Editing Gudit (section)

== History and stories ==
There are two versions of the tradition about Gudit.

* She was a princess of Gideon IV, the King of the Jewish [[Kingdom of Beta Israel]] ([[Kingdom of Simien]]). After her father was killed in battle with the&nbsp;[[Aksumite Empire]], Gudit inherited his throne. Eventually, she defeated the Aksumite.{{sfn|Briggs|2018|p=22}}
* She was a banished princess of Aksum. She married Zenobis, a Syrian prince, and converted to Judaism. Eventually, she conquered Aksum with her husband and people of Hahayle, her mother's homeland.{{sfn|''Dict Afr Biog''|2011}}

Information about Gudit is contradictory and incomplete. Paul B. Henze wrote, "She is said to have killed the emperor, ascended the throne herself, and reigned for 40 years. Accounts of her violent misdeeds are still related among peasants in the north Ethiopian countryside."{{sfn|Henze|2000|p=48}}  Henze continues in a footnote:

{{blockquote|On my first visit to the rock church of [[Abreha and Atsbeha]] in eastern [[Tigray Province|Tigray]] in 1970, I noticed that its intricately carved ceiling was blackened by soot. The priest explained it as the work of Gudit, who had piled the church full of hay and set it ablaze nine centuries before.{{sfn|Henze|2000|p=48, n.14}}}}

There is a tradition that Gudit sacked and burned [[Debre Damo]], an [[amba (landform)|''amba'']] which at the time was a treasury and a prison for the male relatives of the king; this may be an echo of the later capture and sack of [[Amba Geshen]] by [[Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi]], alias Ahmad Gragn.{{sfn|Pakenham|1959|p=79}}

However, [[James Bruce]] presented a tradition that Dil Na'ad was overthrown by Gudit, and that [[Mara Takla Haymanot]] (whom Bruce calls "Takla Haymanot") was a cousin of Gudit who succeeded her after several of her own family.{{sfn|Bruce|1804|pp=451–453}}

In oral tradition, Gudit is sometimes conflated with the 16th-century Muslim queen [[Ga'ewa]] of Tigray.{{sfn|Andersen|2000|p=37}}