David Reuveni claimed to be the brother of a king Joseph who ruled in Arabia a large community of Jews, said to number 300,000
In the year 1525, a diminutive Jew of swarthy complexion and pock-marked body presented himself at the court of King John III of Portugal bearing letters of introduction from the pope Clement VII to support his official position as a Jewish ambassador. Such was the forceful nature of his character, that he was able to obtain free board and lodging for himself and an unruly, unpaid retinue over a period of five months until a less credulous king ordered him to leave.
David Reuveni claimed to be the brother of a king Joseph who ruled in Arabia a large community of Jews, said to number 300,000, which had descended from two and one half of the legendary ten Lost Tribes of Israel (Reuben, Gad and Manasseh). He presented, as military commander of his people, a plan to lead a large force of warriors in a campaign to free Palestine from Ottoman rule and sought from John III military support by way of ships, armaments and training.
He claimed to have the support in this novel crusade of an ally in the person of Prester John the monarch of a mythical Christian Community located somewhere on the East African coast. He also presented an impressive list of supporters that he had gathered during his journey from Arabia to Italy. These included Rabbi Avraham ben Eliezer Halevi and the Yeshivas of Jerusalem and Gaza, the celebrated humanist Cardinal Elidio da Viterbo and the banking brothers Daniel and Vitale da Pisa of Rome.
Reuveni was given a rapturous reception by the Sephardic Jews who had chosen, in 1497, to convert to Christianity as the only alternative to expulsion and were wary of their fragile position in Portuguese society following the Lisbon massacre of 1506. These Marranos saw him as a Messiah who could offer both redemption and relief from their suffering caused by continuous persecution. Reuveni denied that he was either Messiah or Prophet and repeatedly stated that his wish was only to forge a Christian-Jewish alliance to defeat the powers of Islam.
Among the fervent disciples who flocked to support what was considered to be a just cause was Diogo Pires, a young noble who was a secretary of state to the king. He converted to Judaism and adopted the name of Solomon Molcho. It was he who accompanied Reuveni to Spain where they were briefly arrested and charged by the Inquisition of inciting Marranos to return to Judaism.
Shortly afterwards, Molcho travelled independently through the Ottoman empire while Reuveni was shipwrecked off the coast of Provence and imprisoned for two years until the king of France intervened. The pair then met again in Venice where, to no avail, they earnestly pleaded their cause with the city governors.
When they finally managed to obtain an audience with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Regensberg in the summer of 1532, evidence had been stacked against them as being “religious activists”. Molcho was burned at the stake and Reuveni was sent in chains to Spain where he suffered the same fate but with merciful garroting before flame.
Throughout his travels, Reuveni meticulously maintained a diary written in Hebrew. In this, he was forthright in his observation of the dignitaries with whom he dealt but also critical of his own failings. He admitted, for instance, the fabrication of letters and diplomas from his brother, royalty and papal authorities, but only because the originals had been stolen by one of his unfaithful servants.
As an observant Judaist speaking only judeo-arabic, he adopted a conformist lifestyle throughout his travels observing all of the strictures of Halachic law. Being personally impoverished, he was financed by a throng of charitable well-wishers.
A recent translation and analysis of the diary made by Alan Verskin reveals puzzling contradictions in the narrative of his struggle to achieve the goal of leading his people back to Palestine by defeating the Ottomans who were then at the zenith of their expansion and knocking on the doors of Venice, Vienna, Buda and other cities of Christian Europe. In this, he was an opportunist who sought to achieve his ends by support from threatened European monarchs; in particular, John III who saw the Ottoman Empire as an obstacle to his mercantile plans for the East.
No one is sure concerning the origins of Reuveni: least of all the Jewish merchants who kept careful records of their transactions in Arabia and along the Silk Road to China. They must have passed through the domain of “King Joseph” of Habor which was said to be contained within a plain bounded by the hills of Hejaz and the fabled Sambation river. Some even suggest that he may have come from the substantial Jewish settlements of Goa and Cochin where Portugal was building its Empire. While there may be doubts concerning his ethnicity, there are none for his religious zeal as an early proponent of the Zionist cause by the redemption of the Jews and return to the Holy Land.
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Roberto Cavaleiro has been a citizen of Portugal since 1989. Until 2002, he was very active in the watersports industry both as a distributor of boats and equipment and as the owner of O Clube Náutico do Zêzere the first purpose-built centre where national competitions and training sessions were organized for wakeboard, water-ski, jet-ski, dinghy sailing and triathlon. As a nonagenarian now in retirement he is an active essayist, documentarian and poet.
