In Ethiopian legend, Gudit (or Yodit) was a warrior queen who lived sometime between the 920s and 980s AD. The specifics of her ethnicity and religion are unknown, with some sources saying she was an Ethiopian Jew (or Beta Israel) and others suggesting she was "pagan" (i.e. following an indigenous Ethiopian religion). What is agreed upon is her conquest of the kingdom of Aksum and her infamous burning of Christian churches in that region. On the other hand, once she became Queen, she ruled for 40 years and apparently established positive relations between Ethiopia and Middle Eastern countries like Yemen and Syria. But other than that, not much is known for certain about her biography.
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