Samaritan Revolts
Encyclopedia
The Samaritan Revolts were a series of insurrections during the 5th and 6th centuries in Palaestina Prima province, launched by the Samaritans against the Christian East Roman/Byzantine Empire
. The revolts were marked by great violence on both sides, and their brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan population.
, when Samaria was a part of the Roman-ruled province of Judaea
. Though not directly targeted, Samaritans also suffered the severe consequences of Jewish–Roman wars in the area during and after 66-136 CE.
Following the period of Jewish-Roman wars, the previously dominating Jewish community went almost extinct across Judaea and the shore of Southern Levant
, remaining a majority only in Galilee
and Bashan (Golan
). Samaritans and Byzantine Christians filled this vacuum in the central regions of Southern Levant, whereas Nabataeans
and Christian Ghassanid
Arabs settled the periphery.
This period is considered a golden age for the Samaritan
community. The Temple of Gerizim was rebuilt after the Bar Kochba revolt in Judaea, around 135 CE. With the withdrawal of Roman legions, Samaria enjoyed a limited kind of independence on the course of the 3rd and 4th century. Baba Rabba
, the leader of the Samaritans, divided Samaritan territories to districts, and established local rulers out of aristocratic Samaritan families. He also executed a series of reforms and installed state institutions. Much of Samaritan liturgy was set by Baba Rabba during this time. This period of semi-independence was however brief, as Byzantine forces overran Samaria, and took Baba Rabba captive to Constantinople
, where he died in prison several years later c. 362CE.
(who ruled 474-491 and whom the sources call "Zait the King of Edom") persecuted the Samaritans with no mercy. The Emperor went to Sichem (Neapolis), gathered the elders and asked them to convert; when they refused, Zeno had many Samaritans killed, and re-built the synagogue to a church. Zeno then took for himself Mount Gerizim
, where the Samaritans worshipped God, and built several edifices, among them a tomb for his recently deceased son, on which he put a cross, so that the Samaritans, worshipping God, would prostrate in front of the tomb.
Later, in 484, the Samaritans revolted, provoked by rumors that the Christians intended to transfer the remains of Aaron
's sons and grandsons Eleazar
, Ithamar
and Phinehas
. Samaritans reacted by entering the cathedral of Neapolis, killing the Christians inside and severing the fingers of the bishop Terebinthus.
The Samaritans elected Justa
(or Justasa) as their king and moved to Caesarea, where a noteworthy Samaritan community lived. There many Christians were killed and the church of St. Precopius was destroyed. Justa celebrated the victory with games in the circus.
According to John Malalas
, the dux Palaestinae Asclepiades, whose troops were reinforced by the Caesarea-based Arcadiani of general Rheges, defeated Justa, killed him and sent his head to Zeno. Terebinthus meanwhile fled to Constantinople
, requesting an army garrison to prevent further attacks. According to Procopius
, Terebinthus went to Zeno to ask for revenge; the Emperor personally went to Samaria to quell the rebellion.
As a result of the revolt, the Byzantine emperor Zeno
erected a church dedicated to Mary
on Mount Gerizim. He also forbade the Samaritans to travel to the mountain to celebrate their religious ceremonies, and confiscated their synagogue there. These actions by the emperor fueled Samaritan anger towards the Christians further.
Some modern historians believe that the order of the facts preserved by Samaritan sources should be inverted, as the persecution of Zeno was a consequence of the rebellion rather than its cause, and should have happened after 484, around 489. Zeno rebuilt the church of St. Procopius in Neapolis (Sichem) and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signaling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.
, reoccupying Mount Gerizim. The Samaritan mob commanded by a Samaritan woman is said to have seized the Church of St. Mary and masscred the garrison. The revolt was subsequently suppressed by the Byzantine governor of Edessa
, Procopius, and the Samaritan leaders were slain.
, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar
(or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war, sometimes related as the final Samaritan revolt, to create their own independent state in 529. The Samaritan revolt of ben Sabar was perhaps the most violent. According to Byzantine sources, Neapolis' bishop Ammonas (also Sammon or Ammon) was murdered and the city's priests were hacked into pieces and then burned together with the relics of saint
s.
The forces of Emperor Justinian I
were sent in to quell the revolt, with the help of the Ghassanid Arabs; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved
, with their death toll possibly being between 20,000 to 100,000. The Samaritan faith was virtually outlawed thereafter by the Christian Byzantine Empire
.
According to Procopius
of Caesarea, the majority of Samaritan peasants chose to be defiant in this revolt, and "were cut to pieces". Further, Samaria
, the "world's most fertile land, was left with no one to till it."
The rebellion appears to have spread as far as Bethlehem, where the Church of the Nativity
was burned. Despite the Jewish participation, the rebellion however seems to had gothered less support that the revolt of ben Sabar. The sources state that either 100,000 or 120,000 Samaritans were butchered in the aftermath of the rebellion. Many were tortured and others were driven into exile. However, it might be considered an exaggeration, as the punishment of the Samaritans seems to have been limited to those in the district of Caesarea and they were not yet subdued by Byzantine Emperors.
The tensions however, were not over. Emperor Justin II, who ruled between 565-578, complained about "outrages committed by settlement of Samaritans at the foot of Mount Carmel upon the Christian Churches and the holy images.
The arrival of Arab armies of the Muslim conquests few years later meant additional persecution, as Samaritans were unfamiliar to the Muslims, who had not included them within the definition of the "protected people", like the Christians and the Jews. As a result, Samaritans seen as heretics, were extensively forced into conversion under the Abbasid rule.
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
. The revolts were marked by great violence on both sides, and their brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan population.
Conflict background
Samaritans fared badly under the Roman EmpireRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, when Samaria was a part of the Roman-ruled province of Judaea
Judaea (Roman province)
Judaea or Iudaea are terms used by historians to refer to the Roman province that extended over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel...
. Though not directly targeted, Samaritans also suffered the severe consequences of Jewish–Roman wars in the area during and after 66-136 CE.
Following the period of Jewish-Roman wars, the previously dominating Jewish community went almost extinct across Judaea and the shore of Southern Levant
Southern Levant
The Levant is the geographical region bordering the Mediterranean, roughly between Egypt and Anatolia . The Southern Levant is roughly encompassed by Palestine, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, along with the modern sovereign states of Israel, Jordan and the southern part of Lebanon.Although the term...
, remaining a majority only in Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
and Bashan (Golan
Golan
Golan was a biblical city in Land of Israel. It was in the territory of Manasseh in the Bashan.Golan was the most northerly of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River . Manasseh gave this city to the Gershonite Levites .According to the Bible, the Israelites conquered Golan from the...
). Samaritans and Byzantine Christians filled this vacuum in the central regions of Southern Levant, whereas Nabataeans
Nabataeans
Thamudi3.jpgThe Nabataeans, also Nabateans , were ancient peoples of southern Canaan and the northern part of Arabia, whose oasis settlements in the time of Josephus , gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Syria and Arabia, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea...
and Christian Ghassanid
Ghassanids
The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Holy Land....
Arabs settled the periphery.
This period is considered a golden age for the Samaritan
Samaritan
The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...
community. The Temple of Gerizim was rebuilt after the Bar Kochba revolt in Judaea, around 135 CE. With the withdrawal of Roman legions, Samaria enjoyed a limited kind of independence on the course of the 3rd and 4th century. Baba Rabba
Baba Rabba
Baba Rabba, literally "The Great Gate", was one of the greatest of the Samaritan high priests. He is believed to have lived during the late third and early fourth century AD....
, the leader of the Samaritans, divided Samaritan territories to districts, and established local rulers out of aristocratic Samaritan families. He also executed a series of reforms and installed state institutions. Much of Samaritan liturgy was set by Baba Rabba during this time. This period of semi-independence was however brief, as Byzantine forces overran Samaria, and took Baba Rabba captive to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, where he died in prison several years later c. 362CE.
Justa uprising
During the reign of Emperor Zeno, tensions between the Christian community and the Samaritans in Neopolis grew dramatically. According to Samaritan sources, Eastern Roman Emperor ZenoZeno (emperor)
Zeno , originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
(who ruled 474-491 and whom the sources call "Zait the King of Edom") persecuted the Samaritans with no mercy. The Emperor went to Sichem (Neapolis), gathered the elders and asked them to convert; when they refused, Zeno had many Samaritans killed, and re-built the synagogue to a church. Zeno then took for himself Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the West Bank city of Nablus , and forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated,...
, where the Samaritans worshipped God, and built several edifices, among them a tomb for his recently deceased son, on which he put a cross, so that the Samaritans, worshipping God, would prostrate in front of the tomb.
Later, in 484, the Samaritans revolted, provoked by rumors that the Christians intended to transfer the remains of Aaron
Aaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...
's sons and grandsons Eleazar
Eleazar
Eleazar , was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second Kohen Gadol - succeeding his father Aaron. He was a nephew of Moses.-Life:...
, Ithamar
Ithamar
In the Torah, Ithamar is mentioned as the youngest son of Aaron the High Priest. After the death of his two eldest brothers Nadab and Abihu when they had been punished by the Lord for performing an unauthorized sacrificial offering, Ithamar served as a priest along with his elder brother, Eleazar...
and Phinehas
Phinehas
-Biblical figures:*Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the High Priest*Phinehas, son of the High Priest Eli. He was a priest at Shiloh, and died when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant-Other :*Pinchas, the 41st weekly Torah portion....
. Samaritans reacted by entering the cathedral of Neapolis, killing the Christians inside and severing the fingers of the bishop Terebinthus.
The Samaritans elected Justa
Justa (rebel)
Justa was elected by Samaritans as their king during the 484 CE Samaritan revolt. Following his ascent in Samaria, he moved on Caesarea, where a noteworthy Samaritan community lived. There, many Christians were killed and the church of St. Procopius was destroyed...
(or Justasa) as their king and moved to Caesarea, where a noteworthy Samaritan community lived. There many Christians were killed and the church of St. Precopius was destroyed. Justa celebrated the victory with games in the circus.
According to John Malalas
John Malalas
John Malalas or Ioannes Malalas was a Greek chronicler from Antioch. Malalas is probably a Syriac word for "rhetor", "orator"; it is first applied to him by John of Damascus .-Life:Malalas was educated in Antioch, and probably was a jurist there, but moved to...
, the dux Palaestinae Asclepiades, whose troops were reinforced by the Caesarea-based Arcadiani of general Rheges, defeated Justa, killed him and sent his head to Zeno. Terebinthus meanwhile fled to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, requesting an army garrison to prevent further attacks. According to Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
, Terebinthus went to Zeno to ask for revenge; the Emperor personally went to Samaria to quell the rebellion.
As a result of the revolt, the Byzantine emperor Zeno
Zeno (emperor)
Zeno , originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
erected a church dedicated to Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
on Mount Gerizim. He also forbade the Samaritans to travel to the mountain to celebrate their religious ceremonies, and confiscated their synagogue there. These actions by the emperor fueled Samaritan anger towards the Christians further.
Some modern historians believe that the order of the facts preserved by Samaritan sources should be inverted, as the persecution of Zeno was a consequence of the rebellion rather than its cause, and should have happened after 484, around 489. Zeno rebuilt the church of St. Procopius in Neapolis (Sichem) and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signaling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.
495 Samaritan unrest
Samaritans rebelled again in 495 under the rule of emperor Anastasius IAnastasius I (emperor)
Anastasius I was Byzantine Emperor from 491 to 518. During his reign the Roman eastern frontier underwent extensive re-fortification, including the construction of Dara, a stronghold intended to counter the Persian fortress of Nisibis....
, reoccupying Mount Gerizim. The Samaritan mob commanded by a Samaritan woman is said to have seized the Church of St. Mary and masscred the garrison. The revolt was subsequently suppressed by the Byzantine governor of Edessa
Edessa, Mesopotamia
Edessa is the Greek name of an Aramaic town in northern Mesopotamia, as refounded by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...
, Procopius, and the Samaritan leaders were slain.
Ben Sabar Revolt
Under a charismaticCharismatic authority
The sociologist Max Weber defined charismatic authority as "resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him." Charismatic authority is one of three forms of authority laid out...
, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar
Julianus ben Sabar
Julianus ben Sabar was a messianic leader of the Samaritans, who led a failed revolt against Byzantium during the early 6th century....
(or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war, sometimes related as the final Samaritan revolt, to create their own independent state in 529. The Samaritan revolt of ben Sabar was perhaps the most violent. According to Byzantine sources, Neapolis' bishop Ammonas (also Sammon or Ammon) was murdered and the city's priests were hacked into pieces and then burned together with the relics of saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s.
The forces of Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
were sent in to quell the revolt, with the help of the Ghassanid Arabs; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, with their death toll possibly being between 20,000 to 100,000. The Samaritan faith was virtually outlawed thereafter by the Christian Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
.
According to Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
of Caesarea, the majority of Samaritan peasants chose to be defiant in this revolt, and "were cut to pieces". Further, Samaria
Samaria
Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
, the "world's most fertile land, was left with no one to till it."
556 Samaritan revolt
Another major revolt erupted in 556, lasting probably as late as 572. In this occasion the Jews and the Samaritans seem to have made common cause, beginning their rebellion in Caesarea, early in the month of July. They fell upon the Christians in the city, killing many of them, after which they attacked and plundered the churches. The governor, Stephanus, and his military escort were pressed hard, and eventually the governor was killed, while taking refuge in his own house. Amantius, the governor of the East was ordered to quell the revolt, after the widow of Stephanus reached ConstantinopolisThe rebellion appears to have spread as far as Bethlehem, where the Church of the Nativity
Church of the Nativity
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. The structure is built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth, and thus it is considered sacred by Christians...
was burned. Despite the Jewish participation, the rebellion however seems to had gothered less support that the revolt of ben Sabar. The sources state that either 100,000 or 120,000 Samaritans were butchered in the aftermath of the rebellion. Many were tortured and others were driven into exile. However, it might be considered an exaggeration, as the punishment of the Samaritans seems to have been limited to those in the district of Caesarea and they were not yet subdued by Byzantine Emperors.
The tensions however, were not over. Emperor Justin II, who ruled between 565-578, complained about "outrages committed by settlement of Samaritans at the foot of Mount Carmel upon the Christian Churches and the holy images.
Aftermath
The Samaritan faith was outlawed and from a population of nearly a million, the Samaritan community dwindled to near extinction. The situation of Samaritans further worsened with the failure of Jewish revolt against Heraclius and slaughter of Jewish population in 629.The arrival of Arab armies of the Muslim conquests few years later meant additional persecution, as Samaritans were unfamiliar to the Muslims, who had not included them within the definition of the "protected people", like the Christians and the Jews. As a result, Samaritans seen as heretics, were extensively forced into conversion under the Abbasid rule.