Samaritan revolts

5th/6th-century CE revolts by Samaritans against the Byzantine Empire

Samaritan revolts

Diocese of the Orient at the Byzantine period, where Samaritans largely inhabited Palaestina Prima (Samaria).
| Date| 484–573 (89 years)

|

Location|

Palaestina Prima (Samaria), Diocese of the East, Byzantine Empire

Result|  Byzantine victory
Territorial
changes|  Byzantine Empire restores control of Samaria; it remains a part of Palaestina Prima
Belligerents

Byzantine Empire

* Dux Palaestinae troops
* Arcadiani
* Ghassanids

* Samaritan rebels
* Jewish rebels (556 and 572 revolts)

Commanders and leaders

* Asclepiades and Rheges (484 revolt)

* * *

* Governor Procopius (495 revolt)

* * *

* Roman emperor Justinian I (ben Sabar revolt, 529–531)

* * *

* Stephanus and Amantius (556 and 572 revolts)

* * *

* Zacharias of Jerusalem (POW) (Jewish revolt)

Unknown leader (484 revolt)

* * *

* Justa (Justa revolt, 495)

* * *

* Julianus ben Sabar (ben Sabar revolt, 529–531)

* * *

* Samaritan and Jewish leadership (556 and 572 revolts)

* * *

* Nehemiah ben Hushiel

Casualties and losses
ben Sabar revolt: Unknown

* * *

556–572 revolt: Unknown

* * *

Jewish revolt against Hercalius: 66,509 killed[1]|  ben Sabar revolt: 20,000–100,000 killed

* * *

556–572 revolt: 100,000–120,000 killed[2]

* * *

Jewish revolt against Heraclius 4,518 killed[3]

The Samaritan revolts (c. 484–573) were a series of Samaritan insurrections in the province of Palaestina Prima against the Byzantine Empire. The revolts were marked by great violence on both sides, and brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan population. The events irreversibly shifted the demographics of the region, making the Christians the dominant group in Palaestina Prima for many decades onward.

## Conflict background

[edit]

A coin with the inscription of Roman stairs of Neapolis to Mt. Gerizim

Main articles: Baba Rabba and Samaria

See also: Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus

Following the period of Jewish–Roman wars, the previously demographically-dominant Jewish community became almost extinct across Judaea and the shores of the Southern Levant, remaining a majority only in southern Judea, Galilee and Golan.[citation needed] Samaritans and Byzantine Christians filled this vacuum in the central regions of Southern Levant, whereas Nabataeans and Ghassanid Christian Arabs settled the periphery.[citation needed]

This period is considered a golden age for the Samaritan community. The Mount Gerizim Temple was rebuilt after the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea around 135 CE. With the withdrawal of the Roman legion, Samaria enjoyed a limited kind of independence during the 3rd and 4th centuries. Baba Rabba (ca. 288–362), the Samaritan leader, divided his territories into districts and established local rulers out of aristocratic Samaritan families. He also executed a series of reforms and installed state institutions. Much of the Samaritan liturgy was set by Baba Rabba during this time. This period of semi-independence was brief, however, as Byzantine forces overran Samaria and took Baba Rabba captive to Constantinople, where he died in prison several years later around 362.[4]

## Justa uprising

[edit]

During the reign of Emperor Zeno (r. 474–475 and 476–491), tensions between the Christian community and the Samaritans in Colonia Flavia Neapolis (Shechem) grew dramatically. According to Samaritan sources, Zeno, whom the sources refer to as "Zait the King of Edom", persecuted the Samaritans mercilessly. The Emperor went to Neapolis, gathered the Samaritan elders, and asked them to convert to Christianity; when they refused, Zeno had many Samaritans killed and rebuilt their synagogue into a church. Zeno then took possession of Mount Gerizim and built several edifices, among them a tomb for his recently deceased son, on which he placed a Christian cross so the Samaritans would be forced to prostrate themselves in front of the tomb.

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. They reacted by entering the cathedral of Neapolis, killing the Christians inside and severing the fingers of the bishop Terebinthus.

The Samaritans elected Justa or Justasas as their king and moved to Caesarea Maritima, where a noteworthy Samaritan community lived. There, many Christians were killed and the church of St. Procopius was destroyed.[5] Justa celebrated the victory with games in the circus.[5]

According to John Malalas, Asclepiades, the dux Palaestinae (commander of the province's Limes Arabicus troops), whose units were reinforced by the Caesarea-based Arcadiani of lestodioktes (police chief) Rheges, defeated Justa, killed him and sent his head to Zeno.[5][6] Terebinthus meanwhile fled to Constantinople, requesting an army garrison to prevent further attacks. According to Procopius, Terebinthus went to Zeno to ask for revenge;[5] the Emperor personally went to Samaria to quell the rebellion.[7][better source needed]

As a result of the revolt, Zeno erected a church dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus 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.[8]

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 Saint Procopius in Neapolis and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signaling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.[6]

## 495 Samaritan unrest

[edit]

Samaritans rebelled again in 495, during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus, reoccupying Mount Gerizim. The Samaritan mob commanded by a Samaritan woman is said to have seized the Church of St. Mary and massacred the garrison.[5] The revolt was subsequently suppressed by the Byzantine governor of Edessa, Procopius,[6] and the Samaritan leaders were slain.[5]

## Ben Sabar revolt (529–531)

[edit]

Main article: Julianus ben Sabar

Under a charismatic, messianic claimant named Julianus ben Sabar (or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war, sometimes referred to as the final Samaritan revolt,[5] to create an independent state in 529. This was perhaps the most violent of all the Samaritan uprisings. According to Procopius,[citation needed] the violence erupted due to restrictions imposed on Samaritans by the Byzantine authorities via Justinian's edicts, while Cyril of Scythopolis indicates sectarian tensions between Christians and Samaritans as the primary cause for the revolt.[9]

Following massive riots in Scythopolis and the countryside, the rebels quickly conquered Neapolis, and ben Sabar emerged as their king.[10] Ben Sabar followed a strict anti-Christian policy: Neapolis' bishop and many priests were murdered, and he persecuted the Christians, destroyed churches and organized guerrilla warfare in the countryside, driving the Christians away.[10] According to Byzantine sources, the name of the bishop was Ammonas (also Sammon or Ammon).[citation needed] As a response, forces of the dux Palaestinae, combined with units of local governors and the Ghassanid phylarch, were dispatched to deal with the uprising.[10] Ben Sabar was surrounded and defeated after withdrawing with his forces from Neapolis.[10] After his capture, he was beheaded, and his head, crowned with a diadem, was sent to Emperor Justinian.[10]

By 531 the rebellion had been put down.[11] The forces of Emperor Justinian I quelled 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 and 100,000.[5] The Byzantine Empire thereafter virtually outlawed the Samaritan faith. According to Procopius of Caesarea, the majority of Samaritan peasants chose to be defiant in this revolt and "were cut to pieces".[5] Further, Samaria, the "world's most fertile land, was left with no one to till it".[5]

## 556 Samaritan revolt

[edit]

The emperor Justinian I faced another major revolt in 556. On this occasion the Jews and the Samaritans seem to have made common cause, beginning their rebellion in Caesarea early in July.[12]: 31 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.[12]: 31 Amantius, the governor of the East was ordered to quell the revolt, after the widow of Stephanus reached Constantinople.[12]: 31

Despite the Jewish participation, the rebellion seems to have gathered less support than the revolt of Ben Sabar.[12]: 31 The Church of the Nativity was burned down, suggesting that the rebellion had spread south to Bethlehem. Either 100,000 or 120,000 are said to have been butchered following the revolt. Others were tortured or driven into exile. However, this is probably an exaggeration as punishment seems to have been limited to the district of Caesarea.[13]

## 572 revolt

[edit]

Still, the tensions were not over yet. Emperor Justin II (r. 565–578) complained about "outrages committed by....Samaritans at the foot of Mount Carmel upon the Christian Churches and the holy images".[12]: 31 Probably in response to this event, Justin II issued an order in May 572 rescinding the restoration of rights granted by Justinian.[12]: 30–31 [14] In response, a second joint Samaritan-Jewish revolt took place in summer 572 and again in early 573 or alternatively in 578.[14][15] John of Ephesus and John of Nikiû may have described this revolt.[14]

## Aftermath

[edit]

The Samaritan revolts triggered a harsh Byzantine response marked by mass killings, torture, and forced conversions, which decimated five consecutive generations and shattered the community's ability to renew itself.[16] Their religious center on Mount Gerizim was destroyed, their legal rights were stripped, and they were pushed to the margins of society.[16] Claudine Dauphin characterizes this Byzantine campaign as an act of ethnic cleansing.[16] By the eve of the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 636, the Samaritans had become a diminished and politically insignificant group.[16]

Samaritan numbers remained very low in the Islamic era, similar to the late Byzantine period – a result of previous revolts and forced conversions.[17] Contemporary sources claim 30-80,000 Samaritans were living in Caesarea Maritima prior to the Muslim invasion (alongside roughly 100,000 Jews), out of a total provincial population of 700,000 of mostly Christians.[18] By the early Islamic period the Samaritan diaspora disappears from records except small communities of Egypt and Damascus.[17] The Egyptian Samaritan community was likely swelled due to refugees from coastal cities of Palestine as a result of Muslim invasion.

Following the Muslim conquest, Samaritans suffered more social and economic discrimination than Christians and Jews, as Muslim rulers often doubted whether Samaritans were People of the Book. According to Nathan Schur, the conquest had initially benefited the community.[19] Many Samaritans converted to Islam for economic, social, and theological reasons, and the community's numbers continued to dwindle.[19]

Harsh persecution of Samaritans was at times carried out by the more fanatical caliphs, such as Al-Mansur (754–775), Harun al-Rashid (786–809) and al-Mutawakkil (847–861).[20] Islamic religious leaders also periodically sought to consolidate their power by stirring up anti-Samaritan sentiments and occasionally calling for their annihilation.[21] As a result, Samaritan wealth was practically wiped out.[21]

## See also

[edit]

Jewish and Samaritan revolts

* History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
* Jewish–Roman wars
* First Jewish–Roman War, 66–73 CE
* Bar Kokhba revolt, 132–136 CE
* Kitos War, 115–117 CE
* Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus, 352 CE
* Jewish revolt against Heraclius, 614-617/625

Related topics

* Ghassanids
* List of conflicts in the Near East

## References

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1. ^ Avni, Gideon (2010). "The Persian Conquest of Jerusalem (614 C.E.)—An Archaeological Assessment". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 357: 35–48. doi:10.1086/BASOR27805159. S2CID 166897278.
2. ^ Alan David Crown, The Samaritans, Mohr Siebeck, 1989, ISBN 3-16-145237-2, pp. 75–76.
3. ^ Antiochus Strategos, The Capture of Jerusalem by the Persians in 614 AD, F. C. Conybeare, English Historical Review 25 (1910) pp. 502-517.
4. ^ Loewenstamm, Ayala (2007). "Baba Rabbah". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kohen, Elli (2007). History of the Byzantine Jews: A Microcosmos in the Thousand Year Empire. University Press of America. pp. 26–31\. ISBN 978-0-7618-3623-0.
6. ^ a b c Crown, Alan David (1989). The Samaritans. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 72–73\. ISBN 978-3-16-145237-6.
7. ^ Procopius, Buildings, 5.7.
8. ^ "Neapolis – (Nablus)". Studium Biblicum Franciscanum – Jerusalem. 19 December 2000. Archived from the original on 22 November 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
9. ^ Crown, Alan David; Pummer, Reinhard; Tal, Abraham (1993). A Companion to Samaritan Studies. J.C.B. Mohr (P. Siebeck). ISBN 978-3-16-145666-4.
10. ^ a b c d e Alan David Crown, Reinhard Pummer, Abraham Tal. A Companion to Samaritan Studies. Mohr Siebeck. p. 140.
11. ^ Irfan Shahîd Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 2, Part 2, Harvard University Press (2010) p8
12. ^ a b c d e f Elli Kohen (2007). History of the Byzantine Jews: A Microcosmos in the Thousand Year Empire. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761836230. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
13. ^ Alan David Crown, ed. (1989). The Samaritans. Mohr Siebeck. p. 76\. ISBN 9783161452376. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
14. ^ a b c Reinhard Pummer (2002). Early Christian Authors on Samaritans and Samaritanism: Texts, Translations and Commentary. Mohr Siebeck. p. 318\. ISBN 9783161478314. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
15. ^ Jacob Neusner (1975). A History of the Jews in Babylonia. Part v: Later Sasanian Times. Brill Archive. p. 122. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
16. ^ a b c d Dauphin, Claudine (2024). "Changes in the Infrastructure and Population of Byzantine Palestine". In Hezser, Catherine (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity. Routledge. pp. 42–43.
17. ^ a b Mohr Siebeck. Editorial by Alan David Crown, Reinhard Pummer, Abraham Tal. A Companion to Samaritan Studies. p70-71.
18. ^ Mohr Siebeck. Editorial by Alan David Crown, Reinhard Pummer, Abraham Tal. A Companion to Samaritan Studies. p70-45.
19. ^ a b Russel, G. Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East. 2014.
20. ^ Mohr Siebeck. Editorial by Alan David Crown, Reinhard Pummer, Abraham Tal. A Companion to Samaritan Studies. p2.
21. ^ a b Mohr Siebeck. Editorial by Alan David Crown, Reinhard Pummer, Abraham Tal. A Companion to Samaritan Studies. p83-84.

## External links

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* Tentative listing at UNESCO World Heritage List

*[POW]: Prisoner of war