Report of Messianic Troubles from Baghdad

And they were in this exile for years. The source of these calamities was a wicked person called Ibn Abū ’l-Shujā‘, may he be cursed, and the name of the wicked shall become rotten. They imposed upon them a payment of 1,000 dinars until they removed the ruling demeaning the women, and the decree was annulled with the help of God. Only those of rank and dignity wear it, whether foreigners or locals. Some time went by, until this year, which has just passed, which is the year 1431 [1120] according to the Era of the Documents, when there appeared a girl known as the daughter of Joseph ben al-Ḥakīm, and they are people whose deeds are good before God. The girl was seen to be following the acts of her father with respect to fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, and she was asked to marry but refused, and she said, “I will not make a change in what I am, since marriage would divert me from these things.” But our master Daniel, the son of our master rosh ha-seder, took care of this marriage, and he married her off, and she remained with her husband some months, until the month of Elul.

Twenty-five days had already passed from the month when she stepped forward on Thursday and announced that she had seen our master Elijah in her dream, and he said, “Step forward to this people and say to them on my authority, ‘Verily God has brought salvation near,’ and before long their dealings with you will improve without the knowledge of the sultan.”

And it was difficult for this man that his prescribed tax was suspended, and he wanted to oppress them, but was not able to do so.

When this news reached the sultan, he disapproved and said, “The Jews turned [away from me], and they say, ‘This is our king [or, kingship] who has appeared, and we do not retain after our king [another] king.’” The caliph got angry at this, and he wrote immediately and at once to the chief judge Ibn al-Dāmaghānī after he ordained to capture the Jews and gather them in the house of the mint, and he put runners [or, dancers; the Arabic is uncertain] in charge of them, and threatened them with death, and wrote in the letter which he sent to the judge: “The time of this people is over, and I need now in this time to enact judgment upon them, unless a prophet appears for them or they [decide to] follow the ways of the non-Jews. So do not dissuade me from [doing with] them [as I wish], O judge, either in my presence or before the non-Jews.”

The judge wrote to him: “As far as I know, my lord caliph, no one has ever successfully opposed this people. And [concerning] what you say, that this people’s covenant has lapsed, the covenant of this people is established with God.” [ . . . ]

And they were standing and praying, enduring the hunger of fasting, and they asked for help from God to redeem Israel. And he knocked at the door, and they went out to him, and when our master saw that he had been released, he prostrated himself to the earth before God, crying, he and everybody that was with him. Then he lifted his hands to the God of heaven, giving thanks to God for His redemption. Our redemption is near, God willing. He asked him about the dream, “How was it? And who helped him?” And he said, “Who ordered you to ask me about this?” He said, “The caliph.” So he related to him how it was. Abū Sahl Ibn Kammuna came to the caliph and relayed the dream to him correctly. The caliph mocked him and laughed and said, “The Jews certainly have lost their minds if they rely on the mind of a woman. Tomorrow, I will burn the woman, and I will make the blood of the Jews permitted.” The speech transpired after dark, and the viziers departed, and he remained with this wicked opinion. Shortly after that, our master Elijah appeared, and there was a column of fire in his hand, and he was standing at the head of the caliph, and when he saw him, he rose and became dumb from fear.

Source: Bodl. MS Heb f. 56, vol. 2821, 13b–19a.