Biblical Magi their authenticity. In the Eastern churches, Ethiopian Christianity, for instance, has "Hor", "Karsudan", and "Basanater", while the Armenian Catholics have "Kagpha", "Badadakharida" and "Badadilma". Many Chinese Christians believe that one of the magi came from China. The phrase "from the east" (ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν), more literally "from the rising [of the sun]", is the only information Matthew provides about the region from which they came. The Parthian Empire, centered in Persia, occupied virtually all of the land east of Judea and Syria (except for the deserts of Arabia to the southeast). Though the empire was tolerant of other religions, its dominant
Amadiya of the most significant Magi priests: the Biblical Magi or the "Three Wise Men" who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to see Jesus Christ shortly after his birth. Amadiya was the birthplace of the pseudo-Messiah, David Alroy (fl. 1160). In 1163, according to Joseph ha-Kohen's "'Emeḳ ha-Baka", the Jewish population numbered about a thousand families and traded in gall-nuts. Alroy led a revolt against the city but was apparently defeated and killed in the process. The Spanish Jewish historian R. Schlomo Ibn Verga (1450–1525) portrayed the Jewish community of Amadiya at the time of Alroy as wealthy and contented. Amadiya