Entangled Religions - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Religious Contact and Transfer (Apr 2018)

Between Heretics and Jews: Inventing Jewish Identities in Ethiopia

  • Sophia Dege-Müller

DOI
https://doi.org/10.13154/er.v6.2018.247-308
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

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The Beta Israel, the Ethiopian Jews, have suffered from a negative or complete misrepresentation in the written and oral sources of pre-modern Ethiopia. The term “Jew” was deliberately chosen to stigmatize heretic groups, or any other group deviating from the normative church doctrine. Often no difference was made between Jewish groups or heretic Christians; they were marginalized and persecuted in the harshest way. The article illustrates how Jews are featured in the Ethiopian sources, the apparent patterns in this usage, and the polemic language chosen to describe these people.

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