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The Queen of the Habasha in Ethiopian history, tradition and chronology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Knud Tage Andersen
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Extract

It is well known from relatively recent Ethiopic tradition that Ethiopia was once ruled by a queen called Gudit, Yodit, Isat or Gaՙwa, with both positive and negative characteristics. On the one hand she was a beautiful woman of the Ethiopian royal family, much like the Queen of Sheba, and on the other she was a despicable prostitute who, at a time of political weakness, killed the Ethiopian king, captured the throne, and as a cruel ruler destroyed Aksum, the capital, persecuted the priests, and closed the churches.

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Articles
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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 31 - 63
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 2000

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References

1 Haukal, Ibn, Configuration de la terre, tr. Kramers, J.H. and Wiet, G., 2 vols. Paris, 1964, 16, 23, 66.Google Scholar

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87 See Jones, A history of Ethiopia.

88 See Neugebauer, , Chronography, 85, 96.Google Scholar

89 In two lists year 1 of Martyrs or of Diocletian (D 1) is identified with the year w 5852 = I 352, which is otherwise year 0 of Grace (G 0) (see Neugebauer, , Chronography, 71, 98)Google Scholar. In this case D 1 is moved 76 years forward in time, whereas above G 1 was moved back 76 years. But in both cases an identification or confusion of D 1 and G 1 has taken place.

90 For this example and several other examples of years of Grace, counted from I 276 instead of I 352, see Chaine, M., La chronologie des temps chrétiens de l'Egypte et de l'Ethiopie, Paris, 1925 111 ff.Google Scholar

91 See Levi, , Yodit, 77f and 108Google Scholar: ‘These female figures (…Gudit, Tirda’ Gäbäz and Mäsobä Wärq) are essentially one and the same.’

92 Sergew, , Ancient and medieval, 202f.Google Scholar

93 Sergew, , Ancient and medieval, 240 fGoogle Scholar. Sergew quotes the list from Mekuria, Täklä Sadik, Ya Ityopia Tarik: Nubia Aksum Zagwiye, Addis Ababa, 1951, Ethiopian Calendar, era I, 356.Google Scholar

94 Ibn Haukal may have written his note about the queen some years before A.D. 977, the last year of his flourishing.