Kingdom of Semien (Beta Israel) (jan 1, 1468 – jan 1, 1632)

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Beta Israel political leadership appears to have consolidated during the mid-15th century, at the same time as the intstitution of monacticism took hold.

The rulers here, all from a single dynasty, engaged in a determined military struggle against the Christian rulers of Ethiopia. Their struggle was an inspiration for Jews around the world, and many Ethiopian Jews captured and enslaved by the Ethiopian Christians were redeemed by the Jewish community in Egypt when brought there in the slave markets.

Semien was at various times independent and autonomous within the Ethiopian Empire.

The Jewish kingdom was eventually conquered by the Ethiopian Empire, and the Ethiopian Jews faced persecution under Christian rule into modern times, though for a while they remained respected warriors and artisans in the region of Gondar.

See "The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia : from earliest times to the twentieth century", chapter 4.

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