Ancient Jewish Refuge in Madagascar

Martinus Paduei

I have seen a thread discussing the start of a tmeline with a concept of Jews fleeing from the Roman Empire starting over in Australia. I commented that the distance, over 10,000 kilometers, was way too far.

I think that Madagascar, while still an immense distance at over 5,000 kilometers, might just be doable starting from Eilat, especially with a stop off in Yemen. I don't know if I have the expertise to start a timeline on this, or the time, but I'd love to see someone do it, or at least see comments as to plausibility and outcome/consequences.

For the sake of argument, early in the Bar Kochba revolt, a respected member of the Jewish community in Jerusalem sees the writing on the wall/has a vision, and convinces a fair number of Judeans that they must flee far, far away from the Romans and start over, or they will all be killed along with Bar Kochba and his zealots. They go south to Eilat, and buy or hire every ship they can find over a period of a few months, outfit them, and head south.

Their thought is to resettle in the Himyarite Kingdom, which has a substantial Jewish community, but when they arrive, a severe drought is in progress, and they are fearful their ample stores will be taken by the local government, or by thieves. They argue over where to proceed next, and in the end exit quickly in two groups. Fourteen ships head east, and are never heard from again. Twenty ships head south, along the east coast of Africa, stopping at various trading communities.

At Rhapta, the southernmost trading community anyone is aware of, they hear of lands further south that might be suitable for settlement. The (by this time) sixteen remaining ships set out, and are driven east by the edge of a cyclone, losing three more ships in the process, and hit the western coast of Madagascar. Seven ships run aground in a fairly compact stretch of coast. The survivors are found rapidly by the remainining ships. There are not enough seaworthy ships left to carry the refugees to their previous destination, so they decide to settle in the area where the storm took them, viewing it as a sign from God.

Let's say you now have several hundred Jewish refugees, with a good mix of skills, fair supplies and equipment, and six ships, on a [nearly] uninhabited island. You can assume there are either no Austronesian settlers there yet, or if there are, there is only a small village or two on the other side of the island.

What happens now?
 
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kclcmdr

What approx. year would this be ???

And how much is a few 'hundred' folks??

For them to survive... start fishing initially.
 

Yanez de Gomera

There is also the poblem of tropical diseases (especially malaria) and of adaptoion to a rather different climate than what our exiles are used to, that might make agriculture and animal husbandry difficult.
 

Martinus Paduei

kclcmdr said:
What approx. year would this be ???

And how much is a few 'hundred' folks??

For them to survive... start fishing initially.
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Well, I said they leave early in the Bar Kochba Revolt, so lets say they make landfall in Madagascar around 135 in the Common Era with 500-800 people. I am leaving this fairly open, though with a bias toward "success" of some sort. "Everybody dies within a few years" wouldn't make a very exciting timeline!
 
Julius Vogel

Julius Vogel

Perhaps frame it as a generational migration - so the refugees stop for a time say in modern day Yemen/Oman, then Tanzania, then eventually end up there, suitably acclimatized to the tropics and to being resourceful.
 
MrGreyOwl

MrGreyOwl

They could go south looking for the land of the Queen of Sheba, making a first stop in Axum. As the number of refugees grows, it starts to upset the local authorities who send them on theirs way. It would gives them some times to prepare (better ships, seeds and cattle)
 

Tanc49

Long term, given they survive in enough numbers, that would be very interesting, especially when the first European ships start going over there.
It would be a mix of Priest John Kingdom and other stuff since they would be white-ish but jewish.

Interesting regarding any potential colonisation attempt (if the butterflies... 'n'stuff)
 

GdwnsnHo

Banned
One of the best ways to make this work would be if the Jews were able to bring any possible knowledge, engineering talent, etc with them. Then they could seek safe haven in Aksum or Himya, and then continue to migrate southwards generation by generation, or have it happen in one lifetime with several smaller stops.

If they can sell their knowledge and services on the way, they could get assistance, and if they can maintain a line of communication back to the Roman Empire, who is to say they couldn't encourage other Jews to follow them.

As for their arrival as per your suggestion (I wish to stay as close to that as possible) - Do they have crops that can grow in the area? Resources? Fishing is going to be an obvious first choice for food.

I'd expect there to be a strong desire for a proper port, even if it is just a jetty or two. If they are clever enough to encourage immigration, they'll need to offload people.

Perhaps if they are clever they could make a move to dominate east African trade? If they keep themselves out of coastal politics, and have enclaves, they could be seen as useful. They could even attempt to dominate trade with India and China if they can muster the resources. They funnel it through Madagascar, and they'll be very well set up.
 

thekingsguard

Madagascar was uninhabited at the time wasn't it? And it's also relatively free of tropical disease isn't it? At the very least Jewish food will be even more interesting in TTL
 
Julius Vogel

Julius Vogel

GdwnsnHo said:
One of the best ways to make this work would be if the Jews were able to bring any possible knowledge, engineering talent, etc with them. Then they could seek safe haven in Aksum or Himya, and then continue to migrate southwards generation by generation, or have it happen in one lifetime with several smaller stops.

If they can sell their knowledge and services on the way, they could get assistance, and if they can maintain a line of communication back to the Roman Empire, who is to say they couldn't encourage other Jews to follow them.

As for their arrival as per your suggestion (I wish to stay as close to that as possible) - Do they have crops that can grow in the area? Resources? Fishing is going to be an obvious first choice for food.

I'd expect there to be a strong desire for a proper port, even if it is just a jetty or two. If they are clever enough to encourage immigration, they'll need to offload people.

Perhaps if they are clever they could make a move to dominate east African trade? If they keep themselves out of coastal politics, and have enclaves, they could be seen as useful. They could even attempt to dominate trade with India and China if they can muster the resources. They funnel it through Madagascar, and they'll be very well set up.
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Right but this can't be a huge migration. It'll take many years after they arrive before they are in any position to do anything but exist. Maybe a century or two down the track
 

Blackfox5

Very intriguing POD.

I suggest most likely place of settlement is along the northwest coast. It'll have a tropical savanna climate. That area has many deep bays and well-protected harbors so they can develop a good port safe for ships.

Assuming they are able to create a successful settlement, they can send word back to Himyar that they have found available land and good soil. So the settlement will be known to the Jewish community, however unless there is ongoing persecution, I don't see many future waves of settlements. It's just too far, and life there is going to be extremely difficult for a long time. This is hard farm life. Jews living in cities won't be attracted to go there until there is enough surplus to support their preferred occupations.

So the settlers will be on their own except for perhaps a few additional settlers joining them early on from stragglers.

At that point, it's a story of population expansion and exploration of the island. At some point, the central highlands will be found which is the place most amenable to settlement and high population density.

I don't think we can exclude the Austronesians entirely, but we could see a situation where the Jews occupy the north and central highlands, while the Austronesians live in the east coast and south. When contact is made, there is going to be low frequency warfare. However, the Jews should be able to survive.

Eventually, the Jewish community will produce enough wealth surplus to build a real port and additional ships to begin trade. This is likely one to two hundred years in the future, but the Classical World will not have changed much by 350. They could do well by trading with East Africa and supplying it to Yemen, Persia, and Roman Egypt (and eventually India). At this time, they'll have a real trade network and can keep in contact with the rest of the world.

At that point, it'll be possible to link up with the greater Jewish Diaspora and become a real destination for future Jewish settlement. We could also see additional land become occupied by Jewish traders such as the island of Zanzibar and later begin trade settlements on the coast, but this will be a slow process built up over centuries.

Initially, the various Jewish communities on Madagascar will govern themselves, but once a certain population level is reached, we'll likely see the beginnings of a central government.

These are my initial thoughts.
 

Martinus Paduei

Given that the Lemba apparently display a genetic background that seems to indicate Jewish ancestry mostly on the patrilineal side (maybe from traders), not really the same thing.

Given the nature of the opening POD, where their first choice, the Himyarite Kingdom, fell through, and their backup idea was to move on to new, unknown lands, I'd be willing to bet a prudent group would be trading for local crops and food animals, so having foodstuffs that could adapt to the climate might not be that much of an issue. Lets say they have a mix of African, Yemeni and Judean crops and animals. Together with fishing, and the likelihood that much of the Judean/Yemeni package might well prosper in Madagascar's central highlands, or along the drier eastern shore, together with elements of an African crop/domesticate package ideal for other parts of Madagascar, I think that food would not be a problem.

Let me throw out a few other parameters, as well. For the sake of argument, since no one knows when the Austronesians first arrived, lets say they do so basically at the same time as the Judeans, but on the southeastern part of the island, with the Judeans in the northwest, and neither side finds the other for many (How many? I am not sure yet. 20?) years. Let's also assume that the Judeans send back three of their six ships, to bring news of this new land, and to encourage more Judeans to join them, and that two ships make it back to Judea, with instructions to bring more supplies (tools, raw materials, food, etc.) By this time, let's say the year 137, the Bar Kochba revolt has been thoroughly crushed, and Jews are being treated very badly by Hadrian's legions in order to make sure they do not rise up again, so I feel that they would be able to get a large number of potential settlers.

The returnees convince a large number of Judeans to return with them, and the population in northeastern Madagascar grows to around 1500. A second mission back returns in 139, but by that time Hadrian is dead and conditions have improved for the remaining Jews, and local Rabbis are also encouraging Jews to remain, rather than to emigrate. The flow of settlers slows to a small, intermittent trickle, maybe only small group of adventurers or the desperate every year or two.

Now what? What native crops or resources might the Judeans (have to figure out a name for the new land and for the first settlement) be able to exploit? Raffia would provide rope and textile material, and palm wine, I suppose. Tamarind is another possibility. There were a lot of unique megafauna and smaller animals on the island which eventually went extinct, likely due to human activity. Might some of these be domesticated by the settlers? Probably not the Madagascar pygmy hippo. Hippos aren't kosher. Elephant birds might be a possibility. There were also native ducks.

Madagascar has very significant mineral deposits, but what is in the immediate area, and would be readily discoverable/accessible? There are evidently significant alluvial gold and sapphire deposits on the island, and from what little I have been able to glean by a quick search, there are very rich iron ore sources, some of which are easy to access.
 
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Julius Vogel

Julius Vogel

I just don't buy that classical era Jewish migrants would be acting like early modern era European colonialists.It's what 4-6k kilometres each way right? That's a long way to go for classical era ships and navigation.

Contrast to Polynesian migration, they were people moving past islands they had slowly island hopped, leaving small populations of co ethnics. Here, they'd be sailing for months past strangers, in uncertain weather.

I see it as one way, one shot migration.
 

Martinus Paduei

It is indeed a very long way, but not amazingly long, and the way (except for the very last bit, from Rhapta to Madagascar) is not unknown in the classical world, as shown by the existence of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. You also have industrial strength ass-kicking and persecution by Rome to push the first and second waves out. Note that once this calms down, I do have immigration slowing to an almost complete stop.
 
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Martinus Paduei

Done a bit more looking into ores and minerals. The sapphires are not anywhere near the original landing area, but alluvial gold is not too far away, and from what I can tell, there are readily accessible and fairly large deposits of iron ore and copper ore within two hundred fifty kilometers or so of the approximate original landing spot/settlement.

Lets say those deposits are discovered 10-15 years after the first landing, and small local mining operations, sufficient to supply the needs of the local inhabitants, are set up within a year or two after that. By 155, 20 years after the first landing, New Judea has a population of 3,500, with about half of those being born there. The population is around 95% Jewish, with the gentile population consisting of some of the original sailors who had made the trip south, along with a few adventurers who arrived later, and some traders who came over from Rhapta.

Now, a party of Judeans exploring the central highlands runs into a party of Austronesians from the southern end of the island.

Here is a map with a posited situation as of 155, at the time of the first contact with the Austronesians. The black is Judean settlement, with the site chosen as the capitol and the two mines specifically shown, and the smaller dots being farming/fishing settlements. The red are Austronesian villages.


madagascar 155.gif
 
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Martinus Paduei

edvardas said:
If the Jews can move on to the cape, they would do very well with their traditional crops.
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That is quite a long way further, and with the land they have available, even with competition from the Austronesians, I don't see the need arising for quite a while. Of course, in addition to the need, they would actually have to find the Cape!
 
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Martinus Paduei

Since I am positing a history on the optimistic end of the spectrum, lets say that initial contact and relations are on the friendly side. The Judeans obtain, among other things, taro and bananas from the Austronesians, who get some new crops and domesticates, as well. What technologies might the Judeans receive at this time? Better navigational/sailing related tech? My knowledge of second century Austronesian technology is not encyclopedic, to put it mildly!
 
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