Historical references to the "Lost Tribes" of Israel migrating to Africa from Israel as well as the Khazarian (Ashkenazic) conversion.
The Khazar kingdom in the early 10th century.
The book/writings of Eldad the Danite.
Here is a list of Jewish sources which preserve the history of the Khazar conversion to Judaism.
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Eldad the Danite - 9th century
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Hasdai Ibn Shaprut - 10th century
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King Joseph of the Khazars - 10th century
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Yehudah HaLevi - 12th century
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Rabbi Yehuda al-Barseloni - 12th century
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Rabbi Abraham Ibn Daud - 12th century
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Rabbi Moses ben Nahman a.k.a. Nahmanides - 13th century
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Rabbi Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov - 15th century
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Rabbi Gedaliah - 16th century
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Yitzhak Aqrish - 16th century
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Rabbi Yehuda Mascato - 16th century
CLICK on image to download FREE PDF copy of From Babylon to Timbuktu, written by: Rudolph R. Windsor.
It Details the historical/cultural migrations of Lost Tribes of Israel into Africa.
From Babylon to Timbuktu: a History of the Ancient nations of Color, including the Biblical Hebrews:
Rudolph Windsor in his book From Babylon to Timbuktu: A History of Ancient Black Races including the Black Hebrews presents a thoroughly comprehensive history of the original Jews within the backdrop of ancient History. He traces their origins in Babylon within the loins of their forefather Abraham up to their birth and growth in the land of Canaan all the way up to their final dispersion from Palestine in 70 AD into the greater part of Africa, leading west.
Mr. Windsor exhibits a level of truth-telling that I have only seen in a few books.
He traces the history of the black African Hebrews of Egypt and Ethiopia. We are given lucid glimpses into the Tabiban Kamant and Wasambara Jews who are presently known as the Falashim of Ethiopia. He also takes on intellectual excursions into the backgrounds of the Jews of the Malagasy Republic, which is present day Madagascar. And from there, the reader treks in to the world of the North African Jews to the black Jewish kingdom of Ghana. Out of the Jewish kingdom of Ghana, Windsor relays the interesting story of Eldad the Danite who informed the Algerians of this Hebrew empire south of the Sahara in the western Sudan. Eldad lived in the ninth century. (p. 92)
It was from Windsor’s book that I began to scientifically consider the so-called “black race” originating from Asia and not Africa. He quotes a Herbert Wendt, a white German scholar who asserts, “All indications point to the fact that Asia was the cradle of the Black race.” (p.35) Wendt certainly makes some unsettling conclusions in his book It Began in Babel, another good book that is out-of-print.
Windsor maintains that even the early Talmudic scholars were black, the eminent Moses Maimonides (aka “Rambam”) being one of them. (p. 113) He then turns our attention to the black Jews of Angola known as the Mavumba, the Jews among the Ashanti, the Jews of Dahomey, and the Yoruba Jews of Nigeria. The Yoruba Jews in particular called themselves by the name of “B’nai Ephraim” or “Sons of Ephraim.”(p.131)
Windsor quotes Godbey, “These facts have peculiar significance when the presence of Judaism among American Negroes is to be considered. Hundreds of thousands of slaves were brought to America from this Western Africa during the days of the traffic, beginning nearly four hundred years ago." He also says: “How much more of Judaism survived among West African Negroes in that earlier time? As persecuted communities, they were rather more in danger than other Negroes of being raided by war parties and sold as slaves. It may be considered certain that many partially (why not fully?, is my question) Judaized Negroes were among the slaves in America. How many of them might still hold some Jewish customs here is another question." (Godbey, p. 246) It has been postulated by scholars that so-called “African-Americans” are descended from Yorubas.
If Godbey is right about “Judaized Negroes being in the traffic” (and I believe he is), then I am led to entertain that American blacks are descendants from the tribe of Ephraim, which is apart of the House of Joseph, Manasseh comprising the other half. I’m also led to think that they could be of the tribe of Asher, also being possible descendants of the Ashanti, the people of Ashan, which I’m thinking could be a derivative from Asher. Windsor, referencing Nahum Slouschz, says that the Hebrew tribes of Asher and Zebulon were in Carthage since the foundation of the city. (p. 108) Could it be that these Hebrews of Asher and Zebulon made their way to West Africa, as well? It is highly probable. Windsor makes an interesting point when discussing the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492: “These black Jews would naturally go to African countries most of all, because of less persecution and they could disguise themselves amongst the blacks.” (p. 116).
Note to Reader: The above quotes were taken directly from: www.FromBabylonToTimbuktu.BlogSpot.com
Eldad the Danite:
was a Jewish (Israelite), Hebrew-writing merchant and traveler of the ninth century. He professed to be a citizen of an "independent state" in eastern Africa, probably in the Gihon region, inhabited by people claiming descent from the tribes of Dan (hence his name, "ha-Dani" = "the Danite"), Asher, Gad, and Naphtali. Starting from this state, Eldad visited Babylonia, Kairouan, and Iberia, causing everywhere a great stir among the Jews by his accounts of the Ten Lost Tribes, and by the Halakhot (Law) which he claimed he had brought from his native country of Algeria, Africa. These halakhot, written in Hebrew, deal with the slaughtering and subsequent examination of animals (see Kosher). They differ in many places from the Talmudic ordinances, and are introduced in the name of Joshua Ben Nun, or, according to another version, of Othniel Ben Kenaz. Eldad's accounts soon spread, and, as usual in such cases, were remolded and amplified by copyists and editors. There are no fewer than eight versions with important variations.
Shlomo Sand, who is a History Teacher at the Tel Aviv University in Israel, challenges the Historical accuracy of Ashkenazic Jews having authentic claims to "Jewish Ancestry"!
The Invention of the "Jewish" People: a historical look at the ancestry of Ashkenzaic Jews and challenging the authenticity of their "Judaic Ancestral Claims".
A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People, offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
In this iconoclastic work, which spent nineteen weeks on the Israeli bestseller list and won the coveted Aujourd’hui Award in France, Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel’s future. Shlomo Sand teaches contemporary history at the University of Tel Aviv.
Buy the book at Amazon U.s or U.k.
The 13th Tribe by: Arthur Koestler
The Khazar conversion:
This book traces the history of the Ancient Khazar Empire, a major but forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark Ages became converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Khan, but evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western Jewry. The Khazars sway extended from the Black Sea to the Caspian, from the Caucasus to the Volga, and they were instrumental in stopping the Muslim onslaught against Byzantium, the eastern jaw of the gigantic pincer movement that in the West swept across northern Africa and into Spain.
In the second part of this book, "The Heritage," Mr. Koestler speculates about the ultimate faith of the Khazars and their impact on the racial composition and social heritage of modern Jewry. He produces a large body of meticulously detailed research in support of a theory that sounds all the more convincing for the restraint with which it is advanced. Yet should this theory be confirmed, the term "Anti-Semitism" would become void of meaning, since, as Mr. Koestler writes, it is based "on a misapprehension shared by both the killers and their victims. The story of the Khazar Empire, as it slowly emerges from the past, begins to look like the most cruel hoax which history has ever perpetrated."
Note to reader from Learn Torah:
The information shared in this forum, is Not designed to incite hate, bigotry, or "Anti-Semitism". It is the intention of our forum to educate and investigate the origins of "Hebrew Israelite Claims" of Biblical Jewish ancestry and show through history as well as the Torah how these claims are authentic and can be validated via Torah!
We implore all who read these Truths to go out and do your own research as well to establish what is fact from what is not fact. Thank you.