SOft • " J E 
continued'. In tile eaft, the caliph Zayd permitted his 
iubjefts to abufe them. About 760, Jaafar the imam, or¬ 
dered that fuch as embraced Mahometifm ffiould be their 
parents’ foie heirs. About 841, the caliph Wathek per¬ 
fecuted them, becaufe fome of their number had embez¬ 
zled his revenues,and he fined fuch as refufed to embrace 
Mahometifm. Motawakhel, his fucceflor, deprived them 
of all their honour and truftj and, marking them with in¬ 
famy, caufed them to wear leathern girdles, and ride with¬ 
out ftirrups on affes and mules. Such marks of contemp¬ 
tuous diftinftion partly ftilL fubfift in the eaft, and have 
been imitated by other princes. Sundry of his fucceflbrs 
perlecuted them in a manner hill more fevere. In France 
and Spain, the people terribly infulted them. Probably 
provoked with this, they invited the Normans into France, 
and betrayed Bourdeaux and other places into their hands. 
About 724, one Serenus.of Spain let up for the Mefiiah. 
Multitudes followed him, and fet out to take poffeffion of 
Canaan. The Chriftians feized what they left in their 
abfence. Another in the eaft, about 831, pretended to 
be Mofes rifen from the dead, and was followed by num¬ 
bers. 
In the 10th, nth, and 12th, centuries, their miferies 
rather increafed; partly through their own divifions, 
and partly by the perfecutions which they underwent. 
About A.D. 1037, we find about 900,000 of them near 
Babylon, if we may believe their own noted traveller ; 
and yet, about two years after, all their academies there, 
if not alfo their fchools, were ruined. About A. D. 
1020, Hakem, the founder of the Drufian religion, for 
a while perfecuted them in Egypt. Befides the com- 
sr.on miferies which they fuftained in the eaft by the 
Turkilh and facred war, it is Ihocking to think what 
multitudes of them the eight croifades, in this or the two 
following centuries, deftroyed in Germany, Hungaiy, 
Alia Minor, and wherever they could find them, as they 
marched to recover Canaan from the Mahometans ; and 
what numbers of Jewllh parents murdered their own chil¬ 
dren, that thefe croifaders might not get them baptized. 
The bloody contention between the Moors and Spaniards 
might have procured them'fome eafe in Spain, had not 
their own mutual broils rendered them miferable. In 
.France, multitudes of them were burnt, others were ba- 
cnilhed', and others had their goods confifcated, by order 
of king Philip ; and fuch as offered to fell their effefts, 
and remove, could get none to buy them. Between 1137 
and 1200, there appeared nine or ten pretended Melfiahs ; 
two in France; two in the north-weft of Africa; one Da¬ 
vid of Moravia, who pretended he could render himfelf 
invifible at pleafure ; one near the Euphrates, who had 
been cured of the leprofy ; El David, and two others, in 
Perfia. Moll of thefe occafioned a great deal of mifchief 
to tliofe of their nation in the places where they lived. 
Nor in the 13th and. 14th centuries was their condition 
much better. In Egypt, Canaan, and Syria, the croifa¬ 
ders ftill haraffed and murdered them till themfelves were 
expelled from thefe places. The rife of the mamalukes 
turned to their mifery in Egypt. Provoked with their 
mad running after pretended Melfiahs, caliph Nailer fcarce- 
ly left any of them alive in his dominions of Mefopotamia, 
&c. In Perfia, the Tartars murdered them in multitudes. 
In Spain, Ferdinand perfecuted them furioully. About 
1260, the populace of Arragon terribly haraffed them, 
Henry III. of Caftile, and his fon John, perfecuted them j 
and, in the reign of the laft, prodigious numbers were 
murdered. About the year 1349, the terrible maffacre of 
them at Toledo forced many to murder themfelves, or 
change their religion. After much barbarous ufage of 
them, they were, in A. D. 1253, banilhed from France. 
In 1275 they were recalled ; but in 1300 king Philip ba- 
nifned them, that he might enricbhimfelf with their wealth. 
In 1312, they obtained re-admilfion, for a great fum of 
money; but in 1320, and 1330, the jhepkerds, who wafted 
the fouth of France, terribly maflacred them wherever 
{hey could find them; and befides, 15,000 were murdered 
w. 
on another occafion. In 1358 they were again banifhed 
from France. After oft-repeated liaraffments from both 
kings-and people, and fix former banilhments, founded 
on caufes moftly pretended, king Edward, in 1291, ex¬ 
pelled them from England, to the number of 160,000- 
He permitted them to carry their effefts and money with 
them over to France, where, in his own dominions, he 
confifcated all to his own ufe, fo that moll of them died 
for want. We lhall refume the hiftory of the Jews in 
England at the end of this article. In Italy they had moll 
refpite ; yet they underwent fome perfecution at Naples. 
Pope John XXII. pretending that they had affronted the 
holy crofs, ordered their baniffiment from his territories; 
but recalled the edifl for the fake of 100,000 florins. In 
this period two falfe Melfiahs appeared in Spain ; Zecha- 
riah about 1258, and Mofes in 1290. 
In the 15th, 16th, and 17th, centuries, their mifery 
continued. In Turkey, we know of no perfecution which 
they have fulfered, but what the common tyranny of the 
government, and their own frauds, have brought on 
them; only in Egypt the populace moleft them; nor will 
the people of Athens and Salonse in Greece allovr them 
to fettle among them. See the article Egypt, vol. vi. p„ 
380. In Perfia they have been terribly ufed, efpecially 
by the two Shah Abbas; from 1663 to 1666, the murder 
of them was fo univerfal, that but a few efcaped to Tur¬ 
key. In Portugal and Spain, they have been miferably 
handled. About A.D. 1420, Vincent half converted 
200,000 of them to popery. The infernal inquifition was 
appointed, to render their converfion fincere and com¬ 
plete. About 1492, fix or eight hundred thoufand Jews 
were banilhed from Spain. Partly by drowning in their 
paffage to Africa, and partly by bard ufage, the moll of 
thefe were cut off, and many of their carcafes lay in 
the fields till the wild beads devoured them. The Afri¬ 
can Mahometans ftiut their gates againft the poor re¬ 
mains, and many were obliged to fell to the Moors their 
children for Haves, to obtain food for the fuppcrt of 
life. In Spain and Portugal, thoufands of Jews become 
papifts in appearance, and even monks and bilhops, and 
yet continue hearty in their own religion, and educate 
their children in it from age to age. If we depend on 
Oribio’s account, we may fuppole there are 16,000 or 
20,000 fuch, even at prefent. About 1412, fixteen thou¬ 
fand Jews were forced' to profefs popery at Naples. About 
1472 they were barbaroufly maflacred in the dominion* 
of Venice. No-where in popilh countries are they better 
ufed than in the pope’s own territory; for which, rio 
doubt, their purfe mull be emptied. In Germany they 
have had plenty of hardlhip. In Saxony and elfewhere 
they have been loaded with taxes, they have been ba¬ 
nilhed from Bohemia, Bavaria,. Cologne, Nuremberg, 
Augfburg, and Vienna ; they have been terribly mafia- 
cred in Moravia, and plundered in Bonn and Bamberg. 
Between 1520 and 1560, three falfe Melfiahs appeared 
in Europe; two of whom Charles V. emperor of Ger¬ 
many, burnt to death, and the other he impriloned for 
life. About 1666, Sabbatha Sevi, a pretended Mef- 
fiah, made a great noife in Syria, Paleftine, and the coun¬ 
tries about; but at laft, to fave his life, turned Mahome¬ 
tan at Conllantinople. About 1682, Mordecai, a Jew of 
Germany, profefied himfelf the Meifiah, and would have 
been punifhed in Italy, had he not efcaped to Poland. 
So lately as the year 1805, the Jews of Algiers were 
dreadfully pillaged, and narrowly elcaped general deftruc- 
tion. It is difficult to form an idea of the horrors of the 
dreadful facking to which twelve or thirteen thoufand of 
thefe wuetched people were given up during three or four 
hours. A general maffacre, with the exception of wo¬ 
men and children, had been determined on by the troops. 
A number of ferocious foldiers rulhed tumultuoufty from 
their barracks, each armed with a piftol and a labre- all 
the barbarous rabble of the town joined them ; they were 
cheered by the exclamations of women, w'ho crouded the 
ftreets and terraces. Fortunately it was Saturday, a jewifli 
s feitivaJj. 
