The Battle of the Hill of the Jews (named by

Miguel de Castanhoso --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places *Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disamb ...

for a community of Beta Israel who lived there) was a battle fought in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

in August 1542 between the Portuguese forces of

Cristóvão da Gama Cristóvão da Gama ( 1516 – 29 August 1542), anglicised as Christopher da Gama, was a Portuguese military commander who led a Portuguese army of 400 musketeers on a crusade in Ethiopia (1541–1543) against the Adal Muslim army of Imam A ...

and the Adal Muslim followers of

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ( so, Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi or Axmed Gurey, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, ar, أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي ; 1506 – 21 February 1543) was an imam and general of the Adal Sultan ...

. The Portuguese won the battle, capturing many horses that they could have used to exploit their victory in the previous

battle of Jarte The Battle of Jarte was fought from 4 to 16 April 1542 between the forces of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and the Ethiopian Empire assisted by a Portuguese expeditionary force led by Cristóvão da Gama. The Abyssinians and Portuguese were victorio ...

. The benefits of this victory were short-lived, for within the month da Gama was slain in Wofla even before his soldiers escorting the captured animals could reach the Portuguese encampment at

Lake Ashenge Lake Hashenge (also ጻዕዳ ባሕሪ Lake Hashange, Lake Hashengi) is a lake in the southern Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Ethiopian highlands at an elevation of 2409 meters, it has no outlet. According to the ''Statistical Abstr ...

. The location of this battle is not known. Whiteway has argued that this place is identical with

Amba Geshen Amba Geshen is the name of a mountain in northern Ethiopia. It is in Ambassel, South Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, northwest of Dessie, at a latitude and a longitude of . Part of Ambassel woreda, Amba Geshen is one of the mountains of Ethio ...

, located far to the south of the Portuguese camp. More recently, however, C.F. Beckingham has argued that the battle took place in the eastern

Semien Mountains The Simien Mountains (Amharic: ስሜን ተራራ or Səmen; also spelled Simen and Semien), in northern Ethiopia, north east of Gondar in Amhara region, are part of the Ethiopian Highlands. They are a World Heritage Site and include the Simien M ...

near the left bank of the

Tekezé River The Tekezé or Täkkäze River ( amh, ተከዜ, ti, ተከዘ; originally meaning "river" in Ge’ez, ), also spelled Takkaze, is a major river of Ethiopia. For part of its course it forms a section of the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eri ...

.Beckingham, "A Note on the topography of Ahmad Gragn's campaigns in 1542", ''Journal of Semitic Studies'', 4 (1959), pp. 362-373

References

Hill of the Jews 1542 in Africa 1542 in Ethiopia 1542 in the Portuguese Empire Hill of the Jews Hill of the Jews Hill of the Jews {{Ethiopia-hist-stub