Адаса шайқасы: Маққабейлердің жеңісі және Никанор күні

The Battle of Adasa was fought during the Maccabean revolt on the 13th of the month Adar (late winter, equivalent to March), 161 BC at Adasa , near Beth horon. It was a battle between the rebel Maccabees of Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and the Seleucid Empire, whose army was led by Nicanor. The Maccabees won the battle after killing Nicanor early in the fighting. The battle came after a period of political maneuvering over several months where the peace deal established a year earlier by Lysias was tested by the new High Priest Alcimus, the new military governor Nicanor, and the Maccabee leader Judas Maccabeus. The date of the battle in the Hebrew calendar, 13 Adar, was celebrated as Yom Nicanor (Day of Nicanor) to commemorate the victory.

Nicanor's military governance of Judea, the Battle of Caphar salama, and the Battle of Adasa are recorded in the book of 1 Maccabees (Maccabees 7:26 50 (NRSV)), the book of 2 Maccabees (Maccabees 14:12 33 (NRSV), Maccabees 15:1 36 (NRSV)), and in Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews Book 12, Chapter 10. The Battle of Caphar salama is portrayed with fairly few details; either it was a short and one sided affair, the author of 1 Maccabees was not an eye witness to it, or both. Slightly more details are written of the Battle of Adasa, but largely of the geographic region it took place in. The writers instead focused more on the political maneuvering between Nicanor, Alcimus, and Judas.

In 162 BC, Regent Lysias led an expedition to restore government control of Judea and relieve a siege of the Acra citadel in Jerusalem. After winning the Battle of Beth Zechariah, the Maccabees were forced to retreat. Political considerations hastened Lysias's return to the Seleucid capital of Antioch, however. Despite fending off a challenge from a Seleucid leader called Philip, a far greater threat arrived soon after: Demetrius I Soter, who escaped from captivity in Rome with the help of the Greek historian Polybius and returned to Syria. Demetrius was the son of Seleucus IV, and Antiochus IV taking the throne after Seleucus IV's death in 175 BC had been perceived as a usurpation by some. Additionally, Demetrius was a man in his prime, around 24 years old, while King Antiochus V Eupator was still a child. Demetrius successfully swayed the Greek leaders of Antioch to his side, took the throne, and ordered the arrest and execution of Antiochus V and Lysias. This would sour Seleucid relations with the Roman Republic; Rome began offering tentative offers of support and assistance to any potential sources of rebellion and disunity within the Seleucid Empire, such as Timarchus, Ptolemaus of Commagene, and the Maccabees.

Nicanor left Jerusalem with a small force to track down Judas and the rebels. At Caphar salama, a skirmish was fought; the Seleucids suffered 500 casualties, and retreated back to Jerusalem. Allegedly, Nicanor then blasphemed at the Second Temple; he threatened the priests there to help him find Judas, or else he would return and burn the Temple down. The truth of this matter may be unknown as well due to the hostility of the surviving sources to Nicanor; the priests at the Temple would presumably have been Alcimus's subordinates, although according to 2 Maccabees it had been Alcimus who forced Nicanor's hand in the first place. Whether Nicanor really did turn on his own allies in a self destructive frenzy is unclear, but regardless, he gained the hatred of the rebels. Nicanor rode out again and camped in the region of Beth horon, northwest of Jerusalem, to meet up with Seleucid reinforcements traveling from Samaria. He likely had at least some heavy infantry with him. The rebels set their forces against him at Adasa. According to 2 Maccabees 15, Judas inspired his troops by relating to them a dream vision he had experienced, wherein the Prophet Jeremiah presented a gold sword to him and said, "Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you will strike down your adversaries." The battle appears to have been a direct frontal confrontation rather than an ambush or surprise attack; 1 Maccabees simply says that "armies met in battle", unlike phrasings suggesting surprise in earlier battles of the Revolt. Nicanor was killed very early in the battle, rattling the Seleucid force from the loss of its commander. Hellenistic commanders typically fought in the cavalry on the right wing and the force was comparatively small, so Nicanor would likely have been easy to find had Judas planned on attacking him directly. The Seleucid troops retreated toward Gazara, the nearest Seleucid fortress to the west around away. The Jewish army followed in pursuit, and Jewish partisans in the nearby towns harried their retreat, inflicting significant casualties on the fleeing government army. King Demetrius would suppress the rebellion of Timarchus in the eastern satrapies around early 160 BC, freeing up soldiers for other tasks such as suppressing the Judean unrest. Despite the victory at Adasa, in a year Judas Maccabeus would be defeated and killed at the Battle of Elasa.

The location of Dessau, where Simon fought Nicanor before he assumed the governorship, is unknown. The story is only related in 2 Maccabees, which provides no further geographic clues. Some scholars speculate that the epitomist who abridged 2 Maccabees may have confused Caphar salama with Caphar dessau and they were the same battle, but the terms are not particularly alike, and 2 Maccabees describes the battle at Dessau as a rebel defeat while 1 Maccabees describes Caphar salama as a rebel victory. 2 Maccabees also reports enemy casualties of 35,000, a grossly inflated number discounted as myth making to make Judas's victory seem more impressive. The story of Jeremiah bestowing a divine sword to Judas as a sign of God's favor may possibly be influenced by a synthesis of Egyptian cultural beliefs and the Jewish religion. The epitomist of 2 Maccabees was an Egyptian Jew, and a common motif of authority was to show the pharaoh holding or about to wield a royal sword. This story would be bolstering Judas's king like authority as leader, albeit with a Jewish spin in using the famous prophet Jeremiah. The date of the battle on 13 Adar is described, but not the year. A year of 161 BC implies that Nicanor's governorship was rather short, only lasting a few months. However, a year of 160 BC implies that there was practically no time between Adasa and Bacchides' second expedition in 160 BC that would lead to the Battle of Elasa, which happened in the month of Nisan, the month immediately after Adar.