The Beta Israel: Falasha in Ethiopia: From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century

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Overview

...balanced and well informed...a striking piece of scholarship aimed at demythologizing the origins of the Ethiopian Falasha.
-Foreign Affairs

Kaplan's definitive treatment will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish history, African history, and comparative religion, as well as anyone interested in Jewish affairs and the modern Middle East.

The Midwest Book Review

Kaplan's conceptualizations are judicious and clearly expressed...incisive and well documented... and provides essential background for the process of assimilation now taking ...

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Overview

...balanced and well informed...a striking piece of scholarship aimed at demythologizing the origins of the Ethiopian Falasha.
-Foreign Affairs

Kaplan's definitive treatment will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish history, African history, and comparative religion, as well as anyone interested in Jewish affairs and the modern Middle East.

The Midwest Book Review

Kaplan's conceptualizations are judicious and clearly expressed...incisive and well documented... and provides essential background for the process of assimilation now taking lace in Israel.
-The International Journal of African Historical Studies

Kaplan's able interdisciplinary approach is of great value for persons interested in religion, civilization, and process of change.
-Religious Studies Review

Kaplan's well-written, lucid presentation make[s] this important, competent contribution accessible to all levels of readers. Highly recommended.

Choice

Insightful and thorough, a welcome contribution.Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Professor of Music, Harvard University

Undoubtedly the most detailed, most scholarly, and most dispassionate argument of Falasha history hitherto published. [T]his work deserves ... the most careful study by all those (and in particular in Israel) who have any practical or scholarly connection with the Beta Israel.
-- Edward UllendorffEmeritus Professor of Ethiopian Studies, University of LondonFellow of the British Academy

Given Kaplan's facility with both written and oral sources, he is in a unique position to synthesize and reconcile the new historical findings of ethnographers with the written sources and differing conclusions of earlier historians and linguists. His work is insightful and thorough, a welcome contribution.
-- Kay Shelemay, Wesleyan University

The origin of the Black Jews of Ethiopia has long been a source of fascination and controversy. Their condition and future continues to generate debate. The culmination of almost a decade of research, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia marks the publication of the first book-length scholarly study of the history of this unique community.
In this volume, Steven Kaplan seeks to demythologize the history of the Falasha and to consider them in the wider context of Ethiopian history and culture. This marks a clear departure from previous studies which have viewed them from the external perspective of Jewish history. Drawing on a wide variety of sources including the Beta Israel's own literature and oral traditions, Kaplan demonstrates that they are not a lost Jewish tribe, but rather an ethnic group which emerged in Ethiopia between the 14th and 16th century. Indeed, the name, Falasha, their religious hierarchy, sacred texts, and economic specialization can all be dated to this period. Among the subjects the book addresses are their links with Ethiopian Christianity, the medieval legends concerning their existence, their wars with the Ethiopian emperors, their relegation to the status of a despised semi-caste, their encounters with European missionaries, and the impact of the Great Famine of 1888-1892.
Kaplan's definitive treatment will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish history, African history, and comparative religion, as well as anyone interested in Jewish affairs and the modern Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

Booknews
In the first full-length scholarly study of the "Black Jews" of Ethiopia, Kaplan (comparative religion and African studies, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem) considers them as an aspect of Ethiopian history, rather than of Jewish history. They are not, he says, a lost tribe of Israel, but a native ethnic group that emerged in Ethiopia between the 14th and 16th centuries. He traces their cultural development and their relations with the mainstream culture, Ethiopian emperors, native and missionary Christians, and others. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780814746646
  • Publisher: New York University Press
  • Publication date: 1/1/1995
  • Edition description: REISSUE
  • Pages: 248
  • Sales rank: 1,214,469
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.56 (d)

Meet the Author

Dr. Steven Kaplan is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Religion and African Studies and Chair of the African Studies Department at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia: From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century, also published by New York University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction 1
1 Ethiopian Jews: Obscure Beginnings 13
2 Speculation and Legend 33
3 From Ayhud to Falasha: The Invention of a Tradition 53
4 Resistance and Defeat: 1468-1632 79
5 Glory and Decline: 1632-1855 97
6 A Mission to the Jews 116
7 Kifu-qen: The Great Famine of 1888-92 143
Conclusions: Before Faitlovitch 155
Notes 167
Bibliography 211
Index 225

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