The Scroll of Obadiah: The Life of a Norman Convert to Judaism in the First Crusade (A Time of Knights 400 CE to 1453 CE)

Recounts a Norman priest’s conversion to Judaism and adventures across the Middle East during the First Crusade.

The Scroll of Obadiah narrates the life of a Norman priest who converted to Judaism. Born in Italy in the 1070s, he travelled to the Middle East during the First Crusade. His life is uniquely documented in his autobiography, which was uncovered in partly indecipherable fragments in the Cairo Geniza, an ancient archive. Scholars have restored the dramatic story, which relates his many experiences in Baghdad and Aleppo, including an account of the Battle of the Field of Blood between the Turks and the Christians in 1119.

Frank Riess was Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck College from 2012-2023. He authored two books on Early Medieval History. In 2019 he published a study of Deacon Bodo, a Frankish cleric who converted to Judaism in 838.