The Scroll of Egypt: How the Jews of Cairo Were Saved from al-Hakim’s Decrees?

'And it came to pass in the days of our lord, the king, who judges by the word of God, reigning in the land of Egypt, and ruling over the corners of the earth in the west, and the east, and the north, and the sea, and his kingdom was exalted and strengthened...'

This is how the "Scroll of Egypt" begins, written by the Israeli poet Rabbi Shmuel ben Hoshana. Rabbi Shmuel was one of the heads of the Yeshiva of the Land of the Gazelle in Tiberias, and due to his position, he was sometimes also in the community of Cairo.

It was about a thousand years ago. The Jews of Cairo were dealing, in those days, with the mad Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (hence his name in the scroll "the one who judges by the word of God"), who ruled the Mamluk Empire. Al-Hakim was appointed Caliph at the age of 11. In 1004, at the age of 19, he received a spirit of madness to humiliate the minorities living in his kingdom. He forbade Christians from celebrating their holidays, banned Christians and Jews from drinking wine, every Jew had to wear a wooden pendant in the shape of a calf, a reminder of the sin of the golden calf... Jewish women were required to wear two types of shoes, one red and one black. In the bathhouses, Jews had to wear a bell tied to a rope, and at some point, their entry to the bathhouse was completely prohibited.

Later, he banned Christians and Jews from riding horses and embarked on campaigns throughout the Land of Israel to destroy Christian sites. In 1017, he declared himself a prophet and expressed support for a sage named Muhammad bin Ismail al-Darazi, from whom the Druze religion began, which al-Hakim is considered to have founded.

Along with the formation of the main tenets of the Druze religion, his decrees became true madness. He banned the game of chess, ordered all dogs in the city to be killed, decided that night should be turned into day and everyone should sleep during the day and work at night... It's no wonder they called him "the Mamluk Nero" (Nero was the Roman emperor who went crazy and burned Rome).

In 1021, al-Hakim went for a walk in the Mokattam Hills near Cairo, and there he disappeared, to the fortune of the empire that was on the brink of collapse because of his madness. However, according to the Druze religion, al-Hakim did not go anywhere, he awaits somewhere between heaven and earth to be revealed as the "Mahdi" in the end days, a revelation they are still waiting for.

The Scroll of Egypt deals with an event that happened in 1012, when the madness was still partial. During the funeral of a Jewish sage in Cairo, an Egyptian mob attacked the mourners and later arrested a group of them on various false charges. Meanwhile, the Jews of Cairo declared a fast and weeping. After discussions, the Caliph agreed to free them after two days. The community of Cairo set this fast as a fast for generations on the 3rd of Sh'vat, and Rabbi Shmuel ben Hoshana wrote the "Scroll of Egypt" describing their salvation, in which he lavishes many praises on al-Hakim, who apparently needed these compliments...

'And he managed the entire kingdom with generosity and good wisdom and needed neither a deputy nor an advisor...

'He loved justice and hated wickedness, and he set judges in the land and commanded them to judge righteous judgment and to administer true justice...

'And it came to pass on the third day of the month of Sh'vat in the year four thousand seven hundred and seventy-two from the creation of the world, a certain one of the community leaders named Putiel gathered them together, and they assembled Israel to do him kindness and to carry his bier...

'And the crowds of Egypt were envious of them and stoned them with stones and etched false accusations and trouble upon them...

'And the people were alarmed and fled for their lives; some escaped, some hid, some bribed with money...

'And they gathered from the people twenty-three and put them in custody in two prisons...

'And the king commanded, and they led them into the inner custody of the royal palace and placed them in chains...

'And all Israel who were in Egypt were very distressed...

'And they mourned and sighed and fasted and cried...

'And it came to pass that their cry was heard before our lord the king, and he knew their pain and their spirit's sigh, and he took pity on them...'

The scroll is long and fascinating, but is not mentioned at all in history books. It has reached us thanks to the Cairo Geniza.