Thence it is five days to Amadia where there are about 25,000
Israelites[156]. This is the first of those communities that dwell in
the mountains of Chafton, where there are more than 100 Jewish
communities. Here is the commencement of the land of Media. These Jews
belong to the first captivity which King Shalmanezar led away; and
they speak the language in which the Targum is written. Amongst them
are learned men. The communities reach from the province of Amadia
unto the province of Gilan, twenty-five days distant, on the border of
the kingdom of Persia. They are under the authority of the king of
Persia, and he raises a tribute from them through the hands of his
officer, and the tribute which they pay every year by way of poll tax
is one gold amir, which is equivalent to one and one-third maravedi.
[This tax has to be paid by all males in the land of Islam who are
over the age of fifteen.] At this place (Amadia), there arose this day
ten years ago, a man named David Alroy of the city of Amadia[157]. He
studied under Chisdai the Head of the Captivity, and under the Head of
the Academy Gaon Jacob, in the city of Bagdad, and he was well versed
in the Law of Israel, in the Halachah, as well as in the Talmud, and
in all the wisdom of the Mohammedans, also in secular literature and
in the writings of magicians and soothsayers.

[p.78]

He conceived the idea of rebelling against the king of Persia, and of
collecting the Jews who live in the mountains of Chafton to go forth
and to fight against all the nations, and to march and capture
Jerusalem. He showed signs by pretended miracles to the Jews, and
said, "The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to capture Jerusalem and
to free you from the yoke of the Gentiles." And the Jews believed in
him and called him their Messiah. When the king of Persia heard of it
he sent for him to come and speak with him. Alroy went to him without
fear, and when he had audience of the king, the latter asked him, "Art
thou the king of the Jews?" He answered, "I am." Then the king was
wrath, and commanded that he should be seized and placed in the prison
of the king, the place where the king's prisoners were bound unto the
day of their death, in the city of Tabaristan which is on the large
river Gozan. At the end of three days, whilst the king was sitting
deliberating with his princes concerning the Jews who had rebelled,
David suddenly stood before them. He had escaped from the prison
without the