Jewish Autonomy in Conflict with Christians in Northern Ethiopia

Medieval and early modern Jews usually lived as a minority under non-Jewish rule, but there are a few known cases of independent or autonomous Jewish polities. One of the most intriguing is the autonomous Beta¨ ?sra?el (Ethiopian Jews) in the S?men Mountains of Ethiopia.

Beta¨ ?sra?el oral tradition refers to this polity as the “Kingdom of the Gideonites.” From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, the Beta¨ ?sra?el of the S?men and its surroundings were involved in a series of wars against the Christian Solomonic kingdom, until finally being subdued in the late 1620s.

Based, in part, on the archaeological survey of Beta¨ ?sra’el monastic sites, this book examines not only textual and oral accounts, but also the historical geography of the Beta¨ ?sra?el polity and its strongholds. It also discusses the commemoration of these wars in later times and their impact on the development of religious sites.