I suppose many of you know quite well, or have at least heard of, Benjamin Disraeli — the proud Jewish man who became Prime Minister of the British Empire in 1868 and was responsible for many of the great things the British Empire achieved in its heyday.

Disraeli, often revered in his time as the crownless king — as you can tell by the nickname — was a prime minister of immense power, beyond anything a British prime minister before or after him possessed, including the wartime hero Churchill. Some of his great achievements for the Crown remain his legacy and even surpass those of Queen Victoria. So grandiose was Disraeli that he even made Queen Victoria Empress of India. He was also responsible for the British Empire’s confiscation of the Suez Canal shares. His work on the latter remains something out of a conspiratorial Hollywood movie. He colluded with the Rothschilds to secure the canal for the queen from the jaws of other great European powers. Some called this the first brick for the Balfour Declaration. But that is a long history for another day.Today is all about a magical Jewish radical who inspired this great man, who has become immortal in the historical books of one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen. His name was David Alroy, or David Ar-Ruhi.

Alroy was a bright boy who was Jewish but born and raised in the Islamic world at one of its golden days. Alroy was overwhelmed by the great achievements of the Islamic sultanate under which he lived. He read all the glorious victories, the history of Islam’s meteoric and unprecedented rise, its scientific and knowledge achievements, and he took pride in that as any American would today of America, regardless of one’s faith. But as he immersed himself in learning Torah and other Jewish religious books, he was radicalized and started to view himself as the true heir of the Islamic kingdom and the sultan as an impostor. Because those scriptures’ main message was that the king, or the sultan, ought always to be a Jewish king — not a Muslim or Christian or another generic goyim. Alroy thus began to dream like Netanyahu and behave like Itamar Ben-Gvir.

David Alroy, as messianic prophecies dictate, rose up against the backdrop of a time when Jews felt really squeezed out from both sides of their historical domains of domination: spirituality and land. On one side by Christianity and on the other by Islam — with Christians replacing them as high priests, and Muslims as empires and kings. David Alroy wrapped himself in religious Jewish garments and literal magic ornaments and declared himself the Messiah.

Shlomo the Jihadi

David Alroy was born Menahem ben Shlomo, a known messianic name throughout Jewish scriptures which held such an emotional and spiritual resonance in the minds of all Jewish jihadists. He was proficient in Bible and Talmudic knowledge, was well versed in Islamic literature, and was known as a worker of magic.However, Menahem ben Shlomo didn’t think his name carried enough spiritual and historical weight to entice enough Jewish jihadists to rally behind him in restoring the Jewish Caliphate. He wanted a messianic name on crack. So he changed his name to David Alroy — the spirit of David, King David, or Ibn ar-Ruhi in Arabic. He was a genius to come up with such a name for his messianic character. After all, what kind of Jewish jihadist wouldn’t be fired up by the spirit of David — even Ben Shapiro’s wife would flow like the Nile if Ben changed his name to David or the spirit of David.

David Alroy presented himself to Messiah-yearning Jewish jihadists as the ultimate messiah, chosen by God for the duty of the restoration of the national and historical stature of the Jewish people by taking over the Islamic world first before dethroning the Pope of Rome ultimately. The Jewish people said to David Alroy: if anyone has a true claim to be the Messiah, it’s you. You have the right name, from the tribe of Judah, have the genealogy of King David, and most importantly — unlike pacifist Jesus who died on the cross screaming “turn the other cheek” — you are willing to die as a martyr in a Jewish jihad in an attempt to reclaim what is by birth a Jewish right through the dethroning of the goyim king: the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtafi. You are willing to put your life on the line for the redemption of the historical and national aspirations of the Jewish people.

The Jews in Persia and in Iraq rallied behind him. They were truly convinced he was the Messiah and was going to defeat the enemies of the Jewish people — Muslims and Christians — and rule the world from Jerusalem. And there couldn’t have been a better time for David Alroy or any other Jewish messianic believer to strike. The Seljuk Caliphate was in disarray due to the Crusades and internal Muslim strife.

He assembled a sizable Jewish jihadist force and started to wage a holy war to re-establish the biblical Jewish Caliphate on what he envisioned to be the ashes of the Islamic Caliphate. He assembled his jihadist forces around the city, with swords and other weapons concealed under their robes, and gave, as a pretext for their presence, their desire to study the Talmud with such a distinguished scholar as himself. When nobody was expecting it, he attacked the citadel of his native town, Amadiya, Iraq, and directed his jihadist forces to put the sword on anyone they found. What followed is uncertain, for the sources of the life of Alroy each tell a different tale, and the subsequent events are closely interwoven with a mass of legends that have no historical basis. In all probability, the attack upon the fort at Amadiya failed; Alroy and his deluded followers were defeated, and he himself was put to death.

However, other sources claim that when the news of Alroy’s attempted messiah coup reached the ears of the king of the Muslim empire, he was dumbfounded by it and summoned David Alroy. The mighty sultan couldn’t believe the audacity of this pretentious character attempting to use jihadi tactics to dethrone the sultan. David Alroy showed up at the sultan’s castle with a messianic vibe and demanded of the Muslim king that the title belonged only to a Jewish king and that he should move aside. The Muslim king laughed at him and told him, “You must be out of your mind,” and threw him in a dungeon in his basement. Some legends have it that Alroy, who believed the Messiah could disappear, do instant travel, and perform miracles, used his legendary magic arts, came out of the prison, and joined the sultan and his guests for dinner. Shocked by this, the sultan and his army tried to capture Alroy, but like a character from a Hollywood blockbuster movie, he told them, “Catch me if you can” by walking over the Euphrates and vanishing. Others said he used his famous magic tricks to escape prison and returned to his hometown to continue the Jewish jihad. But before he relaunched his jihad operation, something unexpected and dramatic that his magic tricks couldn’t predict or prevent happened. David Alroy was stabbed to death by his father-in-law, who feared the fake Messiah was putting the Jewish community as a whole at risk.

The death or the disappearance of Alroy did not entirely destroy the messianic belief in the heaven-sent mission for the historical and national redemption of the Jewish people.His daring, almost madman-like Messiah attempt to dethrone the Muslim king would become an inspiration for a young Jewish boy nearly seven centuries later and paved the way for the establishment of Israel by the British Empire. That boy was Disraeli, the first publicly known UK prime minister of Jewish heritage. He wrote a novel titled The Wondrous Tale of Alroy in 1833 and was deeply and profoundly inspired by Alroy’s ideas and bravery to become the prime minister of the UK after he couldn’t be the king. Disraeli’s policies directly led Britain to assume the Messiah role and conquer the Middle East for the sole purpose of reviving the Jewish Caliphate.

These are excerpts from my upcoming book: Jewish Jihad.

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