The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler

Today's date is: 5/12/2025
HOME | Cover Page | Contents | Introduction 1| Strangers in the Midst 9 | Legend and History 24| Judaism, Christianity and Islam 58 | The Middle Ages 74 | Resistance and Defeat 94 | Missions and Missionaries 106 | Jacques Faitlovitch 130 | The Struggle for Recognition 147| Postscript 170 | Select Bibliography | Images | Index |


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The conflict between the migration and cultural diffusion theories of history was noted by Adams in his history of Nubia when he remarked that the 'migration theory is no more adequate as a general explanation than it is for the history of most other parts of the world .... It fitted so neatly', he said, 'with the racist outlook of the later nineteenth century that migration theory became one of the unacknowledged tenets of the first archaeologists and prehistorians, and its legacy is with us still.' (1) Jewish history, too, has been a victim of this theory owing to the long-standing confusion of race with religion. The Jews are a people distinguished by their religion and culture but cannot be considered a race in the anthropological sense. They belong to various ethnic groups and represent a rich mixture of different stocks. So long as the Jewish religion is prepared to accept proselytes - and in ancient times it welcomed them in great numbers - Jews cannot lay claim to racial purity, which, as a concept, finds no place in the Laws of Moses.

The adoption of Judaism by a section of the Agau population is an example of 'cultural diffusion or local evolution', which was gradual and not abrupt. The spread ofideas along the length of the Nile represented a migration not so much of people as of thought. Similarly, the conversion of Ethiopia to Christianity was a gradual process, possibly dictated by King Ezana's caution in order not to alienate his subjects. First, he seems to have abandoned his pagan beliefs in favour of a monotheistic faith, about which he may have learnt either from his contacts with south Arabia or from the Judaised Agau, and which he next rejected under the impact of Christian evangelisation. The king's conversion to the new religion may even have been an astute political move which he calculated would bring his country into the orbit of the mighty Byzantine Empire. This would have been a more attractive proposition than the adoption of Judaism, then in retreat before the onrush of the first of its daughter religions.

The spread of Christianity was followed after three centuries by the expansion of Islam - another example of cultural diffusion - when the Axumite kings found themselves increasingly preoccupied with the growing threat on their borders from the followers of Muhammad. Many of the Agau Jews withdrew to the high mountains of Semien where they established an autonomous kingdom around the Amba Ayhud, or Jews' Rock. This natural fortress, the scene of many a pitched battle, became the symbol of Jewish resistance: when it fell, many centuries later,

(1) Nubia, p. 666.


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