Editing Gog and Magog (section)

===The confined Jews===
[[File:Mapa de Borgia XV.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The [[Borgia map]], copper-engraved world map ({{circa|1430}}). Gog and Magog (identified as confined Jews) are shown on the left, representing the far east.{{sfn|Gow|1998|pp=77–78}}]]
Some time around the 12th century, the [[Ten Lost Tribes]] of Israel came to be identified with Gog and Magog;{{sfn|Gow|1995|pp=23–24}} possibly the first to do so was [[Petrus Comestor]] in ''Historica Scholastica'' (c. 1169–1173),{{sfn|Gow|1995|p=42}}{{sfn|Boyle|1979|p=124}} and he was indeed a far greater influence than others before him, although the idea had been anticipated by the aforementioned Christian of Stavelot, who noted that the Khazhars, to be identified with Gog and Magog, was one of [[Seven chieftains of the Magyars|seven tribes of the Hungarians]] and had converted to Judaism.{{sfn|Brook|2006|pp=7–8, 96}}{{sfn|Westrem|1998|p=65}}

While the confounding Gog and Magog as confined Jews was becoming commonplace, some, like Riccoldo or [[Vincent de Beauvais]] remained skeptics, and distinguished the Lost Tribes from Gog and Magog.{{sfn|Boyle|1979|p=126}}{{sfn|Bietenholz|1994|p=134}}{{sfn|Gow|1995|pp=56–57}} As noted, Riccoldo had reported a Mongol folk-tradition that they were descended from Gog and Magog. He also addressed many minds (Westerners or otherwise{{sfn|Westrem|1998|p=66}}) being credulous of the notion that Mongols might be Captive Jews, but after weighing the pros and cons, he concluded this was an open question.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Riccoldo observed that the Mongol script resembled Chaldean ([[Syriac language|Syriac]],{{Sfn|Marco Polo|Yule (tr.)|1875|pp=58, fn 3}} a form of [[Aramaic]]), and in fact it does derive from Aramaic.{{sfn|Boyle|1979|p=125, note 19}} However, he saw that Mongols bore no physical resemblance to Jews and were ignorant of Jewish laws.}}{{sfn|Westrem|1998|pp=66–67}}{{Sfn|Marco Polo|Yule (tr.)|1875|pp=58, fn 3}}

The Flemish Franciscan friar [[William of Rubruck]], who was first-hand witness to Alexander's [[Fortifications of Derbent|supposed wall]] in [[Derbent]] on the shores of the Caspian Sea in 1254,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Rubruck refers Derbent as the "Iron Gate", this also being the meaning of the Turkish name (Demir kapi) for the town.{{Sfn|William of Rubruck|Rockhill (tr.)|1900|pp=xlvi, 262 note 1}} Rubruck may have been the only medieval Westerner to claim to have seen it.{{sfn|Westrem|1998|p=66}}}} identified the people the walls were meant to fend off only vaguely as "wild tribes" or "desert nomads",{{efn|Also "barbarous nations", "savage tribes".}}{{sfn|William of Rubruck|Rockhill (tr.)|1900|pp=xlvi, 100, 120, 122, 130, 262–263 and fn}} but one researcher made the inference Rubruck must have meant Jews,{{efn|Based on Rubruck stating elsewhere "There are other enclosures in which there are Jews"}} and that he was speaking in the context of "Gog and Magog".{{efn|Since [[Roger Bacon]], having been informed by Rubruck, urged the study of geography to discover where the [[Antichrist]] and Gog and Magog might be found.}}{{sfn|Westrem|1998|p=66}} Confined Jews were later to be referred to as "[[Red Jews]]" (''die roten Juden'') in German-speaking areas; a term first used in a [[Holy Grail]] epic dating to the 1270s, in which Gog and Magog were two mountains enclosing these people.{{efn|[[Albrecht von Scharfenberg]], ''Der jüngere Titurel''. It belongs in the [[Arthurian cycle]].}}{{sfn|Gow|1995|pp=70–71}}

The author of the ''[[John Mandeville|Travels of Sir John Mandeville]]'', a 14th-century best-seller, said he had found these Jews in Central Asia where as Gog and Magog they had been imprisoned by Alexander, plotting to escape and join with the Jews of Europe to destroy Christians.{{sfn|Westrem|1998|pp=68–69}}

In the [[Borgia map]], a copper-engraved world map probably produced in [[Southern Germany]] {{circa|1430}}, the most eastern part contains two fortified regions depicting Gog and Magog, with the following Latin inscriptions:{{sfn|Gow|1998|pp=77–78}}

*{{lang|la|Provincia gog, in qua fuerunt iudei inclusi tempore artaxersis regis persarum.}}
:The province of Gog, in which the Jews were confined during the time of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians.
*{{lang|la|Magog in istis duabus sunt gentes magni et gigantes pleni omnium malorum morum. Quos iudeos artaxersex collexit de omnibus partibus persarum.}}
:Magog – in these two are large people and giants who are full of all kinds of bad behaviors. These Jews were collected by Artaxerxes from all parts of Persia.

The Persian king Artaxerxes (either [[Artaxerxes I]] or [[Artaxerxes II]], appearing in the [[Book of Ezra]] 7) was commonly confused in medieval Europe with the Neo-Assyrian ruler [[Shalmaneser V]], who according to [[Books of Kings|2 Kings]] 17 drove the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel into exile.{{sfn|Gow|1998|pp=77–78}}