Gudit

Gudit, also known as Yodit, Isato & Ga’wa, I discovered while researching Furra and she was so intriguing I had to include her in this series.

Gudit was a legendary Nigist (Queen) of the Kingdom of Semien or Axum and she was a formidable character. Gudit is considered one of Ethiopia’s fiercest warriors and a master strategist.  Her name in Amharic is Esato, which means fire.

 

Gudit ruled over a Kingdom in Ethiopia for around 40 years, destroying the previous dynasty whose lineage dated back to the times of King Solomon. Gudit, like many legendary figures, has a lot of conflicting accounts of her story but I shall present her story here as best I can.

 

She is sometimes said to have been from the Kingdom she would eventually come to rule and other times she is said to have been from the Agaw tribe of Ethiopia.

In the late 10th century, Queen Gudit invaded the Kingdom from the south, destroying the cities and countryside alike and also destroying monasteries and churches. From this invasion, she claimed and won the throne.

 

Gudit has been said to have been Jewish, but it is actually likely that she converted to Judaism after marrying her husband, Zenobis.

Regardless, Gudit grew up in a Christian community, but in a non-Christian household, which saw her marginalised from her society. After falling in love with a religious leader in her community she requested a gift, to which she received the cover of the replica of the Tablets of Law. She used it to make shoes but, when found prancing around in them, she was charged on a count of blasphemy.

Her punishment was to have her breasts cut off and be sold into slavery in the Middle East.

 

Zenobis was the son of the King of Syria and when he saw Gudit he fell in love with her, marrying her. Gudit, angry and vengeful over the harsh treatment she received by her homeland, tried to convince her powerful new husband to attack Axum, but he refused as their army was too powerful to attack. Upon hearing from her spies that the King was away, Gudit managed to convince her husband and planned the assault.

 

Gudit hid in the monastery of Debre Bizen in Eritrea, which no woman was permitted to visit, while her husband led their army against Axum. They won and Gudit became the Queen of the land that had once shunned her.

 

She destroyed monasteries and churches across the Kingdom, some of which still claim to show the scars of her assault today.

 

Gudit’s story is even immortalised in the video game Age of Empires II: (The African Kingdoms). Her story in the game is that she was a ruler who was exiled, she then married a Syrian Jewish man and returned to Aksum to restore her throne. I absolutely LOVED Age of Empires as a child (and in later years too!) so this was a very interesting fact for me to learn!