In 1524, a man named David Reubeni appeared in Venice, claiming to
be the ambassador of a powerful Jewish kingdom deep in the heart of
Arabia. In this era of fierce rivalry between great powers, voyages
of fantastic discovery, and brutal conquest of new lands, people
throughout the Mediterranean saw the signs of an impending
apocalypse and envisioned a coming war that would end with a
decisive Christian or Islamic victory. With his army of hardy
desert warriors from lost Israelite tribes, Reubeni pledged to
deliver the Jews to the Holy Land by force and restore their pride
and autonomy. He would spend a decade shuttling between European
rulers in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France, seeking weaponry in
exchange for the support of his hitherto unknown but mighty Jewish
kingdom. Many, however, believed him to favor the relatively
tolerant Ottomans over the persecutorial Christian regimes. Reubeni
was hailed as a messiah by many wealthy Jews and Iberia's oppressed
conversos, but his grand ambitions were halted in Regensburg when
the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, turned him over to the
Inquisition and, in 1538, he was likely burned at the stake. Diary
of a Black Jewish Messiah is the first English translation of
Reubeni's Hebrew-language diary, detailing his travels and personal
travails. Written in a Hebrew drawn from everyday speech, entirely
unlike other literary works of the period, Reubeni's diary reveals
both the dramatic desperation of Renaissance Jewish communities and
the struggles of the diplomat, trickster, and dreamer who wanted to
save them.
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