The Moon of Israel

The narrative is structured as the memoir of Ana, an Egyptian scribe and son of Meri, who recounts the events surrounding the Hebrew departure from Egypt.[2] As Ana frames it at the opening of his tale: "I tell of Merapi, who was named Moon of Israel, and of her people, the Hebrews, who dwelt for long in Egypt and departed thence."[2] The title character, Merapi, is the daughter of Nathan the Levite, and it is through her that Ana becomes entangled in the political and moral crisis of the Exodus.[2]

The chapter headings trace a journey from Ana's arrival at the city of Tanis through the land of Goshen, the crowning of Amenmeses, the plagues, and finally the crossing of the Sea of Reeds.[2] Prince Seti — heir to the Egyptian throne — intervenes to protect Merapi after the Egyptian captain Khuaka kills her father Nathan, and he becomes her beloved.[2] Seti argues throughout that Israel should be permitted to leave Egypt in peace, but Pharaoh ultimately strips him of his place in the succession and names the usurper Amenmeses as heir instead.[2]

The climax follows the retelling of the biblical plagues and the Israelites' flight. Despite Seti's warning that the pursuing Egyptian army faces destruction, Amenmeses leads it into the Sea of Reeds, and the returning waters engulf the soldiers.[2] Seti subsequently becomes Pharaoh. Merapi, however, does not survive: she dies after Seti rescues her from execution as a witch.[2]

Running through the novel is a smaller, intimate story of friendship. Early in the narrative, Seti strikes an alabaster cup against a table and it splits cleanly in two.[2] He and Ana each take one half, pledging that the survivor will lay his piece on the other's breast at death. At Seti's burial, Ana fulfills the promise, placing both halves together on his chest — a quiet coda to a story of war, miracle, and loss.[2]

Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus appeared in 1918. The London edition was issued by John Murray, while Longmans, Green and Co. published a New York edition in the same year.[1][3] The surviving edition records therefore document publication in both London and New York in 1918.

Michael Curtiz directed a silent film released in 1924 as Die Sklavenkönigin and identified in English as The Moon of Israel.[4] The shared title connected Haggard's Exodus narrative with a prominent work from Curtiz's European career.

Curtiz had left Hungary in 1919 following a brief communist takeover of the country's film industry, after which he began working in Vienna.[4] Sodom und Gomorrha (1922) and Die Sklavenkönigin (1924) are identified as the two most important films of his Vienna period, before his later career in Hollywood.[4]

Haggard uses his author's note to advance a speculative reinterpretation of the Exodus chronology. Rather than accepting the identification of the Exodus Pharaoh as Meneptah, also rendered Merenptah, son of Rameses the Great, Haggard proposes that the Pharaoh in question was Amenmeses — whom he characterizes as a short-lived usurper who reigned between Meneptah's death and the accession of Seti II.[2] As Haggard states the premise: "This book suggests that the real Pharaoh of the Exodus was not Meneptah or Merenptah … but the mysterious usurper, Amenmeses."[2]

Haggard further speculates that Amenmeses may himself have perished in the crossing, and proposes that the body of water crossed by the Israelites was the Sea of Reeds rather than the Red Sea.[2] The author's note presents these propositions as Haggard's conjectures rather than established historical conclusions.