David Alroy was a Messianic Jew in Seljuk-ruled Babylon during the
middle 1100s. He proposed an enormous one-two strategy of leading a
Jewish uprising against Muslim rule in Mesopotamia, then joining forces
with Christian Crusaders to liberate Jerusalem.
As trouble
began to mount, David - who had reportedly performed a number of magical
feats - proclaimed angels would fly him and his Baghdadi followers to
Jerusalem, but the prediction failed. Instead by one account, David was
killed by his own father-in law, who had been paid off to do so -
sending on the decapitated head to the Seljuk Sultan in tribute. Jews
throughout the region were forced to pay severe indemnities for the
uprising.
Alroy's story was turned into
a novel by Benjamin Disraeli in 1833. Sounds interesting! I'm going to
try giving it a read.
