COMPANIONS from Israel

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Israeli Companions of all time. This list of famous Israeli Companions is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Bathsheba (-3500 - -970)

With an HPI of 74.35, Bathsheba is the most famous Israeli Companion.  Her biography has been translated into 49 different languages on wikipedia.

Bathsheba (; Hebrew: בַּת־שֶׁבַע Baṯ-šeḇaʿ, lit. 'Daughter of Sheba' or 'Daughter of the Oath') was an Israelite queen consort. According to the Hebrew Bible, she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, with whom she had all of her five children. Her status as the mother of Solomon, who succeeded David as monarch, made her the Gebirah (גְּבִירָה) of the Kingdom of Israel. She is best known for her appearance in the Book of Samuel, which recounts how she was summoned by David's royal messengers after he witnessed her bathing and lusted after her; David has Uriah killed and then marries Bathsheba, incurring the wrath of God, who strikes down the couple's first child in infancy before plunging the House of David into chaos and anguish.

2. Dinah (-1700 - -1590)

With an HPI of 71.08, Dinah is the 2nd most famous Israeli Companion.  Her biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

In the Book of Genesis, Dinah (; Hebrew: דִּינָה, Modern: Dīna, Tiberian: Dīnā, 'judged'; 'vindicated') was the seventh child and only daughter of Leah and Jacob. The episode of her violation by Shechem, son of a Canaanite or Hivite prince, and the subsequent vengeance of her brothers Simeon and Levi, commonly referred to as the rape of Dinah, is told in Genesis 34.

3. Alice of Champagne (1196 - 1246)

With an HPI of 54.17, Alice of Champagne is the 3rd most famous Israeli Companion.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Alice of Champagne (French: Alix; c. 1193 – 1246) was the queen consort of Cyprus from 1210 to 1218, regent of Cyprus from 1218 to 1232, and regent of Jerusalem from 1243 to 1246. She was the eldest daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and Count Henry II of Champagne. In 1210, Alice married her stepbrother King Hugh I of Cyprus, receiving the County of Jaffa as her dowry. After her husband's death in 1218, she assumed the regency for their infant son, King Henry I, but her maternal uncle Philip of Ibelin became the actual head of state administration as bailli (governor). Alice began seeking contacts within her father's counties in France to bolster her claim to Champagne and Brie against her cousin, Theobald IV, but the kings of France never acknowledged her claim. After a dispute with Philip of Ibelin, she left the island in 1223. She married Bohemond, heir apparent to the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli, but their marriage was annulled on grounds of consanguinity—they were too closely related according to canon law. In 1229, she laid claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the infant Conrad (the son of her niece Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II) who was absent from the kingdom, but the High Court of Jerusalem rejected her claim. When her son reached the age of majority in 1232, Alice abdicated her regency and departed for France to claim Champagne and Brie. She subsequently renounced her claim and returned to the Holy Land. In 1240, she married Raoul of Nesle who was about half of her age at the time. The High Court of Jerusalem proclaimed Alice and her husband regents for Conrad in 1243, but their power was only nominal. Raoul of Nesle left the kingdom, and Alice, before the end of the year. Alice retained the regency until her death in 1246.