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297
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
297

Perscpolis hall of one liunilred columns, in >Imc. Ragozin's " Mtdiii." p. 402, and in .Tusti'.s " Pcrsicn," p. 108, followint; Ker Porter's "Travels in Georgian Persia"; compare Nuldckc, "Oescli. d. Artaclisir i Papakan," pp. 29, S'tef ««/. tlie story of Bel and tlie Dragon isrc|)eated in the legend of the Persian king). This Kvil Spirit was helieved to l)e alluded to also in Joel, ii. 20: " I will remove far olT from you <31SVn [the Concealed One in the human heart not. as the A.V. ha.sit,"the northern army"|, and drive him into a land Imrren and desolate, with his face toward the ea.st sea, and his hinder jjart toward the utmost sea. and his stink shall come uii, and his ill savor shall como U]), because he hath done great [in.solent] things" (Suk. Hiir, .see llcr.. "Die Prophetic des Joel," p. 2Ki, who finds a Juda'o-Mohammedan tradition identifying the "Morthern One" with the JIohammedan Antichrist, Al-Dajjal the Liar). But there is direct proof that the big monster slain and cast olT as ollensive is none other than Ahriman. According to Targ. Yer. Deut. x..iv. 3, Moses was before his end shown the history of Israel's Iribidations, ending with the iiunishment of Armalgus the Wicked (NyC'l DIJ7OIX). the war of Gog and ^lagog, and tlw^ appearance of Jliehael as his triumphant combatant. Compare with this the battle of Gabriel with the Leviathan at the end of days (B.B. 74/'), and the Antichrist storiesm His Death Jellinek, "15. II." v. 127; "Assumptio 5Iosis,"10. Thus the Messianic prophFulfils Prophecy. ecy (in IhcTargumtoIsji. xi.4),"AVith the breath of jiis li]is [mouth] will he slay the wicked," refers to Armalgus as the manuscripts have it, or as our printed edition has it, ArArmainyus. milus, which is the s;ime as Armaly us Bachcr ("Targum zu den Prophclen." in "Z. D. M. G." 1873, p. 31, note) has .shown that all themani:

=

have the J, either pj^DIX or Jlj^ons or DIJ^OIX- He lias also calleil csjiecial attention to the tyrant Armalinus, the mythical builder of Memjihisin Arabian folk-lore, who.according to Professor

scripts to Isa. xi. 4

Fleischer, is Armalgus, whom Baeher also identities Jellinek, " B. II." vi. xxx., with Angromainynsh. found, in the Leipsic manuscript containing "Milha-

mot ha-.Mashial.i," the name written DUBOIS- Saadia (" Annmat," ed. Landauer, p. 239) calls him DV^JDIX Armnlyos.

Owing to the identification of Home's angel with Sania<l, chief of the evil spirits, Arnnhis in the course of time was identiticd with Konudus (see Bousset's "Antichrist," pp. 6(>, 07). Tln' name given to Armainyusli in other Jewish escliatologies was Belial (Bcliar, II Cor. vi. 14; Sibylline Books'; ii. 0.1,5,111.63; Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Dan. v.), the same as "spirit of hcU" (see Ps. xviii. and Bilthgen's

a combination of Homidus and Hcmus: and his "Commentary on Daniel," p. 12.')) as referring to Caligula, whom Suetonius His Guises (chap, xxv.) represents as appearing

lation), as

by Hitzig(in

and Names.

(n7«iW</^!/x.

(

1

1

In the Hebrew apocalvptie literature (Midr. Wayosha': Book of Zerulilia'lMl (Itot hiiMasliiah Th<> Secrets of Simon b. Yohai; and the Klijaii Apocai. ".0. ii. .M!. tlti. iii. 0.>-8(l) Ivpse in Jellin.k, " 1$. II

"

in many forms that gavi' rise to kinds of conjectural interpretations: D1XTD"1X. explained by Jellinek (" H. 11." iii. xviii.) as llereniolaos; according to Griltz, in Levy, " Wdrlerbucli

Ahriman appears

all

lien

Targumim,"

=

«.c,

u supposed

translation of

" Destroyer of he people" ;Dl!'»mX Djr^a. Hala am explained bv Zunz, "(f.V." p. 29.'i (who declaris the passage in 'lirg. Yer. to Isa. i. 4 to bealaic' inlerpo I

Then

there are also the

forms nPDin and Np'onn. which convey no sense at all; and linally lie is inlrodueed as " Armilus whom the natioiisot the w<ii-ld willeall Antichristus." a name which appears a^'ain in distorted forms as niCOn and NDCL'Timn (see Elijah Apocalypse in Jellinek,

" B. II. "iii. 0.51.

lie is described as a

monstrous figure of immense size, with one small and one large eye; with leprosy on his forehead; with one ear open and one closed; the left arm small, and the right very long; and of his origin the strange story is given that he is the son of Satan, and that a stone is his mother. There is in Home a marble block "not made by human hanils, in the sha]ie of a beautifvd maiden; and under the guiles of Satan the youths of Homo are tilled with lust at sight of it; the stone gives birth to the monstrous giant who becomes king and Messiah of the Homans. It is he who leads the whole army of heathendom in battle against the Messiah, the son of Ephraim, and eonipiers him. His reign lasts, however, only forty or forty-five days, and he is al last defeated by the .Messiah from the III luse of I )avid, with the aid of Michael the archangel and Elijah. That this legend evidently connected with that of Virgil, and with the stone of Hhea, brought to Home in 204 li.c. and the impure cult of Sabazius, whose symbol was the ser|ient (see Preller, "Griehas nothing cIiIscIk' .Mythologie. "i. 531, 070, .")7.'S) Nor can the .Vrmilusto do with Homulus is clear. Anliehrist legend be the product of the Arabic-gaonic age, as Zunz ("G. V." 2d cd., p. 2'J.'>) thought, for Boussct in his work on Antichrist has clearly shown that it is of i)re('hristian origin. Already Saadia (in " Emunot we-l)eot," viii. Vi'itt sifj.) speaksof it as an ancient tradition. The Maniheaiis also speak of an Antichrist, Adm .l/fA-rtrt, as one full of lasciviousucss and stricken with leprosy (" Kiglit Geiiza," section ii., Brandt, " Mandaische .Schriflcn." pji. O."). il7 it 11.

,

.")',!;

w ho. with thciiid of Hidia, his mother, casts the spirit of lust and fornication into the world. He is called the deceiver or Homan (Ni'ildeke prefers the

.1(1/.).

latter translation; see Brandt, " .Mandilische Religion," p. 228, and " Mandilische Schriften," p. 9.5, note lie is identical with the .Mohammedan Al-Dajjal 2). (The Deceiver or Liar), whose reign lasts forty days (sec Boussct, p. 74,

andcomiiare Anticiikist). R.H.

T.s.y. CI. I'.p.-W; lliuntninfcr, .Si/irilitioiy loiil (Viil-i.", iip. i.'l-2at (iunlii-l. Aiili'liri.-il. tSlfi ; KnIlliT. Ill Z. ;>. .V. (.'. 1SI19, Itmis.s,I, n.it'.i:!; llriHI. In Knhiik's Jr.s<'hiirioi. Mil. II; Kiiiiriiiiinn, In

Buu.uiiat.H'nv: Zunz, Arnlihij':

D'f

^[|||lllt.1y|ltlifl. isim.

.'>

Thess. ii. 3) Comm.), hence the "son of pi'rdition " " and the "man of sin," that is. nm/tu', " the Wicked Thus the Serpent is spoken of as JIn(Isa. xi. 4). Tttuhii', "the Wicked One," in f!en. IJ. xx., Bek. 8(( (compare Targ. Yer. Gen. iii.l3); and Home as the wicked kingdom. -!/((//•'///(( /<«//i/'(;/((Gen. H. Ixxvi.).

zu

Ahriznan Ahrweiler

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

297

Kyzitliunusiri.s,

,

pp. i:H 1/ Ni;.; (aldeiiiiiuu, t.'t«7iio;i((((. IsM. pp. iii), it!. j^_

,-i.„

AHRONY, ISAAC.

Sec Colhi,. d.

AHR'WEILER: Town twenty three

of Hhcnish Prussia, northwest of Coblenz, on the mentioned in lh<' year r24S as con-

iiiilis

river Ahr. It is taining a Jewish colony. In I'-'i.") and 1202 a luiinber of Jews of Ahrweiler ac([uiied property at Cologne; .some of them arc referred to as living at Bacharach at the bi'ginning of the fourteenth century. Wolfram, archbishop of Cologne in 13:i."i, ordered the sjimc measures to be appliid to the Jews of Ahrweiler. in regulating the meat trade, as were already in force

The conimimily sulTend the Jiwsof Bonn. gieallv from the persecutions which broke out in tlio |{hiiic"distriets in 1348, during the iirevalence of tlto blaik death, and in the archbishopric of Cologne alone no less than forty-four lonuiiunities were anni.t the- beginning of the fifteenth century hilated.

among