Shukr Kuhayl I.

Shukr ben Salim Kuhayl I (* 1821 ; † 1865 ), also known as Mari (= master), Shukr Kuhayl I ( Aramaic : מרי שכר כחיל), was a Yemeni , Jewish pseudo- Messiah of the 19th century.

Shukr Kuhayl I claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah and anointed Priest- King . When he revealed himself in Sanaa in 1861 , the understanding was that he was the messenger of the Messiah. In the course of his appearances, he corrected himself to be the Messiah himself. He interpreted Isaiah 45: 1 in such a way that he saw God's message as addressed to him (Shukr) instead of (Cyrus). Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus His anointed, whom he has taken on his right hand, to subdue him the nations to disarm the kings to keep closed to open the doors and no goals ... . So כה אמר ה 'למשיחו לכורש became: כה אמר ה' למשיחו לשוכר .

Shukr Kuhayl I appeared in Sanaa at a time when political turmoil was producing ever stronger messianic hopes among the Jewish population. Shukr Kuhayl I divorced his wife and went around dressed in tatters as an itinerant preacher. He taught frugality and poverty, and exhorted repentance and repentance . He was seen as a poor ascetic and pious loner.

People believed in him until he was killed by local Arabs in 1865 because they saw him as a threat. The death of Shukr Kuhayl I was not accepted as death by his followers, but rather everyone expected his immediate return, which seemed confirmed in 1868 by the apparition of Shukr Kuhayl II (Judah ben Shalom).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ False messiahs
2. ↑ Harris Lenowitz, The Jewish Messiah: From the Galilee to Crown Heights , New York: Oxford University Press, 1998
3. ↑ Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, The Jews of Yemen in the Nineteenth Century: A Portrait of a Messianic community , Leiden: EJ Brill, 1993
4. ↑ Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, "The messiah Shukr Kuḥayl II (1868–75) and his tithe (ma-aser): Ideology and practice as a means to hasten redemption", Jewish Quarterly Review 79 (2–3): 199– 217, 1989

literature

• Martin Gilbert, Jewish History Atlas, revised edition, London 1976, p. 52.
• Reinhold Mayer, Was Jesus the Messiah? History of the messiahs in three millennia, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-933373-01-8
• Jerry Rabov, 50 Jewish Messiahs, the untold life stories of 50 Jewish messiahs since Jesus and how they changed the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds, Jerusalem 2002, ISBN 978-0-7864-2311-8
• Harris Lenowitz: Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights : New York: Oxford University Press: 1998: ISBN 0-19-511492-2