylonian banking families moved to Venice and later to Holland and England in the colonial era.
The International bullion brokers working with the ancient world temples who were the cental banks created an international currency system in the Ancient world were gold coins was the most valuable money in Western Kingdoms like Egypt, Persia, Greek cities and the Roman Empires and silver coins the most valuable money in Eastern kingdoms like Indian Kingdoms, China and Japan. The International bullion brokers or bankers worked as money changers in Western and Eastern Kingdoms exchanging gold coins to silver coins and vice versa during East-West trade. The story could be fiction but it look real.
In this latest installment of his remarkable series of books of alternative science and history, Joseph P. Farrell outlines the consistent pattern and strategy of bankers in ancient and modern times, and their desire to suppress the public development of alternative physics and energy technologies, usurp the money creating and issuing power of the state, and substitute a facsimile of money-as-debt. Here, Farrell peels back the layers of deception to reveal the possible deep physics that the “banksters” have used to aid them in their financial policies.
One person reviewed this book thusly:
While I like all of Farrell’s work, where I feel he really shines is in ferreting out hidden connections and subtle clues in history. His grasp of science, physics in particular, far exceeds most historians, academics, and others who research history’s hidden side.
This is one of his best books yet. He deftly connects the dots of banking, physics, music, sociology, economics, politics, and astrology in a remarkable piece of detective work. Sherlock Holmes would be proud.
I have come to the conclusion, through my own decades of research, that there exists some sort of hidden group of highly influential, highly secretive people who have been manipulating human culture for at least thousands of years. The evidence is amazingly clear for those who look for the signs. I came to this research from a totally different angle than Farrell (and others), but it is interesting how one ends up in the same place looking at the same people.
Farrell traces the use of money, banking, credit, and debt from historical sources back thousands of years to Egypt and Babylon (and beyond, actually). The existence of a powerful, secretive, multinational cartel of “bullion brokers” who control the mining, smelting and minting of gold and silver is quite clearly demonstrated, and their influence on politics, war, finance, religion, and science, even to this day, is made obvious.
While this book is intended to be more an overview of the subject than Farrell’s usual tour de force, he still includes plenty of references and citations to allow the reader further research. As it is, the book is a page-turner that heaps one fascinating fact after another onto the gameboard, and leaves one anxious to get to the next page and see where this all may lead. He ties it all neatly into some very powerful insights about our recent past and current predicaments.
I was particularly interested in the sections where he ties in the studies of economic cycles and radio interference problems neatly into astrology. I have studied astrology and worked with a professional astrologer, and know that many more people in business and politics use it than will publicly admit. I dropped the study some time ago because I felt that astrology, like many such mystery school remnants, were mere fragments of a lost science, patched together like some Cargo Cult replica, and did not function reliably. Farrell provides some nice work on tying some of those loose ends together with modern physics and his other discoveries, which he refers to as “paleophysics” – lost science of an Ancient High Civilization.
One other interesting thing is that I got this when I was about halfway through Marjorie Kelly’s “Divine Right of Capital,” another eye-opening book which reveals the completely fraudulent nature of the stock market and other corporate schemes. The two books together made quite a one-two punch of paradigm busting.
If you like Farrell’s other work, then you will love this. If you are not familiar with his other work, then some of the material will leave you with questions that will have to be answered by reading his previous books. (Which I heartily recommend anyway.)
Get this and read it now. You will learn a great deal about what is happening in the world now and why.
It is time to understand these controllers. Everything that is happening has been planned for thousands of years. These people have been in power within their bloodlines for eons, and they are ready for their final push to total world control bringing in the rule of antichrist. If you are not a believer in Jesus, if you hate religion, if you discount it, you cannot discount the evidence that these powerful families have orchestrated events, gained monetary control, political control, information control, and are very good at keeping us distracted as they move us like a herd into the direction they desire. You can even see it in music videos that are full of their message and symbolism. I did a blog piece about this which you can read here.
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Babylonian Bankers could have look like the black King Judea or Gudea.
King Judea
King Gudea
King Judea
King Gudea
Gudea was a ruler (ensi) of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca. 2144 - 2124 BC. He probably did not come from the city, but had married Ninalla, daughter of the ruler Urbaba (2164 - 2144 BC) of Lagash, thus gaining entrance to the royal house of Lagash. He was succeeded by his son Ur-Ningirsu
Inscriptions
Inscriptions mention temples built by Gudea in Ur, Nippur, Adab, Uruk and Bad-Tibira[citation needed]. This indicates the growing influence of Gudea in Sumer. His predecessor Urbaba had already made his daughter Enanepada high priestess of Nanna at Ur, which indicates a great deal of political power as well. The 20 years of his reign are all known by name; the main military exploit seems to have occurred in his Year 6, called the "Year when Anshan was smitten with weapons".[1]
Title
Gudea chose the title of énsi (town-king or governor), not the more exalted lugal (Akkadian šarrum); though he did style himself "god of Lagash"{ct}. Gudea claimed to have conquered Elam and Anshan, but his inscriptions emphasize the building of irrigation channels and temples, and the creation of precious gifts to the gods. Materials for his buildings and statues were brought from all parts of western Asia: cedar wood from the Amanus mountains, quarried stones from Lebanon, copper from northern Arabia, gold and precious stones from the desert between Canaan and Egypt, diorite from Magan (Oman), and timber from Dilmun (Bahrain).
As the power of the Akkadian empire waned, Lagaš again declared independence, this time under Puzer-Mama, who declared himself lugal of Lagaš. Thereafter, this title would not be associated with Lagaš, at least until the end of the Gudean period. Lagašite rulers, including Ur-Ningirsu and Ur-Bau, whose reigns predated Gudea, referred to themselves as énsi, or governor, of Lagaš, and reserved the term lugal only for their gods or as a matter of rank in a relationship, but never as a political device. The continued use of lugal in reference to deities seems to indicate a conscious attempt on the parts of the rulers to assume a position of humility in relation to the world—whether this was honest humility or a political ploy is unknown.
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Ancient Japanese Samurai’s hair style “mizura” (left) and Jewish “peyot” (right
A “yamabushi” with a “tokin” blowing a horn
The Japanese Shinto priest puts a cap on his head just like Israeli priest did (Exodus 29:40). The Japanese priest also puts a sash on his waist. So did the Israeli priest. The clothing of Japanese Shinto priests appears to be similar to the clothing used by ancient Israelites
Israelites Came to Ancient Japan (Part I)
Posted on March 9, 2014 by Dublinsmick
Many of the traditional ceremonies in Japan and their DNA indicate that the Lost Tribes of Israel came to ancient Japan
I have posted this in one piece but you can use above link which is in four parts
Arimasa Kubo
Ancient Japanese Samurai’s hair style “mizura” (left) and Jewish “peyot” (right)
Ark of the covenant of Israel (left) and “Omikoshi” ark of Japan (right)
Dear friends in the world,
I am a Japanese Christian writer living in Japan. As I study the Bible, I began to realize that many traditional customs and ceremonies in Japanare very similar to the ones of ancient Israel. I considered that perhaps these rituals came from the religion and customs of the Jews and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel who might have come to ancient Japan. The following sections are concerned with those Japanese traditions which possibly originated from the ancient Israelites.
The reason why I exhibit these on the internet is to enable anyone interested in this subject, especially Jewish friends to become more interested, research it for yourself, and share your findings.
The ancient kingdom of Israel, which consisted of 12 tribes, was in 933 B.C.E. divided into the southern kingdom ofJudahand the northern kingdom of Israel. The 10 tribes out of 12 belonged to the northern kingdom and the rest to the southern kingdom. The descendants from the southern kingdom are called Jews. The people of the northern kingdom were exiled to Assyria in 722 B.C.E. and did not come back to Israel. They are called “the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” They were scattered to the four corners of the earth. We find the descendants of the Israelites not only in the western world, but also in the eastern world especially along the Silk Road. The following peoples are thought by Jewish scholars to be the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
Yusufzai They live in Afghanistan. Yusufzai means children of Joseph. They have customs of ancient Israelites.
Pathans They live in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have the customs of circumcision on the 8th day, fringes of robe, Sabbath, Kashrut, Tefilin, etc.
Kashmiri people In Kashmir they have the same land names as were in the ancient northern kingdom of Israel. They have the feast of Passover and the legend that they came from Israel.
Knanites In India there are people called Knanites, which means people of Canaan. They speak Aramaic and use the Aramaic Bible.
Shinlung tribe (Bnei Menashe) In Myanmar (Burma) and India live Shinlung tribe, also called Menashe tribe. Menashe is Manasseh, and the Menashe tribe is said to be the descendants from the tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They have ancient Israeli customs.
Chiang (Qiang or Chiang-Min) tribe They live in China and have ancient Israeli customs. They believe in one God and have oral tradition that they came from far west. They say that their ancestor had 12 sons. They have customs of Passover, purification, levirate marriage, etc. as ancient Israelites.
Kaifeng, China It is known that there had been a large Jewish community since the time of B.C.E..
Japan I am going to discuss this on this website.
The “Suwa-Taisha” shrine
A Japanese Festival Illustrates the Story of Issac.
In Nagano prefecture, Japan, there is a large Shinto shrine named “Suwa-Taisha” (Shinto is the national traditional religion peculiar to Japan.) At Suwa-Taisha, the traditional festival called “Ontohsai” is held on April 15 every year (When the Japanese used the lunar calendar it was March-April). This festival illustrates the story of Isaac in chapter 22 of Genesis in the Bible – when Abraham was about to sacrifice his own son, Isaac. The “Ontohsai” festival, held since ancient days, is judged to be the most importantfestival of “Suwa-Taisha.”
At the back of the shrine “Suwa-Taisha,” there is a mountain called Mt. Moriya (“Moriya-san” in Japanese). The people from the Suwa area call the god of Mt. Moriya “Moriya no kami,” which means, the “god of Moriya.” This shrine is built to worship the “god of Moriya.” At the festival, a boy is tied up by a rope to a wooden pillar, and placed on a bamboo carpet. A Shinto priest comes to him preparing a knife, and he cuts a part of the top of the wooden pillar, but then a messenger (another priest) comes there, and the boy is released. This is reminiscent of the Biblical story in which Isaac was released after an angel came to Abraham.
At this festival, animal sacrifices are also offered. 75 deer are sacrificed, but among them it is believed that there is a deer with its ear split. The deer is considered to be the one God prepared. It could have had some connection with the ram that God prepared and was sacrificed after Isaac was released. Since the ram was caught in the thicket by the horns, the ear might have been split.
The knife and sword used in the “Ontohsai” festival
In ancient time of Japan there were no sheep and it might be the reason why they used deer (deer is Kosher). Even in historic times, people thought that this custom of deer sacrifice was strange, because animal sacrifice is not a Shinto tradition.
A deer with its ears split
People call this festival “the festival for Misakuchi-god”. “Misakuchi” might be “mi-isaku-chi.” “Mi” means “great,” “isaku” is most likely Isaac (the Hebrew word “Yitzhak”), and “chi” is something for the end of the word. It seems that the people of Suwa made Isaac a god, probably by the influence of idol worshipers. Today, this custom of the boy about to be sacrificed and then released, is no longer practiced, but we can still see the custom of the wooden pillar called “oniye-bashira,” which means, “sacrifice-pillar.“
The “oniye-bashira” on which the boy is supposed to be tied up
Currently, people use stuffed animals instead of performing a real animal sacrifice. Tying a boy along with animal sacrifice was regarded as savage by people of the Meiji-era (about 100 years ago), and those customs were discontinued. However, the festival itself still remains. The custom of the boy had been maintained until the beginning of Meiji era. Masumi Sugae, who was a Japanese scholar and a travel writer in the Edoera (about 200 years ago), wrote a record of his travels and noted what he saw at Suwa. The record shows the details of “Ontohsai.” It tells that the custom of the boy about to be sacrificed and his ultimate release, as well as animal sacrifices that existed those days. His records are kept at the museum nearSuwa-Taisha.
The festival of “Ontohsai” has been maintained by the Moriya family ever since ancient times. The Moriya family thinks of “Moriya-no-kami” (god of Moriya) as their ancestor’s god. They also consider “Mt. Moriya” as their holy place. The name, “Moriya,” could have come from “Moriah” (the Hebrew word “Moriyyah”) of Genesis 22:2, that is today’s Temple Mount ofJerusalem. Among Jews, God of Moriah means the one true God whom the Bible teaches. The Moriya family has been hosting the festival for 78 generations. And the curator of the museum said to me that the faith in the god of Moriya had existed among the people since the time of B.C.E..
Apparently, no other country but Japanhas a festival illustrating the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. This tradition appears to provide strong evidence that the ancient Israelites came to ancient Japan.
The Crest of the Imperial House of Japan Is the Same As That Found On the Gate of Jerusalem.
The crest of the Imperial House of Japan is a round mark in the shape of a flower with 16 petals. The current shape appears as a chrysanthemum (mum), but scholars say that in ancient times, it appeared similar to a sunflower. The sunflower appearance is the same as the mark at Herod’s gate in Jerusalem. The crest at Herod’s gate also has 16 petals. This crest of the Imperial House of Japan has existed since very ancient times. The same mark as the one at Herod’s gate is found on the relics of Jerusalemfrom the times of the Second Temple, and also on Assyrian relics from the times of B.C.E..
The mark on Herod’s gate at Jerusalem (left) and the crest of the Imperial House of Japan (right)
Japanese Religious Priests “Yamabushi” Put A Black Box on their Foreheads Just As Jews Put A Phylactery on their Foreheads.
“Yamabushi” is a religious man in training unique to Japan. Today, they are thought to belong to Japanese Buddhism. However, Buddhism in China, Korea and India has no such custom. The custom of “yamabushi” existed in Japan before Buddhism was imported into Japan in the seventh century.
On the forehead of “Yamabushi,” he puts a black small box called a “tokin”, which is tied to his head with a black cord. He greatly resembles a Jew putting on a phylactery (black box) on his forehead with a black cord. The size of this black box “tokin” is almost the same as the Jewish phylactery, but its shape is round and flower-like.
A “yamabushi” with a “tokin” blowing a horn
Originally the Jewish phylactery placed on the forehead seems to have come from the forehead “plate” put on the high priest Aaron with a cord (Exodus 28:36-38). It was about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) in size according to folklore, and some scholars maintain that it was flower-shaped. If so, it was very similar to the shape of the Japanese “tokin” worn by the “yamabushi”.
A Jew with a phylactery blowing a shofar
Israel and Japan are the only two countries that in the world I know of that use of the black forehead box for religious purpose.
Furthermore, the “yamabushi” use a big seashell as a horn. This is very similar to Jews blowing a shofar or ram’s horn. The way it is blown and the sounds of the “yamabushi’s” horn are very similar to those of a shofar. Because there are no sheep in Japan, the “yamabushi” had to use seashell horns instead of rams’ horns.
“Yamabushis” are people who regard mountains as their holy places for religious training. The Israelites also regarded mountains as their holy places. The Ten Commandments of the Torah were given on Mt. Sinai. Jerusalem is a city on a mountain. Jesus (Yeshua) used to climb up the mountain to pray. His apparent transfiguration also occurred on a mountain.
In Japan, there is the legend of “Tengu” who lives on a mountain and has the figure of a “yamabushi”. He has a pronounced nose and supernatural capabilities. A “ninja”, who was an agent or spy in the old days, while working for his lord, goes to “Tengu” at the mountain to get from him supernatural abilities. “Tengu” gives him a “tora-no-maki” (a scroll of the “tora”) after giving him additional powers. This “scroll of the tora” is regarded as a very important book which is helpful for any crisis. Japanese use this word sometimes in their current lives.
There is no knowledge that a real scroll of a Jewish Torah was ever found in a Japanese historical site. However, it appears this “scroll of the tora” is a derivation of the Jewish Torah.
Japanese “Omikoshi” Resembles the Ark of the Covenant.
In the Bible, in First Chronicles, chapter 15, it is written that David brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord into Jerusalem.
“David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of units of a thousand went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the house of Obed-Edom, with rejoicing. …Now David was clothed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and as were the singers, and Kenaniah, who was in charge of the singing of the choirs. David also wore a linen ephod. So all Israelbrought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouts, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps.” (15:25-28)
Illustration of Israeli people carrying the Ark of the Covenant
When I read these passages, I think; “How well does this look like the scene of Japanese people carrying our ‘omikoshi’ during festivals? The shape of the Japanese ‘Omikoshi’ appears similar to the ark of the covenant. Japanese sing and dance in front of it with shouts, and to the sounds of musical instruments. These are quite similar to the customs of ancient Israel.”
Japanese “Omikoshi” ark
Japanese carry the “omikoshi” on their shoulders with poles – usually two poles. So did the ancient Israelites: “The Levites carried the ark of God with poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the LORD.” (1 Chronicles 15:15)
The Israeli ark of the covenant had two poles (Exodus 25:10-15). Some restored models of the ark as it was imagined to be have used two poles on the upper parts of the ark. But the Bible says those poles were to be fastened to the ark by the four rings “on its four feet” (Exodus 25:12). Hence, the poles must have been attached on the bottom of the ark. This is similar to the Japanese “omikoshi.”
The Israeli ark had two statues of gold cherubim on its top. Cherubim are a type of angel, heavenly being having wings like birds. Japanese “omikoshi” also have on its top the gold bird called “Ho-oh” which is an imaginary bird and a mysterious heavenly being. The entire Israeli ark was overlaid with gold. Japanese “omikoshi” are also overlaid partly and sometimes entirely with gold. The size of an “omikoshi” is almost the same as the Israeli ark. Japanese “omikoshi” could be a remnant of the ark of ancient Israel.
Many Things Concerning the Ark Resemble Japanese Customs.
King David and people of Israelsang and danced to the sounds of musical instruments in front of the ark. We Japanese sing and dance to the sounds of musical instruments in front of “omikoshi” as well.
Several years ago, I saw an American-made movie titled “King David” which was a faithful story of the life of King David. In the movie, David was seen dancing in front of the ark while it was being carried into Jerusalem. I thought: “If the scenery of Jerusalemwere replaced by Japanese scenery, this scene would be just the same as what can be observed in Japanese festivals.” The atmosphere of the music also resembles the Japanese style. David’s dancing appears similar to Japanese traditional dancing.
At the Shinto shrine festival of “Gion-jinja” in Kyoto, men carry “omikoshi,” then enter a river, and cross it. I can’t help but think this originates from the memory of the Ancient Israelites carrying the ark as they crossed the Jordan river after their exodus from Egypt.
In a Japanese island of the Inland Sea of Seto, the men selected as the carriers of the “omikoshi” stay together at a house for one week before they would carry the “omikoshi.” This is to prevent profaning themselves. Furthermore on the day before they carry “omikoshi,” the men bathe in seawater to sanctify themselves. This is similar to an ancient Israelite custom: “So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God ofIsrael.” (1 Chronicles 15:14)
The Bible says that after the ark entered Jerusalem and the march was finished, “David distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins” (1 Chronicles 16:3). This is similar to a Japanese custom. Sweets are distributed to everyone after a Japanese festival. It was a delight during my childhood.
The Robe of Japanese Priests Resembles the Robe of Israeli Priests.
The Bible says that when David brought up the ark into Jerusalem, “David was clothed in a robe of fine linen” (1 Chronicles 15:27). The same was true for the priests and choirs. In the Japanese Bible, this verse is translated into “robe of white linen.”
In ancient Israel, although the high priest wore a colorful robe, ordinary priests wore simple white linen. Priests wore white clothes at holy events. Japanese priests also wear white robes at holy events.
In Ise-jingu, one of the oldest Japanese shrines, all of the priests wear white robes. And in many Japanese Shinto shrines, especially traditional ones, the people wear white robes when they carry the “omikoshi” just like the Israelites did. Buddhist priests wear luxurious colorful robes. However, in the Japanese Shinto religion, white is regarded as the holiest color.
The Emperor of Japan, just after he finishes the ceremony of his accession to the throne, appears alone in front of the Shinto god. When he arrives there, he wears a pure white robe covering his entire body except that his feet are naked. This is similar to the action of Moses and Joshua who removed their sandals in front of God to be in bare feet (Exodus 3:5, Joshua 5:15). Marvin Tokayer, a rabbi who lived in Japan for 10 years, wrote in his book: “The linen robes which Japanese Shinto priests wear have the same figure as the white linen robes of the ancient priests of Israel. “
Japanese Shinto priest in white robe with fringes
The Japanese Shinto priest robe has cords of 20-30 centimeters long (about 10 inches) hung from the corners of the robe. These fringes are similar to those of the ancient Israelites. Deuteronomy 22:12 says: “make them fringes in the… corners of their garments throughout their generations.” Fringes (tassels) were a token that a person was an Israelite. In the gospels of the New Testament, it is also written that the Pharisees “make their tassels on their garments long” (Matthew 23:5). A woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage came to Jesus (Yeshua) and touched the “tassel on His coat” (Matthew 9:20, The New Testament: A Translation in the Language of the People, translated by Charles B. Williams).
Imagined pictures of ancient Israeli clothing sometimes do not have fringes. But their robes actually had fringes. The Jewish Tallit (prayer shawl), which the Jews put on when they pray, has fringes in the corners according to tradition.
Japanese Shinto priests wear on their robe a rectangle of cloth from their shoulders to thighs. This is the same as the ephod worn by David: “David also wore a linen ephod.” (1 Chronicles 15:27)
Although the ephod of the high priest was colorful with jewels, the ordinary priests under him wore the ephods of simple white linen cloth (1 Samuel 22:18). Rabbi Tokayer states that the rectangle of cloth on the robe of Japanese Shinto priest looks very similar to the ephod of the Kohen, the Jewish priest.
The Japanese Shinto priest puts a cap on his head just like Israeli priest did (Exodus 29:40). The Japanese priest also puts a sash on his waist. So did the Israeli priest. The clothing of Japanese Shinto priests appears to be similar to the clothing used by ancient Israelites.
Waving the Sheaf of Harvest Is Also the Custom of Japan.
The Jews wave a sheaf of their first fruits of grain seven weeks before Shavuot (Pentecost, Leviticus 23:10-11), They also wave a sheaf of plants at Sukkot (the Feast of Booths, Leviticus 23:40). This has been a tradition since the time of Moses. Ancient Israeli priests also waved a plant branch when he sanctifies someone. David said, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean” [Psalm 51:7(9)]. This is also a traditional Japanese custom.
Shinto priest waving for sanctification
When a Japanese priest sanctifies someone or something, he waves a tree branch. Or he waves a “harainusa,” which is made of a stick and white papers and looks like a plant. Today’s “harainusa” is simplified and made of white papers that are folded in a zigzag pattern like small lightning bolts, but in old days it was a plant branch or cereals.
A Japanese Christian woman acquaintance of mine used to think of this “harainusa” as merely a pagan custom. But she later went to the U.S.A.and had an opportunity to attend a Sukkotceremony. When she saw the Jewish waving of the sheaf of the harvest, she shouted in her heart, “Oh, this is the same as a Japanese priest does! Here lies the home for the Japanese.”
The Structure of the Japanese Shinto Shrine is Similar to God’s Tabernacle of Ancient Israel.
The inside of God’s tabernacle in ancient Israelwas divided into two parts. The first was theHoly Place, and the second was the Holy of Holies. The Japanese Shinto shrine is also divided into two parts.
The functions performed in the Japanese shrine are similar to those of the Israeli tabernacle. Japanese pray in front of its Holy Place. They cannot enter inside. Only Shinto priests and special ones can enter. Shinto priest enters the Holy of Holies of the Japanese shrine only at special times. This is similar to the Israeli tabernacle.
The Japanese Holy of Holies is located usually in far west or far north of the shrine. The Israeli Holy of Holies was located in far west of the temple. Shinto’s Holy of Holies is also located on a higher level than the Holy Place, and between them are steps. Scholars state that, in the Israeli temple built by Solomon, the Holy of Holies was on an elevated level as well, and between them there were steps of about 2.7 meters (9 feet) in width.
Typical Japanese Shinto shrine
In front of a Japanese shrine, there are two statues of lions known as “komainu” that sit on both sides of the approach. They are not idols but guards for the shrine. This was also a custom of ancient Israel. In God’s temple in Israel and in the palace of Solomon, there were statues or relieves of lions (1 Kings 7:36, 10:19).
“Komainu” guards for shrine
In the early history of Japan, there were absolutely no lions. But the statues of lions have been placed in Japanese shrines since ancient times. It has been proven by scholars that statues of lions located in front of Japanese shrines originated from the Middle East.
Located near the entrance of a Japanese shrine is a “temizuya” – a place for worshipers to wash their hands and mouth. They used to wash their feet, too, in old days. This is a similar custom as is found in Jewish synagogues. The ancient tabernacle and temple of Israelalso had a laver for washing hands and feet near the entrances.
In front of a Japanese shrine, there is a gate called the “torii.” The type gate does not exist inChina or in Korea, it is peculiar to Japan. The “torii” gate consists of two vertical pillars and a bar connecting the upper parts. But the oldest form consists of only two vertical pillars and a rope connecting the upper parts. When a Shinto priest bows to the gate, he bows to the two pillars separately. It is assumed that the “torii” gate was originally constructed of only two pillars.
In the Israeli temple, there were two pillars used as a gate (1 Kings 7:21). And according to Joseph Eidelberg, in Aramaic language which ancient Israelites used, the word for gate was “tar’a.” This word might have changed slightly and become the Japanese “torii”. Some “toriis,” especially of old shrines, are painted red. I can’t help but think this is a picture of the two door posts and the lintel on which the blood of the lamb was put the night before the exodus from Egypt.
In the Japanese Shinto religion, there is a custom to surround a holy place with a rope called the “shimenawa,” which has slips of white papers inserted along the bottom edge of the rope. The “shimenawa” rope is set as the boundary. The Bible says that when Moses was given God’s Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, he “set bounds” (Exodus 19:12) around it for the Israelites not to approach. Although the nature of these “bounds” is not known, ropes might have been used. The Japanese “shimenawa” rope might then be a custom that originates from the time of Moses. The zigzag pattern of white papers inserted along the rope reminds me of the thunders at Mt. Sinai.
The major difference between a Japanese Shinto shrine and the ancient Israeli temple is that the shrine does not have the burning altar for animal sacrifices. I used to wonder why Shinto religion does not have the custom of animal sacrifices if Shinto originated from the religion of ancient Israel. But then I found the answer in Deuteronomy, chapter 12. Moses commanded the people not to offer any animal sacrifices at any other locations except at specific places inCanaan (12:10-14). Hence, if the Israelites came to ancient Japan, they would not be permitted to offer animal sacrifices.
Shinto shrine is usually built on a mountain or a hill. Almost every mountain in Japan has ashrine, even you find a shrine on top of Mt. Fuji. In ancient Israel, on mountains were usually located worship places called “the high places”. The temple of Jerusalem was built on a mountain (Mt. Moriah). Moses was given the Ten Commandments from God on Mt. Sinai. It was thought in Israel that mountain is a place close to God.
Many Shinto shrines are built with the gates in the east and the Holy of Holies in the west as we see in Matsuo grand shrine (Matsuo-taisya) in Kyoto and others. While, others are built with the gates in the south and the Holy of Holies in the north. The reason of building with the gates in the east (and the Holy of Holies in the west) is that the sun comes from the east. The ancient Israeli tabernacle or temple was built with the gate in the east and the Holy of Holies in the west, based on the belief that the glory of God comes from the east.
All Shinto shrines are made of wood. Many parts of the ancient Israeli temple were also made of wood. The Israelites used stones in some places, but walls, floors, ceilings and all of the insides were overlaid with wood (1 Kings 6:9, 15-18), which was cedars from Lebanon (1 Kings 5:6). In Japanthey do not have cedars from Lebanon, so in Shinto shrines they use Hinoki cypress which is hardly eaten by bugs like cedars from Lebanon. The wood of the ancient Israeli temple was all overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:20-30). In Japan the important parts of the main shrine of Ise-jingu, for instance, are overlaid with gold.
Many Japanese Customs Resemble Those of Ancient Israel.
When Japanese people pray in front of the Holy Placeof a Shinto shrine, they firstly ring the golden bell which is hung at the center of the entrance. This was also the custom of the ancientIsrael. The high priest Aaron put “bells of gold” on the hem of his robe. This was so that its sound might be heard and he might not die when ministered there (Exodus 28:33-35).
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A model of the Kaifeng synagogue at the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv
Interior of kaifeng synagogue-1
East Market street, Kaifeng-1
Composite kaifeng stone inscriptions-1
The Kaifeng Jews are members of a small Jewish community in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China who have assimilated into Chinese society while preserving some Jewish traditions and customs. Their origin and time of arrival in Kaifeng are a matter of debate among experts
History
Most scholars agree that a Jewish community has existed in Kaifeng since the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), though some date their arrival to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) or earlier.[1] Kaifeng, then the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was a cosmopolitan city on a branch of the Silk Road. It is surmised that a small community of Jews, most likely from Persia or India, arrived either overland or by a sea route, and settled in the city, building a synagogue in 1163.[2]
During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), a Ming emperor conferred seven surnames upon the Jews, by which they are identifiable today: Ai, Shi, Gao, Jin, Li, Zhang, and Zhao. By the beginning of the 20th century one of these Kaifeng clans, the Zhang, had largely converted to Islam.[3] Two of these, Jin and Shi, are the equivalent of common Jewish names in the west: Gold and Stone.[4][5]
The Jews who managed the Kaifeng synagogue were called "mullahs". Floods and fire repeatedly destroyed the books of the Kaifeng synagogue; they obtained some from Ningxia and Ningbo to replace them, and another Hebrew Torah scroll was bought from a Muslim in Ning-keang-chow in Shen-se (Shanxi), who acquired it from a dying Jew at Canton.[6]
Interior of the Kaifeng synagogue, 18th century The existence of Jews in China was unknown to Europeans until 1605, when Matteo Ricci, then established in Beijing, was visited by a Jew from Kaifeng, who had come to Beijing to take examinations for his jinshi degree. According to his account in De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas,[7] his visitor, named Ai Tian (Ai T'ien) (艾田) explained that he worshipped one God. It is recorded that when he saw a Christian image of Mary with Jesus, he believed it to be a picture of Rebecca with Esau or Jacob. Ai said that many other Jews resided in Kaifeng; they had a splendid synagogue (礼拜寺 libai si) and possessed a great number of written materials and books.
About three years after Ai's visit, Ricci sent a Chinese Jesuit Lay Brother to visit Kaifeng; he copied the beginnings and ends of the holy books kept in the synagogue, which allowed Ricci to verify that they indeed were the same texts as the Pentateuch known to Europeans, except that they did not use Hebrew diacritics (which were a comparatively late invention).[8]
When Ricci wrote to the "ruler of the synagogue" in Kaifeng, telling him that the Messiah the Jews were waiting for had come already, the "Archsynagogus" wrote back, saying that the Messiah would not come for another ten thousand years. Nonetheless, apparently concerned with the lack of a trained successor, the old rabbi offered Ricci his position, if the Jesuit would join their faith and abstain from eating pork. Later, another three Jews from Kaifeng, including Ai's nephew, stopped by the Jesuits' house while visiting Beijing on business, and got themselves baptized. They told Ricci that the old rabbi had died, and (since Ricci had not taken up on his earlier offer), his position was inherited by his son, "quite unlearned in matters pertaining to his faith". Ricci's overall impression of the situation of China's Jewish community was that "they were well on the way to becoming Saracens [i.e., Muslims] or heathens."[8]
Later, a number of European Jesuits visited the Kaifeng community as well.
The Taiping Rebellion of the 1850s led to the dispersal of the community, but it later returned to Kaifeng. Three stelae with inscriptions were found at Kaifeng. The oldest, dating from 1489, commemorates the construction of a synagogue in 1163 (bearing the name 清真寺, Qingzhen Si, a term often used for mosques in Chinese). The inscription states that the Jews came to China from India during the Han Dynasty period (2nd century BCE-2nd century CE). It cites the names of 70 Jews with Chinese surnames, describes their audience with an unnamed Song Dynasty emperor, and lists the transmission of their religion from Abraham down to the prophet Ezra. The second tablet, dating from 1512 (found in the synagogue Xuanzhang Daojing Si) details their Jewish religious practices. The third, dated 1663, commemorates the rebuilding of the Qingzhen si synagogue and repeats information that appears in the other two stelae.[9]
Two of the stelae refer to a famous tattoo written on the back of Song Dynasty General Yue Fei. The tattoo, which reads "Boundless loyalty to the country" (simplified Chinese: 尽忠报国; traditional Chinese: 盡忠報國; pinyin: jìn zhōng bào guó), first appeared in a section of the 1489 stele talking about the Jews’ “Boundless loyalty to the country and Prince”. The second appeared in a section of the 1512 stele talking about how Jewish soldiers and officers in the Chinese armies were “Boundlessly loyal to the country.”
Father Joseph Brucker, a Roman Catholic researcher of the early 20th century, notes that Ricci's account of Chinese Jews indicates that there were only in the range of ten or twelve Jewish families in Kaifeng in the late 16th to early 17th centuries,[10] and that they had reportedly resided there for five or six hundred years. It was also stated in the manuscripts that there was a greater number of Jews in Hangzhou.[10] This could be taken to suggest that loyal Jews fled south along with the soon-to-be crowned Emperor Gaozong to Hangzhou. In fact, the 1489 stele mentions how the Jews "abandoned Bianliang" (Kaifeng) after the Jingkang Incident.
Despite their isolation from the rest of the Jewish diaspora, the Jews of Kaifeng preserved Jewish traditions and customs for many centuries. In the 17th century, assimilation began to erode these traditions. The rate of intermarriage between Jews and other ethnic groups, such as the Han Chinese, and the Hui and Manchu minorities in China, increased. The destruction of the synagogue in the 1860s led to the community's demise.[11] However, J.L. Liebermann, the first Western Jew to visit Kaifeng in 1867, noted that "they still had a burial ground of their own". In 1868 it was reported that their liturgy consisted only of pieces from the Bible.[12] S.M. Perlmann, the Shanghai businessman and scholar, wrote in 1912 that "they bury their dead in coffins, but of a different shape than those of the Chinese are made, and do not attire the dead in secular clothes as the Chinese do, but in linen".[13]
Today
In China, due to the political situation, research on the Kaifeng Jews and Judaism in China came to a standstill until the beginning of the 1980s, when political and economic reforms were implemented. In the 1980s, the Sino-Judaic Institute was founded by an international group of scholars to further research the history of the Jewish communities in China, promote educational projects related to the history of the Jews in China and assist the extant Jews of Kaifeng.[14] The establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Israel in 1992 rekindled interest in Judaism and the Jewish experience, especially in light of the fact that 25,000 Jewish refugees fled to Shanghai during the Nazi period.[15]
It is difficult to estimate the number of Jews in China. Numbers may change simply because of a change in official attitudes. The last census revealed about 400 official Jews in Kaifeng, now estimated at some 100 families totalling approximately 500 people.[16] Up to 1,000 residents have ties to Jewish ancestry,[11] though only 40 to 50 individuals partake in Jewish activities.[17]
Some descendants of Kaifeng's Jewish community say their parents and grandparents told them that they were Jewish and would one day "return to their land",[11] others are only vaguely aware of their ancestry.[18]
The Kaifeng Jews intermarried with local Chinese, and are thus indistinguishable in appearance from their non-Jewish neighbors.[19] The one trait that differentiated them from their neighbors was not eating pork.[11] Qu Yinan, a Chinese woman who discovered her Jewish ancestry after her mother attended a conference on minorities in 1981, says her family did not eat pork or shellfish and her grandfather always wore a blue skullcap.[20]
Within the framework of contemporary rabbinical Judaism, matrilineal transmission of Jewishness is predominant, while Chinese Jews based their Jewishness on patrilineal descent. As a result, in Israel they are required to undergo conversion in order to receive Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.
After contact with Jewish tourists, some of the Jews of Kaifeng have reconnected to mainstream Jewry.[21] Recently a family of Kaifeng Jewish descendants formally converted to Judaism and accepted Israeli citizenship.[22] Their experiences are described in the documentary film, Kaifeng, Jerusalem.[23] On October 20, 2009, the first group of Kaifeng Jews arrived in Israel, in an aliyah operation coordinated by Shavei Israel.[24][
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