Solomon bar Simson Chronicle
Encyclopedia
The Solomon bar Simson Chronicle is an anonymous Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 narrative history produced in the mid-12th century (1140). Like the Eliezer bar Nathan Chronicle and the Mainz Anonymous
Mainz Anonymous
The Mainz Anonymous or The Narrative of the Old Persecutions is an account of the First Crusade of 1096 written soon thereafter by an anonymous Jewish author.-Composition:...

, it is concerned with the persecutions of Jewish communities in the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....

 area, notably Speyer, Worms, Mainz and Trier, during the First Crusade
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...

 (1095-1099).

The text comes down to us in a manuscript of the 15th century, which was discovered only in the late 19th century. The transmitted text is complete, but marred by many scribal errors. A passage in the section on the Jewry in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 provides a date of 1140 for at least that part in which it occurs.

Contents and themes

The history focuses primarily on the Jewish martyrs of the persecutions. Anecdotal accounts were included to commemorate the martyrs, some of whom responded in extraordinarily radical fashion to the violence that awaited them. A Jew from Worms named Meshullam ben Isaac, for instance, is said to have sacrificed his son Isaac, killed his wife Zipporeh and finally to have committed suicide in order that their deaths will not come about at the hands of the Crusaders. The narrator comments that through his deed, Meshullam ben Isaac surpassed the patriarch Abraham.

Secondary sources

  • Chazan, Robert. God, Humanity, and History: The Hebrew First Crusade Narratives. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-520-22127-7.
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