For 300 Years, a Jewish Kingdom Flourished in Africa. This Israeli Archaeologist Set Out to Find It

Nov18
For 300 Years, a Jewish Kingdom Flourished in Africa. This Israeli Archaeologist Set Out to Find It

Meirav Moran

An independent Jewish kingdom was said to have once existed in today’s Ethiopia. An Israeli archaeologist heard the tales of heroism surrounding Beta Israel and decided he would be the one to find it.

The Simien Mountains, in northern Ethiopia.Credit: RudiErnst / Shutterstock.com

In the heart of the Simien Mountains in northern Ethiopia, on the slopes of a steep hill, stands the village of Segenet. An immense cliff looms above, an abyss yawns below. Life here is made possible by the existence of a broad plateau on the hillside, where the farmers grow their crops, suspended between heaven and earth. About a year and a half ago, an Israeli archaeologist, Bar Kribus, arrived in the small village, closing a circle that had opened two decades earlier.

“I knew immediately that we were in the right place,” Kribus says, the thrill of that moment still palpable in his voice. “We are quite confident that this was the capital of the independent Jewish kingdom in Africa.”

Indeed, an independent Jewish kingdom in Africa. The kingdom, situated in present-day northwestern Ethiopia (adjacent to Gondar province, where most of the country’s Jews lived before their emigration to Israel), is thought to have been in existence for about 300 years, at its peak covering an area almost the size of today’s sovereign Israel. Over time, legends and myths that fire the imagination sprang up about it, and it spawned a messianic hope of redemption. But no one had found physical evidence and concrete testimony to confirm the kingdom’s existence. That was precisely the task Kribus took on himself.

The spark that ignited the adventure occurred on a mountaintop in the Golan Heights, when Kribus, who had not yet begun his university studies, would accompany youth orienteering groups on outings. On one such occasion, at the Gamla nature reserve and archaeological site, he recounted to the group the dramatic account from the period of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome in 67 C.E. Gamla refused to surrender to the Roman troops, the story goes, and the inhabitants chose to leap to their deaths from the top of the cliff, rather than be taken captive, sold as slaves and handmaidens, and being forced to forsake their religion.

After Kribus read out the narrative of the battle as described by the first-century Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, the group’s leader, a young woman of Ethiopian origin, added a new twist to the story. Jews, she said, had done similar deeds some 500 years ago, while fighting a lengthy war in defense of their independent kingdom in Africa, in a region that is today part of Ethiopia.

“Her comment took me very much by surprise,” Kribus – who holds a doctorate in archaeology and whose post-doctoral research at Tel Aviv University focuses on the history of Ethiopian Jewry – recalls, laughing. “Like every product of the Israeli education system, I learned the conventional narrative of Jewish exile: Life in the Diaspora was always under foreign rule, Christian or Muslim. And suddenly I hear about a free Jewish kingdom with an autonomous leadership and its own army that is not modern-day Israel.”

Bar Kribus. When he arrived at Segenet village, in the heart of the mountain range, he says, “I was confident this was the capital of the independent Jewish kingdom in Africa.”Credit: Olivier Fitoussi

*  *  *

The written testimony about the kingdom’s existence doesn’t originate in the contemporary Beta Israel community, nearly all of whose members resettled in Israel over the past four decades. The traditions associated with there having been a Jewish kingdom of their ancient forebears have indeed been preserved in the community. However, because they were transmitted orally down through the generations – as tales told from fathers to children – they exist in a multiplicity of versions.
Legend has it, fantastically, that the kingdom was in existence for a more than 1,000 years, under a dynasty of monarchs each called Gideon, after the biblical judge. Accordingly, it’s known as the “Kingdom of the Gideonites” among members of Beta Israel. (The written sources also mention rulers who bore other names, among them Radai, Kalef and Goshen.)

The 12th-century Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, from the Kingdom of Navarre in Western Europe, who chronicled his visits to Jewish communities in the East, mentions Jews who live on mountaintops near a region he calls “Lubia.” Some have taken this to refer to Nubia (present-day Sudan), which is near the conjectured areas of rule of the Gideonite Jews.

There are also legends about a queen named Gudit or Yodit who fought successful battles against the Christian Kingdom of Aksum, led a Jewish army in a decisive campaign and laid waste to churches and monasteries. Other stories tell of Jews who were mercilessly slaughtered and of kings who forced them to convert to Christianity. These and other traditions have been partially retold in books, notably in Daniel Belete’s “Gideonites: History of the Jews of Ethiopia and the Journey to the Land of Israel” (in Hebrew). Belete, an Israeli writer from the Ethiopian community, is working intensively to preserve the heritage and history of Ethiopian Jewry.

A product of the Israeli education system, I learned the conventional narrative of Jewish exile: Life in the Diaspora was always under foreign rule, Christian or Muslim. And suddenly I hear about a free Jewish kingdom with an autonomous leadership and its own army that is not modern-day Israel.

Bar Kribus

Oral traditions about a Jewish kingdom were also common among Christians living in those highlands. In his fieldwork, Kribus discovered that the locals talk about a Jewish king named Gideon, an outsize warrior whom none of the Christian soldiers had the courage to take on in battle. Legend has it that he was finally defeated in what was supposed to have been a bare-fisted fight, but during which his opponent pulled out a knife and killed him.

How far do these tales reflect historical truth? As might be expected, the historians are cautious. According to Kribus, the first testimonies about the existence of an independent Jewish kingdom that are not in dispute date only from the 14th century. An initial account appears in writings from the first half of that century recounting a war waged by the Ethiopian emperor against the “crucifying Jews.” The regions where the two kingdoms – Jewish and Ethiopian – fought are also named.

Although the date of birth of the Jewish kingdom is a point of controversy, thanks to a contemporary eyewitness account, there is almost full consensus that it fell in 1626. Scholars maintain that the fortress in which the last of the resisters to the Christian conquest barricaded themselves was situated in a place named – Segenet.

If that was the kingdom’s last bastion, Kribus thought, that would make it the first place he needed to find.

Children at Gondar camp, 2007. The tradition of a Jewish kingdom was glorious, but it was passed down orally.Credit: Eliana Aponte/REUTERS

*  *  *

The field research got underway in 2015 with an effort to identify the places that the various traditions link to the Jewish kingdom. This is a first stage of the project, which will continue for years, until material findings that can validate the stories are discovered, collected and examined.

Kribus and his two associates – Elad Wexler, who was then working at the Jerusalem-based Ethiopian Jewish Heritage Center, and Sophia Dege-Müller, from the Center for Ethiopian Studies at the University of Hamburg – started in the Simien Mountains, where many of the Beta Israel community lived before immigrating to Israel toward the end of the 20th century.
According to the accepted view, this was also the region of activity of the independent Jewish kingdom. The many travelers who visit the area today and enjoy its magnificent landscapes have no way of knowing that they are passing through historical sites that are associated with exploits of battle and where Jewish life once thrived.
The search was based on references in written sources to the existence of a kingdom. For example, a Jesuit missionary from Portugal named Manuel de Almeida, who was active in Ethiopia in the first half of the 17th century, reported on Jews who lived in the region. “In the past,” he noted, “they were the rulers of the whole kingdom of Deambiyia, and now, for many years, have ruled only the Simien Mountains… For many years they had a hero leader named Gideon, who launched many attacks on lands of the emperor and enjoyed great success.” De Almeida went on to note that some of the Jews lived on the summits of mountains and defended themselves with stones. “They simply attack boldly anyone who approaches them.”
The Portuguese cleric also provided an account he heard from a fellow missionary about attempts by the Christian army to seize control of the Jewish settlements. The Jews, he writes, “fortified themselves in areas in the mountains that could not be reached from below other than with ropes and straps, and could not be reached from above other than by the same means, because the sides of the mountains of stone [on which the Jews dwelled] were almost vertical. Some of the Christian soldiers dared to descend in large baskets that were bound with strong straps and gradually lowered [to the Jewish settlement]. However, when they reached the midway point, Jews who were hiding in caves in the rock cut the straps with their swords, and the soldiers fell to their death.”
The acrobatic battle actually evokes the name “Segenet,” which in the ancient holy language of Ge’ez means “observation tower,” and in Amharic translates as “balcony.” But even so, the description sounds somewhat over the top, as it were.
Today’s Segenet is a long valley sandwiched between two chains of high mountains and through which a river flows. One of the small communities that are perched on the steep slopes bears the same name as the valley. The village sits on a broad rock shelf and is abutted by arable land that is extensively farmed; in the vicinity are independent sources of natural water. The conditions are ideal for withstanding a long siege without fear of a shortage of food and water.

The village’s location enables it to act as a military outpost possessing extraordinary natural fortification and offering a clear-cut strategic advantage. Dominating the main road that crosses the valley, it is the transition point between the Simien Mountains and the terrain to the east. Towering over the village is a vast cliff, while below are steep bluffs that make access to it difficult. In a situation of danger, Segenet can be fortified quickly and easily, and the pass blocked, leaving the village virtually impenetrable.

“When I encountered the landscape, which matched the written descriptions precisely and picturesquely, I knew I was in the right place,” Kribus relates. “The next stage is to identify remnants that are on the surface, and in line with the topography to surmise the stronghold’s exact location – and then to start digging.”

Segenet Valley. The last bastion of the Jewish kingdom with an end evocative of Masada and Gamla.Credit: Bar Kribus

Kribus hopes that excavation of the site will provide the answers to multiple questions. For starters: how long Segenet, the kingdom’s capital, existed, what its size was over the years and whether it changed. “We can expect to find the rulers’ residences,” Kribus says. “Comparisons with residences of other local rulers will attest to how powerful and wealthy the Jewish royal family was. If we discover storerooms for agricultural produce, that will further the study of the kingdom’s general structure.

“Object remains will give us information about the technologies to which they had recourse in combat. There’s a description, for example, of a Christian army ascending to a Jewish stronghold after the defeat, where they found a cache of huge boulders that could be rolled down from the heights of the mountain. It’s related that each such boulder has a name. A dig will verify whether these massive stones are myth or reality. This will also add information about the circumstances of the capital’s fall and the end of the kingdom of the Jews.”

Nothing is known about the kingdom’s material culture, Kribus continues, “nor do we know much about the spiritual life of the population. All that information lies in the earth. Remains of objects in dwellings could show how the residents obtained their food, whether they relied on local crops or engaged in trade with their neighbors, which animals they bred and what agricultural tools they used.

“The structure of the dwellings will enable an estimate of how many people lived in each house, and with that information we will be able to deduce the capital’s population during different periods. We will also be able to learn about their way of life: whether they were all farmers or warriors, or whether there were also craftsmen and what crafts they engaged in.”

The historical writings mention the existence of a synagogue in Segenet, Kribus points out. That’s a fascinating detail, because until now no synagogues predating the 19th century have been documented in Ethiopia. “The discovery of a synagogue from earlier could reveal precious information about the religious and spiritual life of the local Jews. For example, whether there were separate wings for men and women during worship and a separate section for kohanim [priests]. And in general, what ideological messages were conveyed through the synagogue’s design.”

The historical writings mention the existence of a synagogue in Segenet, Kribus points out. That’s a fascinating detail, because until now no synagogues predating the 19th century have been documented in Ethiopia.

*  *  *

Written documentation of the kingdom’s existence comes largely from its neighbor, in the empire ruled by the Solomonic dynasty of Orthodox Christian monarchs. Relations between the two kingdoms had their ups and downs. Naturally, history recounts primarily the wars between them. When the Solomonic kings launched attempts to encroach on territory inhabited by the Jews, the court chroniclers of the Christian kingdom began taking notice of developments in the Jewish kingdom.
There were also periods of cooperation and closeness, even family relations. In 1597, for example, an emperor named Yaqob ascended to power in the Solomonic dynasty; his father, whom he succeeded, was a Christian, while his mother was the sister of that era’s Gideon, the Jewish ruler. In 1604, when a revolt broke out against Yaqob, he sought refuge in the Jews’ kingdom.
The latter also played a crucial role in the regional struggle that took place at the beginning of the 16th century between the Christians and the Muslim Adal Sultanate. The Muslims captured territories, put monasteries to the torch and forcibly converted Christians to Islam. In response, the Ethiopian king sent emissaries to Europe to request assistance in repelling the Muslim force, prompting the dispatch to Ethiopia of a trained Portuguese army. As the Portuguese troops advanced on their way to join up with the Christian emperor, in 1542, the Jews offered them safe passage through their territory.
A Portuguese soldier by the name of Miguel de Castanhoso, who took part in the campaign and wrote an account of it, noted that a Jewish officer had invited the troops to the “Hill of the Jews.” His account indicates that the Christian forces remained at the Jewish site for a lengthy period. Obtaining weapons and food, they trained and organized ahead of the battles against the Muslim occupation. According to the soldier’s account, thousands of Jews lived on the hill, though this sounds excessive for one community in that period.
Kribus investigated the subject of the Hill of the Jews on the ground, seeking its exact location and historical role. Written sources mention “the hill of the Jews” synonymously with a place called “Saloa.” That name has been preserved in a still-existing community that is located not far from Segenet, at a site that is quite compatible with the events of the war as recounted by the soldier. However, other sources, dating from about 100 years later, mention the Hill of the Jews as being synonymous with a different site, some 20 kilometers to the south.
Both sites are on the same mountain plateau. We have, then, testimony about thousands of Jews living on the Hill of the Jews, as well as about other places that are identified as such by various witnesses. Accordingly, we can conclude that Jewish communities were scattered across the entire plateau, or at least that there were communities under Jewish governance in these places. The chronological gap between the testimonies – about 100 years – hints at a continuity of Jewish rule in the region.

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The fact that the Beta Israel kingdom posed a military and ideological challenge to the Solomonic dynasty, which was the largest and most influential kingdom in the region over a period of hundreds of years, underscores the Jewish might in the region. Despite its small dimensions, the Jewish kingdom was able to survive for 300 years. Its durability in the face of a far larger regional power is a considerable achievement in itself.

Indeed, the Jews of Ethiopia possessed singular independence in ruling themselves. The chronicles also note the existence of an administrative division in the Jewish kingdom, into at least two separate districts, perhaps more. Muslim and Christian accounts also tell of communities that lived under Jewish governance.

A text written by one of the chroniclers in the Solomonic court reflects the confidence and the sense of potency that the Jews displayed. The writer complained about the brazenness of the leader of the Jews, who dared “to call the mountains by the names of the mountains of Israel. One he called Mount Sinai, the other he called Mount Tabor.” This attests to the hegemony of the Jews – marking the territory they ruled with names associated with the biblical Land of Israel.

According to the chronicles, at some point in the 15th century the Jews refused to pay taxes to the Christian emperor. The refusal led to war, in the wake of which the emperor expropriated part of the Jewish lands; he declared that those who did not convert to Christianity would lose their hold on the land they owned. The wars that followed gradually reduced the kingdom’s areas of political autonomy to the slopes and peaks of the Simien Mountains.

*  *  *

The kingdom of the Jews was finally eradicated by the Emperor Susenyos in the third decade of the 17th century. By that time the kingdom was already considerably smaller. Susneyos waged three campaigns until Gideon, the Jews’ leader, was killed. Afterward, he stationed army forces at key points, massacred the Jews in the area, laid siege to their capital, Segenet, and brought about the surrender of those entrenched in the eponymous last fortress there.
The written sources relate with amazement the Jews’ heroism in the battles. There is an account of a Jewish woman who was taken captive by a Christian soldier and was led, bound, along the edge of the cliff. Suddenly the woman jumped, pulling the soldier with her into the abyss. “How wondrous the heroism of this woman,” the chronicler of the conquering army writes, and also expresses his astonishment at other cases of Jews who plunged from the cliff to avoid being taken into captivity.

Residents of the village of Segenet.Credit: Bar Kribus

There is no doubt that the chronicler was influenced by the writings of Flavius Josephus, as he refers directly to the events of the Great Revolt and notes that the Jews told themselves, “We will kill ourselves as our forefathers did in the days of Titus son of Vespasian.”

Susneyos coerced the Jews to surrender to Christianity. According to the chronicles, in order to drive home the fact of their submission, he commanded them to plow the land on the Sabbath. Nevertheless, a Jewish community survived in the Simien Mountains, from which, as noted above, many of the members of the Ethiopian community in Israel originate

The memory of their independent kingdom and its heroic end continue to be an important element in the identity of Ethiopia’s Jews and a source of deep pride. The village of Simien Minata in the Simien Mountains, for example, became sacred in the wake of an exceptional tradition, and over the generations became a significant spiritual center for the community.

According to the tradition, during the period of the forced conversions to Christianity, Jews who refused to comply with the edict fled to the mountaintops. When the army approached, they entered a box tied to the brink of a cliff, then cut the rope, causing them to fall to their deaths.

According to the tradition, during the period of the forced conversions to Christianity, Jews who refused to comply with the edict fled to the mountaintops. When the army approached, they all entered a box that was tied with a rope to the brink of a cliff, then cut the rope, causing them to fall to their deaths. In every place a Jew fell a spring gushed forth, and each spring possesses singular healing virtues. In the course of time, an important Jewish spiritual center was established in the community, which offered training and ordination for the priesthood. (Among Ethiopian Jews, religious leaders are called priests, rather than rabbis.)

Stories of collective suicide seem to run like a thread through Jewish history across the continents. “Look at Masada,” Kribus says. “Flavius Josephus left us a heroic story about the Jewish rebels who committed suicide after barricading themselves [on the mountain-top] for a lengthy period. For years a debate raged among scholars: Did they really kill themselves as related by Josephus, or was the gifted historian invoking a literary genre that was a convention in that period?

“When the great [Israeli] archaeologists Shmarya Gutmann and Yigael Yadin arrived at Masada [in 1963] at the head of their teams of excavators and uncovered the ruins, they discovered the ‘cave of skeletons’ that contained the remains of at least 15 people of different ages. It was a critical finding that brought us close to a decision on the issue of the credibility of Josephus’ report. Just as at Masada, here too, only archaeological excavations will be able to give us true answers about the Beta Israel kingdom.”

Overall, Kribus says, “This is an important and distinctive story in the history of the Jewish people, and one that merits broader exposure and study. I believe that this research could serve as a basis for cooperation between Israel and Ethiopia. There is a common interest here to transform the region into a historic-tourism site, which tells stories Jewish heroism and can attract large numbers of visitors from around the world.

“The Ethiopian Jewish community has a long and fascinating history, only part of which has been subjected to in-depth study and is known to the general public. Just as earlier generations of researchers came up with riveting findings at Masada, Yodfat and Gamla, and generations of hikers are thrilled to visit those places and learn about the past through them, I hope the same will happen with the heritage of Ethiopia’s Jews. Once people get to know the sites first-hand, things become far more palpable. They move from the realm of legend into concrete reality that can be investigated and studied in depth.”

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