The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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| 98 answer to the Jesuit mission led by Bishop de Oviedo. The document reaffirmed the Emperor's faith in the monophysite doctrine and def ended those Abyssinian customs which contained Hebraic traits, such as the observance of Saturday in addition to Sunday, the dietary laws and the practice of circumcision. If the defeat of Grafi saved Ethiopia for Christendom, the robust defence put up by the monophysite church, both now and later, prevented the country from falling within the Roman Catholic sphere and thus becoming a Portuguese colony. Ethiopian independence rested on its ability to withstand both the onslaught of Islam and the threat of European temporal and spiritual expansion. While the Portuguese presence no doubt made some contribution by the influence it exerted on Ethiopian art and architecture, it also had the baleful effect of strengthening the Ethiopian church's antagonism to the Falashas and especially to their denial of the Christian messiah. When Claudius was succeeded by his brother Menas (1559-63) he lost little time in reopening the campaign against the Falasha stronghold in Semien where their leader, 'Radaet the Jew', as Bruce called him, successfully warded off the attack. (1) But, in his short reign, the king had other preoccupations, including harrying the Jesuits, and it was left to his son and successor Sarsa Dengel (1563-95) to continue the war against the Falashas. The campaign lasted altogether for seventeen years, from 1577 to 1594, which is testimony enough to the tenacity and fighting spirit of the Jewish resistance. The epic story of this struggle for survival, as recounted in the Ethiopian royal chronicles, was translated into French and Hebrew by Joseph Halevy and published in Paris in 1907. Sarsa Dengel mounted his campaign on the pretext that the Falashas, led by their king, Radai, had failed to pay their tribute. It is better, recorded the chronicle, that the emperor should fight against those who are guilty of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ than to make war on the Gallas. (2) Halevy, a balanced and respected scholar, described the war as 'a veritable crusade, inspired by religious fanaticism … for the wolves who devour the sheep it is always the sheep who started it. The chronicler, imbued with religious prejudices, described the Falasha leaders as proud and insanely provocative; the historian will not allow himself to be thus misled. (3) Sarsa Dengel's motive, like that of Ba'eda Maryam a hundred years earlier, was nothing less than the extermination of the Jewish religion and it is difficult to escape the (1)Travels, vol. 2, p. 206. |