When Alexander the Great conquered the known world, he did not merely defeat armies — he rearranged the claims of nations. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a) records that after his conquests, both the Ishmaelites and the Egyptians brought legal claims against the Jewish people before Alexander's tribunal.
The Ishmaelites spoke first. "The Land of Canaan belongs to us," they declared. "We are the descendants of Ishmael, the firstborn son of Abraham. The land was promised to Abraham's seed — and Ishmael was the elder son." It was a clever legal argument, one rooted in the very Torah the Jews held sacred.
Gebiha ben Pesisa, a humble and possibly hunchbacked sage, asked the rabbis for permission to argue on behalf of Israel. "If I win, say that the Torah won," he told them. "If I lose, say it was only a commoner who lost." They agreed.
Before Alexander, Gebiha made his case simply. "You claim through Abraham? The Torah says Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away eastward, while everything he had — his inheritance — went to Isaac alone" (Genesis 25:5-6). The Ishmaelites had no answer. They fled, abandoning their planted fields and sown vineyards to Israel.
The Egyptians came next, demanding reparations for the gold and silver the Israelites had taken during the Exodus. Gebiha replied: "Calculate first the wages for 600,000 men you enslaved for 430 years." The Egyptians asked for three days to prepare a response. They never returned.