Ten Jewish Rulers You Never Heard Of

Today, it comes as no surprise that Israel’s prime minister is Jewish. Jewish individuals have risen to lead other modern nations far from the Middle East—Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Mexico’s newly elected President Claudia Sheinbaum are two prominent examples. Yet, in most cases, their Jewish heritage is incidental to their political identities.

But rewind a few thousand years and the story looks very different.

There was a time when Jewish rulers governed sovereign kingdoms—some known through legend, others firmly rooted in historical and archaeological evidence. These kings (and yes, queens) were not merely Jewish by ancestry; their reigns were deeply bound to Jewish identity, culture, and destiny. And yet, most of these remarkable figures are all but forgotten today, eclipsed by more familiar names like David and Solomon.

In this article, we spotlight ten such monarchs—men and women whose stories have slipped through the cracks of mainstream history, but who helped shape the ancient world in significant ways.

1. Dhu Nuwas of Yemen

Yemen, today part of a fraught geopolitical landscape, once had as many as three Jewish—or Judaizing—kings, according to ancient Syriac, Arabic, and Greek sources. This chapter of Jewish history features dramatic conversions, political upheaval, and religious conflict in the Himyarite Kingdom, where Judaism became a dominant religion between the 4th and 6th centuries CE.

The first of these rulers, Malkikarib Yuha’min (r. 375–400 CE), led his kingdom’s transition from polytheism to Judaism. His successor, Abu Karib, formally converted during a military campaign in northern Arabia after encountering two Jewish scholars. But the most notorious of the trio was Yusuf As’ar Yath’ar, better known as Dhu Nuwas—“he of the sidelocks.”

A religious zealot and fierce opponent of the Christian Byzantine and Aksumite empires, Dhu Nuwas seized power in 522 CE by assassinating a puppet king installed by the Abyssinians.

Christian sources accuse him of forcibly converting Christians to Judaism, destroying churches, and committing atrocities—most infamously in the valley of Najran (modern-day Saudi Arabia), where up to 300 Christians were allegedly executed after refusing to convert. This was presented as retaliation for Jewish persecution under Byzantium.

The response was swift. By 525 CE, a joint Byzantine-Aksumite coalition invaded and crushed the Jewish Himyarite kingdom.

2. Yehudit of Ethiopia

Nearly half a millennium after Dhu Nuwas, another Jewish ruler arose in the Horn of Africa. Known as Yehudit Isato (“Fire”), she is remembered in Ethiopian legend as a warrior queen who toppled the Christian Aksumite Empire around 960 CE.

Traditions diverge: some say she was the daughter of King Gideon of the Jewish Beta Israel kingdom, assuming the throne after his death in battle. Others claim she was an Aksumite princess who was banished and later converted to Judaism through marriage to a Syrian prince. Whatever her origins, Yehudit’s 40-year reign brought widespread destruction to Aksumite churches and monuments. Her dynasty reportedly lasted until 1137 CE.

Though some scholars question her historicity, Yehudit’s legend remains central to Ethiopian Jewish and Christian oral traditions.

3. Dihya al-Kahina of North Africa

In the late 7th century, the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate sent a massive army to conquer the Maghreb. Standing in their way was Dihya al-Kahina, a Jewish Berber queen and formidable military leader.

A member of the Jarawa tribe in the Aurès Mountains, Dihya united Berber tribes in defense of their homeland. Her title, “al-Kahina,” possibly denoted either priestly descent (from the Hebrew Kohen) or was a nickname given by Arab foes, meaning “soothsayer.”

After the Umayyads destroyed Carthage, Dihya’s forces retook the city and drove Arab troops out of the region. She ruled for five years before the Caliphate returned with overwhelming force. Offered a chance to convert to Islam, she refused: “I shall die in the religion into which I was born.”

She was either killed in battle or committed suicide in 703 CE by throwing herself into a well. Her memory lives on in Bir el-Kahen (Kahina Well) in the town of Bir El-Ater, and a statue of Dihya stands in the center of Baghai, in the Aures Mountains.

4. Mar-Zutra II of Persia

The only successful rebellion to briefly establish independence within the mighty Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE) was led by a Jewish leader—Mar-Zutra II.

As the 13th Exilarch, he governed Jewish affairs in Sasanian Mesopotamia. When King Kavadh I denied Jewish militia rights and pushed radical economic reforms, Mar-Zutra revolted in 495 CE and carved out a seven-year kingdom in Mahoza, near Ctesiphon (in modern Iraq).

In 502 CE, Sasanian forces retook the city-state. Mar-Zutra and his uncle were crucified. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mar Zutra’s successor as Exilarch kept his head down (and therefore attached to his shoulders) throughout the rest of Kavadh’s reign and Mar-Zutra’s son emigrated to the Land of Israel.

5. Hanilai and Hasinai of Babylonia

Centuries before Mar-Zutra, two Jewish brothers—Hanilai and Hasinai—established a semi-independent enclave under the Parthian Empire.

Raised in the Jewish-majority city of Nahardea, they led a band of rebels-turned-rulers in the Euphrates marshlands. After a failed government raid, the Parthian king Artabanus III legitimized their control to secure their loyalty against rival governors.

Their regime lasted from 18–33 CE. But when Hanilai married a Parthian noblewoman and allowed her to persist in her idol worship, it fractured their support. Hasinai was poisoned—likely by his sister-in-law—and Hanilai’s rule unraveled. He returned to banditry until his death at the hands of angry villagers.

6. The Brutakhi of Eastern Europe

This one is a mystery. In his 13th-century travelogue, papal envoy Giovanni da Pian del Carpine mentions a people called the Brutakhi, “who are Jews,” among those conquered by the Mongols in Eastern Europe.

No other direct records exist. Scholars speculate they may have been remnants of the Khazars, Mountain Jews, or local converts from the Pontic Steppe. Their kingdom is lost to time.

7. The Mountain Jews of the Caucasus

Unlike the Brutakhi, the Mountain Jews (Juhuro) still exist today. From the 1630s to the late 18th century, they enjoyed a degree of autonomy in Dagestan and were allied with the Quba Khanate.

Their capital was Aba-Sava, south of Derbent. The principality flourished until 1800, when Surkhai Khan of Kumukh massacred the region’s Jewish settlements during a power struggle. The principality was never restored, but descendants of the Mountain Jews still preserve their unique culture in small communities around the world.

8. Khagan-Bek Bulan of Khazaria

The Khazars, a Turkic empire on the Silk Road, are best known for a remarkable event: their elite converted to Judaism in the 8th century. The man credited with initiating this was Khagan-Bek Bulan Sabriel.

In correspondence with Hasdai ibn Shaprut, Jewish advisor in Islamic Spain, the Khazar king’s descendant recounted how Bulan explored Judaism after hearing Christian and Muslim emissaries both acknowledge its foundational role. Convinced, he and many nobles converted.

Supporting evidence for this powerful Jewish kingdom includes 10th-century Muslim accounts and Khazar coins dated from 837 CE discovered in Sweden inscribed with “Moses is the Prophet of God.” Khazar kings maintained Jewish rule until their defeat by Sviatoslav I of Kiev in the late 10th century.

9. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya

Libya’s longtime dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, publicly embraced anti-Israel rhetoric. Yet former aides and Jewish émigrés claim he had Jewish ancestry—his mother, they allege, was Jewish.

According to Nouri al-Mismari, Gaddafi’s chief of protocol from 1997 to 2010, the dictator silenced anyone who knew the truth. Gita Boaron, a 76-year-old Israeli woman in Netanya, claimed to be his cousin. In interviews, she said, “His [mother’s] grandmother was Jewish, converted to Islam, and married a local sheikh.”

When her family was still in Libya, she occasionally played with Gaddafi at her home. “He was full of joy and mischief,” Boaron recalled, adding that he “was a good boy as a child.” Reflecting on the adult Gaddafi after he was killed during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, however, she said, “He is evil and deserves to end his life this way. He has killed many of his own people.”

Whether or not Gaddafi’s lineage is provable, the rumors remain a footnote in the story of Jewish monarchic history—darkly ironic, if true.

10. Antigonus II Mattathias of Judea

Centuries after David and Solomon, the Hasmoneans revived Jewish sovereignty during the Maccabean Revolt (celebrated during Hanukkah). The last of their line to rule as king was Antigonus II Mattathias.

After a failed appeal to Julius Caesar and years of conflict, Antigonus allied with the Parthians against the Romans, seized Jerusalem in 40 BCE, and ruled Judea as its king. But Rome had other plans and named Herod king of Judea instead. After a three-year campaign to gain control of the Jewish homeland, Herod and his Roman troops finally laid siege to Jerusalem. Weakened by months of starvation and attacks on the city, Antigonus surrendered—and was executed, ending Hasmonean rule.

No independent Jewish state would rise again in the Land of Israel until Bar Kochba’s revolt in 132 CE, and then not again until the modern State of Israel—nearly 1,800 years later.

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