THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Africa
Syonc. the prewnt Assouan, as the This probably exhausts wiiat tlie Ril>li(al sources ami the legeiuls counected with the Bible contain on Africa. About the time that (ireek and Roman culture began to iiitlucnce the northern portion of Africa the Jews began to spread into these Greek and regions; indee<l, they went even be(xxix. 10, XXX. most sovithcin
Roman
fi)
city.'
yond the contines of the Koman em-
Egyj)!. according to the testiI'hilo. was inhaliited. as far as the borders of JJbya and Ethiopia, by Jews whose The great uninbers were estimated at a million. mercantile city of Ai.Ex.wnni.v was the intellectual and commercial center of African Jewish Wfr. Alexander the (Jreat had conferrcil ujion the Jews full rights of citizenship, and they guarded these rights jealously. In Cyrene also they were of importance; and their progress may be traced by the aid of inscriptions as iar as Volubilis. in the extreme west of Mauretania (SehUrer, "Gesch." 3d ed., iii. 10-2(>).
Age,
jiire.
mony of
Throughout the Grecian countries they formed themselves into separate political communities (-o'/.i-riv/in:
WM.
see P. Prerdri/et. in " I{( ne Arclieologi(|Ue," XXXV. 4.'i). while in the Latin districts they not only founded communities, but built synagogues, some of which were very beuutifid. According to Jerome, the Jewsdwelt in a continuous chain of settlements, from Mauretania eastward, throughout the province of Africa, and in Palestine, reaching as far as India ("Ep, 12!) ad Dardanum." ed. Vallarsi. i. 906). If they were interrogated on Biblical matters they
gave no answer
(" E|i.
W2
ad Augustinum,"
i.
7-f4),
probalily in order toavcjid being drawn into dispites with Christians. Jerome, it is true, claims they did not know any Hebrew. When Jerome's Bible translation, the Vulgate, was to be introduced among the African Christians, the Jews spread the report that the translation was false and thereby aroused strife among the Christian congregations (Jerome, ibirl., and S. Krauss in the "Magyar Zsido Szemle." vii. .">:((», Budapest, ls90). But Judaism in these regions did not dissolve or merge into Christianity; on the contrary, it continued to maintain its independent existence. Only in Egypt, particularly in Alexandria, where the path to Christianity had" been smoothed by Jewish Hellenism, undoubtedly great mas-ses of ji'ws went over to Christianity but even there they continued to exist until the begimiing of the fifth century, when Hi.sliop Cyril expelled them from that city, which had been their home for many They must have returned at the lirst centuries. favorable opportunity, for in 640 the calif Omar, the conqueror of Egypt, found 40,000 Jews in Alexandria. Rjibbinical sources show much familiarity with, and great interest in. this i)art of the world. The Biblical names of Ilamitic peoples are Rabbinic explained in the Talnuid and MidAccounts, rash from the standpoint of GrecoRoman geography. According to the
(" Les Chaniitcs de la Table Ethnographiciue." in "Rev. fit. Juives." xxiv. 8; S. Krauss. "Die Biblische Volkert^ifel im Talmud. Midnisch, und Targum," in "Monatsschrift," xxxix. 56) Syethe following African peoples are mentioned nians, Indians (that is, African Indians). Sembrita; (south of Meroe). Libyans. Zingians (on the east coast of Africa), Mazakians (in JIauretania. mentioneil in Sifre, Dent. 320 and in Yeb. 63i; in Ex. R. iii. 4 A collectreference is made to a Mauretanian girl), ive term for the dark skinned Africans is Cushites, which often occurs in this literature. The terms "Barbar" and "Barbaria." which very frequently
researches of Epstein
226
occur in connection with the term Cushites, do not indicate the Berbers or Barbary country of Africa, but the Scythian peoples of the north of Europe. The word "Barbaria." which occurs in Ptolemy and in Cosmas Indicoi)leustes in about the same sense as the modern Barbary. and which has come to the .Vrabs in the form "Barbara" (Yakut, i. 543), only appears in later Jewish literature in this sense, and is applied to the coast of Somalilanil (see Toma.seliek, under the word "Barbaria." in the " Realencyklopildie fftr Cla.ssische Alterlhumswissensehaft '). On the other hand, the rabbinical term Np'IDK which has been wrongly explained as Phrygia, or Iberia in the Caucasus, means nothing else than the present Africa (" Monats.
Meaning'
schrift," i/u'd.), an<l is intended to denote either the entire continent or the "Africa." Roman province Africa, Thus, when the "sons of Africa" appear before Alexander the Great to accuse the .Tews of the reconquest of Palestine (Sanh. 91»), anil the Egyptians almost immediately present another charge against them, the referince can only be to the province of Africa, since the "sons of Africa" who demand the restoration of Canaan are, without doubt, the Gir-
of
gashites, who had been compelled to emigrate to Africa (Yer. Sheb. vi, 36c.). Since the legend of this
Girgashite emigration is intimately connected with the founding of Carthage, Africa is thus identified with it even more closely (Tamid. 32'*, and the parallel p.issjige, where 'pnDX DrHD, " African land," The Septuagint is evidently the siinie as Carthage) (Isa. xxiii. 1), and Jerome (on Ezek. xxvii). who, though a Christian, was taught by Jews, and very often the Aramaic Targmn on the Prophets, identify the Biblical Tarshish with Carthage, which was the birthplace of a luunber of rabliis mentioned in the Talmud (comiian- above the identification with Africa, in the broader sense, is clearly inTunis). dicated where mention is made of the Ten Tribes having been driven into exile by the A.s.syrians and having jourueyed into Africa (Mek., Bo, IT; Tosef., Shab. vii. 25; Deut. R. v. 14; and especially Sanh. Connected with this is the i<lea that the river 94</). Sambation is in Africa. The Arabs, who also know the legend of the Bcui JIusiX (" Sons of Moses "), agree with the Jews in placing their land in Africa (compare Bacher, "Ag. Tan." i. 298; Epstein, "Eldad ha-Dani." p. 15). The i)robable basis of this legend must be sought in the actual existence Rdibi Akiba, who of the F.i..su.s in Africa. traveled in Africa, on one occasion made u.se of an African word (Rapoport, in "Bikkure ha-'Ittim," .
iv. 70, 1823),
Besides the nort h of Africa, the great region to the west of the Red Sea the land of Ethiopia or Abyssinia (Habeslil, together with its adjacc-nt countries, inhabited from time inunemorial by the tril)e of the possesses Falashas, who profess the Jewish faith The native legend a special interest for Judaism. narrates that the queen of Sheba (I Kings, x.) bore a son called Jlenelek to Solomon, and that Menelek was educated in Jerusidem and afterward introduced
—
—
This, howthe Mosiiic law into his own country. ever, only makes intelligible the rapid dissemination With this may be comof Christianity in Ethiopia. pare<l the conversion of the eunuch of the queen Candace in Acts, viii. 27. According to the royal annals of .Vliyssinia. a large part of the land was iidiabited
the common era. This refers, probabilitv, to the F,l.sit.s (Ritler. "Erdkunde." part i., "Afrika." p. 218, Beriin. 1822). The undeniable relationshij) of the Ethioiiian language (Geez) to other Semitic dialects stamps the Ethiopians
by Jews, even before in all
