Exilic Returns

The Ten Tribes in Early Modern Reflections on Jewish History

Bibliographic Data

ID6445323
AuthorsAndrea Schatz (0000-0003-2879-0684, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume26
Issue2
Pages148-165
Publication date2025-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Theology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1462-317X • E-ISSN: 1743-1719
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1462317x.2025.2467521
OpenAlexW4409205593
LanguageEN
References cited19

This article investigates how narratives about the Ten Tribes in sixteenth-century Italy supported Jewish reflections on exile that were firmly oriented towards the diasporic present and rather ambivalent regarding a return to the ancestral land. The article outlines medieval traditions about the “shadow exile” of the Ten Tribes that were relevant, when narratives about them were re-written in the early modern world. It then analyses visions of an only partial return to the Holy Land and the intriguing transformation of the Tribes from warriors into merchants trading in the early colonial world in Abraham Farissol’s Iggeret orḥot ‘olam. Finally, it discusses the ambivalent legitimization of exilic continuity without return in Azariah de’ Rossi’s Me’or ‘enayim. The article shows how the Ten Tribes could serve to encourage a hopeful (re-)turn to the present moment, while keeping critical perspectives on exile inscribed in early modern ways of creating a diasporic home

Jewish history · Jewish studies · Judaism · Theology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Philosophy · Religious studies

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