Samaritan Revolts

The Samaritan Revolts were a series of insurrections during the 5th and 6th centuries in Palaestina Prima province, launched by the Samaritans against the Byzantine Empire. The revolts were marked by great violence on both sides, and their brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan population. The events irreversibly shifted the demographics of the region, making the Christians the only dominant group in the Palaestina Prima province for many decades onward. Some historians draft comparisons between the consequences of the Samaritan Revolts of the 5th and 6th centuries upon Samaritans to the consequences of Jewish-Roman Wars of the 1st and 2nd centuries upon the Jews in the region.

Conflict background


Samaritans fared badly under the Roman Empire, when Samaria was a part of the Roman-ruled province of Judaea. Though not directly targeted, Samaritans also suffered the severe consequences of Jewish–Roman wars in the area during and after AD 66-136.

Following the period of Jewish-Roman wars, the previously dominating Jewish community went almost extinct across Judaea and the shore of Southern Levant, remaining a majority only in Galilee and Bashan (Golan). Samaritans and Byzantine Christians filled this vacuum in the central regions of Southern Levant, whereas Nabataeans and Christian Ghassanid Arabs settled the periphery.

This period is considered a golden age for the Samaritan community. The Temple of Gerizim was rebuilt after the Bar Kochba revolt in Judaea, around AD 135. With the withdrawal of Roman legions, Samaria enjoyed a limited kind of independence on the course of the 3rd and 4th century. Baba Rabba, the leader of the Samaritans, divided Samaritan territories to districts, and established local rulers out of aristocratic Samaritan families. He also executed a series of reforms and installed state institutions. Much of Samaritan liturgy was set by Baba Rabba during this time. This period of semi-independence was however brief, as Byzantine forces overran Samaria, and took Baba Rabba captive to Constantinople, where he died in prison several years later c. AD 362.

Justa uprising
During the reign of Emperor Zeno, tensions between the Christian community and the Samaritans in Neapolis grew dramatically. According to Samaritan sources, Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno (who ruled 474-491 and whom the sources call "Zait the King of Edom") persecuted the Samaritans with no mercy. The Emperor went to Sichem (Neapolis), gathered the elders and asked them to convert; when they refused, Zeno had many Samaritans killed, and re-built the synagogue to a church. Zeno then took for himself Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritans worshipped God, and built several edifices, among them a tomb for his recently deceased son, on which he put a cross, so that the Samaritans, worshipping God, would prostrate in front of the tomb.

Later, in 484, the Samaritans revolted, provoked by rumors that the Christians intended to transfer the remains of Aaron's sons and grandsons Eleazar, Ithamar and Phinehas. Samaritans reacted by entering the cathedral of Neapolis, killing the Christians inside and severing the fingers of the bishop Terebinthus.

The Samaritans elected Justa (or Justasa) as their king and moved to Caesarea, where a noteworthy Samaritan community lived. There many Christians were killed and the church of St. Procopius was destroyed. Justa celebrated the victory with games in the circus.

According to John Malalas, the Dux Palaestinae Asclepiades, whose troops were reinforced by the Caesarea-based Arcadiani of general Rheges, defeated Justa, killed him and sent his head to Zeno. Terebinthus meanwhile fled to Constantinople, requesting an army garrison to prevent further attacks. According to Procopius, Terebinthus went to Zeno to ask for revenge; the Emperor personally went to Samaria to quell the rebellion.

As a result of the revolt, the Byzantine emperor Zeno erected a church dedicated to Mary on Mount Gerizim. He also forbade the Samaritans to travel to the mountain to celebrate their religious ceremonies, and confiscated their synagogue there. These actions by the emperor fueled Samaritan anger towards the Christians further.

Some modern historians believe that the order of the facts preserved by Samaritan sources should be inverted, as the persecution of Zeno was a consequence of the rebellion rather than its cause, and should have happened after 484, around 489. Zeno rebuilt the church of St. Procopius in Neapolis (Sichem) and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signaling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.

495 Samaritan unrest
Samaritans rebelled again in 495 under the rule of emperor Anastasius I, reoccupying Mount Gerizim. The Samaritan mob commanded by a Samaritan woman is said to have seized the Church of St. Mary and massacred the garrison. The revolt was subsequently suppressed by the Byzantine governor of Edessa, Procopius, and the Samaritan leaders were slain.

Ben Sabar Revolt
Under a charismatic, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar (or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war, sometimes related as the final Samaritan revolt, to create their own independent state in 529. The Samaritan revolt of ben Sabar was perhaps the most violent. According to Byzantine sources, Neapolis' bishop Ammonas (also Sammon or Ammon) was murdered and the city's priests were hacked into pieces and then burned together with the relics of saints.

The forces of Emperor Justinian I were sent in to quell the revolt, with the help of the Ghassanid Arabs; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved, with their death toll possibly being between 20,000 to 100,000. The Samaritan faith was virtually outlawed thereafter by the Christian Byzantine Empire.

According to Procopius of Caesarea, the majority of Samaritan peasants chose to be defiant in this revolt, and "were cut to pieces". Further, Samaria, the "world's most fertile land, was left with no one to till it."

556 Samaritan revolt
Another major revolt erupted in 556, lasting probably as late as 572. In this occasion the Jews and the Samaritans seem to have made common cause, beginning their rebellion in Caesarea, early in the month of July. They fell upon the Christians in the city, killing many of them, after which they attacked and plundered the churches. The governor, Stephanus, and his military escort were pressed hard, and eventually the governor was killed, while taking refuge in his own house. Amantius, the governor of the East was ordered to quell the revolt, after the widow of Stephanus reached Constantinopolis

The rebellion appears to have spread as far as Bethlehem, where the Church of the Nativity was burned. Despite the Jewish participation, the rebellion however seems to had gathered less support than the revolt of ben Sabar. The sources state that either 100,000 or 120,000 Samaritans were butchered in the aftermath of the rebellion. Many were tortured and others were driven into exile. However, it might be considered an exaggeration, as the punishment of the Samaritans seems to have been limited to those in the district of Caesarea and they were not yet subdued by Byzantine Emperors.

The tensions however, were not over. Emperor Justin II (r. 565-578), complained about "outrages committed by settlement of Samaritans at the foot of Mount Carmel upon the Christian Churches and the holy images".

Aftermath
The Samaritan faith was outlawed and from a population of nearly a million, the Samaritan community dwindled to near extinction. The situation of Samaritans further worsened with the failure of Jewish revolt against Heraclius and slaughter of Jewish population in 629.

Following the Muslim conquest of Syria in 636, Samaritans suffered the same disabilities as Christians and Jews, but the Arabs included Samaritans within the Muslim definition of "People of the Book", and protected.