The Search for the Jewish Gideonite Kingdom in Ethiopia
Beta Ǝsrā’el , the Jewish community of Ethiopia, represents a fascinating part of the mosaic of Jewish diaspora communities throughout the world. The Beta Ǝsrā’el community lived the northern part of modern-day Ethiopia, and developed its own unique Jewish practices, different, in part, from those of the Rabbinical religious tradition.
(Photo by Bar Kribus)
Over the centuries, and due in part to the political struggle between the Beta Ǝsrā’el and the Christian Solomonic kingdom, the community suffered from persecution and discrimination. In the last few decades, almost all of the Beta Ǝsrā’el community left Ethiopia, migrating (making Aliyah) to modern day Israel.
Among the many traditions of the Beta Ǝsrā’el, the story of the Kingdom of the Gideonites stands out, as it was the only Jewish polity known to have existed in Early Modern times. Centered in the Səmen Mountains in northern Ethiopia, this polity was periodically tributary to and periodically at war with the Christian Solomonic kingdom, until its final subdual in 1626.
The memory of the Kingdom of the Gideonites is a cornerstone of Beta Ǝsrā’el identity: Traditions regarding these wars and acts of bravery and religious devotion in the face of forced conversion are a prominent element of Beta Ǝsrā’el oral tradition. Several Betä Ǝsraʾel holy sites and religious centers commemorate such acts. The memory of past Beta Ǝsrā’el kingship and of these struggles are a central element in the community’s discourse regarding its dynamics vis-à-vis the dominant Christian society of Solomonic Ethiopia.
A joint project of Bar-Ilan University (with Boaz Zissu and Aren Maeir as Bar-Ilan University project leaders)
and the University of Hamburg (with Prof. Aaron Butts as the University of Hamburg project leader) has been started to study various aspects relating to the Kingdom of the Gideonites.
Dr. Sophia Dege-Müller, Dr. Bar Kribus and Dr. Elad Wexler are key members of the project.
The project has several aims:
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To establish a comprehensive understanding of the physical reality of the Kingdom of the Gideonites through on the ground archaeological exploration, for the first time, of key sites associated with it. These include its seventeenth-century capital, Saganat, and additional strongholds utilized in the wars between the Beta Ǝsrā’el and the Christian Solomonic Kingdom.
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To explore how the memory of the Kingdom of the Gideonites was shaped and how it served over time in Beta Ǝsrā’el identity discourse. This second aim will be accomplished through examination of available textual and oral sources and by exploration of sites (including religious sites) that were seen, in later times, as linked with the Beta Ǝsrā’el – Solomonic wars, establishing their chronology and development and documenting and examining associated oral traditions. Particular attention will be focused on churches in the province of Wagarā, which were founded from the fifteenth century onwards to manifest the defeat of the Beta Ǝsrā’el by the Christian Solomonic rulers.
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To serve as the basis for developing and expanding this and additional archaeological research in Ethiopia.
Field work in Ethiopia will commence in the coming months!
For more information contact us now
(Photo by Bar Kribus)
