Is Saudi Arabia Zion?
By James M. Dorsey
Kamal Salibi, one of the Arab world’s foremost contemporary
historians, kicked up a storm when he concluded in a 1985 linguistic exegesis
that Judaism’s Zion was not located in Israel but in Saudi Arabia. Israelis,
Jews, Saudis, Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians found common ground at the time
to denounce Mr. Salibi in stark terms.
Israelis, Jews and evangelists charged that Mr. Salibi’s bombshell
book, The
Bible Came from Arabia, constituted an attempt to delegitimize the Jewish
State and undermine its historic claim to modern day Israel. Israeli historians
and rabbis denounced the theory as mythology, science fiction and nonsense.
Saudis, afraid that Israelis might take Mr. Salibi seriously
and attempt to colonise the mountains of Sarawat, which the scholar believed
was the Jordan valley referred to in the Bible, bulldozed dozens of villages
which contained buildings or structures from Biblical antiquity. Abodes were
turned into rubble in line with Wahhabi ideology that legitimized destruction
of anything that could be construed as idol worship.
The Saudi effort made it more unlikely that archaeology
would ever be able to resolve the controversy given that decades of diggings in
modern day Israel have yet to yield incontrovertible evidence such as Hebrew
inscriptions that unambiguously refer to events, people, or places named in the
Old Testament.
Nonetheless, in a twist of irony, Saudi Arabia launched Mr.
Salibi on his linguistic exegesis with the government’s publication in 1977 of
a comprehensive list of thousands of place names in the kingdom. The list
sparked Mr. Salibi’s interest because he had found little material for the
early period of a history of Arabia he had just published.
''I was simply searching for place-names of non-Arabic
origin in west Arabia, when the evidence that the whole Bible land was here
struck me in the face. Nearly all the biblical place-names were concentrated in
an area about 600 km long by 200 km wide, comprising what are today Asir and
the southern part of the Hijaz,'' Mr. Salibi wrote.
The controversy over Mr. Salibi’s assertions has long died
down. Lack of contact between Saudi Arabia and Israel which do not maintain
diplomatic relations and the fact that the kingdom was and is hardly a tourist
destination except for the Muslim pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and
Medina ensured that research was all but impossible.
That however may be changing. Saudi Arabia, in an effort to
diversify its energy-dependent economy and develop alternative sources of
income is preparing to become a tourist destination, boasting its numerous
historic sites.
Relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia are changing as
both countries find common ground in their hostility towards Iran and need to
confront jihadist groups like the Islamic State. A retired Saudi general last
month led a delegation of academics and businessmen in a rare, if not first
public visit to Israel in a bid to stimulate debate about a 14-year old Saudi
plan for Israeli-Arab peace.
The thawing of informal ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia
is a far cry away from a situation in which Saudi Arabia will lift its ban on
Israelis traveling to the kingdom. Saudi Arabia already in the 1990s rewrote
visa regulations that effectively prevented Jews from visiting the kingdom. The
Saudi labour ministry included in 2014 Judaism for the first time as an
acceptable religion for migrant or foreign workers in the kingdom.
Writing in The
Times of Israel two weeks after retired General Anwar Eshki’s visit, journalist
Jessica Steinberg noted that a vibrant Jewish community had populated 3,000
years ago areas that today belong to Saudi Arabia and that the cities of
Medina, Khaybar and Taymar hosted large numbers of Jews in the 6th
and 7th century. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, Spain, a medieval Jewish
traveller, visited some of those communities during a 12th century
trip to what is today Israel. Rabbi Benjamin’s writings offer a demography of
the communities he encountered.
A dying generation of elderly Saudis of Yemeni origin who
live in towns and cities along Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen still recall
the days prior to the establishment of the State of Israel when Jews were part
of their community.
Anticipating a day where Israelis might be able to visit
Saudi Arabia, Ms. Steinberg offered a primer of five Jewish sites in the
kingdom’s Khaybar valley and ancient city of Taymar that can be accessed
virtually:
Khaybar, a date-growing valley
and oasis with natural wells, that was home to a Jewish community and served as
a stop on the incense trade route from Yemen to Syria and Lebanon. Although its
1,400-year-old cemetery is void of headstones, locals recall its Jewish
history.
Khaybar Fortress, the 1,400-year-old
Fortress of the Jews perched on a hill overlooking the oasis that was conquered
by the Prophet Mohamed. His nephew and son-in-law, Ali, unlocked the gate of
the fortress, letting the Prophet’s army enter and conquer it.
The Palace of the Jewish
Tribe’s Head, also located in Khaybar, that was home to the Jewish tribe of
Marhab famous for its gold and jewellery trade.
Tayma known as fortified
Jewish city where travellers stopped at the oasis to visit the Al-Naslaa Rock
Formation, one of the most photogenic petroglyphs, or rock art, depicting the
life and times of ancient communities.
Bir Haddaj, a large well at
the centre of Tayma that dates back to at least to the middle of the 6th
century BCE. The well is mentioned in the Book of Isaiah as the place where the
descendants of Ishmael’s son, Tema, lived: “Unto him that is thirsty bring ye
water! The inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitive with his
bread.”
Holding out the hope for closer ties between Israel and
Saudi Arabia, Ms. Steinberg suggested that “the day may be drawing near” when “historical
sites pertaining to the ancient Jewish experience” will be accessible.
As a result, Saudi tourism as much in the Middle East that
is easily politicized could blow new life into the controversy over Mr. Salibi’s
theory years after he passed away. Saudi fears notwithstanding, Israelis like
their Saudi counterparts have no desire to rock the boat or even contemplate
the theoretical possibility that that their forefathers may have made a
mistake. Any argument that Israel might eye Saudi oil reserves is countered by
the fact that Israel is becoming an oil producer in its own right.
Beyond the historical and academic value of settling the controversy
sparked by Mr. Salibi, his theory offers rich material for the ultimate ‘what
if’ book or great novel on the Middle East. Imagining ‘what if’ would unlikely
lead to even more conflict in an already tortured region but could well offer
new perspectives on how to resolve its multiple conflicts.
Dr. James M. Dorsey
is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies,
co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the
author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer
blog, a recently published book with the same title, and also just published
Comparative Political Transitions
between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, co-authored with Dr. Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario
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