MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : A JEWISH QUEEN OF KURDISTAN / The Jews of Kurdistan

A street in Jerusalem named after the Kurdish Jewish queen Helene.

Helene, in Hebrew Helene HaMalka, also called Sadan, was from the Kurdish royal clan Hadhaban who ruled over the kingdom of Hadhaban (Adiabene in Roman and Greek, Hadhyab or Hadhayab in Aramaic) corresponding to Hawler (Erbil) and Urfa.

Along with her family she converted to Judaism from Zoroastrianism and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 46 CE, saving the local Jews from a famine by importing grain and figs from Egypt, and donated several gold items to the Temple. She also built three palaces which were destroyed during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

One of her palaces was uncovered in 2007 by the Israeli archaeologists. “The building, which includes storerooms, living quarters and ritual baths, is by far the largest and most elaborate structure discovered by archaeologists in the City of David area, which was home 2,000 years ago almost exclusively to the city’s poor.”

In addition to being mentioned in Josephus’ works, Queen Helene appears also in the Mishnah (in connection with her donations to the poor and the Temple) and in both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds.

Hadhabani tribal confederacy later converted to Christianity and later to Islam and ruled over Hawler until late Medieval era.

Salahadin Ayyubi who ruled over Jersualem almost one thousands years later, also belonged to the same tribe Hadhabani.

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