Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, journeyed on their own to the land of Ethiopia and
encamped in the wilderness until they came to their border, a twenty days’
Journey, and they slew the men of Ethiopia, and unto this very day, they fight
with the children of the kingdoms of Ethiopia.”^33
Finally,Kita ̄b al-Tija ̄ntells in detail the story of King al-Sa‘b Dhu’l Qarnain
(Sa‘b of the Two Horns), a legendary warrior king, a story that made its way
also into the Qur’an. In the Qur’an, this enigmatic figure—who later became
interpreted as an Islamic version of Alexander the Great, at war with Gog and
Magog—appears briefly as the one defeating “Yajuj and Majuj” and shutting
them somewhere in the far east: “until he came to the place where [the] sun
rises” (Qur’an 18 : 83 – 101 ). InKita ̄b al-Tija ̄n, however, a figure with a similar
name is depicted as traveling from the far east to the far west, to “Andalus”—
that is, Spain. He also goes “from the farthest north to the farthest south” and
wages war in the “Land of Gog and Magog.”^34 Eldad, who showed up a few
decades after Ibn Hisham’s version began circulating, might not have known
that particular account, but he was certainly familiar with the local traditions as
told by Wahb.
Placed within a milieu of storytellers such as Ka‘b and Wahb, Eldad’s
trickster character can be seen in a new light, which may partially explain his
motivations. These stories’ heritage was part of hisidentity.In other words,
trickster Eldad was describing what historian Lev Gumilev calls “authentic
lies.”^35 Recall Morag’s comment concerning the respect that Najrani Jews
commanded among their non-Jewish neighbors even in modern times. In-
deed, given its royal history, one can imagine why these Jews enjoyed such
status, or at least thought they did, even centuries after these events. Among
Jewish communities of the time, such a past was unique. Eldad was not
completely lying, as many later historians have accused, when he sat sur-
rounded by riveted Qayrawani Jews, telling them stories of huge Israelite
armies fighting mighty enemies. He was not relying only on his imagination,
but also on what he understood to be his own past, converting Dhu ̄Nuwas and
the Himyarite Jews of yore into an upgraded version of the ten tribes. At the
same time, Eldad incorporated into the tale other bits and pieces of informa-
tion about the wild Ethiopians; the world of trade that lay in the far east; and
tales of a man between far east and the far west, a man just like himself.^36
The Qayrawanis’ Response: Law, Anthropology, and Scripture
“Be it known to your Lordship that a man has become our guest whose name is
Eldad the Danite of the tribe of Dan, and he has told us that there are four