Jewish Autonomy in Conflict with Christians in Northern Ethiopia

Zusammenfassung

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 Betä Ǝsraʾel (Ethiopian Jews) in the Sǝmen Mountains of Ethiopia.

Betä Ǝsraʾel oral tradition refers to this polity as the “Kingdom of the Gideonites.” From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, the Betä Ǝsraʾel of the Sǝmen 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 Betä Ǝsra’el monastic sites, this book examines not only textual and oral accounts, but also the historical geography of the Betä Ǝsraʾel polity and its strongholds. It also discusses the commemoration of these wars in later times and their impact on the development of religious sites.

Publikation durchsuchen

Bibliographische Angaben

Auflage

1/2025

Copyrightjahr

2025

ISBN-Print

978-1-80270-186-9

ISBN-Online

978-1-80270-372-6

ePub ISBN

9781802703719

Verlag

Arc Humanities Press, Yorkshire

Reihe

Jewish Engagements

Sprache

Englisch

Seiten

200

Produkttyp

Monographie