Shukr ben Salim Kuhayl I (?–1865), also known as Mari (Master) Shukr Kuhayl I (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: מרי שכר כחיל), was a Yemenite messianic claimant of the 19th century. He initially revealed himself in San‘a’ in 1861 as a messenger of the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

at a time when Jewish messianic expectations in Ottoman Yemen were ripe as a result of political turmoil. Divorcing his wife, he took up the life of an

itinerant preacher An itinerant preacher (also known as an itinerant minister or evangelist or circuit rider) is a Christian evangelist who preaches the basic Christian redemption message while traveling around to different groups of people within a relatively shor ...

to live in poverty and exhort the community to repentance. "I come to warn you and to remind you of repentance and redemption," he is reported to have said when publicly announcing his mission on a Sabbath in May 1861. He was apparently a humble, ascetic and pious individual, wearing ragged clothes, and removing himself to live alone on Mount Tiyal. At some point he began to indicate that he was no longer the messenger of the Messiah, but rather the Messiah himself. He inscribed messianic formulas on his hands, and "corrected"

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

45:1 to read כה אמר ה' למשיחו לשוכר ("Thus said the Lord to Shukr, His anointed one...") instead of the traditional כה אמר ה' למשיחו לכורש ("Thus said the Lord to Cyrus, His anointed one..."), in this manner reading himself into the Biblical narrative. The Jewish traveler

Jacob Saphir Jacob Saphir ( he, יעקב הלוי ספיר; 1822–1886) was a 19th-century writer, ethnographer, researcher of Hebrew manuscripts, a traveler and emissary of the rabbis of Eastern European Jewish descent who settled in Jerusalem during hi ...

, who wrote about Shukr Kuhayl in the

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

press and in his ''Even Sappir'', indicated that almost all the

Jews of Yemen Yemenite Jews or Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ''Yehudei Teman''; ar, اليهود اليمنيون) are those Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. Between June 1949 and September 1950, the ...

at that time believed the messianic claims of Shukr Kuhayl I. Although Kuhayl was very shortly thereafter killed by local

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

in 1865 —apparently under direction of the imam controlling the capital of San‘a’, who viewed his activities as a threat—there were many among his followers who did not accept his demise, and expected his imminent return. Among these were his sister and son, who did not mourn his death. They were soon enough rewarded in 1868 by the appearance of Judah ben Shalom, claiming to be the self-same recently deceased Shukr Kuhayl, who then went on to lead a very significant messianic movement, which attracted both Yemenite Jews and Arabs.

Notes and references

Jewish messiah claimants Yemenite Jews 1865 deaths Year of birth missing 19th-century Jews 19th-century Yemeni people {{Judaism-bio-stub

See also

Notes and references