Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/156

118 ";

Armenia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Armilus

118 Turkey the

1871; "Razsvyet," 1882-83; P. Lazarus, in Briill's

nesses

"Jahrbuch,"

dominion of a whole Armenian province inhabited by Jews (Hammer, "Gesch. des Osmanischen Reiches," For modern history, reference may be v. 392). made to the respective cities and countries.

x. 34, 35).

In the Talmud (Yer. Git. vi. 48«) a rabbi, Jacob of Armenia, and the Academy of Nisibis are referred to, which goes to prove that Jewish

In Jewish

scholarship flourished there.

In the

tacts ol this article Moses of Chorene baa been relied upon. Moses Cborenesis, ed. Whiston, London, 1736; Iatariya Armenii Moixeua Chorenskavn, transl. bv N. O. Emln, pp. 36-37, 54-56, 60-69, 75, 82, 98, 104105, 109-110, 113, 172; Langlois, Collection dot Histolres Ar-

Antiochia, and were ransomed by the Jews there (Yeb. 45a). To the question (Bab. Sanh. 94rt) whither were the Ten Tribes driven, Mar Zutra (third century) answers " To Africa ;" and Rabbi Hanina

See also Cant. It., Amsterdam ed., p. 198. The Karaite Ibu Yusuf Ya'kub al-Kirkisani, in treating of Jewish sects in his Arabic work, written in 937, speaks of the sect founded by Musa al-Za'farani. Musa known under the name of Abu-Imran of Tiflis lived in the ninth century. He was born 14).

—

meniennes; Faustus de Byzance, i. 274-275: Drevnostl, Trudy Mosluwskavo Arch colonicheskavo Ohshchestva, Megestu i Nadplsi, Nos. 134, 135, 18S0, supplement, p. 100

—

Bagdad, but settled in the Armenian city of Tiflis, where he found followers, who spread all over Armenia, and under the name of "Tiflisites" (Tifli"It

is in-

know, by the way," says Harkavy, " that in the ninth and tenth centuries such a large Jewish community existed in Tiflis, in which a separate sect could be formed" (A. Harkavy, in "Zapiski Vostochnavo Otdyeleniya Imperatorskavo Russkavo Archeologicheskavo Obshchestva," viii. 247; idem, in "Voskhod," 1896, ii. 35, 36). Hasdai ben Isaac, in his letters to the king of the Chazars (about 960), says that it was his intention to send his letters by way of Jerusalem, Nisibis, Armenia, and Bardaa, which fact is proof of the existence at that time of Jewish communities in Armenia (see A. Harkavy, " Soobshcheniya o Chazarakh," in teresting to

"

Yevreiskaya Biblioteka," vii. 143-153). Benjamin of Tudela in his "Travels" (Mas'ot:

1160-1173) says that the power of the Prince of the Exile (Exilarch) extends itself over all the communities in the following countries: Mesopotamia, Persia, all of Armenia, and the country of Kota, near Mr. Ararat. In Nisibis "a large city, richly watered " he found a Jewish community of about Pethahiah of Regensburg, in his " Sib1,000 souls.

—

—

(1175-1185), narrates that from Chazaria he traversed the land of Togarma, and from Togarma entered into the land of Ararat (Armenia),

bub ha-'Olam"

reaching Nisibis in eight days. In another passage he speaks of large Armenian cities, containing few " In ancient times the Jewish population [of Jews.

was large but owing to internal strife, numbers were greatly reduced. They scattered and went to various cities of Babylon, Media, Persia, and Rush." In 1646 the Spanish adventurer Don Juan Methese cities] their



iii.

1-38

A. Harkavy,



Ob

YazylsyeYevreyevZhivsMklivDrevneyeVremyanaRussi, etc.,' St. Petersburg, 1865, and tbe above-mentioned works; Hamburger, B. B. T. ii. 72, 1281-1286, 1307-1310, 1883, iii. 9-24, 1892 Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums, I. 336-340, Leipslc, 1857 Mommsen, ROmische Gesch. v. 489, Berlin, 1894; M. I. SaintMartin, Memoircs Hintoriques et Giograplviques sur VAr;

menis,

i.

370, 400-

passim, Paris, 1818; Neubauer,

407, Paris, 1868

Gf. T. in the text.

and works mentioned



g.

In Rabbinical Literature



H. R. According to an

old tradition, which has found striking verification in recent discoveries in Assyria, Mt. Ararat (Gen. viii. 4) was held to be an Armenian locality (Targ. Josephus, "Ant." i. 35). The renderYer. ad loe. ing of "Minni" (Jer. Ii. 27) by "Armenia," as given On the other in the Targum, has also been verified. hand, the identification of Harmonah ("Harmon,"

Amos

iv. 3, R. V.) with Armenia (Targum, ad loe.) probably based upon the false etymology of njIDin, as if the word were composed of har (mounis

tain)

in

siyim), still existed in Kirkisani's time.

Schurer, Geschichte, 3d ed.,

136;



"To the Slug [3"l?D] mountains." Africa is said to be Iberia (Georgia), and Slug may be, as Harkavy suggests, Cilici, between Assyria and Armenia (A. Harkavy, "Ha-Yehudim u-Sefat ha-Slavim," pp. 105-109, and his reply to Steinschneider, H.B. ix. 15, 52 in " Roman ob Alexandrye," 1892, p. 32, note). Armenia is also mentioned in the Midrashim: " God said, if I let them pass through the deserts, they will die of starvation. Therefore I lead them by the road of Armenia, where they will find cities and fortresses and plenty of provisions " (Lam. R. i.

to Constantinople to offer

Bibliography: For the main

Literature, second century Jewish prisoners of war were brought from Armenia to



came

and monah CO'D) (Armenia). probably on this false etymology that the

It is

Haggadah bases

the statement that

upon

their jour-

ney from Palestine to the places whither they were deported, the Ten Tribes passed through Armenia. "This," adds the Midrash, "was probably ordained by God in order that the Israelites might pass through cultivated regions where they could easily procure food and drink, and not through the desert, where they would suffer from hunger and thirst (Lam. R. to I, 14). Apart from Nisibis, which can not well be included in its limits, the Talmudic and Midrashic sources know almost nothing of Armenia. An amora, Jacob Armenaya by name, is mentioned (Yer. Git. vi. 48a, below) yet it is doubtful whether

the epithet

"

Armenaya " here really

signifies "

Arme-

Equally doubtful is the import of the passage (Yeb. 45a), where Jewish captives are mentioned as having been transported from Armon to Tiberias. This Armon, contrary to the statements of Rapoport and Neubauer, can not be identical with Armenia. nian. "

Bibliography '



Neubauer, G. T. pp. 370 et

Ereli Millin, pp. 205, 206



Keren Homed,

sec?.;

Eapoport,

v, 213, vi. 172.

L. G.

ARMENIAN VERSION OF OLD TESTAMENT.

See Bible Translation. In later Jewish eschatology and legend, a king who will arise at the end of time against the Messiah, and will be conquered by him

ARMILUS

after



having brought

much

distress

upon

Israel.

The

origin of this Jewish Antichrist (as he can well be styled in view of his relation to the Messiah) is as much involved in doubt as the different phases of his development, and his relation to the Christian legend and doctrine. Saadia (born 892 died 942) is the earliest trust;

worthy authority that speaks of Armilus.

He men-

tions the following as a tradition of the ancients,