The great Ethiopian emperor Zara Yaqob, reigning from 1434, conducts an unsuccessful military campaign to annihilate the Beta Israel, or Falasha, the group of Agew-speaking Ethiopian Jews who practice a non-Talmudic form of Judaism.

Ahmad Gragn, certain that the surviving Portuguese are scattered, without their firearms, and alone in a foreign land, concludes that this threat is ended, dismisses all but two hundred of the foreign musketeers, and proceeds to his camp at Derasge on the shores of Lake Tana.

However, over one hundred and twenty men have joined Queen Sabla Wengel, who has taken refuge at the Mountain of the Jews.

Ten days later, her son, Emperor Gelawdewos, arrives and they take measure of their situation.

Using the arms stockpiled at Debre Damo, the Portuguese are able to rearm themselves; with the promise of their ability, Gelawdewos is able to raise a new army, which meets Ahmad Gragn at Wayna Daga on February 21, 1543.

The Portuguese musketeers aim their fire only at the Muslim musketeers, who had played a decisive part at Wofla—and at Imam Ahmad himself.

While the sources differ on the exact details, all agree that Cristóvão da Gama’s men killed Ahmad Gragn to avenge their commander's death.

Gelawdewos had devoted time and energy to rallying his people against Ahmad, a determination his chronicler credits with preventing Ahmad's forcible conversions from being permanent.

With Ahmad's death, Gelawdewos is not only able to eject the leaderless Muslim forces from the Amhara plateau, but also from the lowlands to the east, which include Dawaro and Bale.

The Ottomans, who had in 1541 contributed a force of nine hundred musketeers but have their own troubles to deal with in the Mediterranean, are unable to help Ahmad's successors.

Susenyos manages to first surprise and decimate the forces of Za Sellase at Manta Dafar in Begemder; when Za Sellase escapes to Yaqob's camp, the Emperor's derision causes Za Sellase to defect to Susenyos.

For several days, the armies of the two rival emperors maneuver in the mountains of Gojjam, to at last meet in the Battle of Gol on March 10, 1606, where Yaqob and Abuna Petros II are killed in battle, and his troops slaughtered.

The Beta-Israel, despite attempts by Ethiopian Christian regimes to exterminate the Ethiopian Jews in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, partly retain their independence until the seventeenth century, when the emperor Susenyos utterly crushes them and confiscates their lands.

Susenyos is interested in Catholicism, in part due to Pedro Páez' persuasion, but also hoping for military help from Portugal and Spain (in union at this time).

Some decades earlier, in 1541, Christopher da Gama (son of the legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama) had been in charge of a military expedition to save the Ethiopian emperor Gelawdewos from the onslaught of Ahmed Gragn, a Muslim Imam who almost destroyed the existence of the Ethiopian state.

Susenyos hopes to receive a new contingent of well-armed European soldiers, this time against another enemy, the Oromo who are invading from the south, and to put down constant internal rebellion.

He shows the Jesuit missionaries his favor by a number of land grants, most importantly those at Gorgora, located on a peninsula on the northern shore of Lake Tana.

Susenyos sends a mission heading for Madrid and Rome in 1613, led by Fr. Antonio Fernandes.

The plan is to head south, in an attempt to reach Malindi, a port on the Indian Ocean in what is Kenya today, hoping to break through the effective blockade that the Ottoman conquests have created around the Ethiopian empire by sailing all the way around the southern tip of Africa.

They fail, however, to reach Malindi due to delays caused by local Christians hostile to the mission.

No Spanish or Portuguese soldiers have arrived in Ethiopia, despite several letters from Susenyos to the King of Spain (and Portugal), Philip III, asking for military help.

Even so, Susenyos at last converts to Catholicism in 1622 in a public ceremony, and separates himself from all of his wives and concubines except for his first wife.

The tolerant and sensitive Pedro Paez dies soon afterwards.

The disastrous policy of Ethiopia's socialist Derg government had led to a horrific famine in 1984, with one-sixth of Ethiopia's people at risk of starvation; Western nations had made available enough surplus grain to end the crisis by mid-1985.

Some eleven thousand Beta Israel—Ethiopian Jews—immigrate to Israel in 1984 and 19­85 from the country's drought-prone and crowded north.

The conditions of the Beta Israel had steadily improved from the late nineteenth century, and tens of thousands of Beta Israel live in the region north of Lake Tana.

Beta Israel men are traditionally ironsmiths, weavers, and farmers.

Beta Israel women are known for their pottery.

The Beta Israel have a Bible and a prayer book written in Ge'ez, the ancient Ethiopian language.

They have no Talmudic laws, but their preservation of and adherence to Jewish traditions is undeniable.

They observe the Sabbath, practice circumcision, have synagogue services led by priests (kohanim) of the village, follow certain dietary laws of Judaism, observe many laws of ritual uncleanness, offer sacrifices on Nisan 14 in the Jewish religious year, and observe some of the major Jewish festivals.

According to tradition the name Beta Israel (literally, 'house of Israel' in Ge'ez) originated in the fourth century CE, when the community refused to convert to Christianity during the rule of Abreha and Atsbeha (identified with Se'azana and Ezana), the monarchs of the Kingdom of Aksum who embraced Christianity.

This name contrasts with Beta Kristiyan (literally, 'house of Christianity', meaning 'church' in Ge'ez). Originally, it did not have any negative connotations, and the community has since used Beta Israel as its official name.

Since the 1980s, it has also become the official name used in the scholarly and scientific literature to refer to the community.

The term Esra'elawi "Israelites"—which is related to the name Beta Israel—is also used by the community to refer to its members.

The name Ayhud ('Jews'), is rarely used in the community, as the Christians had used it as a derogatory term.

The community has begun to use it only since strengthening ties with other Jewish communities in the twentieth century.

The term Ibrawi "Hebrew" was used to refer to the chawa ('free man') in the community, in contrast to barya ('slave').

The term Oritawi "Torah-true" was used to refer to the community members; since the nineteenth century, it has been used in opposition to the term Falash Mura (converts).

The derogatory term Falasha, which means 'landless', 'wanderers', was given to the community in the fifteenth century by the Emperor Yeshaq I, and today its use is avoided because its meaning is offensive.

Zagwe, referring to the Agaw people of the Zagwe dynasty, among the original inhabitants of northwest Ethiopia, is considered derogatory, since it incorrectly associates the community with the largely pagan Agaw.

The number of Beta Israel members remaining in Ethiopia is uncertain, but estimates range to only a few thousand.