In 701 B.C. the Assyrian empire was in its ascendancy. It had already vanquished the kingdom of Israel to the north including the capital at Samaria. It then prepared an assault on Judah and its capital at Jerusalem.
But in one of those significant events that changes the course of world history, Assyria was repelled. Jerusalem was saved until 586 B.C. when the Babylonians sacked the city, forcing its leadership class into exile.
Henry Aubin, in a major feat of scholarship, determines that Jerusalem was aided by a Kushite army from Africa which had marched northeast from the Nile valley. While the Bible attributes the Assyrian retreat to an angel and secular commentators cite pestilence, Aubin, in a meticulously documented work, demonstrates that an alliance with the African nation of Kush bolstered Jerusalem’s defences.
Kush, also known as Nubia, was located in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. A monarchy that existed for more than 1000 years, from 900 B.C. to A.D. 350, Kushites held sway over Egypt from 712 B.C. to about 660 B.C. Of Egypt’s 31 dynasties, this, the 25th Dynasty, is the only one that all scholars agree, was black.
The commander of the Kushite expeditionary force was Taharqa (or as the Bible calls him Tirhakah). This Kushite prince, who had his own interests in halting Assyrian expansion, likely caught the aggressors by surprise as they prepared their siege of Jerusalem.
Aubin offers a thrilling military history and a stirring political analysis of the ancient world. He also sees the event as influential over the centuries.
The Kushite rescue of the Hebrew kingdom of Judah enabled the fragile, war-ravaged state to endure, to nurse itself back to economic and demographic health, and allowed the Hebrew religion, Yahwism, to evolve within the next several centuries into Judaism. Thus emerged the monotheistic trunk supporting Christianity and Islam.
REBIRTH OF A CLASSIC: It is very rare for a novel to be reissued, especially after more than a decade in out-of-print limbo. Such is the power of The Aberhart Summer to live in memory and once again on the page.First published in 1983, it appeared to wide acclaim, then faded. A successful stage adaptation in 1998/99 prompted a new edition.NeWest Press CAN/00/Reissue
THE ABERHART SUMMER
“You should have been there that day in 1935, when the future was born in cool, drizzly twilight at a racetrack. Only then would you understand what this is all about.”
And so Doug Sayers recounts the suspicious death of his best friend Babe–Babe, age 15, found hanging by his neck.
Set in Edmonton, Alberta at the depth of the Depression and at the threshold of WWII, Bruce Allen Powe recreates the political turmoil of an era hospitable to demagogues even on the remote Canadian prairie.
At a giant rally at the racetrack evangelical preacher, William “Bible Bill” Aberhart, began his crazy rise to political leadership by promising $25 a month to every family in the province.
Babe and Doug join the throng but Babe disappears, leaving to meet his sweetheart Diane. The personal obstacles besetting two teenagers in love become hostages to the emotional fury and social hysteria of the times.
But it is Doug Sayers, years later, home from the War, weary, wounded, surprised, and intent on preserving the truth of Babe’s murder, who brings us into the future.
