JEWISH EMPIRE IN SAHARA.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 3 August 1925, Page 2

JEWISH EMPIRE IN SAHARA.

Was the Sahara a Jewish empire from the sixth to the beginning of the ninth century? This is the interesting question posed in a book on the discoveries of Africa just published in Paris by M. de la Ronciere and brought out by the Geographical Society of Egypt- There is considerable proof for this theory, according to the author, who has brought from the. obscurity in which they had long slumbered a eeriov of maps of the Jewish .School of Vajorca, which show beyond a shadow of doubt that more of Africa was known in: Europe in the fifteenth century than ai any subsequent period until the discoveries of the eighteenth.

The proof of the existence of a kingdom of Israelites is seen in the fact that old documents tell that up to the year 790 forty-four kings had reigned in the district south of the Sahara Desert, with their capital at Ghana. “The first of M. de la Ronciere’s volumes,” writes a* commentator in La Croix, the Catholic daily of Paris, “shows that the contemporaries of Charles V knew 1 more of northern Africa) than did the subjects of Louis XIV and that the greater part of this knowledge was collected from Jewish traders of the Middle Ages, whose caravans used to trek across the sands of the Sahara from the Red Sea to the stores of the Atlantic. The information gathered from this source was collected- and codified on maps by a group of Israelite geographers resident ir Majorca. The names of these savants deserve to be withdrawn from their oblivion. They are Abraham and Juffada Cresques, Mecia *do Y illadestes and Juan Vallsecha. Thanks to the generosity of the present King of Egypt, several of these maps have been reproduced by M. de la. Ronciere.

“The existence of the maps traced by the Jews of Majorca are possibly thelast of an ancient Jewish influence in northern Africa. One wonders if the Sahara were not perhaps, from the sixth century rill the beginning of the ninth century, a Jewish empire. “From these documents it is seen that up to the year 790 forty-four white kings succeeded' one another in the region to the south of the Sahara Desert. They reigned in the city of Ghana, known to-day as Koumbi, ft little above Timbuetoo.

“Another text from the Majorca chronicles is less explicit. It mentions a voyage undertaken in the ninth century by a Jew of the Tribe of Dan, who. starting from Kairouan, crossed the desert, .reaching Western Africa. He recounted how the inhabitants of the interior of the regions traversed spoke a language related in many respects to that spoken by the Phoenicians. The religion of the people was that of Joshua and there was a Jewish emperor. This latter was named Boulatsui Ben Tiklen, and was converted) to Islamism in the year 837.

“In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Jews had a preponderant influence in the Touat regions. There is still in existence at Tamentit a He. braic inscription dated 1329, and M de la Ronciere has published a wonderful description of a journey undertaken in 1447, and written out by one Antoine' Kalfant, the hero of the voyage.’ In the pages of this precious manuscript we read : “The Jews abound here, their lives passing peacefully, protected by masters' who defend the interests of their subordinates. Also their social life is pleasant and free from care. Commerce is .transacted by their intermediary, and there are many among them whom one can rely upon.’ “To-day the traveller can still note some survivance of the Jewish influence, particularly among the Oulliminden. The word for God with them is ‘Messi’ and ‘My God' is ‘Messinah.’ The names Shamouel, Daniel, Elias, Saul and Younes (Jonah) are quite frequent. “The Jewish influence greatly declined in consequence of the Catholic persecution carried out by Spain and the Musselman, persecution by the people of Northern Africa. At Tamentit the Jews were massacred in great numbers. “After the disappearance of the Majorca Map School obscurity closed in o:> Central Africa, and it was not until the end of the eighteenth century thai new l.ght was thrown on the dar,: continent.”