It depends on how far back you want to go. the early 600s, in return for rebelling against the Byzantine Emperor Heaclius, the Jews were allowed to create a Jewish commonwelath. Yes, this actually happened OTTL. However, 5 years laer, theSassanids surrendered Palestine back to the Byzantines. And ten years after that, the Arabs conquered Palestine, ending ten years of Byzantine massacres and forced conversion to Christianity.
Butterfly away Muhammad and Islam and let the Sassanids be more successful and we get a TL with not only a 6th Century Jewish commonwealth, but a rebuilt Temple as well.
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navigation,
search Jewish revolt against Heraclius Part of the
Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628
Date 614-629 Location
Palaestina Prima Result
- temporal rule of Persians and Jews over Palaestina
- mutual massacres of Christians and Jews
- brief restoration of Byzantine rule 625–634
- expulsion of Jews from the region
Territorial
changes Palaestina Prima temporarily annexed to the Persian Empire as the
Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth, but abandoned by Persians within 5 years and surrendered back to the Byzantines in 625. Belligerents
Byzantine Empire Sassanid Empire,
Jewish allies Commanders and leaders Emperor
Heraclius
Patriarch Zacharias
Abba Modestus
Shahrbaraz
Nehemiah ben Hushiel
Benjamin of Tiberias Strength Greek contingent of Jerusalem[
citation needed]
Byzantine Army
Persian forces;
26,000 Jewish rebels Casualties and losses tens of thousands tens of thousands [
hide]
Byzantine–Sassanid
War of 602–628
The
revolt against Heraclius was a
Jewish insurrection against the
Byzantine Empire across the
Levant, coming to the aid of the
Sassanid Persia during the
Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628. The revolt began with the
Battle of Antioch (613) and culminated with the
conquest of Jerusalem in 614 by Persian and Jewish forces and the establishment of Jewish autonomy. The revolt ended with the departure of the Persian troops and an eventual surrender of Jewish rebels to the Byzantines in the year 625 (or 628).
Contents
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hide]
[edit] Background
During an early stage of Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628,
Khosrau II decided on a tactical move to establish a military alliance with the Jewish population of the Sassanid Empire, with a promise to re-establish Jewish rule over the
Land of Israel (Palaestina province of Byzantine Empire at that time).[
citation needed] Following Khosrau II's pact with
Nehemiah, son of Jewish
Exilarch, a Jewish army of about 20,000 was recruited in Persia and marched together with Persian troops towards the Levant.[
citation needed]
[edit] Revolt
The
neutrality of this section is disputed. Please do not remove this message until the
dispute is resolved.
(November 2012) Following the victory in Antioch, the joint Sassanid-Jewish army commanded by
Shahrbaraz arrived to Palaestina Prima and
conquered Caesaria Maritima. The army was then joined by
Benjamin of Tiberias (according to Jewish sources a man of immense wealth), who enlisted and armed additional soldiers from
Tiberias,
Nazareth and from the mountain cities of
Galilee. Together they marched on Jerusalem. Later, they were joined by the Jews of the southern parts of the country and supported by a band of Arabs. The united forces
took Jerusalem in July 614 after a 20-day siege. According to
Antiochus Strategos, whose perspective appears to be that of a Byzantine Greek and shows an antipathy to the Jews,
[1] tens of thousands of Christians -- the lowest estimate is 30,000 -- were massacred during the conquest of the city.
[2] 37,000 were reportedly deported by the Persians and many more thousands sold as slaves to the Jews. Strategos reports that Jews purchased Christians to kill them,
[3] though the allegation is not confirmed. The Jewish community had no time for the monuments attesting the ascendency of Christian orthodox culture in the city, and all monasteries and churches were burned down.
[1]
[edit] The Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth
Though there are limited sources on what happened in the following years,
[4] it appears Jews were given permission to run the city, and they did so effectively for the next five years. The Jews of Jerusalem gained complete control over the city, and much of
Judea and
Galilee became an autonomous Jewish province of the Sassanid Empire. At the time, 150,000 Jews were living in 43 settlements throughout the territory.[
citation needed]
According to Jewish sources, after the conquest of Jerusalem,
Nehemiah ben Hushiel had been appointed the ruler of Jerusalem. He began making arrangements to
rebuild the Temple and to sort out genealogies to establish a new High Priesthood. Approximately five years later the Persians gave control of the province to the Christians.
[5]
[edit] Aftermath
[edit] Restoration of Byzantine rule
The sources greatly diverge on what happened in the aftermath of the revolt. According to some, in 625 the Byzantine army reconquered the territory, and amnesty was granted to Benjamin of Tiberias and the Jews who had joined the Persians. In 628, after the defeat and death of Khosrau II, Heraclius came as victor into Jerusalem. The Jews of Tiberias and Nazareth, under the leadership of Benjamin of Tiberias, changed sides and joined him. It is even claimed that Benjamin accompanied the Heraclius himself during his entry into the city.
[edit] Invasion by Arab Islamic armies
After the defeat of the Persian Empire, a new threat, the
Arab Islamic Empire, had emerged in the region. Heraclius sought to consolidate and secure his gains. Though he had previously granted the Jews amnesty for their revolt, he would not risk another likely revolt in a war with the Arabs.
Heraclius experienced a most exquisite triumph as he knelt in the rebuilt church to receive the blessings of the patriarch that extraordinary day. Apologists would say afterwards that only because of the adamant demands of the patriarch and the local clergy did the Emperor rescind his pledge of amnesty and reluctantly authorize the forced baptism and massacre of the Empire's Jews.
[6]
In 638, the Byzantine Empire completely lost control of Judea to the Arabs. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph
Umar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of
Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt.
[edit] In literature
The events of the Persian-Byzantine struggle in the Levant and the consequent Arab conquest inspired several apocalyptic Jewish writings of the early Middle Ages.[
citation needed] Among those are the
Apocalypse of Zerubbabel, which is partly attributed to the events of the Jewish conquest of
Palaestina in 614.
[edit] See also