The Rescue of Jerusalem
The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In 701 BC, the powerful Assyrian army laid siege to Jerusalem, threatening the Hebrew kingdom with destruction. What saved the City of David? The Bible credits divine intervention. Modern scholars have long speculated that a plague spread through the ranks of the Assyrian soldiers, forcing them to withdraw.
Now, in this ground-breaking account, award-winning author Henry Aubin argues that it was the Kushites, the black Africans who formed Egypt’s 25th dynasty, who saved Jerusalem, the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In his powerful, wide-ranging analysis, Aubin shows how Western scholarship turned its back on the theory of black African involvement.
The account of the long-forgotten African and Hebrew alliance that rescued Jerusalem will change the face of Jewish and African history and contribute to a fresh understanding of our world today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 701 B.C., the Assyrian army was poised at the gates of Jerusalem and yet the city escaped annihilation. According to the Old Testament, Yahweh brought about the city's deliverance; scholars of ancient history have speculated that the city's surrender, or an epidemic, was the reason for the sudden Assyrian departure. Aubin examines this mysterious evacuation "one of history's great puzzles" in his well-researched though sometimes highly speculative account. Jerusalem, Aubin argues, was saved by Taharqa, a Kushite/Egyptian pharaoh of the 25th dynasty, and his Kushite army of black African soldiers. The Kushites made up a powerful, prosperous semiautonomous kingdom in what is now known as Nubia. According to Aubin's theory, the pharaoh made common cause with the Hebrews against the Assyrians the bullies of the ancient Near East and drove them from the region. But owing to the racism that the European colonization of Africa engendered, the importance of the Kushite legacy has been ignored. Aubin's examination of evidence is exhaustive, which at times makes for an arduous read: the narrative is dense and the endnotes comprehensive. But Aubin may offer the best solution to a biblical problem that has long troubled scholars, and his volume is an important reexamination of an event that ensured the survival of the Hebrew people (and therefore, the emergence of the Jewish faith and its "two principle offshoots, Christianity and Islam"). Aubin, a journalist, offers a book that will have wide appeal for professionals interested in the ancient Near East and readers for whom biblical events of historical significance are an enduring interest.
