Jews in Tunisia 01: Legends and Roman times
Jews coming from Palestine in Africa Propria - community life - persecutions under the Christian dogma - migration movements
from: Tunisia; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 15
presented by Michael Palomino (2007 / 2010)
| Share: |
Facebook |
|
Twitter
|
<TUNIS, TUNISIA, country in N. Africa between *Libya and *Algeria.
[Territorial developments of the Provincia Africa / Africa Propria / Africa]
After their conquest of the country, the Romans named it Provincia Africa, Africa Propria, or, more generally, Africa. Roman Africa included, in addition to the territories of present-day Tunisia, a large stretch of Algeria's territory to the west, which was called Numidia, and Libya's coast to the east.
[Legends about Jews coming from Palestine since 70 AD]
Second Temple Period. [[According to new Jewish archeology the Second Temple is the only one, see Silberman / Finkelstein]].
As many scholars have often assumed, it is probable that Jews lived in Punic *Carthage; a Judeo-African legend has it that the Jews came to the island in the southeast (e.g., in the island of *Djerba (Jerba)) in King Solomon's time.
[[According to new Jewish archeology there could nothing be found from King Solomon, see Silberman / Finkelstein]].
Another legend relates that the kohanim [[sg. kohen, a subdivision of the Levite tribe according to the Old Testament (OT)]], escaping from Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. [[Common Era]], carried one of the Temple's doors to the island, and it is believed to be walled in the synagogue called Ghriba (the wondrous). However, there is no factual evidence positively stating that Jews lived in Punic Carthage or its territories.
[Names: Carthage, Tarshish, Tunis]
The "*Tarshish" of the Bible has nevertheless been identified with Carthage by the Septuagint and the Aramaic Targum of the prophets. On the other hand, for the Arab authors of the Middle Ages, Carthage - later confused with Tunis has always been synonymous with "Tarshish". The Talmud echoes ancient traditions regarding the connection between, on the one hand, Punic Africa and Canaan's country and the Jewish world of Erez Israel, on the other.
[Jewish communities in the "Africa Propria": inscriptions, graveyards - Jewish slaves and liberation]
Under Roman rule the province of Africa included many Jewish communities whose existence have been proven by numerous texts and archaeological findings. From Cyrenaica to *Morocco a series of Jewish communities have left their landmarks in these countries. Their center was Africa Propria, whose living conditions were well known in ancient rabbinic literature. The most important of these communities was Latin Carthage which from the second to the fourth centuries C.E. was the home of such sages as R. Hinna, R. Hanan, R. Isaac, and R. Abba, who are mentioned in the Talmud.
A great number of Jewish lamps and many epitaphs [[grave inscriptions]], mostly written in Latin and accompanied by the seven-branched menorah [[candlestand with 7 candles]], which were discovered in the cemeteries of Carthage, Marsa, Byrsa, or Gamarth, bear witness to the existence of a large population of the Jewish faith in Carthage. The extension of the Jewish necropolis [[graveyard]] at Gamarth indicates the importance of the community against which, Tertullian, who knew it intimately, wrote a special treatise (c. 200-06).
Later, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and many other Christian authors of Africa Propria wrote against their Jewish fellow countrymen and the numerous Judaizing sects of ancient Tunisia.
Jews and Judaizers were widely scattered throughout the entire country, especially at Naro on the Hammam-Lif beach where a magnificent synagogue stood, the ruins of which are well known; at Hippo-Diarrhytus (present-day (col. 1430)
Bizerta), whose governor at the time of the Arab conquest was, according to the historian al-Qayrawani, a Jew; at Utica; at Simittu (present-day Chemtou); at Hadrumetum (present-day Sousse); and at Henchir-Gouana, west of the site where the present-day Kairouan was to be built.
On the Libyan littoral, included in Africa Propria, there was a Jewish community at Oea (present-day Tripoli); at Leptis Magna (present-day Lebda); and at Locus Judeorum Augusti, also called Scina (Iscina), whose Jews were among those sent by the Romans as slaves from Erez Israel to Africa after the war of 70.
After they were set free, they settled in areas granted to them by the Romans. Inland, according to Ibn Khaldun, the tribe of Nefusa practiced the Jewish faith before the Arab conquest. It is known that there were Jewish communities in Numidia - which also belonged to Carthage - at Hippo Regius (present-day Bône), at Cirta (Constantine), and at Henchir-Fouara, not far from Souk-Ahras, the center of nomadic Jews called Bahusim under Arab rule. Concentrations of Jews were also found at Thusurus (the present-day Tozeur), as well as Jewish tribes who lived before the Arab rule in the mountains of Aures.
[Jewish community life and professions in Africa Propria province]
<Living and economic conditions of Jews in Africa seem to have been satisfactory during the Roman era and before Christianity's triumph. In Carthage especially, the luxury of the decorations of most of the hypogea in the Jewish cemeteries of Gamarth bear witness to the prosperity of the (col. 1431)
community and to the wealth of certain families. It seems that most of the islands Jews were engaged in agriculture. In the harbors many Jews were involved in maritime trade: trade relations between Rome and North Africa were of exceptional importance owing to the transport of foodstuffs to Rome, and later on also to Constantinople. This trade - as much evidence indicates - was almost completely in the hands of African Jews who lived in Rome on Mount Colius, in a special district between the Coliseum and the Appian Way.
Jews were entrusted with the transport of foodstuffs destined for Rome (annona urbis), which consisted mainly of cereals and olive oil; at that time Africa was the main producer in the Mediterranean; they were then called navicularii [[ship owner]]. One of the main tasks of these Jewish owners of big vessels was to engage in transport for state requirements, for which they received official honors in Africa Propria, as elsewhere. Jewish navicularii formed a separate corporate body. When the Roman Empire became Christian, the state took advantage of the Jewish ship owners and misused them so that their task became an overwhelming burden.
[The Christian dogma: persecutions under Constantine and Justinian - migrating Jews to the Berber territories and to Sicily and southern Italy]
Mass arrivals of Jews to Africa were mainly the aftermath of the disasters they were subject to in Erez Israel, Egypt, and Cyrenaica from 70 to 118 C.E. Their number increased as a consequence of the intense proselytic propaganda [[propaganda for conversion]] to which they dedicated themselves, first among the descendants of the Punics, then among the Berbers. The situation of the Jews facing Christians changed considerably after the time of Constantine, when triumphant Christianity became persecutor in Africa as elsewhere.
When the Vandals dominated Africa Propria, the Jews were better treated but little is known about their true condition during that era. there is more information about their condition during the Byzantine period. In pursuance of the edicts of 535, applied by *Justinian at the same time to the Christian heretics, Jews were excluded from all public office, their worship outlawed, all meeting prohibited, and their synagogues transformed into churches. By the emperor's order the Jews of Borion, on Cyrenaica's frontiers, were forcibly converted, but toward the end of the 6th century the Byzantine administration slowly let the strictness of its rules lapse.
The persecutions by Justinian contributed to the expansion of African Judaism. Tracked down and sometimes even expelled, many Jews took refuge with the Berbers of the mountains and of the desert where they doubtlessly met coreligionists who had already settled there. In those regions the newcomers again took up their propaganda. This is probably how the great Judaized Berber tribes of Africa Propria were established, especially the Jarrawas of the Aurès mountains and the Nafusas of Libya. According to some scholars other Jews left Africa for *Sicily and southern Italy. After the Arab conquest this latent immigration - started under Justinian - took the form of mass flight for the Jews of the African coast.> (col. 1432)
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1430
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1431-1432
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1433-1434
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1435-1436
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1437-1438
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1439-1440
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1441-1442
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1443-1444
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1445-1446
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1447-1448
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1449-1450
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col. 1451-1452
^
