Bnei Moshe: Search for the Lost Levites

Beth HaMidrash, edited by Adolf Jellinek

They are religiously observant, learned in Torah, Mishnah, Talmud, and Aggadah. Their Talmud is in Hebrew, and this is how they teach: ‘Thus did our ancestors learn it, and thus did our sages learn it orally from Joshua b. Nun, (who learned it) orally from Moses, (who received it) orally from God.’ They know nothing about the tannaim or amoraim (whose floruit was) during the period of the Second Temple because they (i.e., their teachings) did not reach them and they have no knowledge of them. They only know how to speak Hebrew. They are stringent regarding the use of libation wine, and whereas the Rabbis were strict in the

halakhot pertaining to slaughter and the fitness of animals for sacrifice in accordance with theopinions of the scribes, Moses our Teacher was more stringent than the opinions of the scribes. They never swear oaths using the Name, and they become vocally angry with anyone who so swears in their presence. They upbraid them and say to them: ‘O wretches! How can you bear to mention the Name with your mouth? (Think of) all that has been on your mouth! Is it bread that you can eat it, or water that you can drink it? Do you not know that your children will die while they are young for the sin of swearing?’ Thus do they warn everyone to serve the Lord with awe and reverence and complete integrity. The ‘people of Moses, servant of the Lord’ have prolonged life-spans, living for one hundred or one hundred and twenty years. No daughter or son dies during the lifetime of their parent, and they attain (an age) reaching to the third or fourth generation (after them), personally seeing their children, grandchildren, and their descendants...

They possess moreover large quantities of silver and gold. They sow flax and raise the worm that yields scarlet coloring and manufacture beautiful garments and cloaks. Their population is twice or fourtimes that (of Israel) at the time of the Exodus, so many the number cannot be determined. The width of the River Sambatyon is two hundred cubits, ‘about a bowshot’s distance’ (Gen 21:16).

4 Ezra 13:39-47 (Syriac version)

And as for when you saw him summon and gather to himself another large multitude who were peaceful, these are the nine and one-half tribes who were led away captive from their land in the days of King Josiah, those whom Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, took captive. He took them to the other side of the Euphrates river, and they dwelt as captives in another land. However, they formed a plan among themselves and reached this counsel; namely, they would depart from the multitude of nations and travel to a remote country where none of the human race had lived since time began, for there they might even observe their laws which they neglected to observe in their homeland. They began their journey by the narrow entrances of the Euphrates, for then the Most High performed wonders for them and blocked the passages of the river until all of them had crossed over, so that they traveled on dry ground. It was a long journey to travel, a journey which lasted one and a half years. That place where they dwell is called Arzaf at the edge of the world. They live there until the final age, and then they are destined to come here again. The Most High will again block the passages of the Euphrates so they will be able to cross it. This is why you saw the gathered multitude who assembled peacefully.

Fernand Grenard, Jules-Léon Dutreuil de Rhins: Mission scientifique dans la haute Asie (1895) (translated by Jeremy Furchtgott)

Ulf Atâ left the Khârezm region with 6,000 men to go on a pilgrammige to Mecca. At Medina, he received orders from the prophet to convert to Islam the regions of Kumul, Turpan, and Karachar...

Resolving to march directly on Khotan, the Muslims made it to the Khotan River and began marching up it. But only a few days later, a sandstorm made them lose their way and after wandering around for a while, they reached the Keriya river and thus reached Yeshil Kul, a small lake located two leagues to the north of the current city of Keriya. Continuing upon their route, they reached the walls of Kenhan, mostly inhabited by Jews—the Muslims were only one one-hundredth of the population. The province of Kenhan included seven cities. Its prince was Turk Terkhan, who paid tribute de Nudun Khan. He was Jewish and a sorcerer and read the Gospel in his magical endeavors.

After defeating a group of 5,000 Kyrghyz Kalmak’s commanded by Turk Terkhan, the Muslims captured and pillaged the city of Ulugh Zerat. Then there was a great battle, where Cheikh Emir Djelal ed-din perished. The infidels surrendered and embraced Islam. However Turk Terkhan, using his spells, made his capital Kenhan invisible. Upon the prayers of the Muslims, God made this city to remain invisible until the day of the resurrection, and that its population should perish in final impenitence.

Ellsworth Huntington, The Pulse of Asia (1907)

In answer to my further inquiries as to the history of the region, Ismail Beg sent for a “tezgireh” like that of Imamla, a dull, but apparently accurate contemporary chronicle of the Mohammedan invasion. The chronicle describes how, in the tenth century, the Moslem invaders advanced along the line of oases from Kashgar through Yarkand and Khotan to Keriya. [...] Having conquered Chira, the invaders sacked Lachinata and Ulugh Mazar, or Terkhi Turkhan and Kenan, as they are also called.

It is proverbially unsafe to place much reliance upon legends. Students, however, are more and more recognizing that legendary stories contain a kernel of truth, which can be detected by comparing scientific facts with those details of the stories which would be least likely to be the product of imagination. Therefore the local legend of the destruction of Kenan or Ulugh Mazar is worth recording.

According to Ismail Beg and the people of Malakalagan, a holy Mohammedan priest came to Kenan one day, long after the driving out of the former Buddhist inhabitants, and found no one at home. Men, women, and children had all gone out to work on the canals. The holy man was hungry and tired. Being accustomed to live on the fat of the land, he was irritated at finding the houses shut and empty. He offered a prayer, which can hardly be supposed to have been pious, and began to turn a hand-mill standing in a courtyard, whereupon sand rained down from heaven. It ceased to fall when the troubled villagers, having seen it from afar, came hastening home and supplied the good man’s wants. Nevertheless, the visitation proved fatal. From that time onward the water supply decreased, until at last the people of both Lachinata and Kenan abandoned their houses and fields, and moved to old Dumuka and Ponak, which had remained uninhabited since the Buddhist inhabitants fled northward across the desert."

Mishpacha Magazine, 2010

When he met two Pakistani teenagers at the northern border of China, Rabbi Yitzchak Chinagel was certain that he was about to receive yet another confirmation of a theory of his — something he had long suspected to be the case. Although they looked and acted like Muslims, these teens originated from a town deep in Pakistan — a town where, Rav Chinagel feels certain, hundreds of thousands of descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel live today.

Rav Chinagel discussed this possibility with a group of Americans who searched for the Ten Tribes and the Bnei Moshe about thirty-five years ago. That group possessed two maps, one of German origin that delineated an area in northern China as “Moshe,” and another of American origin which labeled the same area as “Moses.” These maps would serve as the basis for Rabbi Chinagel’s search as well. ... . A local travel agent named Abdul escorted us through the area, which is mostly inhabited by Muslims.

"He [an old imam] did tell us a little more about Nisa, whose residents, he explained, do not seem to be Muslims, because they never attend services at the mosque. ‘They claim that there is no need to believe in the prophet Muhammad, since they had a prophet called Moshe Rabbeinu who preceded him by many years,’ the imam said, without having an inkling that that was exactly the information we sought. There in the mountains,” he said, pointing in a general direction, “there are people who are exceptionally tall, and have glowing faces. They appear every so often during market day to sell animals and merchandise. We try to speak to them, but they don’t respond; they won’t tell us who they are or what they do. They only speak about their merchandise, and even then, only when there’s no other choice.”