Julianus ben Sabar
Julianus ben Sabar (also known as Julian or Julianus ben Sahir and
In 529 Julianus led a revolt against the Byzantine Empire ruled by Justinian I, because of legislation outlawing the Samaritan religion, according to Procopius, though Cyril of Scythopolis claimed it was because of tension with Christians.[1]
Julianus declared himself King of Israel, taking Jeroboam as his model, and led a Samaritan army to ravage the cities of Scythopolis, Caesarea Maritima, Neapolis, Bethlehem, and Emmaus. By 530 he had succeeded in capturing virtually all of Samaria. The revolt was marked by large scale slaughter of Christians and destruction of churches.[2]
Justinian enlisted the help of the
Julianus' revolt has been compared[5] to the Bar Kokhba revolt 400 years prior. Both revolts against foreign imperial occupation led by a self-proclaimed Messiah/Taheb were initially successful, only to be later brutally quashed. However, unlike the Jews, the Samaritan community never recovered from their ethnic cleansing, and were further reduced to a minority in Samaria after persecutions in the late Middle Ages by the Mamluk Sultanate.
References
- ^ Alan David Crown, Reinhard Pummer, Abraham Tal A companion to Samaritan studies Coronet Books (1993) p140 entry for Julianus ben Sabar
- ^ Alan David Crown The Samaritans Coronet Books (1989)p74
- ^ Irfan Shahîd Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 2, Part 2 Harvard University Press (2010) p8
- ^ Alan David Crown The Samaritans Coronet Books (1989) pp74-75
- ^ Timothy E. Gregory "A History of Byzantium", Volume 2, Blackwell Publishing (2005) p135
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