The Christianization of Zoroastrianism

Karaite Comments: To My Brother Yeshua (Jesus) Chapter 13

By Kahana :Myths and fables are all we seem to have passed down from us in the early centuries after Yeshua lived. But what is a myth if not the hopes and aspirations of a people manifested into a physical form which beckons to all to relinquish their doubts, abandon their cynicism and embrace a belief beyond normal human comprehension. And in many of our religious belief systems that is all we possess, a myth that has grown into a reality. Let me take the time to tell you about one such myth which manifested in Persia and grew well beyond the borders of that land. Some of you may recognize it, others actually believe in it, yet the majority will not even know of its origins and would have come to believe that its roots in our society were otherwise. As a Karaite I am free of it but you may not be so lucky as most have come to call it Christian but as you will soon see, it was anything but.

A Gift From Persia

The Persian Magi, the spiritual leaders of Zoroastrianism studied the universe endlessly, contemplating its contradictions, catastrophes and endless sufferings. They found it hard to believe that the truth lay in the Judaic writings that all these events were the manifestations of a singular God. That the Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, He who called himself the Loving God and the Wrathful God could be the perpetrator of history’s greatest disasters. In order to reconcile their belief in an Almighty God they found there could only be one solution; a second Kingdom. Where God reigned in a Kingdom of light and beauty from above in the heavens, another being ruled from the pits, a Kingdom of darkness and evil. The primal God above and a second entity that ruled the universe from below and the two were eternally set in opposition. And in this second kingdom, Satan ruled and the demons were born from its depths.
Desiring more than what rested beneath his hand, Satan invaded the Kingdom of Light and the war began in earnest between the two opposing forces, the Light and the Darkness. To beat back the armies of Satan, God created primal man but Satan’s forces began to overcome the armies of this lesser being and God was forced to rescue Man lest he be lost to Satan. But even after being rescued, Man had suffered grievously, several particles of his original Light gifted by God now replaced by five elements of the Dark. And thus man was set on a path that if he was to return to the Light, return to God, he must overcome the Darkness that now dwells within in an everlasting eternal struggle.
The first of these men to live, a combined existence of both light and dark particles was named Adam. Because of what Satan had done, Adam and his offspring were to be forever born in original sin. There was a woman named Eve, and because she was only created to be Adam’s companion she possessed less particles of light and therefore was more susceptible to the darkness. But God loved his creation of man and throughout the history of mankind would send his heavenly spirits in the form of prophets to guide and correct the corruption that now resided within man’s soul.

The Manichaean Universe

As strange as it may sound, what you have just read was not Christian. The beliefs were neither developed by Christian theologists nor were they practiced by the early Christians. In truth, the concept of two kingdoms in perpetual battle were so foreign to the early Christians that it was rejected wholeheartedly but Christianity had never faced a threat before like Mani, with his charisma, his gift to speak and his determination that exceeded that of any Church leader. Mani was born around 215 AD to a wealthy Persian family. He spent his early years travelling throughout the Persian Empire and into India where he encountered Buddhism. In his later years he headed west into the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire where he preached the religion that incorporated his original Zoroastrianism and all the beliefs he had acquired during his travels. He immediately had universal appeal, providing to the people that had always been familiar with Gods at war from their earlier Greek and Roman pantheon beliefs an easy bridge between their present Christian instruction and the religion of their past. Mani listed the prophets that they should believe in; Adam, Noah, Abraham, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Paul and himself whom he saw as the greatest of them all. In case you haven’t noticed, there is one prophet of significance missing from Mani’s list that being Moses. Moses represented everything contrary to what he was teaching to his new followers. To believe in Moses meant believing that all things good and bad did come from the one God of the Universe. To read Moses instruction meant that there was no such thing as Satan and his demons ruling from a secondary kingdom. To follow Moses meant that all men were born with free will to be either good or evil and were not tainted from birth. To Mani, he saw no hope in attracting the Jews to his new religion so he focused only on the susceptibility of the Christians knowing that they thirsted for a link to their old world of paganism.
But if man was born into a world of evil, a sinner from birth, Mani knew that he also had to provide a reward that mankind could strive for. He taught his followers if they learned and studied the prophets, strove against the evil within their souls, then if they were successful they would set the light free and would ascend to God. But if a man could not perform the purification within his lifetime then he would be sent back to live again until such time that he could release the light. And once all of mankind had succeeded in releasing the light then there would be the final apocalypse which would destroy the material universe and banish the Kingdom of Satan forever.

Something Familiar

Mani divided his followers into five levels. The first three levels were known as the Sons of Meekness. They were the Teachers, the Perfecti and the Electi. And only they would inherit the privilege of ascending to God after a single lifetime. The next level were the Administrators known as the Sons of Knowledge, comprising bishops and priests. The last level was known as the Sons of Understanding and they were the presbyters. The Sons of Meekness had additional restrictions, in that they had to be vegetarians, not engage in marriage or procreation as they had to remain pure if they were to ascend to God. The Sons of Knowledge did not have to endure the same restrictions. They had to follow several commandments including the forbidding of lying, adultery, murder, sloth, and doubt, along with keeping a certain number of fast days. As one can see, there are several parallels to the layering within the Manichean church to the establishment of the Catholic Church.
By the fourth century there already was a singular head, a Pope of the Manichean church. Many of the Marcionites that I had described in an earlier article adopted the Manichean beliefs and in fact by the end of the third century almost all of the Marcionite churches became Manichean. The appeal of the Manichean church exceeding anything witnessed before. It’s popularity amongst the aristocrats of the Roman Empire was immediate as it provided an easy transition from their pagan hierarchy to this new one, a far easier task than adopting the more man-centered concept of Mosaic law. One of the most notable personages to adopt the Manichean religion was St. Augustine who was actually one of the administrators in this church. Eventually St. Augustine left the Manichean church accusing it of teaching a falsehood of rival worlds of Light and Darkness in perpetual battle and that God was at constant war with Satan. In his new position within the Catholic Church he railed against these misguided beliefs enforcing the Mosaic belief that God was the only power in the universe and man was responsible for his own sinful ways, having nothing to do with an external power that forced him to commit wrong doings. How ironic that in spite of St. Augustine’s condemnation of Manichaeism in order to preserve the initial Judaic beliefs of the church, his protestations were eventually washed away in the tide as the Church raced to adopt Manichean beliefs.

The Ultimate Absurdity

By the fifth century, the Manichean belief system began to dominate the beliefs of Christians from all persuasions. So much so that the Catholic Church could see very little difference between their followers and those that claimed to be Manichaean. The primary difference was that the Manichaeans had their own Pope, their own elders, bishops, priests and lay clergy; a massive organization that bore no allegiance or recognition of the Church in Rome. How ironic that the Roman and Byzantine Churches would pronounce an edict condemning all Manichaeans to death, accusing them of heresy even though there existed by this time very little difference by this time between the beliefs of the two church systems. The decision was one of politics, of power, of greed and once again Christianity had been diverted from its true course without its followers having the slightest indication that the practices and beliefs that they now professed had nothing to do with the initial teachings of Yeshua whom they swore to follow. They had all become Manichaeans but they did not know it!

How Man Created Satan

Myths and fables are all we seem to have passed down from us in the early centuries after Yeshua lived. But what is a myth if not the hopes and aspirations of a people manifested into a physical form which beckons to all to relinquish their doubts, abandon their cynicism and embrace a belief beyond normal human comprehension. And in many of our religious belief systems that is all we possess, a myth that has grown into a reality. Let me take the time to tell you about one such myth which manifested in Persia and grew well beyond the borders of that land. Some of you may recognize it, others actually believe in it, yet the majority will not even know of its origins and would have come to believe that its roots in our society were otherwise. As a Karaite I am free of it but you may not be so lucky as most have come to call it Christian but as you will soon see, it was anything but.

A Gift From Persia

The Persian Magi, the spiritual leaders of Zoroastrianism studied the universe endlessly, contemplating its contradictions, catastrophes and endless sufferings. They found it hard to believe that the truth lay in the Judaic writings that all these events were the manifestations of a singular God. That the Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, He who called himself the Loving God and the Wrathful God could be the perpetrator of history’s greatest disasters. In order to reconcile their belief in an Almighty God they found there could only be one solution; a second Kingdom. Where God reigned in a Kingdom of light and beauty from above in the heavens, another being ruled from the pits, a Kingdom of darkness and evil. The primal God above and a second entity that ruled the universe from below and the two were eternally set in opposition. And in this second kingdom, Satan ruled and the demons were born from its depths.

Desiring more than what rested beneath his hand, Satan invaded the Kingdom of Light and the war began in earnest between the two opposing forces, the Light and the Darkness. To beat back the armies of Satan, God created primal man but Satan’s forces began to overcome the armies of this lesser being and God was forced to rescue Man lest he be lost to Satan. But even after being rescued, Man had suffered grievously, several particles of his original Light gifted by God now replaced by five elements of the Dark. And thus man was set on a path that if he was to return to the Light, return to God, he must overcome the Darkness that now dwells within in an everlasting eternal struggle.

The first of these men to live, a combined existence of both light and dark particles was named Adam. Because of what Satan had done, Adam and his offspring were to be forever born in original sin. There was a woman named Eve, and because she was only created to be Adam’s companion she possessed less particles of light and therefore was more susceptible to the darkness. But God loved his creation of man and throughout the history of mankind would send his heavenly spirits in the form of prophets to guide and correct the corruption that now resided within man’s soul.


The Manichaean Universe

As strange as it may sound, what you have just read was not Christian. The beliefs were neither developed by Christian theologists nor were they practiced by the early Christians. In truth, the concept of two kingdoms in perpetual battle were so foreign to the early Christians that it was rejected wholeheartedly but Christianity had never faced a threat before like Mani, with his charisma, his gift to speak and his determination that exceeded that of any Church leader. Mani was born around 215 AD to a wealthy Persian family. He spent his early years travelling throughout the Persian Empire and into India where he encountered Buddhism. In his later years he headed west into the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire where he preached the religion that incorporated his original Zoroastrianism and all the beliefs he had acquired during his travels. He immediately had universal appeal, providing to the people that had always been familiar with Gods at war from their earlier Greek and Roman pantheon beliefs an easy bridge between their present Christian instruction and the religion of their past. Mani listed the prophets that they should believe in; Adam, Noah, Abraham, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Paul and himself whom he saw as the greatest of them all. In case you haven’t noticed, there is one prophet of significance missing from Mani’s list that being Moses. Moses represented everything contrary to what he was teaching to his new followers. To believe in Moses meant believing that all things good and bad did come from the one God of the Universe. To read Moses instruction meant that there was no such thing as Satan and his demons ruling from a secondary kingdom. To follow Moses meant that all men were born with free will to be either good or evil and were not tainted from birth. To Mani, he saw no hope in attracting the Jews to his new religion so he focused only on the susceptibility of the Christians knowing that they thirsted for a link to their old world of paganism.

But if man was born into a world of evil, a sinner from birth, Mani knew that he also had to provide a reward that mankind could strive for. He taught his followers if they learned and studied the prophets, strove against the evil within their souls, then if they were successful they would set the light free and would ascend to God. But if a man could not perform the purification within his lifetime then he would be sent back to live again until such time that he could release the light. And once all of mankind had succeeded in releasing the light then there would be the final apocalypse which would destroy the material universe and banish the Kingdom of Satan forever.

Something Familiar

Mani divided his followers into five levels. The first three levels were known as the Sons of Meekness. They were the Teachers, the Perfecti and the Electi. And only they would inherit the privilege of ascending to God after a single lifetime. The next level were the Administrators known as the Sons of Knowledge, comprising bishops and priests. The last level was known as the Sons of Understanding and they were the presbyters. The Sons of Meekness had additional restrictions, in that they had to be vegetarians, not engage in marriage or procreation as they had to remain pure if they were to ascend to God. The Sons of Knowledge did not have to endure the same restrictions. They had to follow several commandments including the forbidding of lying, adultery, murder, sloth, and doubt, along with keeping a certain number of fast days. As one can see, there are several parallels to the layering within the Manichean church to the establishment of the Catholic Church.

By the fourth century there already was a singular head, a Pope of the Manichean church. Many of the Marcionites that I had described in an earlier article adopted the Manichean beliefs and in fact by the end of the third century almost all of the Marcionite churches became Manichean. The appeal of the Manichean church exceeding anything witnessed before. It’s popularity amongst the aristocrats of the Roman Empire was immediate as it provided an easy transition from their pagan hierarchy to this new one, a far easier task than adopting the more man-centered concept of Mosaic law. One of the most notable personages to adopt the Manichean religion was St. Augustine who was actually one of the administrators in this church. Eventually St. Augustine left the Manichean church accusing it of teaching a falsehood of rival worlds of Light and Darkness in perpetual battle and that God was at constant war with Satan. In his new position within the Catholic Church he railed against these misguided beliefs enforcing the Mosaic belief that God was the only power in the universe and man was responsible for his own sinful ways, having nothing to do with an external power that forced him to commit wrong doings. How ironic that in spite of St. Augustine’s condemnation of Manichaeism in order to preserve the initial Judaic beliefs of the church, his protestations were eventually washed away in the tide as the Church raced to adopt Manichean beliefs.

The Ultimate Absurdity

By the fifth century, the Manichean belief system began to dominate the beliefs of Christians from all persuasions. So much so that the Catholic Church could see very little difference between their followers and those that claimed to be Manichaean. The primary difference was that the Manichaeans had their own Pope, their own elders, bishops, priests and lay clergy; a massive organization that bore no allegiance or recognition of the Church in Rome. How ironic that the Roman and Byzantine Churches would pronounce an edict condemning all Manichaeans to death, accusing them of heresy even though there existed by this time very little difference by this time between the beliefs of the two church systems. The decision was one of politics, of power, of greed and once again Christianity had been diverted from its true course without its followers having the slightest indication that the practices and beliefs that they now professed had nothing to do with the initial teachings of Yeshua whom they swore to follow. They had all become Manichaeans but they did not know it!

The Great Karaite Debate Part 1

In the old days it was not unusual for a Karaite scholar to sit across from a Rabbanite clergy and debate the essential differences between our two sects. Those days are sadly gone becuase with our dwinding population, there is no longer a concern that as Karaites we will persuade the mass of Jews to switch their theological allegiance to our view. As Yakov Kahana and Judah Loew continue the ancient debate in Shadows of Trinity (http://www.eloquentbooks.com/ShadowsOfTrinity.html) it is obvious that the Rabbanites have dismissed any concerns regarding Karaites. That being the case, the Rabbis are no longer worried that we represent a threat to their coveted authority and therefore they no longer believe there's a need for direct debate. Essentially its a form of contempt but that is nothing knew from those that have always held us in low regard. But that's fine since there are enough recent literary discussions regarding their views of Karaism that I can take my proper place in my third great grandfather's shoes and challenge them through the utilisation of their own media releases. Dan Ross's Acts of Faith which is subtitled "A Journey To the Fringes of Jewish Identity" provides you with the author's attitude before opening the book cover. Already labelled as a fringe of Jewish identity, the implication is already implanted in the reader's mind. What else do we associate with 'the Fringe?' There's lunatic fringe, societal fringe, the paranormal Fringe television series, outsider's fringe, religious fringe, being on the fringe, in fact almost all have negative connotations except for one which is fringe benefits. But even then it is an implication that the benefits are outside the so-called norm.


The True Heretics
Ross begins his chapter with the comment that Karaites benefitted in World War II from the Nazi obsession of who was a Jew and who wasn't. The implication is that somehow all Karaites escaped the death camp because the Nazis were confused by our origins. Yes, there were many that survived the persecution because the Nazi Home Office was persuaded that Karaites were all of Tartar origins and therefore did not meet their definition of who was a Jew. But at the same time, many of the death squads never bothered to try and sift through the Jews in the communities they were assigned to cleanse. It was too much of a bureaucratic nightmare and when it became time to round the people up and shift them out it was done with big nets that didn't descriminate. Those in my family taken from their homes in Vienna and sent to die at Thereisenstadt certainly didn't have an identity card that said "we are Karaite." It didn't matter. And when Dr. Rikhail Iosefova Goldenthal refused to leave off her medical administrations to the Jews in Odesssa being abused by the Nazi occupiers, it was far more expedient to kill her than keep sending her warnings to stop. So yes, there were some stories of leniency in Romania, the Ukraine, etc. that meant that even the Final Solution would never have been final since there would have been survival of some Karaites but to suggest that somehow in general we were left completely untouched by the Nazi oppression and death camps is a complete falsehood.

Ross makes it clear that he sees the Karaites as something outside Judaism, not part of it. He says we practice a truncated form of Judaism, rejecting the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. That we all claimed to be from Tartar tribes who adopted a Jewish like religion and we all spoke a Tartar dialect. Yes, the genes for blonde hair and blue eyes run in my family. Three of my four children have blonde hair and blue eyes, but that does not make myself or them any less descendants of Semitic stock than any other Jew. Tartar dialect, no, but Arabic spoken in the family, yes but not since the passing of Jakob Goldenthal in 1867. What would have been more accurate was to suggest that Karaites were probably more likely to adopt the dialect of the land in which they lived and use it more commonly than Yiddush or Hebrew in every day life. And not only did we adopt the local language but often the local dress code as well, appearing more like the general population than the Ashkenazi Jews that surrounded us. Did that make us Tartar? No, that made us in many ways more progressive even though the accusation was that our practices were archaic and that we as a people were trapped in a time warp. To infer that our Judaism was truncated also suggests that in some way it is incomplete. And rejected the Talmud and rabbinical writings implies that somehow we turned away from something that is right or unquestionable. How about expressing it more correctly in that we only follow what was given to us by God and we are unwilling to accept the writings of men that have often twisted or corrupted the original words. What we have been accused of rejecting is nothing more than a commentary and implying that by doing so we have rejected part of the religion is not only false and misleading but displays an arrogance that is the hallmark of Rabbanite Judaism.

Ross qualifies his non-Jew statement by saying that this was the claim made by the Karaites themselves but most non-Karaite scholars knew they were Jews but just happened to be heretics. Once again we are being labelled with the term 'heretic'. How is it that disagreeing with Rabbanite interpretations makes us heretics? Logic would say that those that have insisted there is a need to interpret and twist the words of the Torah to suit their own end would be the heretics. A heretic is one that rejects the original word and sees a need to interpret it in a different way. That being the case, then the Rabbanites are actually the heretics. Rather than having endured this accusation for a thousand years, my Karaite brethren and ancestors failed to reverse the accusation and call a spade a spade. We were the orthodoxy, they were the heretics and we permitted them to brand us incorrectly.

The Census
At the time Ross wrote his Chapter he siad there were about ten thousand Karaites living in Israel. He could not give exact numbers because Karaite Law forbids their being counted in a census. Funny that, I thought that was Tanach Law. That God instructed his prophets to condemn any King in Israel that tried to take a census. That he forbade Jews from doing so as no man was to know the actual count of the Children of Israel. They were to be like the stars in the heavens; innumerable. Thus, an ordination from God is now being accused of being a Karaite Law as if we were in the wrong. Very peculiar.

Ross then states that Karaite status under Israeli law is ambiguous. That they are considered Jews but have their own rabbis, chief rabbinate, national council, kosher slaughterers, mohels, and religious courts. And then makes the statement that they are not legally permitted to marry other Jews. I fail to see the ambiguous part. Having our own religious structures and religious services should not implay in any way that our status as Jews is doubtful. The Rabbanite orthodoxy, conservative and reform movements all have their own councils, teachers and practices and no one is accusing any of them of being of an ambiguous status. And as far as I understand it, the illegality of Karaites marrying a Rabbanite Jew is imposed by the Rabbanite orthodox courts insisting that a Karaite must abandon his/her centuries old faith and become a Rabbanite in order to marry. Ambiguous? Sounds prejudicial and smacking of religious intolerance. There is nothing ambiguous about it. In fact it is all very obvious.

The ground work is now laid for this debate. Over the next few articles I will challenge statements made by Dan Ross in his book. Hopefully it wil invite comments from both sides. The hiatus is over. It is time for Karaites to rechallenge the old accusations and let the world know that we are a presence and we do not intend to fade away.

The Karaite Marriage Ceremony

Probably one of the most traditional and beautiful customs amongst Karaites is the marriage. Long before the actual ceremony, the traditions come to the forefront as future groom and bride prepare for the wedding. Before any announcement, the two families will come together and the dowry will be negotiated. By tradition the dowry could be as large or as small as the two families decided but whatever the endowment it must include the following items; a Persian carpet, copper pots and pans and a heavy copper mortar. Of course the items could vary, stainless steel instead of copper, but essentially these three items met the requirement of a warm home, good food, and the bread of life. When my wife and I married, probably the most cherished item we brought into our household was our Persian carpet. All these years later and I still can't help admiring the handiwork. According to the story, it had actually been ordered by the Shah of Iran. Within the intricate design are ayatollahs hiding behind columns and vases, leering out at all that dare to tred upon the depiction of palacial scenery. I had been told that the Shah wanted a carpet that made a statement, of how he could wipe his feet upon the ayatollah. As history has proven, that was not the case and the carpet was never delivered to him. Instead it ended up in our home where it does provide the warmth and comfort of its traditional values. As for the mortar, it was ceramic and although it's buried in a cupboard in the kitchen, I don't think my wife would even know what to do with it if she had to use it. Grinding grain has definitely become an art of the past and I would not even dare to ask that it be revived. Ground grain comes in a bag now and its my daughter that enjoys baking bread.

The Announcement
Once the negotiations between the two families were completed the invitations were sent out. In traditional Karaite families these were rarely in Hebrew. Most often in either the language of the land or in Arabic. Rather than hold the engagement party in a hall, or synagogue, the affair was usually held at the home of the future bride. The family did all the cooking, not caterers and it was always designed to be a wholesome meal, not a display to make the cover of Cuisine Weekly.

One week before the actual wedding the brides family would hold a trousseau party, where they would put on display all of the future bride's gifts to the new home. Linens, covers, blankets, towels and drapes, all usually hand made and intricately designed, a display of the bride's own handiwork. The meal served usually consisted of fried fish as the food of choice and this was served with a variety of breads. Simplicity was the theme, far different from the one upmanship that seems to be the nature and theme of bridal showers today. At the end of the party, the trousseau would be delivered to the new home or the groom's parent's home. Very often this delivery was accompanied by pomp and ceremony in the form of a parade with gaiety, dancing and music.

The Wedding
The defining moment of any religion is the wedding ceremony. For every sect, culture, or ethnic group the wedding ceremony is distinct and unique. The traditional ceremony amongst Karaites is no different. In eastern Europe and probably most other Karaite Communities there was no wedding hall. Synagogues servicing the communities weren't the large and elaborate structures they are now. They were houses of prayer, not dining halls and certainly not places for dancing and celebration. For the purpose of a wedding community centres, town halls and even a tent had to do. The groom would arrive first, ensure that everything was alright and await his bride who would arrive much later accompanied by her entourage consisting of family, friends, and bridesmaids. Unlike the Rabbanite weddings, the bride was not hidden away but put on public display, often arriving in an open carriage just like a queen, for on this day she was royalty.

The Hacham (leader of the community) would conduct the ceremony beginning with the oath of the Covenant taken on Mount Sinai, the groom would repeat. Then the Laws of Mount Horeb would be recited and once again the groom would repeat these. Then the father or brother of the groom would read out load the Ketubah or marriage document. First in Hebrew then in Arabic. Unlike the Rabbanite weedings the ketubah was not in Aramaic. The bride on the left and the groom to the right would stand up and a single talit (prayer shawl) would be placed over their heads. The talit was a gift from the bride to her future husband, the union beneath it signifiying the household she would provide to her future family. Accepting this union, the groom would place the wedding ring upon his bride's finger and recite "Ani ledodi l'oylum va-ed". "I am my beloved's forever." This would be followed by the seven blessing recited by the Hacham. As he says the blessing over the wine, he then sips it, handing the silver goblet to the groom to sip and then the bride. This is followed by a blessing for the newly wedded couple, followed by lowering the talit to their shoulders so that their heads were bared. Even though this is a happy time, the Hacham would say, "They left, those that escaped from the sword," and then, "Do not let me forget thee Jerusalem." It was a reminder that even at this happy occasion we are still exiles living in a foreign land. Another blessing for the bride and groom and then one for all the guests. As the now wed couple stepped away from the Hacham, the guests would break out into song and shouts of joy. No breaking the glass, this was a time of building, uniting, and strengthening, not destroying.

The following morning after the wedding, women would be sent in to the newlywed's house. They had a specific mission they had to conduct in order for the wedding to written into the Religious Court's registration book. They had to bear witness that the marriage had been consumated. In all there had to be ten witnesses to attest to this fact. Let us remember the times past and celebrate the future. As a people let us take joy in the traditions of our past but more so let us celebrate our future.

A Khazar Love Story

The following story is taken from my book Blood Royale with permission. (http://legendsofthekahana.webs.com/2onthecharts.htm). Being my own book makes granting permission easy to acquire. It represents a chapter from what was a very turbulent time period in the history of my ancestors. Three cousins were raised and removed from the position of Exilarch in Baghdad in a matter of years. They were the pawns of the Caliphs and the rabbanites which had gained a position of power. The book primarily follows the adventures of one of these cousins as he makes his way to France in 769 but in the meantime other major events were taking place in the land of the Tartars. As mentioned in the other blogs regarding the Khazars there was a major conversion to Judaism by this Tartar Kingdom. Whereas there are numerous versions to explain through a variety of reasons why this occurred, several of them hint at the presence of a beautiful princess who was instrumental in the event. In my family's tales this princess had a name. It was Thaliah and this was her story.

Crimea 769 A.D.



From her perch between the two great rocks, Thaliah watched the procession of leather and steel plated riders saddled proudly upon their stocky steppes ponies; short maned and swift legged horses that were legendary for their ability to cross vast expanses without tiring or thirsting. The riders too had become the subject of many legends as they carved out an empire from the inhospitable wastelands between the two great inland seas. Long curved swords swung unerringly above their crested helms, slicing deadly swaths through imagined and long dead enemies that now hovered somewhere between heaven and earth.

Around and around they circled their mighty king as he posed triumphantly at the center of their spiraling masses, standing firmly upon a mountain of corpses heaped one upon the other as a stele to their victorious army.

"Savages! Barbarians!" she cursed under her breath. The thought of turning and fleeing back to whence she came crossed her mind repeatedly. How could the redemption of her people lie in the hands of this uncivilized people? If not for her promise she would have given the order for her servants to mount immediately and turn south upon the road back to Sura.

The king, bejeweled and crowned with a gold coronet encircling the low, flat cap he wore over braided black locks, began a merry little dance, balancing precariously upon the back of his slain enemies, much to the acclaim and applause of his men. Then, without a moment's hesitation he somersaulted into a forward twist, landing safely in the outstretched arms of his followers.

An order was given, and several men rushed forward, splashing naphtha over the mound of human flesh, all the while, dancing dervishly, and spinning wildly out of control. The king was presented with a flaming brand, and with a leisurely arc of his arm, the torch sailed through the air, turning end over end until it came to rest upon the crest of the pyre. At first, only the crackling and spitting of oil could be heard, but then suddenly, the entire pile erupted into a hissing pillar of flame. With each sputter of searing flesh, the army roared and cheered once more. Their nostrils flared as the black smoke spiraled in its path heavenward.

The horrific sights and sounds were too overpowering for Thaliah. Every now and then a faint, yet audible scream of sheer terror would surface from beneath the pyre, from the choking voices of the wounded and almost dead. The smoke churned faster and faster in the circling winds that raced about the foothills. The tears welled in her eyes and she was even more convinced her presence here had definitely been an error in judgment.

She felt the reassuring arm of her servant Eli come to rest upon her shoulder. "Come away mistress. This is no place for you." Thaliah let her eyes drop and turn from the foul desecration of human life. She looked into the soft brown eyes of her guardian. Eli held twenty years more than her and to his credit he appeared to those that saw them together to be barely a few years older. His hair had not grayed and his skin was still smooth to the touch. When she was a little girl, she had often fantasized that Eli would come in the dark of night, cast her over his broad shoulders and carry her off into the distant lands where they would live happily ever after. But all along she knew that it would never be more than a childish dream. Their castes were worlds apart. Royalty and servitude could never mix, only co-exist. No, her destiny had already been predetermined and here she was, in some nameless land, fulfilling a dream fueled by royal decree.

"Oh Eli, what have I've gotten myself into?" Her chest heaved with a sigh of defeat.

"Come mistress. The king's messenger awaits us. It is best he receives you before he and his men begin to celebrate too heartily." He flashed a smile that put her troubled heart at ease for the moment. Eli and Thaliah walked towards her entourage and the envoy that waited impatiently for her return.

As she approached, the messenger bowed courteously. "I hope that your highness found the view quite spectacular?"

Thaliah knew well enough not to answer truthfully. She glanced quickly at Eli, to reassure him that she would maintain proper protocol and decorum, and then trained her eyes upon the king's richly robed courtesan. "Your king was a most impressive figure and surely his victory shall be exalted and praised by the singers of far off lands. You may tell your king that this princess has truthfully never beheld such a spectacle as this in all her life."

"His majesty, Bosiah, thanks you warmly and requests the presence of your company at his tent, accompanied by your servants, of course."

"I am most grateful for your king's hospitality. Please inform him that I will attend his tent as soon as I am properly attired in clothes more deserving of this honor."

"A word of wisdom your highness,” the messenger overstepped the bounds of his position. “When the king makes a request, it is considered to mean immediately." Another bow, followed by a graceful leap onto the back of his horse and the envoy was ready to proceed back to the camp.

“Then the king will have to receive me as I am,” she shouted at the envoy’s back. “How dare they treat me in this manner!” she muttered as she turned to face her servant.

Eli helped his mistress into the ornate silver and leather saddle that nestled between the humps on her camel's back. Her mount had been the gift of the Caliph of Baghdad. He probably would have reconsidered his generosity had he known that his prized animal would now be making its way towards the camp of a most hated enemy. Thaliah handed the reins over to the messenger who had turned and coached his horse along side. Demonstrating his gifted horsemanship, he walked the beast slowly down the side of the hill towards the encampment. Camel and horse pacing side by side was no mean feat and he did it expertly.

Her caravan of camels and donkeys followed a respectful distance behind, framed by the glow of the setting sun as she glanced back towards them. A glance that in some way said, this would be the last time she would see any of her family again.

"He's fascinated with you."

The sound of the envoy's voice caught her by surprise as she turned her head forward in response. "Pardon me. What was that you said?"

"You fascinate him. The king does not quite know what to make of your visit."

Thaliah cocked her head slightly, a look of bemusement crossing the lines of her face. Such forwardness by a servant was quite unusual. "How so?"

"Well, your highness. Firstly you must understand, we don't receive many visitors, let alone royal caravans in these parts. The mountainous regions of the Caucasus are treacherous and are not part of any established trade route. Those that do make it this far from the normal trade routes, we usually attack, not welcome." The messenger flashed a warm, jocular grin. "Secondly, not many women lead a caravan into parts unknown. One might say that you are either very brave or very, how should I say this kindly, stupid. Please pardon my openness but it is what he himself had said. "

Squinting her pale hazel eyes, she looked him squarely in the face. "For a mere courtesan, you would appear to know a lot of what the king has to say! And which one do you think I am?"

The messenger cleared his throat, his face flushed by the question. After a slight pause he responded. "I think that you are very beautiful. Therefore the other question does not matter."

Now it was Thaliah's turn to blush. She laughed. Perhaps this land populated by savages was not as bad as she had originally thought. They did have a natural charm about them. "Do you often pay such compliments to visiting princesses who have come specifically to see your king? I would think you could be put to death for such brashness."

"I have a certain amount of latitude as you might have guessed with Bosiah," his perfect white teeth flashed a devilish grin. "As his brother, he has grown use to my lack of decorum. I should have introduced myself sooner. I am Yusef, the son of Marzuk and inheritor of the kingdom of the eastern steppes. But I prefer to stay in my brother's court. He has more interesting visitors." Yusef winked.

The caravan quickly drew into a line circling the outside perimeter of the camp. Gray billowing smoke had replaced much of the fierce flames that had been so apparent but mere minutes ago. The sickly sweet smell of charred flesh filled their nostrils. Thaliah fought desperately to force the bile from the back of her throat. This was not the way of her people or the Arabians. It was forbidden to burn a corpse except under dire conditions. But even in that case, no one living in Sura could remember the last time such a detestable act had to be performed. She prayed that the pyre would quickly extinguish itself, in fear that she would embarrass herself before the king. As if in response, the breeze shifted to the east, blowing the smoke away from the camels and their riders. Thaliah wiped the sweat from her brow, thankful for the instantaneous relief.

"This is no sight for a Babylonian," Yusef commented as he watched the princess's face change from the white contorted illness back to its healthy glow. "My brother should have known better. Our ways sometimes appear brutal, but the cleansing flames prevent the spread of disease. There is some foresight behind our actions. I hope you understand."

"Please...," Thaliah apologized. "There is no need to make excuses. This is your land, your customs. I am merely a visitor. Do not feel that I have the right to judge you and your people."

"I don't,” he dismissed her concerns. “I'm just trying to explain our differences. We are primarily a nomadic people. We have our cities but they are few. Burying of the dead would serve no purpose if you never return to the grave site. Not to overlook that the winds and the rains on the steppes would uncover their bodies in very little time. Cremation is the only logical solution. But I understand that your beliefs do not permit you to cremate."

"The body is a gift of God." Looking away from the pyre in the distance, Thaliah waited for her lungs to clear once and for all. "That which God has given us we have no right to destroy. As we come into this world, so shall we leave it. And if you knew all this, then why did you ask me if I found the view spectacular?" She looked into his azure eyes, waiting, searching for a response. His chestnut hair fell in ringlets about his bronzed features.

"No," she repeated over and over in her mind as she studied his handsome features. "This cannot happen. I cannot let it happen." She felt a strange heaviness fall upon her chest, her nostrils sucking back deep breaths as she struggled to calm herself. She quickly averted her eyes from his, breaking the spell in which he had enthralled her.

Yusef saw that the situation called for an abrupt change. He had seen that look in a woman's eyes before. Most often it would have been a signal for him to press the advantage, but this woman was very different. Not just because she was a princess of a people whom he had only heard of through the vaguest rumors, but she had been betrothed to his brother. Silence would be their downfall; an open invitation to think the impossible.

"Ah, yes, your God, of which we have heard so much about." It was a little lie. Like her people, her God was but one more tale heard told over a roaring fire, with eyes half closed after a night of heavy drinking. His people knew all the tales of all the great religions but chose instead to worship the almighty skyfather. "Though we have a belief in a creator, there are those amongst us that claim there are many gods, and even those which say there are none at all. Living in the steppes, it makes very little difference whether we believe or not. Life here holds its own rewards. You live, you die, and it’s as simple as that. As for the spectacle, the term is without reference to good or evil. In your case, you've seen us at our worst. Our relationship can only improve from here."

Thaliah waved a finger of disapproval. "Then you have nothing to look forward to. Life is nothing more than a string of momentary pleasures and pains, leading nowhere. Our beliefs are very different. I shall have to tell you of them at some time." Her lips remained thin and taut, turned down ever so slightly at the corners.

"Our beliefs perhaps differ but our faith that tomorrow the sun will rise again are the same. That alone sustains us." Yusef looked satisfied with his answer.

"In Babylon, so little to look forward to would be considered depressing." She lowered her eyes, her lips now formed into a beguiling pout.

"In Khazaria, we consider Babylon depressing," he huffed.

She narrowed her eyes. Perhaps he wasn't as enchanting as she first thought. "My, you do have a tongue on you. Do you despise all of civilization or just Babylon?" Her arms were now subconsciously drawn tight into her body.

They had ridden wide around the smoldering pyre of fleshless bones. "Have you thought at all about how these bones came hence? That is what remains of civilization's threats." Yusef's response was very calm, his voice carefully modulated so as not to upset the princess. "The Magyars considered us no more than barbarians. Why? Because we would not accept their Christian faith and by so doing, they declared war upon us. A blight upon their plans to expand their empire. Our way of life was unimaginable to them. Where they build roads, we know no boundaries. Why should we feel forced to become as they are?

Once they were like us, but the lure of civilization turned them on a different path and now they despise us because we remind them of their origins. Civilization is nothing more than a chasm of hates and prejudices. What's there for us to envy?"

"Forgive me," Thaliah bowed her head. "It is not my place to make comment on your ways. I overstepped myself. I am your guest and I have behaved improperly once again." A shadow fell upon her countenance.

"Take heart, fair lady, there is nothing to forgive. I am not here to judge you either. You may possess your beliefs without fear of retribution. But I would suggest that you don't discuss your concept of civilization with my brother. There is no love for Babylon there either.

Know this, that you are welcome here not as a courtesan of the Caliph's court but as a princess of a dethroned people. A once ancient kingdom held captive by a brutal regime that spreads itself through terror. Bosiah empathizes with your plight, though you may not consider yourself to have one." Extending his arm in supplication, Yusef warned, "I suggest that you do."

"I am grateful for your suggestion, Yusef. Contrary to appearances, my family has certainly fallen into disfavor at the Caliph's court. The king is very astute to see the truth of our situation.”

“We have had our own disagreements with the Caliphate,” Yusef clarified his standpoint. His reduction of three major wars to nothing more than disagreements proved that he was a master of the understatement.

“And here I am now,” She explained, “Because one cousin has been sent into the unknowns of the Western sea and another has spent five years in prison. We are at the twilight of our existence and my family truly does seek your brother's aid. I don’t know how we are to survive without his protection."

The words had stolen some of the fire from her eyes. Suddenly, Yusef saw not the obstreperous, proud royal princess as he imagined nestled in the lap of luxury in Babylon, but instead a true damsel in distress. His heart went out to her and her obvious need.

"My lady, I am truly sorry. I have misjudged your circumstances. I did not intend to upset you."

Thaliah suddenly bolted upright on the camel's back, reassuming her proud and majestic airs that she had originally displayed. "Well, was that humble and beseeching enough for you," she inquired. "Will that be convincing enough for the mighty Bosiah? Never underestimate us, Yusef. We are a captive people but we are also a proud one. I come not begging but offering!"

Yusef clapped his hands in obvious delight. "A wonderful performance," he lauded. "Truly an effort worthy of myself I admit. I am afraid your highness that I am falling rapturously in love with you." The words rolled effortlessly across his tongue. He waved his index finger naughtily at her, entertained by the deception she had played upon him.

If only he had looked deeper, further into the limpid pools of her silver hued eyes, he would have seen the effect those words had upon her. She whispered unspoken psalms of the enduring warmth which engulfed her whenever she looked upon his handsome, rugged features. Love at first sight? A childish notion and yet she knew there was no other explanation for the feelings she was experiencing. There was an instantaneous bond that existed between them and she knew he felt it too. It had been there the first time they exchanged greetings. As he led her towards the king’s tent she had but one plaguing thought, “What was she going to do?”

The tent that served as both domicile and great hall for the king of the Khazars was enormous. It had been designed with all the best materials that the trade routes had to offer. Silks from the East, flowed from ceiling to floor, bestowing a rainbow of hues and colors that seemed to dance and change with the slightest breeze. It was a truly magnificent structure, rimmed in gold brocade and silver tassels. Huge brass candelabrums hung from the towering cedar poles, illuminating the interior with the brightness of an afternoon sun.

Thaliah let her mind wander back to the stories she had heard as a child about the Tabernacle that the prophet Moses had erected in the desert. Could it have been possibly as ornate or even as large as the house of Bosiah? She doubted it. A kingdom of tents, she mused, and this one truly befitting of an emperor. What would the wives’ tent look like? Like so many other Eastern despots, Bosiah would have a separate tent to house his wives, concubines and children. Would she have her own or would she merely take her place in his harem?

Just as it was traditional in her homeland, every inch of the floor was concealed by the artistry of hand knotted carpets. Only in this case they hid the earthen floor beneath rather than the marbled halls of Babylon. There were only few pieces of furniture, and those that were present were dwarfed by the immensity of the tent’s chambers.

A small, low table, made from a black wood that she had never seen before, stood in one area, surrounded by an ocean of pillows, some tasseled, and others cross-stitched with beautifully designed animal motifs. But it was the table that held her enthralled. Its top was carefully carved and painted with scenes from the daily life of a people she had also never seen before. There was a noticeable resemblance to the Tartars but the features of that particular heathenish tribe seemed to lie somewhere between her own and those that were carved into the table. But most striking of all was the serenity that seemed to surround this unknown race. There existed a gracefulness and placidity etched into every knitted brow and almond eye. There was so much of the world she did not know and having been forbidden by religious law to have any images of people within her home meant that her knowledge of mankind was limited to only those she met at her family’s estate. Though she hated to admit it, as much as she thought of her visit to the Khazarim as a journey to a lesser civilized corner of the world, she now realized that Bosiah and his people had a far broader perspective of the globe than she had ever known. They were a doorway to unknown worlds that lived in the lands far beyond. Yusef may have been right; civilization can build walls within the mind just as easily as it does from mortar and clay.

The princess stood in awe of the elaborate surroundings and had become so preoccupied that she was oblivious to the movement coming from behind, as Bosiah and his advisors took their positions in the great hall. "I take it that the Princess Thaliah is comfortable with her arrangements," the king interrupted, causing her to jump to the impact of the unexpected voice.

"The Princess has not yet had the opportunity to visit her tent but knowing of the King’s generosity I can assure you that she is most grateful and delighted with her accommodations," Eli replied, recovering quickly.

“Do you always answer the questions directed to the princess?” the King’s voice crackled with a hint of disapproval.

“Forgive me your Majesty,” Eli immediately apologized. “We are used to the Caliph’s court where he does not expect women to speak at all.”

“Hah!” the laugh burst from the King’s lips. “The Caliph is more of a fool than I thought. How does he think you can silence the chirping of birds? Is not a woman’s voice like the sounds of the birds in the treetops? You must let them sing because it is the natural way of the world. But only when you ask them to, otherwise they will sing constantly.” Bosiah bid the princess and Eli to sit around the low table while dismissing the rest of the attendants with a wave of his hand to seat themselves elsewhere in the chamber. Demonstrating how to pile the pillows properly, Bosiah adopted a reclining position. “I must ask the princess to forgive my lack of consideration of not even allowing her an opportunity to settle her belongings before my summons.” The guests all followed the king’s example, reposing around the table of carved figures of a people from unknown lands.

Staring at the king, the princess noticed how much he resembled his younger brother Yusef, and yet how dissimilar they were as well. Bosiah was heavier set, built like a bull, much thicker browed and definitely hairier. Thick tufts of his mane flowed down the back of his neck and across his shoulders. The same sparkle glinted in his eyes as those of Yusef, but where Yusef appeared the mischievous scholar, Bosiah was most definitely a tactful and skilful warrior. And where Yusef's smile flashed warmth, Bosiah’s smile could be cold; as frigid as ice.

"As King of Khazaria, I can tell you how pleased we are to have you as our honored guest. Your father's letter and offerings were most welcome. I send warmest regards to King Judah Zakkai, exilarch of the Jewish nation. May his days be long and honored."

"His majesty, King Judah, extends his warmest regards and appreciation to the great King Bosiah and entrusts the care of his most favored daughter to the great king's care and mercies.", Eli responded. All the guests sitting at the table nodded in affirmation.

"Tell your good King Judah Zakkai, that the king of the Khazars is most pleased with his offering and shall welcome his daughter into my household with open arms."

Eli bowed his head in gratitude. "Speaking for the King of the Jews, I can tell the great King Bosiah how grateful we are that he is pleased with our gifts. The princess's dowry shall be found on the back of seven golden camels, all which are given freely to the great king in appreciation of his acceptance and ratification of a treaty between us.”

“Answer me this,” Bosiah interrupted the introductions, “How is it that your King was able to seek this alliance while under the watchful eye of the Caliph?”

Wise with age, Eli knew immediately that the king of the Khazars was fishing for a hidden trap in the arrangement. There must have been those in his court that were suspicious that the alliance would be taken advantage of by the Caliph of Baghdad. He had already prepared his answer for such suspicions. “There are those that think of my king as a puppet of the Caliph and a servant to the rabbinate but all along he has been an independent ruler, merely abiding his time, waiting for this opportunity to give you his heart and hand in friendship."

“But to do so would make him an enemy of the Caliph and at odds with his own religious leaders,” the King’s curiosity was peaked.

“Truthfully?”

“I would have it no other way,” Bosiah insisted.

“He lied,” Eli confessed. “He assured the Caliph that any trade agreements would be made on his behalf. The Caliph knows that you will not deal with him directly so he desperately wanted to believe that you wished to deal with him through an intermediary in order to save face.”

“Shrewd, but what of these rabbis that have gained control of your people?”

“My king is well aware that they have their own agenda which is to undermine the authority of the House of David and the House of Aaron. He secretly works with his cousin Anan ben David to see that this will never happen. Your acceptance of the Princess Thalia into your household will ensure that this will not occur.”

"Then let us drink to our mutual good fortune and acceptance of the contract between us," Bosiah raised his cup to toast in final acceptance.

At that moment, Thaliah stood defiantly and raised her voice above the conversation between the king and her guardian. "And when do I get a say in all this?"

There was a mutual gasp of disbelief from Bosiah’s cabinet. Never had a woman had the effrontery to interrupt the court in this manner.

Eli tugged at her dress, urging her to sit down. "Please mistress,” he pleaded, “For your own sake, sit down! Do not show disrespect to the Great King." The more he tried to get her to sit, the more adamant she became in saying her piece. "Thaliah, please, in the name of your father, restrain yourself."

"Let her speak!" a familiar voice beckoned from behind.

"This is most unusual," one of the king's advisors commented. "A woman may only address the king in the great hall when spoken to first! This is an insult to our king and not even you, Yusef, can dismiss this act of discourtesy."

"And how many of those women to which this rule applies, also have been of royal birth, Vashni? I say, let her speak. If she truly pleases the king, then he will welcome her words." Yusef strode defiantly forward towards the table. “Is that not so, brother?”

"Yes, Vashni, my brother is right," Bosiah commented, "let her speak. She is a warrior born. I wish to hear what she has to say." The king waved his advisor's concerns away.

"Most unusual," Eli tutted, just audible enough for his mistress to hear. As he relinquished his grip from her dress, she pushed his hand away.

Yusef stood beside the princess in silent support. "Your majesty," she responded. "I am most honored that you are pleased with my father's gifts and his deliverance of his daughter into your hands. I beg you though, please do not lock me away in your harem, never to be seen or heard from again. I could not bear to be shunned from the courts.

What my courtesan has failed to mention was that my father saw our survival not only through my marriage into your household but by a mutual acceptance of our customs so that essentially we become as one people. That is why of all his daughters he picked me as I am well versed in the languages and literature of my people. I can be of great service to you in areas of diplomacy. Though my skills in mathematics and astrology have not been tested in quite a long time, I am certain that they too will be of value if I am given the opportunity. In theology I can provide you with all that is written in the Books of Moses in both Greek and Hebrew. Let me be a teacher to your court and your people.”

Bosiah laughed at the suggestions. "Please Princess; do I look like a scholar?"

All of the King's attendants joined in the mirthful laughter.

"Perhaps not, Great King, but you do look wise to me. And wisdom outshines knowledge in any event. There is no reason that your court could not rival any in the world."

Bosiah nodded with approval. "A good dream Princess and what price am I to pay for your tutelage in my court besides the adoption of your customs?”

“I ask only that I hold position as a court princess. If I am to aid my people then it is necessary that I have access to the courtesans that pass through this chamber. My father has explained to you how the Caliph has taken control of the Exilarchate, placing my uncle Anan in custody all those years and divesting our inherited power to the rabbinate. In order to preserve our rightful privilege to rule we have sought this alliance with you, great king. But if I have not your ear, then I have failed in my own duty to my family and my people.”

“I do understand, but how am I to explain to my most favored wife, the princess of Cathay, that she is being replaced by another princess? She has sat by my right side for two years now. Her father, the Sian Emperor would find it a great and terrible insult. I do not wish to insult the Emperor. ”

“Then don’t brother. I have a solution that all might find satisfactory.” Yusef leaned over his brother, placing his hand upon his shoulder.

Bosiah reached across his chest to clasp his brother’s hand. “As usual, my younger brother will find a solution.” The king’s cabinet laughed along with their ruler.

“So, Yusef, what would you suggest.”

“I would suggest that it is time I live up to our father’s expectations and rule the land that he gave me. I have been negligent in my duties.”

Bosiah’s hand quickly dropped from his brother’s. “What are you talking about? You belong here with me. Have I not been a good provider and protector to you? Marzuk only said that when it came time for you to establish a royal line was it necessary for you to leave the court. You are my only brother, my only sibling and you have no wife. So of what foolishness do you speak?”

Yusef threw himself to the ground in front of the king and lowered his forehead to the carpeted ground. “Oh Great King Bosiah, I have a request. A request so great that never has a brother asked for such a thing before. Please show me favor in your heart. Though you may be offended by the effrontery of my request, please remember the love in your heart that you hold for me and which I hold for you.”

“Get up brother. You embarrass me to humble yourself thusly. Have I ever denied you in all the years you have lived beneath the roof of my tent? You are blood of Marzuk. Blood of my blood, I can deny you nothing. Quickly rise before you lose face before our guests. So what is this solution you spoke of?”

“I ask that you present me with a royal wife.”

“Brother, do not suggest this! I would gladly provide you with the freedom to select any girl from my harem, but to take from the royal wives, how would I explain such an affront to my allies. They have entrusted their daughters to my care and I would do irreparable harm to cast one out from my household. How could I retain my honor, having broken my sacred pledge to cleave them to me?”

Rising to his feet, Yusef grew in stature, his jaw squared as he stood firm and proud. “I have but one wife in mind, brother, which would solve your present problem and a proposition to solve the dilemma you would encounter. I ask for the princess Thaliah since she is not yet betrothed to you and therefore your break no sacred vows of marriage. But rather than have you give her to me, I would ask for her hand directly and she would choose whether she leaves your court of her own accord.”

“And this solves my problem? Am I to explain to her father that the princess chose to leave the court of the King of the Khazars after he bound our agreement with his honor. Her father would be humiliated and be shamed the rest of his life.”

“She asked for a court in which to reign as a queen but you cannot have the Princess of Sian forfeit her position lest you offend the Great Emperor. She’s requested that you and your court adopt her customs and I know that to do so would also offend those rulers that have added their daughters to your harem. But I can give the Princess Thaliah a court to reign over and I have no courtesans at the moment to take issue if I was to impose my wife’s customs and faith upon them. You wish not to break the promises made between yourself and the kings that have sent their daughters to cement their treaties with you and that is also resolved if the princess and yourself choose to extend the treaty to include a third kingdom within the alliance.

You have the right to use the princess as the bargaining price for that treaty. Her father has placed her fate in your care. Not only shall Khazaria be an ally to the Exilarchate, but so shall be the Tartar Kingdom.”

“Brother, you have been absent from the eastern steppes a very long time. Calling it a kingdom may be an exaggeration. You would seriously want to be king of that unruly mob?”

“If the Princess Thaliah was by my side, I would even rule in Siberia.”

“But the court is a shambles. The Kaghan barely keeps any control. As our governor, he hardly met the task. For you to establish yourself after so many years of absence would be a formidable task.”

“But not impossible! Not if I was to become Kaghan and therefore all authority still stems from you, their Great King. They say that the blood of the Princess Thaliah’s family has already been intermingled with the dynasties of the East centuries ago. She will be received as a returning monarch. From the ashes a kingdom can be rebuilt.”

Bosiah thought long and hard about the request. “A task suitable for a son of Marzuk, brother. It has its merits. Would the world expect any less of us? Perhaps we have grown too fat in the luxury of Khazaria. Maybe this is the time to re-establish our dominion east of the Caspian?”

“And how say you Princess Thalia? Would you follow my brother on this mad dream of his?”

Eli started to answer. “The princess does not know what to say. This is a very unusual situation. She must consult with her father. This is hardly what King Judah expected when he signed the arrangement.”

“Oh, hush Eli. I can make my own decisions.” Thaliah brushed her advisor aside. “If I was to marry Yusef, would I be recognized as the majestrix of his kingdom? Would I have the right to speak in the court of Bosiah?”

Bosiah leaned over his brother and whispered in his ear. “I think you have met your match with this one brother. The tongue on her is sharp with wit and wisdom. Beware of which one rules and which one is ruled. I like her very much. I'll regret giving her up.” Patting his brother on the back, Bosiah waved the princess closer. “You would be queen of this Tartar kingdom my brother has chosen to take as his rightful possession. He is a king by birth but he refused to rule until he had a proper queen. He has chosen you. As favored wife, actually only wife, you would bear all the rights and honors of that status, including being a most welcome guest in my court. Though he chooses to call himself Kaghan he is still no less than a king.”

Thaliah fell to her knees before Bosiah and stretched out her hands beseechingly, “Great King, you who have wisdom beyond the grasp of most men, I humble myself before you with but one question more to ask.”

“See, it is like I have told you,” the king proclaimed to all in attendance. “A woman is like the birds. If you let them, they will sing endlessly.”

Everyone laughed at the King’s joke.

“Sing away little bird,” Bosiah grinned.

“If you were me, would you accept your brother’s proposal?”

Yusef shot an alarmed glance at his brother. Bosiah smiled warmly at his brother and nodded. “Dear Thaliah. It is not a question that I ever dreamed I would ever be asked. If you are looking for a life without hardship, the comforts of Babylon, the luxurious gardens of the Euphrates, then the eastern steppes are not going to offer you that life. But on the other hand, I can clearly see the future, and in it you and my brother will build a kingdom to rival any other. For my brother to undertake this course of action, for him to seek a wife after having had the opportunity to have had so many in the past, then I know that he has offered you more than a kingdom, he has offered you his heart. Can you give him your heart in return? If your answer is yes, then you do not need my wisdom.”

Thaliah looked towards Yusef and she immediately knew the answer for herself. “I will gladly accept.”

“My princess,” Eli interjected, “I really do believe we should send word to your father.”

Bosiah did not wait for the princess to respond. “Eli, let me extend some of this great wisdom I am rumored to possess. I do not believe that there is anything that you or King Judah Zakkai could say that would change the princess’s decision. My advice to you is to help my staff prepare a wedding like none that has ever been seen before in Khazaria. My little brother is getting married to your charge!”

Eli fell silent. He knew not how he was going to explain any of this to Thaliah’s father.

Thaliah wrapped her arms around her trusted advisor, speaking softly so that none but he could hear. “Do not fret so, dear guardian. My father will be very proud of me. It will be his seed that spawns a new Jewish kingdom in Khazaria.”

Eli urged his princess to take care in what she said. “My child, you may be somewhat premature to speak of Jewish kingdoms. The Khazarim have no state religion. And they have shown no urgent desire in the past to have one. You will only have a small kingdom to the east to start with and no guarantee that Bosiah’s kingdom will follow suit.”

“Oh, but it will, dear friend. My king and I will see that it will.” With a smile she released her advisor and ran into the waiting arms of her future husband.

The Trial of Jesus: Toldoth Jeshua

You're probably wondering what am I talking about this time. Well, it's pretty simple. I'm going to talk about another book I happen to have in my collection. You guessed it, it's called “Toldoth Jeshua". But what's it mean. Translated, it means the Generations of Jesus. Odd title you'd think since according to the New Testament, Jesus didn't have any generations to speak of. But this book that was written in about the 14th century and based on material from the second century had a lot of interesting things to say. I came into possession of this document after I wrote and published Caiaphas Letters, so its quite amazing that it confirms many of the statements I make as fact in my book.
One of the most serious libels made against the Jews was the blame for killing Jesus. Pope John Paul II fortunately condemned this libel and expunged it from the Roman Catholic teachings, and this should be appreciated, but it was long in coming and over the last two thousand years the number of Jews that died because of this libel was astronomical, especially when one considers it as a premise to the Nazi holocaust.
Now this may sound a little controversial coming from me but what if I was to say that it wasn’t really all the Church’s fault for fostering this belief in the first place? What if I was to say that the great sages of Judaism in the second century,the Tannim or these Rabbis of reverence that put together the Talmud were responsible for the libel themselves! That in an effort to show the world how strict they were as enforcers of God’s will, they were willing to spread a lie that either because their brains were too addled with age, or as a Karaite I beleive they were only interested in hearing the sounds of their own voices and were more than too happy to tell everyone a lie.”
What most people don't realize is that these so called paragons of virtue and Judaism actually wrote a section into the Talmud concerning their role in Jesus’ death! Let me tell you quickly what it said:
“It is taught that for all others liable for the death penalty, except for the enticer to idolatry, we do not hide witnesses. They light a lamp for him in the inner chamber and place a witness in the outer chamber so that they can see and hear him while he cannot see or hear them. One says to him,” Tell me again what you said to me in private.” If the prisoner repents, then good, but if he says, ‘This is our obligation and what we must do,’ then he is to be brought into the courtroom and stoned. And then they hung him on the eve of Passover.”
If you're trying to follow the connection let me explain that these Rabbis were trying to recall a very special meeting of the Sanhedrin that happened a couple of hundred years earlier. I'll point out some of their controversial comments. It was a night meeting, hence the need for the lamp. The courts of the Sanhedrin were held in buildings that relied on natural light, therefore it was prohibited to meet at night unless it was an emergency. In this case it obviously was one. But they got it wrong. The witnesses placed outside were there to come in and defend the accused. They already had their numbers to make up the tribunal inside. They were the judges, not the witnesses. As we know from the stories about that night, Jesus's witness refused to enter into the chamber and three times Peter denied not knowing him. Without his second witness, (it took two to prove you innocent of the charges), Jesus was condemned. Now the rabbis in this particular paragraph never refer to Jesus, only to an idolator, so the question should be how do I know they’re not talking about another case? Because they refer back in the Toldoth Jeshua to this section of the Talmud as being the trial of Ben Stada. Now I probably have you completely confused. It would have been more correct to refer to what is a Ben Stada in order to understand their play on words. The Rabbis loved to do that back then. They thought they were quite funny. They did it with the next messiah too, Simon Bar Kochba. As soon as he lost the war, they referred to him as Simon Bar Kosiba, or ’the son of lies’. Somehow they forgot that it was one of their own that proclaimed him as the messiah in the first place. So they did the same thing to Jesus as well. He would have been referred to as Jesus Ha Stadlan. The intercessor by his followers. Because that’s what he did. He was the intercessor for people to reach God. Remember that he said everyone seeking God must come through him.
So, now that you have an appreciation for their sense of humor, these rabbis don’t refer to him as an intercessor for God but instead call him Ben Stota or Stada in an alternate dialect; the ‘son of absolute utter nonsense’ or as we would say today, the son of bullshit.”
Also remember that in the Talmud is says that he was taken out and stoned and then hung from a tree on the eve of Passover.”
There are three important things you should notice right there. Firstly, if he was stoned to death, why were they bothering to hang him on a crucifix? Couldn’t kill him twice. And then secondly there’s the matter that the Roman authorities only let the Sanhedrin stone people, they didn’t have the authority to crucify a prisoner. And lastly, notice how it was the eve of the Passover. Just as I described it in Caiaphas Letters. The Gospels all say the crucifixion happened on the Passover. So this passage from the Talmud is in harmony with what I've written.
In another passage of Toldoth Jeshua it is written: ‘On the eve of the Passover they hung Yeshu and the crier went forth for forty days beforehand declaring that Yeshu is to be stoned for practicing witchcraft, for enticing and leading Israel astray. Anyone who knows something to clear him should come forth and exonerate him. But no one came forward in his defense and they hung him on the eve of Passover. Yeshu was different because he was close to government.’ So now you have the Toldoth Jeshua in harmony with that passage from the Talmud and both confirming it was the eve of the Passvoer and that this individual was named Jeshua or Jesus.
Once again the Toldoth Jehsua is providing some interesting aspects that other than in Caiaphas Letters, no one else has ever mentioned. For almost a month and a half there’s this attempt to try and create a case so that he can’t be touched. The emphasis in Toldoth Jeshua was they they tried to prove him innocent asking people to come forward to clear and exonerate him. Very different from the condemning version in the Talmud. But when it came to the night of the trial, those that were supposed to exonerate him never came through. In other words, Peter didn’t do his part of the plan. The writer of the Toldoth Jeshua tries to explain this special treatment of trying to save him was due to the fact that he was close to government. Well, they might as well have said because he was related to the High Priest because the only Jewish government at the time was the High Priest, and to be close was another way of implying a familial relationship. It also says that he was being helped by the High Priest at the time who just happened to be Caiaphas. Again this confirms the High Priest family connection I described in Caiaphas Letters.

The question one has to answer is why, if as in the Toldoth Jeshua there is recorded a definite attempt by the officials in Judea to save Jesus, and this book was based on original documentation from much earlier times, why would a group of supposedly educated men, paragons of virtue write such a stupid and inaccurate thing in the Talmud that actually suggests the Sanhedrin wanted to kill Jesus. The answer is simple; they couldn’t stop themselves. The whole idea behind the Talmud was to write as much down as they could remember because there was no central stores or archives left following the destruction of the Temple. Then they would analyze and embellish what they had written. But in a lot of the cases, this embellishment was merely the addition of hearsay and innuendo. Their memories of events may have been poor, but their imaginations certainly were not. They were in overdrive. They didn’t even try to be accurate. By the time the Talmud was being written, Christianity was already becoming the new power and Jews were already being persecuted by this new religion. So why not tell a very disparaging story and gloat about the death of the Christian messiah. Human nature has remained a constant throughout history. And this was one way of saying, “in your face, buddy! Stupid, yes, but then these supposedly intelligent men never thought the Talmud would be read by anyone that wasn't Jewish.
In their minds they were disproving the claims of Christianity by saying they were responsible for the death of Jesus. After all, how could he be the son of God, or for that matter, even the messiah, if they could kill him? So this invented story of theirs became our own undoing. We suffered because they gloated. But worst of all, they gloated over an entirely false and ludicrous story that they created for their own personal egos.”
Now one might point out that as a Karaite, I have no fondness for the Rabbis of old, I certainly don't give any credence to the Talmud and therefore I view them in a negative light. True, I admit it. We suffered for two thousand years because of their misguided beliefs. Had they only stayed to the facts, I think they would have found that most educated people would have understood what occurred in the framework of the time and circumstances. I'm not naive and saying that the early Church would not have pursued its policy of deicide if they hadn’t written the inaccurate story of Jesus into the Talmud but I don’t believe the persecutions would have been conducted as vehemently as they were. What you have in the Gospels is the story of Caiaphas sending Jesus to Antipas, and then to Pilate. Pilate pronounced sentence and Roman soldiers performed the execution. You actually have evidence of the Jewish authorities abdicating their responsibility and handing it over to these other powers. Therefore the role of the Jewish authorities is minimalized.
When you read about the confrontation between the Maharal, Rabbi Judah Loew, and the Nasi, Yakov Kahana in Shadows of Trinity, you are seeing the two worlds of Karaism and Judaism clash. The former regarding the Talmud as the work of foolish men and the latter that deemed themselves worthy of interpreting Gods words, convinced that there were hidden meanings, detailed instructions, and numerous restrictions behind every word. But as the above story has pointed out, words can be very dangerous when they used improperly. Less would have definitely been better!

Incredible Journey:
Since the first book of the Kahana series has been published (Blood Royale) the question has been frequently asked, where do these ideas come from. The answer to that question is dealt with numerous times in conversations with John Pearce that narrate most of the stories. The tales themselves were passed down, inherited, encoded and for lack of a better word, 'infused.'
For those that have seen the family tree unrolled, it is an impressive sight. Two meters in height and almost five meters fully laid flat in length, it contains close to 50,000 names. With that many names, there's going to be alot of history to write about.
But the problem with history as we're taught it today is that it's viewed under a glass dome as if it's complete, finished; nothing more to learn about it. Sadly, that is far from the truth and most teachers can't comprehend that history is a living, breathing entity that we've only scratched the surface of. For every story of a Tacitus, Herodotus from ancient times or a Gibbons to give it a more modern spin, there are squirrled away somewhere a hundred or so other documents on the same subject, providing a vantage point from a completely different perspective. You have to remember, anything of a differing opinion was publicly burnt well into the eighteenth century. Thousands upon thousands of books, manuscripts and letters with differing opinions. But no matter how hard you try to eradicate those other truths, as the Nag Hamadi findings, the Dead Sea Scolls, the hidden manuscripts of Nostradamus, etc., have shown us, somewhere, someplace, are the original manuscripts just waiting to be discovered.
In that sense we are all on this voyage of discovery. How far that voyage will take us is yet to be determined. And the consequences of those future discoveries will be both amazing and world-defining.
As a young boy, my third great grandfather found a set of books that had been hidden away by his own father and a few generations that preceded him. They were a collection of books considered heretical, and a letter of introduction to the Hapsburg Royal family that was passed down from Emperor Rudolf II of the sixteenth century. A letter which he used to gain entry to the academic world by attending the University of Leipzig and then later to become of service to the Emperor Franz Josef, the decendant of that same Hapsburg family. As for the heretical books he had discovered, they were also from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Passed down by his ancestor of the time to remind him that in spite of living in a Jewish world under the influence of the Rabbis, he in turn was a Karaite and that he must never forget that. The revelation turned him into an outlaw, with an arrest warrant issued by his own hometown should he ever return. He made a decision of conscience, a decision of truth, and as he went forward in his life, becoming a professor at the University of Vienna, I doubt very much he regretted his decision.
Now oddly, I still come across the same prejudices of erroneous Rabbinical teaching that Karaites aren't Jews, Karaites don't exist, or that Karaites were the cause of all the social ills and problems that affected mainstream Jewish society. It's my turn to pick up the guantlet where my third great grandfather left off. To expose the histories that have been buried, to rewrite what currently exists in order to nullify the misconceptions. SHADOWS OF TRINITY is the first to have a major public release to do so. And as they celebrate the events of the 400th anniversary of the Maharal's death in Prague this year, let them answer the questions raised in the book regarding this highly esteemed individual. "If you create a monster to kill, does that not make you a monster in turn?" Once you've read the book, you'll have to answer that question for yourself.