One of the most important events occurred in European and World history that is a key that the modernists of Academia have tried to suppress is the history of the Exilarch family descended from King David who established a semi-autonomous state in southern France, firstly in Aquitaine and then Septimania. This story has been hidden due to anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism that increased during the end of the 9th century and into the 10th century. At first it was anti-Judaism unleashed sadly by a Catholic of Jewish ancestry who departed from the tolerance of his forefathers and tried to force all Jews to become Catholics. However, anti-Semitism came to France with the Cathar heresy which hated Jews ethnically as the children of the devil and reached its height in the 12th century. From the 10th until the 12th century a process of hiding this history and the Jewish origins of their families began among the Catholic noble and royal families of Jewish ancestry. The genealogies had to be obscured and Christianised. The Jewish community also co-operated in this as they did not want their people to know of these powerful David Nasiim and their families who had embraced Islam and Catholicism but in the early medieval period retained great influence and respect among Muslims and Christians.
However, two Jews lifted the veil of the secret and revealed this dynasty and its centre in 8th century Narbonne in the 1160’s. One was the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela who visited Narbonne and the Jewish court around 1165. Even in the 12th century a descendant of these Septimanian Jewish Kings still reigned as the Nasi of the Jewish communities of Southern France who Tudela relates was Kalonymus ben Todros. Kalonymus still held many hereditary lands which the first Capetian King of France (who was also maternally descended from the Jewish family of Narbonne and paternally from the Rhadanite Jews who were merchant traders), must have restored to his family after the confiscations and persecutions that began in 897 and increased from 900 until 929 by Charles the Simple who was a Carolingian Catholic descendant of this family on the maternal line.Tudela's account states:
“…A three days' journey takes one to Narbonne, which is a city pre-eminent for learning; thence the Torah (Law) goes forth to all countries. Sages, and great and illustrious men abide here. At their head is R. Kalonymos, the son of the great and illustrious R. Todros of the seed of David, whose pedigree is established. He possesses hereditaments and lands given him by the ruler of the city, of which no man can forcibly dispossess him. Prominent in the community is R. Abraham, head of the Academy : also R. Machir and R. Judah, and many other distinguished scholars. At the present day 300 Jews are there…” [ Marcus Nathan Adler, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary, (London: Oxford University Press, 1907), 4.]The Rav Abraham who is the head of the Academy mentioned by Tudela must have been Abraham ben David the son-in-law of Rabbi Isaac the Blind. As it is believed that Rav Abraham had died in 1158 it is possible that Tudela was speaking of him as the recently deceased and famous Rabbi. It is also possible that the mention of Rav Machir and Rav Judah has slipped in the text. Thus the text would read:
“…At their head is R. Kalonymos, the son of the great and illustrious R. Todros of the seed of David, whose pedigree is established [from R. Machir son of R. Judah]. He possesses hereditaments and lands given him by the ruler of the city, of which no man can forcibly dispossess him. Prominent in the community was R. Abraham as head of the Academy and many other distinguished scholars.”It is obvious that the Rabbi Machir ben Judah and his brother Gershom ben Judah did not live in the 10th century but in the 8th century. They are remembered in the Chansons de Geste as Aimeri de Narbonne and Girart de Vienne. Their disciples in the 10th century did not learn from them personally but from their writings which were being passed down. This flexibility with identity and time is a feature also of the Zohar as well as the Chansons de Geste which relate in poetic form the adventures of this Davidic Jewish family.
The tale of this great Davidic family were passed down by troubadours and were shaped into a Christianised form in the court of Duke William IX of Aquitaine. The Arthur cycle of legendary Chansons came from this same court as the stories of Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur were part of this Jewish Warrior and Knightly tradition of the Davidic Nasiim. Machir and his ancestors were also descendants of King Arthur Mor himself through his son Amorai which is also the Aramaic name of Machir which is Hebrew. The name Gellone may be a play on the words Kalonymos and Golani.The Jewish rabbis and mystics loved to play with words and make puns of them.
One branch of this Davidic family had returned to Babylon and ruled the Jewish communities of the East and then another branch went to Barcelona in the 11th century. It is from this branch that Abraham ibn Daud of the 12th century who wrote the Sefer ha-Kabbalah descended. Abraham also wrote of the story of Machir and Narbonne and its Jewish kings. He wrote his Sefer Kabbalah around 1161. His account spoke of events in the reign of a King Charles who applied to the King of Baghdad for a Davidic heir to be sent to rule in the Frankish Empire. This in fact was Charles Martel not Charlemagne just as the Chansons de Geste telescoped many events from different periods into the time of Charlemagne so did later generations of Jews. Charles Martel’s own mother Alphaida (Alefa Ada) belonged to this Davidic Dynasty and was a daughter of the Babylonian Exilarch Chasdai. The names of Carloman, Charles and Charlemagne are Frankish versions of Kaylman and Kalonymus. Chasdai I (Moses Kalonymos) Exilarch of Babylon in 660 was a maternal grandson of Vahan II Kayl of Armenia who was known as Kayl Anuny Mos which was a pun on his Jewish name of Kalonymos in Armenian. His father was Mooshegh (Jewish name Moshe Hai or Moses) of the city of Moosh or Mos.
Machir Todros and his brother Gershom Or Ha Golah ben Judah were the sons of Eudes (Judah Zakkai) the Jewish Ruler (King or Duke) of Aquitaine who had sent two of his sons to study with the rabbis in Iraq. The Muslim Cailph of the account was actually Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik the 10th Ummayad Caliph. Machir’s father Eudes had abdicated and moved to study in Babylon at the court of the Exilarch after 735 and it was probably he who recommended with the Caliph and Exilarch Solomon’s approval to send his two sons to Charles Martel. It would seem that Narbonne had a Muslim Davidic Jewish ruler Othman who had the loyalty of the Jewish populace. Charles wanted to offer them a competitive alternative with Machir and his brother who became known as Theoodoric and Gerard among the Franks.
Abraham ibn Daud named his book after another one that had recorded the earlier history of the Davidic family which was preserved in Ireland by the Catholic monks. In Irish it was known as the Leabhar Gabhalah (the Book of Received Tradition in Hebrew and the Book of Telling in Gaelic). This earlier book spoke about the journey of the Davidic family to Scotland and Ireland. The monk who first collected and redacted this material lived before the 11th century and we find some of this material in the Book of Leinster of around 1150. It was probably St Ninian of the 5th century that first compiled this history of the Davidic family in the Isles, as he was both a member of the Exilarch family and a convert to Catholicism, who became a missionary monk to Scotland. This early version was what can be called the Leabhar Gabhala Scotti or Sefer ha Kabbalah of the Scottish Davidic family. This material was later taken to Ireland where another Irish monk added and redacted the material to form the Leabhar Gabhala Erenn.
This family had arrived in the Frankish Empire around 670 and in 675 they went to assist their relative Theodoric or Theuderic III King of Neustria. Theuderic III’s mother was the powerful Queen Mother Balthild (Bilhah), whose mother in turn was a Jewish Davidic Princess (Nessiya) Ada ha Daudiya (Ida Dode) who had left Babylon with her brother Mar Adoi (Adal) around 623 to visit their relatives in Bernicia in England. She soon after married Sigeberht the King of the East Saxons (Essex) and Mar Adoi returned to Babylon where he married his first wife. The members of the Davidic family had earlier fled Babylon for Europe as the Persians in the 6th century were killing all the Davidic descendants. They moved to Germany via Armenia and then a branch went to Britain as leaders of an Anglo-Saxon tribe and established themselves in Bernicia. Eventually many of the Anglo -Saxon and German Tribes were ruled by this network of Davidic families who intermarried with each other.
These Davidic Warrior Jews were flexible and while mostly keeping their own Jewish customs in their families, they would rule over Christians, Muslims and pagans. The mystique of these Davidic Nasiim seemed to transcend the religious barriers. Many of the non-Davidic rabbis did not approve of this deference and authority that the Davidic Nasiim held among the ordinary Jews and non-Jews. They seemed to disregard the religious divide when marrying if their partner was of Davidic status.
Mar Adoi after the death of his first wife went with his grandson Abu Aharon of Ramat haGolani in Syria/Palestine (Garin de Monglane) and his family to Neustria and he married as his second wife his relative Berswinde of Poitiers and Alsace. It would seem that when Omar a Jewish Arabian convert to Islam conquered the area of the Golan Heights, he allowed the Academy of Mar Adoi to remain as he was related to them. Mar Adoi's family were prominent Nasiim in Syria not only in the Golan Heights area but also in Aleppo (Halabu).
Berswinde was the granddaughter of Bodilon the Count of Poitiers whose wife was Sigrada. Berswinda’s father was Prince Luitfido or Luitfrith of Bernicia who became the ruler of Alsace and was a son of King Eanfrith of Bernicia and Princess Bega of Strathclyde and the Picts. Her mother was Chimnechild the daughter of Bodilon and Sigrada. Sigrada was the sister of Sigeberht the King of Essex.
From the time of St Joseph of Arimathea’s family's arrival in the British Isles to run the mines, the Davidic family has formed the core of Europe’s royalty and noble families, either on the direct male line or through intermarriage on the female line. Davidic status or Nasi status can be due to a family descending on a maternal line from a Davidic heiress. Professor Arthur Zuckerman revealed in 1972 some of the history of this family but, as I have pointed out in the past, he had some genealogical matters confused, as well as not realizing the full extent of the history of these families. I first read about his historical researches and Professor David Kelley’s genealogical work in 1982 through Sir Ian Moncriefe who, himself an expert on genealogy, accepted these claims of Zuckerman and Kelley.
I began my own research into the Davidic genealogies before this, beginning in 1978, when I was about 15 years of age. My interest in the Davidic genealogies caught my interest with a little British Israelite book entitled, “The Royal House of Britain: An Enduring Dynasty” by W.M. H. Milner, which outlined some of the Davidic descents of Prince David (who later became Edward VIII). I soon after discovered the works of Cecil Roth and the phenomenon of crypto-Judaism, which further inspired me and many hours of research took place in libraries over the next years, in the time before the world-wide web.
However though I had read about Zuckerman's book I didn’t have a chance to read it until Moshe Salitiel-Gracian very kindly sent me a copy in the late 1990’s. This is when I realised some of his errors in genealogy and in my opinion false identification of Natronai with Machir. Moshe Salitiel-Gracian was himself researching the Barcelona branch of the Exilarch family and we compared notes through internet contact, which was still pretty new in those days. While I respect his work in this area very much, I came to some conclusions in which I disagreed with him. My main difference was that I had come to believe that Mar Barzilay of Barcelona’s father Mar Isaac Haim was from the Aleppo branch of the Exilarch family on the direct line from the Babylonian Exilarch Solomon rather than from the Exilarch Hezekiah. However these two branches were both in Spain and intermarried. I also thought that the Beneveniste family were only Davidic on their maternal lineage. Another book I read in recent years was about the role of the Davidic Nasiim in medieval Muslim society, which besides being a fascinating read also alludes to the important role that these families played in not only the Jewish sphere but also in the Muslim and Christian worlds. That book was “This Noble House: Jewish Descendants of King David in the Medieval Islamic East” by Arnold Franklin. Another detailed and fascinating book is “A Prince without a Kingdom: The Exilarch in the Sasanian Era” by Geoffrey Herman.
Since I began posting this information on the internet, firstly on a website that later closed down and then on my blog, beginning in the late 1990’s, I have become even more convinced and find new evidence and insights all the time such as my identification of Widukind with St William of Gellone. It is fortunate that in hiding this information they only obscured it rather than destroyed it but with the right knowledge one can see the thinly veiled history of these Davidic Nasiim in the genealogies, legends and stories. This is an endeavour for those who have the kind of minds and temperaments to see the big picture and then to focus on the details. Too many scholars today are those who can't see any big pictures but are only locked into a detailed analysis of small areas of learning. I hope to write further on this topic in upcoming posts and when I finish my present post-graduate studies at the end of this year I am hoping to write a book on this topic if it is God’s Will. All those who are people of faith keep me and the proposed book in your prayers.