Abba Sabra (fl. c. 1450) was an

Ethiopian Orthodox The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

monk, and the teacher of the children of Emperor

Zara Yaqob Zara Yaqob ( Ge'ez: ዘርዐ ያዕቆብ; 1399 – 26 August 1468) was Emperor of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty who ruled under the regnal name Kwestantinos I (Ge'ez: ቈስታንቲኖስ, "Constantine"). He is known fo ...

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 Er ...

."A Song Of Longing by Kay Kaufman Shelemay"
/ref> Abba Sabra tried to convert the

Beta Israel The Beta Israel ( he, בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Bēteʾ Yīsrāʾēl''; gez, ቤተ እስራኤል, , modern ''Bēte 'Isrā'ēl'', EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "House of Israel" or "Community of Israel"), also known as Ethiopian Jews ...

(Ethiopian Jews), but was instead converted by them to Judaism. He is best known for introducing monasticism to Beta Israel, and the tradition of Jewish monks continued down the centuries until the Great Famine of the 1890s decimated their monasteries in

Lay Armachiho Lay Armachiho ( am, ላይ አርማጭሆ, lāy ārmāčihō, lit=Upper Armachiho) is a Districts of Ethiopia, woreda in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. This woreda is named after "Armachiho", a province in northwestern Ethiopia along the Ethiopia–Sud ...

.Richard Pankhurst, "The Falashas, or Judaic Ethiopians, in Their Christian Ethiopian Setting", ''African Affairs'', Vol. 91 (October 1992), pp. 567-582 He then later converted the son of King Zara Yaqob, Saga-Amlak, who adopted the religious name

Abba Saga Abba Saga was the son of the Ethiopian emperor Zara Yaqob, and a monk of Ethiopian Christianity. His teacher was Abba Sabra, a monk of Ethiopian Christianity. He rebelled against his father after his conversion to Judaism and took refuge in Hoharwa ...

. Later Abba Sabra and Abba Saga established a separate kingdom in modern-day Ethiopia in which Jews were not persecuted.

References

Ethiopian clergy Ethiopian Jews Ethiopian former Christians Converts to Judaism from Oriental Orthodoxy Oriental Orthodox monks Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 15th-century Ethiopian people 15th-century converts to Judaism 15th-century Christian monks {{Ethiopia-reli-bio-stub