AHC: Kingdom of Beta Israel endures

Zachariah

Banned
The Kingdom of Semien, sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Beta Israel, was an ancient kingdom of the Beta Israel, centered in the northwestern part of Ethiopia, which was purportedly established after Ezana was crowned as the Emperor of Axum in 325 CE, and which came to an end in 1627, when it was invaded, conquered and annexed by the Ethiopian Empire during the reign of emperor Susenyos I. Emperor Susenyos I confiscated their lands, sold many people into slavery and forcibly baptized others; Jewish writings and religious books were burned, and the practice of any form of Jewish religion was forbidden in Ethiopia.

The Beta Israel community still clung on for a long time, due largely to Christian Ethiopian taboos about professions such as craftsmanship, masonry, and carpentry. According to contemporary accounts by European visitors (Portuguese merchants and diplomats, French, British and other travellers) the Beta Israel still numbered about one million persons in the 17th century, soon after these measures were introduced.
The_Area_Of_Beta_Israel_Jewish_Community.PNG

So then, your challenge is to come up with a scenario in which the Kingdom of Semien, aka 'Beta Israel' endures and maintains its national independence all the way to the present day- or, at the very least, regains its full independence by the present day. And extra bonus points are on offer for each for the following points which you manage to meet:
  • Beta Israel maintains all of its historical territories (marked in green on the map), or expands its borders beyond them, by the present day
  • Beta Israel's maintains or improves upon its share of the world population by the present day, compared to its share of the world population in the 17th century IOTL (i.r.o. 0.17 to 0.2%)
  • Beta Israel is a developed country by the present day, with an HDI of over 0.750
  • Beta Israel has the largest economy, population and military of any Jewish-majority nation on Earth by the present day
Up for it?
 
Looked at the title and thought "is it a spelling mistake for Better Israel", and then when I found out Beta Israel, I wondered about what happened to Alpha Israel. After reading the OP and about the kingdom of Semen (I know it's Semien, but I only saw that on a second-glance), I realized, "oh boy, this shit is real".

Jokes aside, I thinks either have Susenyos I be less interested in them, or if he still conquers them, once he does so, he agrees to leave their religion in peace, and during one of the various power struggles in the Ethiopic empire between l'empereur est mort and vive l'empereur, secede again (especially if the emperor to be is pretty weak). But that's about all I've got...
 
It's so isolated, that benefitted both its long survival through the Middle Ages and its downfall later.

Making the place vastly successful, able to resist colonization etc. may require changing that isolation. But if that necessitates butterflying Islam or at least Muslim dominance in South Arabia, Egypt, the horn of africa, then the world won't be recognisable anymore.
 

Zachariah

Banned
It's so isolated, that benefitted both its long survival through the Middle Ages and its downfall later.

Making the place vastly successful, able to resist colonization etc. may require changing that isolation. But if that necessitates butterflying Islam or at least Muslim dominance in South Arabia, Egypt, the horn of africa, then the world won't be recognisable anymore.
It isn't hopelessly isolated though- if they managed to expand around Lake Tana to the place marked as Bahir Dar, the source of the Blue Nile, then they could well be far less isolated, having links to the Kingdom of Sennar (or whatever rises in its place ITTL) and the outside world to a far greater extent. And the Jewish Queen known as Yodit (Judith) or "Gudit", allegedly a Beta Israeli, defeated the Kingdom of Axum, burned its churches and literature and reigned over its territories for 40yrs or so; with a historian mentioning that the king of Yemen sent a zebra to the ruler of Iraq in 969/970, which he had received as a gift from Judith, the 'Queen of al-Habasha'- something which indicates that it wasn't quite as isolated as all that. And even Marco Polo and Benjamin of Tudela mentioned an independent Ethiopian Jewish kingdom in their writings from that period. It's clear from contemporary sources that she existed, but her reign ended some time before 1003, and according to other Ethiopian traditional accounts, the last of her dynasty was overthrown by Mara Takla Haymanot in 1137.
This period, considered the golden age of the Kingdom of Semien and of Beta Israel, ends with the rise of the Christian Solomonic dynasty– in 1270, the Christian Solomonic dynasty was "restored", after the crowning of a monarch who claimed descent from the single royal prince who managed to escape Queen Judith's uprising, and the Kingdom of Ethiopia was born. For the next three centuries, the Solomonic dynasty emperors conducted several long ongoing series of armed confrontations with the Jewish kingdom, eventually bringing about the fall of the Kingdom. So then, what if it hadn't been- how much difference would it have made if that sole royal prince who'd managed to escape, whose descendants survived to establish the Solomonic dynasty, hadn't? What if Queen Judith's attempts to exterminate the members of the ruling Axumite dynasty had succeeded? With the Ethiopian Empire strangled in the cradle, could Semien, or 'Beta Israel', have risen and expanded to take its place ITTL, or close to it? By the way, I'm not averse to butterflies- I love them. So even if the world is barely recognizable, so long as how it got there's still plausible, I'll be fine with that.
 
It isn't hopelessly isolated though- if they managed to expand around Lake Tana to the place marked as Bahir Dar, the source of the Blue Nile, then they could well be far less isolated, having links to the Kingdom of Sennar (or whatever rises in its place ITTL) and the outside world to a far greater extent. And the Jewish Queen known as Yodit (Judith) or "Gudit", allegedly a Beta Israeli, defeated the Kingdom of Axum, burned its churches and literature and reigned over its territories for 40yrs or so; with a historian mentioning that the king of Yemen sent a zebra to the ruler of Iraq in 969/970, which he had received as a gift from Judith, the 'Queen of al-Habasha'- something which indicates that it wasn't quite as isolated as all that. And even Marco Polo and Benjamin of Tudela mentioned an independent Ethiopian Jewish kingdom in their writings from that period. It's clear from contemporary sources that she existed, but her reign ended some time before 1003, and according to other Ethiopian traditional accounts, the last of her dynasty was overthrown by Mara Takla Haymanot in 1137.
This period, considered the golden age of the Kingdom of Semien and of Beta Israel, ends with the rise of the Christian Solomonic dynasty– in 1270, the Christian Solomonic dynasty was "restored", after the crowning of a monarch who claimed descent from the single royal prince who managed to escape Queen Judith's uprising, and the Kingdom of Ethiopia was born. For the next three centuries, the Solomonic dynasty emperors conducted several long ongoing series of armed confrontations with the Jewish kingdom, eventually bringing about the fall of the Kingdom. So then, what if it hadn't been- how much difference would it have made if that sole royal prince who'd managed to escape, whose descendants survived to establish the Solomonic dynasty, hadn't? What if Queen Judith's attempts to exterminate the members of the ruling Axumite dynasty had succeeded? With the Ethiopian Empire strangled in the cradle, could Semien, or 'Beta Israel', have risen and expanded to take its place ITTL, or close to it? By the way, I'm not averse to butterflies- I love them. So even if the world is barely recognizable, so long as how it got there's still plausible, I'll be fine with that.


Considering that the whole dynasty descends from that one individual (the Solomonic prince), it's a pretty slender reed. He can still escape, just have a lion eat him (but then I fear you'll be getting constant imposters claiming to either be him or descend from him). That said, if the Guditan dynasty is the only game in town, unless the Christians find a new leader, or get help from outside (a neighboring sultan's second son willing to help them, if only to cause a ruckus in the area, for instance), their rebellion might be put down relatively easily. Or even that prince did leave descent, if his descent involved in the uprising is discredited for some reason (cowardice, unChristian behavior, treachery, etc etc - this is the period where a monarch was seen as divinely ordained. A series of defeats or debilitating illness or something like that, can be seen as divine retribution), then that can serve as a later POD if you want.
 
If you don't mind butterflies then i suggest letting the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas of Himyar prevail over Aksum in their war in the VIth century. Gets you a Jewish South Arabia controlling the Bab el Mandeb. If the Beta Israel are indeed local dissenters splitting off Aksum after its Christianisation, then they must be a young state around this period, too, and maybe they gain the upper Hand with Himyarite help and do away with Aksum altogether, replacing it. Gives you a Jewish Ethiopia, whose name may still be Beta Israel. Together, but also rivalling, with himyar, they could over time build up and dominate East African and Indian Ocean trade. The road to world's wealthiest economy is still long, but nothing insurmountable stands in their way. Controlling Arabia would give them petrol in the XXth century...
 

Zachariah

Banned
If you don't mind butterflies then i suggest letting the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas of Himyar prevail over Aksum in their war in the VIth century. Gets you a Jewish South Arabia controlling the Bab el Mandeb. If the Beta Israel are indeed local dissenters splitting off Aksum after its Christianisation, then they must be a young state around this period, too, and maybe they gain the upper Hand with Himyarite help and do away with Aksum altogether, replacing it. Gives you a Jewish Ethiopia, whose name may still be Beta Israel. Together, but also rivalling, with himyar, they could over time build up and dominate East African and Indian Ocean trade. The road to world's wealthiest economy is still long, but nothing insurmountable stands in their way. Controlling Arabia would give them petrol in the XXth century...
The trouble with such an early POD though, especially in that specific era and region (too late to butterfly away the birth of the prophet Muhammed and the Arab expansion, too early to stamp it out or avoid becoming Muhammed's target #1 if they did control South Arabia at this time), is how you'd prevent the kingdom from either collapsing or having the majority of its people converted to Islam when the movement really starts to make waves. In this respect, keeping them on the south side of the Bab el Mandeb might be for the best, especially in the early stages; perhaps they could even profit from the impending explosion of Islam and the onslaught across the sea on the Arab peninsula, taking advantage of the 'brain drain' which might follow, and increasing their naval focus to ward off the looming threat of Arab invasions from across the Straits. I'd think that the Medri Bahri region of present-day Eritrea, literally next door to their established lands and the easiest seafaring region to place firmly under their hegemony, should be enough to serve as a base for any ocean-going aspirations; 1400 years is an extremely long time, after all, and there's no way that they wouldn't have to endure major losses, setbacks and internal turmoil over that length of time. But holding onto Eritrea, at least until the Europeans start their scramble for Africa (if they ever do ITTL, which certainly isn't a given), should be something which they could plausibly manage to do, even for that long length of time.
 
The trouble with such an early POD though, especially in that specific era and region (too late to butterfly away the birth of the prophet Muhammed and the Arab expansion, too early to stamp it out or avoid becoming Muhammed's target #1 if they did control South Arabia at this time), is how you'd prevent the kingdom from either collapsing or having the majority of its people converted to Islam when the movement really starts to make waves. In this respect, keeping them on the south side of the Bab el Mandeb might be for the best, especially in the early stages; perhaps they could even profit from the impending explosion of Islam and the onslaught across the sea on the Arab peninsula, taking advantage of the 'brain drain' which might follow, and increasing their naval focus to ward off the looming threat of Arab invasions from across the Straits. I'd think that the Medri Bahri region of present-day Eritrea, literally next door to their established lands and the easiest seafaring region to place firmly under their hegemony, should be enough to serve as a base for any ocean-going aspirations; 1400 years is an extremely long time, after all, and there's no way that they wouldn't have to endure major losses, setbacks and internal turmoil over that length of time. But holding onto Eritrea, at least until the Europeans start their scramble for Africa (if they ever do ITTL, which certainly isn't a given), should be something which they could plausibly manage to do, even for that long length of time.
I do think it would butterfly Islam. It was the chaos in South Arabia after the old kingdoms'. Downfall which sent waves of "lawlessness" across the desert, just the situation described by Islamic sources as the environment from which Muhammad saved them and from whose dissatisfaction their movement thrived.
A stable wealthy Himyar whose Beta israelite allies control the other, ethiopian side, might create different circumstances in the oases.
 
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