Jewish revolt against Heraclius

Jewish revolt against Heraclius
Part of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628
Date614–617/625 CE
Location
Palaestina Prima of the Diocese of the East (Byzantine Empire)
Result Jewish-Sasanian victory
Territorial
changes		 Palaestina Prima and Secunda temporarily annexed to the Sasanian Empire
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire Sasanian Empire
Jewish allies
Commanders and leaders
Heraclius
Zacharias of Jerusalem (POW)
Modestus of Jerusalem (in 617)		 Shahrbaraz
Nehemiah ben Hushiel Executed
Benjamin of Tiberias
Strength

Byzantine army

Sasanian army

Casualties and losses
Tens of thousands Tens of thousands
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    The Jewish revolt against Heraclius was part of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 and is considered the last serious Jewish attempt to regain autonomy in Palaestina Prima prior to modern times.

    Following the Battle of Antioch in 613, Shahrbaraz led his forces through Palaestina Secunda and into Palaestina Prima provinces.[2]: 123  In 614, Shahrbaraz conquered Caesarea Maritima, the administrative capital of the Palaestina Prima province.[3]: 206  The Persian army reinforced by Jewish forces led by Nehemiah ben Hushiel and Benjamin of Tiberias would shortly capture Jerusalem without resistance.[3]: 207 [4] After only a few months a Christian revolt occurred. Nehemiah ben Hushiel and his council of sixteen people were killed along with many other Jews, some throwing themselves off the city walls.[3]: 69–71 [5][6]: 169  Christians were able to briefly retake the city before the walls were breached by Shahrbaraz's forces who lay siege to the city.[3]: 207  According to the Armenian bishop and historian Sebeos the siege resulted in a total Christian death toll of 17,000,[3]: 207  Christian sources later exaggerated the extent of the massacre, claiming a death toll as high as 90,000.[3]: 207–208  In addition, 35,000 or 37,000 people including the patriarch Zacharias are said to have been deported to Mesopotamia.[3]: 69–71 [2]: 123 [7] The city is said to have been burnt down. However, neither widespread burning nor destruction of churches have been found in the archaeological record.[8][9][10]

    Bands of Jews from Jerusalem, Tiberias, Galilee, Damascus, and even from Cyprus, united and undertook an incursion against Tyre, having been invited by the 4,000 Jewish inhabitants of that city to surprise and massacre the Christians on Easter night. The Jewish army is said to have consisted of 20,000 men. The expedition, however, miscarried, as the Christians of Tyre learned of the impending danger, and seized the 4,000 Tyrian Jews as hostages. The Jewish invaders destroyed the churches around Tyre, an act which the Christians avenged by killing two thousand of their Jewish prisoners. The besiegers, to save the remaining prisoners, withdrew.[11] The Jews had hoped that Khosrow II would give them all of the Land of Israel in exchange for their support. By 617 CE the Persians had reversed their policy and sided with the Christians over the Jews, probably because of pressure from Mesopotamian Christians in Persia itself.[3]: 208 [12]

    By 622 CE, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius had assembled an army to retake the territory lost to the Sasanian Empire.[5] In 628, following the deposition of Khosrow II, Kavad II made peace with Heraclius, but Kavad II would only have a brief reign. It is said that Benjamin, a man of immense wealth and one of the leaders of the failed revolt, accompanied Heraclius on his voyage to Jerusalem, was persuaded to convert, and obtained a general pardon for himself and the Jews.[13] On 21 March 630, Emperor Heraclius marched in triumph into Jerusalem with the True Cross.[14] A general massacre of the Jewish population ensued.[8][15] The massacre devastated the Jewish communities of the Galilee and Jerusalem.[16][17][18] Only those Jews who could flee to the mountains or Egypt are said to have been spared.[19]: 38 

    Archaeological work does not support the claims in the written sources that the conflict led to large-scale massacres perpetrated against Christian and Jewish communities in Jerusalem and the destruction of churches in the city (see below).

    1. ^ James Parkes (1949). A history of Palestine from 135 A.D. to modern times. Victor Gollancz.
    2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference sasanianTimes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cite error: The named reference james was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    4. ^ "Byzantine – Tiberias | Israel". 101israel.com. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
    5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Nehemiah was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Minora was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    7. ^ Jane S. Gerber (1994). Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. Simon and Schuster. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-02-911574-9. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
    8. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Phoenicia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    9. ^ Cite error: The named reference bibleinterp.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    10. ^ Haykin, Adin (2021-11-05). "When and how the Jews were Dispossessed from the Land of Israel". Medium. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
    11. ^ Cite error: The named reference jewishencyclopedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    12. ^ Avner Falk (1996). A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. pp. 353–354. ISBN 978-0-8386-3660-2. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
    13. ^ Hagith Sivan (2008). Palestine in Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. p. 2: Anastasian Landscapes page 8. ISBN 978-0-19-160867-4. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
    14. ^ Michael H. Dodgeon; Samuel N. C. Lieu, eds. (2002). The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars Ad 363-628, Part 2. Taylor & Francis. pp. 227–228.
    15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Butler was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    16. ^ Cite error: The named reference emperorofByzantium was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    17. ^ David Nicolle (1994). Yarmuk AD 636: The Muslim Conquest of Syria. Osprey Publishing. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-85532-414-5. Retrieved 21 March 2014.[permanent dead link‍]
    18. ^ David Keys (2000). Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-345-44436-3. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
    19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Thousand was invoked but never defined (see the help page).