David Alrui

(Aloy or el-Roi, i.e., "the seeing;" also called Menahems ben-Solomon) is known in Jewish history as one of the false Messiahs who arose from time to time. About the year 1160 he appeared among the Persian Jews, and proclaimed himself as sent from God to free the Jews from the Mohanmedans and to bring them back to Jerusalem. David brought trouble upon his countrymen, and his timely death — his father-in-law had invited David to a supper, and while in a state of drunkenness the latter was beheaded — stopped the persecution of the sultan against the Jews. Disraeli has taken this historical event as the plot of his Alroy. See Lent, De Judaeorum Pseudomessis (2d ed. Herborn, 1697), page 52 sq.; Gratz, Geschichte der Juden, 6:291 sq.; Rohling, in Wetzer u. Welte's Kirchen- Lexikon, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v. (B.P.).