From: Subject: BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS OF DARKNESS. The Search for the Ten Lost Tribes Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:17:20 +0300 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1255" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://localhost:8780/pubs/journals/kronos/vol0704/040beynd.htm X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS OF DARKNESS. The Search for the = Ten Lost Tribes

BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS OF DARKNESS. The Search for the Ten Lost = Tribes

IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY

Editor's Note: This essay was extracted from Velikovsky's=20 forthcoming book The Assyrian Conquest which is Vol. II of the Ages = in=20 Chaos series. It was written between the mid 1950s and mid-60s. A = superb=20 book on the Khazars which would serve as an excellent pendant to the = present=20 article is Arthur Koestler's The Thirteenth Tribe (N. Y., = 1976). -=20 LMG

The following short discourse is not a part of the = chronological=20 problem discussed in Ages in Chaos and subsequent volumes of=20 Velikovsky's reconstruction of ancient history; it deals with = historical=20 geography - the whereabouts of the places of exile of the Ten Tribes = of=20 Israel.

The statement in II Kings 17:6 which relates how "the king of Assyria = took=20 Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah = and in=20 Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" has caused=20 considerable deliberation among historians. The mystery of the Ten Lost = Tribes=20 even produced fantastic convictions such as the belief that the Britons = are the=20 descendants of the Lost Tribes who, after much wandering, reached = Albion.

The information provided by II Kings 17:6 is also repeated almost = verbatim in=20 18:11 . Additionally, in I Chronicles 5:26, the exile of the = Transjordanian=20 tribes - Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh - to Halah, and = Habor, and=20 Hara, and to the river Gozan is ascribed to "Pul, king of Assyria" and = to=20 "Tilgath-pilneser [Tiglath-pileser], king of Assyria". Modern scholars = consider=20 Pul and Tiglath-pileser to be one and the same king, Pul having been his = name in=20 Babylonia.(1)

It is generally agreed that the location of Halah (in Hebrew with two = letters=20 Kheth, transcribed as h in scholarly texts), or Khalakh, is not = given=20 to identification.(2) As to Gozan, the texts of II Kings 17:6 and 18:1 1 = speak=20 of Habor by the river Gozan; also I Chronicles 5 :26 speaks of the river = Gozan.=20 In Isaiah 37:12, Gozan can be understood as a region or a people of a = region.=20 However, the correct translation of the two passages in the Second Book = of Kings=20 should be: "to the confluence (habor)* of the river Gozan".

*[Cf. Strong's Concordance of the Bible, p. 36 where (Hebrew = section) habor=20 is translated from the root word meaning "to join". - = WBS]

Biblical scholars who sought the place of exile of, first, the two = and a half=20 tribes of Israel by Tiglath-pileser and then of all the tribes of Israel = by=20 Sargon, upon the fall of Samaria, decided that the river's name was = Habor and=20 Gozan was the region. They have therefore identified Gozan with Guzana, = modern=20 Tell Halaf in northeastern Syria. But this interpretation is a violation = of the=20 texts. In looking for a river Habor they thought to identify it with a = tributary=20 of the river Euphrates mentioned in Ezekiel I: 3 - "The word of the Lord = came .=20 . . unto Ezekiel . . . in the land of the Chaldeans by the river, = Chebar."=20 However, the spellings in Hebrew of ,Habor and Chebar are different, the = river=20 Khvor (Chebar) is not Habor, and the latter is not a river at all. = Furthermore,=20 the so-called river Chebar is actually an irrigation canal.**

** [See Atlas of the Bible (ed. by J. L. Gardner, 1981),p. = 145;=20 also consult W. Gesenius, Hebrew Lexicon (Brown, Driver, = Briggs), p.=20 460, "Kebar" - "a river (or perhaps a canal) of Babylonia, not at = present=20 identified. . ." - LMG/WBS. ]

In explaining why the misfortune of exile befell the population of = the=20 Northern Kingdom, the Book of Kings says that the Children of Israel = "worshipped=20 all the host of heaven, and served Baal" and "caused their sons and = their=20 daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and = enchantments" and=20 "therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of = his=20 sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah only" (II Kings 17:17, = 18).

"Removed them out of his sight" seems to signify that the people of = Israel=20 were removed far away out of every contact with the remnant of Judah, = not even=20 by chance messenger.

When one hundred and thirty-eight years later, in the beginning of = the sixth=20 century, the people of Judah were also led into exile - by = Nebuchadnezzar, king=20 of Babylon - they did not find the exiled tribes of Israel in Babylonia, = though=20 they dwelt by the "river" Chebar (Khvor, i.e., Khabur), which = flows in=20 the central region of that country.

It appears that the places to which the Ten Tribes were removed by = the=20 Assyrian kings must have been far more remote than northeastern = Syria.

Assyria, with its capital cities of Nimrud (Calah), Dur Sharrukin=20 (Khorsabad), and Nineveh - all on the Tigris - expanded greatly in the = days of=20 its warrior kings Tiglath-pileser, Sargon, and Sennacherib. Repeatedly, = the=20 Assyrian kings led their troops across the Caucasus northward. Not = satisfied=20 with the passage along the coastal road of the Caspian Sea, they also = explored=20 the mountainous passes. Sargon, the conqueror of Samaria, wrote in his=20 annals:

I opened up mighty mountains, whose passes were difficult and = countless,=20 and I spied out their trails.

Over inaccessible paths in steep and terrifying places I crossed . = .=20 .(3)

The descriptions of Tiglath-pileser and Sargon of their campaigns in = the=20 north lead us to recognize that they passed the mountains of the = Caucasus and=20 reached the steppes between the Don and the Volga. When the barrier of = the=20 mountains was overcome, they could proceed northward in a sparsely = populated=20 area barren of natural defenses where they would meet less resistance = than in=20 the foothills of the mountains. It is unknown how far they may have let = their=20 armies of conquest march across the steppes, but probably they did not = give the=20 order to return homeward until the army brought its insignia to some = really=20 remote point: it could be as far as the place of the confluence of the = Kama with=20 the Volga, or even of the Oka, still farther north. The middle flow of = the Volga=20 would be the furthermost region of the Assyrian realm.

The roads to the Russian steppes along the Caspian and Black seas = were much=20 more readily passable than the narrow paths along the river Terek and = the Daryal=20 Canyon that cut the Caucasus and wind at the foot of Mount Kazbek.

The fact that the "confluence of the river Gozan" is considered a = sufficient=20 designation suggests that it must have been a great stream.

A large river in the plain behind the crest of the Caucasus is the = Don, and a=20 still larger river - the largest in Europe - is the Volga. If the = Assyrians did=20 not make a halt on the plain that stretches immediately behind the = Caucasus, and=20 moved along the great rivers without crossing them to conquer the great = plain=20 that lies open behind the narrow span where the rivers Don and Volga = converge,=20 then the most probable place of exile might be reckoned to be at the = middle=20 Volga. The distance from Dur Sharrukin to this region on the Russian = (Scythian)=20 plain is, in fact, less than the distance from Nineveh to Thebes in = Egypt, a=20 path taken by Assurbanipal several decades later. Under Esarhaddon and=20 Assurbanipal, Assyrian armies repeatedly invaded "Patursi and Kusi" - = Upper=20 Egypt and Ethiopia (Sudan). But Assyrian occupation of Scythia is not = mere=20 conjecture: it is confirmed by archaeological evidence. "The earliest = objects=20 from Scythia that we can date," writes a student of the region's = antiquities,=20 "referred to the VIIth and VIth centuries B.C., are under overwhelming = Assyrian=20 influence. . . ."(4)

The exiles who were removed from Samaria, a city of palaces and = temples, no=20 doubt bewailed the capital they had heroically defended for three years = against=20 the army of what was, in its time, the world's most powerful nation. = Therefore,=20 it is quite plausible that they would call their new settlement Samaria = (in=20 Hebrew, Shemer or Shomron; Sumur in the el-Amarna letters).

On the middle flow of the Volga, a city with the name Samara exists = and has=20 existed since grey antiquity. It is situated a short distance downstream = from=20 the point where the Volga and the Kama join. Russian conquerors of the = ninth=20 century found this city in existence. The medieval Arab geographer = Yakubi,=20 basing himself on accounts of the ninth-century traveller Ibn Fadlan, = speaks of=20 the Khazars who dwelt in Samara.(5) This people dominated southern and = eastern=20 Russia possibly as early as the third,(6) but especially during the = tenth and=20 eleventh centuries. They passed the Caucasus mountains to participate in = the=20 wars of the Romans and the Persians, dominated the Ukraine as far as = Kiev,=20 concluded treaties with the emperors of Byzantium, and their influence = and=20 suzerainty sometimes reached as far west as Sofia.(7)

The ruling class of the Khazars used Hebrew as its language, and the = Hebrew=20 faith was the official religion in the realm of the Khazars. There was a = system=20 of great tolerance, unique in the Middle Ages, in respect to other = religions.=20 The Supreme Court was composed of two persons of Jewish faith, two = Moslems, two=20 Christians, and one idolater of the Russian population. But it was not a = confusion of creeds as it had been in old Samaria, which tolerated many = creeds,=20 with the monotheism of Yahweh being a protesting ingredient of the=20 confusion.

Were the Khazars or their ruling aristocracy converted to Judaism in = a later=20 age? This position was based on what was said in a letter of the Khazar = king=20 Joseph, written about the year 961, to the Jewish grandee, Hasdai = Ibn-Shaprut,=20 at the court of Cordoba. 'Abd-al-Rahman al-Nasir, the Moorish ruler of = Spain,=20 had asked the king of the Khazars to provide any available information = about his=20 people, Hasdai's brothers in religion. In the letter of reply, the = Khazar king=20 recited a tradition or a legend: advocates of three religions came to = some prior=20 king of the Khazars, and he picked the Jewish faith because the = Christian and=20 the Mohammedan alike gave preference to the Jewish religion above that = of their=20 respective rival.*

*[Cf. A. Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, pp. 63-64. -=20 LMG]

The story exposes its mythical character. In the seventh or eighth = centuries=20 of the present era, the adepts of the Jewish faith were persecuted by = the=20 Christians and also by the Moslems, and would hardly be chosen to = represent the=20 religion of the state. A similar legend of "choosing" a religion is told = about=20 Vladimir of Kiev: in this legend the Khazars were the delegates = representing the=20 Jewish faith.

Had the Khazars been converted to Judaism, it would be almost = incredible that=20 they would call their city by the name Samara. Samaria was a sinful city = from=20 the viewpoint of the nation that survived in Palestine after the fall of = Samaria, and out of which eventually grew the rabbinical Judaism of = later=20 centuries.

The conversion to the Jewish religion would also not imply the = adoption of=20 the Hebrew language. It is remarkable that the state language of the = Khazars was=20 Hebrew; the king of the Khazars was quite capable of reading and = answering a=20 letter in Hebrew.

Long before the correspondence between Joseph and Hasdai of the tenth = century, the Khazar monarchs had Hebrew names. The dynasts previous to = king=20 Joseph were: Aaron, Benjamin, Menahem, Nisi, Manasseh II, Isaac, = Hannukah,=20 Manasseh, Hezekiah, and Obadiah. A conversion to Judaism in the seventh = or=20 eighth century of the present era would bring with it names common to = Hebrews in=20 the early Middle Ages, like Saadia or Nachman; the Judaism of the early=20 Christian age was rich in names like Hillel and Gamliel while = Hellenistic names=20 like Alexander or Aristobul were not infrequent. Again, the Biblical = names of an=20 early period would give prominence to names like Joab, Gideon, or = Iftach; and a=20 still older group of names would be Gad, Issachar, Zwulun, or = Benjamin.

It is peculiar that some of the kings of the Khazars were called by = the names=20 used in Palestine at the time that Samaria was captured by the = Assyrians.=20 Hezekiah was the king of Jerusalem at that time (II Kings 18: 10), and = the name=20 of his son and successor was Manasseh. Obadiah was one of the most = common names=20 at that time and in the preceding century. It does not seem arbitrary to = assume=20 that the Khazars absorbed, or even originally were, the remnants of some = of the=20 tribes of Israel.

It is most probable that the religious reform among the Khazars, = about which=20 some tradition was preserved until the tenth century, is to be = interpreted as an=20 act of purification of the half-pagan religion that the exiles from = Samaria=20 brought into and developed in their new abodes on the Volga, and as an = act of=20 return to the old Hebrew religion of Yahweh. This might have been = performed with=20 the help of some Hebrews who perchance left the schools of Sura and = Pumbadita,=20 where the Babylonian Talmud was composed. Old Jewish authors(8) actually = mention=20 the fact that teachers of rabbinical Judaism were invited to the kingdom = of the=20 Khazars as early as the eighth century. Possibly, the name "Khazars", = despite a=20 difference in writing, is to be interpreted as "Those Who Return". A = long,=20 probably illiterate period, when Hebrew was used only in speech, may = have=20 preceded the period of revival of learning and purification of = faith.

I would like to express here the belief that excavation in or around = Samara=20 on the Volga may disclose Hebrew signs of the eighth and seventh = centuries=20 before the present era. Other sites of old settlements on the Volga, = too, may=20 disclose remnants of ancient Hebrew culture.

The Hebrew (most probably also Assyrian) name for the Volga Gozan - = seems to=20 have survived in the name Kazan. The city of Kazan is located to the = north of=20 Samara, a very short distance beyond the place of confluence of the = Volga and=20 the Kama, two equally large streams. A tributary by the name Kazanka, or = "small=20 Kazan", flows there into the Volga.

In the days of the Khazar realm, the river Volga was called not by = its=20 Assyrian, nor by its present name, but by the name Etel (the name is = given also=20 as Itil or Atil). This name appears to derive from a Semitic root; it is = also=20 used by the medieval Arab geographers.

Many place names in southern Russia seem to be of Hebrew derivation. = The name=20 of the river Don may go back to the name of the Israelite temple-city = Dan. The=20 Caspian Sea is best explained as "The Silver Sea" from the Hebrew = caspi=20 (of silver). Rostov means "The Good Harbor" in Hebrew.*

* [In his original manuscript, Velikovsky had also intended to = provide a=20 possible Hebrew meaning for the place names Orel and Saratov. = Unfortunately,=20 he failed to do so. As it happens, Orel means "uncircumsised" in = Hebrew while=20 Saratov may mean "to make an incision" - names perhaps chosen to = describe the=20 inhabitants of the respective areas. LMG]

With our identification of Gozan - one of the places of exile of the = Ten=20 Tribes - as the Volga, we may now investigate the question, where is = Khalakh,=20 another place of exile mentioned in II Kings 17:6? This place name is = generally=20 regarded as unidentifiable.

The eastern coast of the Black Sea was the goal of the Argonaut = expedition in=20 its search for the Golden Fleece. This expedition, engineered by Jason, = was=20 undertaken on the boat Argo. The land on the eastern coast of the Black = Sea was=20 called Colchis in ancient times, and the region is still known by this = name. In=20 Russian literature it is called Kolkhida.

[*!* Image] Source: After Hammond/

I consider western Georgia - to which Colchis belongs - to be the = Biblical=20 Khalakh. Those of the expatriates of Samaria whose destination was = Khalakh=20 arrived there some decades after the Argonaut expedition, which was = regarded by=20 the later Greeks as an historical event and chronologically placed two = or three=20 generations before the Trojan War.(9)

In the mountainous region of western Georgia, adjacent to the = Colchian coast,=20 live the so-called Georgian, or Mountain Jews. They claim to be of the = Ten=20 Tribes of Israel, their ancestors having been exiled there upon the = destruction=20 of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. Ben-Zvi (the second president = of the=20 modern state of Israel) tells of these people and their claims.(10) He = writes=20 that "there is no reason to doubt the existence of a continuous Jewish=20 settlement in both the north and south of Caucasia, whose roots were = laid in=20 very ancient times, perhaps as early as the days of the Second Temple, = perhaps=20 even earlier". Yet he does not express any suspicion that Khalakh may = have been=20 Colchis.

The third place of exile of the Ten Tribes, according to the Book of = Kings,=20 was the "cities of the Medes". Is it also possible to locate this last=20 destination? The Medes first appear in Assyrian annals in the time of=20 Shalmaneser III: it was in his days that they started to penetrate = across the=20 mountains of Iran to infringe on the boundaries of the Assyrian empire. = They=20 appear once again in the annals of Sargon II, who claims to have = repelled "the=20 distant Medes on the edge of the Bikni mountain".(11) Some scholars = maintain=20 that the homeland of the Medes, before their occupation of the Iranian = plateau=20 in the seventh and sixth centuries, was in Turan, that is, West = Turkestan.=20 Sargon's reference to "distant Medes" would then designate their = homeland in=20 Turan. In this context it is interesting to note that the Jews of = Bukhara, the=20 great trading city and metropolis of West Turkestan (Turan), claim = direct=20 descent from the Ten Tribes.(12) Some writers are even prepared to admit = the=20 possible veracity of this claim,(13) though no one so far seems to have=20 attempted to place the "cities of the Medes" in this region. While the = greater=20 part of the Jewish community of Bukhara may well be descended from = migrants from=20 the time of the Babylonian Exile or the Diaspora of Roman times or even = later,=20 it is not excluded that the oldest group among them are remnants of = those tribes=20 dispatched by Sargon to the "cities of the Medes".

REFERENCES

1. E.g., H. W. F. Saggs, The = Greatness=20 that was Babylon (N. Y., 1966), pp. 104, 557.
2. H. Graetz, = History=20 of the Jews, Vol. I (Phila.), p. 265.
3. Luckenbill, Ancient = Records=20 of Assyria II, par.54.
4. Ellis H. Minns, Scythians and = Greeks=20 (Cambridge, 1913), p. 263.
5. Yakubi, Kitab al-Buldan, 262 = (in=20 Bibl. Geogr. Arab, VII, ed. De Goeje).
6. Masudi hands down = a=20 tradition that the Sassanid king Ardashir fought against the Khazars. = Masudi,=20 Muruj al-Dhabab, ed. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille = (Paris,1861-78), Vl,124ff.
7. For general discussion and sources, see = D. M.=20 Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (Princeton, = 1954).
8.=20 Jehudah bar Levi, The Khazar.
9. Herodotus (II. 104) = reports that,=20 in his time, the people of Colchis practiced circumcision and claimed = descent=20 from Egypt. His inquiries in Egypt, however, evinced no remembrance of = the=20 Colchians from among the Egyptians, and Herodotus concluded that they = must have=20 been descended from the remnants of the army of the semimythical = Sesostris. What=20 the Colchians may have told Herodotus was the Mosaic tradition of the = Exodus=20 from Egypt; when the Greek historian inquired of them whether their = ancestors=20 had come from Egypt, if they were Jews, they would have had to answer in = the=20 affirmative. - JNS
10. Itzhak Ben-Zvi, The Exiled and the = Redeemed=20 (Phila., 1957), p. 62.
11. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria = II, par.54. The location of "Bikni mountain" is uncertain.
12. = See the=20 eighteenth-century report of Joseph Maman of Tetuan, summarized in A. = Ya'ari,=20 "Emissaries of the Land of Israel" (Hebrew), (Jerusalem,1951), p. = 664.
13.=20 Itzhak Ben-Zvi, The Exiled and the Redeemed, p. 62.

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