Few scholars have seriously attempted to examine the origin and life of the 10th-century Black Jewish woman from the tribe of Dan, who is popularly known as Judith, Queen of the Falashas. Sometimes called Kaila, her existence remains an enigma, involving numerous research conflicts and contradictions. Here is what we know. Judith was Beta Israel, a Jew of Ethiopian origin.
The Beta Israel, also called the Kingdom of the Beni Hamwiyah and Semuin, was established in the mid-first millennium C.E. by descendants of Jewish immigrants from Egypt and Israel. They speak Amharic and Tigrinya and practice a non-Oral-Law style of Judaism. Some think that Judith’s ancestry can be traced back to Himyarite, a small state where Judaism was the kingdom’s religion until it was conquered by King Kaleb of Axum, the precursor state to modern Ethiopia.
Judith was born in the Christian-dominated Kingdom of Axum in what is now present-day Ethiopia. Its rulers recognized her as the leader of the Beta Israel minority. Some oral traditions trace her lineage back to Menelik I, the first emperor of Ethiopia and the legendary son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who converted to Judaism but was exiled to Kush in 722 B.C.E. Known by various names such as Esato, Gabaz, Esther, Ga’Ewa, Gudit, Isat (fire), “Judit, the Jewish Warrior Queen,” Tirda, Yehudis, and Yodit, she was recognized as a fearless and determined Jewish royal Axumite princess. Her reign lasted over 30 years and started in the middle of the tenth century.
According to Ethiopian oral tradition, Judith was initially known as the protector of her Jewish faith. She targeted the churches and monasteries in Christian-ruled Axum that sought to convert her people and halted their forced religious and cultural absorption in that kingdom. Some scholars suggest that Judith was married to Zenobis, a Jewish prince and the son of the king of Sham from Syria. If so, this may have been a strategic alliance to bolster her political and religious influence in Axum.
Judith’s initial resistance to Christian Axum, according to oral tradition, eventually became outright rebellion. Strategically allying with the pagan tribes of Agaw, in 960, she led the Beta Israel in briefly conquering the capital city of Aksum and declared Judaism the state religion. She persecuted the priests and closed or destroyed churches, monasteries, and monuments. Her conquest marked a brief period of Jewish rule over Axum in the 10th century A.D.
While many scholars debate the accuracy of this account of the conquest of Axum, it is clear that Judith led or inspired Beta Israel’s resistance to Christianity and that resistance allowed the existence of a semi-independent Jewish province south of Lake Tana in the Kingdom of Ethiopia, which lasted until the 17th Century.
The date, place, and age of Judith, Queen of the Falashas’s death, remain uncertain.
