Messianism Then (7th Century) and Now (21st Century)

In 2025, extreme weather and natural disasters delivered earth-shattering, heart-stopping moments. So: "Thus says the LORD: "As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the People of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed." (Amos 3:12)

"Thus said YHWH: "As the shepherd delivers from the lion's mouth (as much as) two legs, or (as little as) a piece of an ear, So the descendants of Israel are delivered, who are sitting in Samaria on the corner of a bed, and in Damascus (on the edge of) a couch."

Sean W. Anthony in his essay on the Shepherd of Damascus examines a hitherto neglected passage from the Persian history Bayān al-adyān by the Ghaznavid scholar Abū al-maʿālī (written ca.1092 C.E.) that considerably illuminates the history of such movements among the Jewish inhabitants of Syria and Mesopotamia.

This passage, ultimately deriving from the now lost Kitāb al-Maqālāt of the influential historian Abū ʿĪsā al-Warrāq (died after 864), preserves an account of a Jewish Messianism person of the Umayyad era known as the Shepherd of Damascus who began a movement among Syro-Mesopotamian Jewry during the caliphate of Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-malik (ruled 715-717) and gained famed as a miracle worker and herald of the coming messiah.

His movement allegedly ended when, after being imprisoned by the Umayyad caliph, he entered into a period of occultation that he did not survive. Through a critical reading of Abū al-maʿālī's account alongside accounts of Syriac historians living in the 8th century and those of books, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, this essays attempts to provide a chronological reconstruction of the currents of Jewish messianist responses to the Islamic conquests as they evolved from the Marwānid to early ʿAbbāsid periods in general, and to assess the profound influence of the Shepherd's movement on the Jewish messianist movement of Abū ʿĪsā al-Iṣfahānī and the ʿĪsawiyya in particular.

When in the 630s and 640s, armies of Arabian tribesmen began to flood the lands of Syria and Mesopotamia, the early vanguards of the Islamic conquests walked onto the stage of an apocalyptic drama regarded by much of the region's populace, regardless of their sectarian allegiances, as already underway.

Indeed, when looking to 7th century Jewish apocalypticism in particular, the Islamic conquests can with justification be imagined as merely reigniting the flames of Jewish apocalyptic sentiments and messianic expectations that were first set ablaze by the Byzantine-Persian wars spanning 603-628. which were much of the impetus for the surge in apocalypticism among the Jews of Palestine during this time that derives from the Sasanian conquests of Byzantine territories in the levant and their capture of Jerusalem in 614.

With the Persian victories, the Jewish populations found themselves freed of their Byzantine Christian overlords and, in time, even in control of Jerusalem. Certainly, the brief and difficult to interpret period from 614-617 during which the Persians left Jerusalem under Jewish administration, created an indelible imprint on the Jewish communities of Syria and Palestine, leading many to look eagerly for the imminent arrival of a messianic redeemer.

Yet, a sharp turn of fortune for the Jews resulted from the Byzantines' subsequent victorious campaigns against the Persians led by the emperor Heraclius, himself regarded by a number of his contemporaries as fulfilling archetypal, apocalyptic roles.

Besides recapturing the territories recently lost to Persian advances, the Byzantine resurgence brought with it severe reprisals against the Jewish populations of Syria and Palestine in retaliation for Jewish acts of violence against Christians in the wake of the Persian conquest and their perceived collusion with invading Persian forces.

Expectations among the Jews of seventh-century Palestine abounds in the apocalyptic literature produced in the time period. These apocalyptic writings convey attitudes that display expectations that the Byzantine victories merely represented the last trial to be suffered by the Jews before history marched up to the messiah's appearance.

This is a theme dominating the pages of well-known 7th-century Jewish apocalypses like Sefer (book of) Zerubbabel, and also featuring quite vividly in extant liturgical hymns, which have begun to garner increased scholarly attention. It is in such a context, for instance, that the author of the Midrash book Secrets of Rabbi Šimōn bar Yoḥai has the angel metatron extol the benefits represented by the arrival of the Arabian 'Ishmaelites':

"Do not be afraid, mortal, for the Holy One, blessed be He, is bringing about the kingdom of Ishmael only for the purpose of delivering you (Jews) from that wicked one [Edom/Byzantium/Church]. He shall raise up over them a prophet in accordance with His will, and He will subdue the land [of Israel] for them; and they shall come and restore it with grandeur."

Also Muslim interest in Jerusalem contrasted starkly with the studied neglect of their Byzantine forbearers. If the seventh-century Armenian account of (Pseudo-)Sebeos is to be believed, many local Jews viewed the construction activities of "the Hagarenes'" mosque on the area regarded as the former site of the temple as holding clear significance, and as presaging the reconstruction of Solomon's temple.

Indeed, the Qur'an refers to Prophet Abraham himself as a community or a nation: "Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists." (16:120) If Prophet Abraham is an Ummah; then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided. And prior to the 20th century Arabs and Jews never did make war with each other. "Lo yisa goy el goy kherev velo yilmedu od milkhama" "Nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)

If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that 'the descendants of Abraham's sons should never make war against each other' is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: "On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, "Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance."...(Isaiah 19:23-5)