In the later part of the fifteenth century, Yemeni Jewry was swept with yet
another messianic fervor, one that resulted in a major violent conflict with the
southern Arab tribes that rushed to quell it. We cannot tell to what degree this
Yemeni Jewish messianic fervor was at work in David’s mind and helped to
shape his own aspirations, but it is clear that he was intimately familiar with
Arabian military might.^39 It is also probable that David witnessed another
violent development in Arabian history: the Ottoman advent to the Hijaz and
Arabia. By 1517 , the Ottomans had taken over Mecca and had control over the
caravan routes leading back and forth to Arabia.^40
So it is that two momentous political and military events took place in
David’s lifetime before he left Arabia: the suppression of a Jewish movement
by southern Arabian tribes and the Ottoman takeover of the peninsula and
Mecca. (The Ottoman control of the peninsula in 1517 may explain why David
traveled to Palestine through Africa and not via the Arabian side of the Red Sea
trade route.) David’s plans to “fight Islam” and specifically “to subjugate Mecca”
in the context of war with the Ottomans shed further light on David’s state of
mind and motives. David’s focus on Mecca also betrays the Arabian context as
the one with which he was familiar. The Arabian context is not complete,
however, without the Portuguese one.
The Red Sea Trade Route and the Portuguese
David outlined his plan to take over Mecca, stating that it would be easily
accomplished by a “Portuguese boat coming through the Red Sea.” He was
familiar, then, with Portugal’s naval power and was aware of the Portuguese
presence in his native region; he had probably seen Portuguese ships and was
able to assess their military applications. There is some novelty in the plan that
he suggests, using gunpowder-based warfare on boats to decide the battlefield
on land. It had already been experimented with in the Venetian-Ottoman wars
of 1499 – 1503 , but this was twenty-five years prior to David’s appearance in
Europe and in the Mediterranean, far from his own home region. David could
not have known much about naval warfare without first-hand experience. He
must have seen Portuguese boats elsewhere, that is, in the Red Sea.^41
The Red Sea provides access to the Indian Ocean and connects Ethiopia
with Arabia. Even after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, it remained
important as a major stronghold en route to India. The trade route is one of the
most ancient in world history, connecting, eventually, the Mediterranean world
with the Indian Ocean. On land, the route stretched from Alexandria and
Cairo, up the Nile and along the East African coast, all the way south to the