Beta Israel of Ethiopia

The Beta Israel were a Jewish community in the Ethiopian highlands, concentrated in the Gondar and Simien regions. Their own tradition traced their origins to Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, to the tribe of Dan, or to exiles from the First Temple period, while most historians place their emergence as a distinct group in the medieval period, among Agaw-speaking populations shaped by the strongly Hebraic character of early Ethiopian Christianity. They kept the Sabbath, circumcision, dietary laws, purity laws, and sacrificial practice, read scripture in Ge'ez rather than Hebrew, and had no contact with rabbinic literature. They maintained a monastic tradition and periods of political autonomy in the highlands until the seventeenth century.