Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst - A Social History of Ethiopia - The Northern and Central Highlands From Early Medieval Times To The Rise of Emperor Tewodros II-Red Sea PR (1992)

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A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ETHIOPIA
The Northern and Central Highlands
from Early Medieval Times to the
Rise of Emperor T^wodros II
Richard Pankhurst
THE &RED SEA PRESS

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First Published by the

Institute of Ethiopian Studies,
Addis Ababa University, 1990.
Copyright © Institute of Ethiopian Studies, 1992

First The Red Sea Press, Inc. edition, 1992
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Cover Design by Carles J. Juzang
Pankhurst, Richard Keir Pethick, 1927 -
A and central highlands

social history of Ethiopia: the northern
from early medieval times to the rise of Emperor Tewodros II /
Richard Pankhurst. — 1st American ed.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-932415-85-7 (cloth) $49.95. - ISBN 0-932415-86-5 (paper)
:
: $16.95
1. Ethiopia-Social conditions. 2. Social classes-Ethiopia-
-History. I. Title.
HN789.A8P36 1992
306'.0963-dc20 92-14746
CIP
CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
INTRODUCTION x
PART ONE
THE MIDDLE AGES
I CHILDREN 3
Education and Training; Children and the Slave Trade
II THE PEASANTRY 6
Land; Livestock; Tribute and Taxation in Cattle;
Fertility of the
Clothing; Peasants' Difficulties; Locusts and Other Pests;
The Exactions of the Soldiery
III THE SOLDIERS 13

Mobilisation; Weapons; Camp Life
IV THE NOBILITY 18
The Feudal System; Nepotism; Tribute and Fiefs; Apparel;
Subordination to the Monarch
V MONARCHS 23
The Fetha Ntigdst; Court Powers and Ceremonial;
Royal Courts and Moving Capitals; Dress; Dynastic Marriages;
Royal Succession and Detention of Princes; Coronation Ritual
VI THE CLERGY AND RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS 29

Multitude of Churches and Monasteries; Priests, Ddbtdras and Monks;
Nuns and the Exclusion of Women from Monasteries;
Wealth of the Clergy; Influence of the Hierarchy and Priesthood;
Ordination of Priests, Deacons, and Monks;
Marriage of Priests and Ddbtdras, and Celibacy of Monks; Clothing;
Reverence paid to Churches; Various Types of Church; Church Services;
Confession; Two Sabbaths; Easter; Jemqdt\
Prayers in Times of Emergency; Pilgrimage; Fasting and Abstinence;
Penitence, and Mortification of the Flesh;
Circumcision, Baptism, Weddings and Funerals; Belief in Augury;
Involvement in Trade; Oaths and Excommunication;
Religious Fortitude, and Apostasy
VII THE TRADERS 49

Trade Economy; Short- and Long-Distance Trade;
in a Subsistence
Markets; Caravans; Salt Caravans; Muslim Predominance in Trade;
Christian Merchants and their Commerce; Armenians;
Trade Routes and Ports; Muslim Trade-based Settlements;
in
VIII HANDICRAFT WORKERS 58
Rural Craftsmanship; Blacksmiths; Potters, Weavers and Tailors;
Ecclesiastical Craftsmanship; Church Artists;
Craftsmanship for the Court and Army; Craftsmen in Moving Capitals;
Artists in Royal Employ
IX SLAVES 64
The Fethd Ndgdst; Slavery, Slave Raiding, and the Slave Trade;
Opposition to the Slave Trade
X WOMEN 67
Grinding of Flour, Baking of Enjdra, Cooking, Water-Carrying and
Clothes- Washing; Camp-Followers; Involvement in Government;
Provincial Capitals and Trade;
Marriage, Divorce and the Position of Wives;
Relations with the Church, Circumcision, and Scarification
Clothing and Hair-Styles
PART TWO
THE GONDAR PERIOD
INTRODUCTION 75
I THE PEASANTRY 77
Commercialisation of Agriculture around Gondar;
Agricultural Production and Tribute; Abundance of Cattle;
Tribute in Cattle; The Effects of War
II THE SOLDIERS 80
Size of the Army; Royal Guardsmen; Mobilisation; Camp-Followers;
Taking of Trophies; Divination
III THE NOBILITY 86

The Chiefs of Bagemder, Tegre, Gojjam and Sawa
IV THE MONARCH 89
Gondar and the Period of the Mdsafent; the Detention of Princes;
the Kwer'atd re'esu
V THE CLERGY 93
The Abun, the Ecdge, the 'Aqabe Sd'at, and the Monks;
The Multitude of Churches and the Deference paid to them;
Temqdt at Adwa; Mourning Ceremonies; Expropriation of Church Land
VI THE TRADERS 100

The Emergence of Gondar; Muslim Commercial Centres;
Muslim Trade Agents; Armenian Trade Agents;
Trade Routes and Commercial Centres; Opposition to Usury
iv
VII CRAFTSMEN 105
Pre-Gondarine Building Activity
The Development of Gondar: Tent-Makers, Manuscript-Illustrators;
Handicrafts of Sawa
VIII SLAVES 111

Slave Raiding and Slave Troops; Slave Descendants
IX WOMEN 114
Ownership of Land, and Involvement in Land Sales;
Participation in Expeditions; State Banquets; Marriage;
Clothing and Jewellery
PART III
THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
I CHILDREN, EDUCATION AND LITERACY 121
Children's Work; Adoption Practices;
Reminiscences of Shepherd Children; The Slave Trade;
Church Education; Falasa Education; Literacy; The Effects of War
II THE PEASANTS 133

Classes in the RuralEconomy; Agricultural Implements and Practices;
The Harvest Cycle; Fertility of the Soil, Productivity, and Crop Yields;
• Barbare, or Red Pepper; Agricultural Taxes, and Other Exactions;
The Effects of Warfare; Causes of Conservatism;
Monkeys, Wild Hogs, Locusts, and Other Pests;
Festivals and Saints' Days; Commercialisation of Agriculture;
Standard of Living
III THE SOLDIERS 148

The Multitude of Soldiers; Palace Guards;
Traditional Weapons, Fire-arms, and Horses;
Mobilisation and the Call to Arms; Dress, and Decorations;
Military Reviews; The March; The Camp; Warfare, and Chivalry;
Battles; Looting
IV THE NOBILITY 162

Acquisition of Power from the Monarch; Tegre; Bagemder; Sawa;
Class Distinctions, and Status Symbols; Master-Servant Relations;
Hunting and Chess-Playing
V PROVINCIAL RULERS 169

Tegre; Bagemder; Gojjam; Sawa, and its Sumptuary Laws;
The Arbitrariness of Personal Rule; Lepers and Mendicants at Court
VI THE CLERGY, THE CHURCH, AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 178

The Multitude of the Clergy, their Education, and Organisation;
Income of the Clergy, and of the Abun; Church Ownership of Land;
The Procurement, and Arrival, of the Abun; Respect paid to the Clergy;
v
Dress- and Marriage-Rules; the Influence and Power of the Priesthood;
Veneration of Religious Establishments;
Church-building, Libraries, and Manuscripts;
Annual Church Festivals, and Pilgrimage; Saints' Days;
Miihabers, or Church-sponsored Friendly Societies; Church Festivals;
The Life Cycle:
(i) Baptism;
(ii) Funerals;
Asylum; Attitudes to Drink, Tobacco and Fasting;
Prayer, the Making of Vows, and Holy Water;
Prophecies, Omens, and Auguries
Belief in Buda, or Possessed Persons, and the Evil Eye; Conversions
VII THE TRADERS 207

Muslim and Christian Merchants; Caravans;
Markets, and Other Places of Sale; Commercial Centres; Gondar;
Smaller Markets in the Gondar Area; Adwa; Massawa; Aleyu Amba;
Dabra Berhan, Bollo Warqe, and 'Abd-al-Rassul;
Taxes, Market Dues, and Internal Customs Posts;
VIII HANDICRAFT WORKERS 222

Blacksmiths, and the Iron Trade;
Blacksmiths, Falasa, and Belief in Buda; Weavers;
The Traditional Loom; Potters; Tanners; Flaying, and Tanning;
Woodworkers, and House-Builders;
Basket-Making, and Carpet-Weaving; the Craftsmen of Gondar;
Other Urban, and Religious, Centres; Aksum; Adwa;
Other Towns of the North and North- West; Ankobar and Angolala;
Jewellers; Horn- and Ivory- Workers; Shoe-makers
IX SLAVES AND SERVANTS 241

The Extent of Slavery; Condition of the Slaves; the Slave Trade;
Household Servants
X WOMEN AND GENDER RELATIONS 248

Agriculture; Land-Ownership; Spinning; Wood- and Water-Carrying;
Trade; Grinding of Grain, Preparation of Alcoholic Drinks, Cooking
and Banquets; Clothes- Washing; Slaves, and Servants; Camp-Followers;
Prostitutes or Courtesans; Poets, and Minstrels;
Churches, and Church Ceremonial;
Sorcerers, Prophets, and Spirit Possession;
Marriage, Concubinage, and Divorce;
Childbirth, Ritualistic Impurity, and Motherhood;
Social Life, Coquetry, and Seclusion; Jewellery; Education, and Literacy
vi
PART FOUR
SOCIAL CHANGE AND ATTEMPTED REFORM
CHANGING FEATURES OF SOCIAL LIFE 273

Changes in Monarchical Power; Population Growth; Urbanisation;
Deforestation;
The Coming and Increasing Diffusion of Fire-arms:
(i) The Middle Ages
(ii) The Gondar Monarchy
(iii) The Early Nineteenth Century
(iv) Emperor Tewodros's Innovations

(v) Armourers
Hunting and the Destruction of Wild Life:
(i) Royal Hunts
(ii) Professional Elephant Hunters
Fire-arms in Social Ritual:

(i) Fusillades for Royalty
(ii) Fusillades for the Nobility
(iii) Fusillades for the Common
People
The Advent of Money, and
Consequences:
its
(i) Foreign Medieval Coins

(ii) The Maria Theresa Dollar
(iii) Increasing Taxation
(iv) Capital Accumulation and Money-Lending

(v) Emperor Tewodros's Wealth
(vi) The Dollar as a Unit of Weight
(vii) Marriage and Funeral Ceremonies
(ix) A Source of Silver
The Coming of Modern Medicine:

(i) Medieval Times
(ii) The Gondar Period
Sabbath Observance; Smoking and Snuffing; Coffee-Drinking
ATTEMPTED REFORMS OF EMPEROR TEWODROS II 317

Unification, and Curtailment of Feudal Power;
Military Reorganisation, and Limitation of Looting by the Soldiery
Pacification, and the Opening of Trade Routes; Innovations at Gafat;
The Gafat Foundry; Cannon-Making; First Steps in Road-Building;
A Boat on Lake Tana; Attempted Suppression of the Slave Trade;
Attempted Land Reform; Abandonment of Gondar;
Marriage and Dress Reform, Letter-Writing, and the Use of Amharic
BIBLIOGRAPHY 333
INDEX 353
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page Page
St. James and St. John viii Winnowing 140

Lalibala-style processional cross xii Soldiers with traditional military dress
The biblical King Solomon, with sword and armament 149
and parasol 2 Soldier in fine attire 151
St. Mary and St. Mark — the former writing .... 4 Cavalry and infantry 158
St. George, illustrating the artist's Looting 160
idea of a horseman 14 Warrior with sword, shield and spear 161
St. Matewos and St. Tadewos 30 Dajazmac Webe, Ras Ali Alula and
Stylised representation of St. Mark 31 Negus Sahla Sellase 171
St. Mark writing 48 King Sahla Selasse's banquet 174
Difficulties of traditional transport 52 Queen Bazabes with eight attendants 175
Virgin and Child, 15th century 61 Priest and Monk 180
Virgin and Child, 18th century 74 Administration of Sacrament .184
Gondar 75 King David playing B'agana or harp 185
The Tower of Babel, picture inspired Palm Sunday service 192
by Gondar castles 76 Priests dance at Temqat 194
Ploughing 78 Funeral of Etege Terunes 197
A rifleman kneels to fire 80 Priest with sistrum and prayer-stick 206
St. George and the Dragon, showing Banyan, or Indian, traders from Massawa .... 208
horseman's garb 82 A traders' camp at night 210
St. Fasiladas and St. George, with Th port of Massawa
e 215
different stirrups '
85 Camels after the march 221
Ras Mika'el Sehul 87 A weaver with traditional loom 225
Emperor Yekuno Amlak with Muslim Pottery 227
ambassadors and slaves 89 G'abra Sellase, a carpenter of Gondar 231
Emperor lyasu I 91 A slave caravan 243
Monarch on finely caparisoned horse 92 Slave market at Galabat 245
The clergy 95 A peasant woman from Agame . 249
St. Matthew, with pen and inkwell 99 A woman spinning, bobbin in hand 251
Plan of Gondar 100 A kitchen yard at Adwa 254
Gondar-style processional cross 107 A woman, her baby tied to her back,
An Apostle asleep . 108 grinds grain 255
St. George, with two toes in the stirrups, Noblewoman and slave girl 257
killing the Dragon 109 The church of Mary of Seyon
St. 272
The Virgin Mary 110 Old-fashioned and cartridge-belt
rifle 284
Mahbuba, a slave-girl 113 One of Tewodros's mortars dragged
The Nativity 115 from Da bra Tabor to Maqdala 287
Wayzaro Aster 116 Amoles, or bars of salt,
Wayzaro S'ahay 120 used as "primitive money" 296
A shepherd-boy, with sheepskin cloak 1 21 The Maria Theresa thaler, or dollar 297
Youngsters looking after cattle 124 King of Kings Tewodros II inspecting
Priest with two church school pupils 127 his men crossing a river 319
Ploughman tilling 134 The burning of Maqdala 332
Agricultural labourer from Agame 136 Nathaniel Pearce's house
Two long-horned sanga cattle 137 at Calaqot, Tegre 334
ix
INTRODUCTION
In introducing the present essay on the Social History of Ethiopia, it should be

emphasised that the country, which today covers an area as large as France and Spain
combined, has always been one of immense geographical and other contrasts. High
mountains, which in the Samen range tower more than 4,600 metres above sea level,
give way to flat lowlands which in the 'Afar depression sink below sea level.
Temperature, which, geographically, is no less varied, ranges from the icy cold of the
mountains, with frost, and in places even snow, through the temperate highlands - the
site of most of the country's historic settlements - to the torrid lowlands, with the
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden ports reckoned as among some of the hottest places in the
world. Differences in rainfall have been no less dramatic, the torrential downpours of
the highlands contrasting with minimal precipitation in the parched almost waterless
lowlands. It follows that vegetation was equally varied, with tropical jungles,
particularly in the west, deserts and semi-desert scrublands, mainly in the east and
south, and fertile - but largely deforested - regions in many areas of medium elevation.
The population of the country, not surprisingly, came to terms with such greatly
varying environments in different ways, with the result that the world's principal types
of economic activity were all represented - with agriculturalists, many of them
practicing plough agriculture, in the extensive highlands, pastoralists in the even more
widespread lowlands, and hunters and gatherers in the vicinity of the many rivers,
lakes and forests. (This three-fold division is, however, far from rigid, for there was
often much overlapping, particularly in the highlands where the supposed
"agriculturalists" devoted much of their time to the upkeep of cattle which many
farmers and peasants regarded as their principal source of wealth).
Ethiopia - like so many countries on the African continent - is in no less
measure a land made up of varied ethnic - and linguistic - threads. It comprises
members of no less than four broad language groups: Semitic, mainly in the north, but
with pockets in the south (Gurage and Adare), Cushitic, mainly in the south, but with
pockets in the north (Beja, Agaw, Saho, and Afar), Omotic (Wallamo, Kafa,
Gemerra, etc.) in the south-west, and Nilo-Saharan in the far west, near the Sudan
border. The situation was, however, historically far from static, for there were over the
centuries major movements of population, notably in the ancient and medieval period
when Tegres moved from north to south; in the sixteenth, seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries when Oromos migrated from south to north; in the nineteenth
century when there was once more a movement, mainly of Amharas, from north to
south; as well as throughout the centuries to and from sundry national or provincial
capitals. For this and other reasons bilingualism, and indeed multilingualism, may well
have existed throughout this period.
The religious pattern - in which the world's three main monotheistic faiths are
all represented - was no less varied. For centuries Christians of the Orthodox faith
predominated in the all-important northern and central highlands, Muslims were no

less dominant in most of the lowlands, particularly to the east, as well as at the great
commercial centre of Harar, but were also of paramount importance as merchants
throughout the region as a whole. Followers of traditional local faiths preponderated
in the south-west (the source of much of the country's exports of gold, ivory, civet and
slaves), but also, we may assume, exerted some cultural influence in the north where
they accounted for no small proportion of the slave population which, we may surmise,
was by no means instantly assimilated to the locally dominant faith or faiths. The
Falasa, or Judaic Ethiopians, who constituted the smallest of the country's four
religious groups, were located mainly in the north-west. Though their faith was in
many ways distinct- both from other Ethiopians and from the Jews of other lands -
their social lifehad much in common with Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, with whom
they shared the Ge'ez Old Testament, whose scribes often wrote out their sacred
writings and whose Church schools they sometimes attended. They also had some
cultural affinities with the nearby Qemant who represented an intermediary faith
between Judaism and an ancient Ethiopian religion often referred to as a form of
Animism.
Such immense variations of physical and human geography coupled with those
of language, culture and religion, inevitably resulted in the existence within the
confines of the present-day Ethiopian region of many differing customs and ways of
life. There ensued much cross-fertilisation of cultures and traditions, which still
requires detailed study. Any comprehensive examination of so rich, and geographically

varied, a history obviously requires many detailed monographs - for it would seem
impossible, within the compass of one small volume such as this, to do justice to the
rich variety of Ethiopia's historic social and cultural experience, either on a country-
wide basis - or over the time span of more than a few centuries. Further factual
studies, when completed, will doubtless lead to works of greater synthesis and
interpretation.
******
The present volume, which planned as the first of a series dealing with various
is
aspects of the country's varied social history, is devoted by and large to the northern
and central highlands, and covers the period from early medieval times to the reign
of Emperor Tewodros II which is considered a turning-point in the country's history -
and serves at the same time as a point of departure for the dramatic changes that
were to characterise the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The region under
review was important in that it constituted the core of the traditional Ethiopian State,
and was over the centuries to exercise no small influence on other parts of the
country. The area was at the same time distinctive - and formed a cohesive entity - in
that it had a unique highland, and predominantly Christian, culture. The region is
moreover of special interest on account of its indigenous chronicles and hagiographies,
and the many descriptions by foreign travellers, which made it, at least until the
middle or second half of the nineteenth century, by far best documented part of
Ethiopia. It is thus an area that can be studied over a considerable span of time.
Since the northern and central highlands in the period under review are so
palpably better documented it would be impossible to devote anything like equal
coverage to other parts of the country without adopting the arbitrary, and from the
scholarly point of view surely misguided policy of suppressing available data on a
region for which it is available, in the interests of geographical balance.
Even with the above strictly limited geographical confines generalisation is often
hazardous. It has been possible within the time and space available to consider only
some of the more important aspects of Ethiopia's complex social life. Moreover there
were often many variations of practice from one district or village to another, for the
communities under review were composed, it should not be forgotten, of individual
men, women and children, who lived their varied lives as they could, or thought fit -
in blissful ignorance of the foreign traveller's accounts, and other historical sources,
upon which scholars base their accounts - and develop their interpretations - of
traditional Ethiopian behaviour.
The present volume, conceived as a first installment towards a full Social History
of Ethiopia, is primarily descriptive. intended to present a survey based on
It is
available sources, and thereby to lay a groundwork for other writers to develop more
ambitious, comprehensive and interpretative, studies of old-time Ethiopian life. It is
hoped at a later stage to publish companion volumes on the south of the country, as
well as on the period from Tewodros to more recent times.
xi
should like to thank friends and colleagues who made this publication possible.
I
I am grateful to Dr. Taddese Beyene, the devoted Director of the Institute of

Ethiopian Studies, for his kind help and encouragement, as well as to Margaret Last
for typing part of the first draft, to Amanda Woodlands for generously devoting her
time to putting most of the text on computer, to my children Alula and Helen for
initially helping me wrestle with that machine, to the computer wizard Bruno Neeser
for producing IBM-compatible diskettes, and to Tatek Samare for expertly preparing
the final work for printing and assisting in computer-indexing. Special thanks are also
due to Demeke Berhane and to the ever-enthusiastic Dr. Carla Zanotti for helping me
identify manuscript illustrations at the Institute; to Dr. Vincenzo Francaviglia, Denis
Gerard, Santha Faiia and Membere Wolde Ghiorgis for kindly photographing these
and other works; to the dedicated Degife Gabre Tsadik and his staff for constant
library assistance, and to Belai Giday for approaching local informants on my behalf.
I am, as always, indebted to my wife Rita for innumerable comments, criticisms and
suggestions.
RICHARD PANKHURST
Institute of Ethiopian Studies,
Addis Ababa University.
A Lalihala-style Ethiopian processional cross, probably dating from the 12th century, housed in the
Institute of Ethiopian Studies.
xii
PART ONE
THE MIDDLE AGES

King Solomon, with a broad-sword and parasol - both symbols of honour, from a 15th century manuscript
of the Psalms and Canticles in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ethiopien-Abbadie 105.
2
I
CHILDREN
Education and Training
Early historical data on children in Ethiopia is so scant that it is almost as

though they were neither seen nor heard. We can, however, catch occasional glimpses
of a medieval educational system which must have existed for centuries.
Schooling, in the Christian areas, was entirely vested in the Church, and was
carried out by the clergy. Education, which was almost entirely restricted to boys, was
based on reading and the recitation of religious texts, starting with the Psalms of
David. Such works were written exclusively in the classical language Ge'ez, which was
more or less unintelligible to those untutored in that tongue. Many of the pupils were
the children of their teachers or other churchmen. The story of the Sawan saint Takla
Haymanot was in this respect not untypical, for, the author of a traditional life, relates:
"it came when the child was seven years old, he learned from
to pass that
his father thePsalms of David, and all the Books of the Church, both of
the Old and the New Testaments, and he learned the meaning of the laws
1
that were therein"
Confirmation that a sizeable proportion of students were drawn from clerical

families is afforded by the early sixteenth century Portuguese traveller Francisco
Alvares who observed that "the sons of priests" were "mostly priests". Writing
specifically of the rural countryside, he added: "the clergy teach what little they know
to their sons". This was apparent when he visited a large church in Angot, where, on
inquiring why it had so many canons, he received the reply that "all the sons of
canons" became canons, for fathers taught their sons, "each his own", and it was for
thisreason that the canons had so "increased in number". This was apparently fairly
general, for he was assured that the number of clergy was also growing at the "King's
churches".
Not all were children of the clergy. A party of Portuguese

students, however,
who visited thefamous monastery of Dabra Bizan on the northern edge of the
Ethiopian plateau in 1520 reported for instance that they saw "some twelve to fifteen"
orphan boys of from ten or fourteen years of age whom the priests were bringing up
"for the love of God", for this, Alvares comments, was their custom.
Children of ruling families, and, we may assume, of the aristocracy, in many

cases also received some church education, besides what was perhaps even more
important for them: training in the arts of war and government. Occasional brief
mention of a monarch's childhood is made in the chronicles. Emperor Susneyos in the
late sixteenth century is thus reported in his youth to have studied "all the
ecclesiastical books", as well as to have learnt hunting, swimming, riding, archery,
1
Budge (1906) 51.
3
2
stone-throwing and musketry. In the following century the rulers of the Gondar
period were educated in a not dissimilar manner. The annals of Yohannes I for
example state that:
was carefully brought up in wisdom and discipline, and

"After his birth he
taught the Holy Books, that is to say the Old and New Testaments. Later,
having grown, he learnt to throw the spear and draw the bow, as well as
3
riding and swimming".
St. Matthew and St. Mark, the former writing, from a 17th century Ethiopian Manuscript of the Four
Gospels in the British Library, Orient 481.
2
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 120, 236; Thomas (1938) 76; Esteves Pereira (1900) 5.
3
Guidi (1903) 1.
4
Such statements are echoed in subsequent chronicles. lyasu I was thus given a
"good education in the study of the Holy Books", and was taught to ride on horseback,
while Bakaffa was said to be so well instructed that he was "constantly" reading the
Psalter and Scriptures. In the eighteenth century lyasu II likewise "learnt the Holy
Books" hunting and the use of the bow, spear and rifle.
in addition to riding,
Though the majority of students were no doubt content only with a modicum of
education others proceeded to advanced studies in theology and related subjects.
Record of such schooling in the medieval period is sparse, but there is abundant
evidence of it, not only in the vast corpus of fine ecclesiastical and other literature
produced by church scholars of the time, but also in the itineraries of Ethiopian
ecclesiastics who travelled to Europe as recorded by the Venetian savant Alessandro
Zorzi. Embedded in his interviews with them are intriguing references to "universities"
- presumably church schools of higher learning, one of which, we are told, was
attended by "many scholars", while another embraced "every faculty".
Despite the existence of such learning, the use of writing was almost entirely
restricted to religious matters, for, as Alvares notes of Ethiopians: "They are not
accustomed to write to one another, neither do the officers of justice write anything.
4
is done, and what is ordered, is by messengers and speech."
All the justice that
Children and the Slave Trade
The records of this period indicate that numerous Ethiopian children were
captured as slaves. Some, as we shall see in later chapters, served in a domestic
capacity within the country itself, while others were taken abroad. The ravages of
slave-raiders on the northern periphery were described in the mid-seventeenth century
by the Italian traveller Giacomo Baratti who recalls that Turkish soldiers in the area
were frequently Noblemen's children, he adds, were also
"pillaging the Christians".
seen, who "by their Meen and Garb were
distinguishable from the ordinary sort.
These poor creatures were led to be sold in Turky and other places as beasts", and
were "forced to renounce their Religion What a grief, he exclaims, "it was to their
Christian Parents, to suffer such a loss, to have their sons and daughters amongst
infidels". Extensive slave-raiding, and trading, it should be added, were, however, also
5
carried out by Ethiopians themselves.
4
Guidi (1903) 58, 291, (1912), 33; Crawford (1958), 149, 151, 153, 163; Beckingham and Huntingford
(1961), II, 514-5.
5
Baratti (1670) 20-2.
II
THE PEASANTRY
The peasants, who constituted the overwhelming majority of the population,

played an all-important role in the country's economic life, for they were the producers
who in the last analysis fed the entire society. They receive, however, remarkable little
attention in the records of early times.
Fertility of the Land
Medieval Ethiopian agriculture, if we can believe the scant documentation

available,was on the whole fairly productive, for the soil in the inhabited areas -
which were far less populated than in modern times - tended to be fertile, and the
highlands in normal years were blessed by abundant rainfall. The peasantry
nevertheless suffered from considerable exploitation, as well as from a succession of
natural and man-made disasters.
The was first described in the early

"great abundance" of agricultural production
sixteenth century by an Ethiopian monk, Brother Thomas of Angot, who told the
Venetian author Alessandro Zorzi that his compatriots spent "nothing" on food-stuffs,
and gave them "freely to all." Not dissimilar testimony is afforded by Alvares, who,
having ascended the plateau from Massawa, exclaimed that "in the whole world" there
was "not so populous a country", or one "so abundant in corn and herds of
1
innumerable cattle". Proceeding inland he reports that at the town of Manadeley, in
southern Tegre, there was "much cultivation of all kinds". The inhabitants told him
indeed that they had that year:
"gathered so much corn of all kinds, that if it were not for the weevil,
there would have been abundance for ten years. because I was And
amazed they said to me, 'Honoured guest, do not be amazed, because in
the years that we little we gather enough for three years' plenty in
harvest
the country; and were not for the multitude of locusts and the hail,
if it
which sometimes do great damage, we should not sow the half of what we
sow, because the yield is incredibly great; so it is sowing wheat, barley,
lentils, pulse, or any other seed. And we sow so much with the hope that
even if any of those said plagues should come, some would be spoiled, and
some would remain, and if all is spoiled the year before has been so
2
plentiful that we have no scarcity".
Agricultural yields of this magnitude permitted the growth of a sizeable

population, particularly in some of the provinces of the interior. In Angot Alvares
found "much population on the skirts of the mountains", while on reaching Amhara
he wrote of it as "a wonderful country". One stretch he passed through, measuring ten
1
Crawford (1956) 169; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 131.
2
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 189.
6
to twelve miles, was "all cultivated", with "not a span" that was not made use of, and
was "sown with all sorts of seed" so that "fresh crops" were gathered "all the year
round".
The fertility of the land, and the magnitude of agricultural production, also
impressed observers of the next few hundred years. Early in the seventeenth century
the Jesuit Manoel de Almeida for example reported that in Dambeya north of Lake
Tana he saw "fine fields of very rich and fertile soil", while near Fremona in Tegre he
3
found both wheat and barley growing abundantly.
Livestock
Livestock by all accounts was also plentiful. On approaching Manadeley the

Portuguese saw "beautiful herds" of cows on the outskirts of the town, as well as in the
nearby hills. Some of Alvares's compatriots "guessed" the number of cattle at "50,000
(and more)", but for his part he did not say a "larger number" for their multitude
could "not be believed". Confirmation of the abundance of livestock was provided a
century later by a Jesuit Father, Jerome Lobo, who observed that the number of
cattle was "almost unlimited". Cows, he explains, were the country's "principal form of
wealth", and there was "an extremely large number of them", some farmers having
indeed "many thousands". A "delightful custom" had accordingly grown up whereby
"whenever one gains ownership of a thousand cows, he gives a great banquet, inviting
relatives and friends, and taking milk from all the cows, for only cows [i.e. not bulls]
are counted in the thousand, they take a bath in it, which I appropriately used to call
'a fly or huge fly in the milk' when they were in it. This custom is so prevalent that
when people ask how many thousand cows a person has, they answer that he has
already bathed two or some other number of times, which means that he owns that
many thousand cows". 4
Tribute and Taxation in Cattle
Cattle-owners were subject to considerable taxation. The antiquity of this tribute

is apparent from the existence, at least since the reign of Emperor 'Amda Seyon
(1313-1344), of officials with the title of sahafa lam, or "scribe of cattle"^ which was
given to governors of provinces, such as Amhara, Angot, Damot and Sawa which
provided the monarch with sizeable numbers of livestock. Evidence that cattle were
a major item of taxation in the sixteenth century is provided by Alvares who reports
that the "great lords", who were "like kings", paid tribute in "cows and plough oxen".
The province of Hadeya for example yielded a "great number" of cattle which he had
seen at court, while the district of Bugna in Angot contributed 150 plough oxen. The
people of Gurage, according to a subsequent Portuguese observer Joao Bermudes,
likewise paid their local ruler every year "one thousand live cows", i.e. almost three a
day.
3
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 149, 255, (1954), 37, 45, 188.
4
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 189; Lockhart (1984) 167.
7
Cattle had also to be supplied to various churches and monasteries. A hundred
villages around the monastery of Dabra Bizan for example were reported by Alvares
to have each paid 50 cattle every three years, the institution thus receiving a total of
1,650 head per annum, or almost five a day. The monks were thus so well supplied
that, though they themselves did not consume meat, they slaughtered "many cows"
every feast-day. Alvares states that twenty-eight were killed on one occasion, and thirty
on another, and he, as an honoured guest, was each time given "two quarters of the
fattest cow that was killed".
This cattle tax differed from other forms of tribute, according to Barradas, in
that was paid directly to the Emperor rather than to the local lords. Its yield
it
amounted to "not less than thirty thousand head", and would have been "much more"
had the collectors been "more faithful" or if the monarch himself had not granted
numerous exceptions. Most of the cattle collected were in fact given over to noblemen
so that "not many" animals actually arrived at the court.
Tribute in livestock seems to have been shortly afterwards increased, or was at

least puton a more regular basis, during the reign of Emperor Galawdewos (1540-
1559) when a new form of tax was instituted. It specified, according to Almeida, that
each cattle-owner had to pay one cow in ten every three years. Because of the "many
5
cattle" in the country this tax is said to have yielded a "great" amount of tribute.
In order to place tax collection on a more efficient basis, the Emperor "divided
his kingdoms and provinces" in such a way that he received some of the dues every
year. This tribute was popularly called "burning" because the cows chosen for the
monarch were branded, or "touched with fire", its skin being "burnt with a mark like
branding". The nature and importance of this tax was corroborated by Lobo, who
declares:
"Every three years there is a general 'burning' in all the kingdoms of the
empire which means that the Emperor takes one of every ten cows and
the one that he takes has a mark branded on her buttock with a branding
6
iron. For that reason they call it tucus, meaning 'burn'".
The name "burning", Almeida felt, was, however, even more appropriate
because "the men who collect this tribute are usually captains and military men, and
the Emperor, in addition to the lands he has given them, usually divides most of these
cows among them. In collecting the tribute they use so much violence against the
7
peasants that they ruin and consume them".
5
Huntingford (1965a) 54-5, (1965b) 65;Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 91, 94, 173, 228, II, 436,
(1954), 50, 88; Beccari (1912) 103; Whiteway (1902) 232; Lockhart (1984), 167.
6
Lockhart (1984) 167.
7
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 88. See also Ludolf (1684) 205-6.
8
Clothing
Throughout this period the peasantry, and indeed the greater part of the
populace, were poorly dressed. The menfolk are said by Alvares to have worn little
beyond a loincloth or simple pair of breeches, and were therefore often "bare from
the waist upwards", though some people wore a sheepskin over their shoulders. There
were, however, regional variations. In central Tegre men wore "small skirts" of cloth
or tanned leather, not more than "two spans", or little over a foot, in size - just
sufficient to "cover their nakedness", though not so if the wind blew or if they stooped
or sat down, while many in Wallo merely covered their private parts with "a strip of
ox-hide".
Peasant women were Married women in the Adwa

also very scantily dressed.
area had "very little and spinsters displayed even "less shame". Some wore
covering",
no more than a sheep's skin tied to their neck which covered only one side of them,
and "not more", because they wore it loose, so that "at every little movement", Alvares
says, one could see "from one side of the body to the other what man wishes". Married
women in the country of the Bahr Nagas, or most northerly province towards the sea,
on the other hand, often wrapped themselves in "black (or coloured) woollen stuffs,
with wide fringes". Girls and young women were more scantily dressed. Some even
twenty or twenty-five years of age were nude above the waist, or wore only a
sheepskin which covered no more than one breast. The women of Wallo were scarcely
better dressed: many had only a single piece of cloth which only partially covered
"what God has given them."
The above picture was fully confirmed by later writers. Almeida stated that the
menfolk wore breeches made of "native cotton", while many women who had
insufficient cloth for both a skirt and a samma, or wrap, wore only one or the other,
while their poorer sisters wore only dressed, or even undressed skins, many of which
were however fairly soft. The late seventeenth century German scholar Job Ludolf,
who had doubtless discussed this, as well as many other matters, with his learned
Ethiopian informant Abba Gorgoreyos, gave a similar account, observing that the
apparel of the common people was "mean and poor": the more impoverished went
about "half-naked", or covered themselves with skins that "hardly" hid "their private
Parts", and many boys and girls went "stark Naked" till "riper Years" caused them to
"hide their Shame", yet, being by then "so accustomed to go Naked", they paid little
8
regard to modesty.
Peasants' Difficulties
Despite the fertility of the soil, and the abundance of cattle, the peasants were
often far from well-off. They were in many
cases so grievously exploited, Alvares
suggests, that they had in fact little incentive to produce. There would thus have been,
he claims, "much fruit and much more cultivation in the country, if the great men did
not ill-treat the people, for they take what they have, and the latter are not willing to
provide more than they require and what is necessary for them".
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 143-4, 253, 320, II, 510, (1954), 60; Ludolf (1684) 388.
9
The subject status of the peasantry was no less apparent in relation to cattle, and
caused Alvares to testify that "nobody from the common people may kill a cow (even
9
though it is his own) without leave from the lord of the country".
Locusts and Other Pests
The peasants also suffered greatly from frequent plagues of locusts which,
Alvares reports, were "not general in all the kingdoms every year", but one year would
be "in one part, and another year in another", and in some years would afflict "two or
three provinces" simultaneously. The multitude of these insects, he says, was "not to
be believed", for they covered the earth, filled the air, and darkened the light of the
sun; and when they had passed it was as though the land had been "set on fire". At
such times the people were "dismayed, saying, 'We are lost because the Ambatas [i.e.
locusts] are coming'".
On one by no means untypical occasion, when Alvares and his companions were
in Angot, they travelled for "five days through country entirely depopulated" by locusts.
The thick millet stalks were "all cut and bitten, as if bitten by asses", the fields of
wheat, barley and tef were "as though they had never been sown", and the trees were
"without any leaves", with their tender twigs "all eaten". There was likewise "no trace
of grass of any sort", so that if the travellers had not brought provisions for themselves
and their animals they would all have "perished from hunger". Men, women and
children were "seated horror-struck" among the locusts, but when the Portuguese
priest asked them why they did not kill the insects, and thereby revenge themselves for
the damage they had done, as well as to prevent them from doing any further harm,
they replied, with resignation, that "they had not the heart to resist the plague which
God gave them for their sins". 10 Instead they preferred to flee from the worst-affected
areas. Alvares reports:
"The people were going away from this country, and we found the roads
full of men, women, and children, on foot, and some in their arms, with
their little bundles on their heads, removing to a country where they might
11
find provisions; it was a pitiful sight to see them".
The extent of destruction habitually wrought by locusts was also later apparent
to Almeida who noted that these insects were a "constant"' source of misery,
particularly in Tegre.
Other pests, which took their toll of agricultural production, included an

"immense quantity" of rats and mice, as well as large ants which, as Bruce noted a
12
century and a half later, consumed "immense quantities " of grain.
9
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 515.
10
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 132, 136-7, (1954), 46; Bruce (1790), III, 124-5, 196.
11
Crawford (1956) 169; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 131.
12
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 189.
10
The Exactions of the Soldiery
The peasants were from time to time also seriously affected by the exactions of
the soldiers who, Almeida were "always" going about the country, "eating,
notes,
plundering and looting everything". They were "worse than the locusts", he argued, for
whereas the latter only destroyed what was in the fields, the former also seized what
had been gathered into the houses.
The peasantry were and shelter, not only for the

also obliged to provide food
soldiers, but any traveller passing through the area. Such supplies,
for virtually
according to Lobo, would usually be contributed by an entire village, each member
of which had to supply whatever he was asked. The scale of hospitality demanded
would depend on the station in life of the traveller and, in addition to his own meal,
he might have to be given a cow to be divided among his servants. The peasant was
"accountable" to the head of the village for such provisions, and anyone who failed to
supply a guest with a supper was liable to "severe punishment". Similarly, if the
traveller had any of his property stolen, the peasant responsible would be obliged to
pay twice the value of the missing article.
The peasantry was likewise expected to transport baggage for court and other
travelling officials free of charge. When officers were summoned to the Emperor's
presence their belongings would thus be entrusted to the lord of the first village along
the road who would then put them in the hands of his vassals. The latter would deliver
the articles in question to the next village, and so on successively until they reached
the capital or court. Such transportation was almost invariably carried out by the
peasantry with "wonderful exactness and fidelity" as the eighteenth century French
traveller Charles Poncet afterwards testified.
Such obligations, though naturally a great convenience to the noblesand other

travellers, constituted "aheavy burden" for the peasants, Almeida says, for: "Big
companies of men, soldiers and lords bringing many servants come daily to quarter
themselves in the very small villages. Each one goes into the house he likes best and
turns the owner into the street, or occupies it with him. Sometimes it is a widow or
a married woman whose husband is away and then by force he gets at not only her
13
food and property but her honour".
The various exactions on the peasantry, however unjust, were apparently

accepted by all concerned with little or no question. Early in the seventeenth century
a group of peasants asked the Jesuit missionary Emanuel Barradas to intercede on
their behalf with their governor Takla Giyorgis, but when he tried to do so the chief
replied, "with reason and justice" the missionary says, as follows:
"Father, these villains are like camels, they always cry, weep, and groan
when they are loaded, but in the end they rise with the burden that is put
on them and carry it".
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 149, 255, (1954), 37, 45, 188.
11
Barradas accepted this observation, but, pursuing the analogy, replied, "That is
true, butit is also sometimes true that they fall with their burden, and then the owner
14
loses both the camel and the load".
There are, however, no records of peasant rebellions in this period.
14
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 189; Lockhart (1984) 167.
12
Ill
THE SOLDIERS
Warfare was frequent throughout the medieval period. The country's rulers were
"continually in the field", Lobo remarks, fighting either "domestic vassals in rebellion"
or else enemies on the periphery of the realm. For this reason garrisons were often
established in the frontier areas - particularly on the eastern borders, where there
were frequent battles with the Muslim lowlanders. Conflict with Adal during the reign
of Emperor Dawit I (1380-1409) for example caused that monarch to establish two
important camps in the East. One of these was at Tobya, in north-western Ifat, at a
pass that led from the port of Zayla' to the highland Christian districts of Manz and
Gishe. The other was at Telq, in Fatagar, where the Emperor's court, according to the
modern Ethiopian historian Taddesse Tamrat, remained for "many years" - and where
two later Ethiopian monarchs, Zar'a Ya'qob and his grandson Eskender, were both
born.
Conflicts of one kind or another were, however, so common that "every year"
many warriors spent "most of the year" making war. Such a multitude of people were
involved that Almeida wrote of the Ethiopians that: "In war they are reared as
1
children, in war they grow old, for the life of all who are not farmers is war".
Mobilisation
Frequent wars led to the mobilisation of vast numbers of soldiers. This was
accomplished with relative ease, for the ruling monarch did "not pay any of those who
took the field", as the Italian traveller Francesco Suriano noted in the fifteenth century,
but merely exempted them from taxation.
Soldiers on campaign were expected to bring with them all necessary provisions,
which consisted mainly of grain or flour. The men were, however, entitled to loot
extensively wherever they went. When they accompanied the monarch they did this
with particular impunity for wherever he travelled "everything" was "free", the
Portuguese warrior Castanhoso notes, which was a major reason why "everyone"
followed him.
Military service was based measure on the system of land tenure.

in large
Vassals thus held - or were granted - on condition that they served as soldiers,
fiefs
and, if they failed to do so, their lands were forfeited to others. The Emperor, who did
not have to pay his soldiers, was in this way able to assemble "a large army", Almeida
says, "without much expense".
Vast numbers of warriors, and no less numerous camp-followers, were often

mobilised. In the late fifteenth century the Emperor was said, by Suriano, never to
take the field with "less than two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand
people". Early in the following century Alvares reported that it was the custom of the
1
Lockhart (1984) 160-;1; Taddesse Tamrat (1972) 152; Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 76.
13
monarchs to call "100,000 men, if they want as many, to assemble in two days", and
that he had seen for himself that the number of people accompanying Emperor Lebna
Dengel was "unbelievable". A generation or so later, Emperor Galawdewos, then
aspiring to overcome the great Muslim warrior Ahmad Gran, was likewise reported
to have been joined by "more than one hundred thousand souls".
St. George, showing a 17th century Ethiopian artist's idea of a horseman, and horse decorations, from
a manuscript of the Four Gospels in the British Library, Orient 481.
The number of fighting men was, however, by no means always so large.

Castanhoso, describing a critical moment in the struggle with Gran, estimated that
Galawdewos's army consisted of only 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, for "the
remainder were camp followers and women". Later, in the early seventeenth century,
14
Emperor Susneyos was said by Almeida
to have habitually put into the field "thirty to
forty thousand thousand on horseback and the rest of foot". Even
soldiers, four or five
when they were fewer they nevertheless made "an excessively big camp", for the camp-
2
followers and baggage train amounted to "many more than the soldiery".
Constant experience in campaigning, it was generally agreed, made the

Ethiopians "good troops", for, Almeida notes:
"they sit a horse well, are quite strong and healthy and are brought up and
inured to toil, enduring hunger and thirst as much as can be imagined, and
continue in the field for the greater part of the year, suffering all the
3
discomfort and inclemency of sun, cold and rain with little food".
Ethiopian soldiers are said to have fought impetuously, with the result that
battles oftenbegan and ended with the first onset, whereupon one or other side fled,
and their opponents then followed up the victory. Flight, according to Almeida, was
"not much decried" because it was "a common and everyday thing".
Ethiopian Christians never willingly fought on Saturdays or Sundays, or during

the great Lent fast - though they were sometimes obliged to do so if attacked by
Muslim enemies. Mahfuz, the amir of Zayla' in the late fifteenth century, for example
made a point of attacking the Christians during Lent when they were weakened by
lack of sustenance, and "scarce a Christian", Bruce claims, was therefore "able to bear
arms". The soldiers at such periods would moreover usually be dispersed in their own
lands, preparing for the great festivities for Easter.
The Emperor's soldiers came at times from many parts of the realm. This was
notably - and demonstrably - the case during the reign of 'Amda Seyon (1312-1342)
whose chronicler reveals monarch's army included contingents from a wide
that the
Tegre and Bagemder, Wag, Lasta and Angot, Gojjam
stretch of the country, including
and Amhara, and Damot, Sawa and Hadeya. Several localities in these regions are
also specifically referred to in Ethiopian soldiers' songs of the period.
Campaigning was also virtually never carried out during the long rainy season
which made travel of any kind almost impossible. Ludolf s scholarly informant Abba
Gorgoreyos wrote: "There is no making War in Ethiopia in Winter time; neither does
the Enemy attack us, nor we them; by reason of the great falls of Rain and
4
Inundations of the Rivers".
2
Crawford (1958) 45; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 320, II, 477, (1954) 76-8; Whiteway (1902)
94.
3
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 76.
4
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 78, (1961) I 192-3, II, 411; Huntingford (1965a), 2, 18-9, 81-2, 129-
32.
15
Weapons
Warfare was traditionally based on two main weapons: the spear for attack, and
the shield for defence. Limited use was, however, made of daggers and clubs which
were employed when fighting at close quarters, while members of the nobility also
carried swords "for appearance sake", but, according to Almeida, "rarely" used them.
Coats-of-mail were also occasionally worn. Fire-arms, which were later to determine
the outcome of many a battle, were extremely rare at the beginning of our period, but,
as we shall see, became increasingly plentiful in later centuries.
Several different types of spear were in general use. Foot soldiers had two main
kinds. The first, which had a narrow iron head, was usually thrown in the first
encounter with such force that it could pierce shields and even coats-of-mail. The
second, the head of which was broader, was retained for subsequent hand-to-hand
fighting in which the soldier would brandish the weapon in his right hand, and hold
his shield in the left. The swords of the cavalry also tended to be smaller, and shorter,
than those of other warriors.
Shields, which were carried by both infantry and cavalry, were for the most part
made from the skin of the wild buffalo, and were, Almeida says, "very strong and
firm".
Coats-of-mail, and helmets, gradually came into increased use. In the sixteenth
century there are said to have been only "a few", and only of poor quality, but early
in the following century it was reported that "as many as 700 or 800" horsemen were
so equipped.
The speed with which fire-arms gained currency is worthy of note. When the
Portuguese diplomatic mission left Ethiopia in the mid- 1520s there were, according
to Alvares, no more than fourteen muskets at court, whither they had been bought
from Turkish traders. By the early seventeenth century, however, Almeida reported
that there were over 1,500 muskets in the country, though "not more than 400 or 500
musketeers" took part in any one expedition, and "most of them" had "so little skill"
that they could not "fire more than once in any action" which was not surprising as
gunpowder and bullets were "so scarce" that few had enough to practice "four shots
5
now and again" in a year.
Camp Life
A most soldiers' lives was spent in camps, commanded by the

large part of
Emperor and which were usually established on a level plain, the highest
his courtiers,
point of which might be occupied, Alvares states, by as many as five or six thousand
tents and innumerable soldiers and camp-followers. One of Emperor Lebna Dengel's
camps was so crowded that the people looked "like a procession of Corpus Domini in
a great city." The "tenth part of them" were "well-dressed people, and nine parts
common people, both men and women, young people, and poor, some of them
clothed in skins, others in poor stuffs." The poor people carried with them pots for
5
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 76-7, (1961) II 492, 516.
16
making wine and porringers for drinking, and, if they moved short distances, they also
took their dwellings with them. The rich, on the other hand, brought "very good tents",
while the "great lords and gentlemen" each moved with "a city or a good town of
and were accompanied by muleteers, and loads, "without number or reckoning."
tents",
The camp as a whole might thus comprise at least 50,000 mules, and "from that
upwards" to perhaps 100,000. The size of a typical camp was confirmed by Almeida,
who, a century or so later, stated that it might consist of as many as "eight or nine
thousand hearths".
Camps throughout this period - and later - were almost invariably arranged in
an orderly manner so that, the Jesuit explains: "The Emperor's tents, four or five very
large tents, are placed in the centre. A handsome open space is left and then on the
left hand and on the right, before and behind, follow tents for two churches that he
takes with him, those of the Queen and great lords, who all have their allotted places,
then those of the captains and soldiers in accordance with the command to which they
belong, those from the vanguard in front, and behind those from the rearguard, some
of those from the wings on the right and others on the left." The whole camp, when
disposed in this way, occupied a vast space, and constituted "a splendid sight,
6
especially at night with the great number of fires that are lit" .
The methodical arrangement of the camp was one of its most enduring features,
and one which greatly facilitated the army's efficient movement and operation. This
was later vividly described by Ludolf, who, drawing on earlier Portuguese accounts as
well as on information gleaned from Abba Gorgoreyos, explained that it was the
camp-master's duty to locate a suitable site well supplied with wood, grass and water,
which done:
"he fixes a Pole in the Earth with the Royal Banner at the Topp; upon the
sight whereof, they that measure for the Nobility, set up their Masters
Lodgings. After them the Common Souldiery, and others that follow the
Camp either for Victuals or else upon business. And thus in a few hours'
time the whole Camp appears in the same Order as it was before. For
every one knowes his place and his proportion, there being never any
alteration in the Order, but the same Streets and Lanes, the same distance
of Tents, so that were it not for the variation of the Prospect, other
Mountains, other Rivers, and another Face of the Country, you would
think your self still in the same place. When the Cryer has once proclaim'd
the day of Removal, they presently [i.e. quickly] know how to pack up their
Baggage, and in what order to march without any more ado; who are to
march in the Front, who in the Rear, who on the Right, who on the Left;
7
so that all things are done without Noise or Tumult".
Camps such as this were to be formed for several centuries.
6
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 79, 188.
7
Ludolf (1684) 214-5.
17
IV
THE NOBILITY
The Feudal System
Nobles played a major role in the Ethiopian feudal system. Deeply involved in
government, as well as in the collection of tribute, they also served in time of war both
as commanders and combatants. In return for their services they were allowed to
appropriate a sizeable amount of the tribute due to the State, and enjoyed many of the
privileges of absolute rule. However, being themselves subject to an overlord in the
person of the Emperor or provincial ruler, they were often subjected, like the peasants
and members of other classes, to many of the uncertainties, and indignities, of
arbitrary government.
Despite their importance in State affairs nobles for the most part receive only
passing mention in medieval records, whose authors, perhaps not surprisingly, tended
to concentrate on the more prestigious figure of the monarch. It is nevertheless clear
that many "great lords", as Alvares calls them, were rich, powerful and privileged.
Nepotism
Though and thus distinct from the monarchy -

in a sense a separate class -
many nobles were in fact connected by blood or marriage - with the ruling house,
-
while others, as we shall see, owed their position - and importance to local - and often
hereditary - influence.
The significance of family connections in the appointment of officials was

particularly evident during the reign of Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob (
1433-1468) who
appointed his son-in-law, 'Amda Masqat, as his Behtwddddd, or principal courtier, but,
believing him disloyal, placed the government of almost the entire country, as we
shall see in a later chapter, in the hands of his daughters and other female relatives.
The importance of nepotistic considerations, which in one way or another

imbued the entire governmental structure, were no less graphically evident during the
reign of Emperor Lebna Dengel (1508-1540), who, during the war with Ahmad Gran,
j
made his son-in-law Degalhan the head of his army. When events turned against the
Emperor, however, the latter is reported, by Gran's chronicler, to have said to his wife,
Wayzaro Amata Watin,"Your brother, the King, placed me at the head of the army, !
but have neither the strength nor the energy to fight. If I am killed, you will be left
I
a widow, and your children will be orphans. Intercede then for me with the King so
that he sends me again to you - but do not let him know what I have said". Amata j
Waf in, according to this account, duly spoke to her brother, in secret, telling him that
if her husband was killed she would be left a widow and her children would be
orphaned. Though the above account cannot of course be confirmed there is no

gainsaying the fact that at this time, when the fighting had become desperate,
18
Degalhan, the son-in law, was duly replaced by another - and more dependable -
officer, Eslam Sagad, who was duly killed in battle.

1
Tribute and Fiefs
Nobles serving as provincial and other governors received considerable tribute.

They passed on much of but retained a sizeable portion for
this to their overlord,
themselves, as well as for their followers and dependents. Much of the taxes received
by the nobility were extracted from the peasantry, and consisted of cattle and other
livestock, farm produce, including grain, and various labour services. Taxes on traders
were, however, also a major source of income, for they provided the nobles with
sizeable quantities of silks, brocades and other costly goods imported from abroad, as
well as fire-arms, of major importance throughout this period, and bars of salt from
the 'Afar depression which were widely used as money. The demand for this mineral
was in fact so great that many lords, according to Alvares, sent their servants to the
vicinity of the mines each year with up to 300 or 400 mules to obtain supplies to meet
their expenses at court. Not a few of the nobles were in consequence exceedingly
wealthy, as evident from the Portuguese priest's statement that many "great gentlemen"
had "very fine tents", which were so numerous that the entire camp looked like "a city
or a good town of tents".
The power in their fiefdoms where, as we have

nobility exercised considerable
seen, Alvares reported that no one from the "common people" could kill a cow without
leave from his lord. On leaving their fiefs the chiefs were likewise treated with great
respect, and would be preceded by guards carrying whips which they would strike in
2
the air, thereby making a "great noise" which caused the populace to keep its distance.
Apparel
The nobles often wore sumptuous clothing, in many cases smartly fashioned of
coloured silk, which differentiated them from the peasantry and the public at large.
Lebna Dengel's courtiers were thus described by Alvares as "dressed in white shirts
and good silk clothes". Over their shoulders they wore lions' skins decorated with
collars of gold adorned with jewels and false stones, and round their waist "girdles of
coloured silk" with "fringes reaching to the ground". The Bahr Nagas, or ruler of the
northern province near the sea, was likewise said to have worn "rich clothes", including
"a fine large burnous", while one of his subordinates, Ras Aredam, had "a very good
silk cloth, and on his shoulders the skin of a lion". A
"great gentleman" in command
of Queen Sabla WangePs soldiers, whom
Castanhoso later saw in the 1540s, was
similarly "clothed in hose and vest of red satin and gold brocade with many plaits", a
French cape of fine black cloth all quilted with gold", and "a black cap with a very rich
medal", while two other lords wore "tunics of silk garnished with silk" which reached
the ground and trailed behind them like a woman's bridal dress. In the following
1
Basset (1897) 179-80.
2
Beckingham and Huntingford (1861) I, 114-7, 18(M, 248, 269, 320-1, II, 425-7, 515.
19
century Almeida likewise noted that the shirts of "some of the lords and richer men"
were "made of taffety or satin and damask", and were worn with coats of "velvet or
Meca brocade".
The women of the nobility similarly often wore bofeta or silk clothes over cotton
underwear. Their top clothes were invariably "very wide and long", for "elegance",
3
Almeida judged, "consisted in wearing a great deal of cloth and silk".
Subordination to the Monarch
Though and to the people at

virtually all-powerful in relation to the peasantry
were almost
large, the nobles monarch. During the reign
entirely subordinate to the
of Lebna Dengel the "great lords", whom Alvares likens to kings, were thus "all
tributary" to the sovereign who appointed and dismissed them at his pleasure "with or
without cause". This seemed to create "no resentment", he says, or, if it did, this was
kept secret, for he had seen "great lords turned out of their lordships and others put
into them", and the persons thus appointed and dismissed "appeared to be good
friends, though God of course knew what was in their hearts".
The because of its subject status vis-a-vis the monarch was constantly at
nobility
the latter's beck and call, and could not travel without his permission. "No great lord"
could thus leave his land, or set out for the court, unless summoned by the King, and,
having been commanded to appear, would "not fail to come for any reason". On
departing he would not leave his wife, children or any property behind, but set forth
in the expectation of never returning, for were he deprived of his governorship
everything belonging to him would be taken away from him by his successor. For this
reason chiefs leaving their fiefs carried off everything "without leaving anything, or at
least without putting it in another lordship".
Court ceremonial sought to demonstrate the noble's dependence on his overlord.

Whenever a chief was summoned to court he would thus travel "with great pomp"
until he approached its neighbourhood when he would derobe, and remain "stripped
from the waist upwards", perhaps for as long as "a month or two" until the ruler chose
to call him. Throughout this time the noble would be treated as though he was
"forgotten". He was permitted to visit the court to speak with other lords, but could
not display any pomp or fine clothing, or be accompanied by more than two or three
followers. On eventually receiving the King's order to attend him he would however
appear "with great pomp, with kettle drums and other musical instruments sounding".
Before reaching the monarch's presence, however, he was again expected to derobe,
and would once more be "naked from the waist upwards". During this period people
would say, "So and so is not yet in favour with our lord, for he still goes about
j
stripped". On finally gaining access to his master - and receiving the latter's
approbation, he once more went around dressed, and it would be said, "So and so is
in our lord's favour". Only then would the reason for his summons be divulged. It was
therefore no uncommon sight at court to see nobles undressed to the waist: Alvares
recalls two occasions for example when he saw a Ras in front of the Emperor's gate
naked to the waist "without a shirt".
3
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961), 116, 122, 269, (1954) 60; Whiteway (1902) 17, 19-20; Thomas
(1938) 75; Ludolf (1684) 388.
20
Chiefs returning to their fiefs were usually despatched quickly, but those dismissed
might be detained for as much as five, six or even seven years. During that time they
could "by no manner of means" leave without permission, and were indeed "so
obedient", and "so much" in "fear of the King", that they never stirred from the court.
Though accustomed to the company of "many people" they were now "neglected", and
moved around with only "two or three men", for the "numerous attendants who had
formerly accompanied them belonged to the lordships taken from them, and would
have transferred themselves to the new lord.
Whenever the monarch travelled the chiefs through whose territory he passed had
likewise to humble themselves. They did this once again by baring themselves to the
waist, and, if in the presence of the monarch or the latter's consort, would show his
subservience by leading the bridle of the mule or horse on which the master - or
mistress - rode.
The subordination of the chiefs was apparent in the case even of the most
powerful. Each of the two Behtwaddad, or "beloved" ministers, was a "noble
gentleman" and the "greatest lord at Court", with such a "multitude" of followers that
they took up as much space as a city. Both noblemen nevertheless treated their master
with the greatest possible deference. One, who brought the annual tribute from
Gojjam, thus came before the monarch "stripped from the waist upwards", and when
formally asked his identity, he humbly replied, addressing the King: "I... am the least
of your house, and he who saddles your mules and puts the head stalls on your
baggage mules. I serve in what other business you command". Notwithstanding this
show of humility he and his fellow Behtwaddad were both soon afterwards arrested,
and ignominiously dismissed.
Provincial rulers had no greater security of office. The governor of the important
province of Tegre for example kept "a very large household", but during Alvares's visit
was likewise replaced, and banished, at the monarch's whim. The Bahr Nagas similarly
lived in a "large house", and was "the lord of many lords, and of many lords and
people", but he too held office only as long as the Emperor pleased. "For in our time,
which was a stay of six years", Alvares writes, "there were here four Barnagais, that is
to say, when we arrived Dori was Barnagais, he died, and at his death the crown came
to Bulla, his son, a youth of ten to twelve years of age.... When they crowned him he
was at once summoned to the Court, and while he was at the Court, the Prester John
[i.e. Emperor] took away his sovereignty and gave it to a great nobleman... This man
held it two years, and they took from him his lordship" which was then "given to
another lord". Lesser chiefs were likewise entirely subject to the monarch, who
removed and appointed them as he pleased. The nobles' lack of security of office, it
should be emphasised, was very advantageous to the Emperor, for chiefs, both great
and small, vied with each other in seeking his goodwill, and to this end presented him
4
with "very large dues".
The above state of affairs was no less apparent in the seventeenth century, by
which time the contraction of the empire, resulting from Gran's wars and the
expansion of the Oromos, or Gallas, may well have led to greater competition for fief
4
Beckingham and Huntingford I, 114, 116-7, 173, 271, II, 426, 43(M, 443-6; Whiteway (1902)18.
21
lands. Almeida reported that provincial rulers in his day were frequently appointed
and dismissed, sometimes "every two years", and sometimes "every year, and even
every six months". The "worst thing" about such frequent changes, he felt, was that
fiefs seemed to be "sold rather than given", for:
"No one receives them except by giving for them an amount of gold which is
more or less the income and profit the aspirant and applicant hopes to get
from them. As there are always many applicants those who give most for
them usually receive them. They give more than they can honestly derive from
them, and so as not to be at a loss they fleece the people, disposing of the
lesser offices and the governorships of particular places and territories to
those who promise and give most in return for them. So it is all merely an
5
auction".
The result of this state of affairs, he believed, was that the chiefs, who exercised
"absolute control over the lives and property of the whole population", were "generally
speaking... all plunderers rather than governors".
Notwithstanding the privileged position of the nobles their insecurity of tenure

continued to be "useful" to the monarch, for the gentry, fearing that they might lose
their lands or hoping to acquire others, found it expedient to serve their lord both in
peace and war. They also continued moreover to lavish presents on him, "for usually",
Almeida says, "he who gives more gets more and he who gives less gets less".
There was, on the other hand, little to restrict the nobles's powers over the
peasantry. Persons suffering from exploitation by their chiefs could theoretically appeal
to the Emperor, but few, Almeida says, ever dared to do so, for it was as good as to
declare oneself an enemy of the governor, and everyone was afraid that if angered he
would find a pretext to destroy them. The time for poor people to make their
complaints was supposedly when a governor's period of office had come to an end,
but appeals for redress of wrongs were in practice even then often impossible, for
chiefs in many cases obtained proclamations from the Emperor preventing them from
being sued for anything that they or their servants might have done during their term
of office. With such an exemption "all the robberies and acts of violence" of which they
might be guilty were automatically "consigned to oblivion as though they had never
been committed". Such indulgences were "so well established" that no one considered
them "sinful", and anyone shocked by them was told that the practice was long-
6
established and without it there would be "widespread rebellions".
5
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 72-3.
6
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 72-3, 88-9.
22
V
MONARCHS
Monarchs, whose lives were the subject of a succession of royal chronicles,
constituted the apex of the feudal system. They often wielded immense power, and,
being supposedly appointed by the will of God, were treated throughout the centuries
with immense deference and respect.
The Fethd Nagdst
The status accorded to the Ethiopian monarch corresponded very largely with
his position as laid down in the country's traditional legal code, the Fethd Nagdst, or
"Laws of the Kings", which proclaimed the Divine Right of Kings on Scriptural basis.
The text thus recalled the words of Moses:
"Thou any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God
shalt in
shall choose;one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee:
1
thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother."
The king, the Fethd Nagdstshould receive obedience and respect as

insisted,
laid down had commanded, "Render... unto Caesar the
in the Scriptures, for Christ
things that are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's" (Matthew, XXII,
21), while St Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, had written:
"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power
but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
"Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God;
and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
"For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not
be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise
for the same.
"For he is God to thee for good. But if thou do that which
the minister of
is evil, be he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute
afraid; for
wrath upon him that doeth evil.
"Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for
conscience sake.
"For, for this cause ye pay tribute also: for they are God's ministers,
attending continually upon this very thing.
"Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom
2
to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour".
1
Deuteronomy, XVII, 15.
2
Romans, XIII, 1-7. Guidi (1899) 467-75.
23
Court Powers and Ceremonial
The powers of the Ethiopian monarch were perhaps at their greatest during the
reign ofEmperor Zar'a Ya'qob (1434-1468) who replaced his earlier provincial rulers
by his own daughters and other female members of his family, and instituted an army
of spies to seek out secret idolaters, with the result, his chronicle states, that "everyone
trembled before the power of the king".
Court ceremonial, as described in the following century, was likewise designed

to demonstrate the paramountcy of the monarch. When he gave audiences he was thus
placed "behind a curtain", Brother Thomas reports, so that no one could cast their
eyes upon him, and when he spoke it was often through a specially appointed
spokesman who conveyed the royal words, or command, "with eyes lowered". When
the King rode through the countryside everyone was expected to turn their faces
toward the ground, and anyone looking at his face, it was said, would be executed on
the spot. The sovereign was moreover generally preceded on his journeys, Alvares
recalls, by "four lions bound with strong chains", while his retinue, like that of
important chiefs, included officers with whips who ensured that he at all times
received the full respect due from the public at large.
The Emperor's messengers, who to show their importance - and that of their
master sometimes carried drawn swords, were also treated with considerable
-
deference. When visited by a royal messenger the Bahr Nagas, for example moved to
the highest place in the area, disrobed "from the waist upwards", and, on hearing the
King's command, everyone "placed their hands upon the ground". After the message
had been read the chief duly clothed himself again. The monarch's words were
customarily heard "out of doors and on foot", and the person to whom they were
addressed had to remain "naked above the waist" until they had been delivered. If the
message expressed royal satisfaction the nobleman would then dress himself, but, if
the contrary was the case, he would remain "naked as when he heard it", for he knew
he was "in disgrace with his lord".
Subsequent due in part to the invasion of Ahmad Gran and

political difficulties,
the northward movement of the Oromos, or Gallas, rolled back the frontiers of the
realm without greatly reducing the prerogatives of the throne in the areas still subject
to its rule. The power monarch in the early seventeenth century thus "chiefly"
of the
rested, according to Almeida, on the fact that he was, as we have seen, "lord in
solidum of all lands in the kingdom", and could give and take these away when and
to whom he thought fit. Private persons, "great and small", had in fact "nothing except
by the King's gift; and all that they held was by the monarch's "favour ad tempus".
Though nominally omnipotent the actual powers of the monarch in fact varied
considerably from one part of the country to another. In some regions he still
exercised complete jurisdiction, but there were others, chiefly in Tegre, "the lordship
j
and government" of which he did "not take away from the families and descendants
of their first owners". Such areas included Tamben, Sire, Saraye, the country of the
Bahrnagas and "many other" neighbouring places in the north, as well as Dambeya in
the west, the governorship of which areas "never" passed from the descendants of
their former chiefs. Even in such localities the sovereign's authority was, however,
extensive, for he made appointments and dismissals within the ruling family "every two
years and sometimes every year, and even every six months".
24
The monarch for his part remained jealous of the nobility, and to avoid
dependence on men of noble descent, often gave preferment to slaves and others of
lowly origin. This policy is said to have been extensively practiced by Emperor
Susneyos who held that only those whom he had "created and made from dust and
earth" could be relied upon to be faithful. Even if this was not fully the case such royal
3
appointees seemed to Almeida more loyal than others.
Royal Courts and Moving Capitals
Ethiopia, throughout most of this time, had no fixed capital, but was ruled by
the monarch from a succession of temporary military camps which have aptly been
described as "moving capitals."
Such camps were made up, according to the early sixteenth century Florentine
trader Andrea Corsali, some on foot and others on
of "innumerable people,"
horseback. This army or retinue was so large, he claims, that the monarch could not
remain in any one place for more than four months nor return to the same place in
less than ten years, because of the resultant exhaustion of supplies. This picture was
confirmed a century later by Almeida who agreed that the Emperor's camp
constituted the "royal city and capital of the empire," and deserved the name because
of the multitude of people, and the good order that was observed in choosing the site,
particularly during the rainy season, when a camp once set up could often not be
moved until theabatement of the rains. Camp sites were wherever possible selected
in localities with an abundance of wood, but the demand for timber and fire-wood was
so great that neighbouring forests were usually denuded within a few years, with the
result that the camp would soon be obliged to move elsewhere in quest of further
4
supplies.
Dress
The pre-eminence of the monarch was also expressed in the field of dress where
a sumptuary law laid down that "no one but the King" or "a close relative or favourite",
was allowed to wear anything, Almeida states, but "breeches" and a "piece of cloth"
used as a wrap. The Emperors, their consorts and close members of their family,
therefore wore luxurious and costly clothes not known outside their circle. Lebna
Dengel, when receiving the Portuguese mission of the 1520s, thus wore "a high crown
of gold and silver", and was dressed in a "rich mantle of gold brocade", while his feet
were covered with a "rich cloth of silk and gold". Sitting on "a platform of six steps
very richly adorned'" he held in his hand a silver cross, and had in front of him "a
piece of blue taffeta which covered his face and beard". Empress Sabla Wangel was
later no less impressively described by Castanhoso as "all covered to the ground with
silk, with a large flowing cloak". She had "a silk canopy" over her head, was "clothed
3
Perruchon (1989) 4-6, 75-6, 94-101; Crawford (1958) 169; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 122,
269-70, 286, II, 324, 337, 426, 433, 442, (1954) 72, 75, 88. See also Ludolf (1684) 234-5; Pankhurst
(1985-7) passim.
4
Historiale Description (1558) 25; Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 82-3.
25
in a very thin white Indian cloth and a burnoose of black satin, with flowers and
fringes of very fine gold, like a cloak", and was "so muffled in a very fine cloth that
only her eyes could be seen".
The old sumptuary law seems to have been relaxed in the late sixteenth century,
with the result that increasing numbers of the nobility donned fine clothing. The
5
sartorial pre-eminence of the monarch was, however, not affected.
Dynastic Marriages
Despite Christian insistence on monogamy, this principle was in practice waived

for Emperors who for dynastic and other reasons often had more than one wife.
Alvares goes so far as to state that rulers until the reign of Emperor Na'od (1494 -
1508) "always had five or six wives," while Almeida a century later claimed that
Ethiopian monarchs "always" had "many wives."
The monarch's principal spouse, or spouses, were never of the "imperial blood
or family," for suchwomen, who were known as Wayzaros, were "all considered to be
the daughters or sisters of the Emperors." Rulers, on the contrary, usually married
the daughters of their vassals. Queens therefore tended to belong to noble rather
than royal families. Monarchs, however, sometimes "paid no attention to noble birth
but only to good character and charm, for they say the King gains nothing from his
wife's noble birth while the great future in being chosen to be the Emperor's wife is
sufficient nobility for her."
When a lowly woman waschosen she would be called to the court. There she
would be made one of the Emperor's female relatives so that the monarch
to live with
"could inform himself more closely and positively about her good qualities." Once he
was satisfied about them he would take her to church one Sunday to hear Mass and
take Communion, after which he conveyed her to the palace where they would receive
the Abutty or Patriarch's, blessing. The whole court would then celebrate.
Some royal marriages were also concluded, for political considerations, with the
daughters or sisters of provincial rulers, both Christian and Muslim. The latter were
usually converted, but, it is said, were also sometimes permitted to follow their
original faith. Almeida, who, as a Jesuit, found this latter course of action
reprehensible, claims that he was informed by Ras Se'ela Krestos, brother of Emperor j
Susneyos - with what veracity we cannot tell - that in the sixteenth century Lebna
Dengel "had some heathen wives and that, to please them, he had, like his ancestor
Solomon, gone so far as to have idols in his palace so that on one side was the church !
of God and Our Lady the Virgin and on the other the house of the idol."
Queens, likewives in general, were supposed to be obedient to their husbands.

Queen Sabla Wangel, consort of Emperor Galawdewos, was thus praised in the
6
latter's chronicle for having put all her pride in obeying her husband.
5
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961), I, 241, (1961) I, 303-4; Whiteway (1902) 18.
6
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 241, (1954) 68-9, 71; Conzelman (1895) 122-3, See also
Pankhurst (1985-7) 48-9.
26
Royal Succession and Detention of Princes
The chief weakness of the monarchy throughout this period - and later - lay in
the system of succession. Though the principle of primogeniture was to some extent
operative the throne could normally be inherited by any of the ruler's male offspring.
Because of the impermanency of Ethiopian marriages, and the royal practice of having
several wives, the emperors tended to have numerous offspring. The resultant
multiplicity of heirs was often a source of considerable intrigue and instability.
Succession conflicts, Taddesse Tamrat observes, were in fact "endemic in medieval
Ethiopia", and were particularly serious when, as a result of the machinations of the
nobles, "infantile and immature princes were left to rule in preference to their more
seasoned relatives". The Ethiopian Synaxarium recalls that when a king died, in the
tenth century, the Abun, governors and generals of the royal army took counsel
together, and agreed among themselves, saying, "The younger son will be far better
for the kingdom than the elder".
The lack of any real law of succession was fully apparent to Alvares. Recalling
that he was informed that "on the death of the Prester", i.e. Emperor, "the eldest born
inherited" he added that "others say that he who appeared to the Prester the most apt
and prudent, inherited; others say that he inherited who had most support". In the
specific case of the accession of Lebna Dengel in 1508, the Abun, or head of the
Church, told him that he and the Dowager Queen Eleni had chosen that monarch
"because they had all the great men (and all the treasure) in their hands", for which
reason the Portuguese priest correctly concluded that "besides primogeniture,
supporters, (friendship and treasure) enter into the question".
To minimise dissensions resulting from the multitude of heirs the practice

developed of placing all unwanted princes in detention on an inaccessible mountain
- in the sixteenth century Amba Gesen. Sons of the ruling monarch or of his
immediate predecessor, and princes only recently detained, were closely guarded, but
grand-children and other more remote descendants of earlier rulers were by contrast
7
"not so much watched over".
Coronation Ritual
Monarchs were usually crowned at the principal church in the area where they
found themselves at the time of their accession to power. Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob,
however, reinstated an ancient tradition when he went in 1434 to be crowned at the
ancient city of Aksum, and thus invested the monarchy, as Taddesse Tamrat notes,
with the prestige associated with the country's old historical, religious and political
capital.
Several subsequent rulers followed this tradition, among them Sarsa Dengel
(1563-1579) whose chronicle presents a graphic picture of the ceremonial. It states
that the monarch, on reaching the vicinity of Aksum, sent a message to the priests
7
Budge (1928a), p.667; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 193, 240-1, 243.
27
of the city, stating that he was "to celebrate the royal ceremonies in front of my
mother, Seyon, tabernacle of the God of Israel, as did my fathers [i.e. ancestors]
David and Salomon." He then made his way to the holy city where ecclesiastics, priests
and deacons, received him with crosses of gold, and twelve fine parasols. The
welcoming party included the superiors of all the convents of Tegre who sang the
ancient Ethiopian hymns of Yared, chanting, "Be blessed, o King of Israel!" In front
of the priests stood the "maidens of Seyon," presumably part of the city's female
population, who held a long cord as if to bar his way. There were also two old women
with swords, one to the right and the other to the left, who, on the arrival of the ruler
on horseback, cried out aloud, in an arrogant voice, "Who art thou? Of what family
and of what tribe?" He thereupon replied, "I am the son of Dawit, son of Salomon,
son of Ebna Hakim" [i.e. Menilek]. The women then questioned him a second time,
again arrogantly, whereupon he cited his more immediate royal descent, declaring, "I
am the son of Zar'a Ya'qob, son of Ba'eda Maryam, son of Na'od." On the women
asking the question a third time, he lifted his hand, and now, referring to more recent
ancestors, declared, "I am Malak Sagad, son of Wanag Sagad, son of Asnaf Sagad, son
of Admas Sagad." He then severed the rope with his sword, whereupon the women
cried out, "Truly, truly, though art the King of Seyon, son of Dawit, son of Salomon."
After this the priests of the city began singing on one side and the maidens of Seyon
began clapping on the other, and both groups continued doing so until the monarch
entered the church compound, where he scattered on the ground a large quantity of
gold for the churchmen there assembled.
A later account of the ceremony embodying a somewhat different series of

questions, was later provided by Almeida. Stating that two women, each holding a
silver cord, would bar the monarch's path, he reports that, when the monarch reached
that place, a third woman would enquire, "Who are you?", to which he would reply,
"I am the King." She would then declare, "You are not!", at which he would step back
a few paces, before returning, at which point she would ask, "Whose King are you?"
He would then answer, "I am the King of Israel," at which she would say, "You are not
our King!" He would then once more retire a little, only to return again, when she
would demand a third time, "Whose King are you?", whereupon, drawing his sword,
he would cut the cord, proclaiming, T am the King of Seyon." At this reply she would
exclaim, "Truly, truly, you are the King of Seyon." Then the musicians would strike up
8
with their kettledrums, trumpets and shalms, and the musketeers would fire a salvo.
Taddesse Tamrat (1972), 249-50; Conti Rossini (1907), 89-91; Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 92.
28
VI
THE CLERGY AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY
Medieval Ethiopia, which abounded in churches and monasteries, had a

considerable ecclesiastical population made up of priests, dabtaras, or lay clerics,
monks, nuns and hermits. There were also several highly influential prelates, among
them the Abun, or Metropolitan, who was traditionally an Egyptian Copt, the Aqabe
Sa'at, an Ethiopian churchman attached to the palace, and the Ecage, likewise an
Ethiopian, who served as head of the monks.
Multitude of Churches and Monasteries
Testimony to the country's immense number of places of worship is provided by

Alvares, who, travelling through the northern and central provinces in the early
sixteenth century, noticed "many" churches and monasteries. A century or so later
Lobo remarked were both so "numerous" that one could "nowhere give a
that they
shout without it being heard at least at one church or monastery and very often at
many of both". Monasteries were in fact found all over the country. Most, Alvares
notes, were placed - for safety - either on "high mountains" or else in "great ravines".
Churches and monasteries, though distinct from each other, were often
monastery housed at least one church, while many churches had
associated, for every
monks attached to them. Alvares goes so far as to assert that he "never saw a church
of priests which had not got monks, nor a monastery of monks which had not got
1
priests".
Priests, Dahtaras and Monks
The Ethiopian population of this time included "innumerable" priests, dabtaras,

or lay clerics, monks and deacons. No estimate of the number of the clergy is
available, but was undoubtedly considerable. Debarwa, the capital of the Bahr
it
Nagas, for example had two churches, each served, Alvares says, by "twenty priests",
while in Amhara the great church of Makana Sellase numbered "more than 2,000".
Several of the larger churches likewise had a "great" or "infinite" number of

dabtaras, who enjoyed no small reputation. Popularly said to be descended from
families who had come from Jerusalem with Menilek, son of the Queen of Sheba, they
were on that account "more honoured than the rest of the clergy". Alvares, who refers
to them as "canons" - a term which he also uses for priests - claims that there were
50 at the monastery of Abba Pantalewon in Tegre, 150 at Aksum, 200 at Yemrehanna
Krestos in Lasta, 400 at Makana Sellase, and 800 at an unidentified church in the
Lalibala area where there were no less than 4,000 at eight religious establishments.
1
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 74-5, 119, 247, 256, II, 510; Lockhart (1984) 178-9.
29
St. Matewos and St. Tadewos, from a 15th century volume of the Psalms and Canticles in the Bibliotheque
Nationale, Ethiopien-Abbadie 105.
30
A highly stylised representation of St. Mark, from a 17th century Ethiopian manuscript of the Four
Gospels in the British Library, Orient 516.
The number may well have been growing.

of clerics in the sixteenth century
Alvares, on church in Angot, was informed that "at the beginning there were
visiting a
not so many canons, but that they had afterwards increased because "all the sons of
canons, and as many as descended from them, were still canons... and so they had
increased in number". An expansion in the number of clerics had also taken place in
the king's churches where the monarch frequently transferred attendants to newly
founded establishments. Emperor Lebna Dengel for example had ordered 200 men
to be taken to the church of Makana Sellase. Such reallocations were necessary,
Alvares comments, for otherwise the clergy would "eat one another up".
31
Monks were even more "numerous", for they covered "the world, both in the
monasteries as also in the churches, roads, and markets", and were seen "in every
place". Dabra Bizan monastery, overlooking the Red Sea, was variously reported as
having 300 and 500 monks who lived at six separate centres. Alvares, however,
believed that the figure did not actually exceed 200, though there were "always a
hundred" at the main site, "most of them old men of great age, and as dry as wood".
The number may have subsequently fallen, for Poncet two centuries later estimated
that the monastery had only "a hundred" inmates. The Alleluya monastery at Dabra
Halole, which Zorzi's informants described as a "very great" establishment with three
"very great" churches, was likewise reported by Alvares to have had "many monks".
One source quoted the figure of five hundred, and another of five thousand. Many
churches also had a sizeable number of monks. Aksum for example had 150, while the
two churches at Debarwa each had twenty-two. The number of ecclesiastics in the
seventeenth century remained very considerable, Lobo going so far as to remark -
possibly with exaggeration - that no less than "one third" of the population were
devoted to the service of God.
Ecclesiastical gatherings, not surprisingly, often attained immense proportions.

Emperor Lebna Dengel on visiting the church of Makana Sellase in 1521 for example
was greeted, Alvares says, by over 20,000 priests and monks, or, according to another
2
version of his text, by no less than 30,000.
Nuns and the Exclusion of Women from Monasteries
Nuns were also extremely numerous. Alvares, who saw a "great multitude" of
them, believed that many were "very holy", but others "not so". Unlike monks they did j
not live together in convents, but resided either in ordinary villages or in monasteries
of monks, without any special order of their own. They entered churches on entirely
the same basis as other women.
Access to some holy places was entirely closed to women (including nuns), and
even female animals and chickens were excluded. The situation at one of the churches !
at Debarwa was slightly different, for one woman was allowed to enter. She was the
wife of the Bahr Nagas, and was permitted to take one maid with her whenever she !
went to Communion - but she did not according, to Alvares, in fact use this privilege, j
and instead received Communion at the entrance. Monasteries, according to Lobo, \
3
often had separate churches for men and women.
Wealth of the Clergy
The wealth of the clergy varied greatly from one religious establishment to
another. Most of the principal churches and monasteries, according to Alvares,
possessed "big estates". The ecclesiastics at Aksum were particularly fortunate, for they
enjoyed "very large revenues", and, in addition, received every day after Mass a
2
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 88-9, 119, 126-7, 160, 164-5, 203, 236, 247, II, 338, 360, 463;
Thomas (1938) 79; Crawford (1958) 56, 125, 145; Foster (1949) 152; Lockhart (1984) 178-9.
3
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 118-9, 126; Lockhart (1984) 179; Bruce (1790) III, 177.
32
bread and wine. The nearby monasteries of Abba Pantalewon and Abba
collation of
Garima were likewise well endowed. The priests at the former had "large revenues",
and were "all respected men and well dressed", while the latter monastery, though
"small" with only "small revenues", nevertheless received sixteen prized horses a year,
as well as "many" other dues in food. Besides this they grew "much garlic, onions, and
many garden plants", and had "an infinite number of very good vineyards" from which
they made "great quantities of raisins". The two churches at Debarwa likewise had
"much land", which they put to "good use", and were also provided by the Bahr NagaS
with ornaments, wax, butter, "incense in sufficient quantity," and "everything" else they
needed.
The church of Yemrehanna Krestos was also reported to be in receipt of "much

revenue" so that its canons appeared "well-to-do and honourable men", while the
"royal churches" of the central provinces are said to have likewise had large revenues.
One indeed possessed so much land that there was not "one span" in its vicinity that
did not belong to it.
Such establishments maintained their great wealth throughout this period. In

the seventeenth century the monastery of Abba Garima was thus reported by Barradas
to be in possession of many excellent lands. Some gave the whole of their revenues to
the monks, while others paid only half, the remainder being allocated to the governor
of Tegre. The monastery of Dabra Bizan to the north, according to the same observer,
also had large and good lands, not only in its vicinity, but also as far away as Sire.
Though most of the more important religious establishments were thus well
endowed others were relatively poor. Many priests, and monks, were moreover obliged
to spend much of their time labouring like peasants in the field. The monks at Dabra
Bizan, despite their large estates, were said by Alvares to have toiled on the land. They
had in fact two sources of millet: that supplied to them by tenants, and that which they
produced by their own labour. The latter was clearly important, for the monks, when
asked by the Portuguese how they supported themselves, replied, "By the toil of our
hands" - and the tools they used were reported to have been "rather poor". The monks
and nuns of Jammadu Maryam were likewise reported to have had to work hard,
sowing and reaping their own wheat and barley, for the monastery itself gave them but
"little". This picture was confirmed by Brother Thomas who told Zorzi that many
Ethiopian priests and monks undertook manual labour "like donkeys."
Church ownership of land was nevertheless at times regarded with jealousy. The
rulers of the seventeenth century, who, as already suggested, were confronted with a
shortage of fiefs, were as anxious to obtain the return of Church land, Barradas claims,
as their forebears had been generous in giving it away. The question came to the fore
during the reign of Emperor Susneyos (1607-1632) who in the course of his efforts to
introduce Roman Catholicism seized a substantial part of the lands belonging to the
monastery of Dabra Bizan, which did not regain them even after the subsequent re-
establishment of the Orthodox faith. Once Church lands were seized by the chiefs and
soldiers, Barradas comments, it was extremely difficult for the old owners to get them
4
back.
4
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 116, 119, 160, 163-4, 166, 201, 203, 256, II, 511; Beccari (1903-
17), IV, 234, 243, 226; Thomas (1938) 79.
33
Influence of the Hierarchy and Priesthood
The Ethiopian Church enjoyed immense prestige, and its hierarchy, which had
great influence, was held in deep respect at both the national and local level.
The Abun, or Metropolitan, who accordance with long-established custom

in
came from Egypt, owned, or controlled, amount of land. Alvares mentions
a sizeable
two villages which belonged to the prelate, while Bermudes claimed that the latter's
lands in Tegre yielded a tax of 3,000 ounces of gold a year. Highly revered by his flock
he spent much of his time at the Emperor's court where he was in possession of "a
great number of tents", for he would be visited by "endless people" who "came to seek
him from all over Ethiopia to be ordained". His status was apparent from the fact that
he was seated on a couch "covered with fine cloth" like that used by other "great
people", and his establishment took up "as much space as a big country house." When
travelling he rode on a "well caparisoned" mule, and was accompanied by many
attendants, some on mule-back and others on foot, who took with them two tall
standing umbrellas as large as those carried for the Emperor, though not as fine.
Four men moreover preceded him with whips, thus obliging everyone to scatter before
him, while crowds of children and youths followed him, wishing him long life and
begging him to make them priests or deacons.
The wealth of the Abun was likewise remarked upon in the seventeenth century.
The then encumbent, according to Almeida, possessed three or four large estates as
gult, or land which paid him the annual tribute otherwise due to the Emperor. The
prelate had in addition a number of lands in Tegre which were said to provide 40 to
50 wdqets, or ounces, of gold, or the equivalent of 400 to 500 Portuguese patacas, as
Dambeya, which supplied him with
well as other estates in sufficient provisions for the
upkeep of his household. The prelate's lands in Gojjam, on the other hand, yielded
little as they were near the Blue Nile, then subject to attack from the Gallas or
Oromos. Some of the Abun' s tenants were exempted from labour service, and paid
instead each year one or two amoles, or bars of salt then used in lieu of money. This
assured the prelate an annual revenue of many thousand pieces.
The influence of an Abun varied greatly, and was in large measure a function
of the length of time he had spent in the country. A newly arrived prelate would be I
hampered by his ignorance of the local language and customs, but a long-established
one might become an astute master of court intrigue. Abuna' Marqos, who had been
in the country fifty years when Alvares met him in the 1520s, proudly declared, as we
have seen, that together with the Queen Mother he had determined Emperor Lebna
Dengel's succession. The power of the Abun was also remarked upon at the end of
the seventeenth century by Poncet who states that the Patriarch of his day, by
coincidence also Abuna Marqos, had named "all superiors of the monasteries", had
"absolute authority" over the monks, and received "great respect" from the then
Emperor, Iyasu I.
The procurement of an Abun throughout this time was a difficult, costly, and
sometimes hazardous affair, for which reason the country sometimes remained for a
fairly long time without one. There was one period, in the early sixteenth century, I
when there was no Metropolitan for no less than twenty-three years. To obviate a
repetition of this state of affairs the Patriarch of Alexandria subsequently sent two
34
priests "so that one could succeed the other." Later, when the second of them, the said
Abuna Marqos, became old Emperor Lebna Dengel despatched 2,000 ounces of gold
to Cairo to obtain another prelate, but the desired cleric's arrival was long delayed
because of difficulties in Egypt.
The two principal Ethiopian ecclesiastics, who shared power with the Coptic
Abun, were the Aqabe Sd'at, an important churchman attached to the palace, and the
Ecdge, originally the prior of the great monastery of Dabra Libanos, and later of the
monks in general. The Aqabe Sa'at, or Guardian of the Hour - a functionary dating
back at least to the fifteenth century reign of Ba'eda Maryam, acted for the Emperor
in many matters of state. In Alvares's opinion the "second person" in the kingdom he
was to all intents and purposes "a great lord", and travelled, like the Abun, with "a
great many tents". The Ecage, or head of the monks, was almost equally important,
5
and, according to the same observer, was "the greatest prelate" after the Abun.
Ordination of Priests, Deacons and Monks
Ordination, the most important event in a priest's life, was carried out exclusively
by the Abun, without whom the act could not be performed. This created considerable
difficulty at times when the country was without a prelate, as in the above-mentioned
twenty-three year inter-regnum after which the people sadly complained to Alvares
that there had been neither priests nor deacons to serve in the churches, and that "the
servants being lost, the churches would be lost, and that when the churches were lost
the faith would be lost".
Ordination was invariably carried out on a large scale. Alvares, who witnessed
one ceremony in which "quite 5,000 or 6,000 people" received holy orders, has left a
vivid description of it. A
white tent was first pitched in a large uninhabited meadow,
after which the Abun made his appearance on mule-back, accompanied by many
followers. Without dismounting he made a speech in his native Arabic, which a priest
then translated into Amharic. Its main theme was that if there was anyone there who
had "two wives or more, even though one was dead", he could "not to become a
priest", and, if he did, he would be excommunicated, and held to be "accursed by the
curse of God". Having finished this speech the Prelate sat down on a chair in front
of the tent, with three priests, each with a manuscript book, seated before him on the
ground.The persons to be ordained then also sat down, squatting on their heels, in
three long rows. At the end of each row one of the priests with a book examined them
"very briefly, for each one did not read more than two or three words". Each examinee
then went to one of a number of standing priests who had a basin of white ink and a
kind of seal with which he stamped the flat of the man's arm. The successful candidate
then made his way to the middle of the plain which was soon crowded, for "there were
few who did not pass". When this examination was finished, the Abun went into the
tent, which had two doors, and sat on a chair. The men who had been examined
meanwhile fell into line, one in front of the other, and, entering through one door and
going out by the other, passed before him. As they walked by he placed his hand on
their head, and uttered a few words, thus complying with the rule, laid down in the
5
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 70, 108, 235, 243, 262, 270, 286, 305, II, 333, 346, 355-7, 359 379,
Whiteway (1902) 160; Crawford (1958) 79; Beccari (1903-17) IV, 243, 268, VI 161-2; Foster
419, 443-4;
(1949) 122; Bruce (1790) III, 317; Perruchon (1893) 167.
35
Fethd Ndgdst, that "when a bishop wants to ordain a priest, he shall impose his hands
on his head". After this the Abun took a manuscript book in his hands, and read a
sizeable piece from it. Then, holding a small iron cross, he made the sign of the cross
several times. At the conclusion of this ritual one of the priests went out of the tent,
and read from an Epistle or Gospel, after which the Abun said Mass, and gave
Communion to no less than 2,357 priests. This number, Alvares learnt, was
substantially lower than usual, for normally "about 5,000 or 6,000" were ordained, but
there were "few" on that occasion, for not many people knew that the prelate was
coming. Such ceremonies were carried out "almost every day, and always in great
numbers", because candidates came "from all the kingdoms and lordships of the
6
Prester".
Marriage of Priests and Ddbtaras, and Celibacy of Monks
Priests were allowed to marry once before ordination, but not afterwards. Strictly
monogamous they observed "the law of matrimony", Alvares thought, "better than the
laity", and lived in their houses with their wives and children in married bliss. A priest
whose spouse died could not, however, marry again. Nor could his wife, who was
expected to remain a widow or become a nun. A priest discovered to have had
intercourse with another woman while his wife was alive was not allowed to enter
church again; he forfeited his property, and had to become a layman. Widowed priests
who married again had likewise to abandon their cloth.This did not, however, entail
any disgrace, particularly if it happened in high circles. Emperor Lebna Dengel's head
chaplain Abuquer, on becoming a widower, was thus, according to Alvares, defrocked
by the Abun, after which he married the monarch's sister Romana Warq. He
thereafter no longer entered any church, but received Communion as a layman at the
church-door among the women.
Ddbtaras, by contrast, were entitled to marry like the laity. In some cases they
lived together in a single enclosure, but ate separately, and their wives had houses
outside where their husbands could visit them. Monks, and nuns, however, were, as
7
in other countries, strictly celibate.
Clothing
The normal clothing of the clergy was not dissimilar from that of other men, for
both wore trousers and a tunic around which they wrapped a sdmma, or toga. Priests
and ddbtaras attached to the richer churches were "very well dressed", Alvares says,
but others wore poorer garments like those of the peasantry. The priest's vestment,
however, was a fine affair, fashioned like a shirt, and the stole had a hole in the
middle which was put over the head. Priests could moreover often be identified by
the cross they carried in their right hand, as well as by their beards and shaven heads
which contrasted with the shaved faces and hairy heads of the laity.
6
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 120, II, 349-52, 356-7; Paulos Tsadua (1968), 43. For a later
account of ordination, by Charles Poncet, see Foster (1949), 123.
7
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 119-20, II, 511.
36
Monks
frequently wore a distinctive garb, often made of coarse yellow-coloured
but sometimes of tanned goat-skins. This dress consisted of a tunic and belt, a
cloth,
hood open in the front and at the top, and wide breeches. This apparel was often worn
with a hat and a burnous, or a full, flowing cape which reached to the ground.
Nuns were similarly dressed, but without either a cape or a hat. Their heads
were invariably shaved. When young they would wear skull-caps, but later would
sometimes have a leather strap wound round the head.
The Abun, as befitted his high status, was always very finely dressed, sometimes
8
in a delicate Indian white cotton robe with a blue silk hood, and a large blue turban.
Reverence paid to Churches
Churches were highly venerated, and invariably places of great decorum. The
need to enter them with respect, and orderly behaviour, was clearly established in the
Fetha Ndgdst which declared: Tn church, people must attend mass quietly, with purity,
with great attention to hear the word of God, with care, each one in his proper place,
according to the positions of the heavenly spirits... The deacons shall ensure that
everyone stays in his appropriate place, and shall watch the people lest some slumber,
sleep, laugh, or deride their companions". This injunction was closely followed, and
caused Alvares to remark, with admiration, that in Ethiopian churches "nobody" sat,
entered wearing shoes, expectorated or spat, nor did they let any dog or other animal
enter. This picture was confirmed a generation later by Castanhoso who remarked
that Ethiopians always prayed standing, bowed frequently, kissed the ground, and
then stood up again.
The "great reverence" paid to places of worship also found expression in the fact,
noticed by Alvares and later observers, that no one would ride past a church, even if
in a great hurry; the traveller would invariably dismount, and lead their mules or
9
horses by the bridle until he had gone a good way on.
Various Types of Church
Churches, though more imposing than most buildings, were often architecturally
not dissimilar from them, for they were circular in the greater part of the country,
and rectangular in Tegre and some other parts of the north.
Round churches, which were by far the most common, were divided by walls
as well as in places often by curtains decorated with little bells, into three circular
concentric sections. The outer, known as the qene mahalet, was occupied by laymen,
and the second, the maqdas, by officiating priests, while the central section, the
8
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 126-7, 175, II, 359, 511; Thomas (1938) 76, 80; Ludolf (1684)
388; Bruce (1790) IV, 61.
9
Paulos Tsadua (1968) 82; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 120-1, 254 II, 511, 518; Whiteway
(1902) 90-1.
37
qeddastd qedusan, or Holy of Holies, was the location of the tabot, or holy altar slab,
and could be entered only by the clergy.
Portable churches were also in service at the Emperor's court, which, as we

have seen, throughout much of the Middle Ages was largely itinerant. It was
accompanied, Alvares reports, by two portable tent-churches which were erected near
the tent of the monarch. One was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the other to the
Holy Cross. They consisted essentially of the tabot, as well as sundry church
paraphernalia, such as chalices, besides the tent which served as the Holy of Holies,
and could easily be transported. When the monarch and court travelled "the altar and
the altar stone", i.e. the tabot with its container or mdnbdrd tabot, would be carried,
Alvares reports, on the shoulders of two groups of four priests who took turns to do
so, while another cleric went ahead with a thurible, and a deacon proceeded ahead
ringing a bell so that everyone moved aside to let them pass, and those who were on
horses or mules dismounted as a sign of reverence. Next to these two tents, on the
other side of the Emperor's tent, were placed "a very beautiful and good tent" in which
were kept the church vestments, and another for the fire and grain used for the
10
Communion service.
Church Services
Priests and monks in a typical church service recited their prayers by heart,
almost in the dark, for their candles, Alvares notes, produced but little light. Most of
the clergy prayed or chanted "very loud", and did not "recite verses", but sang "straight
on". The prayers consisted of the Psalms, supplemented by the recitation of
appropriate pieces of prose. Services were conducted standing, and matins consisted
of a single lesson which was shouted rather than recited in front of the principal
entrance between the church's two outer sections.
Services on Saturdays, Sundays or major festivals were naturally grander than

on other days. On great occasions the clergy donned their finest clothes, and on the
completion of the ceremony proceeded through the outer circular section of the
church, carrying with them four or five processional crosses in the left hand - because
they carried censers in their right. The chief officiating priest with his two companions,
Alvares reports, then entered the interior of the building, and brought out a painting
of the Holy Virgin, which he placed before his breast, while his assistants, who stood
on either side of him, held lighted candles. The remainder of the clergy then began
to chant, and, walking and even dancing in procession, rang bells and beat drums in
time. Whenever they passed in front of the painting they paid it great reverence before
eventually taking it back into the church.
After this the priests, carrying crosses, censers and bells, made their way to a
nearby small building, to the north of the church, where the qwerban, or host, was
prepared. It consisted of round pieces of bread, "very white and nice", which were put
in a small bowl taken from the altar. Having collected this bread the priests, ringing
their bells all the while, returned to the church with the bread covered with a piece
of cloth. The congregation, which had been standing all this time, then bowed their
Buckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 437, 442-3, 510, 518; Hyatt (1928) 117-8.
38
heads, and remained so until the bowl containing the Eucharist was placed on the altar
at which point the ringing of bells stopped. Wine prepared from dried grapes were
at the same time put in the chalice.
The priest who was to say Mass, which he invariably did with his head bare, then
began an Alleluia which was once more shouted rather than recited, and all the
congregation responded in chant. He then became silent, but continued his
benedictions with a small cross which he held in his hand, and the entire congregation
both inside and outside thereupon began to sing. One of the priests by the altar then
lifted up a manuscript Bible while another taking a cross and a bell, rang it, and
walked with his colleagues to the principal door where the latter read an Epistle to
the populace standing in the outer chamber.
When he had finished he chanted a response which was followed by the rest of
the clergy. Thepriest who had said Mass then took another holy book from the altar
and gave it to a fellow cleric who was to read from the Gospels and who bowed his
head and begged a blessing. He then walked forward with two of his companions,
one with a cross and censer and the other with a bell, and duly read from the book,
"as fast and as loud" as his tongue could move, with his voice raised. He then walked
back to the altar, to the accompaniment of another chant, and gave back the book.
The priest who had said Mass then took the censer and walked with it many times
round the church, censing all the while, after which he returned to the altar, where
he gave many blessings with the cross, and uncovered the sacramental bread. The
officiating priest thereupon took a piece of it with both hands, and then letting go
with the right, held it only in the left, and with the thumb of the right made five little
marks, or hollows, one at the top, one in the middle, one in the lower part, and two
others on the left and right, and at the same time spoke to consecrate it. After this he
blessed the chalice. Then, taking the bread in his hands, he divided it in the middle.
He took a small part of what remained in his left hand, as well as a portion of the
wine, for himself, and placed the other pieces together, one on top of the other.
After this he gave the bowl containing the bread to the priest who read the
Gospel and the chalice to the one who read the Epistle, and then administered
Communion to the monks near the altar. He handed out small portions of bread from
the bowl, which was held by a deacon in his right hand, and as often as he did this a
sub-deacon took some of the wine with a spoon and presented a small amount to each
person who had received the bread. As soon as the communicant had sipped this he
stretched out the palm of his hand into which a priest with a ewer of holy water
poured some of this whereupon the former washed his mouth and then swallowed the
water.
This part of the ceremony completed the priests proceeded to give Communion
and later in the outer circle of the church.
to the laity, first to those in the inner
Throughout this ceremony, as in other services, everyone was standing. On
approaching to receive the Sacrament they raised their hands, with their palms upward
to take the bread, and after this also the wine and the water. The officiating priest and
those who had stood with him then returned to the altar where they washed the
sacramental bowl with the water in the ewer, and then poured it into the chalice, after
which the priest drank it. This done one of the ministers of the altar took a cross and
39
bell,and, beginning a short chant, went to the main door, whereupon the whole
11
congregation bowed and left in peace.
Confession
Priests, according to Alvares, invariably heard confessions standing. more A

detailed description was provided by Poncet who states that persons confessing
later
prostrated themselves at the feet of the priest, who was seated, and accused
themselves in general of being "great sinners and having merited hell", without
descending to particular sins they had committed. After this the priest, holding the
Gospels in his left hand, and a cross in his right, touched with the cross the eyes, ears,
nose and mouth of the penitent, recited prayers over him, and making several signs
12
of the cross over him, gave him penance and dismissed him.
Two Sabbaths
Throughout the period under review it was customary for Ethiopians to

celebrate two Sabbaths, namely the "Jewish" Saturday as well as the "Christian"
Sunday. This two-day celebration, however, tended to be opposed by most of the
Abuns, who, as Egyptian Copts, regarded it as contrary to the practice of the Church
of Alexandria. Emperor Galawdewos in his famous Confession of Faith glossed over
this as well as other Ethiopian deviations from Alexandrian practice by contending, as
we shall see, that his compatriots did not celebrate the Sabbath after the manner of
the Jews as the first day of the week, but rather as a new day on which Jesus rose
13
from the dead.
Easter
Easter, for the clergy and laity alike, was perhaps the most important religious
ceremony of the year. Services began the evening before Palm Sunday when the priests
would start their matins shortly after midnight, and keep up their singing and graceful
dancing, with all their religious pictures uncovered, until daylight. They then took
branches, which the congregation had previously prepared, into the church where,
Alvares reports, they sang "loudly and hurriedly". They then came out again with a
cross and palms which they distributed among their flock. Everyone then walked in
procession round the building, after which they re-entered the church, and the priest
with the cross said Mass while the others sang.
Throughout Holy Week long services were held in all churches. On Thursday
at the hour of Vespers the clergy performed maundy, or the service of ritual washing
of feet. The superior of the church, sitting on a three-legged stool, with a towel round
11
12
13
40
his waist,and a large basin of water before him, began by washing the feet of the
clergy,and later of everyone else in the church. This done the priests started singing,
and continued all night, the clergy, monks and deacons remaining in the building,
without partaking of either food or drink until after Mass on Saturday.
On Friday at midday the clergy decorated the church with whatever crimson or
other brocades they possessed, and erected a Crucifix covered with a small curtain.
They then sang all night, and read the Psalms all day, after which they all threw
themselves on the ground, prostrate, buffeted each other, knocked their heads against
the walls, and punched themselves, weeping "so bitterly", Alvares says, "that a heart of
stone would be moved to tears". This lamentation often lasted "quite two hours", after
which two priests, each holding a small whip with five thongs, went to each of the
church doors and began scourging the congregation who for this purpose had stripped
themselves from the waist upwards, as they left the building. Some received only a few
strokes, but others intentionally waited to receive many. Some old men and women
remained being beaten for half an hour or so until their blood ran, after which they
slept in the courtyard.
At midnight the priests began singing, after which they said Mass, and took
Communion. They then recited matins, and before morning made a procession before
saying another Mass at dawn. Such observances usually continued for no less than
sixteen days, until the Monday Low
Sunday. Easter services were carried out,
after
Castanhoso and were followed by a "very solemn
later confirmed, with "great decency",
procession" in which the churchmen carried so many and such large candles that he
14
believed there were "more than in the whole of Portugal".
Temqat
Another important ceremony took place at Temqat, or the Epiphany, when the
priests and laity assembled by a river, spring or pool for a mass baptism which
commemorated the Baptism of Christ. One such ceremony, which was attended by
Lebna Dengel's entire court, is described by Alvares who reports that the monarch
had his tent pitched near a large reservoir of water in which "a great number of
priests" waded, and throughout the preceding night "never stopped singing", thereby
"blessing the water". At about midnight baptism by immersion began, and by sunrise
was in full force. The water on that occasion was in a specially dug pool, or square-
shaped reservoir, which was "very big and deep", and lined with planks covered with
thick waxed cotton. The water flowed into it through a channel and thence into a pipe
at the end of which a kind of bag had been placed to keep out soil or other impurities.
Among the people in the water whom Alvares saw was the Emperor's chaplain, an old
priest, who was "naked as when his mother bore him (and quite dead with cold,
because there was a very sharp frost)". He stood in the water up "to his shoulders, or
nearly so", and whenever anyone entered the reservoir to be baptised he put his hands
on their heads, and pushed them under the water three times, saying "[I baptise thee]
in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", after which he made
14
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 116, 119, 160, 163^, 166, 201, 203, 256, II, 511; Beccari (1903-
17), IV, 234, 243, 226; Thomas (1938) 79.
41
the sign of the cross as a blessing, and allowed them, most doubtless shivering, to
15
leave in peace.
Prayers in Time of Emergency
was not unusual for the clergy - and laity - in times of emergency to recite
It
special prayers. During a drought at Manadeley in southern Tegre, for example,

Alvares heard "great shouts", and saw "many Christian people... entreating the mercy
of God that he might give them water, for they were losing their flocks, and were not
sowing their millet nor any other seed". They cry was Egzi'o meherana Krestos, or "O
16
Lord have mercy on us".
Pilgrimage
Many priests and monks, as well as members of the laity, went each year on
pilgrimages, to holy places within the country or further afield to Jerusalem. The
main which were attended by vast throngs each year, were Aksum
local places visited,
(and the nearby monastery of Abba Garima) where Alvares found "more than 3,000
cripples, blind men, and lepers", Lalibala, where he saw "infinite numbers" of
worshippers, and Yemrahanna Krestos where he tells of "fully twenty thousand
persons" receiving Communion.
Pilgrims bound for the Holy Land travelled thither more or less every year.
Many assembled at Debarwa whence some travelled north-eastwards to the Red Sea
port of Suakin where they embarked for Egypt, while others made their way
northwards by way of Cairo. One land-bound party which Alvares saw consisted of no
less than 336 monks and 15 nuns, and was accompanied by three tents (each doubtless
with its tabot) which served as churches. The pilgrims gathered for departure around
Christmas, after which they were entrusted by the Bahr Nagas to a group of Muslims
from Suakin and Rif on the Egyptian Nile who conducted them as far as Cairo. The
pilgrims following this route were so laden, and spent so long in praying and taking
Communion, that they did not cover more than about six miles a day. The journey
therefore took them and a further eight by boat down
thirty-one days by land to Rif,
the Nile to Cairo. The expedition was, however, fraught with difficulties, and that year
ended in disaster, for the party was attacked north of Suakin. Most of the old men
were killed, and the young were taken as slaves: only fifteen pilgrims succeeded in
17
escaping.
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 70, 108, 235, 243, 262, 270, 286, 305, II, 333, 346, 355-7, 359 379,
Whiteway (1902) 160; Crawford (1958) 79; Beccari (1903-17) IV, 243, 268, VI 161-2; Foster
419, 443-4;
(1949) 122; Bruce (1790) III, 317; Perruchon (1893) 167.
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 120, II, 349-52, 356-7; Paulos Tsadua (1968), 43. For a later
account of ordination, by Charles Poncet, see Foster (1949), 123.
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 119-20, II, 511.
42
Fasting and Abstinence
Theclergy, as well as the Christian population at large, were much given to

fasting and abstinence. There was indeed, Ludolf believed, no country in the world
where fasts were "more exactly obser'vd", for the people "kept themselves whole dayes
without either Food or Drink". Days of Abstinence, which together amounted to about
half the year, included a Lent of no less than 56 days, the Fast of the Apostles, 10 to
40 days, the Fast of the Assumption, 16 days, a Fast preceding Christmas, 40 days,
the Eve of Nineveh, three days, the Eve of Christmas, one day, and the Eve of the
Epiphany, also one day. Foods prohibited during such fasts comprised all animal
products, namely milk, eggs and butter, as well as meat, and applied to all adults,
Alvares says, even though they might be "near dying".
The principal diet during Lent and other periods of abstinence was bread and
water. Fish and vegetables were permitted, but the former (which some of the more
devout indeed refused to eat) was in most places while cabbages, the
difficult to find,
principle greens, were not abundant until after the rainy season, and were therefore
not available in any quantity during the fasting period. Many monks, however, grew
a vegetable like kale, the leaves of which they picked throughout the year, while others
ate cress. Use was also made in a few areas of grapes and peaches, but this was very
uncommon. Monks and nuns, and some of the clergy, carried the Lenten fast even
further, for they ate, according to Alvares, only every second day, and always at night.
Some women, who had withdrawn from the world, also fasted in this way, and the
old
aged Empress Eleni was said to eat only three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays
and Saturdays.
There were, however, significant regional variations. In Tegre and the country
of the Bahr Nagas it was thus customary to eat meat on Saturdays and Sundays during
Lent, and on those two days, Alvares claims, they killed "more cows than in all the
year". It was likewise allowed in the northern provinces, he says, for newly wedded
persons to eat meat and butter throughout the fasting period. In the greater part of
the country the fast was, however, strictly kept "by old and young, men and women,
boys and girls, without any breech".
The intensity of abstinence surprised the Jesuits, among them Lobo, who
confirmed that Ethiopians during Lent refrained from all meat and dairy products,
even when seriously ill. During periods of abstinence moreover they ate and drank
only once a day: in Lent after sunset, and on Wednesdays and Fridays not until three
in the afternoon, a time which they told by means of the length of their shadows.
Belief in fasting was so intense that it was not uncommon for Mass to be said late in
the afternoon, as it was thought that the fast was broken by taking the sacramental
bread and wine.
Severe fasting seems to have debilitated the population. One of the results was,
as already noted, that Mahfuz, a Muslim leader in the eastern lowlands, often chose
the fasting period to invade the highlands, and is said to have done so "every Lent for
18
twenty-four years."
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 126-7, 175, II, 359, 511; Thomas (1938) 76, 80; Ludolf (1684)
388;Bruce (1790) IV, 61.
43
Penitence, and the Mortification of the Flesh
Many monks, and other devout Christians, practised extreme forms of penitence.
A not untypical case reported by Alvares was that of a wandering monk accompanied
by several novices whom he was taking to be ordained. On the evening of their
meeting the Portuguese traveller invited him to share his meal, but the monk "excused
himself for not wanting to eat", upon which the novices "came with water-cresses, and
they boiled them without salt or oil, or anything else, and they ate these cresses
without mixing in anything" When Alvares inquired about this, they told him that
.
"they did not eat bread". Though he had often heard that there were "many monks"
who thus abstained he could scarcely believe it, and therefore watched the monk
closely "night and day", but "never saw him eat any thing but herbs", that is to say,
water-cresses, water-parsnips, nettles, mallows and kale - which latter he sometimes
obtained from the monasteries he passed. Alvares, who tried to eat it, found it the
"most dismal food in the world".
The mortification of the flesh was practiced in various other ways. Alvares, who
met the monk again subsequently, recalls that on embracing him, he found that,
though it was not even Lent, he was wearing a four inch wide iron girdle with thick
points facing - and lacerating - the skin.
There were likewise "many monks" who during Lent refrained from sitting down,
and spent the whole day on their feet. One such penitent, whom Alvares met in a
cave, was standing in a wooden tabernacle, about his own size, "like a box without a
lid, much plastered with clay and dung". This structure, which had been occupied by
many previous inmates, had a ledge three fingers wide for the buttocks, twd similar
ones for the elbows, and a shelf in front for a book. The monk, not content with this
penance, also wore a hair-cloth woven with ox-tail bristles and an iron girdle, and
subsisted on food made only from herbs which was provided by two acolytes. Alvares
later saw two other standing monks at Debarwa, who likewise lived only on herbs and
sprouting lentils.
Many priests, monks and nuns also immersed themselves in cold water, and slept
in Alvares says, "up to their necks". Unable to believe this when told of it, he and
it,
his companions went to Aksum to see for themselves, and were "amazed at the
multitude of people" immersed in the water. They included "canons and wives of
canons, and monks and nuns", all of them sitting on stones which had been so
arranged that they could crouch with their water up to their neck. The prevalence of
thiscustom was confirmed by a Portuguese resident, Pero de Covilhao, who had been
many years in the country, and stated that the practice was "general" throughout the
land, and that there were also "many" hermits who lived alone in "the great forests",
and in "the greatest depths and heights of the mountains". 19
19
Paulos Tsadua (1968) 82; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 120-1, 254 II, 511, 518; Whiteway
(1902) 90-1.
44
Circumcision, Baptism, Weddings and Funerals
The influence of the Church, and of Christianity, was so all-pervasive that the
clergy were involved in the main events of a Christian's life, including circumcision,
and, more especially, baptism, marriage and death.
Circumcision was almost universally practiced in Ethiopia, not only by Christians,

but also by Muslims, Falasas, or followers of a Judaic type of religion, and persons of
The custom among Ethiopian Christians dated back to ancient
local traditional faiths.
times, and was carried out "by anybody", Alvares states, "without any ceremony", but
was mainly women's work. The practice was attacked by most foreign missionaries, but
was resolutely defended by the clergy, as well as by Emperor Galawdewos in his
famous Confession of Faith, which, however, justified it, not on the basis of religious
doctrine, but as one of the country's long-standing traditions. Circumcision was in fact
so deeply ingrained that Almeida, who regarded it as a Judaic trait which should have
long since been abandoned, later reported with sorrow and indignation that Ethiopians
converted to Catholicism by the Jesuits could "not be persuaded to abandon it".
Baptism, unlike circumcision, was the direct responsibility of the clergy, and,
Alvares states, was invariably carried out at the church door on the occasion of
morning Mass, on a Saturday or Sunday. The infant was at the same time given
Communion - and consumed "very small quantities" of the sacramental substance
which it swallowed with water. The ceremony was carried out for male children forty
days after birth, and for females after eighty days (Alvares mistakenly quoted the
figure of sixty). The normal procedure was for a woman to hand the infant to the man
who was to serve as godfather. The latter, holding the child under the arms, then
raised it in the air, at which point the priest performing the baptism with one hand
held a vase of water, which had previously been blessed, and poured it over the baby,
while with the other hand he washed it all over, and pronounced in Ge'ez the words,
"I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost". He also put
oil on the child's forehead, breasts and shoulder-blades.
The between birth and baptism in Ethiopia was criticised

relatively long interval
by foreign such as Alvares who declared it "a great error", on the ground that
priests,
the infant might die before being thus assured of Salvation, but the Ethiopians "many
times" answered that "the faith of the mother", and the Communion she had received
during her pregnancy, sufficed for the infant child prior to baptism. One of those
unconvinced by this argument was the Jesuit Almeida who bemoaned that "many
souls" over "many hundreds of years" had been "lost to Heaven through this error"!
Several different kinds of marriage ceremony were practiced, in all of which
priests were one way or another involved. Strictly religious marriages were carried
in
out, according to Alvares, in the immediate vicinity of a church. In one such ceremony
he had witnessed in both Sawa and the country of the Bahr Nagas the bride and
bridegroom were seated on a couch beside a church from the front door of which the
Abun gave his blessing. After this he walked round the bridal couple with incense and
cross, and laid his hands on their heads, "telling them to observe that which God had
commanded in the Gospels; and that they were no longer two separate persons, but
two in one flesh; and that so in like manner should their hearts and wills be". Bride
and groom then remained there until Mass had been said, after which he gave them
Communion, and bestowed on them his blessing. One of the more secular marriages
45
described by Alvares took place near a settlement in an open space in which a couch
had been placed.*
Priests likewise came to the fore at burials. After death the deceased was
washed, and "much incense", Alvares says, was burnt. The body, wrapped in a shroud,
was then carried away, and placed on a burial couch, after which the priests came,
with crosses, holy water and incense, and recited brief prayers. They then at once set
off with the body to the churchyard where they prayed and read the Gospel of St
John. Burials normally took place on the same day as the death, and offerings were
brought on the morrow.
It was the custom for mourners, according to Alvares, to shave their heads with
a razor, to allow their beards to grow, and to dress in black. The rulers of the country
paid particular attention to mourning ceremonies. On the death of King Manoel I of
Portugal in 1521 for example, Emperor Lebna Dengel issued a proclamation at his
court "that all the shops should be shut where bread and other merchandise were sold,
and also that all the offices should be closed". This closure, according to Alvares,
"lasted for three days, during which no tent was opened", and this was the practice of
the country for he adds: "The Ethiopians say that when any prince dies who is a friend
of the King, they shut the shops for three days, and both men and women shave their
heads and lament and whoso does not do likewise is punished."
Mourning for the dead continued, according to Almeida, for "many days".
Relatives and friends of the deceased assembled with "many" female mourners "long
before dawn", and continued "lamenting loudly" until "broad daylight". During this
time they would "lament to the sound of the drum, striking together the palms of
their hands, beating their breasts, and uttering heart-breaking lamentations in
melancholy tones". In the case of noblemen or persons of substance the mourning
ceremonial was particularly impressive, for the lamenters brought to the place of
mourning the dead man's horse, if he had one, his pennons, if he was a captain, his
shield, his sword, his rich clothing, his gold chains and his necklace, and displayed
20
them to everyone, thereby calling forth many tears.
Belief in Augury
Belief in augury was widespread, and caused Lobo to remark that a journey
might be halted because people heard a bird singing on the left of their path, for it
* Alvares goes on to report that, when the bride and bridegroom were seated, three priests came and j
began chanting. Then, continuing their singing, they walked round the couch three times, and then cut
a lock of hair from the head of the bridegroom and another from that of the bride, wetted them with
j
mead, and placed the hair from the one on the head of the other whence the other lock had been !
removed, and vice versa. After that they sprinkled the couple with holy water, after which the wedding
festivities and feasting began. Ludolf s informant Abba Gorgcreyos, commenting on Alvares's account,
observed, "the cutting and exchange of hair between the bride and the bridegroom is not done in
Ethiopia. It may, however, be a custom peculiar to some province which is unknown to me. Feasts I
and dancing they do have. The bride and groom do not leave the house for ten days, rejoicing with
their neighbours". Ludolf (1691) 439.
20
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 405, 437, 442-3, 510, 518; Hyatt (1928) 117-8.
46
was customary to interpret this as "such an evil omen" that they would not continue
on their way until they heard "the same bird or another one singing on their right". 21
Involvement in Trade
So many of the clergy were involved in trade that Alvares went so far as to
remark that "the principal merchants" at many markets were "priests, friars and nuns".
He was probably referring to clerics engaged in the sale of the often considerable
produce of ecclesiastical lands. The clergy also constituted a major market for many
articles, including incense and candles, and cloth for vestments, curtains and umbrellas,
besides church paraphernalia of all kinds. Many imported spices, Brother Thomas
claims, went for example to Aksum which he proudly described as "one of the greatest
22
cities" and "another and greater Rome".
Oaths and Excommunication
Ethiopians are said at this time to have made considerable use of oaths. Those
in the name of St George, Lobo says, were in particular "much revered and feared".
Priests and monks were likewise "very free" with the use of excommunication which,
23
according to the same observer, evoked "great fear" on the part of the population.
Religious Fortitude, and Apostasy
Ethiopians were generally considered ardent in their faith. Lobo, one of the
Jesuits who attempted to convert them, described them indeed as "stubborn in their
errors". He tells of "more than seventy monks", who, rather than embrace Catholicism
preferred, as he puts it, "to enter hell ahead of time" by casting themselves from a high
cliff, and being broken to pieces on the rocks at the bottom; and of "more than six
hundred monks and nuns" who died in battle because they would not abandon their
age-old beliefs and practices.
Notwithstanding such religious fortitude cases of apostasy were far more

common than is sometimes supposed. Alvares, citing the case of one young nobleman
who joined the service of the Muslim ruler of Adal and later resumed that of the
Emperor, comments: "here they think nothing of joining the Moors [i.e. Muslims] and
becoming Moors, and if they wish to return, they get baptized again, and are pardoned
and Christians as before".
Numerous conversions to Islam during the campaign of Ahmad Gran were later
also reported by the latter's chronicler Sihab al-Din. Confirmation of the extent of
apostasy at that time is provided by Bermudes who records that on the arrival of the
21
22
23
47
Portuguese expedition of 1541 many Christians, who had joined the Muslims "through
fear", readily submitted to Christovao da Gama. One of them, a cousin of the
Bahrnagas, had thrown in his lot with Gran when the latter had seemed victorious,
24
but, on the latter's defeat, duly returned to the Christian camp.
<nc3'tr. *n & ?' ft I? A 42
#t ;
ii ii »|
ft*jjPA<£* J.
St. Mark, writing, from an early 14th century volume of the Four Gospels, in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ethiopien 32.
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 116, 119, 160, 163-4, 166, 201, 203, 256, II, 511; Beccari (1903-
17), IV, 234, 243, 226; Thomas (1938) 79.
48
VII
TRADERS
Trade in a Subsistence Economy
Trade, because of the subsistence character of the economy, seems in medieval

times to have emerged but slowly. By the late thirteenth century, however, Marco
Polo reported that the country was "much frequented by merchants" who obtained
"large profits". The existence of this class is further evident from the early fourteenth
century chronicle of Emperor 'Amda Seyon which records that goods which the
monarch had "entrusted to the merchants" had been seized by the Muslim ruler of
Yefat, Sabr ad-Din, who had also imprisoned the traders concerned.
1
Short- and Long-distance Trade
Medieval trade, which was conducted at innumerable markets throughout the

length and breadth of the country, was both short-distance and long-distance in
character.
Short-distance trade was centred entirely on local markets, usually held weekly,
and based virtually entirely on barter. They were attended almost exclusively by the
populace of the area, and buyers and sellers both consisted mainly of the peasantry.
Articles dealt in, which were almost invariably displayed for sale in only modest
quantities, consisted principally of local produce: grain, butter, and honey, perhaps a
few lemons, bdrbdre, or red pepper, and other spices, as well as cattle, horses, mules
and other livestock, hides and skins, and sometimes raw cotton.
Long-distance commerce, though also mainly carried out at local markets, was
on the other hand largely based on caravans, composed primarily of merchants, the
majority of them Muslims, who were engaged in the import-export business and
travelled far and wide. Such caravans linked the interior of the country northwards
with the Red Sea ports of Massawa and Hergigo, or Arkiko, eastwards with those of
Zayla' and Berbera on the Gulf of Aden, and westwards with Sudan. Many caravans
were also involved in the export of slaves, mainly to Arabia and Sudan, while others
brought in large quantities of amole, or salt bars, which were mined in the 'Afar
depression, and served as "primitive money" over a wide stretch of the country.
Markets
Trade at most markets was based almost entirely on non-monetary exchange.

This took the form, Alvares notes, of "bartering one thing for another, as for instance
an ass for a cow". The individual whose product was of less value would make up the
difference by giving the person with whom he was exchanging "two or three measures
of bread (or salt)". Elaborating on this type of exchange, which was by then virtually
1
Marco Polo (1954) 401; Taddesse Tamrat (1972) 85.
49
unknown in Europe, the Portuguese traveller explained that with bread people
obtained cloth, and with cloth they obtained mules and cows, and whatever they
wanted, including salt, incense, pepper, myrrh, camphor, and other small articles.
Fowls and capons, and "whatever they need or want", was likewise found at these
markets "in exchange for other things" for there was "no current money". Such barter
operations, he notes, were carried out "quickly", and virtually without any talk.
Some of the larger markets were situated at the "chief towns", but others were
located in the countryside. Debarwa, the capital of the Bahr Nagas, for example, had
"a great market and fair", every Tuesday, which was attended, by "300 or 400 persons".
They included many old women and some young ones who went there to measure the
wheat and salt sold. They also provided hospitality to travelling merchants who slept
in the town on market-days, and after each fair they looked after unsold merchandise
which they kept for the next week's fair.
Another market, at Durbit in northern Sawa or southern Wallo, on the other

hand was held, according to Brother Thomas,"in the open country". Its fair, which
was likewise of considerable importance, was visited by merchants from Damot, Bale,
Gojjam, Tegre and Agawmeder. Goods sold included gold, silver, and jewels, as well
as silk and other cloth. This market was unusual in that it was held, we are told, not
weekly, but only "three times a year".
Important markets, in the days of moving capitals, were also found in the vicinity
of the court where a square, Alvares reports, would invariably be set aside for trading
purposes not far from the royal tent. Though some of the merchants at such sites, like
the capital's population as a whole, were Christian the "greater number" were Muslims.
The role of the two communities is clearly delineated by the Portuguese traveller who
states that the Muslims were the "principal merchants" of cloth and large goods",
whereas the Christians sold "cheap things", for the most part provisions. The Muslims,
generally speaking, sold nothing to eat, for the. courtiers and soldiers, as Christians,
would not touch meat killed by Muslims or food prepared by them. 2
Caravans
Merchants and other persons travelling long distances almost always did so, forj
reasons of security, in large groups, or caravans. Some of the largest were those which;
made their way to and from the coast. Traders travelling between Angot and
Manadeley made the journey, according to Alvares, twice a week, so that one caravan;
left the market as the another arrived. Each caravan was under the command of 1
Nagadras, literally "head of the traders", and might consist of "1,000 persons andn
upwards". Despite their number such caravans were not infrequently attacked by thej
Doba people of the area, and in the ensuing skirmishes "many people" were often
killed.
Caravans making their way from Debarwa to the port of Hergigo were ofterl
even larger. Alvares tells of one which consisted of around a thousand men on mules!
and "quite 600" on foot besides a few on horseback. At Dengel, an intermediate haltj
2
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 105, 125, II, 442; Crawford (1958) 151.
50
they camped in a plain where people assembled every Monday night and Tuesday
morning before going down to the coast. They went by caravan because the road was
not passable "except by a big party, from fear of the Arabs and beasts of the country".
The party was joined by "fully 2,000 persons" - which was said to be relatively "few" as
many had failed to appear "from fear of lack of water".
Such caravans operated, however, only in the dry season, for during the rains,
as the monks of Dabra Bizan declared, "nobody" travelled in the three months from
the middle of June to the middle of September, and after that month people had
often to wait several more weeks until the rivers had subsided before beginning their
journeys. Even season the absence of bridges made travelling in some places
in the dry
difficult. Merchants on reaching a river could in many cases cross it only by first
3
constructing a raft, which might sometimes by supported by inflated skins.
Salt Caravans
Many caravans travelling to and from the north were concerned mainly or
exclusively with the transportation of amole, or salt bars, which were mined in the
'Afar depression. One
such caravan, which Alvares saw in southern Tegre, comprised
300 or 400 pack animals, "in herds, laden with salt", while others were making their
way back to the mines in search of further supplies. While some large caravans
belonged, as we have seen, to "great lords" who sent each year to obtain salt bars to
meet their expenses at court, others were composed of smaller groups of merchants
each of whom took with them "droves of twenty or thirty beasts", or else human
porters who carried salt around "to make a profit from market to market".
Acentury or so later the roads from Tegre to Dambeya were described by

Almeida as "constantly full" of salt caravans. Many consisted of no less than a
thousand porters, as well as perhaps 500 donkeys. The journey was particularly
arduous for the latter, many of whom were often "crushed by their burdens" which
were "usually far too great" for them. Numerous bars of salt were likewise broken on
the long journey inland, and thereby lost much of their value.
Not a few donkeys moreover were lost on the journey, particularly in the more
mountainous areas, where the path was sometimes rugged and narrow, as a result of
which beasts of burden fell headlong down precipices, together with the salt they were
carrying. One of the worst such places was on the mountain of Lalmalmo where
"many" donkeys were "dashed to pieces" and their loads lost.
Another problem facing the salt merchants was that they were subjected to
numerous, and very vexatious, taxes en route, as a result of which "nearly a third" of
their load might be exacted "at different customs posts by way of dues".
The merchants and caravaneers were responsible not only for transporting
salt
the precious mineral, but also for mining it in the salt plains. This was arduous work,
for it was necessary to enter the 'Afar lowlands at sunset, and cut as much salt as
possible during the night, before the rising sun made the area unbearably hot, after
3
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 72, 193-4, 469; Whiteway (1902) 201; Pankhurst (1961) 273-4.
51
which they, and their livestock - camels, oxen, mules and
donkeys - all left, Lobo says
"hurrying to the mountain range for shelter". The life
of the salt merchants was'
however, a hard one, for besides having to endure thirst, which
sometimes killed
them, and heat, which "fries them even at night", they ran
the risk of being attacked
by enemies who lay in wait to rob and kill them. Faced by "many
hazards and
enemies", those engaged in the salt trade thus risked their very
lives, and only did so
as they had "no other way to gain a livelihood". 4
Muslim Predominance in Trade
The foreign trade of Ethiopia was deeply influenced by its location in the Middle
East where the Arabs had long since acquired a position of commercial dominance.
The presence of Arab merchants in and around Ethiopia was reported by al-Ya'qubi
as early as the ninth century. Ethiopian Muslims, some of whom were descended
from Arabs or intermarried with them, gradually also became involved in trade, and,
before long, were likewise engaged in commercial missions on behalf of the Christian
rulers of the country. This development, according to Taddesse Tamrat, had already
taken place by the early fourteenth century when Emperor 'Amda Seyon had "many"
such Muslim traders in his service.
Evidence of the participation of Ethiopian Muslims in foreign trade, and royal

business activity, is provided in a Ge'ez medieval work, the Gadld Zena Marqos, which
indicates some of the countries they visited as well as the articles they handled. The
text states thatsuch traders "did business in India, Egypt, and among the people of
Greece with the money of the King" who gave them ivory, and "excellent horses from
Shawa, and red pure horses from Enarya" which the merchants exchanged in Egypt,
Greece, and Rome for "very rich damasks adorned with green and scarlet stones and
5
with leaves of red gold, which they brought to the King".
Numerous Muslim merchants also traded on behalf of the Christian nobility.

This was later explained by Almeida who noted:
"The great and rich men of this empire all have these Moors as their trade
agents, and they carry gold to the sea for them and bring them silks and
clothing. As they are not very scrupulous they usually profit by their
management of other people's business, so that they get fat and rich on
6
the pickings".
Many Muslim merchants were also deeply involved in the slave trade, a highly
lucrative branch of business from which Christians were barred by the country's legal
code, the Fethd Ndgdst. Testimony to Muslim paramountcy in this field is afforded by
the Gadld Zena Marqos which reports that a group of Muslims converted to
Christianity declared: "After having been baptized in the name of Christ... we no
longer sell slaves". The exclusion of Christian merchants from the slave trade, an
important area of commerce, inevitably placed them at a considerable, and long-
enduring, disadvantage vis-a-vis Muslim competitors.
Muslim commercial predominance, which is apparent in the writings of Alvares,

was confirmed in the following century by Almeida. Pointing to what he surmised was
the principal reason for it, he notes that Muslim merchants at Massawa, the principal
port for Ethiopian trade, were "better received and more welcome" than Christians,
while at the ports of Arabia, which were also of major importance for the country's
commerce, the latter were not allowed at all. The result was that Muslim merchants
were "left in control of all the important trade of Ethiopia". This verdict was
5
Taddesse Tamrat (1972) 85, 87-8.
6
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 55.
53
subsequently endorsed by Ludolf. Noting that Ethiopian Christians were "no way
addicted or expert in the Art and Intreagues of Merchandizing" he argued that "they
that will not Travel into Forraign Parts must yield their gains to others", from which
it followed that "the Chief Merchants in Habssinia" were "the Arabians who Inhabit
the Ports of the Red Sea", and "especially, the Mahumetans scattered over the
7
Kingdom".
Christian Merchants and their Commerce
Despite the predominance of Muslims in long-distance commerce there was also

no small Christian involvement in it. Not a few Christian merchants travelled down
to the lowlands, particularly prior to the wars of Ahmad Gran, and Christians even
in later times were also actively engaged in the sale of farm produce and other
provisions.
In the sixteenth century, during the era of "moving capitals", Christian merchants
were prominent markets at court, where they were responsible for the sale of
at the
provisions - Alvares puts it, "cheap things, such as bread, wine, flour and meat",
or, as
and "priests, friars and nuns", as we have seen, were said to have been "principal
merchants" at many markets.
Some Christian merchants were also involved in long-distance trade, but,

however, often encountered many difficulties, particularly during the wars of Gran.
The latter's chronicler, relates that his master, on arriving at the Sawan market of
Gendebelo, found a number of "infidel merchants with the riches belonging to the
8
King of Abyssinia", but killed them, and seized their pack animals and all their goods.
Armenians
In addition to the Arab merchants there were a number of Armenian and other
foreign Christian merchants, who, because of their religion, gained the confidence of
the Christian rulers of the country, and served as the latter's trade agents. Several
Armenians in particular served a succession of monarchs as businessmen, and by
extension as ambassadors. The best known of them in this period was Matthew, alias
9
Abraham, who travelled to India and Portugal on behalf of Empress Eleni.
Trade Routes and Ports
The country's principal trade routes throughout the Middle Ages led from the
capital in Sawa northwards to the twin ports of Massawa and Hergigo, and, of far less
importance, Beylul; eastwards to those of Zayla' and Berbera; and north-westwards
7
Taddesse Tamrat (1972) 87; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 51-2, II, 442, (1954) 55; Ludolf
(1684) 397; Pankhurst (1961) 338-55.
8
Basset (1909) 65; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 126, 175, II, 442.
9
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 264, II, 499.
54
through Sudan to Egypt. With the subsequent shift of Ethiopian political power to the
Lake Jana area in the north-west the Gulf of Aden ports declined in significance
while the route to Sudan, as we shall see, greatly increased in importance.
Massawa, which handled a major part of the country's foreign trade, was an
island port off the Ethiopian coast, endowed with a good harbour suitable for
shipping, and was the site, according to Barradas, of a "populous city". Its exports
consisted of gold, civet, ivory, and slaves, as well as myrrh, wax, sheep and goats, and
sundry provisions, such as wheat, durrah, honey and butter. Imports, which were more
varied, according to Almeida comprised "clothing from India, carpets, silks and Meca
brocades", as well as "drugs, pepper, cloves and a thousand other things". This is
confirmed by Ludolf who states that imports included "garments of all sorts; velvet,
silken; but chiefly Woollen and Fustian", as well as "spices, especially Pepper".
Hergigo lay on the mainland immediately opposite Massawa. It had inferior

harbour facilities, but was relatively well supplied with water, which, according to
Almeida, was carried across to the island port every day in two or three small boats.
Hergigo was the place whither most northbound Ethiopian caravans made their way
with articles for export which were then carried on small craft to the island of
Massawa for shipment to Arabia, Egypt or India. Most goods imported at Massawa
were likewise shipped to Hergigo before taken inland by caravans bound for the
interior.
Beylul, south on the 'Afar coast, was a port of only subsidiary

further
importance. The Yamani ambassador Hasanibn Ahmad al-Haymi, who landed there
in 1648, relates that he met there a "crowd of Abyssinian merchants", but tells of a
caravan only thirty strong.
Zayla', to the east, was a major port for the trade of the central, eastern and
southern provinces, including Sawa. A port of considerable commercial significance
it was visited by many foreign ships, laden, the early sixteenth century Florentine
trader Andrea "much merchandise", principally pepper and
Corsali reported, with
cloth from the East and incense from Arabia. These articles were taken inland by
caravan to the Ethiopian interior, the land of "the churches of the Christians". This
commercial picture was confirmed by Brother Antonio of Lalibala who stated that
Zayla' was an "excellent port" visited by Moorish fleets from Cambay in India which
brought many articles, including cloth of gold and silk. The port was the mart also for
much produce of the interior. A seventeenth century Portuguese observer, Bernado
Pereira, reported that every year caravans consisting of a thousand camels and other
beasts of burden arrived there from the interior laden with grain, ivory and slaves.
Berbera, still further to the east, played a fairly similar role, for it provided
commercial access to the sea for a vast stretch of the central and eastern interior.
Described by the early fifteenth century Italian traveller Nicolo de Conti as the
"gateway to Ethiopia" it was subsequently referred to by Brother Thomas as one of
the principal ports for his emperor's trade. Goods shipped from the port, according
to the early sixteenth century Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa, included gold,
ivory and "divers other things", merchants of Aden in particular purchasing provisions,
meat, honey and wax.
55
The western land route to Sudan over the centuries handled a vast, but not
always well documented amount of Ethiopia's foreign trade. Alvares in the early
sixteenth century reported that "white Moors from the Kingdom of Tunis" (which
Beckingham and Huntingford equate with "Arab tribes in the northern Sudan")
travelled along this route, bringing cheap "white burnooses" and "different kinds of
merchandise".
Some Sawan trade was also conducted along one or more southward routes,
which, on the evidence of Brother Thomas, connected the area with Indian ocean
10
ports such as Mogadishu or Malindi.
Muslim Trade-based Settlements
Much of the long-distance trade of this period was based on a network of

Muslim towns and villages, many of which were situated in the Christian highlands.
Muslim communities in such areas were "separated", as Alvares notes, from the local
Christian population, but, because of the lucrative business they conducted, paid
"much tribute to the lords of the country in gold and silk stuffs".
Several of the principal Muslim settlements were fairly populous. One of the
most important was Manadeley which Huntingford places 30 miles south-east of
Maqale. Described by Alvares as "a town of very great trade, like a great city or
seaport", it had "about 1,000 inhabitants, all Moors tributary to the Prester", as against
only "twenty or thirty Christians" who lived apart and collected the toll charges. Goods
exposed for sale included "all sorts of merchandise that there is in the world", which
was brought by merchants of "all nations", notably "Moors" [i.e. Arabs] from Jeddah,
Morocco, Fez, Bijaya on the Algerian coast, and Tunis, as well as Turks, "Roumes
from Greece", and "Moors" from India, Ormuz and Cairo. Some the town's merchants
traded on behalf of Emperor Lebna Dengel. They claimed that he had "by force"
thrust 1,000 waqets, or ounces, of gold on them, saying that he was lending them this
money to trade with, and that each year they must give him a further 1,000 waqets in
interest, so that his original deposit should "always remain alive".
Another Muslim settlement, referred to by Alvares as Acel, was situated further

south in Wallo. Described by the Portuguese traveller as "a large town of Moors, rich
with much trade in slaves, silks and all kinds of merchandise" it was the scene of
"great intercourse between the Christians and Moors", for though the former lived
"apart and alone", many of their womenfolk went to the Muslim town to carry water
and wash clothes for its inhabitants. The place was also visited by traders from many
lands, among them "white Moors" from Tunis who brought "cotton burnouses" and
other merchandise. Trade was so profitable that the merchants of the town reported
that they paid the Emperor "heavy tribute".
Wis, or Vis, a Muslim trading town northern Sawa, was no less important.
in
First mentioned in the chronicle of Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob
it was described by Brother
Thomas as a kind of "mercantile Venice" and a "warehouse and country of
Beccari (1909) 106, (1903-17) XII, 67; Pankhurst (1982) 80; Beckingham and Huntingford(1954) 43, 181,
(1961) I, 251-2; Ludolf (1684) 398; Peiser (1898) 13-5; Historiale description d' Ethiopie (1558) 32;
Crawford (1958) 173-5, 167, 193; Longhena (1929) 159; Dames (1918) 24-5; Bruce (1790) III, 53, 55.
56
i
storehouses", one of which belonged to Corsali who had a plan, which never
materialised, of printing books in Ethiopic. The place's significance was later
corroborated in Gran's chronicle which refers to it as "a large town" with a
"considerable market without equal in Abyssinia". Its trade was so extensive that
transactions were said to have been carried out only in gold.
The commercial centre of Gendebelu or Gendebelo, in eastern Sawa, was also

inhabited by Muslim merchants. Brother Thomas described it as "a great mercantile
city" where "caravans of camels" unloadedtheir merchandise in "warehouses". Articles
for sale, imported by way of Zayla', included spices from Cambay, and "various things"
from "the whole of India" which the Emperor's merchants purchased partly by barter
and partly with "Hungarian and Venetian ducats" and "the silver coins of the Moors"
[i.e. Arabs]. The town's commercial importance is confirmed by Gran's chronicle
which recalls that the place "belonged" to Lebna Dengel, and was "inhabited by
Muslims" who paid him taxes. When the Muslim warrior subsequently visited the
town its Muslim population gave him a large amount of gold. This was at first offered
to him for his wife Del Wanbara, on whose behalf he refused it, but he took it instead,
as he said, for the Holy War against Ethiopian Christendom. The precious metal was
accordingly used for the purchase of weapons. Perhaps for this reason the Muslims of
the town enjoyed good relations with Gran's army, and it was there that three bronze
4
and iron cannon were subsequently carried from Zayla by camel. Yet another Muslim
settlement, in eastern Sawa, was at Amajah, near the Kassam river, the population of
which welcomed Gran's forces, and prayed for the latter's victory.
Muslim merchants were probably also found in some of the principal Christian
towns of Sawa where they would have lived in their own quarters. One of the most
important of these settlements was Barara or Berara, just south of the A was river,
where Corsali had another of his "warehouses". The place had a significant Muslim
population which received Gran warmly, asking him for soldiers to guard them against
Lebna Dengel's army, and informing him about the whereabouts of the great
monastery of Dabra Libanos and of the Emperor's riches at the town of Badeqe. The
latter, the site of a palace belonging to Lebna Dengel, also had some Muslim
inhabitants who included a number of merchants, some of whom collaborated with
Gran, and brought him treasure bound for the Emperor,
From many Muslim merchants made their way over the

these and other places
years to the Emperor's court. There, as we have seen, Alvares reported that the
"greater number" of traders were Muslims who were the "principal merchants", dealing
11
especially in cloth and wholesale goods.
11
Marco Polo (1954) 401; Taddesse Tamrat (1972) 85.
57
VIII
HANDICRAFT WORKERS
The skill and status of Ethiopian handicraft workers, and the range and quality
of their produce, reflected both the subsistence character of the economy and the
hierarchical development of the society. Craftsmanship took place at four distinct
levels: firstly, for thepeasantry and others of humble station throughout the country;
secondly, for churches and churchmen, many of them congregated at major religious
centres; thirdly, for the rulers and their courts, mostly situated in the medieval period
at "moving capitals"; and, fourthly and lastly, for the men and women who were
clustered around the latter in military or other camps.
Rural Craftsmanship
Rural craftsmanship served primarily the peasantry, who, as we have seen, were
largely self-sufficient.They and their families not only grew most of their own food,
but also constructed their own houses, and made the greater part of their household
furniture, agricultural tools and clothing. Self-sufficiency extended to the lesser gentry,
for, Ludolf declares, "every one takes Care to supply his own wants either by his own
or the pains of his Servants, which it is no hard matter to do, considering how little
they have to use." Notwithstanding this attempt there were a number of articles in
extensive demand which peasant families, mainly for lack of capital or expertise, could
not produce.
Peasants for the most part lacked the equipment, and skill, required for smelting
and the manufacture of ironware. They were therefore dependent on blacksmiths for
a wide range of articles, including plough-shares and the blades of axes, hatchets,
sickles and knives, as well as spear-heads, stirrups, bullets, needles, tweezers and even
pectoral crosses.
Peasant households, which generally had no access to clay suitable for potting,
had likewise in most cases little knowledge of pottery-work. They had therefore to
make use of the specialised services of potters for such articles as cooking pots and
clay metads, or plates for the preparation of enjara, or bread. Jabanas, or coffee pots,
might also be needed, though coffee-drinking was far from general as it had long been
discouraged by the Church as an unchristian practice.
Many peasant families similarly lacked the equipment necessary for spinning,
and more especially weaving. They were therefore not adept at such work, and had to
rely on the specialised skills of weavers.
Ironware, pottery, and cloth were therefore produced in the main by specialised
craft-workers: blacksmiths, potters and weavers, small numbers of whom could be
1
found throughout the land.
1
Ludolf (1684) 391; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 180.
58
Blacksmiths
Blacksmiths tended to be regarded with distrust, fear, and at times even hatred.
Oral tradition collected by the Jesuits in the seventeenth century claims that the
fanatically Orthodox Christian Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob (1434-1468) had gone so far as
to kill "all" goldsmiths and blacksmiths as "sorcerers." This assertion is not
corroborated in contemporary sources, but may contain at least some truth, for
Almeida states that fear or hatred of these craftsmen in his day was still "so common"
that it was all illnesses as coming from sorcerers" and
"quite usual" to "suspect nearly
to "attribute them "Many" of the latter paid for their assumed
to the blacksmiths."
guilt with their lives, as the relatives of their supposed victims killed them "on the
suspicion of having caused their deaths by these devilish acts." Barradas, another
Jesuit of the period, reports that the populace at large scarcely seemed to believe in
the existence of natural diseases, but rather considered them the work of blacksmiths
or possibly goldsmiths. It was be thought that a particular smith
sufficient for it to
was responsible for a person's illness: no proof was required; relatives and members
of the public would at once threaten the unfortunate craftsman with death if the
patient failed to recover. The blacksmith's trade, Ludolf asserts, was thus "abhorred",
as was explained by his Ethiopian informant, Abba Gorgoreyos, who said, with a smile,
that "the silly vulgar people could not endure Smiths, as being the sort of Mortals that
spit fire and were bred up in Hell".
A were
sizeable proportion of the blacksmiths in the north-west of the country
Falasas, or Judaic Ethiopians. In Dam bey a
and some other regions of the north-west
"many" of them, according to Almeida, were "great smiths," and lived by making
spearheads, ploughshares and other articles. Ludolf agreed, observing that the Falasas
were "excellent smiths" and produced spear-heads and several other pieces of
"Workmanship in Iron."
The
Falasa, like other groups differing from Orthodox Christianity, suffered for
a time from persecution, and, according to traditions collected by the nineteenth
century German Protestant missionary J.M. Flad, were driven to inaccessible or
peripheral areas of the country, such as Samen, Qwara and Celga, where they
nevertheless paid tribute to the Ethiopian state. "The craftsmen and artisans amongst
them - masons, carpenters and smiths," he declares, were, however, "soon recalled by
the Christian king and were well paid in his service." The result was that Falasa
villages soon sprung up in Samen and in the neighbourhood of Gondar. "These work-
people were joined by others, such as women skilled in pottery, and husbandmen, who
established themselves in various parts of western Abyssinia, and supported themselves
by their labour." After this "no more" was heard of "persecution and oppression in
2
later centuries."
Potters, Weavers and Tailors
Though Alvares and the Jesuits described fine Ethiopian pottery they provide
no account of the craftsmen who produced it. This was perhaps not surprising, for
2
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 54-5, 63, (1961) II, 337, 438; Beccari (1903-17) IV, 61; Ludolf
(684) 390-1; Lockhart (1984) 170; Flad (1869) 9.
59
potters, as later evidence indicates, constitutedan isolated, and largely despised, caste.
They nevertheless turned out Emperor Lebna Dengel, thus
fine pottery of all kinds.
travelled, Alvares reports, with as many as a hundred jars of mead which were "black,
like jet", and "very well made". Other items at court included "many little round
porringers of black earthenware", as well as little pots with lids. This picture was later
confirmed by the Jesuits. Almeida reported that bowls of black pottery constituted "the
dinner service" of poor and rich alike, and that "nothing better was seen even on the
table of the Emperor himself, while Lobo agreed that even among the greatest in the
land the "vanity of silver" was "unknown".
Weavers, who receive scarcely more attention than blacksmiths in the records
of the time, also constituted something of a class apart. Their isolation from the rest
of the community was increased by the fact that many of them belonged to a minority
religious group, either Falasa or Muslim.
Many Falasas, Almeida notes, "lived by weaving," as was later confirmed by [
Abba Gorgoreyos, who, in a letter to Ludolf, patronisingly referred to them as the 1
"weavers of our cloth." For this reason the German scholar went so far as to assert,
though with obvious exaggeration, that the Falasas were "the only persons" who
3
employed themselves in "weaving Cotton."
The participation of Muslims in weaving owed much, no doubt, to their

involvement in trade, for cloth, whether imported or local, had, as we have seen, long
been a major article of commerce, and one in which Arabs and local Muslims traded
extensively.
Ecclesiastical Craftsmanship
The development of the Church, the founding of numerous religious

some of them very wealthy, and the growth of a large class of clergy,
establishments,
created a demand for a wide variety of religious handicraft items. These included
processional and hand crosses, ecclesiastical basins and plattens, sistra, bells and
chandeliers of gold, silver or bronze, fine curtains and religious tents, priestly
vestments, robes and turbans, ceremonial umbrellas and tallow candles, as well as
church paintings, icons and and religious manuscripts, many of them beautifully
scrolls,
bound and illustrated. Some made by monks specialising in
of these articles were
handicraft activity, but others were the work of secular craftsmen, many of whom lived
and worked in the vicinity of religious establishments.
The finest religious artifacts were produced at or in the vicinity of Aksum -
where handicraft skills doubtless stretched back to the city's ancient days of greatness
- and other great Testimony of this is provided by Brother Thomas
religious centres.
who claimed and abundant" clothes of silk were made in the city, and
that "very fair
that there was a "good" iron mine not far away. The latter statement was corroborated
by Alvares who noted near the holy city "a very small village" which consisted "entirely
of blacksmiths." Aksum was likewise the place, as Bruce afterwards learnt, where the I
3
Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 54; Flemming (1890) 99; Ludolf (1684) 390.
60
"best parchment" was made, much of it by monks, and was also renowned for the
4
manufacture of fine cotton cloth.
Detail of a mid-15th century Ethiopian ecclesiastical painting on wood: the Virgin and Child, from the
church of Daga Estifanos, Lake Tana, painted by the Ethiopian artist Fere Seyon, circa 1450.
4
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 75-6, 149, II, 334, 338, 359, 444; Crawford (1958) 143; Girard
(1873) 242; Bruce (1790) III, 133. The handicraft skill of the ancient Aksumites is evident inter alia
in the minting of gold, silver and bronze coins, as well as - even more remarkable - bronze coins
inlaid with gold.
61
Church Artists
Many church artists were to be found in the principal religious centres, among
them Aksum in the vicinity of which "colouring materials," according to Brother
Rufa'el, were unearthed for the use of painters.
Such artists, like other craftsmen, toiled anonymously without signing their work,
and the names of only a few of them are preserved, often almost fortuitously. One
of the earliest painters of whom there is record was a monk called Fere Seyon, who, j
as indicated in a contemporary inscription, painted a picture of the Virgin Child on

a panel, now in the monastery of Daga Estifanos in Lake Tana, during the reign of
Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob (1434-1468). Mention is later made, by Alvares, in the
following century, of two artists. One, a monk at Makana Sellase, had taught himself
to paint, and was responsible for decorating the wall over the principal door with "two
figures of Our Lady very well done, and two angels of the same sort, all done with the
paint brush." The other artist was a Venetian, Nicolo Brancaleone, whom Alvares
described as "a very honourable person and a great gentleman, though a painter."
Brancaleone, he adds, placed his name on his pictures - a practice then virtually
unknown in Ethiopia - and was popularly known as "Marcoreos." Confirmation of
both statements was provided a decade or so ago by the discovery by an English art
historian, Diana Spencer, of some of Brancaleone's pictures, which sure enough bore
5
the signature Marqorewos Faranji, i.e. Marcoreos the Frank.
Craftsmanship for the Court and Army
The existence of a highly evolved State, with a large court and huge armies,
often numbering tens or hundreds of thousands of men, as well as numerous camp-
followers, constituted another major focus of demand for handicrafts. The court, with
all its pomp and ceremony, was in constant need of many kinds of luxury goods, most
of them made from gold or silver, or else from costly cloth or other imported
materials. Such items of ostentation included gold, silver and gilt crowns, costly
mantles and other articles of apparel made of brocade, silk shirts, and tents, besides
decorated swords, spears and shields, ornamented saddles and finely wrought bridles
and riding equipment. Though most soldiers brought their own weapons, clothes andi
supplies with them, the congregation of vast numbers of warriors also generated a|
considerable demand for spears and shields, which were often lost or broken and had
to be replaced. Soldiers and their families, who tended to be better-off, and to dress
better, than the populace at large, also exercised a significant demand for items of
clothing of all kinds. At the town of Barara, one of the early sixteenth century royal
capitals in Sawa, for example Emperor Lebna Dengel employed a number of tailors,
6
for the most part Muslims, who also made coverings for the royal horses.
5
Crawford (1958) 143; Chojnacki (1983) 21, 419 and fig 206; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 279.!
332, II 340, 357; Spencer (1974) 201-20.
6
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 302-5, 325-6; Basset (1882) 245.
62
Craftsmen in Moving Capitals
Throughout much of the medieval period the country, as we have seen, had no
fixed capital.The monarch, his courtiers and soldiers were constantly on the march
from one camp, or "moving capital" to another. Craftsmen, like other camp-followers,
accompanied the court and army on their peregrinations. Alvares, who witnessed this,
notes that "all who practise the smith's craft" had land allocated to them at camp.
Their area was situated on either side of the market square, and took up "a very big
The craftsmen also included some tailors. One of them,
space" like a "large village."
a certain Gabra Maryam, was a former Muslim and a renowned prize-fighter, who
7
made braid and tassels of cloth.
Craftsmen were in such demand that Emperor Lebna Dengel (and many of his
successors) took a keen interest in acquiring them from abroad. He wrote for example
to King Joao of Portugal in the 1520s "as brother does to brother," saying:
"I want you to send me men, artificers, to make images, and printed
books, and swords and arms of all sorts for fighting; and also masons and
carpenters, and men who can make medicines, and physicians, and
surgeons to cure illnesses; also artificers to beat our gold and sell it, and
goldsmiths and silversmiths, and men who know how to extract gold and
silver and also copper from the veins, and men who can make sheet lead
and earthenware; and craftsmen of any trades which are necessary in these
8
kingdoms, also gunsmiths,"
Some efforts was also made at about the same time to despatch a few
Ethiopians abroad for training. An ambassador from Lebna Dengel was sent to Goa
with four slaves, two to be taught to be painters, and two others to be trumpeters -
9
but whether they ever returned to their native country is not recorded.
Artists in Royal Employ
Though Ethiopian artists were almost invariably churchmen some left the
Church and entered the Emperor's service, as did most of the few foreign artists who
settled in the country. The first of whom there is record was a Faratij, or Frank, who,
according to the chronicles, painted an unorthodox picture of the Virgin and Child,
for Emperor Ba'eda Maryam (1468-1478), thereby evoking some popular anger. In
the following century a Venetian artist, Hieronimo Bicini, was reported by his
compatriot Zorzi to have acted as "secretary" to Emperor Lebna Dengel for whom he
painted "many things." This artist, whose work appears to be no longer extant, was in
possession of a large estate in Sawa, and often resided with the monarch, and is said
10
to have played chess with him "night and day."
7
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 319, II, 443.
8
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 505.
9
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 483-4.
10
Basset (1882) 96; Crawford (1958) 162-3, 166-9.
63
IX
SLAVES
Slaves, who formed a sizeable section of the medieval Ethiopian population,

receive only slight attention in the records of this period. They nevertheless played an
important, seldom fully recognised, role
if in the country's economic and social life,
and constituted a major article of export.
The Fetha Nagast
The status of the slave in Ethiopia was formally recognised in the country's code
of law, the Fetha Nagast, or "Laws of the Kings", which declares that though all men
were basically free, as God had created them, the law of war caused the vanquished
to become the slaves of the victors. The text therefore sanctioned the taking of slaves
from among unbelievers, and declared that the children of slaves belonged to the
owners of their parents. Both statements had strong Biblical sanction, for in Leviticus
the Lord God was said to have declared:
"Both thy bond-men and thy bond-maids, which though shalt have, shall
be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-
men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of strangers that do
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are
with you, which they begat.in your land; and they shall be your possession.
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you; they
1
shall be your bond-men for ever."
Notwithstanding this clear sanction of slavery - and indeed of slave raiding - the
Fetha Nagast recognised that slaves were endowed, like other human beings, with
souls and hence personalities. It declared in particular that a Christian slave was a
son of the Church, and imposed on the master the obligation of providing his
Christian slaves with facilities for religious worship. The duty was also laid on the
master to compel non-Christian slaves to accept baptism, as well as to baptise any
slave children born in his house. Christians were likewise forbidden from selling
Christian slaves to non-believers. This prohibition, taken with the injunction that all
slaves who were unbelievers should be baptised, was of major importance, for it
tended to bar Christians from participating in the slave trade - and meant that this
branch of commerce was open, as we have seen, more or less only to Muslims.
Other passages of the Fetha Nagast recommended masters to free their slaves,
for the love ofGod, and declared this a work of perfection and the most important
form of alms-giving. Manumission was especially recommended in seven different
circumstances: 1) if a slave had served his master's father and grandparent; 2) if he
had been baptised by his master and wanted to become a priest or monk; 3) if he had
been made a soldier by his master; 4) if he had saved his master from death, had
fought for him, or had protected him from mortal peril; 5) if his mother had been
1
Leviticus, XXXV, 44-6.
64
freed while he was in her womb;
6) if, after being taken prisoner in war, he returned
voluntarily to his master; and 7) if his master died without heir. On the other hand
the text stated that a master should not free any slave unable to provide for himself
as a free man; and that a master's decision to free a slave could be reversed by a
judge if it were shown that the slave had behaved to the master or the latter's children
2
in an insolent or brutal manner, or had mal-administered their estate.
Slavery, Slave Raiding and the Slave Trade
The population of medieval Ethiopia included innumerable slaves. Some,

according to Alvares, ploughed and sowed the royal lands, while others, whom he
described as "negroes," i.e. presumably darker-skinned, more "negroid-looking", people
from the south or west of the country, carried baggage. The majority of slaves, to
extrapolate from later evidence, were, however, probably in domestic service, and
engaged for the most part in carrying water and fire-wood, as well as in cooking and
other household chores. The Emperor's armies were likewise accompanied, Almeida
states, by "many slave women."
Slave raiding and trading was extensive throughout this period. Christians,
particularly in the east and north-east of the country, and persons of traditional local
faith, further to the south and west, were constantly being seized as slaves. The
Muslim ruler of Adal in the east, who was engaged in frequent warfare with the
Christian kingdom, received arms and horses, Alvares says, from the rulers of Arabia
whom he presented in return with "many Abyssinian slaves."
There was also an extensive commerce in slaves, some of whom were castrated.
The greatest number of eunuchs from Abyssinia, the fourteenth century Egyptian
author Ibn Fadl Allah believed, were exported through the Muslim province of
Hadeya, and came from "the country of the infidels", i.e. Christians or followers of
local faiths. A merchant called El Hajj Faraj al-Funi had informed him that the
castration of slaves had been expressly prohibited by the ruler of "Amhara," i.e. the
Ethiopian Emperor, who regarded it as an abomination, and took active steps to
prevent it, but the practice was carried out by rebels at Waslu who owed him no
allegiance, and were the only people in the whole of Abyssinia who dared to do so.
For this reason merchants often took their slaves there for castration, as this increased
their price. The victims were then conveyed to Hadeya to recover, but the number
who died of the operation was thought to be greater than those who survived.Trade
in slaves was also carried out in other places, notably at Acel, one of the principal
markets in Wallo, which was said by Alvares to have waxed rich from this trade.
Slave prices varied greatly from one part of the country to another. slave on A
being taken to Damot in southern Gojjam could be purchased, Alvares says, for three
or four amoles, though in the land where he was captured he might be valued at only
one. Slaves from Damot were in particular "much esteemed" by the inhabitants of
neighbouring Muslim countries, who would "not let them go at any price." The result
was that Arabia, Persia, India, Egypt and Greece, the Portuguese priest claims, were
all "full" of Ethiopian slaves.
2
Guidi (1899) 298-9.
65
The slave trade continued to flourish throughout the period which followed.
Slaves are reported to have come from many parts of the country. The Ottoman
occupation of the port of Massawa in 1557 may well have contributed to an expansion
of slave raiding, and trading, in the northern highlands, where in the late seventeenth
century the Italian traveller Baratti, it will be recalled, described seeing Turkish
soldiers returning to the coast with numerous Christian slaves. Slaves were likewise
exported from the south-west, where the Jesuit Telles stated early in the seventeenth
century that whenever the King of Janjero bought rare goods from foreign merchants
he would "give them in Exchange, ten, twenty, or more Slaves," for which purpose he
sent his servants "into any Houses indifferently to take away the Sons, or Daughters
of the Inhabitants, and deliver them to the Merchants." He did the same whenever
he presented "a Slave or Slaves to any Person of Note", on which occasions he would
3
order "the best and handsomest to be taken."
Opposition to the Slave Trade
Though the Fetha Nagast prohibited Christians from selling slaves, and thus
from participating in the slave trade, this commerce was officially tolerated throughout
this period, and indeed for many centuries to come.
Opposition to the trade is nevertheless said to have been voiced by Emperor

Susneyos (1607-1632). Before going to sleep he was in the habit, according to the
Jesuit Azevedo, of being read to by one of his learned men, Alaqa Krestos. On one
occasion the reading touched upon the orders which King Joao III of Portugal had
given his viceroy Joao de Castro prohibiting him from selling slaves to Muslims or
Turks. The Emperor, impressed with his command (which coincided so closely with
the Fetha Nagast), immediately commanded that his subjects should have no dealings
in slaves with either of these groups. He subsequently went even further, for he
executed a rich Muslim trader found guilty of exporting slaves from Enarya, and had |
his head stuck on a pole in the market-place as a warning to others. Susneyos's

governors and ministers of the court were later summoned, and instructed, on pain of]
severe penalty, to enforce the law, as God, he said, wished to protect the unfortunate!
Ethiopians then being transported in large numbers to Arabia, India, Cairo and
4
Constantinople.
,;
3
Beckingham and Huntiungford (1961) I, 96, 248, 251, 315-7, 319, II, 408, 455, (1954) 64; GaudefroyI
Demombynes (1927) 16-7, 32; Baratti (1670) 21-2; Tellez (1710) 200.
4
Beccari (1903-17) XI, 421.
66
X
WOMEN
Ethiopian women, as we know from later times, played a major role in
agriculture, handicrafts and trade, but their involvement in these fields is poorly
documented for the Middle Ages. The records of this period nevertheless provide
valuable glimpses of a number of women's domestic activities, as well as of their role
in government, their clothing and jewellery, and their status in and out of marriage.
Grinding of Grain, Baking of Enjara, Cooking,

Water-Carrying and Clothes-Washing
Women spent a large part of their time in and around the kitchen, and were
actively involved in the grinding of grain as well as in cooking. Grinding, which was
carried out entirely by hand and required "much labour", was exclusively "women's
work," for, Almeida declares, "men, even slaves," would not undertake it "at any price."
Flour was ground with the aid of two large grinding-stones: a roundish upper one,
which the women manipulated by hand to crush the grain, and a wide lower one
which rested on the ground. A woman could normally grind enough flour every day
for 40 to 50 pieces of enjara, or pancake-bread. These were usually made more or
less daily, because by the second day they were already dry, and were thereafter
almost uneatable. Much flour was also utilised in the preparation of beer, which,
Almeida says, "used up a great deal of meal."
Enjara, on the making of which women spent much time, was baked on wide
earthenware pans, with lids of the same material. Bruce, who notes that they were
"something less than three feet in diameter", subsequently wrote that they were
fashioned out of "a light, beautiful potter's ware, which, although red when first made,
turns to a glossy black colour after being greased with butter."
Cooking, which, as most parts of the world, was also carried out solely by
in
women, was It called for the service of "many slave
likewise a "very great drudgery."
women," as well as the consumption of "plenty of firewood."
Women, as Alvares observed at the Muslim village of Manadeley, in southern

Tegre, were also much engaged in both the carrying of water and the washing of
1
clothes.
Camp-Followers
Innumerable women invariably accompanied the court and army. Emperor

Lebna DengePs camp, according to Alvares, thus included many camp-followers,
mainly women, who carried "pots for making wine and porringers for drinking," and
was also the site of numerous tents assigned to the " kitchens and cooks", as well as
1
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961), I, 251, (1954) 62-4; Bruce (1790) IV, 223.
67
to the Amaritas, or courtesans, who may be considered the Ethiopian equivalent of
Japanese geisha girls.
Confirmation of the vast number of women to be found with the army was
provided a century or so later by Almedia who believed that there were actually "more
women than men in the camp." The Emperor was thus accompanied, he says, not only
by the Queen, but also by "nearly all" the ladies of the court, "widows, married ladies
and even many unmarried ones," as well as by the "wives of the chief lords and
captains." Each of the ordinary soldiers likewise took with him at least one woman,
and often several.
Such camp-followers had numerous duties. These included the grinding of flour
and the baking of enjara, as well as the preparation and transportation of taj, or mead,
for the nobility, and talla, or beer, for the soldiery. Many women also carried grinding
stones, no fewer than three thousand of which, Almeida believed, might be taken on
a single expedition, as well as large jars of honey for the making of taj. Other women
again served as tapsters, and had a busy time, for supplies of the drink were so quickly
exhausted that "many" were constantly engaged in preparing fresh supplies. The enjara-
makers attached to the army also had much to do, as each of them when travelling
2
had, Bruce says, to carry a large baking pan on her back.
Involvement in Government
Besides accompanying rulers on expeditions wives, and to some extent other

female relatives, often played an important role in government, in numerous instances
by moderating between the monarch and his chiefs and subjects. One of the most
remarkable - if far from typical - cases of women's involvement in government was
during the reign of Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob (1434-1468), who, dissatisfied with the male
officials he had earlier appointed, later set up a virtually entirely women's
administration. The two principal officers of State, who replaced a kind of grand
inquisitor considered unfaithful, were the monarch's two daughters, Madhen Zamada
and Berhan Zamada. The provincial administration was likewise entrusted to at least
nine princesses who were respectively appointed governors of Tegre, Angot,
Bagemder, Amhara, Damot, Sawa, Gedem, Gan and Ifat. 3
Provincial Capitals and Trade
Large numbers of women congregated at provincial capitals. At Debarwa for

example Alvares estimated that "a great part" of the 300 or so households were
composed of women. Their number was so great in part because courtiers, soldiers
and petitioners never came without their wives, and in part because some of the male
inhabitants were so rich that, though Christians, they each kept two or three wives.
The citizens in consequence included "many young women," for the most married
women. There were, however, also a number of older women who earned their living,
2
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 320, II, 437, 443, (1954) 78-81; Bruce (1790) IV, 223.
3
Perruchon (1893) 9-10, 13-4, 95.
68
as we have seen, by measuring wheat and salt in the market for visiting merchants, and
also looked after unsold wares left over from one market day to another.
Women also themselves participated extensively in trade. Not untypical perhaps

was a "sizeable village" near Lamalmo which consisted, according to Almeida, "almost
4
entirely of market-women."
Marriage, Divorce, and the Position of Wives
Christian marriage imposed certain obligations on women who were expected

to obey husbands as Sara in Biblical times had "obeyed Abraham, calling him
their
5
lord." This duty was enunciated in the Fetha Nagast which also quoted the injunction
of St. Paul:
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, as unto the Lord.

"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church
"Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their
own husbands in everything." 6
On the basis of this text the Ethiopian legal code instructed women to be
"subject to their husband as to the Lord."
Marriage, though deeply influenced by Christian teaching, was essentially

secular,and marriage contracts (except for a small minority of the population who
took Communion with their marriage) were easily dissoluble. The two parties
moreover tended to preserve their individual identities, wives keeping their pre-marital
names, rather than adopting those of their husbands.
Among the higher it was customary for husbands and wives

classes furthermore
to retain their own was especially the case among nobles and
property. This
noblewomen whose lands after marriage were kept "wholly separate," so that neither
party, Almeida says, would "interfere" with or give orders about what belonged to the
other. Each spouse would likewise have his or her own servants, so that "neither the
kitchen nor the table" was "common to both." If husband and wife ate together - in
all probably accompanied by their respective servants and retainers - each would
indeed bring their own food to the dining table.
Most marriages, particularly among the aristocracy, could easily be dissolved.

This freedom, which contrasted with the then extreme rigidity of marriage in Europe,
disconcerted observers such as Alvares who explains, with indignation, that spouses
recognised from the outset that their marriages might only be temporary. Among
persons of substance the two partners, he says, would thus enter into contracts, stating
for instance, "If you leave me or I you, whichever causes the separation shall pay such
4
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 105, (1954) 41.
5
I, Peter, 3, 6.
6
Ephesians, 5, 22-4.
69
and such a penalty." The amount to be forfeited would thus be laid down in terms of
so much gold or silver, so many mules, cows, or goats, so much cloth, so many
measures of corn. If either party separated he or she would, however, immediately
seek to find a justification, so that "few", he believed, ever incurred the specified
penalty: husbands and wives, he exclaims, therefore separated whenever they pleased.
The gist of this account was later confirmed by Almeida who claims that both sides
entered into marriage with the "tacit or expressed agreement" to dissolve it "as soon
as" they "disagreed with one another."
The break-up of marriages was due, according to Almeida, either to one party's
unfaithfulness or to "quarrels between the two." Conjugal disputes, however, were
often "easily reconciled", forif either side proved to the other that adultery had been
committed, they were "most often reconciled and became friends", provided, however,
that "one of them paid the other out of his or her property." In cases of adultery they
would thus "easily agree" that the guilty should pay the other "some oxen, cows, mules,
pieces of cloth, etc."
Marriages usually broke up when the two parties became "so disgusted with each
other" and quarreled so much that they wished to "separate entirely." The wife would
then leave home, and place herself in the keeping of a judge. The two parties would
duly appear before him, and he would either reconcile or divorce them. If he thought
so fit, he might give sentence that "as they quarrel and have no affection for each
other, she is free from such a husband and he is without obligation to such a wife, and
that they can marry again whomsoever they please." Almeida, who considered this
an "abuse" of marriage as he conceived it, notes that the possibility of divorce had
"lasted for so many hundreds of years and was so rooted" that it was "a great obstacle"
to the Jesuit missionary activity in which he was involved.
Despite such freedom, divorce among the population at large was not nearly as
common as the above remarks may suggest. The peasantry, who constituted the vast
mass of the population, had in particular "affection for their wives,"Alvares says, if only
because they brought up their livestock, as well as their children, worked with them
in the fields, and at night when they returned from work provided them with a
welcome. Many peasants therefore "married for the whole of their lives." Among the
clergy marriage was likewise virtually permanent, for priests, who after ordination
could not marry again, almost "never" separated from their wives.
Divorce, on the other hand, was widespread among the well-to-do. Alvares cites
the case of a certain Ababitay, who had been married to seven wives, three of whom
were still alive. Nobody objected to this, he says, except the Church, which had
withheld the sacraments until the man had put away two of his spouses, retaining
only his latest, the youngest. After this, to Alvares's surprise, Ababitay had been
allowed into church like anyone else. Divorce in "high society," and especially among
royalty, was even more frequent. One example the Portuguese priest reported was that
of Emperor Lebna Dengel's sister Romana Warq who was openly separated from
her first husband, and living with her second husband Abuquer, the defrocked prelate
referred to in a previous chapter.
Divorce among aristocracy and royalty was often accompanied by the payment
of penalties.Not untypical was the case of Bahr Nagas Dori who had separated from
his spouse, to whom he had paid a penalty of 100 waqet, or ounces, of gold, after
70
which he had married another wife from whom he also soon separated. She had then
married his brother, who, in turn, soon left her and married another woman. Alvares,
who reports this marital merry-go-round, comments that such events were not
uncommon, and that no one should be "amazed," for such was "the custom of the
7
country."
Relations with the Church, Circumcision, and Scarification
Despite the prominence given to the "maidens of Seyon" in the coronation

ceremonial at Aksum mentioned in an earlier chapter, women were not only barred,
as in other Christian countries, from the priesthood, but suffered from other
They were prohibited from entering the precincts of great monasteries
disabilities.
(which also excluded cows, she-mules, hens, and "anything else", as Alvares says, that
was female), and at the time of menstruation were not allowed to enter any place of
worship.
Though underprivileged in matters relating to the Church, women played an

important role in certain rituals, most notably circumcision, which, Ludolf noted, was
normally practiced by "some poor woman or other". This was later confirmed by Bruce
who stated that the surgeon, "generally" a female, effected the operation with "a sharp
knife, or razor." In the case of the Falasa, however, they sometimes used a sharp
stone, or even "the nails of their little fingers" which were allowed to grow to "an
inordinate length."
Female circumcision, which was likewise carried out by women, was also widely
practiced, as recorded by Ludolf who recalls that it was a subject on which his
Ethiopian priestly informant Gregory was "somewhat asham'd to discourse."
Scarification, which was likewise carried out by women, was also widespread,
and took the form of making ornamental cuts on the face, most often on the nose,
between the eyes or in their corners. Women, Alvares declares, were "very skilful" at
this work which they did by placing a clove of garlic on the skin, cutting around it with
a sharp knife, and widening the cut with their fingers. The wound would then be
covered with a paste made from wax, and another of dough, after which it would be
8
bandaged with cloth for the night, leaving a mark like a burn which endured for life.
Clothing and Hair-Styles
Women's clothing varied greatly, on the basis of age, marital status, and wealth.
Married womentended to cover themselves in cloth, whereas unmarried girls,
according to Alvares, left the tops of their bodies bare, though they decorated them
"gaily" with "little beads." Some women, on the other hand, wore sheepskins, which,
as we have seen, often covered little more than one shoulder. Women of the
aristocracy, on the other hand, wore many silk and other fine clothes, and considered
7
Paulos Tsadua (1968) 80; Beckingham and Huntingford (1954) 65-6, (1961) I, 91, 105, 107-8.
8
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 91, 110-1, (1954) 62; Ludolf (1684) 242; Bruce (1790) III, 341.
71
it necessary whenever possible to envelop themselves in "a great deal of cloth and
silk." Women of royalty, whose finery attracted the especial attention of foreign
visitors, were even more exquisitely dressed. Empress Sabla Wangel, whom the
Portuguese met during the fighting with Gran, was thus "all covered to the ground
with and was accompanied, according to Castanhoso, by a number of men who
silk,"
carried "a silk canopy that covered her and her mule." The Bahr Nagas, whose country
she was traversing, walked on foot beside her, naked to the waist, with a lion's skin on
his shoulders, and his right arm exposed, as he led her by the bridle, for it was the
custom "whenever the Preste or his Queen makes a state entry, for the lord of the
land to lead them... as a sign of submission". Two lords "like marquises" also walked
beside her, holding her mule, while her ladies-in-waiting "muffled in their cloaks" rode
nearby.
Many poorer women by contrast had only one piece of clothing, i.e. either a
smock or a wrap, while the very poor made do with hides or skins. Such apparel was
widely worn in Gojjam and Dambeya, even by those who were not very poor, while
the women of Tegre used shawls of sheep's or goat's skin which were, however, so
badly tanned, Almeida says, that they resembled rough hair-shirts.
Women's hair was often arranged with considerable care, and was combed,
according to Alvares, in two main styles, short and long. In the one it came down to
the ears; in the other to the shoulders. It was often neatly plaited, and, Almeida says,
9
not infrequently cooled, and disinfected, by the application of unrefined butter.
9
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 171, 253, (1954) 60-1; Whiteway (1902) 17-9.
72
PART TWO
THE GONDAR PERIOD

Virgin and Child, an illustration from an
18th century volume of the Legends of Mary. Note
representation of the patron for whom the work was
produced at foot of painting. From the Bibliotheque
Nationale, Pans, Ethiopien-Abbadie, 102. 4
74
INTRODUCTION
The establishment in 1636 of the great city of Gondar, the first truly fixed capital
since early medieval times, was an important "turning-point" in Ethiopian history.
Gondar, which emerged as the country's political, religious, commercial and cultural
centre, acquired a substantial urban population which was estimated by the Scottish
traveller James Bruce in the late eighteenth century at no less than "ten thousand
families," the equivalent, we may assume, of some 60,000 inhabitants.
1
The rise of Gondar, in the late seventeenth century, witnessed a notable

renaissance of Ethiopian civilisation which had an impact in and around the city on
people in all walks of life.
The second half of the eighteenth century, however, marked the beginning of a
time of decline in the country's fortunes. The ensuing period, a time of disunity, civil
war and in some ways cultural regression, came to be known in Ethiopia as the era
of the masafent, or judges, for it was thought to resemble that described in the Book
of Judges, XXI, 25, when "there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was
right in his eyes."
Notwithstanding the dissolution of the centralised State, as represented by the

monarchy, the Ethiopian Church remained an important unifying factor in the
highlands - and much of the country's social life continued as before.
A glimpse of 17th and 18th century Gondar, from an engraving in T. Waldmeier, The
Autobiography of Ten Years in Abyssinia (London and Leominster, 1886).
1
Bruce (1790) III, 380.
75
pre
f
The Tower of Babel, an illustration inspired by the Gondar castles, from an 18th century Ethiopic Book
of Hynins in the British Library, Orient 590.
76
I
THE PEASANTRY
The peasantry in the Gondar period, as previously, constituted by far the largest,
as well as economically the most important, section of the population.
Commercialisation of Agriculture around Gondar
Peasant life over probably changed only slowly, but the

the centuries
development of Gondar and eighteenth centuries resulted in a
in the seventeenth
certain commercialisation of agriculture in the area around the metropolis. Wagara,
to the north-east, was thus described by Bruce as the "granary" of Gondar, while the
district of "Chagassa," three hour's journey away, was "rich and well cultivated" for it
depended on the capital, "the mart of its produce."
The Agaws south of Lake Tana, some of whom came a distance of a hundred
miles, likewise arrived in the metropolis, thousand and fifteen hundred
sometimes "a
at a time," with cattle, honey, butter, wheat, hides, wax and other commodities. The
iScotsman on one occasion passed a troop of Agaws near "Dinglebar," west of the lake,
jwho were laden with honey, butter and untanned hides, and taking with them 800 head
of cattle, all bound for the Gondar market. There was even some production of grapes
1
ifor the city, notably in the regions of Drida and Karutta on the borders of Bagemder.
Agricultural Production and Tribute
Notwithstanding some commercialisation in the Gondar area, there is no

evidence of any significant change in farming techniques in the Ethiopian post-
medieval period, certainly nothing comparable to the Agricultural Revolution then
junderway in Europe. One of the results of this was that foreign perceptions of
Ethiopian agriculture inevitably changed. The French traveller Charles Poncet, writing
at the close of the seventeenth century, was the
outside observer to write with
last
jenthusiasm of the Ethiopian agricultural scene. He
exclaimed that the land was "so
iwell cultivated" that there seemed no waste ground at all. "There is no country," he
jadded, "better peopled or more fertile than Aethiopia. All the fields, and even the
mountains (of which there are a great number) are well cultivated."
Bruce, looking at the situation three-quarters of a century later as a Scottish

country squire, took a different view. Much more concerned than his predecessors
with the commercially all-important question of productivity, he was far less impressed
with Ethiopian farming. The peasantry in Bagemder, he reckoned, obtained no more
than twenty-fold crop-yields, while in Tegre, where the land was less fertile, it was a
"good harvest" which produced a nine-fold one, and ten-fold yields were "scarcely ever"
obtained.
1
I
Bruce (1790) III, 191-2, 195, III, 253, 284, 335, 394, 736, IV, 27; Jones (1788) 384.
77
The peasantry, as in the past, moreover faced numerous disabilities. Many
farmers had to contribute half their produce to landlords who in return furnished
them with seed, but Bruce observed that it was "a very indulgent master" who did not
also take "another quarter" for the risk he had run, so that the quantity that was
retained by the husbandman was "not more than sufficient to afford sustenance for his
wretched family." The peasants suffered furthermore from "the greatest" of all plagues,
namely "bad government," which, the Scottish traveller argued, speedily destroyed all
2
the advantages the peasants reaped from favourable climate and soil.
A ploughing scene, from an 18th century Ethiopic Miracles of Mary in the British Lihrary, Orient 24,188.
Note the humped cattle and the traditional Ethiopian plough.
Abundance of Cattle
Notwithstanding reservations about productivity there was still no gainsaying the

abundance of livestock. In Wagara, for example, Bruce saw "vast flocks of cattle of
all kinds," mostly black, with "large and beautiful horns, exceedingly wide, and bosses
upon their back like camels." Gojjam was likewise "full of great herds... the largest
in the high parts of Abyssinia," while of Halay, in Tegre, he wrote: "All sorts of cattle
are here in plenty; cows for the most part completely white, with large dewlaps
hanging down to their knees, their heads, horns and hoofs perfectly well-turned; the
2
Foster (1949 111, 127; Bruce (1790) III, 124.
78
horns wide... and their hair like silk." The herdsmen for the most part allowed their
cattle to "roam at discretion through the mountains," but at times improved their
pastures by setting fire to the grass and brushwood before the rains which produced
3
an "amazing verdure."
Tribute in Cattle
Considerable tribute in cattle continued to be collected throughout the early

Gondarine period. The Armenian merchant Murad reported in 1696-7 that the tax
on Agawmeder, a district within easy access of the capital, yielded as many as 100,000
cattle a year. This tribute, however, subsequently decreased, after the decline of the
realm, so that by the 1770's Bruce reported that the area provided the monarch with
no more than 1,000 or 1,500 cattle annually.
Tribute in livestock was also despatched from other areas, including Walqayt in
Tegre and Hamasen in the far north. A competition which was to be remembered two
hundred years later took place at some unspecified date in the eighteenth century,
while the monarchy was still powerful, as to which of these two districts could
contribute the largest tax. Dajazmac Nayzgi of Walqayt supplied a large number of
white, black and red cattle - but Dajazmac Mammo of Hamasen outshone him
|
because he brought in addition a considerable quantity of gold, apparently obtained
|
from trade passing through his district on the route to the coast. How the tax burden
was divided between individual peasants is not, however, recorded. 4
The Effects of War
The peasantry second half of the eighteenth century suffered frequently

in the
from the ravages of civil who accompanied the army of Emperor Takla
war. Bruce,
i Haymanot in 1770, describes many a scene of devastation. On approaching the Blue
I
Nile, through which the soldiers of Ras Mika'el Sehul had passed, he found that "all
|
the country was forsaken; the houses uninhabited, the grass trodden down, and the
!
fields without cattle. Everything that had life and strength fled before that terrible
leader, and his no less terrible army; a profound silence was in the fields around us,
i
but no marks as yet of desolation." It was, however, not long before such signs were
seen, and on the following page he records that on proceeding a little further he found
! "the houses all reduced to ruins, and smoking like so many kilns; even the grass, or
'
wild oats, which were grown very high, were burnt in long plots of a hundred acres
I
altogether; every thing bore the marks that Ras Mika'el was gone before, whilst not
|
a living creature appeared in those extensive, fruitful, and once well-inhabited plains.
An awful silence reigned everywhere around." 5
Such scenes of destruction, it may be assumed, were by no means rare.
3
Bruce (1790) III, 82-3, 125, 191, 196, 256.
4
Van Donzel (1979) 94; Bruce (1813) VII, 90; Kolmodin (1912-15) 60-2.
5
I
Bruce (1790) III, 434-5.
79
II
THE SOLDIERS
The rise, and subsequent decline, of Gondar had significant implications for the
soldiery.The ensuing period witnessed constant struggles between the feudal lords,
as well as frequent civil war. Large armies paying allegiance to a single monarch, as
seen in the medieval period, were superseded by the smaller forces of provincial
chiefs. The soldier's armament was also changing, for ever increasing numbers of fire-
arms were being imported - and more of the palace guards were supplied with
armour.
An Ethiopian rifleman kneels to fire. From an early 18th century manuscript Book of Prayers, now
housed in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, IES 315.
80
Size of the Army
At the close of the eighteenth century Iyasu I, the last of the great Gondarine
emperors, is said by Poncet to have still infinite number of
had an "almost
feudatories." He
could therefore raise "powerful armies," in "a short time" and at "a
small expense," and was reported to have commanded a force in 1699 of no less than
"between four and five hundred thousand strong." By the second half of the eighteenth
century, however, Bruce was informed by the oldest officers at Gondar that the largest
army remembered to have been in the field was a rebel army at Sarbakusa in 1771
which amounted to only about 50,000 men, and later "increased to above 60,000 men;
cowards and brave, old and young, veteran soldiers and blackguards." Ras Mika'el,
the seemingly all-powerful ruler of Tegre, was later reported to have brought with him
a force of no more than "20,000 men," albeit "incomparably the best soldiers in the
empire," with which he temporally subdued all his enemies.
The number of fire-arms on the other hand was substantially increasing. There
were, by the late eighteenth century, Bruce calculated, as many as 7,000 muskets in the
; country, almost five times as many
Almeida had estimated a century and a half
as
j
earlier. No less than 6,000 of these were in the possession of the soldiers of Tegre,
i
which was not surprising as it was the province nearest the coast, with easiest access
to imports from abroad. The soldiers of Tegre therefore included many men "very
1
expert" in the use of match-locks.
Royal Guardsmen
Despite the decline of central authority the Emperor's personal guards remained
attimes an important force. They consisted in Bruce's day of four regiments which
were named after "houses", apparently buildings at Gondar to which they were
attached. These included the Anbasa Bet, or Lion House, the Jan Bet, or Elephant
House, and the Wdrq Sdqala, or House of Gold. Each regiment was commanded by
a salaqa, or colonel, and lesser officers in charge of respectively one hundred, fifty and
twenty guardsmen. Every force was supposed to be composed of 2,000 men, but in
fact usually amounted to only about 1,600. These soldiers, whose officers were "all
foreigners," depended directly on the monarch from whom they received "great
privileges," and, when their imperial master was powerful, would greatly "oppress the
country." The guards, some 500 of whom were horsemen, possessed a total of about
2,000 muskets.
The royal cavalry, as we shall see, included two or three hundred "black
soldiers," i.e. Sanqella, from the west of the capital. They wore coats-of-mail, and the
faces of their horses were protected with plates of brass with sharp iron spikes about
[five The horses' bridles were made
inches in length which stuck out of their forehead.
of iron chains,and the body of the steed was covered with a kind of thin quilt stuffed
with cotton, with two openings into which the rider put his thighs and legs, and which
covered him nearly to his ankle. The stirrups were of the Turkish or Moorish type
1
Foster (1949) 126, 129; Bruce (1790) III, 308, IV, 63, 116.
81
St. George and the Dragon, showing the Ethiopian artist's conception of horseman's garb and horse
decorations, from an 18th century manuscript of Prayers of Mary in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies.
IES 73
82
which held the whole foot, rather than only one or toes as was then normal in
Ethiopia. The "only hold" which the traditional stirrups provided was in fact "the
outside of an iron ring", which they "grasped between their great and second toe", so
that "they had no strength from their stirrups", while their foot was "always swelled",
and their toes became "sore and galled." The new-fangled
by contrast, were
stirrups,
hung high, enabling the horseman up
and "stand as firmly as
to raise himself easily,
if he were upon plain ground." The saddles were likewise high in front and behind, as
was customary also among the Moors.
Each rider was armed with a fourteen foot long lance with which he charged.
It was made of "very light wood, brought from the Banks of the [Blue] Nile, with a
small four-edged head, and the but end balanced by a long spike of iron." This spear
was kept in a leather case which was fastened to the saddle by a thong. The horseman
was also equipped with a small axe which he would keep in his saddle. His head
would often be protected with a copper or tin helmet, with large crests of black horse
tail, and a coat-of-mail type vizier which covered the face as far as the nose. Officers'
helmets bore silver stars with yellow hair interspersed with the black.
These royal horsemen were so powerful, Bruce claims, that they could cut
"all the cavalry in Abyssinia." This was because every guardsman "sat
through
Iimmovable upon his saddle," and, thanks to the type and positioning of his stirrups,
ilwas "perfectly master of his person." The ordinary Ethiopian horsemen on the other
(hand were "most disadvantageous^" equipped, for their heads and bodies were
unprotected, their saddles were small and had "no support to them," while their
stirrup-leathers were too long, and the riders, having no stirrups in which they could
!
put their entire foot, were constantly afraid of their horse falling upon them.
Mobilisation
The Gondarine monarchy were mobilised according to a well-

soldiers of the
established routine, first monarch before beginning a
noticed by Poncet, whereby the
campaign proclaimed the day of his departure, and ordered his tents "to be pitched
in a great plain" within sight of the city. He then spent "three days in making a review,"
after which he undertook his campaign which, however, never lasted "above three
imonths."
Three proclamations were usually made before the monarch marched. The first,
Bruce recalls, was, "Buy your mules, get ready your provisions, and pay your servants,
ifor,after such a day, they that seek me here, shall not find me." The second, generally
[made a week or so later, was, "Cut down the Kantuffa in the four corners of the
Iworld, for I do not know where I am going." The kantuffa was a tree with thorns
which was liable to become caught in the soldiers' clothing. The third, and last,
proclamation was, "I am encamped upon the Angrab, or Kahha [i.e. the two rivers
'around Gondar]; he that does not join me there, I will chastise him for seven years."
The Scotsman was "long in doubt" as to reason for this mention of "seven years," until
'he recollected the Jubilee year of the Jews, for whom "seven years was a prescription
I
for debts and all trespasses."
2
Bruce (1790) III, 310-1, IV, 116-8.
83
Another proclamation by Bruce paid considerable attention to the soldiers'
cited
obligation to bring provisions, and declared: "That all those who had flour or barley
in quantities, should bring it that very day to a fair market, on pain of having their
houses plundered, and that all people, soldiers, or others, who attempted by force to
take any provisions without having first paid for them in ready money, should be
3
hanged on the spot."
Camp-Followers
The soldiers of Gondarine times were accompanied, like those of the past, by
numerous camp-followers of both sexes. They would include "women bearing
provisions, horns of liquor, and mills for grinding corn upon their backs; idle women
of all sorts mounted upon mules; and men driving mules loaded with baggage."
...
Bruce, who on one occasion saw a force of 30,000 soldiers accompanied by as many
as 10,000 women, says that the throng "presented such a tumultuous appearance" that
it "surpassed all description."
The period of the masafent, in the second half of the eighteenth century, was!
one, as already suggested, of extensive warfare. This fighting seriously impoverished
many areas, not least, the German explorer Edouard Ruppell noted, the province of
Bagemder in which Gondar was situated. This was later confirmed by Menilek's
chronicler, Gabra Sellase, who states that as a result of the fighting all the province's
4
cattle were killed and its ploughs burnt.
Taking of Trophies
Fighting was not infrequently followed by acts of castration. Victorious soldiers,

to show would later take the foreskins they had cut, and display them
their prowess,
as trophies before their commander, who was in many cases the monarch, himself.
Such ceremonies, the chronicles reveal, were particularly frequent during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, notably during the reign of the great warrior
Emperor lyasu I (1682-1706), and were on occasion attended at Gondar by the;
redoubtable Empress Mentewwab, her son Emperor lyasu II (1730-1755) and her
grandson Iyo'as (1755-1769). The subsequent annals for 1769 likewise record, that, at
the close of a successful battle, the warriors of Tegre threw down their trophies in
front of Emperor Takla Haymanot. They were so numerous, it is reported, that they
\
"resembled a heap of grain in the fields of a rich man." The royal princesses and
serving women marvelled, the chronicle claims, and "cried, in great astonishment,
'What is this?' as if they did not know, though they well knew." 5
3
Foster (1949) 129; Bruce (1790) III, 311, IV, 71.
4
Bruce (1790) IV, 120-1; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 385; Guebre Sellassie (1830-1) I, 201,
5
Guidi (1903) 181, 186, 224, 240, 258, (1912) 86, 154, 191, 195, 206; Weld Blundell (1922) 208-9.
84
Divination
Divination, Bruce suggests, was not infrequently practiced. It was, he claims,

usually carried out with the help of a serpent which would be taken from its hole, and
offered butter and milk, of which it was "exceedingly fond". If the creature failed to
eat, ill-fortune was supposed to be "near at hand". Before an attack by a hostile army,
serpents, it was further held, would disappear, and would nowhere be found. This
belief was so firmly held, according to the Scotsman, that Fasil, the "cunning governor"
of Gojjam, would "never mount his horse, or go from his home, if an animal of this
6
kind, which he had in his keeping, refused to eat."
St. Fasiladas and St. George (right), showing the two different types of stirrups known in Gondar
(left)
in this period: one holding two toes, the other the whole foot. From an 18th century Miracles of Mary,
in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ethiopien-Abbadie 222.
Bruce (1790) III, 733-4.
85
i
Ill
THE NOBILIITY
The nobles in the early Gondar period were, as in the past, almost entirely
subordinate to the Emperor whose "great power" arose from the fact, the French
traveller Poncet noted, that he was "absolute master of all the wealth of his subjects."};
Every "feudatory" under his command was therefore "obliged" to serve him in time of
j
war at his own expenses and to furnish him with soldiers in proportion to the estate;
he gives. Whence it comes who has an almost infinite number of
that this prince,
feudatories, can in a short time and at a small expense raise powerful armies." Such 1
"feudatories", according to the Frenchman, when appointed, were given a sign of

office, which consisted of a headband of taffeta, bearing the name of the then
monarch, i.e. Iyasus I, and his title "Emperour of Aethiopia, of the Tribe of Judah,
who has always vanquished his enemies."
The rise of Gondar was followed in the fullness of time, as we have seen, by the|
decline of the monarchy. This enabled the nobles in the second half of the eighteenth!
century to usurp most of the power hitherto wielded by the sovereign. Several)
provincial chiefs became virtually independent, and established dynasties of their own.
Nominally, however,* emperors continued to reign - and, though little more than
puppets of one provincial ruler or another, were treated, as in the past, with
considerable ceremonial deference.
Because of the decline of the monarchy some of the more independent

chieftains,however, were reluctant to humble themselves in the traditional manner
before their by now only nominal overlord. Bruce, who took a royal message to the
governor of Amhara, Dajazmac Gosu, recalls that the chief duly rose, and, "stripping
himself bare to the waist," made a deep bow, so that his forehead touched the couch
on which he sat, but "did not, as was his duty, stand on the ground, and touch it with|
his forehead". "Pride and newly-acquired independence" had thus "released him from!
those forms, in the observance of which he had been brought up from childhood."
Notwithstanding the relaxation of such observances the nobles of the period ofi
the masafent maintained, and even strengthened, their own claims of superiority over;
the common people. Lords would appear before their vassals, Bruce says, like!
monarchs of yore with their head and mouth covered, nothing to be seen of them but!
1
their eyes.
The Chiefs of Bagernder, Tegre, Gojjam and Sawa
The principal noblemen of highland Ethiopia in this period were the rulers of
Bagernder and Tegre who vied with each other in controlling the destiny of the
Ethiopian state. The chiefs of Gojjam and Sawa by contrast were then of only|
subsidiary importance.
1
Foster (1949) 126;Bruce (1790) IV, 178, 204-5.
86
The significance of Bagemder lay in the fact that it surrounded the capital,
Gondar, which thus depended on it for most of its provisions. The city, the country's
main urban centre, was thus politically and economically at the mercy of the province's
ruler. The result, according to Bruce, was that the government of Bagemder was
(
entrusted to "none but noblemen of rank, family, and character", who were "able to
2
!
maintain a large number of troops."
Medallion-styled portrait of Ras Mika'el Sehul, the 18th century ruler of Tegre, an engraving from J.
Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1790).
Tegre, the oldest province in the empire, was at this time steadily resuming its
I
ancient commercial and political importance. One of the principal reasons for this was
that the region's relative proximity to the coast gave its rulers comparatively easy
access to fire-arms imported from abroad. Bruce, who was well aware of this
development, which had taken place within the memory of his older informants, recalls
2
Bruce (1790) III, 254.
87
that all Ethiopian exports bound for the Red Sea had to pass through Tegre whose
governor therefore had virtually "the choice of all commodities" intended for export.
These included "the strongest male, the most beautiful female slaves, the purest gold"
and the largest tusks of ivory. The control exercised by the ruler of Tegre over the
import trade was, however, even more significant, for, Bruce explains:
"Fire-arms ...which for many years have decided who is the most powerful
in Abyssinia, all ... come from Arabia, and not one can be purchased
without his knowing to whom it goes, and after having had the first refusal
3
of it."
Access to fire-arms contributed greatly to the rise of Ras Mika'el Sehul, the first
of the great rulers of Tegre, who, extending his power westwards across the Takkaze I
river, made himself for a time the de facto ruler of Gondar.
Gojjam, though culturally no less important than the other provinces, was largely
isolated from them by the great arm of the Blue Nile, and therefore had only tenuous
links with Gondar and the main import trade routes. The rulers of the province were |
therefore seldom able to exercise any very decisive influence on state affairs.
Sawa, though still nominally part of the empire, was by this time virtually
independent. It was ruled by its own dynasty which had been founded, towards the
close of the seventeenth century, by a local chieftain Abeto Nagassi. Contact with the
northern provinces was restricted, Bruce insists, because the area had been cut off
from them by the advance of the Gallas, or Oromos. Amha lyasus, the then ruler of
Sawa, was, however, a "loyalist," and a "friend to the monarchy," for "upon any signal
distress happening to the king," he "never failed to succour him powerfully with gold
4
and troops, far beyond the quota formerly due from his province."
3
Bruce (1790) III, 251-2.
4
Abir (1968) 30-1; Bruce (1790) III, 255-6.
88
IV
THE MONARCH
Gondar and the Period of the Mdsafent
The Gondarine monarchy reached its zenith in the second half of the
seventeenth century, during the reign of Iyasu I (1682-1706), the greatest of the
Gondarine emperors. After his death, however, the powers of the monarch rapidly
lideclined - though Emperor Bakaffa (1721-1730) was said by Bruce to have temporarily
"saved" the country from "aristocratical or democratical usurpation" by eliminating
"the greatest part" of the local nobility. In the mid-eighteenth century, however, the
Gondar monarchy finally disintegrated: the area under centralised rule contracted,
and the nobles usurped much of the powers formerly wielded by the monarch.
Emperors became little more than the puppet rulers.
I Representation of Emperor Yekuno Anilak (1270-85) waited upon by Muslim ambassadors and slaves,
[froman early 18th century Ethiopian manuscript in the British Library, Orient 503.
Despite many of the monarch's prerogatives appear to have been

this decline
preserved. The emperors, as the very detailed chronicles of this period reveal, were,
thus, as in the past, constantly appointing, dismissing or confirming the position of
89
provincial governors and other officials. The practice of keeping the sovereign aloof
from the court, let alone from the common people, was likewise retained. The King,
Bruce explained, thus "sat constantly in a room of his palace, which communicated
with the audience and council [chamber] by two folding doors or large windows, the
bottom of which were about three steps from the ground. These doors, or windows,
were latticed with cross-bars of wood like a cage, and a thin curtain, or veil of taffety
silk, was hung within it; so that, upon darkening the inner chamber, the King saw
every person in the chamber without, while he himself was not seen at all."
Notwithstanding the fragmentation of the realm in the later Gondarine period

the governorship ofmany of the lesser provinces was still allotted at the pleasure of
the King - or, more often, of the provincial potentate who had usurped his power.
Appointment was thus based on "favour," and was often given, Bruce snidely says, "to
poor noblemen," so that, "by fleecing the people," they might "grow rich and repair
their fortune."
Despite the decline importance, the emperor continued to be surrounded

in his
with much pomp and When riding, or receiving visitors, his head, and
circumstance.
brow, would be "perfectly covered," and he would often cover his mouth with a hand,
so that nothing could be seen but his eyes. His feet, in the absence of shoes, were
1
also "always covered." Deference to the monarch continued to be paid by all classes.
His subjects, whatever their rank, were expected to appear before him with their
breasts uncovered," and, on approaching, had to make an "absolute prostration." Bruce,
who had many opportunities to witness the custom, recalls:
"You upon your knees, then upon the palms of your hands, then
first fall
inclineyour head and body till your forehead touches the earth; and, in
case you have an answer to expect, you lie in that posture till the King,
2
or somebody from him, desires you to rise."
Though even powerful nobles were expected to prostrate themselves in this

traditional manner, the monarch might waive this obligation as a sign of special
respect. One such occasion of which there is record was in 1770 when a prince from
Sawa arrived to present himself before Emperor Takla Haymanot. Two noblemen,
Bruce recalls, had been instructed to stop him from throwing himself on the ground. |
The young man "ran forward, stooping, to the foot of the throne, inclining his body
j
lower and lower as he approached," but he was seized, "just before the act of I
prostration," and "prevented from kissing the ground." Seeing this he "suddenly seized!]
the King's hand and kissed it." The monarch tried to resist this, but, failing to do so,jj
turned his palm for kissing, which was considered "a great mark of familiarity and|j
3
confidence."
1
Bruce (179) II, 607, III, 254, 271-2, 277.
2
Bruce (1790) III, 270.
3
Bruce (1790) IV, 93.
90
The Detention of Princes
The detention of princes was resumed after the move of the capital to the north-
west of the country when unwanted members of the royal family, from the reign of
Emperor Fasiladas (1632-1667) onward, were placed on the tall mountain of Wehni
'which remained a prison throughout the Gondarine period.
The position of the royal prisoners varied greatly from one period to another,
jit appears to have been particularly good during the reign of lyasu I who paid a visit
| of inspection to the mountain, and, finding that his unfortunate relatives were suffering
deprivations, increased their revenues. Bruce claims that the detainees by his day were
4
in receipt of 250 waqets, or ounces, of gold a year, and 730 pieces of cloth.
4
Bruce (1790) II, 430, (1813) VII, 76.
91
The Kwefata re'esu
The supposed sanctity of the Ethiopian monarchy - and of its army - found
expression, throughout the Gondar period, in a revered icon of Christ with the Crown
of Thorns. This painting, which was possibly of Venetian or Flemish origin and dated
from around the early sixteenth century, was known in Ge'ez as the Kwefata re'esu,
literally "the striking of His head", a reference to St. Matthew XVII,
30; "they smote
him on the head". The icon was considered so holy that emperors, at least since the
time of Yohannes I (1667-1682), often took it with them, together with a tabot, when
they went on campaigns, and courtiers on at least one occasion swore their allegiance
to their ruler in its name. During Iyasu IPs disastrous expedition to Sennar in 1744 the
Kwefata re'esu was captured by the enemy but was later returned, whereupon "all!
Gondar", Bruce says, was "drunk with joy". The prized icon remained in Ethiopianl
royal possession until 1868 when it was looted by the British after their capture of
5
Emperor Tewodros's capital at Maqdala, and its whereabouts is currently unknown. !
5
Bruce (1790) II 642; Pankhurst (1979a) 169-87.
92
V
THE CLERGY
Religious life in the country in general changed little during this period, but the
rise of Gondar, and the subsequent decline of the monarchy, both had some significant
repercussions.
The Abun, the Eddge, the Aqabe Sd'at, and the Monks
After the establishment of Gondar, {he Abun, the Efiage and the Aqabe Sa'at,
Emperor, took up residence in the new capital, and their power and influence
like the
became increasingly urban and metropolis-oriented. The Abun, who had formerly
accompanied the monarch on his peregrinations to a series of moving capitals, now
I resided primarily at Gondar. He was the principal ecclesiastical resident of the city,
and was there that he exercised his influence over state affairs. His power, like that
it
j
of the monarch, however, later declined, as noted by Bruce who states that the
prelate's status by the late eighteenth century had "much fallen in esteem." This
1
development, due primarily to the weakening of central State authority, was intensified
|
by the then incumbent's own personality. Like his predecessors for the past half
I
millennium he was an Egyptian Copt with only limited knowledge of the Ethiopian
scene, and was poorly regarded on account of his "little intrigues, his ignorance,
I
avarice, and want of firmness." The result was that he had "no share" in the secular
government, and went to the palace only on church ceremonies, or when he had a
I favour to ask or a complaint to make.
The position of the Abun in the church establishment, however, was not
impaired, for he continued to be responsible for the ordination of priests, deacons and
! monks. Huge ordination ceremonies were held as in the past. Abuna Marqos at the
close of the seventeenth century told Poncet that at one ordination alone he had
I "made ten thousand priests and six thousand deacons." Such proceedings were
exceedingly profitable, for each newly ordained priest was obliged, Bruce says, to
i [present the Abun with a bar of salt.
The ordination of deacons and monks was also carried out on a mass scale.
Bruce, who claims on one occasion to have seen the entire Bagemder army ordained
as deacons, states that "a number of men and children" would present themselves
before the Copt, but would stand at a distance, "from humility, not daring to approach
him." The prelate would then ask who they were, and they would reply that they
I wished to become deacons. Holding "a small iron cross in his hand," he would then
merely make two or three signs, and blow with his mouth "twice or thrice, upon them,
i saying, 'Let them be deacons.'"
monks was not dissimilar. The Abun while riding about

The appointment of
;
be confronted by a large group of bearded men who would
the countryside might thus
(assemble within 500 yards, and "begin a melancholy song." On his asking who they
were, they would answer that they wanted to become monks, whereupon he would
I likewise ordain them en masse.
93
The acquisition of an Abun from Egypt, as in the past, often presented
difficulties. A particularly serious problem arose in 1754 when Emperor Iyasu II raised
450 waqets, or ounces, of gold to meet the cost, and entrusted them to messengers
bound for Egypt who were, however, detained by the Na'ib, or local ruler of the port
of Hergigo, until the governor of Tegre and the Bahr Nagas intervened on the
monarch's behalf. The messengers were duly released, but the Abun on eventually
arriving at Hergigo was seized by the Na'ib, and only freed when the Emperor
despatched an expedition to the coast.
The Etfage, formerly the head of the monks of Dabra Libanos, and, unlike the
Abun, a native-born Ethiopian, was by this time also resident in Gondar. He was the
most important Ethiopian ecclesiastic, and was so influential in the city that he was,
in Bruce's opinion, of a person of "great consequence," particularly in "troublesome
times."
The Aqabe Sa'at, who also resided in the city, continued to be important in this
period, Bruce describing him as still "the first religious officer at the palace." The then
incumbent, Abba Salama, seems to have benefited greatly from the growth of the
metropolis, for he had "a very large revenue," and even "greater influence." Though
"exceedingly rich", he led, the Scotsman claims, the "very worst life possible," for,
though he had "taken the vows of poverty and chastity," he was said to have "seventy
mistresses in Gondar." Rumour, cited by the not altogether always reliable Bruce, had
it that he seduced his women, "not by gifts, attendance, or flattery, the usual means
employed on such occasions," but "under pain of excommunication."
The rise of Gondar also increased the influence of the monks of Waldebba, who, I
because of their relative proximity to the city, superseded in importance those of the
old Sawan monastery of Dabra Libanos. The holy men of Waldebba were thus held
"in great veneration," and Bruce says, were "believed to have the gift of prophecy."
,
j
Some were said to work miracles, and were "very active instruments" in stirring up the
citizens of Gondar in times of crisis.
Many of the monks of this period, as previously, had the reputation of being
extremely ascetic. Those of Dabra Bizan, for example, lived in caves, and, according
to Poncet, ate no flesh, and were "constantly intent upon God and the meditation of
holy things." One aged sixty-five had for the previous seven years lived only on wild
olive leaves, a mortification which caused him to spit blood "which incommoded him I
1
very much".
The Multitude of Churches and Deference paid to them
Notwithstanding some changes in the religious scene at Gondar and perhaps a

few other urban centres, the country remained essentially rural - and abounded, as
in the past, in innumerable village-based churches. Bruce, whose amazement at their
numbers is reminiscent of that of Lobo a century and a half earlier, thus declared that
there was "no country in the world" with "so many churches," and added: "Though the
1
Guidi (1903) 127-30, 143-7; Foster (1949) 123, 152; Brucce (1790) II, 647, III, 177, 201, 317-9. Though
most of the buildings of the Gondarine religious establishment have long since fallen into ruins that
of the Efrage remains, and is today registered as house number 001 in kebele 11.
94
An Ethiopian artist's impression of the clergy, from an 18th century Life, Passion and Death of Jesus
Christ believed to have been owned by Empress Meniemvab, in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, IES
95
country is very mountainous, and consequently the view much obstructed, it is very
seldom you see less than five or six churches, and, if you are on a commanding
ground, five times that number."
The vast number of churches in the country was scarcely surprising, for no
Christian settlement, he notes, was without at least one, while many others had been
built, by the rulers or nobility, for reasons of piety, or prestige. Kings and queens
would thus have them erected, and endowed, wherever they intended to be buried, and;
many nobles emulated this practice, for "every great man that dies thinks he has
atoned for all his wickedness if he leaves a fund to build a church, or has built one
in his lifetime."
Churches, as in the past, were regarded with great deference. Poncet felt that
the Ethiopians had "more modesty and respect" for their places of worship than was
common in Europe, and never entered them except with bare feet, for which reason
church floors were usually covered with carpets. Church-goers moreover were very
quiet: one never heard them speak a word, or blow their nose, or saw them turn their
head to one side. When going to church they likewise always wore clean clothes, and!
would indeed otherwise be refused admission.
The emperors of this

period, like their predecessors, were also assiduous church-j
goers. lyasu was described by Poncet as having "a great stock of piety," while Bruce
I
records that Takla Haymanot, the emperor of his time, went to church "regularly." On
such occasions, whether or not there was a service in progress, he kissed the threshold
and side-posts of the door and stooped before the altar.
The religious discipline of former times may, however, have been weakening, for
though people entering church continued to take off their shoes, and kiss the
threshold, Bruce noted that when leaving one's footwear behind it was necessary in
2
his day to "leave a servant there with them" - for otherwise they might be stolen.
Temqat at Adwa
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed the development not only
of Gondar, but also of several regional capitals. One such was Adwa which had its ownj
distinctive religious Though largely traditional, this was in some ways also
life.
1
characteristically urban. During the Temqat, or Epiphany, celebrations of 1770 forj

example the stream between the town and the church, Bruce recalls, was dammedj
several days prior to the event so that the water reached a depth of three or four feet,!
and on the morning before the feast three large tents were pitched - one may
presume, for each of the city's churches, the tabots or altar slabs of which would spendj
Temqat in it. Priests and monks assembled around midnight, and began prayers andj
psalms by the waterside which continued until dawn when the local governor, Waldai
Mika'el, made his appearance, with all the great men of the town dressed for the!
occasion in their finest clothes.
2
Bruce (1790) III, 265, 313, 315, 317; Foster (1949) 117, 138. Poncet (Foster, 1949) described Ethiopiarj
churches as "very neat", and adds that they made extensive use of incense which was offered "almosij
continually during the Mass and offices."
96
As soon as the sun rose three priests dressed in sacerdotal vestments arrived
carrying large wooden
crosses which they dipped in the water while some members
of the crowd prayed and others fired their guns in joy. (Few such imported weapons
i
would have been seen a century or so earlier). The priests then returned from the
stream, one of them carrying a chalice full of water which he brought to the governor,
j
and, taking as much of it as he could hold in his hands, sprinkled it on the chiefs
I head, and offered him the cup to drink. On receiving it back he gave the nobleman
! his blessing. The three crosses were then brought to Walda Mika'el who kissed them.
The ceremony of sprinkling the water was then repeated for all the great men of the
town, after which some was sprinkled on the rest of their party. Two or three hundred
deacons - a much larger number than seen in village ceremonies - meanwhile plunged
into the deepest part of the river, while their elders assembled around it, and water
f was poured over them, "at first decently enough by boys of the town, and those
i
brought on purpose as deacons, but, after the better sort of people had received the
;
aspersion, the whole was turned into a riot, the boys, muddying the water, threw it
round them upon everyone they saw well-dressed or clean." The governor thereupon
!
retreated, and was followed by others, including the monks. The crosses were later
; carried away, and the brook was left "in the possession of the boys and blackguards,
who rioted there till two o'clock in the afternoon." 3
/
Mourning Ceremonies
Ethiopian society devoted considerable attention to mourning the dead. "When

any Aethiopian dies," the French traveller Poncet reported, "you hear on all sides most
doleful howlings. All the neighbours assemble in the house of the person deceas'd, and
join in their bewailings with the kindred they find there. They wash the corpse with
!
particular ceremonies; and after having wrapped it up in a new winding-sheet of
j
cotton, they place it in a coffin in the middle of the hall with flambeaus of wax. Then
they redouble their weeping and crying, to the sound of little tabors [i.e. drums]. Some
pray to God for the soul of the deceas'd; others recite verses to his praise, or tear
their hair and scratch their faces, or burn their flesh with flambeaus, in token of their
grief. This ceremony, which is both frightful and moving, continues until the religious
|
come to take away the body. After having sung some psalms and made use of incense,
they begin their procession, holding an iron cross in their right hands and a prayer
|
book in the left. They carry the body, and sing psalms all the way. The relations and
\ friends of the deceas'd follow, and continue their cries, with drumming on the tabors.
They all have their heads shav'd, which is the badge of mourning... When they pass by
any church, the procession stops and some prayers are said there; after which they go
to the place of burial. There they renew again their oblations of incense. They sing
awhile the psalms, with mournful note, and put the body into the ground."
of important personalities were, not surprisingly, the occasion of even

The deaths
greater mourning. "When a prince or some person of eminent quality dies", Poncet
recalls, "the Emperour for three months withdraws himself from business, unless it be
very pressing". On the death of the Abun in 1699 Emperor Iyasu was "inconsolable",
the Frenchman records, and put on mourning, which, as in France, consisted of purple
If clothes, and wore them for six weeks, during the first two of which he "bewail'd" the
3
Bruce (1790) III, 324-6. See also Pankhurst (1982) 319-20.
97
4
cleric twice a day. When the monarch's son, Prince Fasiladas, subsequently died in
1700 mourning took place all over the country. Poncet, who was at Aksum when the
news arrived, states that the Bahr Nagas, or ruler of the north, "order'd it to be made
publick with sound of trumpet thro' all the towns of the government," whereupon:
"Everyone put on mourning, which consists in shaving their heads; this is

the practice thro' the whole empire, not only for men but also for women
and children. The day following the two Governours, attended by all their
militia and an infinite number of people, went to the church dedicated to
the Blessed Virgin, where they perform'd a solemn service.... after which
they return'd to the palace.... The two Barnagais seated themselves in a
great hall... After that, the officers and persons of note, both men and
women, rang'd themselves round the hall. Certain women with tabors, and
men without, plac'd themselves in the middle of the hall and began to
sing, as it were in parts, little songs in honour of the prince; but in so
doleful a tone that I cou'd not hinder being seiz'd with grief and weeping
for a whole hour that the ceremony lasted. There were some, who to
testify to their sorrow, tore their faces till they were cover'd with blood,
or burnt their temples with little wax candles. There were none in this hall
but persons of quality. The common people stood without in the courts,
where they gave such lamentable cries that it would have mov'd the
5
hardest hearts."
Persons of importance were buried in churches, the Frenchman explains; the

rest of the population in common churchyards, where graves were marked with
crosses. The mourning or burial party then retreated to the house of the deceased.!
where they met together for three days, night and morning, to bewail their loss andj
would eat nowhere else during that time. Mourning feasts were repeated on several!
subsequent occasions.
Ceremonies by the Gondar period also included the display of effigies of thq
deceased, as took place, the chronicles record, after the demise of Emperor Bakaffcj
in 1730 and his son Iyasu II in 1755.
Another feature of mourning ceremonies first noticed by Bruce, was the practice!
whereby a close female relative of the deceased cut the skin of both her temples witr,
the nail of her little finger which she allowed to grow long on purpose, and thereby
made a gash as large as a sixpence. Though prohibited in Deuteronomy XIX, 1, thi:|
custom was so general, the Scotsman claimed, that one saw a wound or a scar "oil
6
every fair face" in the land.
4
Foster (1949) 124, 150.
5
Foster (1949) 149-50.
6
Guidi (1912) 32, 178; Bruce (1790) III, 350.
98
Expropriation of Church Land
The Church ownership of land seems to have been a continued cause

extent of
jpf With a view to stabilising land rights an important church council convened
tension.
iby Emperor Yohannes I at Gondar in 1678 declared that Church lands should
'continue to belong to the Church, and lands of the cawa, or soldiers, to the latter.
Difficulties over Church land are said to have erupted in the late Gondarine
period, during the hegemony of Ras Mika'el Sehul of Tegre, when the power of the
kbun was, as we have seen, on the wane. Ras Mika'el is said, by Bruce, to have
;onsiderably curtailed the extent of church property. The Abun's annual revenues
from them were thus reduced from 400 ounces of gold to only 25, one-third of which
(was allotted to the Emperor's officers residing in the prelate's house. In line with
IMika'ePs policy a royal decree was issued at Gondar in 1771 ordering "that all lands
land villages, which are now or have been given to the Abuna by the King, shall revert
;o the King's own use, and be subject to the government, or the Cantiba [i.e. Kantiba,
hi local ruler] of Dambea, or such officers as the King shall after appoint in the
7
provinces where they are situated."
St. Matthew, writing. Note pen, and inkwell (right). From a 17th century Four
Gospels, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ethiopien-Abbadie 82.
Guidi (1903) 37; Bruce (1790) II, 356, III, 114, IV, 78, (1813), III, 17, VII, 87.
99
VI
THE TRADERS
The Emergence of Gondar
Gondar emerged in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as a

major commercial centre. It was the site of a flourishing market, which, according to
Poncet, was held on "a wide, spacious place", near the principal palace, presumably
that of Emperor Fasiladas, where "all the merchants" met, and "everyone" had his
"proper place". This fair lasted "from morning to night", and dealt in "all sorts of
commodities".
Thetrade of the city, like that of many earlier commercial settlements, was
largely dominated by Muslims. The latter, according to one of the earliest
contemporary sources, the Yamani ambassador Hasan Ibn Ahmad al-Haymi, had a
sizeable Muslim population which lived on one side of the settlement in a kind of
ghetto. The principle of urban segregation - for both Muslims and Falasas,
subsequently received official recognition at a church council held by Emperor
Yohannes I in 1668. It decreed that Muslims "must remain separate and live apart"
from Christians, and form "a separate village of their own. No Christian," it added,
"may enter their service, neither as slave nor servant; neither husband nor wife may
live with them." TJiis edict was later repeated after a further church council in 1678.
Plan of 18th century Gondar: 1) The palace complex surrounded by a wall; 2) The Asawa area where
troops assembled, gunpowder was sold, and executions were carried out; 3) The church of Hamar Noh,
or Noah's Ark; 4) A "close quarter over a precipice" where merchants carried their provisions in time of
trouble; 5) The church, and area, of Abbo; 6) Church of Dabra Berhan Sellase; 7) Regeb Bar, or Pigeon's I
Pass, a rocky area fortified in time of trouble; 8) Street of Abbo, called after the church of that name;
9) Muslim town by the Qaha river; 10) Emperor's palace by the Qaha river; 11) Stream of Rufa'el;
12) Angerab river. From J. Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1790).
The Muslims of Gondar were "tolerated," Poncet notes, but lived, as later
evidence amply confirms, "in the lower part of the town in a separate quarter." Bruce, j
three-quarters of a century later, stated that they occupied "about 3,000 houses, some
j
of them spacious and good," which would suggest that they constituted almost 20,000 j
100
inhabitants, or almost a third of the city's population which was estimated at "ten
thousand The Scotsman spoke with some authority, for his caravan from the
families."
coast had been met at the Angarab river, just outside the capital, by "many
Mahometans" from the city, and he later resided in the Muslim quarter, in the "very
neat" house of a Muslim merchant called "Mahomet Gibberti", The chief merchant of
I
I Gondar at that time was another Muslim, Nagadras Muhammad, who, to judge by his
title, was the official in charge of trade. He was the "head", Bruce says, "of all the
Mahometans" in Abyssinia, and the country's "principal merchant."
On the opposite side of the Qaha river stood what seems to have been an
extension of the Muslim quarter, or, as Bruce calls it, another "large town of
Mohametans." The Scottish traveller, who indicates this place in his plan of Gondar,
states that it consisted of "about a thousand houses", and that its inhabitants were "all
1
active and laborious people."
Muslim Commercial Centres
also a number of important Muslim commercial settlements south

There were
of Gondar. One
of the principal, "Tanguri," a "considerable village" north-east of Lake
Tana, was "chiefly inhabited" by "Mohometans" whose occupation was "to go in
caravans far to the south", beyond the Blue Nile. They thus passed through districts
inhabited by Gallas, or Oromos, towhom they carried "beads and large needles, cohol,
or Stibium, myrrh, coarse cloths made in Begemder, and pieces of blue cotton cloth
|
from Surat, called Marowti." These merchants returned with "slaves, civet, wax, hides,
|
and cardamom in large beautiful pods," as well as "a great quantity of ginger" from
;
Enarya. They "generally" took "nearly a year" on the journey, which caused the
,
Scotsman to comment that, in view of the time and "many accidents, extortions and
, robberies" encountered, the business was but a "poor" one.
Emfraz, a few miles to the south-east, also had a sizeable population, largely
commercial. Poncet considered the place unusual in that it was "the only town in
Aethiopia where the Mahometans have public exercise of their religion, and where
their houses are mix'd with those of the Christians." Bruce, on the other hand, states
that in his day at least the settlement consisted of two towns. One, situated on "a
i
steep hill," with a "commanding" view of the lake, and "about 300 houses," was
inhabited by Christians. The other, which lay on lower land, close to the Arno river,
was the abode of Muslims, "many of them men of substance." They included
\ merchants who travelled to "the myrrh and frankincense country" which stretched, the
|
Scotsman believed, from the Dankali lowlands to Cape Gardafui. These traders also
I brought salt from the 'Afar depression, and did business with the Oromos south of the
! Blue Nile whom they supplied with myrrh and "damaged cargoes of blue Surat cloth"
which they unfolded and cleaned, and then stiffened with gum before folding them "in
the form of a book as when they were new." Further south lay the village of Dara
j
which was on the road to Goggam and a halting place for Muslim merchants travelling
further into the interior. One of the village's inhabitants was the afore-mentioned great
i
merchant Nagadras Muhammad. This settlement is indicated by Bruce on his map as
I "Vil. Turc," i.e. "Turkish village."
1
Foster (1949) 121; Guidi (1903) 8, 37; Bruce (1790) III, 198, 362, 380-1, 405, 410, 416, IV, 57, 113;
Peiser (1898) 41.
101
The western side of Lake Tana also had several Muslim trading settlements.
One of the most important, situated by a ford on the Little Nile, was "Delakus" which
Bruce describes as "more considerable in appearance" than most "small towns and
villages in Abyssinia." It was inhabited "only" by Muslims whom he described as "a
trading, frugal, intelligent, and industrious people."
Muslim merchants were likewise found on the trade route between Gondar and
Sudan. At "Giesim," midway between the Ethiopian capital and Sennar, for example
Poncet saw "a caravan of gebertas", or Muslim traders. There were also several
Muslim settlements in the area, two of which were mentioned by Bruce. One was
"Werkleva," four day's journey west of Gondar, the other, the frontier "town" of
"Sancaho" which was inhabited by the "Baasa," a group of Sanqellas "converted to the
Mahometan religion." Other Muslim commercial settlements were scattered along on
the Gondar-based trade routes to the east. At one a day's journey from the capital al-
Haymi thus found a mosque and Qoranic school, while another, further towards
Dabareq, was referred to in the chronicles as Salamge - probably in fact Eslamge, so
named because it was inhabited by Muslims. Anjalo, one of the principal Christian
towns of Tegre, also had a significant Muslim population, and a Muslim presence may
likewise be presumed at a customs post referred to in Iyasu's chronicle as Eslam Bar,
2
literally Muslim Gate, which must have been inhabited, or run, by Muslims.
Muslim Trade Agents
One of the consequences of the special Muslim position in trade was that
Christian rulers in the Gondar made
use of Muslim agents
period, as previously, often
to conduct their foreign commercial transactions. Several such functionaries are
mentioned in the chronicle of Emperor Iyasu II which reports that when that ruler
sent to Egypt to fetch a new Abun in 1754 he had resort to the services of an Egyptian
called Giyorgis, as well as three Muslims, Ahmad 'Ali, 'Abd Allah and 'Abd al-Qadir,
who were almost certainly traders.
Muslim trade agents, or "factors," were no less important in Bruce's day. They
were to be found, the Scotsman indicates, not only in Ethiopia, but also in Arabia.
Some in the latter country had originated in Ethiopia, whence they had been taken in
their childhood as slaves, but had later risen to some of the "principal posts" under the
Sherif of Mecca and other "Arabian princes." The most powerful was "Metical Aga,"
a former "Abyssinian slave," who had become a minister, and confidant, of the ruler
of Mecca. Though attached to an Arab court he was in close contact with the Emperor
at Gondar as well as with the ruler of Tegre, Ras Mika'el Sehul. Of considerable
influence on both sides of the Red Sea, the former Ethiopian slave was a "great friend
and protector" of the British at Jeddah, but, as an ally of Ras Mika'el, seems to have
also played a decisively important role in Ethiopian politics. He had not only arranged
that the Ras should collect the Massawa
on behalf of the Ottoman Turks, but
taxes
and other articles which the latter received
also "directed the sale" of gold, ivory, civet
in taxation, and also provided him with fire-arms. This remarkable cooperation had
given Mika'el a near-monopoly of these weapons which had enabled him, as Bruce
puts it, to depose two emperors and "subdue Abyssinia."
2
Bruce (1790) III, 410, 416 IV,
376-7, 385-6, 19, map, V, 31; Peiser (1998) 35; Foster (1949) 110, 137;
Guidi (1903) 158; Pankhurst (1982), 201-6.
102
One of Metical Aga's business associates was the afore-mentioned "Mahomet
Gibberti" who travelled with Bruce to Gondar, and on several occasions provided him
with valuable assistance. Muslim merchants such as Mahomet Gibberti operated at
this time throughout northern Ethiopia. "Every great man in Abyssinia," the Scotsman
says, had "one of these Gibbertis as his factor," while the Emperor had "many", for the
most part "the shrewdest and most intelligent of their profession." Their principal
role, like that of "Metical Aga", was to sell abroad such of the Ethiopian rulers'
3
revenues as were paid in kind, and to purchase foreign articles, including fire-arms.
Armenian Trade Agents
Besides the Muslim trade agents there were still a number of Armenian and
other foreign Christians who served in a similar capacity. One of the best known was
the Armenian Murad who traded and carried messages for several of the Gondarine
monarchs. The significance of such "factors" - and particularly of the Armenians - was
underlined by Bruce, who recalls:
"These men are chiefly Greeks, or Armenians, but the preference is always
given to the latter. Both nations pay caratch, or capitation, to the Grand
Signior [i.e. the Ottoman sultan] (whose subjects they are) and both have,
in consequence, passports, protections, and liberty to trade wherever they
please throughout the empire, without being liable to those insults and
extortions from the Turkish officers that other strangers are.
"The Armenians, of all the people in the East, are those most remarkable
for their patience and sobriety. They are generally masters of most of the
eastern languages; are of strong, robust constitutions, of all people, the
most attentive to the beasts and merchandise they have in charge;
4
exceedingly faithful, and content with little."
Trade Routes and Commercial Centres
The establishment and rise of Gondar had a significant effect on commerce,

and, because of the city's location in the north-west of the country, greatly increased
the importance of the old western trade route to Sudan. Ethiopian exports by that
route at the close of the seventeenth century consisted, according to Poncet, mainly
of slaves and ivory, while imports were made up of such varied items as "spices, paper,
brass, iron, brass wire, vermilion, [mercury] sublimate, white and yellow arsenic, iron
ware, spica [spikenard] of France, mahaleb [a kind of incense] of Egypt, Venice ware,
which are several sorts of glass beads of all colours, and lastly black to blacken, which
they call kool (kohl), and is very much esteemed... because they make use of it to
blacken their eyes and eyebrows".
3
Guidi (1903) 127-30; Bruce (1790) I, 275, II, 9, 131, III, 9-11, 198, 223, 225.
4
Bruce (1790) II, 131.
103
The bulk of the country's trade, however, still probably passed by way of the
Red Sea port of Massawa. Its imports, which had changed little since medieval times,
were said by Bruce to consist of blue cotton, Surat and cochineal clothes, "fine cloth
from different markets in India", coarse cotton cloth and unspun cotton, both from
Yemen, and Venetian beads, glassware, and drinking, as well as looking-glasses, and
once more kohl for darkening the eyes. Such trade was taken, as in the past, to the
mainland port of Hergigo, which was by then a sizeable settlement, with a population,
according to the Scotsman, of "about 400 houses".
The main trade route inland from Massawa led to Debarwa, the capital of the
Bahr Nagas. The inhabitants of the surrounding countryside were "partly Mahometans
and partly Christians," both of whom, Poncet notes, brought provisions to passing
caravans. Debarwa, through which all travellers from the Red Sea had to pass, was a
place of considerable trade, and no less than "the bureau or general magazine of the
commodities of the Indies." Like many other settlements of the period it was divided
"into two towns," a "higher" and a "lower." The former was occupied by the Christians,
who were then politically dominant; the lower by the Muslims, who were more
important in commerce.
An alternative trade route inland led further south to the town of Degsa, which,
according to Bruce, was "inhabited mostly by Mahometans." It likewise consisted of
two adjacent settlements, "a high and a low." The Muslims, who, unlike their co-
religionaries at Debarwa, were then politically paramount, were stationed at "the top
of the hill", where they had "dug for themselves a scanty well," while the Christians
had their abode at the bottom. Trade, the Scotsman claims, was based largely on the
sale of children who were seized by Christian slave raiders and taken to the town
which served as a "sure deposit" for them. They were there received by Muslim
merchants who carried them to Massawa whence they were shipped to Arabia or even
India. The route inland from Degsa led to the village of "Kaibara" which was "wholly
inhabited by Mahometan Gibbertis", or merchants.
Adwa, the main emporium of Tegre, and the intermediate destination of most
caravans bound for Gondar, was a place of even greater commercial importance. The
Armenian merchant Murad reported in 1697 that it, together with nearby May
Gwagwa, paid an annual tax of 1000 waqet, or ounces, of gold, while three-quarters
of a century later Bruce estimated that the city had "about 300 houses", which would
suggest a population of almost 2,000 inhabitants, a sizeable proportion of whom were
5
doubtless engaged in trade.
Opposition to Usury
The rise of Gondar as a great commercial centre may well have led to a growth
of money-lending, which was later prohibited by the church council of 1678. The
6
decree specified that anyone lending silver or wheat should not receive interest.
5
Foster (1949), 105, 107, 113, 146-7, 151; Bruce (1790) III, 54, 63, 86-8, 107, 119; Fraenken and Cope di
Valromita (1936) 81.
6
Guidi (1903) 37.
104
VII
CRAFTSMEN
Pre-Gondarine Building Activity
The later years of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth
witnessed a considerable amount of building activity at a succession of short-lived
capitals: Emfraz (also known as Guba'e or Guzara), 'Ayba, Wandege, Qoqa, Gorgora,
Danqaz and Azazo, all of which were the site of palaces, or castles, never previously
seen in the country. Some of this construction work, at least as far as concerned
was carried out under the direction of foreigners
palace-building, - though the labour
force must have been always primarily Ethiopian.
Emperor Susneyos's palace at Gorgora was built under the inspiration, and
supervision, of the Spanish Jesuit Pero Paes, who, according to Belthazar Telles, "gave
Directions for making Hammers, Mallets, Chizzels and all other Necessary Tools,
handling them himself, and teaching the new workmen to dig, hew, and square the
Stones for the Fabrick." He is said to have likewise taught "all the Joyners, and
Carpenters."
The palace Danqaz, on the other hand, was erected for Susneyos, his
at
chronicle states, by a Banyan, i.e. Indian, called 'Abdal Kerim, who was also
responsible for erecting the first stone bridge over the Blue Nile. The head workman
for the palace was an Egyptian called Sadaqa Nesrani who was assisted by artisans
from Egypt and "Rome", i.e. Constantinople, a name also sometimes applied to
Greece. Many of the building workers, according to Almeida, were, however, Indian
stone-masons brought over by Jesuits.
Another development of this period was the introduction - more probably in

or
fact the re-introduction - of mortar, around 1621, which took place when "an
intelligentperson from India discovered a kind of fine, light and as it were worm-
eaten stone," similar to that used for the manufacture of lime in Gujarat. One - or
more - of these craftsmen may later have been engaged in the construction of the
great palace of Emperor Fasiladas at Gondar, for the Yamani ambassador al-Haymi,
1
who inspected it in 1648, reported that its "master-builder" had been an Indian.
The Development of Gondar: Tent-Makers, Manuscript-Illustrators, etc.
The founding in 1636 of Gondar, the first long established capital for several
hundred years, led to an immense increase in the demand for handicrafts in and
around the city. Many skilled workers therefore emerged, or were attracted from the
neighbouring countryside, or from lands further afield.
The craftsmen of Gondar and its environs included a sizeable number of Falasa
whom Bruce later described, doubtless with his customary exaggeration, as "the only
1
Pankhurst (1982) 94-112; Tellez (1710) 206; Esteves Pereira (1900) 224-5; Beckingham and Huntngford
(1954) 188; Peiser (1898) 37-9.
105
potters and masons" in the country. Falasa potters, he claims, "greatly excelled," and
"in general" lived "better than the other Abyssinians," who, however, attributed this
to the former's "skill in magic" rather than to their "superior industry." Falasas were
also to the fore as thatchers, and held an "exclusive" position in this profession. One
of the roofs constructed by them was the split-cane ceiling of the palace of Emperor
Iyasu II (1730-1755) which, the Scotsman asserts, was "gaier than it was possible to
conceive." Some Falasa craftsmen lived, like the Muslims, in a special quarter of the
city, while others occupied several nearby "small villages," which were inhabited almost
entirely by "masons and thatchers." Some of these villages were "situated out of the
reach of marching armies," for they would otherwise have been "constantly raided,
partly from hatred, and partly from hopes of finding money".
Though the first of the Gondarine castles was said, as we have seen, to have
been designed by a master craftsman from India, an Ethiopian builder soon came
prominently to the fore. He was a certain Walda Giyorgis who erected palaces for
both Emperor Yohannes I and his son Iyasu I. This builder is described in one
chronicle as a man "endowed with intelligence," and in another as "able, intelligent,
and of good renown." Craftsmanship at the Gondar palaces was also carried out,
according to Bruce, by a number of Greek artisans, whose sons were later involved in j
decorating the residence of Iyasu II. Its ornamentation included mirrors from Venice
set in gilt frames, and wooden casings covered with ivory.
The existence of the court, and army, at and around Gondar, also led to the
emergence of a class of tent-makers. Much of their work was carried out at Emfraz, |
south-east of the capital, where "a number of Mahometan tent-makers lived." Their
responsibilities included loading the Emperor's tents and baggage, which they did j
with "surprising expedition," but though they conducted the mules and baggage to war
|
they never participated in actual fighting.
The Gondar period also witnessed a resurgence of Ethiopian painting, in both I
manuscript illustration and church decoration, and constituted a "remarkable" and

"new" era, as art historian Stanislaw Chojnacki has argued, of more "naturalistic" I
compositions in which many local motifs and scenes were introduced into religious j
themes. Royal and princely patronage of art at this time also found expression in the
practice whereby a painter would place beneath his work, usually of the Virgin Mary i
or Crucifixion, a representation of the ruler or other noble who had commissioned the
work. This custom, which became common during the time of Emperor Fasiladas,
flourished in the eighteenth century, and resulted in the painting of numerous pictures
of the redoubtable Empress Mentewwab and her son Iyasu II*. Though Ethiopian \
artists generallyspeaking did not sign their paintings, some working on manuscripts j
in scriptoria of the Gondar period placed their names temporarily on unfinished

sketches, probably as an indication as to who was responsible for their completion, i
Several such works were for one reason or another left unfinished, with the result that j
the identities of four eighteenth century artists, by name Sirak, Asab Rufa'el Fanta,
Wasan, and Hezekiel, are preserved for posterity.
* The best contemporary picture of Mentewwab and her family is however perhaps that in British
Library Orient 715, folio 134a.
106
lit nirwy* *• " —
^-••4 « *• tf # - ITU
108
Though craftsmanship in the countryside probably remained largely unchanged,
the Gondar period was thus a time when artisans and artists increased both in
numbers and skill, particularly in and around the capital and several other urban or
religious centres. This development contributed to a great flourishing of the country's
2
culture.
An example of Gondarine art. St. George, with two toes in the stirrups, killing the Dragon, from a mural
at the Church of St. Gabriel at Kebran on Lake Tana.
Handicrafts in Sawa
Gondar seems to have served as a point of diffusion for handicraft work in other
parts of the country. Tradition, embodied in the writings of the modern Ethiopian
I
historian Asma Giyorgis, suggests that craftsmen from the metropolis made their way
I
to Sawa in the eighteenth century, during the reign of the local ruler Abbeyye (1720-
1745) who is said to have "received them well". These workers included "many" Falasa
who entered his service and whom he treated "respectfully".They made him axes and
chisels with which the people of Sawa cleared the forest of Yefat, as well as sickles,
3
; hoes and ploughshares which enabled them to cultivate the province more efficiently.
2 Bruce (1790) II, 633-4, III, 123, 190, 195, 376-7, 380; Guidi (1903) 60, (1912) 89; Combes and Tamisier
;
(1838) IV, 84; Chojnacki (1983) 242, 246-7, (1964) 10-1; Pankhurst (1984b) 107-12. One of many great
churches built in the Gondar area this time was that of Dabra Sahay at Qwesqwam, founded by
Empress Mentewwab, whose gifts of manuscripts, church paraphernalia - and other treasures - were
recorded in a contemporary chronicle: Guidi (1912) 101-8.
3 Bairu Tafia (1987) 513. See also Levine (1965) 33-4; Stitz (1975) 79.
109
Another example of Gondarine art. An illustration from an 18th century manuscript of the Miracles
the Virgin Mary at the Church of Giyorgis at Dima in Gojjam.
110
VIII
SLAVES
Slave-Raiding and Slave Troops
The move of the capital from Sawa to Bagemder, which was near the borders
i
of Sudan, led to extensive slave-raiding of Sanqella in the western frontier area. Some
the major raids were carried out during the reign of Emperor Fasiladas, in 1641-
first
2, 1651-2 and 1658-9, and in that of his son Yohannes I. Raiding was intensified by
Emperor Iyasu I, who, having acquired a considerable number of fire-arms, succeeded
in advancing far into Sanqella territory, and, according to his chronicle, on several
occasions seized "many slaves, men and women." One account states that those he
captured were "as numerous as the sands on the seashore." Slave-raiding expeditions
were later also carried out by other rulers, notably Emperor Yostos.
With the expansion of the western trade route to Sudan and

in the late sixteenth
early seventeenth centuries slave exports to the west probably increased. Emfraz, one
j
of the most important commercial centres in the north-west, was thus described by
Poncet at the close of the seventeenth century as "famous for the traffick of slaves,"
i
while Bruce later claimed that "many thousand" slaves, "most of them Christians," were
i
sold to neighbouring Muslim lands every year.
Gondar, whither most of the slaves were taken - though some were subsequently
exported therefrom, was an important capital which soon acquired a sizeable
population of Sanqella slaves. Most of them were too lowly in status to receive
I attention from the court chroniclers, and therefore scarcely figure in the annals of the
; period. Some were, however, employed, as we have seen, as palace guards, and are
! thus occasionally encountered in the records. Many of these men were succeeded, as
1
was customary, by their sons, a fair proportion of whom were in all probability born
i
of local women. Such descendants of slaves were referred to as wellaj (plural wellajoZ),
i
literally "relation" or "relations", though others, possibly of lower status, were known
i
as Kanisa or Kanisot, the exact meaning of which is, however, obscure.
The wellajot,
like other slave troops in history, in due course gained considerable
! politicalpower. First mentioned in the chronicle of Iyasu I for 1689 a group of them,
|
described by Bruce as archers, played an important role after the death of Dawit III
;
in 1721 in choosing his successor Bakaffa, but later conspired against him, and were
in consequence banished or executed.
Subsequent temporary reduction in slave-

difficulties in the capital led to a
raiding which was, however, resumed 1741 by Emperor Iyasu II, who conducted
in
> several further expeditions during which, the chronicles state, he "led many men and
women into slavery." Iyasu's son Iyo'as also despatched an expedition to the west,
111
from which, it is said, not one of its soldiers failed to return without prisoners, male
1
and female.
Slave troops were still of considerable importance in the second half of the
eighteenth century when Bruce reported that "every department" of Gondar was "full"
2
of them. They were looked after with care, for, he explains:
"The boys and girls under 17 and 18 years of age, (the younger the better)
are taken and educated by the king, and are the servants in all the great
houses of Abyssinia. They are instructed early in the Christian religion,
and the tallest, handsomest, and best inclined, are the only servants that
3
attend the royal person in his palace."
The most important of these slaves constituted a force of "black" cavalry, once
two hundred strong, which by the Scotsman's time had increased to three hundred.
"All cloathed in coats of mail" and "mounted on black horses"," they were "commanded
by foreigners entirely devoted to the King's will." The monarch, when alone, took a
"great delight" in conversing with these slave warriors, and by "strict attention to their
morals", by "removing all bad examples from among them," and by "giving premiums"
to those who read "most and best" had made them in "firmness and coolness in action
equal perhaps to any of the same number in the world." The "greatest difficulty was
keeping them together, for all the great men used to wish one of them for the charge
of his door." The guards, it appears, were great readers, for, according to Bruce, they
4
had all time enough upon their hands, especially in the winter.
Slave Descendants
Marriage between Sanqella or other slaves and the people among whom they
lived inand around Gondar led to the emergence of a racially mixed population,
which was distinguished, as the Italian scholar Ignazio Guidi later noted, up to the
seventh generation.
The by an ordinary Ethiopian, often referred to as qay, literally

child of a "black"
"red", was thus known, as we have seen, as wellaj, which Antoine d' Abbadie defined
as a "mulatto". The child of a wellaj by a free man or woman was called a qennaj (and
was a person of one-quarter slave origin); his or her child, who was of one-eighth
slave descent, was known as afennaj. The latter's child was an amdlldt, and his or her
child an asdlldt, while his or her grandchild - who was of one-sixty-fourth slave origin -
1
Basset (1882) 134, 136-8, 142,146-8, 150, 154, 157, 159, 175, 181, 191-2, 198, 202,; Beguinot (1901) 50-
2, 54;, 62-3,69-71, 73, 77, 95-6, 104, 110, 113; Bruce (1790) II, 416-7, 423, 545-7, 551, 553, 555, 558-61,
568, 592, 600, 632, 737,IV, 129, 327-8; Guidi (1903) 9, 47, 117-21, 128, 132, 142, 156, 160, 164, 166-74,
179-82, 186, 194, 196, 203-4, 209, 213, 218, 239-40, (1912) 76, 118-20, 122-5, 133-7, 149-50, 157-8, 163,
167, 170-1,180, 192, 194-5, 203, 209, 213; Foster (1949) 136; Bruce (1790) I, 393. See also Pankhurst
(1976b) 13-40.
2
Bruce (1790) II, II, 558.
3
Bruce (1790) II, 551-2
4
Bruce (1790) II, 552.
112
was spoken of as a manbete, an abbreviated form of the question yaman bet nawl,
i.e. "Of whose house is he?" The child of a manbete, who was thus of one hundred
and
twenty-eighth slave descent, was referred to as a daraba bete, literally "My house [is]
a hut", and one of the suburbs of the metropolis came to be called darababet,
doubtless because its population included many people of such partial slave descent. 5
Mahbuba, an early 19th century Oromo woman from Guma who was
and taken by slave merchants to
seized as a slave during local fighting
Cairo where she was purchased by a German nobleman, Prince Hermann
von Puckler-Muskau. From Le Monde Inconnu (1882).
Guidi (1901) 559; Antoine d' Abbadie (1881) 648.
113
IX
WOMEN
The position of women, as far as the meagre records of this time suggest,
remained basically unchanged throughout this period, but several interesting
developments occurred at court.
Ownership of Land and Involvement in Land Sales
The establishment and growth of Gondar led to a substantial expansion of urban

land ownership in which women, as well as men, were involved. By the late Gondarine
period there is evidence of a significant number of women landowners in and around
the city, as well as of noblewomen buying and selling land, giving estates to the church,
and acting as witnesses Records of such transactions, which illustrate
for land sales.
the Ethiopian woman's own land, are found in the marginalia of
traditional right to
many manuscripts of this period, including several looted by the British from Maqdala
in 1868 and now housed in the British Library. In one such document dating from the
reign of Emperor Tewoflos (1708-1711) a certain Wayzaro Mamite - who, to judge by
her title, was evidently a. noblewoman - asked the monarch's permission to build a
j
church. Tewoflos replied that he would do so if the priests agreed. The latter then i
inquired about the dues payable to them, whereupon Mamite declared that she would I
pay twice the normal fee, and also give the church various lands, the details of which j
are specified in the text, for the upkeep of the clergy and the saying of Mass. In
another record, written during the reign of Emperor Takla Giyorgis (1786-1800), it is
reported that one Wayzaro Trengo, likewise a woman of high birth, had sold a third j
of her landed property for the then considerable sum of over seventy ounces of gold, j
A third text, dating from the same reign, mentions a transaction in which two other I
noblewomen, Wayzaro Lehkut and Wayzaro Emetu, gave certain estates to the Abun,ji
the Etege, or Empress, and various other important personalities. The same two!
women re-appear in a subsequent document of the reign of Emperor Egwalu (1801-j i
1818) in which we find them giving further estates to the Abun, while retaining other I
land for themselves. Another document of the reign of Egwalu tells of a certain!
Wayzaro Te'elmar presenting some of her father's lands to a church dedicated to StJ |
Mika'el, while one written during the reign of Emperor Takla Haymanot (1706-1708),
j
records a land sale for which the witnesses included wayzdros, or women of substance,!
as well as Dabtaras. Documents such as the above, which still await comprehensive! j
study, indicate that noblewomen of the Gondarine period, unlike their sisters in much
j
of the Middle East and many other parts of the world, including Great Britain, at thai:
1
time, exercised considerable control over landed property.
British Library, Orient 518, f.15-6, Or. 529, f.197, Or. 513, f.216. For a recent detailed account cj
women's land ownership at Gondar see Crummey (1981b) 445-65, (1981c), also Pankhurst (1984a) 98
107.
114
Participation in Expeditions
In the late seventeenth century it became customary, though perhaps only among
the aristocracy, for women to participate in expeditions like men. One of the
chronicles reports that they began to ride on mule-back, spear in hand with their belts
tightened, and their Mmmas, or togas, draped over their heads. This "unladylike"
behaviour incurred the displeasure of Emperor Iyasu I who accordingly issue a decree,
in 1691, ordering the practice to cease.
Noblewomen acquired increased prominence again some seventy or so years

later during the paramountcy at Gondar of Ras Mika'el Sehul who insisted, according
to Bruce, that female fief-holders who had previously mobilised their dependants for
war, without joining them, should actually do so, in order to "compose a court or
2
company" for his then consort Wayzaro Aster.
Wayzaro Aster, consort of Ras Mika'el Sehul, who accompanied the

latter on his expeditions. From an early 19th century engraving,
inspired by a sketch by James Bruce, in M. Russell, Nubia and
Abyssinia (Edinburgh, 1833.)
The bulk of women attached to the army in this period, as previously, wen
however, not aristocratic fief-holders, but humble camp-followers. Mika'eTs soldier;
at the battle of Sarbakusa in 1771 were thus accompanied, according to Bruce, 1
"above 10,000 women." Some carried "provisions, horns of liquor, and mills fc
grinding corn, upon their backs," while about a hundred carried gambos, |
earthenware jars. There were, in addition, "idle women of all sorts," who wer
"mounted on mules," and after Mika'ePs defeat, were, perhaps not surprisingly, "ha!
dead with fear, crying and roaring." 3
2
Guidi (1903) 157; Bruce (1790) IV, 177.
3
Bruce (1790) IV, 121-2, 191, 222.
116
State Banquets
The women's attendance at State banquets in the Gondar period

extent of
seems depended on political and other circumstances. At the close of the
to have
seventeenth century Emperor Iyasu I was reported by Poncet to have been visited
"after dinner" by his consort, which may suggest that she - and probably other women
- had not been present at the meal. The situation was, however, different during the
\ Regency of Empress Mentewwab, for she was seated, according to the Armenian
, traveller Tovmacean, on a "high decorated platform" over which she presided with her
grandson Emperor Iyo'as.
Bruce, who visited the Ethiopian capital only a decade or so later - and was, it
should be recalled, not always too reliable a story-teller - claims that men and women
at State banquets consorted together "with absolute freedom," and paid tribute "both
to Bacchus and to Venus." His account of couples rising from their benches to make
love, while screened by the sammas of fellow diners, is uncorroborated by other
observers, and would appear essentially fictitious. This was indeed the opinion of the
,
Swiss missionary Gobat who, writing on the basis of his residence at Gondar little
more than half a century later, declared that he could "scarcely believe" that the feast
of which the Scotsman had given "so disgusting a delineation, could ever have taken
4
!
place, excepting among the grossest libertines of the country."
Marriage
An attempt marriage reform was made by the church council called

at limited
at Gondar by Emperor Yohannes I in 1668, which laid down that no man should
marry his sister-in-law, and no woman her brother-in-law.
The general pattern of marriage seems, however, to have undergone little

change since medieval times. Many marriages, at least in the aristocratic circles
frequented by Bruce, seem to have been unstable. The principle of permanent
monogamous marriage, as laid down by the church, he felt, was not in fact binding,
and, "like most other duties," was little more than a matter for discussion, "to be
,
laughed at in conversation." As an example of the extent of divorce then prevalent

1 among the Gondar nobility he claims to have seen "a woman of great quality" in the
company of no less than "seven men who had all been her husbands, none of which
,
I was the happy spouse at that time." This, like several of the Scotsman's other
anecdotes, should not be taken too literally, but probably contained some kernel of
5
|
truth.
4
Foster (1949) 119; Nersessian and Pankhurst (1982) 86; Bruce (1790) III, 304; Gobat (1850) 474.
5
Guidi (1903) 8; Bruce (1790) III, 292, 306. The early nineteenth century French Saint Simonian
travellers Combes and Tamisier (1838), II, 105, later claimed that Ethiopians never married more than
three times, and that Bruce's above account was therefore erroneous.
117
Clothing and Jewellery
The royal women of Gondar were often exceedingly well dressed, with many
imported luxury clothes, as is evident both from descriptions and paintings of the
period. Iyasu Fs consort, Empress Malakatawit, for example was "covered all over,"
Poncet says, "with jewels, and magnificently cloath'd," while the monarch's sister was
"mounted upon a mule richly accoutred," and was flanked on each side by two women
who carried a canopy over her.
Among the common people it was not uncommon at this time, at least in Tegre,
for women to be extensively decorated with beads, but, as Bruce learnt to his cost,
these were subject to frequent changes in fashion. Recalling an attempt to use some
beads, which he had obtained from Arabia, as articles of barter, he observes: "To our
great disappointment, the person employed to buy our beads at Jidda had not
received the last list of fashions from this country; so he had bought us a quantity
beautifully flowered with red and green, as big as a large pea; also some large oval,
green, and yellow ones; whereas the ton now among the beauties of Tigre were small
sky- coloured blue beads, about the size of small lead shot, or seed pearls; blue
bugles, and common white bugles, were then in demand, and large yellow glass, flat
in the sides." The result of this change in fashion was that all his beads were "rejected,
by six or seven dozen of the shrillest long tongues I ever heard." Some of the better-
to-do Hazorta women near the Red Sea coast, according to the Scotsman, were by
this time also making extensive use of beads which they placed in their hair, while
wearing copper bracelets on their arms.
Another decorative practice, adopted by women at the time of their marriages,

was to paint their nails, the palms of their hands, and their feet from their ankles
downwards, with the yellow dye moqimoqo (Rurnex abyssinicus). 6
6
Foster (1949) 120-1; Bruce (1790) III, 71, 107-8, 737.
118
PART THREE
THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

Wayzaro Sahay, a noblewoman of early 19th century Adwa, seated on a couch, with servants or slaves in
attendance. Note incense burning on the right. From G. Valentia, Voyages and Travels (London, 1809).
120
I
CHILDREN, EDUCATION AND LITERACY
Children's Work
It was the custom in the northern highlands for an infant immediately

after birth
to be taught to taste butter, often mixed with a little honey; As long as the child drew
nourishment from the breast, it passed the night on the bosom of its mother, or, in the
case of the aristocracy, on that of a nurse, for women of the upper classes, Gobat
states, seldom looked after their offspring in person. The infant at the end of the first
month had no other cradle during the day than the back of its mother, or nurse, who
would take it by both its hands, and place it between her shoulders. In this way it
soon learnt to cling with its feet around her sides, and lay its hands upon her shoulders
to sustain its weight. She for her part secured the little one, by passing around her
An Ethiopian shepherd-boy, with traditional sheepskin cloak,an engraving from G. Massaia, I miei
trentacinque anni di missione neW alta Edopia (Rome and Milan, 1885-95).
Children in the average home acted from the age of around seven as servants,
or assistants, to their parents. Sons, until the age of about fourteen or fifteen, were
generally occupied as shepherds or herdsmen for their fathers, though if the latter
121
were in straightened circumstances their offspring might leave them at the age of eight
or nine or so, and obtain support by tending other people's livestock. Daughters, like
their mothers, were chiefly engaged in household duties, and, while very young, almost
indeed as soon as they could walk steadily, began carrying large jars of water which
in many cases had to be obtained at a considerable distance from the house. Later,
when perhaps only eight or nine years old, they had to gather and carry fire-wood. At
the age of fourteen or fifteen they began the task of grinding grain. Such menial work,
however, usually came to an end after marriage, for, unless their families were
extremely poor, the responsibility of grinding and carrying wood and water was passed
1
on to young female relations - or slaves.
Adoption Practices
In times of difficulty the upkeep of children was often entrusted to better-off

kinsmen or even complete strangers. Adoption was sometimes induced by abandoning
youngsters in the vicinity of the proposed foster-parent's house. During the rains of
1814, for example, when food supplies were scarce, "several" children were thus
"dropped at the doors of respectable people" in Adwa, as Nathaniel Pearce, a British
resident in the city, reported. He spoke from personal experience, for one dark and
rainy night a little boy some four years old had been left at his house. He looked
after the toddler for about six months, until one day the mother, who came from a
village five miles away, called on him. She explained that her husband, the boy's father,
had been killed in battle, and that she had therefore been unable to look after her
offspring. In her distress she had placed the child at the Englishman's door, and had
watched at a distance till he was taken into the house. She had then gone to another
woman, to whom she had told the whole story, and who now came forward to bear
testimony to its truth. The mother, having subsequently married again, and become
relatively prosperous as a result of a good harvest, felt once again able to provide for
her child whom she wished restored to her. Pearce, who declares that the little mite
had by then grown fond of him, took the matter to the local elders. They ruled that
it was entirely up to him whether he restored the infant or not, or at least that no one
could force him to part with the child until he had been reimbursed for the
maintenance he had expended. The mother had "abandoned it," the elders said, to the
"mercy of the hyenas" from whose jaws he had delivered it. The poor woman, however,
fell athis feet, and declared that she would "ever pray" for her son's benefactor.
2
Pearce duly acceded to her request.
Reminiscences of Shepherd Children
Valuable on childhood preoccupations and attitudes of this time is

light
embodied correspondence of Akafede Dalle and Otsu Aga, two Oromo
in the dictated
slaves, as written down by Karl Tutschek, their tutor in Germany. Akafede, recalling
his life as a shepherd boy, and his relations with his parents, other elders, and
members of his own age group, observed: "I used to make my father and mother very
Gobat (1850) 470-1. For similarities in the upbringing of Falasa children see Flad (1869) 27.
2
Pearce (1831) II, 171-2
122
angry because as a shepherd boy whenever I saw my hiria [i.e. age group] go collecting
sorghum heads I used to go with them and abandon the cattle. Whenever I went
collecting the sorghum I never carried home a small quantity because my mother was
fond of it, and I was more afraid of my mother than of my father. When she ate them
she was pleased with me. One day I and a man from our village took the cattle to the
hora [i.e. the spring]; when the animals drank and came up from the spring I saw the
other boys asking permission from their brothers to go back to collect sorghum heads.
I too asked permission from the man from my village. I said, 'Let me go and collect
heads for my mother.' The man said I could go. He was not a bad man. So I went
with the other children. When the children of the people to whom the heads belonged
saw us they assembled and waited for us. When we came near to them they asked
us, 'Where are you going?.' We replied that we were going to get sorghum heads.
They replied, 'You can't take our sorghum unless you want to be beaten up. Try your
luck another time!' After thinking for a while we egged each other on to go ahead
with the plan. One of the farmers in the valley below was cutting sorghum. He called
to us. 'Come here. Take some heads!,' he said. T have sown both white and ordinary
sorghum. If you cut it for me you can take some heads.' Because we wanted the heads
we cut the sorghum for him ...
"Some children collected too many heads, and when they could not carry
them home, they threw some of them away, but those who were strong
enough picked up what the other children had dropped. I walked behind
and gathered what the others had discarded. After walking a while I came
to a ridge called Hula. I could not climb this ridge. As I was tired I threw
away some heads, and said goodbye to the other children. Those children
who had thrown away some heads before then turned round and picked
up what I had thrown away because their load had become light. We
travelled along the ridge and came to a mountain called Tulu Tulam. At
the foot of this mountain the children threw away the heads they had
collected when I threw them away. I immediately picked up the heads they
had thrown away as they had done when I threw them away. Having thus
regained my sorghum there was nothing more for me to do that evening
but to go home. The heads I brought home I divided between our relatives
and neighbours."
The shepherd boys often got into scrapes of one kind or another, for Otsu
recalls:"One day we went to the hora. When we became hungry we went poaching.
While I was stealing baqqolo [i.e. corn] the owners saw me, and caught and beat me.
I threw away everything I had taken and fled. I began weeping because I was very
angry. I arrived home in no time. The owner of the corn could not run fast because
he was very irritated. He came in the evening, and accused me to my father. He said,
'Your son stole my grain today,' and then my father beat me. He beat me severely.'"
On another occasion, Otsu he secretly went out hunting, and because he

recalls,
had gone away without Reverting to his
telling his father, incurred a further beating.
love of hunting, the youngster observed, "In my country I had a good bode [i.e. spear].
I and my brothers used to take a big dog with us and go hunting together." He later
went on: "the children of the twntii [i.e. blacksmiths] used to go hunting to kill giige
[i.e. doves] and weni [i.e. colobus monkeys]. Whenever we killed a weni we used to
quarrel amongst ourselves as to who had killed it. One would say, T struck it first.'
Others would say the same. When we could not decide who had hit it first we would
123
call a mangudo [i.e. elderly man] to arbitrate. Whenever we quarreled, and came near
to breaking our heads, our mothers would punish us, exclaiming, 'Why are you
bickering in this way?'
Akafede shared his friend's passion for hunting, and declared,"When I was in my
country I, together with the other children, often used to hunt partridges. One day
while we were hunting them we came upon a wild cat. The big boys rushed shouting
towards it, but the cat did not run away. It turned on the children and growled. The
children stopped because they were afraid. There was nothing to do, but to go and
bring a dog. At this point a boy came running across the field. He said, 'Why are you
standing there instead of killing it? Give me a spear!' The children replied, 'If you go
and strike this cat you will become our hero.' The boy did not take the spear that was
offered him, but instead picked up a pointed stick and a club, and then advanced
towards the cat. As he moved towards it the animal growled at him as it had done at
the other children, but the boy was not afraid. He stood some distance away, threw
the pointed stick at the cat, and pierced it in the ear. It immediately closed its eyes
and rushed to attack him. When
came near, the boy struck at its feet with the club.
it
The creature fell down screaming. The children who had earlier not dared to approach
3
now came forward and helped to finish it off."
The Slave Trade
The abundant records of this period show that many children continued to be
captured in war or seized by raiders, and were then sold as slaves. "Young persons
of both sexes," Pearce states, were often taken while attending their flocks. There
were a "large number" of adventurers, according to the French Saint Simonians
Combes and Tamisier, whose "sole occupation" was in fact to steal children. These
men would hide in the forests or by springs to trap young girls coming to draw water
or gather firewood. They would then ride off with the most comely, and sell them to
local merchants who would subsequently dispose of them to travelling caravans.
A large proportion of the slave children were taken from the southern provinces.
The Protestant missionary J.L. Krapf, describing the seizure of children from the
Gurage area, states that though they slept beside their parents they would nevertheless
be seized numbers. Kidnappers would break into the children's houses at
in large
night, place a large stickupon the necks of adult members of the family to immobilise
them, and then run off with the youngsters. If the latter attempted to make an outcry
a rag would be stuffed into their mouths. As a precaution against such attacks children
were often made to sleep on beams across the upper part of their houses or had thick
sticks placed over them, but the raiders had their ways of overcoming such obstacles.
If they were unable to break into a house, or failed to get at the children within it,
they would set fire to the building by night, having first dug a pit around it into which
the inhabitants would fall in trying to escape, and the children would be seized amid
the general confusion. Though most slaves were captured, some, as several observers
report, were actually sold into slavery by their parents, particularly when the latter
were destitute or unable to pay their taxes.
3
Pankhurst and Adi Huka (1975) 39-47; Pankhurst (1976) 98-110.
125
Slave caravans invariably included large numbers of youngsters, many of whom,
according to the English traveller C. T. Beke, were "children of eight or nine years at
most." The British envoy Cornwallis Harris states that "caravans, consisting of from
one hundred to three thousand individuals of all ages," passed through Sawa "during
the greater part of the year." "Three-fourths" of the captives were "young boys and
4
girls, many of them quite children", nine-tenths of the girls being below ten years old.
Church Education
Education, as in the past, was almost entirely restricted to boys, and even among
them only "a small portion", according to Gobat, went to school. Most parents were
said to have been reluctant to send their sons for study, lest they became monks - as
many no doubt did. Many would-be students therefore deserted their homes to obtain
education through their own unassisted efforts. Such youngsters often served during
the day as domestic servants, and received their instruction at night. Others wandered
the streets, begging for their daily sustenance. There were, however, a few wealthy
philanthropists who made a habit of supporting children of poor parents, and of
providing them with education. Teaching was essentially free, and when the French
traveller Antoine d'Abbadie, who took some courses from Ethiopian churchmen,
offered to pay for them, he was invariably told that learning was "not sold like base
merchandise," and that the honour of the teaching body "expected that knowledge
should be transmitted freely as it had been received." Education was, however, not
universally favoured, and a nephew of the Ecage, one of the principal churchmen at
Gondar, went so far as to observe that it was "not so valuable an acquisition" as some
supposed, for "knowledge corrupted the heart."
The sons of the nobility were in many cases sent to convents where they were
taught to read the Psalms in the classical Ethiopian language, Ge'ez, and to commit
them to memory. As soon as the youngsters had learnt to read, whether well or badly,
they would usually leave school, and be instructed in the arts of war and government,
after which they would be entrusted by their father with a district to govern. They
would then be surrounded with servants, and, before long provided with a wife, would
live the life of a nobleman and soldier for the rest of their days.
Some however, received considerably greater education. Kasa, the future

chiefs,
Emperor Tewodros, for example, "having learnt to recite Dawit," as a chronicler says,
proceeded to a monastery for further study. His namesake, the future Emperor
Yohannes IV, is likewise reported to have "studied the Books of the Old and New
Testament, as well as the ecclesiastical and royal traditions," after which he too went
to a monastery, and spent his time "listening to the interpretations of the Holy Books
in order to build up his mind in the faith of the Holy Trinity." On reaching maturity
he was instructed in martial arts, and was so proficient in these, his chronicler claims,
that "when he threw the spear, he never missed anyone," and "when he aimed with
his gun, he never missed wild animals, nor eagles, nor birds of the sky." Young Kasa,
as a child of the mid-nineteenth century, also learnt how to repair fire-arms, "and
acquired skill in fitting, unscrewing and repairing rifles and guns, as well as skill in
4
Pearce (1831) II 9; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 97-8; Isenberg and Krapf (1838), 179-80; Krapf
(1867) 46; Johnston (1844) I, 310; Beke (1844) 20-1; Harris (1844) I, 310; Harris (1844) I, 223-4, III,
307-8. See also Pankhurst (1868) 82-92.
126
racing horses as fast as an eagle." The future Emperor Menilek, by contrast, was
entrusted to a tutor, as his chronicle relates.
An Ethiopian priest with two of his church-school pupils, dressed traditionally in skin cloaks. One of the
students holds a parasol respectfully to shield the master from the sun. From T. Waldmeier, The
Autobiography of Ten Years in Abyssinia (London and Leominster, 1886).
from noble families, by contrast, had virtually no educational opportunities,

Girls
for they were taught, Gobat says, "little but spinning and culinary duties." A "few
women of distinction" nevertheless succeeded in one way or other in learning to read.
Most women, however, were married at an early age, often when only eight or nine
years old, and, spending much of their time bearing children, seldom afterwards
appeared in public, at least until after the death of their husbands.
127
Children in the Christian highlands went to two essentially different types of
church school. The first, which may be considered essentially as primary schools, were
small village establishments, usually run by a single priest or ddbtdra, i.e. lay cleric.
The other schools, which were fewer in number, were larger, and academically more
advanced, institutions comparable to secondary schools - or in some instances even to
universities, where a number of teachers, priests, dabtaras, or monks, specialised in
different subjects.
Village schools, concerned largely with the reading, and memorisation, of the
Psalms, were found throughout the Christian highlands. They were generally held,
according to Pearce, "in a churchyard, or in some open place near it, sometimes
before the residence of the master." Students, in the latter case, would seek shelter
during the rains in their teacher's dwelling, and would be "all crowded up in a small
dark hut, learning prayers by word of mouth from the master, instead of a book."
Larger, more advanced, schools were attached to major churches or monasteries,

in many cases located at provincial or other capitals. Students attending such
establishments followed more specialised courses than were available at village schools.
The church of Giyorgis at theSawan capital, Ankobar, was thus attended in the late
1830's by sixty childrenwho received instruction from six teachers. Krapf, who visited
this school, found that ten pupils were studying reading; twenty, singing; and thirty,
poetry. All declared that they hoped to go to Gondar to "take holy orders." At another
of the town's churches a teacher called Arkaledes taught church chanting to no less
than a hundred pupils.
Sizeable schools were also established in other major towns. At Adwa, for
example, the British military expedition of 1867-8 found "five or six schools" where
children learnt to read, and where "the Psalms, the Scriptures, the ceremonies of the
church, and singing, were taught." Among the students were several blind boys who
were instructed in "learning by heart." The great religious centre of Aksum also had
at least one school of renown where many children, because of the city's status as a
place of asylum, were left by their parents to study in times of war, as the German
traveller Gerhard Rohlfs later reported. Gondar, as the capital of the empire, had an
even larger number of students. Many flocked there because of the presence of the
Abun, or Patriarch, by whom they were duly ordained. The city's church schools,
however, also catered for many children of noble families who came, Rohlfs says, only
to learn how to read and write, and for the most part eschewed higher learning.
Church school students, according to d'Abbadie, were usually diligent, but, like
students in medieval Europe, had a hard They often lived in great poverty, had
life.
to beg for alms, and were in many cases little more than the servants of their masters.
Students wishing to attend the more important schools often had to travel considerable
distances. On leaving their home and family, they would put on their back a sack of
grain or pease, which, the Italian missionary De Jacobis states, would be their entire
subsistence for several months, after which they were obliged to beg. Journeys in
search of education might at times entail no small risk, particularly in periods of civil
war. Boys at Ankobar who hoped to make their way to Gondar for ordination
nevertheless told Krapf in 1839 that they were not afraid of attack by the Gallas on
the route, for their king, Sahla Sellase, would "charge a Galla Governor to take care
of them." Because of civil wars in the north some students, according to Harris, were,
however, "compelled to abandon their journey" and return to Sawa.
128
Church school students are reported to have been in many cases keenly
A youngster, on becoming "somewhat advanced in learning,"
interested in their studies.
Pearce reports, would often be "made to teach the younger ones." At the end of each
lesson the students, d'Abbadie reports, would frequently disperse on the lawn
surrounding the church, and memorise what they had learnt, at times attempting to
compose poetry or hymns which they would later recite or sing to their master. The
more enthusiastic pupils would likewise hold weekly study sessions at which one of
them would read out portions of the Scriptures discussed in the previous week. Gobat,
who had seen many such classes, reports that the group would "pause at every difficult
passage" and diligently consult each other as to its probable meaning. In case of
uncertainty the students would appeal to their teacher whose ruling would be
considered as final.
Not all students, however, were well motivated. Some indeed were so unruly
that their teachers had "great trouble" with them, and had to resort to various kinds
of punishment. It was not uncommon, according to Pearce, for the master to stand
over his students with a wax taper while five or six of them pinched the offender's legs
and thighs. If they spared him the teacher would strike them with his candle which
could cut as severely as a whip. The "correction considered most effective" was,
however, that of having fetters placed on the delinquent's legs, sometimes for many
months at a time. Inone instance a thirteen-year-old boy, who had more than once
contrived to remove and desert the school, was fitted with such heavy irons
his fetters
that he was unable to free himself. He became so enraged that he drew a knife and
committed suicide by cutting his throat. It was on the other hand not unusual,
according to d'Abbadie, for students fearful that they might run away from school,
themselves to demand chains which were in no way considered dishonourable.
Punishments might also be meted out by parents, particularly if they felt their children
showed insufficient interest in their studies. Students playing truant might likewise be
seized by fathers or mothers, and dragged to the church precincts where they were
taught, and have their legs chained together.
Notwithstanding the severity of their schooling, and the hard punishments

inflicted, many students became entirely devoted to their teacher. So far from
criticising their master, d'Abbadie states, they would "worship him with a kind of
veneration." On reporting in Gondar how his fellow students in Paris had once
naughtily eaten their teacher's meal, and had left nothing on his plate, he was greeted
with "such a deluge of reprobation" that he took good care "never to repeat the
scandal." This picture was confirmed by De Jacobis who states that though it was not
unusual for pupils to undertake the "most menial" service for their masters, their "filial
affection" seemed to make this "sweet and easy."
Higher studies, according to d'Abbadie, comprised five main fields of learning,

which could be compared to different colleges. These were consecrated respectively
to the New Testament; the Fathers of the Church; civil and canonical law; the Old
Testament; and astronomy. The latter branch of study had, however, then recently
fallen into disuse: he was personally acquainted with its last teacher or professor at
Gondar who had for many years been without a single student.
Study often involved great feats of memorisation, which, the Frenchman felt,
were beyond the ability of most Europeans, for he had not heard of more than one
129
of the latter who knew the entire Bible by heart, whereas no one could become a
professor in Ethiopia without memorising both the entire text and the traditional
interpretations, as well as variations in four or five manuscripts. Traditional Ethiopian
scholars, he insisted, were highly intellectual, and in Gondar, Gojjam and elsewhere
he had been able to hold discussions on religion, philosophy and even science which
were "quite as sophisticated and subtle" as any he could have in Paris or London.
Students seeking to become learned men had, in fact, to embark on a

remarkably extensive course of study. Having learnt to read, perhaps in a village
school, they were required to commit to memory the Gospel of St. John, and to study
several of St. Paul's Epistles and a number of the Homilies of John Chrysostom, after
which they were assigned the task of learning by heart the Psalms of David, the
Weddase Maryam, or Praises of Mary, and several prayers, and were also supposed
to memorise long lists of Ge'ez words, but few, Gobat believed, actually succeeded in
doing so. After this they would sit at the feet of renowned masters who would explain
to them the Scriptures and other texts, including the Fethd Ndgdst, or traditional
Ethiopian code of law. Such studies were, De Jacobis says, "perfectly despairing in
length." The course thus embraced seven years on zema, or chanting, nine years on
Sewasew, or Ge'ez grammar, and four on qene, or poetry, or a total of twenty years,
after which the student had still to face the Qeddusan mdsahaft, or sacred books of
the Old and New Testament. There were in addition courses in civil and canonical
law, astronomy and history, but "few students" had the courage to embark on them.
D'Abbadie, no less impressed by the extent of church studies, quoted one old
professor as telling him that he had learnt to read well in three years, after which he
had consecrated two more to learning to sing liturgical songs, five to grammar and the
composition of hymns, seven to the New Testament, and no less than fifteen to the
Old as it required a "considerable effort" at memorisation. He had thus devoted to
5
his education no less than thirty-two years.
Falasa Education
The education of the Falasa was essentially similar to

and in all probability
-
copied from - Teaching among the Falasa, as

that of their Christian compatriots.
among the Christians, was thus in the hands of priests, dahtdras and monks, and was
based, at the village level, on the study of Ge'ez and memorisation of the Psalms.
Falasa students desirous of following a religious vocation would, like Christian children
preparing for the Church, also study the Ethiopic Sewasew in order to translate
portions of the Ge'ez Bible, in many cases written out by Christian ddbtdras, into
5
Gobat (1850) 230, 318-9, 471-2; Antoine d' Abbadie (1868) 18-9; Pearce (1831) I, 330-1; Isenberg and
Krapf (1843) 86, 145-6; Holland and Hozier (1870), I, 397; Rohlfs (1883) 269, 302, (1885) 205, 227;
Herbert (1867) 81-2; Harris (1844) III, 295; Heuglin (1868) 261; Mondon-Vidailhet (1905) 2, 82; Bairu
Tafia (1977) 39-40; Guebre Sellassie (1930-1) I, 76. Confirmation of the extraordinary length of
traditional church studies is provided by Alaqa 'Enbaqom Qala Wald, a twentieth century scholar, who
states that to master reading and writing may take two years, zema, or music, in its various branches,
eight and a half years, qene, or poetry, five, the Old and New Testaments, four or five years, the
writings of the Church Fathers and rules of Spiritual Discipline, three years, computation of the church
calendar and mathematic training, six months, history, at least one year, and arts and crafts, four years.
"The average hard-working, intelligent student wishing to master all branches of traditional Ethiopian
church education," he says, would probably take thirty years, though some "highly gifted individuals"
might take "only twenty-five or even thirty-four." Imbakom Kalewold (1970) 1-2, 30-1. For another
account of tradional education, by Mangestu Lamma, see also E.S. Pankhurst (1955) 244-67.
130
Amharic for gatherings on the Sabbath and other festivals. Though their community
tended to live separately from the Christian population, Falasa children wishing to
become dabtaras, Flad reports, "for the most part" attended Christian schools. Classes
for FalaSa, like those for Christians, were attended almost exclusively by boys. On
asking why girls were not taught, he received the reply that it was "not becoming to
instruct females."
Several Falasa village schools were attended by sizeable numbers of students. At

the village of "Oibga," for example, the German Protestant missionary Henry Stern
met a teacher with over ninety students. Their graduation was often a great event, and
it was the practice in some areas when a pupil had memorised the whole Psalter for
his parents to give the teacher a Maria Theresa thaler, or other "small payment," with
the result, Flad believed, that the earnings of the priesthood were "sometimes
6
considerable." "Most" Falasa dabtaras on the other hand went to Christian schools.
Literacy
Literacy, which meant read or write in Ge'ez or Amharic -

in effect the ability to
for none of the other Ethiopian languages of the highlands were ever written - varied
considerably from one region to another. In the Amharic-speaking areas "about one
fifth of the male population," according to Gobat, had "some knowledge of reading."
This skill was significantly less extensive in Tegre where most people were unfamiliar
with Amharic, and where only about "one twelfth" of the menfolk could read. A
visiting Belgian consul, Edouard Blondeel, nevertheless concluded that literacy in the
country as a whole was not so different from that in Western Europe. The situation
in peripheral areas, however, was far less favourable. At Degsa, on the northern edge
of the plateau, for example, Salt states that there was no school, with the result that
there were "only a few people who could read the church Bible", and those who
obtained "this degree of knowledge" were "considered as priests; at least in their
opinion."
A considerable proportion of the literate population were in fact churchmen of

one kind or another. In Tegre, Mansfield Parkyns believed that the only persons who
could read were "some, but not all of the priests, the scribes, and a very few among
men of the highest rank," who, however, "rarely" understood what was written. The
position was apparently not so different in Bagemder where Theophilus Waldmeier
a generation later stated that reading was known only to the priests and dabtaras.
Proficiency in writing was far less extensive. "Few" people, according to both
Pearce and Gobat, even learnt to write, while Salt observed that "not one in twenty
could write the characters they read." Persons able to write were "chiefly occupied" in
producing charms. One such man, whom Salt saw at Degsa, travelled around the
country as "a physician as well as a priest." Charm-writing was a major, and often
lucrative, occupation of dabtaras, who turned out amulets, Consul Plowden declares,
against "every disease" known to man.
6
Flad (1869) 30, 32, 35-6; Faitlovitch (1905) 21; Veitch (1860) 32; Halevy (1877) 244-5.
131
among the Falasa, who likewise used Ge'ez, seems, at least by the
Literacy
1860's, tohave also been fairly limited. In one of their larger villages, Gorgora "Eila,"
Stern could not find a single person able to read fluently, while in two other places,
7
"Antonius" and "Atshergee," no one could "spell a single word.
The Effects of War
The civil wars of the late eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth century
appear to have led to a marked decline in education, literacy, and hence the demand
for manuscripts. Locally written Bibles, Gobat reported in the 1830's, could
"occasionally"be purchased for around 100 thalers, because people had given up
studying, and books were therefore "no longer wanted." A generation later Plowden
noted that manuscripts had "formerly" been "eagerly sought for", but by his day could
"be found very cheap," for there were "scarcely any purchasers" as the number of
8
persons that could read and write was "diminishing daily."
7
Gobat (1850) 472; Blondeel (1838-42) 64; Valentia (1809) II, 508-9; Parkyns (1853) I, 155; Waldmeier
(1886) 16; Pearce (1831) I, 331, 391;GB House of Commons (1868) 110; Stern (1862) 212, 245, 259,
265, 268.
8
Gobat (1850) 319; GB House of Commons (1868) 110. Gobat, quoted a Gondar priest of his
acquaintance as stating that there were in the city (which then had a population of around 6,000)
"about three hundred persons who can read." Gobat: 257. See Pankhurst (1982) 267.
132
THE PEASANTS
Classes in the Rural Economy
The agricultural population in the early nineteenth century consisted, according

to Plowden, of three main categories: small peasants, farm labourers, and rich
proprietors. The "small proprietors and peasantry" were by far the most numerous of
the three groups, and indeed represented the backbone of the nation. Full of industry,
as Salt noted, they bore, directly or indirectly, "the whole burden of taxation," as well
as "most" of the exactions of the "large standing armies" which were frequently
quartered on them. These peasants, according to the British consul, nevertheless
appeared "attached to their way of life," and, though seldom wealthy," were "rarely in
distress." Like mountaineers in other lands they manifested a love of liberty and
impatience of restraint. Spending much of their time in the open air, and benefiting
from the country's genial climate, they were "hardy in youth," but aged quickly.
The rich proprietors by contrast were relatively few in number. Like the
peasantry they were despised and insulted by the soldiery, but made up for their "want
of strength", Plowden says, by various "politic wiles" - and in this way probably
succeeded in escaping most of the burden of taxation.
The agricultural labourers, who seem to have been fewer in number than the
independent peasantry, differed from the latter in that they worked not for themselves,
but for landlords who paid them a small daily wage, usually in kind. Many such
labourers were employed in one way in specialised work, for they included diggers,
grass-cutters and wood-cutters. The diggers, or kofari, were engaged to dig the land
on steep slopes which could not be ploughed in the normal way. Cultivation took place
on even very difficult land, where Salt saw "laudable attempts" being made even where
these yielded "nothing but stones, weeds, thorny bushes and acacias." The grass-cutters
for their part collected large loads of grass, or, during the summer, tef straw, for the
landowners, and were provided in return with a small number of salt bars, the
equivalent, Pearce thought, of about three Maria Theresa dollars a year. The wood-
cutters, equipped with axes and bill-hooks, cut trees both for fire-wood and to clear
1
land for tillage.
Agricultural Implements and Practices
Agricultural techniques had probably changed little since medieval times.

Farmers in the northern and central highlands made use of a small light plough drawn
by two oxen. Bruce, in the late eighteenth century, suggested that this instrument was
made entirely of wood, but Salt half a century later noted that an iron ploughshare
was also sometimes used. The ploughman held the end of this implement in one hand,
and in the other a large whip with which he directed his animals, who, according to
Pearce, were "trained to be very steady." Cows were never put into the yoke, but were
1
Plowden (1868) 134-5; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 258; Salt (1814) 253; Pearce (1831) I, 342.
133
reserved for either milking or eating; oxen, on the other hand, were seldom killed
unless unable to work. Fields on the sides of mountains too steep to plough were dug,
as we have seen, by hand.
The typical Ethiopian ploughshare, as described in the early nineteenth century

by the German Eduard Riippell and the Frenchmen Ferret and Galinier, consisted of
a piece of wood 30 centimetres long by 12 wide, roughly joined to a long tree-trunk
at an angle which depended on the depth of the furrow which it was desired to cut.
The ploughshare was usually covered with a piece of very poor quality iron. This bent
at the least resistance it encountered so that its repair wasted much time for the
peasant which, as Ferret and Galinier argued, could otherwise have been spent on
productive work.
The peasantry were familiar with the idea of crop rotation, so that land which
was considered exhausted was from time to time left fallow, or sown with different
crops. Cultivation of tef and legumes, such as peas and vetches, were thus alternated
for several years, after which fields were for a time left idle. Virtually no use was,
however, made of manure, for which reason the land, Riippell says, had in many
places to be left fallow every other year. Some of the best yields were obtained from
ground covered with stones, for they helped to retain moisture in the earth, and
perhaps for that reason, Plowden states, were never removed.
When land had to be cleared for cultivation the peasants would begin by cutting
down the trees and bushes, which they would then pile over the remaining stumps.
These when dry would then be set on fire. After this the ground would be ploughed
over two or three times, and thus made ready for cultivation.
Weeding, the next operation, was "one of the most irksome of toils," for "the
luxuriance of the soil", Salt says, produced "a great number of weeds." To eradicate
them the soil would often be turned over twice, after which the peasants would "pick
out most carefully every root." If there were not sufficient men for this work, women
and children would gather together, and, "forming a line along the field, and with
singing, and much merriment," would "pluck forth all the weeds from the corn." Where
the land belonged to a chief he would in many cases supervise operations in person.
Having "mustered every soldier in his service" he would march at their head to his
fields where they would "lay down their arms, form into a line, join in the chorus to
a song, and, in general led by a female, march on plucking up the weeds." In this way,
Pearce recalls, they would soon make their way through a number of fields, "throwing
the weeds down as they pluck them, and leaving the farming-men, boys, and girls, to
carry them to the borders of the field." Much of this work was carried out
cooperatively, for "the Abyssinians always helped each other to weed their corn."
The labour of reaping, which was carried out with small wooden-handled iron
sickles with tiny teeth, was on the other hand "entirely thrown on the females". When
harvesting barley they would tie the stalks together in sheafs which they would take
home and beat with small sticks - which Riippell considered "a surprisingly laborious"
way of handling cereals.
135
An agricultural labourer from Agame in Tegre in traditional dress, carrying his hoe. An engraving from
T. Lefebvre and others, Voyage en Abyssinie (Paris, 1845-8).
136
Threshing was carried out in the Biblical way, the grain being trodden by oxen,
mules and horses. Winnowing, which was in many cases women's work, was then
effected by throwing the grain in small quantities into the air, the husk being thus
blown away by the wind.
Irrigation, though far from universal, was practised, Plowden notes, "whenever
necessary" - or possible, and in view of the "numerous rivulets" was "an easy task."
Small channels, as Salt noted in Tegre, would be dug from the higher parts of a
stream to conduct water across a nearby plain which would be criss-crossed with small
ditches to form "small compartments." Irrigation of this kind, based on ditches about
two feet wide, was also used in some areas for the cultivation of cotton.
'1
Two sanga cattle whose long horns were used for the manufacture of wanta, or drinking horns. From
H. Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia (London, 1814).
Burning was widely practiced by the peasantry for a number of reasons: to clear
land for cultivation, to curtail the growth of bushes, and to destroy rats, mice, moles
and insect pests, as well as to fertilise the soil. It was by no means unusual in the
northern highlands, Riippell states, to see the "splendid sight" of as many as twenty
2
huge fires, some of which might take as much as an hour to pass on mule-back.
2
Bruce (1790) III, 115, 561; Valentia (1809) II, 507, III, 125, 230, 232; Pearce (1831) I, 200, 204, 343, 345-
6; Riippell (1838-40) I, 236, 312, II, 155, 160-1; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 397; Lefebvre (1845-8)
III, 255-6; Plowden (1868) 135-6; Salt (1814), p. 253.
137
The peasantry also devoted much time to animal husbandry, including the
milking of cows, which was mainly carried out by men, and the watching of cattle
which, as we have seen, was a task generally given to boys.
The Harvest Cycle
The harvest cycle varied greatly from one part of the country to another. It
depended partly on the timing of the main rainy season, which started first in the
south and gradually moved northwards, and partly on altitude and hence on
temperature. The various crops moreover were sown and harvested at different times
of the year. In the northern highlands of Tegre for example the peasants began to
plough in the middle of April, when the small rainy season started, in order to open
up the soil, Ferret and Galinier explain, to air and water. Sowing would then take
place in April and May for durrah, dagiisa, or finger-millet, and beans, in June for
barley, wheat and lentils, and in the next two months, immediately before the main
rainy season, for tef and broad beans. Other plants were sown at the conclusion of
3
the rains, in October and November.
Fertility of the Soil, Productivity, and Crop Yields
The fertility of the soil, though varying immensely, even within short distances,
impressed foreign observers. Tegre, though in many places rocky, appeared to Salt,
"highly productive," and capable of yielding "a very abundant harvest", while Parkyns
observed that even "the most careless observer" could not but "fail to mark" the
"extreme richness" of the soil, and the "great capabilities of the land." Dambeya,
according to the French Scientific Mission, was particularly fertile; Gojjam seemed
to Combes and Tamisier "well cultivated and rich in pastures;" and the land of Sawa
was so good, Beke believed, that it could "produce everything."
Agricultural productivity likewise varied considerably from one area to another,

because of differences in the climate and the fertility of the soil. Most highland areas
produced only one main crop a year, but some lowland areas, as Salt and Pearce
noticed, allowed for two, and where irrigation was practiced, as in the early nineteenth
century by the governor's wife at Calaqot in Tegre, no fewer than three harvests were
obtained.
Crop yields were probably not so from those seen by Bruce in the
different
previous century. The meticulous German Ruppell reported that wheat yields
traveller
were six-fold on bad, eight on good, and as much as eleven on exceptional land, while
the French Scientific Mission thought that they ranged, for both wheat and tef, from
about eight to sixteen in the highlands, but could reach no less than sixty in the plains
of Wagara and some river valleys.
The yields of various grains and cereals, as given by various travellers, were as
follows:
3
Ferret and Galinier (1847), II, 397-8.
138
Crop Traveller
French Scientific Ferret and Galinier Girard

Mission
Wheat 16 14 - 16 16
Tef 15 - 20 20
Dagusa, or
Finger-Millet 45 24-45 50
Masilla or sorghum 100
Barley 15 - 25
Lentils 18 - 20
Chick-peas 9 - 12
Broad beans 7-8
Oats 15 - 25
Notwithstanding satisfactory crop yields harvests were far from regular, and
failures not infrequent. The peasantry was therefore inevitably much concerned with
the question of crop yields, and this preoccupation entered the county's folk memory,
as reflected in several Ethiopian folktales. In one a hard-working farmer sows ten
dawidla of cereals, i.e. the equivalent of 40 to 50 litres, only to receive a harvest many
months later of nine dawulla. When he bemoaned his fate a companion, who was a
wit, declares that he has probably lost nothing, for the nine dawulla, if remeasured
more carefully, might well turn out to be actually ten. In another story a farmer sows
three dawulla, and reaps no more than four, whereupon his companion ridicules him,
observing that if he had boiled the same amount of beans he would have obtained a
4
similar increase - and would have saved himself the trouble of cultivating the land.
Barbare, or Red Pepper
Many peasants produced barbare, or red pepper, which played an important role
They dug and fenced small allotments which they sowed and then
in the national diet.
planted out with small seedlings. These they covered with reeds, and frequently
sprinkled with water. When the plants were about a foot high they were transplanted
elsewhere. A plantation of seedlings covering only ten or twelve feet in circumference
was sufficient to fill a large field, which, according to Krapf, could earn its proprietor
between two and four Maria Theresa dollars. 5
Agricultural Taxes and Other Exactions
The peasantry throughout this period had to pay the gentry an inordinate
number of dues, and were subject, as in the past, to frequent and often arbitrary
depredations by the soldiers. The peasants, Plowden felt, were thus the victims of
"bad government, military oppression, and the constant devastations of war," and had
to bear "directly or indirectly, the whole burden of taxation and large standing
4
Ferret and Galinier (1847), II, I, 119; Lefebvre (1845-8) I, 122,
397-9; Salt (1814), 253; Parkyns (1853)
III, 256; Combes and Tamisier (1838) III, 262; Beke (1842) 86; Valentia (1809) III, 125, 232; Pearce
(1831) I, 200; Ruppell (1838-40), I, 31, 312; Girard (1873) 290; Moreno (1948) 28-30.
5
Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 435-6.
139
Winnowing. From T. Bent, The Sacred City of the Ethiopians (London, 1893).
armies." The system of taxation constituted, in fact, a continual source of harassment

and anxiety. Pearce, who had many opportunities to witness this at first hand, recalls:
"The peasants or labouring people, in all parts of Abyssinia, never know

when on which account they are obliged
their persons or property are safe,
to repair to the habitations of their chief on holydays, some presenting
bread, butter, honey, and corn, and others a goat, sheep, or fowls, to keep
in favour and to prevent him from sending his soldiers to live upon their
7
premises."
6
Plowden (1868) 135-8.
7
Pearce (1831) I, 340.
140
The extent of such depredations caused Plowden to observe that the position of
the peasants could be expected to "improve," they had a more peaceful government
if
and "some security." Proof of this was apparent in the neighbourhood of towns, where
"military license", as we shall see in a later chapter, was "in some degree checked by
the priests," and where the "ravages of war" were therefore "less felt," as a result of
which there were many "highly cultivated" fields. Such land was "eagerly sought for,"
and sold for "a good price," thus showing that "the sweets of tranquil labour" were "at
least appreciated." It was no less significant that many of the peasants of Dabat had
gone, according to Combes and Tamisier, to Balassa where they enjoyed "greater
security." In the greater part of the country, however, the peasantry suffered from
"numerous imposts" which varied "according to the traditionary customs of each
Besides having to pay a "certain portion" of their produce in kind to the Ras,
village."
or other great chief, and sometimes a regular tax in money, they were expected to
furnish oxen to plough the King's lands. The extent of the burden on the peasantry
can be illustrated by the case of "Temmenon," a Tegre farmer who had been
subjected, entirely without warning, to twice the usual tax. This, Parkyns reported, had
almost reduced him to bankruptcy, with the result that he had been "obliged to sell his
horse, mule, and several plough oxen." Even then the debt was still partly unpaid, and
the poor man was living in "perpetual fear" of a visit from the soldiers.
8
Taxes on the peasantry were normally paid at Masqal, the Feast of the Cross.
Such exactions were often fairly arbitrary, for, as Plowden noted, the governor had the
"right to oxen, sheep, goats, butter, honey and every other requisite for subsistence,"
and had to be:
"received with joy and feasting by his subjects whenever he visits them,
and can demand from them contributions on fifty pretexts - he is going on
a campaign, or has just returned from one; he has lost a horse, or married
a wife; his property has been consumed by fire, or he has lost his all in
battle, or the sacred duty of a funeral banquet cannot be fulfilled without
9
their aid."
A not dissimilar situation prevailed in Sawa where Douglas Graham, a member

of the British diplomatic mission, reported that King Sahla' Sellase was "continually
sending for cattle and honey and sheep in quantities," and added: "these offerings fall
hard upon all classes, for should the Governor give entirely from his own means, he
will find himself soon totally impoverished, and should he tax his people too roughly
in the preparation of his gift, complaints will inevitably reach the royal ear, which are
certain to strip the offender of government and remaining property." Some of the
King of Sawa's taxes were nevertheless basically reasonable. The Wahama tribe in the
A was area, according to the British traveller Charles Johnston, thus for example paid
Sahla Sellase each year "one ox for every hundred head of cattle in their herds," which,
according to Harris, amounted to only "three or four hundred" head on a herd of
"many thousand." The problem was, however, that the monarch was "ever sending
requisitions" for further livestock.
8
Pearce (1831) I, 339-40; Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 22; Parkyns (1853) 219-20; GB House of
Commons (1868) 107; Riippell (1838-40) II, 31: Plowden (1868) 135, 137-8.
9
Plowden (1868) 137-8; GB House of Commons (1868) 107.
141
Taxation in fact played so major a role in the peasant's life that Plowdwn went
so far as to declare that: "the prosperous or adverse condition of a village depends
almost entirely upon the rapacity or moderation of its immediate chief." Conditions
were at times so serious, when a harsh master was in charge, that some peasants
would actually have abandoned their lands, Plowden believed, were it not for a law
that empowered the local chief to seize them, and force them to cultivate their farms
or give security for their share of the tax. Any attempted flight would moreover be
opposed by other villagers, for, "though only three inhabitants should remain," they
were expected to pay the whole sum at which the village was assessed.
Notwithstanding such constraints one levy of taxes by Dajazmac Webe, the ruler of
Tegre, was so onerous that "the greater part of the people" according to Parkyns,
actually ran away from their villages.
The peasants from the obligation of having

also suffered, as in earlier centuries,
to provide hospitality to travellers of was customary for officials, state
all kinds. It
visitors from any province whether friendly or hostile, and anyone travelling under a
chiefs protection to be given free lodging for himself and his servants. Such travellers
were supposed, Pearce claims, to find their own provisions, and it was also "a general
custom", when a lodger killed a cow, sheep, or goat, "to give the skin to the owner of
the house, with a piece of meat, and frequently to ask him to meals," though this
"depended upon the good-will" of the lodger. Many travellers, however, expected to
be fed without giving recompense in return. The worst offenders were travelling chiefs,
who would "nearly ruin the inhabitants, by burning the doors of their houses, tables,
cattle-pens, etc. for fire-wood," and by killing their sheep and drinking their beer. On
such occasions, however, no one dared complain to the governor "for fear of having
his premises burned altogether, and himself chained and brought into some unjust
1
law-suit, which would inevitably drain him of his last farthing."
Despite such abuses relations between farmers and travellers were often
means untypical occasion he arrived at
courteous. Parkyns relates that on one by no
a village in Tegre only to find that all the inhabitants were at work in the fields. He
therefore satdown under a tree to await their return as evening was approaching. Not
long afterwards a number of villagers passed him, one of their number, "a very
respectable but warm-looking gentleman," making a low bow and wishing him good
evening. "I thought," he says:
"their going straight in saying nothing rather impolite; but this was
excusable, as no doubt they were much fatigued, and must have their
supper before they could attend to us. However, I was not long left in
suspense. Immediately on their entry there was a great bustle and moving
of skins and other articles of furniture. Meanwhile one of the boys who
had gone in came out again bringing me a large bowl of
with the others
new milk and before I had well begun my second turn, after each
to drink,
of my servants had had his, the respectable-looking man made his
appearance more respectable than before, but not so warm-looking, for
he had taken off his dirty breeches and sheepskin in which he had been
working ... He politely ushered me into the house. The bustle we had
heard had been occasioned by their placing skins, a couch etc. in the best
GB House of Commons (186*0 107;Graham (1844); Parkyns (1853) I, 218-9; Johnston (1844) I, 477;
Harris (1844), II, 203, III, 32;Plowden (1868) 137; Parkyns (1853) I, 219; Pearce (1831) I, 164-5.
142
hut, and removing some corn- jars and other utensils which had formerly
occupied it. Having himself arranged the couch for me, he seated me on
it and then going out brought us a good supply of provisions, serving me
with his own hands, and putting into my mouth the very supper which no
doubt was intended for himself; nor could I even induce him to sit down
with me, though he must have been very hungry. He also gave us
11
abundance of milk, and corn for the animals."
Relations between the peasants and travelling soldiers, however, were often less
cordial.Bands of the latter when in search of food would often form themselves into
small parties, and then go "from farmer to farmer, living at free quarters, no one
daring to deny them", unless they were "too exorbitant and unreasonable in their
demands." On such occasions, Pearce says, the peasants would "give a general alarm,
and raise the neighbouring villages to their assistance," with the result that "many lives"
were "often lost on both sides." When news of such clashes reached the ears of the
governor he would have both parties brought before him. If it were proved, on oath,
that the peasant had offered the soldiers everything reasonable, such as a goat, bread
and beer, the raiding party would be dismissed from service and their guns
confiscated. Should they have killed any of the peasantry the man or men who had
struck the fatal blow would be handed over to the relatives of the deceased. If, on the
other hand, it was found that the farmer had refused to give the soldiers a supper or
even lodgings he would be fined, in some cases more than he was able to pay.
Peasants and soldiers were often engaged in a seemingly unending battle of wits.
The former, in an attempt to save themselves from the latter's exactions, would dig
large underground pits, known in Amharic as gmidgwads which would be plastered
inside with cow-dung and mud, and, according to William Coffin, a British observer,
could hold as much as 300 to 400 gallons. Some of these pits would be dug in the
vicinity of towns and villages, but others would be in open fields. When an invasion,
or visitation by the soldiers was expected, the pits would be filled with grain, and other
valuables. Their mouths would then be very carefully covered, first with spars laid
close together, so that no earth might fall through, after which the area above them
would be filled with earth to bring it to a level with the adjoining ground. Should the
spot happen to be upon agricultural land the whole area would be ploughed over and
over to conceal the mouth of the gwudgwad, or, if on other ground, it was made to
appear like the land about it. If it was near a town or village, wood-ashes and rubbish
might well be thrown over it to give it the appearance of a dunghill. The custom of
burying grain, however, was so prevalent, and the soldiers "so well acquainted with the
mode of finding these hiding-places," that these "scarcely ever" escaped observation.
Armed clashes between the soldiers and the peasantry frequently resulted, and "more
blood," Coffin declares, was in general shed in this way than in "regular battles."
Tension of this kind continued throughout this period. Plowden a generation later
noted that the peasants in the northern provinces had soldiers "constantly" quartered
on them, "except in some districts that always turn out en masse to resist, and where
the troops dare not venture."
Notwithstanding the miseries inflicted by the troops the northern peasantry

would often follow the former's example by looting each other. "A whole province of
11
Parkyns (1853) I, 218-9.
143
cultivators" in times when the military were "engaged elsewhere," might thus meet,
Plowden records, "by accord," and "some thousands" of them would attack another
province, "destroying, burning and bequeathing feuds to distant generations."
The situation in Sawa by more

contrast tended to be peaceful, with the result
that the peasants, protected, Combes and Tamisier claims, by a "vigilant
administration," had "nothing to fear from the looting of the soldiers," and therefore
devoted themselves "with great energy to the cultivation of their lands, certain to
2
harvest after having sown."
The Effects of Warfare
The peasantry of the early nineteenth century suffered greatly from frequent
civil war. Scenes of destruction were reported by many observers of the period.
Pearce, who accompanied the forces of Ras Walda Sellase, governor of Tegre, in 1810,
describes for example how they burnt the town of Addi Gahso, after which, finding the
corn in the neighbouring fields ready to cut, they spent five days destroying it. They
then advanced "to the river Munnai, the finest country in that part of Abyssinia for
corn and cattle" and "stop.ped a week to destroy everything." Only a few months later
Wagsum Kenfu, the ruler of Lasta, advanced and burnt all the enemy"s "towns and
villages," after which he carried off what cattle he could find: "five thousand bullocks,
and a greater number of horses, mules, sheep and goats."
A decade or so later Ruppell reported that travelling towards the Takkaze in

western Tegre he did "not encounter a single inhabited village," but "only the ruins of
abandoned settlements." Gobat, writing of the country between Gojjam and Samen
where the "fiery banner" of civil war had waved for over 30 years, likewise observed
at about the same time that while passing through a "champaign country" with a "rich
and productive soil" he had not seen a "solitary village," and in a fifteen mile stretch
found nothing but "a desolate waste," without a hamlet and "scarce a vestige of
13
cultivation."
The situation in Sire, hitherto "one of the richest and most productive" districts
of Tegre, was not dissimilar. Lamma, the local governor, according to Parkyns, had
pillaged and "entirely ruined" the area. The land was in consequence "nearly deserted,"
and:
"where once were prosperous villages with their markets and a happy and
thriving people, the traveller now sees but a few wretched huts, vast tracts
of fertile land lying uncultivated, and, of the few inhabitants that remain,
many that were formerly owners of several yoke of oxen each are now to
be found clubbing together to cultivate just enough corn to pay their taxes
14
and keep themselves and their families from starvation."
12
Pearce (1831) I, 183^, 206-7; Plowden (1868) 135; Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 346.
13
Pearce (1831) I, 69, 72; Gobat (1850) 151-2.
14
Parkyns (1853) I, 223.
144
Conditions further north in Rohabayta were scarcely any better, for the "whole"
neighbourhood had been "reduced to extreme poverty," and the "entire population"
"scarcely" owned "as many cattle as one moderately rich man possessed prior to its
oppression."
A similar tale was told of parts of the north-west of the country, notably
Wagara. Ruppell reported that this province, once "the most cultivated and populated"
in the entire empire, had been ravaged by sixty years of civil war, with the result that
agriculture had been "destroyed", and the area "depopulated." Only a few herds of
cattle were to be found, tended by nomad-like families who did not remain there
throughout the year, but in the dry season withdrew to meadows near Lake Tana.
This picture is confirmed by Combes and Tamisier who recall that the civil wars of the
previous two generations had ruined the country, and much reduced its population.
The peasants in particular had suffered "greatly" from the fighting between Ras Marye
and Dajazmac Webe Farmers, "accustomed to see their harvests ravaged" and "their
.
huts pillaged and burnt by the enemy," no longer sowed "more than a very little land."
Many villages had been abandoned, and only their remains could be seen, so that what
had once been a "fine country" was no more than a "desert."
The ravages of war varied greatly, however, from one part of the country to
another, and were perhaps least felt in Sawa, which, as Gobat noted, had been spared
the "hard-fought strifes and bitter contentions" which had "embroiled the northern
provinces." By the third quarter of the century its ruler, King Sahla Sellase, had
nevertheless embarked on a series of expeditions which had "very much extended the
15
limits of his kingdom, especially to the south and west."
Causes of Conservatism
The numerous exactions levied on the peasantry were serious, not only because
they led to impoverishment and hampered production, but also because they stifled
initiative, and therefore led to general agricultural stagnation. Plowden, who had many
opportunities of talking with peasants in various parts of the country, states that the
though "ruder" than the soldiers, were on the whole "intelligent," and could be
latter,
expected to have improved their methods of cultivation - if only they had "a more
peaceful government and some security for property." They had, however, to be
convinced that it was "better to cross a river by a bridge than to wade through a
dangerous torrent; or that a mill for grinding corn is preferable to a slave-girl." How
16
they were to be convinced of this, however, the good consul does not specify.
Monkeys, Wild Hogs, Locusts and Other Pests
The peasantry also suffered grievously, as in former times, from the

depredations of various pests, including monkeys, wild hogs, porcupines, addax,
elephants, birds, and, particularly in the north of the country, swarms of locusts.
15
Parkyns (1853) I, 272; Pearce (1831) I, 69, 72; Ruppell (1838-40), II, 72; Combes and Tamisier (1838)
11,19, IV, 34; Arnauld d'Abbadie (1868) 149.
16
Plowden (1868) 136.
145
Monkeys and wild hogs were particularly serious at the beginning of the rains
when fields furthest from villages were "frequently" damaged by these animals, which,
Pearce says, were "very numerous" near the mountains. The "larger plains" were alone
exempt from such intruders. Monkeys were at times so brazen that Pearce on at least
one occasion saw an assemblage of them drive the peasantry from the field. The
beasts were only repulsed when reinforcements came from a nearby village, and even
then, seeing that these had no guns, the animals retired but slowly. In certain areas,
among them Sire, elephants were likewise a great nuisance, and would "pluck up the
young corn and trample it, as if done on purpose and out of mischief."
To protect their crops, peasants would often appoint guards, armed with slings
and stones, who remained in the fields both night and day. "It was also not
uncommon" Ruppell reports, "for the cultivators to place sticks over hollows in the
ground, which, when beaten, served like a drum to frighten away animal intruders,
while at night large bundles of reeds would be lit and swung in front of them." High
rustic platforms were often also erected so that the watchers could keep a look-out
17
in safety, as Plowden says, from both the hyena and the lion.
Locusts, against whom no defence, were an even more

there was virtually
formidable scourge. Gobat, who saw them at Addigrat in June
a "formidable army" of
1831, recalls that "the first signal of their approach was a noise resembling the hum
of many swarms of bees", but this rapidly grew in intensity, and before long resembled
that of "heavy hail at some distance". On going out of his house to discover whence
the sound originated he saw that "the air was teaming with locusts," which had "greatly
obscured" the light of the sun. He found, however, that the insects were merely an
"advance guard," for he "perceived, about a league distant, several faint clouds, as it
were, rising from the earth." This "mist" soon afterwards became "so thick," that it
"entirely hid" the sky and neighbouring mountains from view. As the insects
approached the noise "fully equalled the roaring of the sea", whereupon:
"terror filled every eye with weeping. The air was so darkened,
and alarm
that, we
could scarcely discern the place of the sun; and the earth was so
covered with these insects, that we could see nothing else. Children,
running about the fields, at only a stone's throw, could scarcely be seen
18
though the multitudes of locusts hovering about them."
Festivals and Saints' Days
Agricultural productivity throughout this time was significantly curtailed by the

fact that the peasantry in the Christian highlands was very religious, and abstained
from work on the country's numerous Saints' days and other festivals. Plowden, a
stern critic, comments that the peasants would have been "laborious", were it not for
such "priestly devices" which forced "the whole population to be idle for a third of the
1
year."
Pearce (1831) I, 280, 343-4; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 160-1; Plowden (1868) 136.
Gobat (1850) 392-3.
Plowden (1868) 135.
146
Commercialisation of Agriculture
Despite the decline of Gondar in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries some commercialised agriculture continued to be practiced in the
countryside around the old capital. Ruppell for example saw "countless herds of cattle"
being brought from Wagara to the city, whence they returned at the beginning of the
rains, while Combes and Tamasier report that there were many flocks in the
neighbourhood which furnished the old metropolis with "a large quantity of milk
products."
Commercialisation of agriculture likewise took place in several other areas,

notably in Hamasen and Saraye on the northernmost plateau, which, as in the past,
supplied wheat, durrah and other cereals for sale to Red Sea shipping at Massawa as
well as for export to Arabia. The pastoralists to the north and east of Hamasen also
20
produced butter which was taken to the port of Massawa for shipment to Jeddah.
Standard of Living
Notwithstanding their hard work and the relatively plentiful rainfall in the
highlands, the various extortions suffered by the peasantry meant that they lived but
There would seem no reason to dissent from the reasoned opinion of Henry
frugally.
Salt thatthough the chiefs on the whole fared "well," the "lower class" but "rarely"
obtained "sufficient, even of the coarse teff bread" of which their food almost entirely
21
consisted.
20
Ruppell (183840) II, 137; Combes and Tamisier (1838) I, 105, 189, II, 22; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part
II, 40; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 399.
21
Valentia (1809) III, 153-4.
147
Ill
THE SOLDIERS
The Multitude of Soldiers
One of the effects of many decades of civil war was that the country by the
middle of the nineteenth century was teeming with men under arms. Plowden
considered that they constituted not only the most powerful class, but also the "most
numerous" - the peasantry presumably alone excepted. The soldiers numbered "at
least 200,000" men, and were accompanied by an even greater multitude of camp-
followers, so that there were a total of perhaps "half a million idlers" who preyed on
the population at large. The number of soldiers was scarcely surprising, for there
were several provinces, such as Yajju, where "every man capable of bearing arms" was
a warrior, at least on his own land where he fought and ploughed alternately. All the
servants of a chief moreover were soldiers, the two terms being in effect synonymous.
The were peasants who went

vast majority of the soldiers, as in former times,
to war whenever and were expected as far as possible to
their overlords wished,
provide themselves with both weapons and provisions. Soldiers, though seldom in
receipt of regular pay, did not often suffer many deprivations. While on campaign,
Plowden reports, they were either "fed by a tax in corn" which they themselves
collected and therefore "soon doubled", or else took whatever they wanted from the
peasantry. Frequent expeditions in search of spoil were likewise often conducted
against "pagans."
While in service the soldiers were also provided by their ruler with frequent
meals, each of which, according to Plowden, resembled a feast. There were in addition
many palace banquets to which they were admitted "almost indiscriminately." At such
carousals they would be "gorged with raw meat, and excited by huge droughts of
mead," after which they would "recite their own warlike deeds," make "the most
vaunting promises of future heroism," and "obtain rich gifts," but, though they were
all armed, and often intoxicated, accidents and quarrels "seldom" occurred. The
soldiers also enjoyed good promotion opportunities, for the bravest, or more fortunate,
could expect to rise to high office, and benefit from the revenues accruing therefrom.
The soldiery, in the opinion of Parkyns, were, however, often recruited from
"among the worst of the people", those who "preferred idleness in peace and
plundering their neighbours in war to the more honest but less exciting occupation of
agriculture." Roaming from one standard to another, though they had no uniform,
they could "easily be distinguished," Plowden says, by their "air of military license."
They were moreover almost invariably proud, and tended to "despise all other classes
save the priesthood."
Each soldier who

could do so kept a lad to hold his shield, a donkey to carry his
provisions, a small tent in which to sleep,and "a wife to bring him water, make him
bread and wash his feet after a march." Since he lived largely on loot, and was, in the
more organised forces, entitled to a grain allowance for each dependant, the number
of camp-followers a soldier had was seldom a burden. A
soldier with a "good
reputation for courage," Plowden claims, was moreover "everywhere respected": he
148
2*
would be "flattered and caressed by many Chiefs," who would strive to secure his
services, and his name would be sung in ballads. He could therefore "with reason"
consider himself "equal to the proudest in the land," and "enter the tent of any Chief
on the day of festival, assert his right to the finest portions of meat, and demand the
strongest mead; not only without reproof, but with a cordial reception." The warrior's
life all in all was therefore "not disagreeable," and was moreover perhaps the "most
attractive style of life" to which a soldier could aspire.
Thesoldier's passion for "individual distinction, leading to immediate and solid

benefit," and the certainty that he might "by good fortune arrive at the highest rank,"
and thus command where once he had obeyed, were important in that they inspired
a "love for war." Pride engendered by soldiering likewise induced "a fiery impatience
of control," and an ambition that led to "unceasing rebellions and distraction." Soldiers
tended, as a result, to be "proud, mutinous, and insubordinate." There were in
consequence "frequent fights between rival bodies of men, though "a little severity,"
Plowden felt, would "soon ensure obedience." On one occasion, for example, Ras Ali's
guards, refusing to march to battle, had laid on the ground, and complained that they
had been starved for months, but the chief silenced soon them, "with unwanted
energy", by leading a cavalry charge over them.
In general the soldiery was, however, not to be trifled with, for each chief owed
his power entirely to the strength of his army. Warriors were fully aware of their
importance, and changed masters "without ceremony." A
military leader, faced with
defeat, or even the increased reputation of a rival, was therefore "much in danger of
being deserted by his army," and had therefore to treat his followers with courtesy.
Defection was, however, so frequent that there was no punishment for soldiers who
left their master's service - provided, Gobat says, that they did not run off with any
fire-arms.
The soldiers of this time were, as formerly, accompanied by innumerable camp-

followers. "Nearly half the population of many military camps,Gobat estimated, were
1
thus composed of women.
Palace Guards
Besides the ordinary soldiers mobilised in time of emergency there were a much
smallernumber of palace guards, for the most part musketeers, in more or less
permanent service. Unlike the soldiery at large they received a regular stipend,
generally in kind. Guards Tegre and Amhara, where fire-arms were plentiful,
in
usually owned their own Sawa and Wallo, where these remained relatively
guns, but in
scarce, the men were issued with rifles hy their rulers, and handed them in whenever
they went off duty.
There were, according to Johnston, "at least" 1,000 men in King Sahla Sellase's
bodyguard, most of whom were equipped with fire-arms. They were divided into three
companies which relieved each other in rotation after one week's attendance at the
palace, thus having two weeks free out of every three to spend with their families. In
1
GB House of Commons (1868) 103-5; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 348; Parkyns (1853) I, 176; Gobat
(1850) 413.
150
A 19th century Ethiopian soldier in his finest attire, with sword, shield and spear. From R. Acton, The
Abyssinian Expedition (London, 1868).
151
return for their services they were given two double handfuls of grain, besides "one
good meal a-day at the King's own table." The more privileged guardsmen were
entitled to take theirguns home with them, but the general rule was that after his
term of duty was over each guard should deposit his weapon in an armoury attached
to the palace where they were kept in the charge of the chief blacksmith Ato Habte.
When members of the bodyguard grew old or had sons mature enough to attend in
their place they became tenants of the king, and were only called on to serve when
expeditions were in progress.
Guards played an important role, not only in defending the various provincial
rulers, but also in suppressing occasional mutinies by other forces, and were therefore,
2
Plowden reports, "generally favoured" by their masters.
Traditional Weapons, Fire-arms and Horses
Ethiopian infantry and cavalry in the nineteenth century were primarily armed
with spears and shields, but swords were also carried by persons of note. Fire-arms,
which increased in numbers throughout the period, were in intense demand, and were
acquired by any chief or man of property in a position to do so.
The diffusion of fire-arms, which depended largely on access to the coast,

remained very uneven. The largest number of such weapons were found, as in the
past, in Tegre. The matchlockmen of the province, according to Plowden, were "very
skilful and brave," those of Agame, one of its most easterly districts - with relatively
easy access to the coast, being particularly renowned.
The largest number of horses, on the other hand, were to be found in the
pastoral lands further south, and were of a "fine breed." The Galla, or Oromo, cavalry
moreover by this time faced fire well, and, even when forced to retreat, would often
"suddenly wheel round and inclose a rash pursuer." Possession of a steed was a sign
of distinction, implying that its owner was a nobleman or man of substance, or else
that he had distinguished himself in war, and had received one as a gift from his chief.
Horses were used solely for fighting, or tournaments, and were never ridden for any
distance. Soldiers who could afford to ride therefore invariably travelled to and from
war on muleback. A soldier's horse, mule and weapons, however acquired, were
(except in the case of some palace guards) invariably considered as his personal
property.
Varying availability of fire-arms and horses had a significant regional effect on

strategy. Amhara soldiers, who were short of rifles but had relatively numerous horses,
thus preferred fighting in the open plains, and, according to Pearce, "seldom ever
attempted to storm a mountain" when there were "one or two matchlocks" to defend
its entrance. The men of Tegre on the other hand had "a few horse only and a great
number of matchlocks" and therefore tended to chose mountainous areas in which to

3
fight their battles.
2
Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 348; Johnston (1844) II, 75-7; GB House of Commons (1868) 103.
3
GB House of Commons (1868) 103, 105; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 348; Pearce (1831) II, 104-5, 214;
Parkyns (1853) I, 343; Plowden (1868) 67.
152
Mobilisation and the Call to Arms
Though most of the inhabitants, as shown in the previous chapter, were engaged
in agriculture, they were virtually all liable to military responsibility in times of war or
other emergency. Every Christian agriculturalist in Sawa was thus obliged, "on pain of
forfeiting eight pieces of salt whenever summoned, to follow his immediate governor
to the field." A "small bribe in cloth or honey," Harris says, would "sometimes obtain
leave of absence," but the peasant was "usually ready and anxious for the foray," the
more so as it afforded the chance of capturing a slave or a flock of livestock, besides
obtaining honour in the monarch's eye - and resultant chance of political
4
advancement.
it was desired to summon the population

In times of emergency, or whenever
to arms,drums would be beaten in market-places throughout the area of mobilisation.
The drummer began in very slow time, but gradually speeded up the tempo so as to
end with very quick strokes. He repeated this over and over again until he had
attracted a substantial audience, after which he cried out the ruler's decree in a loud
voice, declaring for example:
"Clothe your servants, feed your horses, prepare your provisions, cut down
and clear the regular roads of trees and bushes, in all quarters. I am not
determined as yet which road I may take, but I march on such a day; take
care that none remain at home. If the father is weak, the son must appear,
and if the son, the father, on pain of your property being forfeited to the
wotada (soldiers) and your persons to me. It is not my tongue that speaks
5
to this effect but the governor's" (whose name was then cited).
This speech would often be repeated several times, sometimes at every market-
day for weeks, before the final day of mobilisation.
A chief, fearing that the enemy might be given warning and thus be enabled to
prepare for impending attack, seldom let his soldiers, let alone the public at large,
know the direction in which he intended to march. Proclamations directing the
clearing of roads in directions entirely contrary to that to be taken were indeed not
6
infrequently issued with a view to deceiving the enemy.
Edicts, as in the past, often embodied threats of punishment for those who
failed to respond to the call to arms. One such proclamation in Sawa quoted by
Captain Harris, in the 1840's, declared:
"Hear, oh, hear! Thus saith the King. Behold we have foes, and would
trample upon their necks. Prepare ye every one for war. On the
approaching festival of Abba Kinos, whoso faileth to present himself at
4
Harris (1844) III, 168.
5
Harris (1844) II, 22. See also I, 62.
6
Pearce (1831) I, 62, II, 22-3
153
Yeolo as a good and loyal subject, mounted, armed, and carrying
provisions for twenty-one days, shall be held as a traitor, and shall forfeit
7
his property during seven years."
Mobilisation, though an act primarily affecting the male population, was often
activelyencouraged by the womenfolk. During one early nineteenth century crisis in
Tegre, for example, the latter are reported to have gathered together every evening,
8
crying out, "at the highest pitch of their voices, To arms! To arms!'"
Dress, and Decorations
Soldiers throughout this period wore the ordinary clothes of the country -
uniforms being a thing of the future, but their dress, was, according to Parkyns,
"usually cut in a somewhat smarter manner" than that of the population at large.
Soldiers preparing for battle loved, in particular, to dress as far as possible in
considerable splendour.
Different ways of plaiting the hair were often used to denote the number of men
a soldier had and persons with no such achievement to their
killed, credit, it is said,
9
were denied the privilege of plastering their heads with butter.
Military Reviews
Military manoeuvres were usually held at Masqal, or Feast of the Cross, which
occurred in late September, and marked the end of the rainy season, a time when the
soldiersand their chiefs began to prepare for the ensuing year's campaigning. Parades
were also sometimes held three months later at Temqat, or the Epiphany, in January,
by which time the rivers had largely subsided, and troop movement was thus much
facilitated.
The soldiers' reviews were often most impressive. One held in front of Ras
Walda Sellase at Antalo in 1813 was described by Pearce as "fantastic", but was not
without some danger, for the musketeers opened fire prematurely, with the result that
one man was killed and a horse shot through the leg. Such accidents seem to have
been fairly common at that time for soldiers often travelled around with guns
containing shot which they could not unload, and, being reluctant to discharge them
before the parade, actually fired them during reviews with real bullets. Orders were,
however, later given by Walda Sellase to prevent such untoward occurrences.
Annual Masqat parades were also held at other provincial capitals. At Dabra
Berhan in Sawa, for example, there was a yearly rally before King Sahla Sellase when,
according to Johnston, "every tenant and slave capable of bearing arms" was "expected
7
Harris (1844) 11,155.
8
Gobat (1850) 397. See also 417.
9
Parkyns (1853) I, 176; GB House of Commons (1868) 103-4.
154
to be present." The ruler watched sitting "in a small cabinet" on the balcony of his
10
palace, while about 6,000 warriors filed past on a large meadow-ground.
The March
Soldiers on the march were usually under the direct command of their ruler or
chief whose expedition they accompanied, and advanced day by day at his pace. The
army would usually be led by the forces of the Fitawrari, or commander of the
advance-guard, and would be flanked by those of a Qanazmac, or officer in charge of
the right wing, and of a Grazmab', in charge of the left wing. Notwithstanding this
theoretical arrangement scarcely any order was usually apparent, for soldiers and
camp-followers would seemingly press forward in "indiscriminate confusion," which,
on reaching a precipitous pass or narrow ford, often occasioned accidents.
Princesses and other women of the court, anxious to keep themselves aloof from
the ordinary soldiers, often began the march at dawn, or even earlier before the
soldiershad struck camp, and were thus on the move before any "vulgar eye" might
gaze on them. The Fitawrari would be the next to move, after which the soldiery, the
camp followers and the beasts of burden would in turn all start their journey. The
road to be followed could seldom be mistaken, for the line of people, from the old
camp to the new, was usually unbroken.
Christian armies, as in earlier times, never marched on Sundays or other Church

holidays, nor were battles fought on such days unless at the initiative of enemies of
other faiths - as in the case in 1868 of the British assault on Emperor Tewodros's
11
citadel at Maqdala.
The Camp
Camps were arranged, as for many centuries previously, in a methodical manner

which reflected both the hierarchy of state and the general order of march. The
Fitawrari and his followers would thus be quartered perhaps three or four miles in
front of the main camp, with their tents facing the direction of march. The King, or
Ras, was "always stationed in the centre of the camp, in general upon the highest
spot." His Bajerond, or head secretary, and his Blattengeta, or treasurer, placed
themselves in front of his tent, a short distance away, while his household and horses
were in the rear. To the sides of the royal or governatorial tent, and around the whole
of the camp, were the gojos, or huts, of his personal soldiers. The chiefs, whose
individual camps were sometimes in close proximity to each other, were located
further off, and were surrounded in a rough circle by the huts of their soldiers.
Camps consisted of tents as well as rapidly constructed huts. Dajazmac Webe's

camp, which was described by Parkyns, contained a great diversity of tents: "some
bell-shaped, some square, like an English marquee; some white, and others of the
10
Valentia (1809) II, 131; Pearce (1831) I, 138, 280, II, 18; Harris (1844) II, 74; Johnston (1844) II, 375;
Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 113.
11
GB House of Commons (1868) 103-4; Plowden (1868) 216-7; Pearce (1831) I, 63; Gobat (1850) 325.
155
black woollen stuff made
principally in the southern provinces of Tigre". There were
also "huts of and colours." The chiefs personal establishment, which was in
all sizes
the centre of the camp, consisted on the other hand of "three or four large thatched
wigwams," as well as a tent, the whole "enclosed by a double fence of thorns." Guards
were stationed at the entrances, and the space between the two fences was divided
into courts, in which soldiers or others craving an audience awaited the chiefs
pleasure. Most camps in Pearce's opinion presented a "somewhat orderly appearance,"
but could not be called "regular" - though Parkyns thought their sight was "by no
means unpleasing."
A camp's duration varied greatly. Some served only for one or two days, while
others lasted for weeks or even months on end. Soldiers returning from an expedition
often, moreover, established themselves on their earlier sites, and might therefore
leave some of their wooden structures for later use. Camps enemy country, on the
in
other hand, were almost invariably burnt to the ground before the army departed to
12
prevent them falling into the hands of foes.
Warfare, and Chivalry
Ethiopian soldiers in d'Abbadie's opinion were "very brave," and, if well led,
fought with "great tenacity." The flower of the army, as in medieval Europe, was
composed of horsemen. Regular battles, however, usually began with shooting by the
riflemen, who would rush forward in a charge which would in most cases decide the
outcome of the engagement, for the infantry, who were in the main badly armed,
served mainly later to capture prisoners.
Fighting was for the most part conducted with considerable chivalry. Exchanges
of civilities would between hostile camps, messengers were
"constantly" take place
respected, and prisoners, Plowden records, were "generally well treated, if of any rank,
even with courtesy." A chief might thus send news to his adversary, if the latter was
not in the field, of the defeat of his army, and the envoy bringing such bad news
would almost invariably receive a handsome douceur. Messages, though couched in
polite terms, might often, however, have an ironic core. Webe, when fighting against
Dajazmac Sabagades, on one occasion for example sent the latter a seemingly polite
message requesting him "to preserve the grass" in the neighbourhood of Adwa as he,
Webe, would have "need of it for his horses when he had taken the country."
Sabagades returned an equally ironic invitation to Webe and his men "to come to his
country, as he was expecting them, and would not fail to prepare a great feast in their
honour."
Cruelty, Plowden
reports, was "rare", for "after a battle, as before," all was "good
humour and and the vanquished generally shared the feast with the victors.
laughter,"
Violence moreover was seldom offered to women who were captured, and ransom
money was usually fixed with amenity. Severities were sometimes practiced against
persons regarded as rebels, but in general the Ethiopian conqueror was "merciful."
Much killing was, however, often carried out against the "pagan" Sanqellas and Teltal,
12
Pearce (1831) I, 211-2, II, 190; Parkyns (1853) I, 174-5; GB House of Commons (1868) 104.
156
I
but in their case the soldiers were persuaded that such ferocity was a "privilege of
Christianity."
Fighting was still frequently followed by the castration of the dead. Foreskins
were taken not only by and from "heathen" armies, but also, Plowden notes, in "battles
of Christian against Christian." After an engagement these trophies would be displayed
before the victorious commander, and often hung on the palace walls as a sign of
triumph. The number of corpses thus castrated was often considerable. Pearce reports
that on one occasion at Adwa, for example, the forces of Dajazmac Sabagades brought
13
"one thousand nine hundred and seventy" foreskins.
Battles
The decision to begin hostilities would be taken by the ruler or chief, in many
cases after a council of war. Counsellors would sometimes be summoned to a formal
assembly to hear their opinions, but on other occasions their views would be asked
privately.The latter procedure was often followed by Dajazmac Webe as it had the
advantage, Gobat notes, of enabling the chief to do as he pleased without being seen
to reject the advice of others.
Once the decision to attack was taken, general instructions would be given to
each chief who would be told where to position himself and his forces. Thereafter,
however, each soldier fought largely as he pleased. The infantry, if we can believe
Plowden - who had in fact participated in many an engagement - would thus advance
or stand still as their courage led them; the horsemen would charge in large or small
numbers when and where they thought fit; the matchlockmen would fire as they
pleased; and each man, on seeing that he had killed one of the enemy, would shout
his war cry, and proceed to collect and display his trophies, without waiting for the
final end of the battle. Engagements often lasted only a few hours, seldom for more
than a day. Fighting in many cases soon gave way to plundering which might begin
whenever one side or the other gained the first "trifling advantage." It was therefore,
curiously enough, "often very difficult to discover" which side had actually won.
Another feature of the unstructured system of warfare was that soldiers, not being
accustomed to rely on each other, were "absurdly subject to panics." It was thus not
unknown for "a whole army" to run away from a single man who had charged into
their camp at night shouting his war-cry. Notwithstanding this "desultory manner of
was often "considerable loss of life," for at the end of a campaign the
fighting" there
would frequently "roam about their respective districts, arms in hand" exacting
soldiers
whatever they could obtain from the peasantry, who would seek revenge by slaying
14
"remorselessly all fugitives of either side."
13
Antoine d'Abbadie (1868) 22; GB House of Commons (1868) 104; Parkyns (1853) II, 115; Pearce
(1831)1, 71, II, 101.
14
Gobat (1850) 441-2; GB House of Commons (1868) 103, 105; Parkyns (1853) I, 176.
157
Looting
Looting, as already noted, was common practice, with the result, Plowden
asserts, that there was enmity between the military and the population at
"a constant
large." Groups of soldiers would form themselves into bands, almost at random, and
spend their time foraging, while the rest of their comrades remained in camp, looking
after the baggage, if they had any, which was "seldom the case," Pearce says, unless
they had acquired it by plunder. Raiding parties often came upon considerable
quantities of supplies, for the soldiers, were "very expert in discovering hidden stores."
When provisions became scarce in the camp the ruler might himself consign a
district for plunder. The drum would then be beaten, and the order for looting be
given. Plowden, who
witnessed one such expedition, explains that there was "no
quarrel" with the people of the area to be raided, and that their head-man received
only half an hour's warning. The looting was, however, so successful that the
plunderers were busy for three whole days. Though the country raided was only a few
miles square the grain collected met the army's needs for six months. The operation
nevertheless involved much wanton destruction, for many houses were burnt to the
ground, and four times as much grain was consumed by flames as actually taken away
by the troops. For the soldiers, however, the expedition was deemed a great success.
Their earlier cries of hunger gave way to songs of joy and merriment, and they ate "as
much as they could manage, caring little when it might be finished." Faced with such
depredations it is little surprise that the inhabitants often fled their homes, and took
everything they could carry to the churches, or other places of asylum, for safe-
keeping.
The fighting, and looting, of the first part of the nineteenth century, as many
observers testify, resulted in considerable impoverishment of the peasantry and
population at large. Riippell noted in the 1830's that agriculture was increasingly
neglected, communications were often completely interrupted, and the people were
becoming progressively poorer. Arnauld d' Abbadie likewise remarked that while
bands of marauding soldiers ravaged the country, trade was often carried out only with
arms in the hand; peasants no longer occupied themselves with anything but fighting
and pillage; cultivation was frequently left solely to women and children; abandoned
lands were increasing in number; flocks were disappearing, and wild animals were
taking the place of people. This picture was confirmed a generation or so later by the
Swiss adventurer and scholar Werner Miinzinger who declared that the "incessant
commotions" from which the country had suffered had "paralysed" its productive
power, for "trade enjoyed no security, and labour abandoned the plough to take to
arms," while Parkyns observed, in more general terms, that civil war was "the perpetual
scourge of Abyssinia" and "the principal cause of its poverty and barbarism."
159
Despite the protection afforded by the Church to places of asylum, urban
settlements at times also suffered from the ravages of the soldiery. In Gondar for
example Gobat reported in 1830 that the city was "full" of men who were "plundering"
the metropolis, while a subsequent Ethiopian royal chronicle tells of soldiers breaking
into the city in 1840, eating up all the provisions, and thereby producing a "great
15
famine" in which "many people perished of hunger."
An early nineteenth century warrior with sword, shield and spear. From T. Lefebvre and others, Voyage
en Abyssinie (Paris, 1845-8).
15
GB House of Commons (1868) 103; Pearce (1831) I, 62-3, 206; Plowden (1868) 228; Gobat (1850) 253,
281-82, 386, 426; Riippell (1838-40) I, 234, II, 52, 136, 332; Parkyns (1853) 1, 129; Arnauld d'Abbadie
(1868) 142-3; Munzinger (1858) 35; Weld Blundell (1922) 492.
161
IV
THE NOBILITY
Acquisition of Power from the Monarch
By the early nineteenth century the government of northern Ethiopia, formerly

vested in emperors claiming descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba,
had largely passed into the hands of the nobles and provincial chiefs. The latter,
having usurped the powers hitherto wielded by the monarch, followed the latter's
policy of distributing their lands among their followers or favourites who raised forces
according to their rank and revenue. The tenure of such subordinates was, as in the
past, still far from secure, for the ruler might, as Plowden says, "in a moment deprive
any chief of all his power." Appointments to office with rare exceptions were not
hereditary, and were indeed seldom of long duration.
Despite their usurpation of the prerogatives of royalty, provincial governors

suffered, like the rest of the population, from the civil strife of the period. To gain
the support of their followers chiefs were obliged in particular to grant away much of
their land,and thereby surrendered a large proportion of their revenue. This expedient
failed,however, to gain the full allegiance of their men, who, conscious that their
masters had "no legal right to the sovereignty" they assumed, were always ready to
"desert them, and seek a more munificent master." Though the basic structure of the
old feudal system remained there was thus considerable instability, and frequent
insubordination. A
chief dismissed from office might, as formerly, become a hanger-
on at the camp of his overlord, and await with patience for the latter's favour, but, "if
of a more fiery temper" would "probably throw himself into some wild district" where
he had family influence, and "set his master at defiance." Seftennat, or more or less
institutional banditry, was not uncommon.
Over half a century of warfare and turbulence had moreover cast a deep shadow
over the land. Most of the inhabitants were "so crushed in their circumstances" and
"so degraded in their characters," Gobat believed, that they were "incapable of forming
any very expansive ideas of liberty" - such as those which characterised his native
1
Switzerland.
The disintegration of the monarchy emergence of several

led in particular to the
new - and
regional centres of provincial power. Three which warrant special attention
are comparatively well documented - were Tegre, Bagemder and Sawa, whose rulers
wielded virtually all the powers formerly exercised by the monarch, and, having to all
intents and purposes no overlord above them, held almost total sway over sundry
chiefs and nobles.
1
Valentia (1809) III, 264; GB House of Commons (1868) 103; Gobat (1850) 445.
162
Tegre
Tegre was divided into a number of districts, known as sumat, or lands whose
rulers were "appointed." Some of the smaller of these estates were held by the Church,
or occasionally private individuals, in the form of gult, a system of tenure in which the
ruler ceded to the holder his own rights of tribute. The remainder of the land was held
by chiefs, some of whom were hereditary, while others were chosen from among the
governor's own followers.
Much known as addi nagarit, or "drum

of the province was divided into districts,
lands," so designated because their chief had the right of having drums played before
him when he travelled in procession or marched to battle. There were said to have
been once forty-four such districts - though Ludolf in the seventeenth century had
listed no more than twenty-seven, or, if the country of the Bahr Nagas were included,
thirty-four. By the mid-nineteenth century the number had, however, shrunk to only
seventeen, the rest, according to Parkyns, having been "cut up and apportioned out to
the soldiers." Chiefs in charge of such districts were known as bald nagarit, i.e. "owners
of drums". They often held the rank of Dajazmac, and even when, as in the case of the
rulers of Agame and Salawa, this was not so, their status was not "a whit inferior," for
they beat their drums "as loud as any one," and held "as high a place either in feast or
field." Such chiefs often had the designation of their districts prefixed to their names,
and might thus be referred to, for example, as Sum Agame Walda Enka'el, i.e. Walda
Mika'el, chief of Agame.
Beside the addi nagarit lands there were a number of smaller districts, known
as addi embilta or addi qanda, i.e. lands called after the names of the embilta or
2
qanda, the musical instruments to which their chief had a right. Estates belonging to
the ancient nobility were known as wdyzdro, i.e. "princess's" land, while those given
over to a group of soldiers, or more precisely cavalry, were called fdrdsdnna, i.e.
"horsemen's" lands. All such lands were subdivided into smaller districts, or parishes,
each under a £eqa sum, or local tax gatherer, who represented the lowest rank in the
administrative system.
On appointing a governor of any importance it was customary for the ruler of

Tegre to issue a proclamation. Before it was read out drums would be beaten in his
camp, as well as in the principal market-place. The drummer would gather a crowd
by waving a stick or sheepskin over his head, after which he read out the decree in a
loud voice. A typical proclamation stated that the master had made a gift "of such and
such a country, from such a place to such a place (naming the boundaries), to Mr.
Such-a-one, to be held by him as its chief, with the right to govern it, to exercise his
authority, and punish offenders by imprisonment and flogging." Chiefs thus appointed
exercised full judicial authority over the areas to which they were assigned, though the
penalties of death and amputation had properly speaking to be referred either to the
nominal emperor in Gondar or, more probably, to the ruler of Tegre himself.
District governors were entitled to a share in the taxes they collected, and had
in addition "a certain quantity of cultivable land in each parish" which they could either
use themselves or let to others. In the former case they would call on the inhabitants
The nagarit is a drum, the embilta, a flute, and the qanda [malakat], a long horn.
163
to provide "one day's work for clearing and ploughing, one day for sowing, two for
clearing the crop of weeds and two for gathering in the harvest." Land was also
occasionally made available for a fixed rent, though it was "more common for the
owner of the land to receive a proportion (sometimes half) of the crop." At the base
of the hierarchy the £eqa sum likewise took his share of the taxes he collected, as well
as fines levied for various offences. He was also the recipient of numerous perks, for
if villagers did not propitiate him with an occasional gift he could declare that they
had no right to their land, which, Parkyns says, would accordingly be forfeited to his
3
master.
Bagemder
The nobles of Bagemder, most of whom

claimed hereditary rule over their
respective districts, were for the most part of Tegre. Many
more powerful than those
Bagemder chiefs, Plowden states, considered themselves equal by birth to their
nominal ruler, Ras Ali Alula, and, "impatient" of any superior, were "in some instances
sufficiently powerful to be nearly independent". Each chief holding the rank of
Dajazmacf, whether appointed by Ras Ali Alula, or as often as not only obtaining the
latter's consent for the appointment after a successful contest with an immediate rival,
was thus "entire master of all sources of revenue within his territory", and had "full
power really of life and death", though this was supposedly "vested in the Ras alone".
The "feudal subjection" of these chiefs consisted in the obligation to send, from
time to time, some presents to his superior, and to bear his shield", that is to say, to
follow him with as large a force as they could master. These chiefs followed the Ras
to war, and gave him "a portion of their revenues", but bestowed on their retainers
districts and villages as they pleased, and allowed them to extract whatever they could
4
from their fiefs.
Sawa
The provincial nobility of Sawa on the other hand were completely subservient
to the their local provincial ruler. "Scarcely a day passed," Johnston recalls, without
"themost wealthy" being obliged to confess their dependence" or run the risk of being
denounced as an enemy of the sovereign, which would be followed by confiscation of
all property, or incarceration in Guancho [Gonco], the State prison, with a heavy fine."
Such imprisonments were so taken for granted that they were not regarded as
tyrannical. On the contrary all the neighbours and friends of the individual so punished
would exclaim, with protestations of loyalty, "Our good King! Our good King! Alas!
alas! to have such an ungrateful servant!"
The consequence of the ruler's "monopolising rule" was thus that the nobles of
Sawa, like its peasants, were in "the most abject state of submission." All officials were
in the habit of making gifts or "oblations from time to time in kind" to the monarch,
3
Ludolf (1684) 17; Parkyns (1853) II, 228-30. See also House of Commons (1868) 104.
4
House of Commons (1868) 66, 114-5.
164
who was in addition "in the habit of requiring arbitrarily from those in charge of the
districts, tribute in honey, clarified butter, cloth, or whatever else he may happen to
require."
The ceremonial of Sahla Sellase's court, like that of the emperors of former
times, reflected the society'salmost unqualified dependence on the ruler. No
nobleman returning after a long absence could for example "approach the throne
empty-handed," and even the most powerful, when coming into the sovereign's
presence, would "twice prostrate themselves" and kiss the dust in a "most abject and
humiliating" manner, while "thousands of stern warriors" would "bend down with
profound and slavish abasement."
Sawa at this time was ruled by some four hundred sumant, or district governors,
each of whom was obliged to appear before the ruler "with his contingent of militia,
whensoever summoned for military service." There were also fifty Abbagasoc, or
"fathers of shields," whose principal responsibility was to guard the frontiers.
Appointment to a few of these posts was hereditary, but "the majority" were given, as
was the case, it will be remembered, in medieval times, at the monarch's pleasure.
This meant, according to the ever critical Harris, that appointments to office were in
effect "purchased by the highest bidder" whose tenure was "extremely precarious." The
amount of land any officer received depended moreover on the amount of tax he
collected, and as he rose in the royal estimation so did he receive decorations and
honours for such of his subordinates as might have "distinguished themselves by their
zeal, activity or valour." Government appointments, "if not retained by fees and
obligations" were, however, "constantly forfeited and resold." Frequent changes of
office were at the same time also made "with the design of counteracting collusion and
rebellion."
Provincial governors, though subservient to the ruler, tended, however, according

to Harris, to be themselves "little despots," each of whom was actuated by a desire for
"supreme" power, which, was nevertheless limited by that of their master. The
"slightest error in judgment," or even the "mere whim of the monarch," might thus
"involve them in destruction when least anticipated." Being "accountable for every
event" their "assiduity in the management of affairs" often availed them nought.
"Talents and bravery" were "sometimes displayed in vain," for "the caprice of the
5
despot" could easily hurl a proud nobleman to "the deepest ruin and disgrace."
"Armed," the British envoy says, "with the delegated authority of the despot, each
governor, enacting the autocrat in his own domains," fashioned "his habits and
privileges after those of his royal master." The lord's fields were thus "cultivated in
the same manner" as those of the ruler, for the monarch, was able to
chief, like the
extort "many days" labour from the peasants. A by his
"fluctuating tribute regulated
will and caprice" was exacted in kind from all land-holders to meet the demands of the
ruler. The latter also received "an inauguration fee" of "from four to six hundred"
Maria Theresa dollars, and, unless propitiated by voluntary offerings, would be "ever
sending requisitions for livestock and farm produce." Such burdens fell "heavily upon
all classes." A governor, "trusting to his own resources," would thus be "speedily
impoverished," whilst one who taxed "too roughly" was "certain to be stripped of
5
Johnston (1844) II, 185-6; Harris (1844) III, 30-2
165
authority and property, on representation made to the throne." A deposed noble was,
however:
"never loth to climb up again whence he has fallen, and the humbled
grandee, although impoverished and shunned by the servile crowd, strives
again to ingratiate himself with the sovereign - frequently succeeds by
long and patient attendance, and once more girded with the silver sword
of authority, he attains the perilous and giddy pinnacle, where the weapon
6
of destruction hangs over his head suspended only by a single hair."
v V
Village taxes in Sawa, as in Tegre, were collected by a Ceqa sum, who was also
responsible for ordering the populace of his area to plough the land of the King and
and to construct such houses and other buildings as
nobility, to harvest their crops,
they might need. Chosen by the villagers from among their number, and appointed
by the governor to whom he paid a fee of 20 bars of salt, or the equivalent of one
Maria Theresa dollar, the Ceqa sum held office for twelve months, during which time
he paid no tribute. He was also exempted in the following year, which was called the
time of his rest, but had thereafter to contribute like any other villager. During his
period in office, however, he had his perks, for the inhabitants gave him a banquet on
7
every great festival, and treated him with great honour as befitting a local dignitary.
Class Distinctions and Status Symbols
The exalted position of the nobility, and the spirit of deference with which they
were regarded by the common people, found expression throughout the highlands in
many These included the use of different forms of speech in
fields of social life.
addressing or referring to persons of rank, and different types of clothing and ways of
wearing it, besides a number of sumptuary laws designed to exclude the lower orders
from access to certain highly prized luxury goods.
The hierarchical character of the permeated many aspects of language.

society
The populace thus paid "great respect Gobat records, and was
to their superiors,"
"rarely heard to speak reproachfully" of them. Servants, who were likewise "strongly
attached" to their masters, made it a point to swear by the latter's names, and
continued to do so even long after their death.
Status was also reflected in grammar, for the use of pronouns and the
conjugation of verbs in Amharic served to indicate rank and respect. Persons speaking
to their equals would employ the second person singular, for verb as well as pronoun.
A child addressing a parent, or a wife a husband, would on the other hand use the
second person plural, while in their presence they would refer to them in the third
person plural. Someone speaking to a superior, or anyone whom they wished to
honour, would use the third person plural for the verb, while in his absence use would
be made of the plural pronoun also. The situation in Tegre was somewhat different
for singular pronouns and verbs were employed only when talking with considerable
6
Harris (1844) III, 32.
7
Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 281.
166
familiarity or when addressing On
most other occasions the second person
children.
plural was adopted, except, enough, when speaking of a governor in his
significantly
absence when the third person plural was almost invariably used.
Sumptuary laws were widely operative. "No male above from eight years of age,
the lowest-born to the son of a Ras," Hormuzd Rassam
was thus allowed to
states,
wear "any covering resembling a shirt," unless it had been presented to him in the first
instance by the sovereign who would invest him with a garment of silk, after which he
was entitled to wear a shirt of "any material, from the finest velvet or embroidered silk
down to the commonest calico." The wives of those so honoured were likewise entitled
to appear before the Emperor "with their bosoms uncovered." The nobles in
consequence often wore highly coloured dress, while the rest of the population were
very simply, and indeed, as in former times, often scantily, dressed. The drinking of
taj, or honey wine, was, as we shall see, likewise restricted to those of the highest
rank.
The exalted position of the nobility was also demonstrated in other ways. It was
thus customary in Tegre, as we have seen, for governors to have drums beaten before
them as they marched in procession or to battle. Ceremonial swords also for a time
served as status symbols. Early in the century the chiefs on state occasions had such
weapons carried before them in scarlet bags, but this custom by the 1840's was
"seldom" any longer practiced. Nobles in Sawa, on the other hand, continued to wear
a silver sword as the emblem of their rank and authority. It was girded, Harris says,
on none but those who enjoyed an exalted place in the royal favour, and the forfeiture
8
of government and the loss of this "cumbrous badge" went in fact hand in hand.
Master-Servant Relations
The importance of the nobility was also demonstrated by the fact that they
always travelled with a multitude of dependants, or servants, whose number was
considered a measure of their master's grandeur, and even the lesser nobility were
scarcely ever seen without some followers. Pearce, who did not believe there was a
people "so fond of displaying their dignity" as the Ethiopians, notes that "a chief of any
power" when he went to court, or to church, or made any visit, would invariably be
accompanied by "a whole body of armed men." Anyone with "a little landed property"
yielding an annual revenue of merely ahundred Maria Theresa dollars a year had "five
or six shieldsmen close behind him, and perhaps a matchlock or two in front of him."
Even a poor man, with a single servant or soldier, would expect the latter to follow
with his spear and shield wherever he went, be it only within his own premises or
compound.
Servants were likewise omnipresent at meal-times, when, as a sign of respect,

they stood around their master's doorway. This served to show that they were truly
in attendance on him, and not, as Parkyns says, "merely eating his bread and idling
their time away."
8
Gobat (1850) 475; GB House of Commons (1868) 104; Rassam (1869) I, 199; Parkyns (1853) I, 341,
II, 227-8; Harris (1844) II, 267-8.
167
The women of the nobility, who were "fond of shewing themselves off," were
likewise always accompanied by a considerable retinue. When travelling to or from
church, or paying or returning visits, they would be "mounted," Pearce says, "on a
mule, with a soldier on each side to steady them, a whole train of spearsmen following
behind, and a great number of their female attendants running in front."
The servants of the nobility, who

provided the latter with innumerable services,
varied greatly in status and remuneration. Many enjoyed the master - or mistress's
confidence, were relatively well paid and themselves employed slaves or servants, while
others performed only the most menial of tasks, and were no better off than the latter.
One early nineteenth century servant of whom there is record was a converted
Muslim messenger in the service of Ras Walda Sellase, and was perhaps for that
reason called Gabra Walda Sellase. He received no less than 40 Maria Theresa thalers
and as many pieces of cloth a year, as well as a mule, and had been assigned a piece
of land yielding 40 giibata of grain (i.e. something between 800 and 200 litres), six of
which he sold on the spot for a thaler, or four thalers if carried to Adwa. This, with
what he received on his missions, which, Lord Valentia was led to believe, was "much
more" - especially when he was sent to settle any dispute about trade, enabled him to
keep "four servants", perhaps in fact slaves, to three of whom he gave five pieces of
9
cloth a year, and to the fourth, two pieces, besides their food.
Hunting, and Chess Playing
Hunting was a favourite pastime of the nobility, particularly of its younger

members, many of whom went every year on expeditions to prove their manhood -
and to obtain the right to wear a special decoration. Those who killed a lion or
elephant were entitled, Pearce says, to wear earrings, or a small stud in the right ear.
The killing of leopard, wild buffalo, and rhinoceros, did not provide the hunter with
any decoration, but were also highly regarded feats.
Many of the nobles, among them Ras Walda Sellase of Tegre, were also great
players of santaraj, or chess, a game which served in a way to familiarise them with
military strategy. Ethiopian chess was an old-fashioned type of the game, which
differed from vogue in Europe in that the Queen moved only one square at a
that in
time, while the Bishop could jump over other pieces just like a Knight. Perhaps the
most unusual feature of the Ethiopian form of the game was, however, that players
moved simultaneously - until the first capture was effected, after which they played
alternately as in modern chess.
Many aristocrats were likewise accustomed to play a highly sophisticated form

of the board-game giibata played on three rows, each of six holes. The rest of the
population played far less intricate forms of the game, in most parts of the country
with a board of only two rows, though those with three rows were also found in some
10
areas, particularly in northern Tegre and in the south-west among the Dorze.
9
Pearce (1831) II, 193-4; Parkyns (1853) II, 384-5; Valentia (1809) III, 153. On the giibata measure of
capacity see Journal of Ethiopian Studies (1969), VII, No.2, pp. 114-5.
10
Pearce (1831) I, 217-20, II, 1-3; Pankhurst (1971a) 165-6, (1971b) 149-72.
168
¥
PROVINCIAL RULERS
The monarchy by the early nineteenth century had declined to such an extent
that the powers formerly wielded by the emperor had almost entirely passed, as we
have seen, into the hands of a small number of provincial rulers, each of whom
developed his individual style of government. The office of monarch still, however,
existed, but its incumbent, though continuing to reside in the old capital Gondar, and
to claim the title of Negusd Nagdst, i.e. "king of kings" or Emperor, was in fact little
more than a puppet. He was, as Lord Valentia noted, "invariably in the power of one
ambitious subject or another," and, receiving no revenue save that from "nearly
independent" provincial rulers, was "incapable of securing a sufficient force to sustain
himself or to prevent them wasting the resources of the country in mutual hostility."
It was symbolic of the enhanced powers of the chiefs that several of them kept lions -
hitherto symbols of monarchy. These beasts, according to Pearce, were often

"perfectly" tame.
The powers of the monarchy decreased further in the third decade of the
century, by which time the emperors had been "stripped of every appendage of
royalty," Gobat says, "except the name," and would have long since have been "rifled"
even of "this remaining shadow," had not the governors "felt the necessity of suffering
them to retain it, in order to pave the way for their assuming the office of Ras" which
could be legally accomplished "only by placing a new King on the throne."
A corollary to the disintegration in monarchical power was that the old custom
of detaining members of the royal family on an amba, or flat-topped mountain, fell
into Descendants of former rulers, according to Gobat, were by then

disuse.
"everywhere dispersed throughout the different provinces," where they were "generally
the favorites of the people," and lived "pleasantly among them," but though "so much
beloved" there were "seldom any popular combinations in their favour." Several
members of King Sahla Sellase's family, were, however, in detention - on the mountain
of Gonco, east of Ankobar - in the 1840s.
The decline of the monarch, coinciding as it did with a period of civil war, was
regretted by many thinking Ethiopians, among them the court chronicler, Abagaz
Sa'una,who compelled to interrupt his text to ask how it was that "the Kingdom
felt
had become a laughing stock," and why its government had been snatched by rulers
of whom it could not be said, "They are of such and such a race." Admitting that he
failed to understand the reason for this sad "usurpation," he declares that he mourned
and wept "without ceasing." The malady of the times was likewise recognised by a
foreign observer Lord Valentia, who declared that the country during this period
suffered from "all the evils that attend inefficient government." It was not surprising
that manypeople's "only desire" for the future was, Gobat learnt, "to see the royal
family restored to the peaceful possession of their throne and all Abyssinia rejoicing
1
in its light."
1
Valentia (1809) III, 264; Gobat (1850) 444-5; Harris (1844) II, 29, 113-8, 369, III, 14-5, 284, 387, 389;
Pearce (1831) II, 29; Weld Blundell (1922) 477. See also Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 129.
169
Tegre
The decline of the central monarchy, and the rise of powerful provincial rulers,
was particularly evident in Tegre, which, because of its access to fire-arms had, as we
have seen, long possessed military superiority over other parts of the country. The
province, which had by this time become virtually independent, was described by
Parkyns as a "feudal kingdom" governed by its own "absolute ruler." Three successive
chiefs held sway over it in the first half of the century: Ras Walda Sellase of Endarta,
Dajazmac' Sabagades of Agame, and Dajazmac Webe of Samen. Each of them wielded
power comparable to that exercised by emperors of former times, but failed to
establish a dynasty. Each of these rulers had his own capital or capitals: Walda Sellase
atAnfalo and Calaqot, Sabagades at Addigrat, and Webe at Adwa as well as sundry
camps.
Ras Walda Sellase, the first of these rulers, exercised all the functions hitherto
associated with the monarch. His "common mode" of punishing conspirators was, like
the emperors of former times, to deprive them of the lands they governed. He was
often heard by the British envoy Henry Salt to declare, "Men are only saucy when
their stomachs are full." This saying was in the latter's opinion "peculiarly applicable"
to Walda Sellase's dependants, who, "when ruled with a hand of power," made
"admirable subjects," but, if left to their own, seemed to him "intolerably presumptuous
and overbearing." Notwithstanding his rights of appointment and dismissal the Ras
appears in fact to have changed his governors but rarely, and, as long as they paid
their tribute, "never" thought of removing them. Walda Sellase's prerogatives, like
those of the emperors of the past, were immense, for he had "personal jurisdiction,"
over the entire province. "All crimes, differences and disputes, of however important
or trifling a nature," were "ultimately referred to his determination," "all rights of
inheritance" were "determined according to his will," and "most wars" were "carried on
by himself in person." The court of Walda Sellase was characterised, like those of the
monarchs of former times, by considerable ceremony. Most visitors who came into
his presence thus uncovered themselves to the waist, though others exposed only the
breast, and afterwards replaced their garments. No one addressed him in public
without first standing up and undressing to the waist, after which they were however
often permitted to speak sitting.
The rulers of Tegre, as befitted their status, also received the lion's share of
taxation. Walda Sellase in particular is known to have accumulated considerable
wealth. At his death in 1816 he is said to have possessed 75,000 Maria Theresa dollars,
50 waqet, or ounces, of gold, and "a number of gold and silver ornaments," besides
15,500 cows, 4,100 plough oxen and 1,730 ploughshares. His successor Dajazmac'
Sabagades was likewise so well endowed with funds that he could on one occasion give
his British courtier William Coffin 2,000 dollars for the purchase of fire-arms, while
later in the century Dajazmac Webe' levied extensive taxes, and had a treasury said
to contain 40,000 dollars. Taxes levied by the ruler of Tegre were of two categories.
One, called fessassy, was paid in corn. The other, known as warqe, literally "gold," or
by extension money of any kind, was, according to Parkyns, mainly contributed in
pieces of cloth which served as a medium of exchange. There was in addition a
170
masomya, or "acknowledgment," which each chief paid in "cattle, honey, butter, arms
or anything else" to establish tenure to his land. 2
Three early or mid-19th century rulers: Dajazniac' Webe (top left) of Samen and Tegre. From H. Blanc,
Iprigionieri di Teodoro (Milan, 1872); Ras AH Alula (top right) of Bagemder. From G. Massaia, I miei
trentacinque anni di missione neW alia Etiopia (Rome and Milan, 1885-95); Negus Sahla Sellase (bottom)
of Sawa From C.E.X. Rochet d'Hericourt, Voyage sur
. la cote de la Mer Rouge, dans le pays d'Adel et le
royaume de Choa (Paris, 1841).
2
Valentia (1809) III, 155-6; Parkyns (1853) II, 227, 229; Salt (1814) 328-9; Pearce (1831) II, 95; Ruppell
(1838-40) I 327; Stern (1862) 75; Lejean (1867) 131; Dufton (18670 131.
171
Bagemder
Bagemder, with its capital at Dabra Tabor, differed from Tegre in that it was
under the rule of a single dynasty, that of the Yajju, founded in the late eighteenth
century by an Oromo chief named Gwangul. The province was ruled for much of the
early nineteenth century by his great-grandson, Ras Ali Alula, the chief of the
northern and western provinces - including Gondar, who was virtually the "master and
king" of the empire. Well versed in "all manly exercises" - shooting, riding, throwing
a lance and running - he was, according to Plowden, "perhaps one of the best
horsemen" in the country, with "no lack of personal courage", and "spent much of his
time in the chase". "Careless of dress or personal ornament of any kind, but cleanly
in his habits" he was "indifferent as to his personal comfort, and moderate in his
meals". As for his approach to government, having come to power "at the early age of
twelve years" he was, if we can believe the Englishman, "singularly tenacious of his
opinion, very conceited, despising all men, and very hard to be moved to any emotion".
For that reason perhaps he was not easily "excited to anger", and was "extremely
patient", and "never cruel", though this was more for reasons of state, Plowden felt,
than from "real compassion". This tolerance was not, however, without its
disadvantages, for since Ali scarcely ever punished anyone there was "much disorder
and license in his territories".
The ruler of Bagemder, who, like so many chiefs, "loved dependency and
subservience, claimed the right, Plowden states, of "appointing all other Chiefs of
Provinces, and officers of every kind, at his will and pleasure", the formality of
consulting the Emperor "having been disregarded for many years". Ali's actual powers
were, however, much circumscibed, for "amid the conflicts of the great families," whose
names would "at any moment conjure into existence a numerous army for rebellion
or rapine", he was "obliged to employ a subtle and tortuous policy", in order to retain
his control of those "fierce warriors". His government having been "established by the
sword", and being largely dependent on his military strength - and on the outcome of
a continuous series of battles, he was obliged in making his appointments "to be

attentive to the claims of the great families", who on account of their hereditary
influence were either "rulers or rebels in their respective districts". Invariably "generous
to his enemies" when they were in his power he was "always too merciful" to adopt
"the doubtful alternative of destroying them".
Though dependent on the provincial nobles for much of his revenues Ali also
reserved "a number of provinces", to provide for his household officers and troops. He
paid the latter occasionally "an uncertain amount of money", as well as whenever
possible a monthly allowance of corn which was obtained from his own granaries,
though the men were "more often" given "a half-plundering license" to quarter
themselves on the land. This latter expedient, however, was "not always patiently
acquiesced in", so that there were sometimes "bloody struggles", in which the peasantry
succeeded in expelling the soldiery, on which occasions "the weakness of the Ras",
3
generally obliged him to overlook such an affair".
3
Trimingham (1952) 110; Plowden (1868) 401-3; GB House of Commons (1868) 66, 115. See also
Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 55-6; Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 183-4.
172
Gojjam
Gojjam, isolated from the rest of the country by the great curve of the Blue Nile,
was and was ruled in the first part of the century by two notable
largely independent,
governors, Dajazmac* Gosu Zawde and his son Dajazmac' Berru Gosu who were said
to have developed very different styles of running the country. Gosu, according to
Beke, took but little interest in the day-to-day working of his administration.
"Extremely devout" he wore "a number of talismans, charms, etc." round his neck, and
spent "a considerable portion of his time at prayers, and in the perusal of the
Scriptures and religious books". In consequence he did not "appear to devote his time
to public affairs", and although "now and then" listening to a complainant applying for
redress of wrongs, and holding "a few private conferences" with his chiefs, there was
in general "no signs of business" at his capital". Life at his court was likewise fairly
uncouth - "much inferior" for example, the Englishman felt, to that in Sawa. Public
banquets thus presented "scenes of the utmost noise and confusion, everyone pushing
and scrambling, and bawling" without the "least regard" for the chiefs presence while
his ushers lay about the populace with their sticks "without mercy, making still more
noise in calling them to order".
Berru Gosu by contrast differed from his father in being a resolute and active
ruler. Beke, who "could not be struck by the difference" between the two men, recalls
a characteristic occasion when the young man, acting as the supreme judge of his
province, ruled that a case be decided in accordance with the Fetha Niigast, or
traditional legal code, whereupon the plaintiff expressed the fear that his opponent
might not abide by it. "If he does not I will have his legs cut off, was Berru's
"impressive answer, uttered not at all with temper, but quite as a matter of course".
Notwithstanding such firmness the younger ruler of Gojjam is said to have enjoyed the
"deep respect" of his subjects. He was also "on terms of extreme familiarity" with "a
few of his principal people", and allowed them to play with him - but only as "a lion
4
might do, giving now and then signs of what he could and would if provoked".
Sawa and its Sumptuary Laws

v
Sawa differed from Tegre and Gojjam in that it was ruled by a single dynasty
for over a century rather than by a succession of less closely related chiefs, and from
Bagemder in that its ruler exercised unquestioned control over his subordinate chiefs.
The most important ruler of the was Sahla Sellase who claimed the
Sawan line
title of Negus, or King. His powers, like those of the rulers of Tegre,Bagemder and
Gojjam, were akin to those exercised by the emperors of former times. It was thus
"no fiction of Shoan law," Johnston claims, that "everything" was the "positive property
of the monarch," who, according to Harris, actually owned "all the best portions of the
soil." The ruler could moreover give and take away at his pleasure "every kind of
property," and, "without assigning any reason, dispossess the present holder and confer
his wealth upon another, or retain it for his own use." He could furthermore "demand
the services of all his people at all times, who must perform everything required of
them, to build palaces, construct bridges, till the royal demesnes, or fight his enemies."
4
Beke (1840-3) 257-8, 416.
173
All subjects, "from first to last, both rich and poor," were thus "the mere slaves of one
sole lord and master. "Holding wealth and honour in one hand, poverty and
wretchedness in the other," Sahla Sellase had thus in a sense made himself "the point
upon which human happiness" turned. Since he could "at any moment reduce to a
beggar the richest, and most powerful of his slaves" he had almost inevitably become
the object of a "kind of demon worship" like that used to propitiate "spirits supposed
5
to have the power of inflicting evil." The society was in fact so dominated by the
monarch, Harris argued, that the "essence of despotism" permeated it "to its very
core," for:
"the life as well as the property of every subject is at his [Sahla Sellase's]
disposal. Everyperformed with some view to promote his pleasure,
act is
and the subject waits on his sovereign's will, for favour, preferment and
place. All appointments are made at the King's disposal. All rewards and
6
distinctions come from the King's hand."
Dependence on the ruler was particularly apparent during famines, when food
was "alone to be obtained from the royal granaries." It was "not therefore surprising,"
Harris claims, that those in dire need of help from the absolute ruler should "be
mean, servile, and cringing," and that "they should, in their aspirations after power and
place, mould every action of their life according to the despot's will."
Ethiopian rulers of the early 19th century were holding immense banquets for their numerous followers
whose life centred largely around the palace and the court. This banquet scene shows King Sahla Sellase
(left) presiding over a large banquet in the reception hall of his palace. Note minstrels, front left, clowns,
centre, and attendant offering raw meat, right, as well as diners seated, and guards standing. From J.M.
Bernatz, Scenes in Ethiopia (London, 1852).
5
Johnston (1844) II, 185; Harris (1844) III, 33.
6
Harris (1844) III, 33.
174
Sumptuary laws in Sawa seem to have been particularly rigidly enforced. The
possession of gold, and above the wearing of gold jewellery, was monopolised by
all
the King who, Krapf declares, would "severely punish" anyone obtaining the rare metal
without his permission. "None except the highest chiefs and warriors of the land,"
Harris says, were exempted from this law. The manufacture of taj, or mead, was
similarly a royal monopoly, and King Sahla Sellase alone had "the right of preparing
7
the much prized luxury."
The Arbitrariness of Personal Rule
Because of the highly personal, and often arbitrary, aspect of Ethiopian

government the well-being of the populace often depended, and was perceived to
depend, greatly on the character and policies of the ruler. This relationship was so
significant in the era of the masafent that Abagaz Sa'una went so far as to observe in
his chronicle that "if a ruler is good the times are good, and if a ruler is a bad one the
times are bad." In support of this thesis he cited the "Book of Wisdom" as stating that
"A King among Kings said to a wise man among wise men, 'How is the goodness of
a time (to be reckoned)?', to which the wise man replied, The times are indeed as
art thou. If thou art evil the times are evil, and if thou art good the times are good.'"
A whole philosophy of government was distilled in those few words.
Provincial rulers, such as King Sahla Sellase and his consort Queen Bazabes, shown here with eight of
her women attendants receiving gifts from a visiting French mission, kept considerable states, and were
surrounded by numerous servants. From C.F.X. Rochet d' Hericourt, Second Voyage sur les deux rives de
la Mer Rouge, dans le pays aes A dels et le royaume de Choa (Paris, 1846).
7
Harris (1844) III, 33; Johnston (1844) II, 170; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 363.
175
The and reputations, of the rulers of this period in fact varied
policies,
considerably. In Tegre the "cruel administration" of Ras Mika'el Sehul thus gave way
to what Henry Salt described, and lauded, as the "mild government" of Ras Walda
Sellase. A similar change of regime later took place in Sawa where the "severe and
merciless" tyranny of Ras Wasan Sagad was followed by the more enlightened rule of
his son Sahla Sellase. The latter, "most fortunately" for his subjects, was, in Johnston's
opinion, a "sagacious monarch" and "a just and good man." His rule, like that of his
forebears, was full of "petty restraints," but these could, in the Englishman's view,
"readily" be excused when it was realised that Sahla Sellase was "superior" to the
8
temptation of abusing his unlimited powers. Elaborating on this view the traveller
declares:
"The contemplation of such a prince in his own country is worth the

trouble and risk of visiting
it. During a reign of thirty years, save one or
two transient rebellions of ambitious traitors, who have led, not the
subjects of Sahale Selassee, but those of his enemies, nothing like internal
dissension or civil war have by their ravages defaced this happy country;
whilst gradually his character for justice and probity has spread far and
wide, and the supremacy of political excellence is without hesitation given
to the Negoos of Shoa throughout the length and breadth of the ancient
empire of Ethiopia. To be feared by every prince around, and loved by
every subject at home, is the boast of the first government of civilised
Europe; and strangely enough this excellence of social condition is
paralleled in the heart of Africa, where we find practically carried out the
most advantageous policy of a social community that one of the wisest of
sages could conceive - that of arbitrary power placed in the hands of a
9
really good man."
Though the picture thus conjured up was perhaps too rosy there is no gainsaying
that conditions in Sawa were both more peaceful and more stable than in most of the
northern provinces where civil war had long been rife.
Lepers and Mendicants at Court
Lepers, "many" of whom had been seen by Alvares in the sixteenth century, were
not traditionally segregated in Ethiopia. Though prohibited in the Fetha Nagast from
serving as priests or judges, on the ground that to do so would cause their office to
be despised, they were allowed to roam the countryside more or less at will.
Many lepers attached themselves to the courts of nineteenth century rulers.

Dajazmac Webe thus used a monk from Gojjam as one of his messengers, while
leper
King Sahla Sellase is Rochet d'Hericourt to have treated such unfortunates
said by
with "especial charity". Johnston on entering the monarch's compound reports passing,
"for about twenty yards, between two rows of noisy beggars, male and female, old,
middle-aged, and young; who, leprous, scrofulous, and maimed, exhibited the most
8
Weld Blundell (1922) 417; Valentia (1809) III, 155; Johnston (1844) II, 185, 190
9
Johnston (1844) II, 189-90.
176
disgusting sores and implored charity for the sake of Christ and the Holy Virgin". Such
sights were also seen at other provincial capitals.
Lepers, as well as persons suffering from other serious diseases, were "great
beggars", as Pearce notes. This was confirmed by Antoine d'Abbadie who heard the
"plaintiff voice" of lepers, itinerant monks, and students, begging from door to door,
in the name
of the saint of the day, Saint Takla Haymanot, or the Virgin Mary. They
begged, according to Pearce, with great impunity. Often "very insolent" they would
even abuse passing governors, who in accordance with the custom of the country,
10
would never take any action against them.
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 514; Paulos Tsadua (1968) 21, 62, 250; Arnauld d'Abbadie
(1868) 169-70, 547-8; Rochet d'Hericourt (1841) 307; Stern (1862) 121; Pearce (1831) I, 297; Pankhurst
(1984c) 57-72.
177
VI
THE CLERGY, THE CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

The Multitude of the Clergy, their Education and Organisation
Observers of the early nineteenth century, as of previous times, were much

impressed by the multitude of both churches and clergy. Ferret and Galinier
remarked, in terms reminiscent of Bruce a century and a half earlier, that it was rare
in the highlands to stop at the top of a mountain without seeing five or six churches,
and almost as many monasteries. Pearce likewise declared that priests were "numerous
beyond belief," while Dufton later in the century claimed that the religious community,
consisting of "innumerable" priests and dabtara, constituted "nearly a quarter" of the
population. Most churches were tended, according to Ferret and Galinier, by ten to
twelve priests.
Most priests - other than the great church scholars discussed in a previous
chapter - had, in the opinion of foreign observers of this period, only minimal
education. Gobat claimed that many students preparing for the priesthood confined
themselves to "learning to sing some of the church books," while Plowden felt that
the learning of the clergy in general was virtually limited to the Old and New
Testaments. To be admitted to the priesthood, candidates, according to Ferret and
Galinier, needed only to know how to read, and be of good conduct, and over the age
of eighteen. When they could fulfil these conditions they would present themselves
before the Abun who would open a Bible and make them read out, or stammer
through, a page, after which he ordained them, without really inquiring how much
they knew. Priests were, however, said to have been "in general very polite," and as
far as outward appearance went, were, "very good people." Some, Pearce agreed, had
indeed "exceedingly good qualities," though many, he feared, were "despicable
wretches."
Dabtaras, Plowden reports, were "often more learned" than the priests. Recruited
from ranks of society, Antoine d'Abbadie states, they were involved in many fields
all
of church activity. Their principal function was to sing in church choirs, but they were
also sometimes involved in church administration, taking the usufruct of church lands
and paying and dismissing the priests who said Mass. Dabtaras had, however - for
what it is worth - a poor reputation among foreign travellers, such as Plowden who
declares that they were "generally cunning, debauched and mischief-makers." Monks
by contrast, he believed, had "faith, and energy in their faith," for "many" of them often
"risked their lives to visit shrines, not infrequently surrounded for many a weary day's
journey by hostile tribes."
Opinions such as these, expressed by foreign missionaries often engaged in

bitter conflicts withEthiopian Orthodox Christianity, as well as by unfriendly or
xenophobic outsiders only partially familiar with the culture, are interesting, but must
be taken with more than average caution - for the clergy, as we shall see, were highly
178
regarded by the population at large. An Ethiopian proverb nonetheless stated: "The
worst of beasts, the scorpion; the worst of men the dabtara".
1
Income of the Clergy and of the Abun
The clergy had "no pay", but, obtained their income, Plowden noted, partly from
church ownership of land and partly in return for the services they rendered. Revenues
from the land varied greatly from one church to another, but at any establishment
were divided fairly strictly among the clerics attached to it. A church's income,
according to Pearce, was thus "divided into equal portions" of which the Aldqa, or
chief priest, received ten parts, the treasurer, three, and the others "according to their
rank, one or more."
The hearing of confessions and granting of absolutions, was, according to Pearce,

a not unprofitable business. The average priest might, moreover, have "two or three
thousand" parishioners, each of whom would give him one or two amole, or one-
fifteenth of aMaria Theresa thaler, on St. John's or New Year's Day, thus providing
a total income of almost 200 thalers a year. Priests after five or six years would thus
have made enough money to maintain themselves for "the remainder of their lives,"
and would then probably "return to their native place," where they would purchase
oxen, commence farming, and "live well" - so long of course as the country they lived
in was at peace. Priests also obtained fees, often of some magnitude, for burial
services. They "always" got "well paid" when "any great man" died, and even obtained
part of whatever a poor man left behind, for which reason, Pearce cynically claimed,
some actually prayed for people to die. Besides resident priests there were others who
attached themselves to a church without any right to its income, but obtained their
maintenance, either in return for undertaking some of their colleagues' duties, or else
by outright begging. The size of the clergy's exactions also impressed Plowden who
later observed that Father Confessors extracted what they could, according to the
wealth of the penitent. The pious bestowed "rich offerings for their spiritual welfare,"
while the laity in general were "mulcted on the occasion of births, christenings,
marriages, deaths, registers of sale and purchase, burials, and the like," so that the
priests, "besides their continual feasting at the public expense," were "usually stocked
with money," and on account of their numbers were often "compared by the
Abyssinians to locusts."
Dabtaras, for their part, obtained their living in a variety of ways. Though one
of their principal functions consisted in singing in church choirs, many abandoning
the service of the Church, became legal advisers to provincial rulers, or, according to
d'Abbadie, turned successfully to trade. The majority, however, devoted themselves
in one way or another to writing. Some earned their living by producing amulets and
charms against disease and misfortune, and by the practice of medicine and occult
sciences, while others were "hangers-on" at various churches. Many dabtaras claimed
the ability of exorcising supernatural powers. One from Gojjam for example was said
to have declared that he could "prevent the ravages of the smallpox," as well as
destruction from both locusts and hail. Others, as we have seen, wrote out Ge'ez texts
for their Judaic compatriots the Falasa.
1
Pearce (1831) I, 328, 336; Dufton (1867) 140; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 350-1; Gobat (1850) 319;
GB House of Commons (1868) 109-10; Antoine d' Abbadie (1868) 17-8; Faitlovitch (1907) 14.
179
An Ethiopian priest, standing, and a monk, seated, both in traditional ecclesiastical dress. Note turban,
cap, fly-whisk and prayer beads. Engraving from HA. Stern, The Captive Missionary (London, 1868).
180
Many monks by contrast lived in abject poverty, but some were quite well off.
Those at the market town of Qorata were said by Gobat to be "very wealthy", and
were reported to have lent money - presumably to merchants or chiefs - at the rate
of no less than 240% per annum.
The wealthiest churchman, not surprisingly, was, however, the Coptic Abun, or
Metropolitan, who had "numerous" estates in different parts of the country, and also
received a sizeable income, Pearce observes, in charges for ordaining priests and
deacons, as well as for confirming the faithful.
One Abuna Qerellos who arrived

of the greatest beneficiaries of such fees was
from his native 1815 after Ethiopia had been without a spiritual head for no
Egypt in
less than fifteen years. This prelate, who, by all accounts, did little to justify the
reverence paid to his office, immediately after his arrival "ordered a proclamation to
be issued," Pearce states, declaring that "every man wishing to be confirmed a priest
must first bring him four amolas, or pieces of salt each; those who wished to become
deacons two pieces of salt each; and all the population, with their young children, that
had not been confirmed by former Abunas, were to pay one piece of salt each.
Persons were stationed at the gateway to receive the salt as the people entered, one
at a time. More than a thousand priests and as many deacons were ordained the first
day, and, as those who brought their children to be confirmed were departing,
numbers were still arriving." As a result of these extortionate demands the Abun is
said to have received no

than 1,000 amoles a day, a total of 730,000, or the
less
equivalent of over 30,000 Maria Theresa thalers at Adwa prices or 100,000 at those
of Gondar. These figures were, however, exceptional, for once the back-log of
confirmations was overcome the prelate's income dropped to 1,000 amole per month,
though this still amounted to a value of 400 thalers per year, beside which he also
received "a considerable quantity" of amoles in ordination fees from priests, or when
they were appointed heads of churches. Qerellos's worldliness was deeply resented.
Dajazmac Sabagades complained to the Patriarch of Alexandria in 1827 that previous
Abuns had never behaved in this manner, and in a long indictment remarked that the
prelate was demanding silver from those "who had no silver," and, claiming his right
to "eat like a Ras," was threatening toexcommunicate those who failed to meet his
exactions. The validity of these charges was generally accepted, Combes and Tamisier
going so far as to assert that Qerellos's rapacity had made ordination a "farce".
Though the subject of less opprobrium Qerellos's successor, Abba Salama, who
arrived in 1841, was also extremely wealthy. Besides receiving revenues from his
extensive estates and fees from numerous ordinations, he is said to have engaged
extensively in commerce, including, Antoine d'Abbadie goes so far as to claim, the
2
slave trade.
2
GB House of Commons (1868) 109-10; Pearce (1831) I, 56-60, 65-6, 85, 199-201, 328-30, 332; Antoine
d' Abbadie (1868)
17, 201 Gobat (1850) 343; Ferret and Galinier (1847) 351; Combes and Tamisier
II,
(1838) III, Appleyard, Irvine and Pankhurst (1985) 21, 49. Hyatt (1926: 59) later went so far as
190;
to assert that the dabtaras "chief duty" was to chant, and that "no service" could "properly be held
without their assistance,"
181
Church Ownership of Land
The Church throughout this period was a major owner of land, and, in the
opinion of most foreign observers, held considerably more than it deserved. Stern,
who, as a Protestant missionary, was admittedly greatly biased against the Ethiopian
Church, declared that its priests, "partly by intrigue and partly by voluntary requests,
had acquired a vast landed property," which, he believed "amounted to a third of all
the landed property". Dufton, who was also unfavourably disposed to the Church,
likewise quoted this figure, and went on to assert that the religious community "had
through previous royal grants and private legacies, obtained possession of one-third
of the landed property of the realm, which, being farmed out to the peasantry, was to
its owners a vast source of wealth. This, he snidely claimed, enabled many to "live in
idleness, and not infrequently drunkenness and debauchery."
Statements that the Church owned one-third of the land were much exaggerated,
but there can be no gainsaying the observation of Heuglin, a more careful observer,
that it possessed "a very large part of the land." The rights of the Church were,
however, by then apparently beginning to be challenged, for some soldiers of fortune,
according to Antoine d'Abbadie, were seizing religious fiefs to give them to their
3
followers.
The Procurement, and Arrival, of an Abun
Despite the improvement of international communications in the early

nineteenth century the procurement of an Abun
during this period, as previously, was
a costly affair, and one which bore heavily on the population at large. When Ras
Walda Sellase took steps to import a Metropolitan in 1815 he proclaimed by the beat
on the drum that every Alaqa, or village governor, throughout his dominions should
collect from each of his tenants two Maria Theresa dollars in cash, cloth or salt, and
ten to twenty thalers from each of the larger settlements. In this manner, Pearce says,
no less than 10,000 thalers were collected, after which a group of priests were
despatched to Egypt with several Muslim couriers, fourteen slaves and several fine
pieces of cloth as gifts to the Egyptian ruler Muhammad 'Ali.
The eventual arrival of the Abun was

always the occasion of almost unbelievable
popular excitement. When Abuna Salama, for example, arrived in 1841 an
"extraordinary emotion," the French Scientific Mission recalls, gripped the entire
country. On landing at the port of Massawa the prelate was mobbed by a "large
number" of Christians who had gone down to the sea to welcome him. The route he
was to take, by way of Degsa to Adwa and Aksum, being known in advance, he was
everywhere greeted by immense crowds. On reaching Taranta he was received by a
son of the Emperor at Gondar while the governors of all the provinces to be traversed
awaited him, with their soldiers, at the frontiers of their respective areas of command.
In every parish he was welcomed by the priests, monks and laity attached to each
church, after which they escorted him in procession as far as the next halting place.
3
Stern (1868) 24; Dufton (1867) 140; Heuglin (1866) 256, 282; Antoine d' Abbadie (1868) 20.
182
At Gandabta for example the whole population, headed by the clergy, was there
to meet him. The crowd constituted a vast moving sea of heads. Suddenly, Ferret and
Galinier recall, they heard the traditional ululation of welcome, hili! li! li! li! W,
whereupon all the horsemen dismounted as a sign of respect, and almost at the same
moment the Abun himself appeared, mounted most colourfully on a beautiful, richly
caparisoned mule which seemed to glory in its load as it slowly, proudly and
majestically walked through the crowd. The prelate for his part was dressed in a robe
of scarlet silk, yellow trousers, a white turban, and a luxurious burnous embroidered
in gold. He was attended to the right and left by monks and priests from the various
convents of Tegre, and behind them by provincial governors, superbly dressed in
dazzling white, who were followed in turn by crowds of people of all classes and
costumes: rich and poor, soldiers, farmers, and merchants, and in the middle of the
human mass were women and young girls, as well as many children whom their
mothers held high in their arms as if to reach the ray of glory emanating from the
deeply revered visitor.
On reaching Adwa he was accorded another tumultuous welcome, for the city
was "full of an inquisitive crowd impatient to greet the patriarch and to see his face.
Rich and poor, priests and soldiers, farmers and citizens, women and children,
obstructed all the streets, filled all the houses and gave an animated appearance to the
normally silent town. There were perhaps even greater crowds at Aksum where the
welcoming party included many dabtdras, anxious to see, and above all, the French
Scientific mission says, to speak with their superior: to discover his ideas on the
natures of Christ, and to fathom whether he would be a tolerant, persecuting or
reforming prelate.
Further ceremonies occurred at Gondar, still the nominal capital of the realm,
where Abba Salama was greeted at a nearby village by a salute fired by the riflemen
while many warriors on horseback carrying spears and shields formed a line on the
road to receive him. As he appeared they bowed down to their horses' manes, after
which they dashed off in many directions, and the crowd, bursting from time to time
4
into a loud shout and the women ululating, followed him to the city.
Respect Paid to the Clergy
were invariably treated with great respect. They almost always carried
Priests
in their hand a small cross. This they would frequently present to people to kiss,
which the Christians would do with deep reverence. More important clerics when
travelling would often be preceded by a long two-edged sword, and in some cases, by
two, three, four or even more such weapons.
The clergy as a whole differed, however, from other classes in that they never
carried weapons. They were nevertheless no strangers to fire-arms. Those at Dabra
Abbay, for example, kept "a great many gunners, with matchlocks of very large size,"
to defend them against attacks by the neighbouring Sanqellas, as well as to kill the
numerous elephants in the area.
4
Pearce (1831) II, 51; Lefebvre (1845-8) I, 291; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 63-4, 67-70; Bell (1842)
23. The
Protestant missionary Joseph Wolff, who arrived some years earlier, and was mistaken for an
Abun, described similar excitement: Wolff (1869) 341.
183
Administration of the Sacrament at a stone church in Tegre. From R. Acton, The Abyssinian Expedition
(London,1868).
184
185
The greatest reverence was, however, reserved for the Abuns, whose arrival in
the country was, as we have seen, such a source of excitement and satisfaction. It was
the more remarkable that Sabagades was obliged - and felt strong enough - to
complain, as we have seen, to Alexandria about Abuna Qerellos whose offences are
said to have included drunkenness, greed and murder, as well as abuse of his power
5
of excommunication.
Dress - and Marriage Rules
Priests, whose dress did not differ too markedly from that of the laity, for the
most part wore a long open shirt, loose trousers, a skull-cap, and a turban. The shirt,
which was the most distinctive part of their attire, had large wide sleeves and a collar,
the ends of which hung down on each side to the waist and tapered to a point. These
clothes were generally white, though a few priests dressed in yellow. This colour,
Pearce recalls, was, however, "mostly confined to monks," or others who had "resort
to the wilderness." Some priests also wore sandals, an article of apparel not known
to the population at large.
Priests, as we have were allowed to marry only once, before their

seen,
ordination, after which marriage was prohibited. Many priests, according to Pearce,
nevertheless thought it "not lawful" to marry at all, and "many thousand" who resorted
to Waldebba and other sacred places never in fact did so, though he feared that some
6
were detected in adultery.
The Influence and Power of the Priesthood
The priesthood by all accounts was influential and politically powerful. Pearce
claims that Ras Walda Sellase, the ruler of Tegre, once confided to him that if he
alienated the clergy he would "not long be Ras."
King Sahla Sellase, who appears to have also appreciated the power of the
Church, later wooed religious communities not only in his native Sawa, but throughout
most of Christian Ethiopia. Early in his career for example he paid for the erection
of three churches in far away Tegre, and supplied them with tabots, or altar slabs. He
is reported to have subsequently sent periodical gifts of money, and clothes, to Wallo
for the monks of Lake Hayq in the hope of obtaining blessings from a congregation
which, according to Krapf, had "the reputation of extraordinary holiness and heavenly-
mindedness. The ruler of Sawa also went out of his way to obtain church manuscripts
from other provinces, and gave generous hospitality to visiting clerics from far and
wide. There is record for example of his on one occasion sending fifty Maria Theresa
thalers to a church in Gojjam to obtain two copies of the chronological work
Abusaker. His generosity, according to Krapf, was in fact "known everywhere," so that
priests, monks and other clerics flocked to Sawa from all parts of the country. Among
those who are mentioned as coming during a brief period in the missionary's diary
5
Pearce (1831) I, 336, II, 176; GB House of Commons (1868) 103; Appleyard, Irvine and Pankhurst
(1985) 49 et passim.
6
Pearce (1831) I, 329-30, 336; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 351-2.
186
were three from Gurage, one from Qwara, and three monks from Lasta. The
priests
was that "many people" in Lasta, Wag and Tegre observed that the
result of this policy
Sawans were the "best Christians" in the country, and their king the "best ruler." Sahla
Sellase's "munificent donations" to churches and monasteries were also noted by
Harris, ever a critic of all things Ethiopian, who states that the monarch in
consequence stood "in high odour with the fanatic clergy," and was therefore enabled
to benefit from their "influence over the priest-ridden population" which he ruled
"principally through the church." The monarch, he claims, "never undertook any project
without consulting some of its members," and was "in turn much swayed by their
7
exhortations, prophecies, dreams and visions."
Veneration of Religious Establishments
Religious establishments continued to be treated with deep veneration. On

riding past a church was thus customary, Pearce explains, for Christians to alight
it
from their mule or horse. If the place of worship was in the vicinity they would go up
and kiss its gateway, or a nearby tree, but if it was far away they would more often
pick up a stone and throw it in a pile which was almost invariably found on pathways
opposite religious establishments. On entering a church people would likewise "always
bow and kiss the corners of the door-way," as well as any religious pictures shown to
them.
Such customs were so deeply ingrained that people would use the expression,
"Igo to kiss the church of such a saint," or "I go to kiss St. Mikael, St. George, etc."
Religious persons might indeed often kiss several churches in succession, and "to
convey the idea that a man was truly pious," Gobat says, it might be said of him,
8
approvingly, that he was "a kisser of churches."
Church-Building, Libraries, and Manuscripts
Churches were built both by local communities and by provincial or other rulers.
In either case much of the work was carried out by the populace at large, for when
it came to church-building every Christian was ready, Pearce explains, to carry stones,
earth or other materials without any thought of payment. A chief wishing to build a
church, or even a residence for himself, would begin by purchasing or merely taking
from the people, canes and grass for the roof, and would send his subjects to the
forests to cut wood, after which construction was often carried out on a cowee basis.
Ras Walda Sellase for example, when wishing to have a building constructed, "called
all the chiefs in turn, and, knowing the strength of their respective districts, tasked
them as he thought proper; ordering every one to fell so many trees, take the bark off,
and bring them before his tent by sunset." Many pious Christians who could afford it
would also go to "great expense" to decorate churches with religious paintings, gold
and silver objects and costly carpets and silks.
7
Pearce (1831) I, 176-7, II, 209; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 137, 141, 145, 149, 238, 446; Harris (1844)
III, 25.
8
Pearce (1831) I, 328, 336; Gobat (1850) 325.
187
Churches and monasteries were virtually the country's only repositories of
manuscripts. One of the best collections was reputedly at Aksum, and was in the care
early in the nineteenth century of a librarian called Abba Qalamsis. Many manuscripts
were also housed in the churches of the imperial capital, Gondar, whence Emperor
Tewodros II, as his chronicler records, was in 1864 to take no less than 981 to his
mountain fortress at Maqdala
where they were looted four years later by a British
-
military expedition launched against him. Also important was the library at the
famous Sawan monastery of Dabra Libanos, which, according to the French Scientific
Mission, contained five hundred manuscripts, "all dealing with religion" except for "a
few" on the chronicles of the kings. On being asked if there were any books on
medicine the monks "seemed very scandalised." If they found "a single one," they
piously declared, "we would burn it. What are all the human cures compared with the
miracles of our great patron saint Takla Haymanot!". Other sizeable collections of
manuscripts were kept in important churches, among them that of Giyorgis at
Ankobar which, Krapf reports, had a full seventy volumes. Detailed inventories of
church libraries were included, and preserved, in the marginalia of numerous
manuscripts - which still require detailed study.
Despite the existence of many fine collections of manuscripts church scholarship

by time was suffering from the effects of disunity and civil war. Books written by
this
the monks with great labour, Plowden reports, had formerly been "eagerly sought for,"
but by the middle of the century were "neglected, almost forgotten." The art of
painting was also "nearly lost," and ornamental missals might in consequence be "found
9
very cheap."
Annual Church Festivals, and Pilgrimage
The more important churches were thronged on occasion by vast numbers of the
faithful.During the annual festival of Maryam Seyon at Aksum, wrote Pearce, "all
Abyssinia" came to the city. In November 1817 for example the neighbouring plain
was "crowded" with people from "all parts of Abyssinia," some of them from as far
as Sawa. The feast of Abba Garima, which was held in the neighbourhood, likewise
attracted "every class from all parts of the country" who were greeted by trumpeters,
drummers and fifers. Women were not allowed into holy precincts, but "some
thousands" assembled in different groups between it and the nearby church of Maryam
Zacharias, while "gangs of young girls" danced and sang to the beat of a drum. The
main celebrations began about two hours after sunrise when the tabot, covered with
silks, was brought out of the church by priests "dressed in silks and rags of all colours,"
with "silver and gold crowns, and ornaments." Pictures and "all the various riches of
the church" were also "brought out for the populace to do them honour." The priests
gracefully danced and sang, while the women snouted and ululated, and the trumpeters
made "all the noise" they possibly could.
9
Pearce (1831) I, 148-50, 243; Ferret and Galinier (1847) I, 472; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, 274; Isenberg
and Krapf (1843) 100; GB House of Commons (1868) Mondon-Vidailhet (1905) 22, 49-50. For
110;
lists of manuscripts reported by early nineteenth century travellers see Combes and Tamisier, III, 347-
51; Ferret and Galinier, I, 475-6, Isenberg and Krapf, 99-100, and Graham (1843) 666-70, and, for a
subsequent Ethiopian record of holdings at Maqdala, Pankhurst and Germa-Selassie Asfaw (1979) 115-
43.
188
Pilgrimages took place, not only to important religious centres within the
country, but, as for many centuries previously, also to Jerusalem which was visited by
10
many priests and monks as well as members of the laity each year.
Saints' Days
Saints' days, which were celebrated monthly rather than annually as in Europe,
were so frequent that Ferret and Galinier believed that no country had as many of
them as Ethiopia. Such festivals were a time of much feasting, enjoyment and alms-
giving when agricultural labour was suspended. The ban on working on Saints' days
applied not only to agricultural labour, but also to most other other work, including
building operations. It was indeed popularly held, according to Harris, that any
structure erected on such a day would "infallibly entail a curse from above."
Beside holding monthly celebrations on Saints' days it was customary among the
nobility, and "people of middling class," Pearce states, to hold a feast every year in the
name of their patron saint," on which day they would also give alms to the poor, even
though they might wring it from them "tenfold, before the year is expired, by arbitrary
taxation." "Many people," Parkyns explains, would also make vows to their Patron Saint
to slaughter on his principal day "a bullock, sheep or other votive offering, in order to
consolidate his protection and favour for the remainder of the year." Each family thus
had its Saint whose anniversary was "handed down from father to son as the family
jubilee." On that day the different members of the family entertained their friends by
some sort of merry making, "every man according to his means, and even servants
considered it necessary among themselves to celebrate the saints' day of their
forefathers."
The more important Saints' days were the occasion of colourful ceremonial
which brought excitement into the dullness of people's lives. On such days the tabots
of all the neighbouring churches were taken out, covered with silk or other coloured
cloth, and carried on the heads of priests to honour the Saint celebrated that day. The
priest carrying the tabot was preceded by the church's lower clergy, dressed in rich
clothes, with crowns of gold, silver or brass on their heads, each ringing a bell and
bearing a long stick with a cross at one end, and singing a joyful song. They were
accompanied in front by trumpeters, and in the rear by the high-priest and other
important clergy, followed by the populace at large. The women of the area meanwhile
formed themselves into different parties, and sang, danced, and clapped their hands
to the accompaniment of a drum beaten at both ends by a girl who carried it on a
strap around her neck.
In large towns, or near any populous place, chiefs with soldiers mounted on
horses and dressed in warlike apparel would also assemble to do honour to the tabot.
While the was slowly carried along they rode about with great speed in all
latter
directions,and "many accidents," Pearce states, often occurred. The tabots of the
various churches were then placed in small tents or huts constructed for the purpose,
in which each group of priests administered the Sacrament to those who wished to
Pearce (1831) II, 158, 243-4; GB House of Commons (1868) 110. See also Cerulli (1943-7) II, 193-211.
189
partake of it. Many chose to receive it from the hands of a cleric in the church
dedicated to their favourite Saint, for it was widely believed that throughout one's life
11
there was one such figure more helpful than the others.
Mdhabdrs, or Church-sponsored Friendly Societies
Saints' days were the occasion also of the meeting of mdhabdrs, or church-
sponsored friendly societies which usually consisted of twelve members, but sometimes
more. The menfolk were generally in one mdhabar, and the women in another, but
when a husband or wife was absent, a spouse could attend instead. Pearce, who had
himself participated in several such societies, states that the members swore to be
brethren, and to assist each other in need - and "not to wrong each other's bed,"
though in this, he felt, they were not necessarily "very attentive" to their vows.
Meetings were held once a month on Saints' days which were fixed when the club was
first formed. Each mdhabar had a priest who ate and drank free of charge. He it was
who opened each meeting, on which occasion the members assembled to say the
Lord's Prayer, and all repeated it together, after which he broke bread, giving first to
the poor at the door, and then to all the members of the mdhabar in rotation.
Generally they dispersed very late, some of them in a state of intoxication, though "the
higher class", Pearce believed, mostly had "the prudence not to get over-intoxicated."
Some, however, often drank to such excess that they might fall off their mules on the
way home, and, if there was no one to look after them, would be left to the mercy of
the hyenas who ranged through most towns and villages all night. Many persons who
loved eating and drinking in company would, if they could afford it, belong to several
12
such mdhabdrs, each held on a different Saint's day.
Church Festivals
The most memorable Church celebrations were those connected with the ending
of Lent. Holy Thursday was thus "a sort of picnic-day," which was spent, Parkyns says,
"entirely out of doors." On that occasion people took maize, millet, dried peas and any
other grain, mixed them together, crushed them in a wooden mortar, and boiled them
toproduce a porridge which was eaten on that day and the following. On Good Friday
the boys and girls of the neighbourhood went round, knocking at all the houses
little
to demand food, and crying out, "Mishamisho, mishamisho! May God give ye cattle
in your yard, and children in your bosom; and may those you have already grow up
in health and strength!" Everyone thus appealed to gave them something, but the
youngsters made a point of being as grasping and impertinent as possible, and should
anyone fail to meet their demands they made a sham corpse of a bundle of clothes,
and, placing it on a couch, carried it in procession, pretending that they were
mourning the miser's demise. At Gondar, Gobat likewise reported, the city that Friday
morning was "all full of life and motion; masters were sending their servants to present
their compliments to persons of their acquaintance; the streets were thronged with
people rushing to and fro, coming and going to their churches".
11
Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 361; Pearce (1831) I, 337-9; Harris (1844) III, 353-4.
12
Pearce (1831) II, 19-20.
190
On Easter Sunday the priests went around the town in procession, carrying
crosses and church ornaments, and singing in praise of God, and of the person they
were about to visit. At Adwa, for example, they visited "every respectable person in
the town," Pearce recalls, or at least such as they "knew to be capable of giving them
their fill of victuals and drink some days afterwards." On entering a house they handed
the master and mistress, and then the servants, some green rushes, one of which they
kept tied round the head throughout the day. The clergy then held out crosses for
everyone to kiss, after which they recited the Lord's Prayer, and then proceeded to
another house, and so on until they had visited every respectable man or woman in
the town or parish. In return they would be invited, during the following month, by all
those whom they had visited, and who would give them a feast, perhaps killing two or
three cows for the occasion.
The festival of Saint Gabra Manfas likewise had its food associations, for
everyone on that occasion ate peas which were made to sprout by soaking them for
three days in water. Portions of peas were also given as presents to friends and
neighbours. Some people claimed, according to Parkyns, that the sprouts represented
the old Saint's white beard; others that they recalled his life of hardship when he lived
on roots and berries.
The day of St. Yohannes, which coincided with the Ethiopian New Year and the
beginning of Maskaram, the first month of the year, also had its distinctive
ceremonies. Pearce recalls that the boys and girls gathered flowers to make nosegays
which they took to the "higher sort of people", from whom they received in return a
present, or were given "something to eat or drink". Parkyns, who confirms this picture,
states that festivals began at dawn when people presented each other with bunches of
wild flowers, saying inkiitatas, literally, "Take this present," a phrase not, however,
used on any other occasion. Such gifts elicited a present in return. Servants made a
point of giving flowers to their master and mistress, and "in a great man's house"
there was "a great deal of rivalry" as to who should be the first to do so, "for only the
two or three earliest comers" were usually rewarded. A wife on being presented with
flowers by her husband would reciprocate by giving him a new pair of trousers made
from cotton spun with her own hand, and he might respond by presenting her with a
new dress. The day was also important for persons believing themselves possessed by
evil spirits, forwas then that they might choose a white or red sheep, drag it round
it
them three times, and slaughter it "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost," after which they would place some of its blood on their forehead,
and then depart, leaving the carcase on the ground without looking at it. They did this
lest they should disturb the Devil who was supposed to have by then left his victim,
and to be busy eating the mutton. The day's celebrations ended that evening with
everyone, male and female, old and young, going down to bathe in a neighbouring
river or lake.
Masqal, or the Feast of the Cross, which took place toward the end of
September, and more or less coincided with the end of the rainy season, was,
according to Pearce, the "greatest holyday in the whole year", while Parkyns says it was
the festival celebrated with "the greatest pomp and show." Pearce reports that the boys
and girls at midnight began to "flock in gangs", singing and dashing about with long
191
bundles of dried sticks, lighted like torches, while men, also carrying them, rushed into
one another's houses, crying "annkkerver, etc.," the meaning of which was "All bad
things have gone out and good ones are coming in". In towns such as Adwa the
festival, Parkyns recalls, was preceded by many days of desultory mock warfare
between the young people of opposite sexes, the girls armed with gourds containing
filthy liquids, and the boys with thorns or stinging nettles. When any of the opposing
parties encountered each other they ritualistically exchanged insults, often using
offensive language, after which the boys pricked and stung the naked breasts and
shoulders of the giils who responded by throwing their smelly potions in the faces of
their assailants.
The eve of Masqat, which brought an end to such hostilities, was - by the early
nineteenth century at least - marked at sunset by the discharge of fire-arms from all
the principal houses. Bonfires were set ablaze, and people lit torches and paraded with
them throughout the town. They also entered people's houses, and poked their lights
into every dark corner, for example under beds and in stables and kitchens, as if
looking for something lost, and would cry out, "Akho, akhokyl turn out the spinach and
bring the porridge; Maskal has come."
Early on Masqal morning, while it was still dark, the great men had huge piles
of wood on high places near the towns set on fire. One or two oxen or sheep,
according to the wealth of the officer, were then led three times around the fire, and
slaughtered, their flesh being left on the spot to be eaten by the animals or birds of
prey. The people that day rose early to see the fire, after which soldiers presented
themselves before their master, and performed war-boasts, relating how they had
served him and would do so again when opportunity arose. Masqal celebrations at
Adwa also included a regular fight between the different parishes, and on one of the
days when Parkyns participated, those of Mika'el and Gabre'el, after a long contest,
beat and put to flight that of Madhane 'Alam, or Saviour of the World.
Christmas, as in other Christian countries, was a day of much praying, singing

and The ensuing Temqat, or Epiphany, celebrations began on the eve of the
feasting.
holiday, a day of fasting, when priests and dabtara, bearing their tabots and church
paraphernalia, went down to a neighbouring river or lake, on the banks of which tents
were pitched to receive them, and where devout parishioners contributed "a store of
comestibles of every variety," including large quantities of beer and mead. Feasting
began that day at sun-set, and it was "fearful to behold", Parkyns comments, "with what
vigour the half-famished divines set to work," for abundance was always awaiting them
as the food was collected in the name of the tabot, and people thought they were
"doing a very goodly act in providing vast quantities". The whole ensuing night was
spent in alternate prayer, hymn singing, religious dancing, and drinking, after which,
before sunrise, the Sacrament was administered, though many of the priests, he feared,
were by then so inebriated that they were "not in a very fit state to partake of it." The
chief priest then raised his hands over the water, and blessed it, whereupon the people
would push themselves in to bathe. The great men and priests, however, did not
immerse themselves, but were instead sprinkled with water, "to obviate the necessity
of their mixing, even in such a ceremony, with the vulgar herd." At the conclusion of
the ceremony the women danced and sang, while the men engaged in various sports,
including guks, or traditional Ethiopian hockey. On the following day, which was
dedicated to the Archangel Mika'el, there were further church ceremonies, as well as
much feasting, in which the priests were always "well fed by their devout parishioners."
193
Other colourful festivals included that of Mika'el, in June, when King Sahla
Sellase gave clothes to his slaves, and many people, according to Isenberg and Krapf,
went from house to house begging for clothes; and the feast Felsata, or the
Assumption of the Virgin, in August, which was characterised at Ankobar, Harris says,
by "customary skirmishes between the town's people and the slave establishment of the
king." No less exciting were the celebrations of Dabra Tabor, or the Transfiguration,
when the Sawan capital was as brightly illuminated as candles would allow. "Whilst
boys, carrying flambeaux, ran singing through the streets, every dwelling displayed such
3
a light as its inmates could afford."
The Life Cycle
The Life Cycle had a significant religious dimension. Marriages, as we shall see,
were largely secular, and carried out for the most part without the intervention of the
clergy, but the latter invariably officiated at both baptisms and funerals.
(i) Baptism
On the day of a child's birth the parents were generally visited by a priest. His
prinicpal duty on that occasion was to tell the father, who was in most cases illiterate -
or at least unprovided with a calendar - the date of his offspring's baptism, which had
to take place forty days after birth in the case of a boy or eighty in that of a girl. Strict
adherence to was considered essential, and a parent who failed to have his
this dating
or her child baptised on the prescribed day was subjected, Parkyns says to "heavy
penance," perhaps of several months' fasting.
Not long after the infant's birth the priests would return to the parental house
with "all the pomp and ceremony of the Church," including crosses and incense, to
purify the place from the impurity of childbirth by sprinkling the dwelling with holy
water. This took place on the tenth day after the birth of a boy or the twentieth after
a girl.
When made their way to church where the

the day of baptism arrived the family
priest received the child from the godfather. The cleric then placed his hand on its
head, poured on it a little water, and then, taking some oil, made the sign of the cross
on the child's head, hands, breast and knees, and concluded by tying round its neck
a painted cord of red, blue and white silk - the sign of Christianity - which was later
exchanged for a blue cord. The priest then returned the infant to its godfather,
exhorting him to support and educate it, and look after its welfare, spiritual and
temporal, as if it were his own child. The ceremony being thus concluded, the clergy
then returned with the whole party to the house where the parents would have
14
prepared a great feast in honour of the occasion.
13
Parkyns (1853) II, 74-8, 81-4; Pearce (1831) II, 219, 273, 277; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 66; Gobat
(1850), 205; Harris (1844) III, 349-50.
14
Parkyns (1853) II, 38-9.
195
(ii) Funerals
Funerals were of considerably greater prominence than baptisms in traditional

Ethiopian social life, and attendance at them was virtually obligatory. Anyone who
failed to join in a mourning ceremony, Gobat explains, was indeed "not regarded as
a friend."
Death was usually followed by three days of deep mourning, not only by relatives
and friends of the deceased, but also by distant acquaintances, after which a series of
commemorative feasts would be held over a period of several, and in some cases,
many years. Funeral services, in the opinion of Pearce, who had participated in many
in Tegre - including one for his only son - were "very affecting."
When someone became seriously ill, and was expected to die, friends and
once assembled, and began crying and wailing. On news of the demise
relatives at
such lamentations were at once "recommencced with fury."
The burial ceremony itself took place only a few hours later, almost invariably
on the same day as the death. The priests on that occasion began by reading out
prayers for the soul of the deceased, whose body was at the same time washed, its
hands placed across one another, upon the lower part of the body, and tied to keep
them in that position, the eyes closed, and the two great toes also tied together. The
corpse was then wrapped in a clean cloth, and sewed up, after which it was placed in
a skin such as that on which most people slept. Coffins were in many cases made out
of cane, but those for very important people were of wood, which, because of the
shortage of timber, was often taken from the doors of their houses.
The body of the deceased was carried to the place of interment by bearers
walking mournfully at a slow pace. The route from the house to the church was
divided into seven sections, and on reaching each seventh the corpse was set down,
and the priests offered up further prayers for the forgiveness of the deceased. At the
churchyard itself each of the deceased's male neighbours brought tools and helped
to dig the grave, and all tried to outstrip each other in the work. Even when a stranger
died people would flock to assist in his or her burial, and many would join in the cry,
as though they had been closely related to the deceased. When the grave was ready
a priest would step into it, Parkyns recalls, and perfume it with incense, after which
the body was lowered to its last resting place.
Though the burial itself involved no expense Pearce states that the clergy
generally demanded an "exorbitant sum" from those who had property. He recalls
seeing two clergymen quarrelling over the cloth of a poor dead woman, the only good
article she had left. If a man died leaving a wife and child, he adds, the woman was
sometimes drained of the last article of value she possessed in order to purchase food
and drink for the priests, for she often had to make such contributions for no less than
six months - lest the clergy failed to say the necessary prayers for her husband "which
would disgrace her and render her name odious among the lowest of the populace."
196
The number of prayers for the dead varied greatly. If the deceased was of a
wealthy family masses were performed daily, Parkyns says, for forty days, but if the
relations were poor five were generally considered sufficient. They were performed on
the third, seventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fortieth days. Such ceremonies were by no
means cheap. The price of 40 masses, which were "bargained for by the priests,"
amounted at Adwa, by the eighteen forties, to anything between six and twelve thalers,
"or more, according to the wealth of the family." The clergy also expected to be fed
and provided with provisions on a number of occasions. They had thus to be given an
"abundance of provisions," including a sheep, on the thirtieth day, one or two cows and
"various other things" on the fortieth, and a feast to coincide with a midnight mass on
15
the eightieth.
Funeral ritual also included an immense amount of formal mourning. On the

death of his son a large number of people, Pearce recalls, made their way to his
house,
who should get in first... Some brought twenty or thirty cakes of

"striving
bread,some jars of maize [i.e. mes, or mead], some cooked victuals, fowls,
and bread, some a sheep, etc; and in this manner, I had my house so full
that I was obliged to go out into the yard, until things were put in order
and supper was ready.... The bringers are all invited to eat with you; they
talk and tell stories to divert your thoughts from the sorrowful subject;
they force you to drink a great deal; but... when the relatives of the
deceased become a little tranquil in their minds, some old woman, or
someone who can find no one to talk to, will suddenly make a dismal cry,
saying, 'Oh what a fine child! and he is already forgotten?' This puts the
whole company into confusion, and all join in the cry, which perhaps will
16
last half an hour."
When commemorating the death of any person of substance, an even more

considerable number of people would assemble in the vicinity of the deceased's
residence. A sofa, symbolising his or her bed, was laid out, together with his carpets
and other articles of grandeur. An made, according
effigy of the departed, frequently
to Parkyns, of cushions, covered with a white garment, was also made, and sometimes
put upon one of his mules. His horses were then led before with his musket-men, and
were followed by the whole of his household, with their shields and spears, having,
Pearce says, "nothing but a skin around their waist, with their forehead and temples
all torn, shouting and crying in a horrid manner." It was also customary for the
churches of the area each to send a dabal, or decorated umbrella, made of silk or
carpet-like material, on a long pole, while the local church would provide all its dabdls
and public ornaments to grace the funeral. On the death of Ras Walda Sellase's
brother Ato Debbeb in 1814 no fewer than three hundred and fifty umbrellas were
thus displayed. Mourning was highly ritualised. Relatives and friends of the deceased
wept and wailed, and rubbed their faces with their clothes. It was likewise customary,
particularly in Tegre, for members of the bereaved family, both male and female, to
Gobat (1850) 310; Parkyns (1853) II, 63-5; Pearce (1831) I, 83-5,125,189-97, 263-4.
Pearce (1831) I, 189-90.
198
shave their heads and rub themselves "so severely on the forehead and temples,"
Parkyns reports, "as to abrade the skin completely," and produce a sore which took a
long time to cure and was sometimes visible for life.
Funeral gatherings were often attended by professional singing women who

sometimes received a handsome present as a reward for their services, though many
went in the hope of being well fed at the feasting which took place after the ceremony.
Each person in wailing took it by turn to improvise some verses in praise of the
deceased. A son or daughter might exclaim, "Oh! my father, who fed and clothed me
whom have I now to supply your place!" while his friends or relatives would refer to
him as "Brother," and his wife and servants as "Master," each speaking of him
according to the degree of relationship which existed between them. The professional
singers meanwhile gave minute details of his ancestry, deeds, character, and even his
property, Parkyns says, declaring for example, "Oh! Gabrou, son of Welda Mousa,
grandson of Ita Garra Raphael, etc, etc, rider of the bay horse with white feet and of
the grey ambling mule, owner of the Damascus barrel-gun ('baaly johar'), and bearer
of the silver-mounted shield, why have you left us?" They thus entered "with
astonishing readiness into every particular of the deceased's life and actions", while the
by-standers, at the end of each verse, broke in with a chorus of sobbing lamentation,
adapted to a mournful chant, "Wai! wai! wailaway" etc.
Funerals - after the advent of numerous fire-arms in the early nineteenth

century - were also marked, as we shall see, by much firing of guns. After the death
of Walda Sellase's brother Ato Debbeb, Pearce who, at Antalo, thus heard much
wailing as well as the firing of muskets in all parts of the town. "The multitude of
people was so great," he says, "that it was impossible to pass the streets, and the walls
and tops of the houses were covered with persons of both sexes, young and old. ... the
noise was inexpressibly shocking. ... there was not an individual to be seen but with his
face torn, and scratched, and covered with blood."
The funerals of the great and famous were in fact major events in which vast
sections of the population participated. On the death of the Nebura Ed, the
ecclesiasticalgovernor of Aksum, in 1811, there was for example "great crying," Pearce
says, "throughout Tigre." Ras Walda Sellase himself joined in the ceremony for two
days, giving 100 pieces of cloth, equal to a hundred Maria Theresa dollars, to the
priests of the Trinity Church at Calaqot, and another hundred to those of Axum, to
offer prayers for the deceased.
The deaths of great personages sometimes differed from those of other mortals
in thatnews of them was often concealed for reasons of state. Ras Walda Sellase's
demise at Calaqot in 1816 was thus "kept secret from the people," Pearce recalls, for
fear of the calamities that might follow. This gave time for many valuables to be
placed for safe-keeping in a nearby monastery. When the death was finally divulged
"the whole town was instantly alarmed," and hundreds of people, instead of attending
the funeral, fled in all directions to bury their property to save it from the anticipated
plunder. The priests, however, then came once again into their own, as we shall see,
17
by making the town a place of asylum.
Gobat (1850) 310; Parkyns (1853) II, 63-5; Pearce (1831) I, 83-5,125,189-97, 263-4.
199
Asylum
Many religious centres served, as in medieval Europe, as places of asylum, and

were rarely raided, except by Muslim or pagan foes. Localities where an Abun had
resided, and had administered the Sacrament, were, according to Pearce, generally
considered sacred. The most respected such place of refuge was Aksum, whose area
of asylum had a circumference, according to Ferret and Galinier, of a kilometre.
Within that circle the entire Christian population of the surrounding countryside would
flee in time of trouble, and "even those who commit murder or the worst of crimes,"
Pearce says, were "safe from justice once they were within the sacred precincts. In
times of disturbance Aksum, Ferret and Galinier state, thus attracted a "numerous
population," for the rich would go there to place in safety their gold and valuable
objects, the beggar his rags, the peasant his grain, and the soldier weapons for which
he had no immediate need. Aksum's role as a place of asylum had a significant impact
on the surrounding countryside which was well cultivated, the villages of the area
being also richer and better built than those in the rest of Tegre.
At Gondar, the old imperial capital, the residences of the Abun and the E£age,
and their environs,were likewise considered places of asylum. The latter, Gobat
recalls, thus "always" afforded "a safe residence, even in the midst of the greatest
troubles," for it was under the control of the priests," and "no governor" dared
"entirely
to enter it by force.
Throughout the Christian highlands it was not unusual for people to appeal to
the clergy for protection in times of difficulty. During the disorders following the
death of Ras Walda Sellase in 1815 for example the people of Calaqot, site of one of
that chiefs two proposed that the Abun should consecrate the settlement as
capitals,
a place of asylum. The prelate accordingly at once walked around the town at the
head of all the clergy of the neighbourhood, with crowns of gold and silver and other
church ornaments, to the beat of many drums. People from far and near thereupon
brought their property to the city precincts for safety, and "even those who had
committed murder," Pearce says, "came to the town where they were secure." Similar
events were reported at Gondar a decade or so later when "most" of its inhabitants
slept in the churches, Gobat noted in 1830, for fear of attack by the soldiers.
When a party of marauding soldiers subsequently appeared at Bahr Dar,

Plowden was one of those who sought the clergy's protection. Following traditional
Ethiopian practice he rushed to the local church, and tolled its bell, thereby signifying
that he had taken sanctuary, whereupon a priest arrived to inquire what was the
problem, and who was in need of protection. This was duly notified to the Alaqa, or
head of the church, after which the news quickly spread through the town, the
Englishman was able to return in safety to his house, and the soldiers "disappeared on
hearing the bell," and came near him no more.
Such protection from the Church was beneficial not only to persons under
neighbourhood of places
threat, but also to life in the country as a whole. Fields in the
of asylum, where "military license" had been "in some degree" checked by the priests,
200
and where the "ravages of war" were "less felt," Plowden states, were "highly
18
cultivated," and therefore more prosperous than would otherwise have been the case.
Attitudes to Drink, Tobacco, and Fasting
The Ethiopian Church displayed no objection to alcohol, indeed the priests

throughout the country were described by Pearce as "great drinkers." They were, on
the other hand, strongly opposed to smoking, with the result, he says, that no one who
had smoked was allowed to enter a church. Despite such opposition many people took
snuff, and not a few were addicted to smoking, which was, however,"accounted a sin."
Efforts to tighten fasts were made during this period by the bigotted Abuna
Qerellos, who, though a Copt, is said to have insisted that fish should not be eaten
19
in times of abstinence.
Prayer, the Making of Vows, and Holy Water
Great importance was attached to both prayers and the making of vows. Besides
individual prayer by the clergy and laity as individuals there were also mass prayers
by communities in time of crisis. On the occurrence of an earthquake at Ankobar in
the early 1840's, for example, a "hymn of entreaty," Harris recalls, "rose high in the
mist from every church throughout the town; and bands of priests, carrying the holy
cross, marched in solemn procession ... beating their breasts and calling aloud upon
Saint Michael the Archangel, and upon Mary the mother of the Messiah, to intercede
for them."
The making of vows was not infrequent, particularly on the part of women
desirous of having children. was the custom for such women to prepare wax candles,
It
bread, beer and other articles in honour of the Virgin Mary or a favourite Saint, and
take them to church on the day associated with that Saint. In many cases undertaking
long pilgrimages for the purpose, they then offered their present to the resident priest
who in return handed them a small bell to hold in their hand, after which they would
"stand in one posture, repeating a prayer over and over, for several hours," until they
were "entirely fatigued." They might do this "for several days successively," and, if they
gave birth within the next year, they would probably call their child after the Saint they
had thus petitioned.
There was also widespread belief in the curative value of tabals, or springs of
holy water, which, Pearce recalls, were "highly esteemed." Many, like that called after
20
Gabra Manfas in Sawa, were associated with specific Saints.
Ferret and Galinier (1847) I, 470-1; Pearce (1831) I, 164, II, 85; Gobat (1850) 157-8, 253; Plowden
(1868) 42, 136, 261, 266; Krapf (1867), 450; Stern (1862) 177-8; Lejean (1872) 23; Arnauld d' Abbadie
(1868) 161-2; GB House of Commons (1868) 107.
Pearce (1831) I, 335, II, 175; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 91.
Harris (1844) III, 379-80; Pearce (1831) I, 290, II, 159; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 311; Parkyns (1853)
82.
201
Prophesies, Omens and Auguries
There was widespread faith in prophecies, omens and auguries. Most people
believed in, and were guided, Parkyns says, by the "revelations of seers," of whom
there were many, professing the skills of soothsayers, fortune-tellers and predictors of
the future, as Plowden recalls.
Decisions, both personal and public, were likewise often governed by omens or
auguries. Some of those which exercised the greatest influence were connected with
the sound of birds. Before starting on an expedition Ethiopian soldiers, like those of
ancient Rome, would often listen for the voice of certain birds. If these were heard
on the an auspicious outcome, Parkyns says, would be anticipated, but if on the
right
left it was believed that the journey would end in failure. Many wars or hunting
expeditions, the success of which was "nearly certain," were postponed or abandoned
"simply because a little bird called from the left." The singing of an unfavourably
situated bird, according to Gobat, might even induce a commander to abandon an
expedition underway. Hunters on the Marab river were likewise often influenced as
to the direction they should take by a bird's behaviour, and Parkyns had known parties
"turn back from pursuing the fresh trail of a herd of buffaloes, and take an opposite
direction, merely because its chirp was heard on the wrong side." One of the most
notable birds of omen in Tegre was the gaddy gaddy, or black and white falcon, whose
movement was closely watched by travellers. Should it fly away at their approach they
would consider this an unfavourable sign, but if it remained perched, and looking at
them, they felt that they could count on a prosperous journey.
Beliefs of this kind were held in other parts of the country. The Agaws of Lasta,
according to Plowden, thus claimed a knowledge of the language of birds, and
attached "great importance" to their twittering in regulating marketings, journeys and
military expeditions. Not dissimilar practices were reported from Sawa, whose ruler,
Harris claims, never failed "to consult the omens" before setting out on an expedition.
Priests and monks, the envoy goes on to assert, were likewise often referred to by its
monarch, "and the accidental fall of the targe from a saddle bow, the alighting of a
hooded crow in the path of a warrior, or the appearance of a white falcon with the tail
towards him, " were "believed to augur unfavourably to success," whilst "the flight of
a pair of ravens in any direction, or the descent of a falcon with her head towards the
army," were "esteemed certain prognostications of victory." Journeys and hunting
expeditions were thus not undertaken without the "receipt from on High of the desired
omens of approbation," and, if these were wanting, people would "retrace their steps
on any pretext, and patiently await the welcome sign." The sight of an "unclean hare"
was likewise "sufficient to shake the stoutest nerves." An antelope bounding across the
path augured "favourably to success in any undertaking," while a fox barking on the
left destroyed "all hope of a happy result," but, if on the right, "a prosperous issue"
might "with confidence be anticipated." The appearance of a white buzzard

prognosticated "good or evil according to the position of the tail," and "the chief of all
the numerous birds of ill omen" was the "Goorameila." Death or the most dire disaster
was "certain to follow his portentous croak," and there was "no inhabitant throughout
the realm" who had not "some tale to record in confirmation" of its "fatal character".
202
omens among the Oromos, on the other hand, was "almost entirely
Belief in
confined," Plowden states, "to the examination of the stomachs of slaughtered oxen
and sheep." These were stretched out, and the lines of their fatty membranes, or
mora, carefully examined. In one place the initiated might for example claim to
discern evidence that the people of Jemma and Gudru would fight, while in another
place they might see a corpse, or perhaps ten. On the day when an unlucky mora was
21
found nothing could persuade the owner, however brave, to set forth in war.
Belief in Buda, or Possessed Persons, and the Evil Eye
There was throughout the country a widespread belief in the evil eye, as well as
in the existence of budas, or persons possessed by malevolent spirits. Fears of such
forces resulted, according to Pearce, in "a great deal of hiding" from the evil eye. It
was widely held that the latter could enter the bodies of people eating in the open air.
A person of substance would therefore have his servants hold pieces of cloth around
him, while the poorest members of the community would hide themselves under their
sammas, or togas. There were similarly fears of being seen drinking or exposing the
naked body in public. When a chief such as Ras Berru raised a bottle to drink, or
even opened his mouth to cough, officious servants would therefore rush forward to
cover his face. When testing a horse it was likewise considered prudent, in the
interests of man and beast alike, for both to avoid being seen by the general populace,
for it was said that "the eyes of people are bad," and a "very good horse and a good
rider" were "supposed to be in the greater danger" than others, for they attracted more
eyes. Indeed, "without strong amulets, any too conspicuous act or appearance,"
Plowden says, was held to be "highly imprudent."
Popular belief in Sawa, among Amharas as well as among Oromos and Gurages,
held, according to Krapf, that there were no less than eighty-eight evil spirits known
as zar (plural zaroc), each of whom had its own particular name. They were divided
into two groups, each under an Alaqa, or head, who commanded forty-four spirits.
One of these leaders was called Mama and the other Warrer. Persons wishing to free
themselves from such spirits might smoke, sing, move their body or offer a hen,
preferably a red one, in sacrifice. The bird would be slaughtered, and eaten by the
organisers of the ceremony, its leader being accorded the bird's brain. Such customs,
which were regarded as unchristian, seem to have earned the disapproval of King
Sahla Sellase and were also opposed by the priests who had gone so far as forbidding
Christians to smoke.
Illnesses were widely blamed on the evil eye. When

anyone suffered from
disease, or experienced any other misfortune, the person so afflicted and his or her
neighbours often sought the cause in some supernatural power exercised by a buda or
in "the influence of malignant eyes." Such suspicions, at first uncertain and vague,
would, Gobat says, soon fix on a specific individual to whom they would "ascribe the
origin of the evil," and who, in consequence, became "the victim of a secret and
implacable hostility." Budas, as we have seen, were widely believed to have the power
of turning themselves into hyenas or other animals at night. Such beliefs were so
Parkyns (1853) I, 292-3, 344-5: Plowden (1868) 124, 295; Gobat (1850) 477; Harris (1844) II, 166, 331.
203
widespread, Parkyns testifies, that even Dajazmac' Webe, though above most
22
superstitions, expressed no scepticism about them.
Conversions
Despite the great influence of the Church, and of the priesthood, many
conversions from Christianity to Islam took place during this period, in several parts
of the country, particularly on its periphery. One of the principal areas of conversion
was in the vicinity of Massawa where the Balaw and later the Habab abandoned
Christianity for Islam. The conversion of the latter took place, according to
Trimingham, around 1820. It was due, in Plowden's opinion, to the influence of
Muslim neighbours with whom the Habab traded, as well as to the gradual and later
the entire abandonment of the area by the chiefs who were "too much occupied in
ceaseless wars with their neighbours." The process was encouraged, according to
Lejean, by the Na'ibs of Hergigo whose religious fanaticism was compounded by
Machiavellian politics, for they reasoned that if the tribe embraced Islam it would no
longer refuse to pay them taxes, nor be able to count on the aid of their co-
religionaries in the Ethiopian interior. Another explanation was given by Warqe
Karabet, a foreign-educated Ethiopian of partial Armenian extraction, who declared
that the tribe had adopted Islam when a monk had forbidden them from continuing
to drink camel's milk, a major item in their diet. Evidence of the Hababs' late
conversion provided by the fact that "most" of the tribe in the 1840's still bore
is
Christian names. The nearby Tegre people were Islamised at about the same time.
The process had taken place, Antoine d'Abbadie states, under his very eyes, the whole
tribe being converted, except for the chief who declared that "every king should die in
the faith of his fathers." Another region in which Islam was then making inroads was
Wallo, and particularly Warra Himano, - where there had been "many" Christians
before Amade Leban, its early nineteenth century ruler, by "force and persuasion,
converted a great number to the Mahomedan religion."
Not long after this the Egyptians overran Bogos in the north-west where they
destroyed many villages, took at least three hundred slaves within a few months, and
burnt down the principal church as a preliminary to converting the country. This move
was, however, foiled, in part by the activities of an Italian missionary, Father Stella,
and in part through diplomatic pressure from the British Government on the
prompting of Consul Plowden. The advance of Islam at this time was so extensive that
the Muslims of Ifat firmly believed, according to Johnston, that even Sahla Sellase had
for a time considered changing his religion. He was reported to have sent for a Qoran
and a Muslim scholar to expound it, and had only been prevented from adopting
Islam, it was said, as a result of the coming of the zealous Protestant missionary Krapf
who spoke to him of the possibility of obtaining help from Britain - which had then
recently established itself in nearby Aden. Though unsubstantiated this rumour was
doubtless symptomatic of the times.
Numerous conversions were also taking place on an individual basis. Two

Christians of Adwa for example were reported in 1818 to have "turned Mahomedans,"
on which occasion, Pearce reports, no one objected, for "such fallings-off from their
Plowden (1868) 124; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 117-8; Gobat (1850) 477; Pearce (1831) I, 287-8, II, 339-
42.
204
faith"were "occurring continually," and were "not thought shameful as formerly." Some
such changes of religion were said to have been entirely opportunistic, as in the case
quoted by Parkyns of a man who embraced Islam "for the sake of 150 piastres ... and
a new garment."
Temporary switches of religion were also not uncommon, particularly among

persons who travelled abroad. Most Ethiopians, Parkyns testifies, were "not difficult
in matters of religion, except at home." Many Christians, "according to their own
account," would, "rather die than swerve from their principles," but, on making their
way abroad, would eat forbidden Muslim meat, and enjoy it "as if they had been born
and brought up to it." There were moreover instances of them "turning Turk for the
time of their sojourn in the land of Islam," but "returning to their Christianity ... as
soon as they set foot in their own country." Even some pilgrims to Jerusalem "became
Mussulmans for the road thither and back again," but "put on their Christianity" at
the Holy City, and again on returning home.
Conversions from Islam to Christianity seem to have been relatively rare, but
occasionally occurred, as at Adwa in 1818 when two young Muslim boys were beaten
by their masters, as a result of which they "ran to the Abuna's premises, and turned
Christians," as Pearce reports. The Muslims of the city "did all they could to get the
boys back, but to no purpose."
Some conversions to European forms of Christianity were meanwhile also taking

place as a result of the work of foreign missionaries who were becoming increasingly
active in the early nineteenth century, and were then busy distributing printed Amharic
Bibles. This activity won the hearts of some, such as a "poor man" of Gondar, who,
according to Gobat, "ventured, though with trembling", to ask for a copy of the Gospel
in 1830 "that he might be enabled to inculcate upon the minds of his children its holy
precepts." Other missionaries, however, were less discriminating. Some, according to
Parkyns, spent their time sitting in their tents, and handed out Bibles "indiscriminately"
to anyone who, moved by curiosity, happened to enter. One man had thus been given
two copies which "he sold the same evening for a jar of beer, and got drunk on the
strength of it." Another recipient of a Bible was an Orthodox priest who visibly set
little value on it. The missionary, seeing this, told him to be careful with the present
as its cost even in England was around six dollars, whereupon the cleric replied, "I am
unworthy of so costly a gift! Take back your Bible, and give me one dollar; it is
enough for me." Genuine interest in the Bibles given away by the missionaries was so
meagre, Plowden states, that many were used for "wrapping up of snuff, and such-
like undignified purposes."
Many conversions were based on largely mercenary considerations. "Nine

converts out of ten," Parkyns believed, were in fact "only converts to calico and Maria
Theresa dollars." One of the consequences of this was that some of the principal
converts on whom the Protestant missionary Gobat placedhopes became disciples
his
of the Lazarists only a short time afterwards. On the other hand one of the first young
men to be taken abroad for study, Madhara Qal Tawalda Madhen, after being
enrolled in a Jesuit college in Paris, abandoned it in favour of a British Protestant
missionary establishment.
The missionaries of this period had a mixed reputation. Gobat, the principal
Protestant, was expelled from Gondar, where he was regarded as a heretic and almost
205
as a non-believer, but was highly regardedTegre where he was always spoken of,
in
as Parkyns concedes, "with the greatest respect and affection." Other missionaries,
however, alienated the population by their lack of tact. On one occasion, on the
outbreak of a fire, the people called on their Saints for aid, only to be reproved and
ridiculed for their superstition by the European churchmen. On another occasion
during one of the most solemn of Ethiopian fasts, some missionaries slaughtered an
animal and offered its meat to the poor and hungry "as if to tempt them from the
observance of the discipline of their Church." As a result of such behaviour, most
missionaries in the opinion of Parkyns had "not left a single friend behind".
Notwithstanding such criticism there can be no gainsaying the genuine sincerity

of many conversions, let alone the important long-term educational contribution of the
European missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, who were at this time beginning
to take young Ethiopians abroad for religious and other studies, in Rome, Marseilles,
23
St. Chrischona in Switzerland and elsewhere.
Priest with si strum and prayer-stick
Plowden (1868) 7-8, 15; Trimingham (1952) 112, 157; Lejean (1865) 236, 238; Isenberg and Krapf
(1843) 91, 94, 251, 362; Antoine d'Abbadie (1868) 16, 29; GB
House of Commons (1868) 83, 85, 87,
Johnston (1844), II, 46, 143; Parkyns (1853) I, 149, 153-5, II, 92-3, 95; Pearce (1831) II,
90, 131, 140;
245; Gobat (1850) 253; Pankhurst (1952) 245-6, (1962) 253; Lejean p.236 states that Habab, Bogos,
Mensa and Marya were known as Kostan, a corruption of the term "Christian". On Mahdara Qal see
Dufton (1867) 79-81, 99, and Pankhurst and Ingrams (1988) 51.
206
VII
TRADERS
Muslim and Christian Merchants
Trade in the first part of the nineteenth century, as in the past, was largely
dominated by Muslim merchants, and tended to be despised by the majority of the
population which had little inclination to travel, except on campaign or pilgrimage. The
prevailing attitude of Ethiopian Christians was summed up by Ras Walda Sellase who
told Henry Salt in 1811 that his co-religionaries were "little acquainted with
commercial transactions," as they dedicated their lives "solely to war and agriculture,"
so that trade had "rested from a very early period in the hands of Mahometans." One
of the results of this was that merchants, like trade, tended, Consul Plowden stated,
to be "looked on with contempt by the military," though they were "patronized by the
chiefs" whom the traders "conciliated" by "rare presents," in addition to their taxes.
There were nonetheless a few wealthy Christian traders, the most prominent of whom
in the early nineteenth century were Tasfa Haylu and Walda Sellase of Gondar,
Kidana* Maryam and Hagos Daras of Adwa, and Kasa and Wande of Qorata.
1
Caravans
Caravans played a major role in long distance trade, and were largely based on
personal supervision by the merchants, or their agents, who accompanied their goods,
and remained with them at the markets where they were offered for sale. The itinerant
trader or agent was thus able to choose the articles in greatest demand, buy in the
cheapest market, defend his goods if they were in danger from robbers, come to the
best possible terms with extortionate customs officials, and sell most advantageously
from point of view of price, place and time.
Caravans operated, Ferret and Galinier explain, on a well established pattern.

The merchant about to make a journey would announce in advance the day
principal
of his departure, whereupon smaller traders, couriers, and persons with business in the
area to be visited, would prepare to join the caravan, after which they would erect
their tents beside that of the most important trader who in this way became the
caravan leader. He it was who was responsible for obtaining armed escorts and guides,
fixing the hour of departure, choosing camp sites on the journey, and settling disputes,
as well as paying customs taxes and dividing their burden among all the members of
the caravan. Each individual merchant was, however, responsible for his own transport,
and traded as he thought best. In a typical caravan of the 1830's described by Riippell
the four richest merchants rode on mules; the rest walked on foot. Everyone was
armed, mostly with either a sword or a spear and shield, but eight men had rifles.
Merchandise, which was generally kept in skin sacks, was invariably carried on
the backs of mules, donkeys, horses and camels, or the shoulders of human porters,
according to the wealth of the traders and the nature of the country to be traversed.
1
Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 411; Great Britain, F.O. 1/1 Salt, 4 March 1811;GB House of Commons
(1868) 111; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part II, 30; Plowden (1868) 126, 392; Heuglin (1868) 55.
207
If the land was mountainous, rich traders would load their goods on mules whose
strength and sobriety rendered them invaluable for this work. Neither man nor beast
could equal their ability in climbing rocky heights or precipitous cliffs. These sturdy
animals were moreover far from expensive, for a good beast capable of carrying 45
kilos could be obtained at Gondar for only five or six Maria Theresa dollars. Traders
crossing deserts or sandy regions, like those between Matamma and Sennar or Aleyu
Amba and the Gulf of Aden coast, on the other hand made use of camels. These
remarkable animals could carry no less than 350 kilos, or almost eight times as much
as a mule, and could be fed on almost anything available, barley, beans or brushwood,
while subsisting for a week on a mere litre of water. There were, finally, human
porters, many of whom were to be found in Gondar, Adwa and the other main towns.
The average porter travelled 20 to 30 kilometres a day, and carried about 25 kilos, or
about half as much as a mule, for two to three Maria Theresa thalers for a distance
of 400 kilometres. Many merchants also employed their servants to carry loads, but
slaves were usually better treated, for the master would reckon that they were worth
10 to 15 thalers per head, and if one died he would be the loser by that amount.
Caravans usually set forth at sun-rise, or shortly afterwards, and were so well
organised that a party of two or three hundred mules could often be away, Plowden
reports, in "less than half-an hour." If water and pasture were available the caravan-
leaders would usually call a halt for the day at about noon. To avoid disputes with the
population of the area to be traversed, camping-sites were often selected in
uninhabited spots. In the absence of organised caravanserais the traders were obliged
to bring everything they needed, including provisions and cooking equipment. On
arriving at the halting ground they were often weary, but their servants had still not
only to grind corn and make bread, but also to construct sleeping quarters for their
master.
In establishing a camp the merchants' servants would begin by placing such

stones as they could find in parallel rows, crossing each other at right-angles to form
rectangles about five feet square. On these stones the packs would be piled close
together to a height of about six feet, each owner's goods being carefully kept
together. The loads thus arranged constituted a series of small compartments. These
were then covered with sticks upon which ox-hides were stretched to form rooms for
the protection and comfort of the caravaneers and their livestock. The skins kept out
the rain, while the stones protected the merchandise both from damp and white ants
and the packs gave privacy to the inmates. Thorn fences were sometimes also erected
around the camp as a whole. While such work was in progress the children in the
caravan would lead the mules to pasture where they would remain untethered until
dusk when they were taken back to the camp and tied to a row of stakes facing the
cells. Guards, who might be numerous in times of anticipated difficulty, then lit fires
at each end of camp, and from time to time called out to each other, to cheer
themselves and keep themselves awake, as well as to convince their masters that they
were not asleep. If the presence of thieves was suspected the guards also from time
to time hurled slingfuls of stones into the dark.
209
Most caravans in this way normally fended entirely for themselves. There were,
however, a few villages, notably two near Gondar, whose inhabitants, anxious to attract
trade, prepared camping grounds for travelling merchants, and in return claimed the
2
right, according to Ruppell, to sell the traders victuals and fodder.
Markets, and Other Places of Sale
Most markets were held once a week on a

day which varied from one
specific
village to another, thereby enabling travelling merchants
a succession of fairs
visiting
daily to trade throughout any area for most of the time. Important centres, among
them Gondar, Adwa, and Antalo, on the other hand, though having one or more main
market-days also held a small additional market throughout the week.
Some of the most common country markets were, according

articles for sale at
pepper and a few other spices, locally grown
to Salt, various types of grain, onions, red
cotton, skins, cattle, donkeys, mules and horses and wrought and unwrought iron. The
quantity of goods exposed for sale was usually, however, very modest. At one market
attended by 700 people, Ruppell saw only a few cattle, sheep, goats and donkeys, two
or three large earthenware jars and big dishes, a small quantity of iron, a little cane
for weaving baskets, and some goats' hairs for making women's clothing, but most of
these items were still unsold at the end of the day. Meat was not generally on sale. It
could be purchased, according to Pearce, only at Gondar, Antalo, and on feast days,
at Adwa. Elsewhere, and at other times, it was the custom for "the lower class of
people to join together and buy a cow, which is killed and divided among them." Sale
of meat was further limited by the fact that on feast days persons in the service of a
chief would usually have livestock slaughtered for them.
Shops were non-existent, even in the principal commercial centres, though some
commerce was carried out in merchant's dwellings. At Gondar "the interior and most
secluded recess" of such houses served, according to Stern, somewhat like shops,
though only the most "privileged purchaser" would be allowed in and then only as a
3
"particular favour."
Commercial Centres
A large part of the country's trade passed through, or was handled by, such
major commercial centres as Gondar, Adwa, and Aleyu Amba, as well as many other
markets great and small.
2
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 118-20; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 407-11; GB House of Commons
(1868) 113; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 290.
3
Pearce (1831) II, 16-7; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 107; Valentia (1809) III, 12, 48, 54; Ruppell
(1838-40) I, 330; Stern (1862) 238.
211
Gondar
The most important trading centre in the early part of this period was Gondar,
still the imperial capital, which had the largest urban population in the empire, and
exerted a significant commercial impact on the surrounding countryside. Trade in the
1830's was the capital's main preoccupation, Riippell claims, and the merchants of the
city were said by Stern to be, "next to the clergy and aristocracy," the "most wealthy
and influential body in the land."
The Muslims, who included the city's principal merchants, as in the past
occupied their own special quarter, in the valley near the Angerab and Qaha rivers.
This area was referred to as the Eslambet or Eslamge, i.e. the "house" or "country" of
Muslims. Early in the century Coffin stated that "many Christians" were "intermixed"
with the Muslims, but later observers, such as Ferret and Galinier and Antoine
d'Abbadie, assert that the area was inhabited exclusively by the latter. One of them,
as in Bruce's day, held the position of Nagadras, or chief of trade. The Eslambet
consisted, according to Riippell, of some 300 houses out of the total of 1,000, and thus
constituted almost a third of the total population, which was generally put at between
10,000 and 18,000. The merchants of Gondar, on account of their wealth and extensive
trading connections, were rated by Arnauld d'Abbadie as the "most considerable" in
the country. Many of them sent caravans southward to Gudru, Kafa and Enarya where
they purchased slaves, coffee, civet and gold.
Two large markets were held at Gondar every week, on Mondays and Saturdays,
on which days large numbers of merchants and purchasers or would-be purchasers
flocked into the city from far and near. Many caravans came each year with textiles
and other imported goods from Massawa and Sudan, as well as ivory, civet and slaves
from the rich lands south of the Blue Nile. Supplies of all kinds were at the same time
brought to the city from other lands. Herds of cattle and jars of honey came from
Agawmeder, iron from Walqayt, timber from Gorgora by Lake Tana, wine from
Qorata, Yefag and Darita, salt from the 'Afar depression, fire-arms from Adwa, and
civet, gold, ivory, ox horns and hippopotamus shields from various areas in the south
or west. The quantity of supplies arriving was, however, very variable, and goods were
sometimes scarce on account of civil war. Traders often found it inadvisable, Riippell
states, to invest in large stocks, for which reason articles often disappeared from the
market overnight, so that prices sometimes fluctuated by as much as 100% or more
from one week to the next. There were also considerable price variations due to
changes in the value of the amole, or salt bar, which served as "primitive money," for
during the rains the swollen rivers rendered it virtually unobtainable at the very time
when herdsmen around Lake Tana brought butter and other commodities to exchange
for it. "Things have no fixed price at Gondar," Gobat complained, "everything is dear
or cheap, according as the market of today is furnished."
The city's most important trade route, which led eastwards to Massawa by way
of Adwa, was used by merchants throughout most of the year, but the largest number
travelled between October and January, that is to say after the rainy season when the
water in the Takkaze river had fallen, or again in June, prior to the outbreak of the
rains.Before setting forth, each caravan elected as its chief the richest or most capable
leader. The journey to the port, according to Riippell, took about five months. In
settled times the traders often divided up into small parties to avoid excessive
concentration in one area, but in periods of insecurity they stuck together to defend
212
themselves. Parties of over a thousand men were
from unusual. At the halting
far
place of Dabareq for example Gobat saw no less than 1,200 to 1,500
in the 1830's
people going towards the coast. On reaching Adwa the merchants from Gondar were
usually joined by others from Amhara, Tegre and Sawa bringing wax, coffee, ivory,
gold, buffalo horns, hides, butter and mules bound for Massawa. Imports on this route,
as noticed by Stern, included white, blue and red calicoes, coarse muslins, chintz,
cotton velvets, cutlery, glass beads and Indian spices.
The other main Gondar ran westwards by way of Celga,

trade route from
Wahni, and Matamma and thence to Egypt and North Africa. Traders left
to Sudan,
the Ethiopian capital in the dry season between October and May, for the route was
virtually impassable at other times. A typical caravan, as described by Flad, consisted
of 300 camels and perhaps 100 to 200 donkeys. Exports to Sudan included ivory and
slaves, the latter estimated by Combes and Tamisier, possibly with exaggeration, at no
less than 10,000 a year, as well as gold, civet, honey, wax, cattle, horses, butter, and
coffee, while imports comprised Sudanese cotton and horses, besides a vast array of
articles from more distant lands: cloth, coloured stuffs, carpets, beads, fire-arms,
Maria Theresa thalers, copper, lead and other metals, sword-blades, gunpowder,
sulphur, drinking-glasses, bottles, coffee-cups, stibium, antimony, leather, shoes and
sandals, razors, nails, mirrors, beads, tin-ware, needles, pepper, cloves, dates,
tamarinds, various types of incense and scent, and spikenard used in the preparation
of medicine.
The southern trade route from Gondar, which served in a sense as an extension
of the two above routes, was used by merchants who travelled each year in a large
caravan which made for Yefag where it was joined by merchants from Darita, while
those bound for Sawa hived off to the south. The main group, increasing in numbers
through the addition of smaller traders who joined them on the way, then journeyed
southwards to Gojjam where they halted to rest at Basso. They then forded across the
Blue Nile, before dividing into separate parties to visit Bizamo, Gudru, Guma, Enarya,
Kafa and Janjero, where they exchanged salt, mules, and various imported goods,
among them calicoes, muslins, chintz and velvets, pepper, glass-beads and trinkets,
mirrors and knives, for such local products as gold, civet, ivory, ox and rhinoceros
horns, skins, hippopotamus shields and slaves. The whole journey from Gondar to
Enarya could take as much as ten months, after which the traders spent some three
months doing business in the area, before returning to the capital.
Beside the three above main routes from Gondar, there were a number of
subsidiary importance, among them one which led westwards to the country of the
Sanqella, a source of gold, slaves and ivory, and another which ran south-eastwards
4
to Sawa, Harar and the Somali coast.
4
Stern (1862) 237-8; Ruppell (1838-40)1, 269, II, 80-2, 179-80; Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 161-2, 507-8;
Antoine d' Abbadie (1898) 319; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 273-8, 416-24; Pearce (1831) I, 235;
Plowden (1868) 127, 130; GB House of Commons (1868) 6, 112; Combes and Tamisier (1838) III, 343,
IV, 90, 95-7, 104-5; Leiris (1934) 405; Gobat (1850) 149, 247; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part 26; Flad (1922)
65-6, 109; Pearce (1831) I, Heuglin (1868), 227-8, 301 393, 408; Krapf (1867) 468-9; Rassam (1869)
78;
I, 167-8; Blanc (1868) 112-3; Massaia (1885-95) II, 97, 103; Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 241; Pankhurst
(1968a) 355.
213
Smaller Markets in the Gondar Area
South of Gondar there were several markets of some importance. Perhaps the
largest was at the town of Darija, site of a well frequented Monday fair. Its merchants
are said by Combes and Tamisier to have rivalled those of the capital in sending
caravans to Sennar and Massawa, and even further afield to Cairo and Arabia, as well
as southwards, in quest of slaves, to Gudru, Kafa, Gomma and Enarya. One such
trader, 'Ali Muz, did business in many of the southern provinces, and acted as the
trade agent of Abba Bagibo, King of Enarya, for whom he travelled to Massawa to
purchase imported goods. Other men of Danta whose identity has been preserved
include Muhammad Ibrahim who is known to have visited Limmu at least eight times,
a certain Isma'el who was well acquainted with Enarya, and a man who had been to
Bonga in Kafa.
Also of commercial significance was Qorata, a place of asylum with a large

market whither cotton, both raw and worked, from Qwara and the borders of Sennar,
was carried by mule and shipped across Lake Tana. The town was described by
Antoine d'Abbadie, probably with some exaggeration, as "the greatest city of East
Africa, proud of its sanctuary and of its twelve thousand inhabitants." Lesser
commercial centres in the area included those of Bahr Dar, site of a sizeable market
on the southern side of Lake Tana, and Yefag, where a fair was held in front of the
Sellase, or Holy Trinity church; as well as Mota, a notable place of asylum, and
Bicana, two major markets for cereals, cloth, cattle and horses, and Basso which was
5
also visited by merchants from Sennar in search of slaves and civet.
Adwa
The principal market town of the north was Adwa which Salt early in the century
described as "the chief mart for commerce" on the eastern side of the Takkaze" river.
"All the intercourse between the interior and the coast" was carried on by the
merchants of Adwa, for which reason the Muslims of the city had "a greater degree
of importance" than in any other part of the empire. Adwa, like Gondar, had a
sizeable Muslim quarter, largely inhabited by merchants who were estimated by
Arnauld d'Abbadie at "a little more than a third" of the town's total population which
was generally held to number between three and five thousand.
The market at Adwa, which was held every Saturday, was attended, according
to Ferretand Galinier, by 5,000 or 6,000 persons. Commerce was based partly on the
produce of the area, and partly on goods carried up and down the trade route between
Gondar and Massawa. Some caravans on this stretch of the journey were fairly large.
Parkyns knew nineteen merchants of the city who travelled to the coast with a total
of 800 mules, and reckoned that at least 1,200 animals were engaged in this trade,
while Barroni, an Italian in British consular service, later reported the arrival at
Massawa of some 500 merchants. On completing their business at the port the
Christian traders in most instances returned home, but the Muslims, combining
many cases proceeded on pilgrimage to Mecca, after which they
religion with trade, in
5
Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 44-6, III, 228, 267, 335, IV, 64; Arnauld d' Abbadie (1980) 165, 270,
(1983) 11-2, 141 Antoine d' Abbadie (1898) 31, 58, 104, 203; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 225; Blondeel (1838-
42) Annexes 37 and 43; Bell (1842) 10; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 112.
214
one or more commercial centre of Arabia, and brought back
visited all sorts of cloth
and manufactured goods, including fire-arms, glassware and spices.
Caravans also reached Adwa from lands to the south, including Amhara, Wallo
and Sawa. "Large droves" of cattle from Walqayt arrived, Salt reports, and were
exchanged "very advantageously" for cotton cloth, a "considerable portion" of which
came from the lowlands bordering on the Takkaze. 6
Massawa
Massawa, the gateway to the sea of all northern Ethiopia, was the terminal, as
in the past, ofone of the principal trade routes from the interior. The port, an island,
was dependent on the mainland for all sorts of supplies, including milk, cattle and
goats, which, according to a British naval officer, Captain Weatherhead, were shipped
across the intervening narrow stretch of sea in a small boat which travelled backwards
and forwards all day. Drinking water was also supplied to the island in large quantities,
at a price of one Maria Theresa thaler per twenty skin sacks, or a total of about 100
gallons. Numerous smaller vessels, according to the French Scientific Mission, were
also engaged in the transportation to the island of water, as well as milk and other
supplies, including sheep and chickens. Export articles from the interior consisted of
slaves, gold, ivory, civet, butter, cereals, wax, and hides and skins, as well as small
quantities of coffee, honey and gum, while imports were made up mainly of textiles,
beads and trinkets, metals, tobacco, antimony, glass and chinaware, needles, scissors,
knives and razors, swords and fire-arms, carpets, mirrors, pepper and sugar.
The market at Massawa was held every morning and evening, with a mid-day
interruption, because of the island's intense heat, from noon to about 4 p.m. Trade,
in the first part of the century,was dominated by Banyan, or Indian, merchants, who,
according to Salt, were "very comfortable," and carried on a "considerable trade." The
most important among them was a certain Currum Chand who often purchased an
entire shipload of goods which traders would then receive from him on credit, take
and sell in the interior, and pay for three months later in gold or other local produce.
This practice, which was also followed by an Arab called Haji Hasan, had developed
because none of the other Massawa merchants had sufficient capital to invest on any
large scale.
Indian commercial paramountcy continued for several decades. In 1862 British

consul Walker thus reported that there were 15 to 20 Banyans who seemed to
"monopolise the whole of the trade." The "only men" with any money, they owned two
large vessels which sailed to Bombay twice a year, and were responsible for the
purchase of all the gold and ivory brought down from the interior. India was likewise
responsible for a large proportion of Massawa's imports. Purchases from the sub-
6
Salt (1814) 419, 424-6;Arnauld d'Abbadie (1868) 34; Parkyns (1853) I, 411-7; Great Britain, I.O.,
and Secret Letters from Aden Baroni 11 September 1856; Ruppell (1838-40), I, 269, 289-
Political ,
91; Combes and Tamisier (1838) I, 204-5, IV, 93; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part II, 27; GB House of
Commons (1868) 229-30; Ferret and Galinier (1847) I, 451-2; Pankhurst (1982) 225-6.
216
continent in 1852 were valued, according to Plowden, at 133,590 Maria Theresa
7
thalers, as against only 73,065 from Arabia and Egypt.
AS eyu Arriba
Aleyu Amba, the market for the twin Sawan capitals of Ankobar and Angolala,
was the most important commercial centre of central Ethiopia, and the rendez-vous,
Combes and Tamisier note, of numerous merchants, "almost entirely Muslim." Many
came from Enarya and Kafa, while others travelled to or from the coast, making their
way by caravan across the A was valley to Harar and the Somali country, after which
they proceeded to the major port of Zayla', or by way of Awsa, to the coast at Tajura.
Articles on sale included gold, ivory, coffee, wax, hides and skins, cattle and cereals,
which were sent down to the coast in return for imported goods, among them cottons
and silks from India, brass wire, beads and glass trinkets, and old copper and zinc
articles for the local manufacture of jewellery. Commerce was on a fairly large scale,
Rochet d'Hericourt estimating that 1,500 to 1,700 camel loads of coffee were sold
annually. Local trade was largely based on barter, though cattle were normally
purchased for amole, or, in some instances, Maria Theresa thalers.
The market of Aleyu Amba was held every Friday, enabling merchants also to
much smaller fair held at Ankobar on the following day. This latter
participate in a
market, according to Johnston, was "almost exclusively" frequented by Christians who
dealt in sheep, grain, butter and wood.
The settlement Amba consisted of around 250 to 300 houses whose

of Aleyu
inhabitants, according to Rochet d'Hericourt, were "very mixed," for they were made
up of Amharas, Oromos, Ifatians, Somalis and Hararis, as well as people from Adal,
Argobba and Awsa. "More than three-fourths" of the population according to
Johnston, were Muslims, and one quarter, Harris believed, came from either Harar
or 'Afar. They consisted "chiefly", Barker says, of Harari merchants who resided at
Aleyu Amba until they had disposed of their merchandise, and were ready to return
home with the slaves they had purchased. There were also "numerous retired slave
merchants" who had earlier travelled to Gurage, Enarya, Janjero and Limmu. The
town was, however, not entirely Muslim for there were also "numbers of Christian
Abyssinians," as well as several Persians. Merchants included Muslim businessmen,
who invested most of their capital in slaves, Christian traders, who brought large
supplies of cloth, cattle and corn, and, serving as the only money-changers, conducted
their business beside high walls of amole, and Muslim market-women. These latter,
who constituted a large proportion of the throng, handled, however, only small stocks,
sufficientmerely for the probable sales of the day. They might thus sit all day offering,
Rochet thimble full of kohl, or antimony for darkening the eyes, a few lumps
recalls, a
of gum and myrrh, a handful of frankincense, the blue and red threads of imported
unwoven cloth used in decorating the borders of sammas, or togas, and perhaps three
or four lemons and as many needles.
A number of craftsmen would also be seen on market day: saddle-makers from

Ankobar and iron-workers from the neighbouring artisans' monasteries who sold
7
Ruppell (1838-40) I, 196-7; Lefebvre (1845-8) I, 39-40;
Salt (1814) lxix; GB House of Commons (1868)
73^, 230; Valentia (1809) III, 267-8; Pankhurst (1964b) 102-18.
217
spears, swords, hoes and ploughshares, while their womenfolk, who were potters, went
8
around with their children hawking earthenware pots and dishes.
Because of its commercial importance, and location on the cross-road of trade

between the highlands and lowlands, Aleyu Amba was visited by merchants of widely
different ethnic background. A colourful account is provided by the often xenophobic
Harris who writes:
"the Dankali merchant exhibits his gay assortment of beads, metals,

coloured thread and glassware. The wild Galla squats beside the produce
of his flocks and the Moslem trader from the interior displays ostrich
feathers, or some other article of curiosity from a distant tribe. The surly
Adaiel brushes past in insolent indifference to examine the female slaves
in the wicker hut of the rover from the south ... Squatted beside his
foreign wares and glittering beads, we see the wily huckster from Harar,
with the turban and blue-checked kilt ... The Christian women flit through
the busy fair with eggs, poultry, and the produce of the farm ... Cantering
over the tiny plain the wild Galla enters the scene of confusion, a jar of
honey, or a basket of butter lashed to the crupper of his high-peaked
saddle ... Caravans arrive every month during the fair season from Aussa
and Tajura ... Bales of cotton cloth, and bags from Kaffa and Enarya in
9
every direction."
Markets such as these were important, not only from the purely commercial
point of view, but also in that they were places where people - some of them from
different cultures - met, conversed, exchanged ideas, and joked together.
Dabra Berhan, Bollo Warqe and 'Abd-al-RasuI
The great market of Aleyu Amba was complemented by a number of other

Sawan markets, among them Dabra Berhan, Bollo Warcje, 'Abd-al-Rasul and Roge.
Dabra Berhan, which was also one of the capitals of Sawa, did extensive trade in
mules and horses, while Bollo Warqe dealt in grain, donkeys and cattle. 'Abd-al-Rasul
and Roge by contrast were renowned slave markets which, like the slave trade in
general, were entirely in Muslim hands. 'Abd-al-Rasul was frequented, according to
Barker, by merchants from Tegre and the north, and handled an export of at least
3,000 slaves a year. Purchases of slaves, unlike that of other goods, were made almost
10
entirely in Maria Theresa thalers.
8
Combes and Tamisier (1838) Johnston (1844) II, 50, 95, 101-2, 238-44, 249, 320; Harris (1848)
III, 21;
I, 345, 365, 381-8, 395; RochetHericourt (1841) 299-301, (1846) 262; Barker (1906) 286-7, 296;
d'
Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 94-5. On the trade of Zayla' and other Gulf of Aden ports, which largely
paralleled that of Massawa, see Pankhurst (1968a) 418-24.
9
Harris (1848) 381-2.
10
Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 94-5, 111-3, 275; Beke (1845) 27; Barker (1906) 287, 289; Harris (1844) I,
388-9,III, 303; Krapf (1867) 50-1; Cecchi (1885-7) II, 490; Rochet d' Hericourt (1841) 300, (1846) 261.
j
218
Taxes, Market Dues and Internal Customs Posts
Merchants were subject to various taxes which were levied either by the
provincial rulers of the lands in which they traded, or else by a special official called
a nagadras to whom the chief farmed out the right to collect the taxes in return for
a fixed yearly sum. The
object of the latter was then, as Plowden says, to "screw" as
much as he could from the merchants. The division of the revenue from trade
between the chief and the nagadras was by no means uniform. At Adwa for example
the governor besides the fixed rent from the nagadras received, according to Pearce,
two-thirds of the duty on imported goods, slaves, ivory and civet, while the customs
official kept all the tax on cotton. At Antalo on the other hand the governor took
one-third of the tax on slaves, horses, mules, and ivory, and the entire tax on salt.
Persons with the rank of nagadras held office at the six most important
commercial markets of the north, namely Adwa, Dabareq, Gondar, Saqota, Danta and
Ajubay, as well as at Aleyu Amba in Sawa. All but one were Muslims, the exception
being the customs-man at Dabareq, the least important of the seven, who was a
Christian. The names of two of these officials are preserved: Zeynu at Adwa who
paid a "large" annual rent to Dajazmac Webe, and was described by Combes and
Tamisier as a "crafty Muslim"; and a certain Abu Beker at Aleyu Amba, who was a
Muslim from Argobba.
Merchants travelling across the country were obliged to pay taxes at a

considerable number of customs posts, usually referred to as kella. There were no
less than eleven tax stations, according to Ruppell, on the route from Gondar to
Massawa, while traders making their way from Enarya to the coast encountered
anything between eighteen and twenty-eight. "Custom-houses, or rather passes, have
been established," Plowden reports, "on every spot where Nature ... has confined the
road to some narrow defile, not to be avoided without an immense detour, if at all,
and near some commanding elevation where a good look-out can be stationed at a
brook fordable at one spot." Dues, which varied greatly from one kella to another,
were mainly paid in kind. At one customs post in Tegre every porter-load was said,
by Salt, to have paid two handfuls of pepper, and every donkey-load two pieces of blue
cloth, while at another the tax on the latter was five or six berelle, or glass bottles, and
some Surat cloth or other articles; at a third there was a tax of half a dollar or a
piece of cloth and a handful of pepper on every donkey-load, and of a quarter of a
dollar on every slave or horn-full of civet. Taxes, according to Ferret and Galinier,
were, however, seldom paid in cash, but more often in such articles as pepper, red
cloth, blue ribbon, silk or tobacco.
The existence of such customs posts, though of crucial importance for provincial
rulers, was merchants a constant source of inconvenience and irritation. There
for the
were frequent quarrels, the French Scientific Mission reports, between traders and the
tax-collectors, as a result of real or alleged smuggling of gold or civet, and disputes
sometimes lasted several months, particularly when the officials were not too pressed
for money or the merchants in too much of a hurry. "Very animated quarrels" were
common, Ferret and Galinier confirm, and were in some instances brought to an end
only through the intervention of the monarch, who was, however, in most cases too
far away to give prompt judgment.
219
The difficulties which might confront a merchant travelling inland from Massawa
across Tegre, to the great market of Basso in southern Gojjam, are graphically
described by Plowden. He explains that the trader had first to pay a tax to the
Ottoman governor of the port, after which he had to engage a guide, from among the
Saho people living in the mountains inland, who, depending on the traveller's apparent
11
wealth, might charge anything between half and ten Maria Theresa dollars. Then:
"arriving ... in Oubea's dominions he will be stopped four or five times

before he reaches Adowah [Adwa], and on each occasion must arrange
with those in charge of the tolls as best he can as regards payment, the
amount being arbitrary, and the system in fact one of legalised plunder.
"On arrival at Adowah he pays certain more regulated duties to the
Negadeh Ras of the town, a douceur, moreover, being expected as the
price of a friendly settlement of dues.
"After meeting the exactions of several minor posts he will next have to
pay at the town of Doobaruk, Province of Waggara, duties on the
in the
same scale with those of Adowah, generally about one
dollar per mule-
load of merchandize, and being then clear of the territories of Dejazmatch
Oobeay, enters those of Ras Ali whose tolls commence at Gondar. Here
the duties are nominally somewhat settled, though long disputes almost
inevitably occur, and after three or more detentions and payments on a
smaller scale in Begemder, he passes the Nile, and arrives in the domains
of the chiefs of Gojam or Damot. These may be in a state of entire
rebellion or of sulky submission to the Ras: as in the latter case they pay
him a fixed tribute, he does not interfere with their toll-levying, and the
merchant must disburse at some eight or ten more stages of his journey
ere he can reach Basso. It is needless to dwell on the danger to the
merchant in the case of revolted Chiefs, who plunder indiscriminately, and
12
from whom, even if captured, the recovery of any property is hopeless."
In addition to such taxes there were also market dues which were exacted on
goods brought for sale. At Gondar for example every slave, horse or mule taken to
market had to pay, according to Pearce, two drams of gold, or the equivalent of two
dollars, every large tusk of ivory one waqet, or ounce, and every porter-load six drams.
A generation later Riippell found that mule and donkey-loads paid ten Maria Theresa
dollars, and porter-loads half as much. At Adwa, on the other hand, Pearce says that
every mule or donkey-load of imports was subject to a tax of half an ounce of gold,
or goods to that amount, and porter-loads or tusks two and half drams, while slaves
or matchlocks paid half an ounce. Each porter-load of cotton was charged two pieces
of cotton cloth, each equal to two dollars, as well as a pound of cloth. Gold was often
subject to special taxation. Before being sold it had to be weighed by a special official
who for every ounce collected two bars of salt at Gondar and Saqota, four at Antalo,
or a quarter of a piece of cloth at Adwa.
11
Pearce (1831) II, 11-3; GB House of Commons (1868) 68, 112; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 411-2;
Blondell (1838-42) 42-4; Valentia (1809) III, 213-4; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 183^; Heuglin (1868) 253;
Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part II, 27.
12
GB House of Commons (1868) 68.
220
Persons exposing goods for sale were also often taxed, as at Aleyu Amba, where
they had to make a payment either in kind or in salt, with the result that "during the
day," Johnston recalls, "large heaps" of amoles and market produce accumulated
"around the feet of the Governor" and appeared to be his "perquisites of office."
Persons attending the market regularly, on the other hand, made "a fixed payment of
one to three bars of salt a week," but the people of the town were "exempted from any
imposition of toll."
Market taxes were sometimes allotted to specific courtiers or other personalities.

At Antalo, for example, Pearce reports: "The duty on salt is distributed among the
...
favourites of the household; the governor's or Ras's wives have a certain quantity, and
others of his favourites and relatives a proportionate allowance ... The salt is
considered a gift to one of the favourites about the Ras's person." 13 The Englishman
spoke from personal knowledge, for he explains:
"I had myself, from the

latter end of the year 1805 till 1808, six pieces of
saltallowed to me every Wednesday, which was market-day... afterwards
my allowance was raised to ten, till 1810, from which time... it was
augmented to twenty; but shortly afterwards ... the Ras thought properly
to order a yearly allowance ... of one thousand pieces of salt, instead of
14
our receiving it weekly at the toll."
13
Pearce (1831) II, 12-45; Johnston (1844) II, 230,
14
Pearce (1831) I, 12-5.
221
VIII
HANDICRAFT WORKERS
Blacksmiths and the Iron Trade
Blacksmiths were responsible throughout the nineteenth century for the

manufacture in many parts of the country of a wide variety of articles of considerable
economic and military importance. These included plough-shares and the iron parts
of pick-axes, sickles and other agricultural implements, as well as knives and razors,
spear-heads, daggers, swords, bullets and spare parts for rifles, besides tent-pegs,
hammers, pincers, drills, nails, hatchets, saws and files, steels for striking fire, pans on
which to cook bread, bits and stirrups for horses and mules, chains and rings,
tweezers, scissors and needles.
Smelting was carried out over a charcoal fire with the aid of one or more pairs
of home-made bellows fashioned from sheep or goat skins. Pearce, describing an
operation in which several blacksmiths were involved, states that the latter would
throw the ore into a large charcoal fire which they then blew with several bellows,
each man working two such instruments, one in each hand. When the metal was
completely hot it was "taken out of the fire with large awkward pincers, or thongs, and
held by one man upon a large flat stone, while two or three others, with large, round
or rather oval stones, strike it in turn, with all their might with both hands." This
action was repeated until the metal was "free from all earthy matters, and fit to use."
The ore having thus been produced, a blacksmith wishing for example to make
a sword, would obtain a piece of iron of convenient size, whereupon, Combes and
Tamisier explain, he would heat and beat it until he had given it the requisite shape.
The blade was then worked over with a file, after which it was again put in the fire
and tempered, by thrusting it into water, and then finally sharpened on a stone.
Spearheads and swords were produced in more or less the same manner, while
needles were made by beating small pieces of metal into thin strips, which were then
filed sharp at the ends, and pierced with a sharp-pointed piece of metal to produce the
eye.
Though most blacksmiths made exclusive use of simple, locally made tools, a
few had access to foreign files, which, as Combes and Tamisier noted in the 1830's,
were then being imported via Massawa. A decade or so later the French Scientific
Mission reported that though ordinary stones often served as an anvil, blacksmiths
also sometimes made use of specially-made tools, such as hammers, pincers, chisels,
files and shears. Such implements, according to a subsequent report by Girard, were
1
imported from Europe.
1
Pearce (1831) II, 202-3; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 67-72; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 225; Rochet d'
Hericourt (1841) 297; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 245-6; Girard (1873) 192.
222
Blacksmiths, Falasa, and Belief in Buda
Many blacksmiths in the nineteenth century, as in the past, were Falasa, as noted
by both Dufton and Stern. The former recalls that Falasa craftsmen who were often
accused of being budas, or sorcerers.
The
old idea that blacksmiths possessed supernatural powers found expression
in the widespread conviction that they could turn themselves into hyenas at night. Salt,
the first foreign traveller to notice this belief, reported in 1810 that "a very strange"
superstition, "inconceivably strong throughout the country," held that "all workers in
iron" were regarded as buda, with the power of transforming themselves into hyenas,
"capable of preying upon human flesh." The prevalence of this belief was confirmed
by Pearce who noted that blacksmiths were thought, "even by their nearest
neighbours," to be capable of turning themselves into hyenas or other beasts, and that
their "evil eye" was held responsible for "all convulsions and hysteric disorders," which
were far from uncommon. The "greater part" of those believed possessed by
blacksmiths' evil spirits, according to Parkyns, were women who had despised a buda's
proffered love. The result of these beliefs was that the blacksmiths of Ethiopia, like
the alchemists of medieval Europe, were "the terror of the countryside" as Combes
and Tamisier "Few people," according to Parkyns, would therefore "venture to
aver.
molest or offend" any worker in iron. Blacksmiths, though feared, and, according to
Combes and Tamisier, relatively well paid, suffered greatly. They were "not allowed
the privilege of being in common society," Pearce states, and were even denied
Christian burial, while Parkyns asserts that their trade, which was hereditary, was
2
"considered as more or less disgraceful."
Blacksmiths lived moreover in constant danger of persecution. The story is told

of an iron-worker of Encatkab in Samen who had gained his living by making spear-
heads and repairing rifles, but, having been accused of having relations with the Devil,
was obliged to flee to Gondar. There too he was charged with sorcery, and forced to
make his way to Tegre, Bagemder, Amhara and Gojjam, before eventually returning
to Bagemder, where he sought refuge in a cave and lived as a beggar. Interviewed by
Combes and Tamisier, he is quoted as exclaiming:
"Oh, if instead of being a blacksmith I had worked the land or adopted the
occupation of a soldier, I would not have had to exile myself. I would still
be in my native country, in the midst of a family which loved me; and here
I live alone in a cave which wild animals will perhaps one day dispute with
me. Oh! why was I born a blacksmith? My skill in that art made my entire
3
life miserable."
Other cases of victimisation were reported by Parkyns who states that it was not
unusual for friends and relatives of a sick person "to procure charms with which to
force the spirit by which he was supposedly possessed to declare his name and
residence." They would then go in a body and apprehend a blacksmith who would be
ordered to "quit his victim" - and to add force to this injunction the party would point
2
Dufton (1867) 165; Stern (1862) 193; Salt (1814) 426-7; Pearce (1831) II, 286, 339-42; Parkyns (1853)
II, 144-5, 160-2; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 72, 76-7; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 245.
3
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 73-6.
223
spears at his breast and threaten him with death. Such threats were by no means
empty. A
blacksmith accused by a soldier of being responsible for his illness was
seized by order of Dajazmac' Webe, and, after some investigation, "condemned, with
part of his family, to be put to death." Prejudices against blacksmiths, though general,
varied in intensity from region to region. They were thus more intense in Tegre and
Amhara, Combes and Tamisier assert, than in Sawa. Even in the latter province,
however, it was not unusual for blacksmiths to live in isolated communities. There
were two villages of blacksmiths, Morat and Zalla, in the vicinity of Fec'cfe, where the
inhabitants, as Soleillet later learnt, lived entirely apart from the population at large.
The prejudice against blacksmiths was, it is interesting to note, shared by both

Christians and Falasas, but did not, however, extend to armourers, who, the French
Mission records, were never accused of sorcery. The charge was moreover
Scientific
confined to Ethiopian blacksmiths, and, Combes and Tamisier claim, was never
4
directed against European ones.
Weavers
Weavers, who likewise constituted a class apart, also tended to belong to a

minority group, for the most part either Falasa or Muslim. Falasa involvement in
weaving was reported by Flad who asserts that this trade in the north-west was
"entirely confined" to members
community except at Gondar where it was
of the
mainly carried out by Muslims. Falasa weavers were predominant in Bagemder, where
the missionary Stern, describing the village of "Atshergee," recalls that the Falasas's
looms, which were the clumsiest imaginable, stood under sheds at the entrance of the
and formed both the means of their subsistence, and "a slight barricade against
village,
the inroads of wild beasts."
The majority who were

of weavers in most of the north were, however, Muslims
particularly important at Gondar, as well as throughout Tegre. Testimony to this is
provided by several observers. Riippell for example noted that weaving was "entirely"
done by Muslims, and Combes and Tamisier that the latter enjoyed "almost the
monopoly" in the field, while Dufton later remarked that "all the manufacturers of
cotton cloths" were followers of the Prophet.
Most weavers made use, as Parkyns says, of "a very rough kind of handloom,
placed over a hole in the ground", but a few seem to have had equipment obtained
from Arabia. The more sophisticated frames, Combes and Tamisier assert, were
5
probably imported by pilgrims of Darita or Aleyu Amba returning from Mecca.
4
Parkyns (1853) II, 158, 160; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 77; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 246; Soleillet
(1886) 288.
5
Flad (1869) 24-5; Stern (1862) 193, 267-8; Parkyns (1853) II, 41; Riippell (1838-40) I, 367; Combes and
Tamisier (1838) IV, 66; Dufton (1867) 92; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 244-5
224
The Traditional Loom
The typical Ethiopian loom was simple, but efficient. It was made by striking
two stakes perhaps as high as a man into the ground a metre or so apart, and keeping
them firm by the attachment of a third piece of wood or pole tied horizontally to the
top of them. Towards each end of the latter pole a string made of wool was lowered
to subtend a thin piece of wood perhaps a span long which served as a kind of balance
from each end of which two other strings held the reeds or comb-like devices. These
latter were made of a couple of long, thin, horizontal pieces of wood or cane joined
together by innumerable strings between which the weft passed. From each reed, a
string or thong led down to a kind of stirrup made of a single flat piece of wood upon
which the weaver's foot was placed, a peddling motion of his feet causing the two
reeds to rise and fall alternately. Also subtended from the horizontal pole was a
somewhat stronger reed made of two long horizontal beams joined at frequent
intervals by vertical bars of thin twig-like pieces of wood or cane. This latter reed was
used to strike, on beat, the weft threads. Perhaps a metre behind this equipment a
couple of smaller vertical stakes were erected, also about a metre and a half apart,
upon which would be fixed a second horizontal pole. This latter acted as a roller on
which the woven thread was gradually wound as the work proceeded. To prevent it
from unwinding, the upright pole nearest the weaver's right hand was shaped to fit
into one of a series of holes cut in the corresponding end of the roller. As more and
more cloth was woven, the weaver would wind up the roller, and secure its immobility
by means of the locking device.
A weaver with traditional Ethiopian loom, placed in his garden in one of the central or southern regions.
From G. Massaia, I miei trentacinque anni di missione in aha Etiopia (Rome and Milan, 1885-95).
Three other stakes were also stuck in the ground to hold the warp. The largest
and strongest was placed several metres in front of the loom, a second, considerably
smaller, stake some metres to its right, and the third, usually smaller again,
immediately beside the loom on the weaver's right. The warp thread originated near
the smallest stake to which it was tied and every now and then released by the weaver.
225
The thread, which was so placed
form something of a circle, then passed round
as to
the two remaining stakes before entering the loom on the side opposite the weaver.
By this simple expedient the warp was kept tight and prevented from sagging.
The which was about a span long, was made of wood and shaped like
shuttle,
a hollow canoe. In it the bobbin - a simple piece of bamboo - was fitted horizontally
by means of a thin reed which ran through it to prevent if from falling out, while at
the same time allowing it to rotate and the thread to unwind. From the bobbin the
thread passed out of the shuttle by means of a small hole cut in one of its sides.
The weaver, who sat on the ground with his feet in a hole perhaps two feet
deep, used both his feet and his hands. By a peddling motion of his feet he alternately
raised and lowered the two reeds, thus shedding the warp threads, while with his
hands he threw the shuttle from side to side, beat up the weft with the third reed, and
from time to time released some of the warp at his right and rolled the woven
material on the roller immediately in front of him. These operations were invariably
carried out in the open air a few yards from the weaver's house, and at nightfall when
the work came to an end the weaver took up his stakes, and rolled the warp around
them. The whole contraption would then be replaced in its former position at
6
daybreak for further labour.
Potters
and weavers, had, as we have seen, long constituted an

Potters, like blacksmiths
isolated,and largely despised, class which consisted of both women and men. Like the
blacksmiths and weavers again, a considerable proportion of potters in the north-west
7
were Falasas, as Riippell records. Stern, who described those he saw as "industrious,"
reports visiting two villages of Falasa potters, at Gorgora Eyla and Atshergee. In the
former, he recalls:
"Men and women ... were busy moulding pots and pans and other useful
domestic utensils. Lathe and moulds they do not require to give shape to
their manufacture, necessity having taught them to dispense with every
implement in carrying on their craft. Their dexterous fingers give form to
the clay, and the sun and a good fire dry and temper it afterwards. The
articles they make are very strong, and this, as the poor people naively
8
told me, is a serious obstacle to their industry."
Earthenware was used manufacture of all sorts of cooking and food

for the
receptacles, such as bowls, dishes, pitchers and jars of many shapes and sizes, as well
as the giillelat, or clay centre-piece, often placed at the apex of churches or thatched
houses. Such artifacts were usually red or black, the colour depending on the method
of firing.
6
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 65-6; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 244-5; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II,
394-5; Rochet d' Hericourt (1841) 298-9; Girard (1873) 243-4.
7
Riippell (1838-40) II, 181.
8
Stern (1862) 265 . See also 193, 268, and Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 249.
226
Most potters, a majority of whom were probably women, worked only with their
hands, and had no equipment whatsoever, though a few of the more sophisticated,
9
according to Girard, used a horizontal potter's wheel, as well as a spatula or scoop.
Typical Ethiopian pottery. From J. Borelli, Ethiopie meridonale (Paris, 1890).
Tanners
Tanning was widely practised, and, since it did not require capital equipment,
was largely carried out - with considerable expertise - by the ordinary peasantry rather
Combes and Tamisier claim, thus
than by specialist craftsmen. "All the Abyssinians,"
knew how to make skin There were, however, also a number of
containers.
professional curriers, many of whom were Muslims as Riippell notes. These and
others turned out a wide range of goods, among them saddles, shields, scabbards,
cartridge and other belts, tents, thongs, straps, bags and pouches, sleeping-skins,
10
articles of clothing, and parchment.
Flaying and Tanning
Flaying and tanning were carried out with considerable expertise. The hide of
a goat would frequently be separated from the carcass with only the head removed.
The first cut, according to Johnston, who had many opportunities to witness the work,
would be a circular incision around both haunches and around the tail. The hide
would then be stripped over the thighs, two smaller incisions being made around the
9
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 82; Girard (1873) 243.
10
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 77-8; Riippell (1838-40) I, 367; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 242.
227
middle joint of the hind legs to enable them to be drawn out. A stick was next placed
to extend these extremities, and by it the whole carcass was suspended from the
branch of a tree; by some easy pulls around the body, the skin was then gradually
withdrawn over the forelegs which had earlier been cut around the knees to allow
them to be taken out. After this, the head was removed, and the skin pulled inside
out. The inside was then rubbed all over with a stone to remove any pieces of flesh
which might remain.
The next stage depended on whether it was desired to remove or retain the
hairs. In themanufacture of hides, i.e. skins without hair, the flayed skin was usually
stretched in the sun to dry, this being done, according to Parkyns, by nicking pegs
through them into the ground. Dried in this manner the skin became "hard and stiff,"
but was kept "in a dry place for a long time." To soften the texture, a mixture of
clotted milk and linseed flour was spread on it, and allowed to soak in for a night. The
skin was then taken, folded, fur outside, and trampled on and worked by the feet for
a considerable time every morning until it became "as soft as a piece of rag." After
each "pedipulation" it was covered with fresh grass pressed down on it by heavy stones,
to prevent its drying till the process was completed. After this operation had been
continued for some days, the number of which depended on the quality of the skin,
the fur was easily cleaned of whatever dirt might have become attached to it, and the
membrane of the skin was then peeled off, leaving it "quite white" and as soft "as
chamois leather".
Skin bags were madein a somewhat different manner. The skins, Johnston
states, were made by the apertures around the neck and legs being secured
into sacks
by a double fold of skin, sewed together by means of a "slender but very tough thong"
which rendered the seams "quite air-tight", and the aperture around the haunches
was likewise "gathered together." The skin bag was then "distended with air," and left
for days until "slight putrefaction" commenced, at which stage rubbing with a rough
stone soon cleaned its surface of the hair. After this a considerable amount of labour
was required, for at least one day, to soften the distended skin by beating it with heavy
sticks, or trampling upon it for hours together, the labourer supporting himself by
clinging to the bough of an overhead tree or holding on to a wall. In this way, whilst
drying, the skin was "prevented from getting stiff," and, further to ensure this, it was
"frequently rubbed with small quantities of butter." When there was "no chance of the
skin becoming hard and easily broken," the hole was opened to allow the air to escape.
A "very soft flaccid leather bag" was thus produced, which, for several ensuing days,
afforded an amusement to the owner when otherwise unoccupied by "rubbing it over
with his hands." Such bags were used as containers for "almost all the produce of the
fields," including cotton, grain and flour, which were kept or transported in them.
Tanning was also carried out, according to Johnston, by extending the skin
loosely upon four sticks which raised it about a foot from the ground, thus forming a
kind of trough into which was strewed the pounded bark of the kantuffa acacia
(Petrobolium lacerans). The hollow was then filled with cold water, which in the course
of a few days became a strong red infusion with which the whole surface was
frequently washed, after which the leather was trodden on until it was soft. Another
method, as described by the French Scientific Mission and others, was to soak the
skins for six to eight days in a pot containing a mixture of cattle urine and the crushed
astringent fruit of the imboy (Solatium marginatum), after which they might be rubbed
228
with the juice of lemons or washed in running water, before being stretched on stakes
to dry, or covered with some milk, and again rendered supple by treading.
In the preparation of skins, where it was desired to retain the hair, as in the case
of lion, leopard, fox, sheep or other pelts, the fur was placed on stakes, hair
downwards, and left to dry in the sun for one or two days. The pelt, as the Italian
geographer Antonio Cecchi later noted, was then covered with butter, milk, or linseed
oil paste, and on the third day would be trodden over to render it supple.
Fine skins were produced in many parts of the country, notably at Gondar, as
well as at Morat in Sawa, whose inhabitants, according to Krapf, were also particularly
11
"skilful" in this field.
Woodworkers, and House-Builders
Wood-workers using the simplest of mainly axes and hatchets, fashioned

tools,
a considerable variety of household and other artifacts. These included doors, door-
frames and other parts of the house, mortars for crushing grain, and items of
furniture, such as beds, chairs and head-rests, as well as the wooden parts of ploughs
and other agricultural tools and spears. Most of these articles were crudely produced
by peasants with only minimal experience of woodwork, but there were also more
skilled, and specialised, craftsmen who produced objects of greater sophistication,
including rifle-butts.
Carpenters would begin by splitting trees with wedges, after which, the French
ScientificMission explains, they would "very cleverly" plane the pieces into boards with
the aid of an adze. Though rustic labourers had virtually no equipment a few of the
best-equipped carpenters in the more important towns used a number of imported
tools, including adzes, chisels and saws for cutting, gimlets and wimbles for drilling
holes, and the compass and carpenter's line for making accurate measurements. The
use of such equipment was later confirmed by Girard who noted that some of the
most fortunate craftsmen had carpenters' lines, braces and gimlets. Planes were also
used by workers making butts for rifles and pistols, as well as relatively sophisticated
articles of furniture.
House-building in some parts of the north-west was carried out by Falasas, some
of whomare said to have also repaired the mausoleum of the Abuns, or heads of the
Ethiopian Church, at Jenda.
The construction of traditional houses was far from costly. The Englishman
Coffin for instance built a house for no more than eighty Maria Theresa thalers. The
break-down was:
11
Johnston (1844) II, 369-73; Parkyns (1853) II, 13-4; Lefebvre (1845-8), III, 240-4; Isenberg and Krapf
(1843) 255-6; Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 46, IV, 77; Ruppell (1838-40) I, 367, II, 180-1; Cecchi
(1885-7) I, 292-3. For examples of leatherware see Duchesne-Fournet (1901-3) II, Plates XIV and XXI.
229
Materials:
15,000 canes for covering 10 thalers
500 small spurs of wood 10 thalers
Large pieces of wood for doorways, etc. 20 thalers
1,600 loads of hay, carried by children 10 thalers
50 thalers
Labour:
4 builders' work for 12 days 8 thalers
One thatcher 4 thalers
Mixing of clay by men, women and children,
and its carriage and that of stones to builders 8 thalers
30 thalers
12
Total: 80 thalers
Basket-Making, and Carpet-Weaving
Basket-making, which needed skill, but no equipment, was carried out exclusively
by women. This work was of considerable importance, for basketry was widely used,
in the manufacture of containers for all kinds of foods, both solid and liquid, as well
as both the masob, or basket-table, and the parasol. Basketware was sometimes
rendered watertight, for the containing of liquids, by the application of the juice of the
qwalqwal {Candelabra euphorbia).
Several rural areas of high elevation, where sheep and goats flourished, were
noted for their use of wool. The population of the Samen mountains for example
included a number of weavers of small carpets which, according to Salt, were "much
superior" to what might have been expected of rural handicraft work. Among the
people of highland Manz in Sawa there were likewise many carpet-makers, who
worked with goats' hair (and wool?), as well as tent-makers who made use of thick
13
black woollen cloth.
The Craftsmen of Gondar
Gondar, in the early nineteenth century, was still, as for the previous two
hundred years, the country's principal handicraft centre. It was "the only town,"
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 82; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 246-7; Stern (1862) 254-5; Girard (1873)
199; Pearce (1831) I, 243-4.
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 82-3; Parkyns (1853) I, 138; Salt (1814) 426; Valentia (1809) III, 162;
Dufton (1867) 165; Stern (1862) 254-5; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 255-6. For examples of basketry
see Duchesne-Fournet (1901-3) II, Plates XIX and XX.
230
231
Combes and Tamisier declare, "where one finds ... the professions of the tailor, miller,
baker and a mass of others unknown in Abyssinia." Other occupations represented
in the city, according to Arnauld d'Abbadie, included weavers, curriers, leather-
workers, harness-makers, blacksmiths and forgers of spears, swords and knives, saddle-
makers and sandal-makers, parchment-makers, book-binders, scribes and copyists,
goldsmiths and copper-workers, embroiders of women's shirts, priests' clothes and
saddle cloths, makers of shields, and carpenters, turners who fitted wood in rifles, and
makers of drinking vessels. Most of these craftsmen, as far as we can tell, were male,
but the city's population also included numerous women who specialised in basketry
and pottery.
The handicrafts of Gondar, in its hey-day, included some of the finest possible
description, but, with the city's decline, deteriorated markedly in quality. By the 1830's
the capital's silversmiths, who had once fashioned priceless crowns, were reduced,
Ruppell making neck-chains and finger-rings, and shamelessly adulterated
states, to
their gold and silver with zinc and tin. Some blacksmiths still turned out iron bullets
(which were preferred to lead as they could penetrate the stoutest shield whereas lead
bullets only flattened themselves and bounced off), but armourers often soldered over
holes in rifles so badly that if a weapon was over-charged the metal often sprayed out
dangerously. The city's large tanned hides, which sold for a third of a Maria Theresa
thaler each, nonetheless won the German traveller's unqualified praise, and were said
by Combes and Tamisier to be demanded even by the Arabs. The carpets of Gondar
were likewise highly regarded.
Other notable handicrafts were produced by jewellers, who, according to the

French Scientific Mission, worked in gold, silver, tin, zinc and copper, as well as by
horn-workers who made rhinoceros-horn sword-handles, and skilfully wrought goblets
from ox horn. The city's tailors, a few of whom by the 1840's were using tools
imported from Europe, likewise made a variety of articles, including ceremonial shirts
and cloaks for the chiefs, ornate clothes for the higher clergy, fine burnouses for the
well-to-do, and richly embroidered dresses for noblewomen, as well as colourful
saddle-cloths for the horses and mules of the aristocracy. The city's shoemakers, who
made skilful use of knives and awls, supplied those comfortably off with slippers
unknown in the country at large.
The masons of Gondar were

also highly regarded though they had, according to
the French Scientific Mission, equipment beyond a plumb-line. The city's builders
little
were, nevertheless, so well regarded that King Sahla Sellase of Sawa, when erecting
the church of Madhane 'Alam at Ankobar, sent for carpenters from Gondar. Half a
century later a master carpenter from the city was likewise to go to Sawa with nine
assistants who were employed by Menilek in constructing his palace at Entotto.
The carpenters of Gondar, who cut down trees and squared timber into planks,
seem to have been relatively well equipped. They possessed, according to the French
Scientific mission, such tools as saws, adzes, gimlets, braces and compasses. Veritable
they turned out chairs, beds, rifle-butts, and delicate objects of wood-work,
artists,
some of the best of which were fashioned from the kosso tree (Hagenia abyssinica).
Considerable use of wood was also made by another of the city's specialised workers -
the charcoal-makers.
232
Gondar, as a religious as well as a political and commercial centre, also had
many skilled artisans catering for the needs of the Church, such as calligraphers,
artists and book-binders. Ruppell, who praised their craftsmanship, exclaimed that one
could only wonder at the elegance of the tooled leather binding of Gondare
manuscripts. This work, according to the French Scientific Mission, was normally
carried out by dabtaras, or lay clergy. Other craftsmen produced fine, and often
intricate, church metalwork, mainly of silver, copper and zinc.
One other lesser-known category of craftsmen at Gondar deserves to be

mentioned: the makers of small mirrors who fashioned these highly prized artifacts
from glass and mercury which were imported separately by way of Massawa.
Much of the handicraft work of the city and its environs was carried out, as in
the surrounding countryside, by Falasas and Muslims. The Falasas, some of whom
were settled in a village by the Qahaplayed a major role in construction. Their
river,
chief employment, according to Salt, consisted in "building and thatching houses," and
was "most to be admired." Falasa house-builders worked,
their skill in these fields
according to Coffin, for one Maria Theresa thaler per six-day week, while a thatcher
would complete a roof for a piece-rate of four thalers. The extent of Falasa building
activity was also emphasised by subsequent observers, such asPlowden who termed
them masons in the country," and Dufton who later went so far as to affirm
"the best
that "all the builders and artisans" were Falasa. The Falasas of Gondar, as elsewhere,
were likewise prominent as blacksmiths, and were so important as potters that Ruppell
went so far as to assert that they were responsible for all the city's potting.
The Muslims were also much involved in craftsmanship. They provided most of
the city's weavers, and were also active in embroidering women's shirts, as well as in
making caps for the Muslim population.
Gondar had a community of foreign craftsmen, consisting mainly of

also
Egyptians and Greeks, some of whom were involved, according to Ruppell, in the
repair of rifles. Because of the difficulty of obtaining new weapons their services were
always in great demand. The city was also renowned for its parchments, carpets and
tanned hides.
Some of the neighbouring Qemant, who had some cultural affinity to the
Falasas, and were also to the fore as craftsmen. They
lived outside the city to the west,
supplied the capital with most of its wood, and were said by Plowden to have been
"skilful carpenters." Another group of craftsmen catering for the needs of the old
metropolis were the stone-workers, many of whom lived on the island of Daq in Lake
Tana, and produced well-fashioned stone grinding-mills.
The civil wars of the early nineteenth century, and the subsequent looting of the
cityby Emperor Tewodros in the 1860's, led to the decline of craftsmanship in and
around Gondar. Flad reported in 1869 that "a great number" of Falasas had fled to
Bagemder, Balassa and Lasta. Some had been "received by the King's command," and
were "employed in his work," while "others earned a livelihood by their trades" -
233
presumably, as in the past, mainly as blacksmiths, weavers, potters and house-
14
builders.
Other Urban and Religious Centres
Though Gondar was in its day the country's most populous urban centre, and
hence the location of the largest number of craftsmen, skilled workers also
congregated at other provincial centres where their services were in demand by rulers
and churchmen, as well as by the population at large. The majority of such handicraft-
workers lived, according to Pearce, "most undisturbed" lives. Even if blacksmiths
suffered, as we have seen, from many trials and tribulations, most other craftsmen
were respected, and "considered the best Christians." Those who worked in gold,
silver, or brass, or who followed the carpenters' trade, were in particular "esteemed
as persons of rank." Many craftsmen, as in the old days of moving capitals, travelled
extensively. Whenever the desire seized them they would thus leave their abode, and
establish themselves, Arnauld d'Abbadie says, in another town. They might,
alternatively, attach themselves to one of the great lords, and journey over the country
15
in the wake of an itinerant army.
Aksum
Aksum, the religious capital of Ethiopian Christendom and site of the great
church of St. Mary of Seyon, had numerous skilled craftsmen in the service of the
Church. Many of the inhabitants of the city and its neighbourhood were "celebrated,"
Salt records, in the preparation and use of parchment, as was confirmed by such later
writers as Combes and Tamisier who claim that Aksum parchment was the most
highly regarded in the entire country.
Ecclesiastical craftsmanship was also produced at many smaller, lesser-known

monasteries, for example in the early nineteenth century at Myolones in Sawa, where
the monks, according to Johnston, worked as blacksmiths while the nuns made
earthenware vessels.
Adwa
Adwa, at this time the principal political and commercial centre of the north,
was a flourishing handicraft centre renowned for a wide range of goods. The "chief
production," according to Salt, was cloth, the manufacture of which was so
14
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 85-6; Arnauld d'Abbadie (1868) 162, 164-5; Ruppell (1838-40) I, 367,
II, 179-82; Ferret II, 431; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part II, 45, III, 244, 246-9; Guebre
and Galinier (1847)
Sellassie (1930-1) I, 72-3, 209-11; Valentia (1809) III, 67, 161; Salt (1814) 426; Pearce (1831) I, 244;GB
House of Commons (1868) 110; Dufton (1867) 92; Krapf (1867) 461; Flad (1869), 10-1. The high status
of the carpenters of Gondar is apparent from an engraving of one of them, Gabra Selasse, as depicted
in Lefebvre's Atlas, Plate 30. See page 229. On the Qemant see Gamst (1969).
15
Pearce (1831) II, 286; Arnauld d'Abbadie (1868) 165.
16
Salt (1814) 426; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 78; Johnston (1844) II, 320-2.
234
considerable that it created a "great demand for cotton" throughout the neighbouring
lowlands. The coarse cloth of Adwa, which circulated throughout much of Tegre
instead of money, was "considered unrivalled," while the finer weaves were thought
"little inferior" to those of Gondar. Some, "worn by the principal men of the country,"
took several months to make, and sold for as much as 12 Maria Theresa thalers each.
Christian weavers usually produced three in a year; Muslims more, but inferior in
quality, and hence cheaper. The majority of the city's weavers, like those of Tegre as
a whole, were Muslim.
Adwa also boasted a number of tailors. One of whom record remains was a
Greek, Demetrius, better known as Sidi Petros, who, according to Parkyns, had been
"a long time" in the country, and was "well acquainted with its customs." There were
also numerous tanners whose work was prized, Combes and Tamisier say, far and
wide, as well as leather-workers who made shields, saddles and slippers.
The goldsmiths and silversmiths of the city also enjoyed a great reputation.
Some of the most prominent were Greek and Armenian immigrants who in the
passage of time were succeeded by their half-Ethiopian children and grand-children.
Several of the city's jewellers, according to Parkyns (who knew them well) were,
whether they liked it or not, "obliged to be rogues." They made "a tolerably good thing
of their business," but did this by appropriating a large proportion of the gold and
silver entrusted to them for their work. Given Maria Theresa thalers with a high silver
content, they returned alloy "scarcely so good as a Turkish piastre," and one goldsmith
received 30 Venetian sequins for a job on which he used only seven and a half.
Remarking that it might seem "scarcely fair" to "tell tales out of school" as he had
worked with these jewellers, and was therefore familiar with their "secret goings-on,"
Parkyns declares: "they are more to be pitied than blamed. They are considered almost
in the light of slaves ... that is, they are not allowed to leave the country; and though
treated with considerable kindness, and even some distinction, their supplies are
neither over-plentiful nor very regularly paid."
The early nineteenth century jewellers of Adwa included two Greeks, Avostalla,
who made crowns, crosses and church bells, and Mika'el, who had fled from
Khartoum "with a quantity of silver which had been given to him to be worked," and
an Armenian, Haji Yohannes, who was been an illegal coiner. There
said to have once
was in addition a jeweller of Ethio-Greek descent, Walda Giyorgis, who turned out
highly prized silver drinking-cups.
The city also had a number of blacksmiths who as elsewhere were despised, and
a group of armourers. Most of the latter were foreigners - Copts, Armenians and
Greeks. One of them, the afore-mentioned Avostalla, constructed a cannon for Walda
Gabre'el, a local governor of Tegre, who, to obtain the metal required, ordered the
purchase of all the brass in the province. Three months later sufficient had been
collected for the Greek to cast the weapon, under the direction of a Turkish soldier
called Isma'el. Its carriage was built by an Ethiopian Muslim carpenter, Haji Nuro.
The gun was duly tested in Adwa market, which greatly terrified many of the citizens.
When fired with a small charge, the weapon performed admirably, but, on being
subsequently more heavily loaded, exploded, seriously injuring poor Isma'el. Haji
Nuro, who lived to tell the tale, later became head-carpenter to Ras Walda Sellase,
the subsequent ruler of Tegre. Other armourers of the time included an Armenian,
Yohannes, and an Italian, Valieri, who on at least one occasion mended a cannon for
235
Dajazmac' Webe. Though some armourers thus occasionally repaired or attempted to
cast pieces of artillery, most were concerned exclusively with the maintenance of rifles.
Adwa, had many craftsmen working on

as the provincial capital of Tegre, also
the production of other military supplies of all and
kinds, including spears, swords
shields, as well as gunpowder and bullets, most of which were made either of iron or
stone. The latter were often preferred as they were thought capable of penetrating any
17
shield whereas those of iron were considered scarcely harder than lead.
Other Towns of the North and North-West
Specialist craftsmen, though in smaller numbers, also forgathered at other

provincial capitals of the north, among them Antalo, Addigrat and 6alaqot in Tegre,
and Darita and Qorata in Bagemder. Antalo, Ras Walda Sellase's capital in the early
One of them, Nasar 'Ali, a
years of the century, had several foreign skilled workers.
Macedonian, constructed a horse-drawn grinding-mill, which, according to Salt,
"excited great^ admiration." The town was likewise renowned for its tanning and
leatherwork. Calaqot, where Ras Walda Sellase also resided, likewise had a number
of fine craftsmen. They included the Ras's "chief painter," who struck Salt as "a very
ingenious man." Something of a philosopher he once said, "I am like a man
blindfolded: I go muddling in the dark, until I produce something." Another worker
of the town was an Armenian leatherworker
called Nazaret. Addigrat too had a
number of craftsmen, included a lapsed German missionary carpenter by name
who
Aichinger who designed an Ethiopian Orthodox church for the then ruler of Tegre
Dajazmac Sabagades.
Darita, a commercial centre on the trade route south of Gondar, was particularly
renowned for its leatherwork, which was finer, according to Combes and Tamisier,
than cotton cloth. The craftsmen of the town also produced beautiful cords of silk
which served as money throughout the neighbouring provinces. Qorata likewise had
a significant population of craftsmen who benefited from the town's status as a place
of asylum, which enabled them to produce better crafts, Riippell claims, - including
brassware - than most parts of the country.
There were also a number of specialised craftsmen in Gojjam, many of them

attached to the court of Dajazmac Berru Gosu. The latter was "fond of superintending
his smiths and other workmen", in whose labours, Beke says, he seemed to take even
more interest than did King Sahla Sellase of Sawa, for he not only directed, but often
actually took part in their work. No accounts of their activities are, unfortunately,
18
preserved.
Valentia (1809) III, 78-9, 161; Salt (1814) 425; Holland and Hozier (1870) I, 398; Parkyns (1853) I,
241, II, 15, 36-7, 43, 45-7, 276; Combes and Tamisier (1839) IV, 66, 77; Pearce (1831) I, 257-8, II, 213,
II, 15; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 40-3; Lefebvre (1845-8), I, 53-4, II, 195; Arnauld d'Abbadie (1868)
37, 211.
Salt (1814) 361, 393-4; Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 46, IV, 77; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 503, 512-
3; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, 55-6; Riippell (1838-40) II, 225; Beke (1840-3) 416; Shepherd (1868) 73-5;
Markham (1869) 199; Hozier (1869) 109; Holland and Hozier (1870) I, 342.
236
Ankobar and Angolala
Numerous craftsmen, including several foreigners, congregated in the principal

towns of Sawa. One of the first was a Greek artist who travelled from Gondar to
Sawa where he entered the service of King Wasan Sagad (1808-1813). This painter,
according to Rochet d'Hericourt, was asked by the monarch to decorate his tomb at
Qundi with frescos of battles and royal hunts.
Many craftsmen, mostly Ethiopian, were later attached to King Sahla Sellase's
palaces at the twin Sawan capitals, Ankobar and Angolala. The monarch, whose court,
according to Combes and Tamisier, was "the most brilliant in the country," took a keen
interest in handicraft work. "Though much absorbed in the cares of the war," he is said
to have found time to "direct himself towards the industrial arts which he loved with
passion," and insisted that "all handicraft work be carried out under his eyes." His love
of such work was so great, the Frenchmen go so far as to claim, perhaps because of
their Saint Simonian fervour, that "the principal personages of his court were workers
whom he treated with the greatest consideration." Be that as it may, there can be no
denying the travellers' report that Sahla Sellase's palaces were crowded with
carpenters, masons and craftsmen engaged in making gunpowder, repairing rifles and
producing intricate jewellery and other articles of gold, silver and ivory. Their
workshop also turned out magnificent pieces of cloth which were said to rival those
of Gondar, as well as shields, arm-bands and rifle-plates, razors, scissors and needles,
ivory bracelets, drinking-horns, and chessmen, besides, Harris says, "all manner of
curious amulets and devices." This picture is confirmed by Krapf who states that
blacksmiths, weavers and other craftsmen were gathered together at the Ankobar
and Angolala palaces, and that the King frequently visited them to watch their work
which had to be altered if not pleasing to him. No total estimate of the number of
craftsmen gathered at the two towns is available, but Krapf believed that the King
employed no less than 600 spinning-women, two hundred of whom produced fine
cotton cloth which the monarch presented to his governors, favourites and family,
while the remaining four hundred span ordinary cloth, mainly for the soldiers. A
number of craftsmen were also lodged at .another of Sahla Sellase's establishments,
situated at Mahal Wanz, where Harris saw blacksmiths, armourers, jewellers and
illuminators of manuscripts, all "plying their craft ... under the royal eye."
There was in addition a number of blacksmiths in royal employ^ working in an

ironworks, outside Ankobar, at the village of Gureyon by the Caca river. Its
blacksmiths, according to Harris, broke the ore into small pieces which were then
roughly pulverized, mixed with a large proportion of charcoal, and placed in a clay
furnace which resembled an ordinary smith's hearth, but was furnished with a sloping
cavity below the level of the blast pipes. Four pairs of hard-worked bellows were then
used to bring the ore to fusion point, whereupon the iron, together with the dross,
sank to the bottom. The metal, on setting, was broken and re-fused, after which the
dross flowed off, and the pure metal was discharged in lumps, or pigs, which by
repeated heating and welding were wrought into bars. Owing to the "very rude and
primitive apparatus" employed, ten hours of "unceasing toil" were, however, needed to
produce a mere two pounds of "very inferior iron."
237
Prominent among the craftsmen of early nineteenth century Sawa was Ato
6akol, Sahla Sellase's principal armourer - and one of the few Ethiopian craftsmen
of this period whose name has been preserved. Trained by working with a Greek
called Elias who was active in the 1820's, Combes and
he was capable, according to
Tamisier, even of making an entire There were also a number of foreign
rifle.
craftsmen. Besides the aforesaid Elias, they included two other Greeks, Demetrius and
Johannes, who a decade or so later built the monarch's palace at Angolala and a
grinding-mill on the Ayrara river. Another craftsman at Ankobar was Stefanos, an
Armenian silversmith who was active for a few years in the 1830's, but fled when
accused of coining money. There was also a Greek or Armenian merchant called
Petros who is said to have introduced the art of dying leather red and green.
Specialised handicraft work also took place elsewhere in Sawa. The inhabitants
of the highlands, notably around Dabra Berhan, produced tents and other articles of
black wool, while to the east many of the Muslim Argobbas in the lowlands were
employed in weaving, and, though using "very inferior" equipment, are said by Graham
to have turned out cloth which was both "well made and cheap."
Ankobar, the most important of the above-mentioned Sawan settlements,

maintained its population of craftsmen for much of the nineteenth century. In the
1870's Cecchi reported that the inhabitants still included a large number of skilled
workers, among them tanners, saddlers, blacksmiths, joiners, wood-cutters and
carpenters, masons, stone-workers, many of them engaged in the manufacture of
grinding-stones; dress-makers, sewers, goldsmiths, charcoal-makers, scribes, painters,
19
and traditional-style physicians and surgeons.
Jewellers
Jewellers who were to be found, as we have seen, exclusively in the principal

political, commercial and religious centres, worked mainly in gold, silver and brass.
Gold jewellery was not in widespread use, for only members of the ruling family,
as we haveseen, were allowed to wear it. The precious metal, out of which the local
jewellers fashioned their artifacts, came partly from local mines, and partly from
Venetian sequins imported mainly by way of Massawa. This money was in such
demand that coins worth 2.38 Maria Theresa thalers at the port fetched, according
to the French Scientific Mission, almost three at Gondar.
Most of the silver jewellery was made from Maria Theresa dollars which were
then being imported in the course of trade in increasing numbers, and were valued,
according to Johnston, only as a means of enabling their owners to "adorn themselves
or their women." All the coin entering the country, he believed, ultimately found its
way into the crucible, except such as fell into the hands of the king, and were
Rochet d'Hericourt (1841) 216, (1846) 244; Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 349, III, 8-9, 23-4, IV, 67-
9, 72, 84; Harris (1844) II, Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 246; Isenberg and Krapf
31, 44-89, 100-1, 262, 389;
(1843) 57, 62, 120, 247; Krapf (1867) 23-4; Graham (1867) 33; Johnston (1844) II, 60; Burton (1894)
II, 223, 231; Soleillet (1886) 131-2; Beke (1840-3) 201, 307; Barker (1906) 273, 288; Cecchi (1885-7) I,
292. On the Saint Simonian attitude to workers, which may have coloured their accounts of Sahla
Sellase's craftsmen see Pankhurst (1969) 169-223.
238
deposited in the royal treasury. From these useful coins the jewellers of Ethiopia
made a great variety of crosses of all shapes and sizes, for both religious and secular
use, as well as hairpins, earrings, necklaces, lockets, bracelets, rings and anklets, ear-
picks,ornaments for shields, swords, spears and guns, and sundry paraphernalia for
horses and mules.
Brassware, which in some areas, Combes and Tamisier believed, was less
common than silverware, was used in the manufacture of a wide range of articles,
among them incense-holders, sistra, small bells, bracelets, chains, jugs and bowls for
washing purposes, shield, sword and scabbard ornaments, and sundry mule collar and
harness decorations. The workers in brass were praised by several foreign observers,
including Salt, who thought the best were found among the Oromos, and Ruppell, who
stated that the craftsmen at Qorata made finely worked and very attractive church
ornaments and harness decorations.
Jewellery, as we will see in a later chapter, was extremely popular among

Ethiopian women, causing the often critical Stern to observe that those who possessed
the means carried their love of trinkets to "such an excess" that they often had "more
than three pounds weight of silver bells, chains and little scent boxes dangling down
their bosom", besides "other et ceteras, such as rosaries, bangles and an endless variety
20
of charms."
Horn- and Ivory-Workers
Horn-carving, which required some modest equipment, as well as skill, was

carried out by specialised craftsmen. Many of them fashioned ox, buffalo, ibex and
other horns into such articles as drinking-vessels and sword-handles. Some such
artifacts were of considerable size as the horns of sanga cattle were often as much as
two feet or two feet eight inches long and eight to ten inches wide at the base. Carvers
in horn made use of a mould and a simple but efficient lathe which was based,
Johnston says, of "two sticks placed in the ground, not more than three inches above
the surface." From the centre of each end of the mould an arm projected about six
inches long, which was armed with a bit of iron. These iron points were received in
the short stick supports, and the mould, with the horn upon it, then revolved freely.
The workman sat upon the ground, and with his feet pressed hard against a stick,
supported it against two stones, placed at a convenient distance in front of his work.
This formed a rest for his cutting instrument, which he held in his left hand, and
pressed against the horn, whilst with his right he wheeled backwards and forwards the
mould by a small catgut. The drinking horns were finished by a piece of round wood
being fitted like a thin cork into the lower and smaller end. To make a drinking-vessel
an ox-horn of the desired size would be selected, and cut to the required length, after
which it would be softened with hot water, fixed on a conical wooden mould, and left
on it for several days. When formed to the required shape the horn would be placed
on the lathe to receive a series of circular cuts with which the outside was usually
decorated.
Lefebvre (1885-8) II, Part II, 81; Johnston (1844) II, 355-6; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 79-81;
Stern (1862) 315; Salt (1814) 426; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 225; Heuglin (1857) 52, (1868) 257. On
jewellery see Duchesne-Fournet (1908-9) II, Plates XV, XVI; Moore (1969); Kobariewixz (1973) and
Kamil (1975).
239
Hornware was produced in many parts of the country. Some of the best,
according to Salt, came from Gojjam, but the craftsmen of Sawa were said by
Johnston to have also displayed "considerable ingenuity." Many of the most popular
earrings of Sawa were cut from the long black horns of the sala, a species of antelope
common in Adal and the neighbouring low countries. Describing this manufacture in
detail, Johnston observes: "The solid extremities of the horns only are used, so that
not more than two earrings can be made from one horn, which is at least two feet
long. The earrings are large and clumsy, but, considering the simple means employed
in making them, are not despicable works of art. Each is turned in two pieces, ... with
small straight shafts projecting from the inside centres. These shafts are made so that
one receives the other, and the earring thus formed looks like two small wheels
connected by a small axle. To receive them into the ear a very large hole is required,
and the axis of one of the halves being first introduced, the other is fixed upon it, and
the lady then turns round, to ask how the ornament looks". Besides these horn
earrings, which were sometimes ornamented with "an inlaid star of silver," the workers
in hornware also made "neat little bottles", each about two inches long, and "turned
in a very ingenious manner," which were used to hold kohl to decorate the eyelids.
Ivory, though exported in large quantities, was also used by local carvers, some
of the finest of whom worked at Sahla Sellase's palaces, and, according to Combes
21
and Tamisier, produced excellent bracelets and chessmen.
Shoe-makers
Shoe-makers, though unknown in the country at large, were to be found, as we

have seen, at Gondar and a few other urban centres. They plied their profession,
according to the French Scientific Mission, with the aid of a pattern, a piece of ivory
to mark out the desired shape, a curved knife for cutting the leather, two awls (one
for making holes and the other for threading the cord), and a needle to stitch the
22
border.
21
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 83-4; Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 244; Parkyns (1853) I, 157; Johnston
(1844) II, 333-5; Valentia (1809) III, 149; Isenberg and Krapf (1843). For examples of hornware see
Duchesne-Fournet (1908-9) II, Plate XVIII.
22
Lefebvre (1845-8) III, 248.
240
IX
SLAVES AND SERVANTS
The Extent of Slavery
Numerous slaves of both sexes in the early nineteenth century were in domestic
service throughout the country. They were to be found, according to Ruppell, in the
houses of most well-to-do families of the north - as well, as we shall see, further south.
Chiefs, not surprisingly, had many more: Ras Walda Sellase, for example, according
to Pearce, always had "a great number" around him.
The number of women slaves, who were mainly employed in the carrying of
water and fire-wood and the grinding of flour, may have exceeded that of men. Gobat
believed that there were "relatively few" male slaves in the north, but that "all" who
could afford it had female slaves, it being "a mark of comfortable circumstances and
of benevolence to have several servants." The result was that everyone kept as many
as they could feed, even though they might not give them much work.
There were also many slaves in Sawa, where Harris claimed that "from the
governor to the simplest peasant every house possessed slaves of both sexes, in
proportion to the wealth of the proprietor." The greatest number were at the main
capital, Ankobar, where King Sahla Sellase was said to have 300 grinding-women, an
even larger number of girls fetching water, and several hundred more engaged in the
brewing of beer and mead, besides a considerable number of males employed in
transporting wood. A
further fifty royal slaves served as wood-gatherers at nearby
Dabra Berhan.
Most slaves throughout this period came from the south and west of the country.
The slave population of Tegre, as Salt noticed early in the century, consisted largely
of Gallas, or Oromos, from the south, and Sanqellas from the west. The
preponderance of both groups was later confirmed by Ruppell who stated that the
slaves in the north in fact comprised three distinct categories: 1) free-born highland
Christians taken prisoner in war or captured by brigands; 2) Sanqellas from lands
north and north-west of Gondar seized in slave-raiding expeditions; and 3) Gallas from
lands south of the Blue Nile who were regularly brought to market. Each of these
groups had its own particular reputation in slave-owning circles. Those from the north
were considered lazy and spendthrift liars; the Sanqellas were said to be loyal and
obedient, while the Oromos, if treated with understanding, were held to be loyal and
affectionate. The slaves of Sawa also originated largely from the south and west, and
consisted mainly, according to Krapf, of Gurages, Gallas and Sanqellas, but also
included people from Janjero, Enarya and Kafa.
Slaves taken from the south and west for service in the highlands in many cases
changed hands on a number of occasions, for ever increasing prices, before reaching
their final destination. Not untypical was the case of an eighteen-year-old youth called
Dilbo, from Sabba in Enarya, whose story was recorded by Krapf. This youngster, who
had been seized by slave-raiders in Nono, was taken to Migra, and thence to Agabja
where he was sold for forty amoles, or salt pieces. Conveyed to Gona, in the Soddo
area, he was then put on sale again, this time for sixty bars. He was then brought to
241
the renowned Sawan slave market of Roge, where he fetched 80 pieces, before being
brought to^ Golba in the district of Abeju where his price rose to 100. Taken next to
the great Sawan market of Aleyu Amba, he was for the first time valued in money,
and sold for twelve Maria Theresa thalers. He was subsequently purchased by a rich
widow for fourteen thalers, and at her death passed into the possession of her brother,
who was, however, later disinherited, after which Dilbo became the property of King
Sahla Sellase. Slave prices, as evident from this account, thus varied immensely from
1
region to region.
Conditions of the Slaves
Men, women and children captured in slave-raiding expeditions, or taken as

slaves in war, suffered greatlyfrom being uprooted from their native land, as well as
from their separationfrom their families. The pathos of the slaves' situation is
preserved in a song sung by two Sanqella youths from the Takkaze area recorded early
in the century by Salt, which ran as follows:
"They come, and catch us by the waters of the Tacazze: they make us slaves,
"Our mothers with alarm flee to the mountains and leave us alone in
2
strange hands."
Despite their sadness at separation from families and friends the life of most
slaves, if we cap believe the reports of foreign travellers, was not too arduous. Henry
Salt, who had spoken with a number of slaves in Tegre, claimed that "generally
speaking" they were "very happy," and adds:
"several of those I have conversed with, who have been captured at an
advanced period of life, preferred their latter mode of living to that which
they had led in their native wilds .... The situation of slaves, indeed, is
rather honourable than disgraceful ... and the difference between their
state and that of western slaves in strikingly apparent. They have no long
voyage to make, no violent change of habits to undergo, no out-door
labour to perform, no 'white man's scorn' to endure, but, on the contrary,
are frequently adopted, like children, into the family, and to make use of
3
an Eastern expression, 'bask in the sunshine of their master's favour."'
A picture of contentment on the part of the slave, and benevolence on that of

the master, is likewise presented by other observers. Pearce for example recalls that
Ras Walda Sellase kept a teacher for the education of his slaves, while Salt claims that
they even had a voice in advising the chief when the latter played chess. Riippell,
writing more generally of the north, considered that slaves were contented and treated
j
mildly, more or less as ordinary servants, and, though very exceptionally chained, were
never severely punished, while Combes and Tamisier state that slaves were far from
1
Riippell (1838-40) II, 26-7, 193; Pearce I, 217; Valentia (1809) III, 48; Krapf (1867) 50-1. For slave
prices in various parts of the country see Pankhurst (1968a) 84-7.
2
Salt (1814) 381.
3
Salt (1814) 381-2
242
unfortunate as they received abundant food, lived among people with customs not too
different from their own, and were treated as "children of the house."
The situation in Sawa was reportedly not dissimilar. Johnston claims that slaves
were generally considered as "near relations, or rather, perhaps, as foster children" -
though when their behaviour was "so very bad as to alienate the affection of their
indulgent masters" they were "not infrequently dismissed," and on occasion sold to
Muslim merchants for export to the coast. Beke likewise stated that the treatment
slaves received was "on the whole mild," while Harris, though normally most critical
of the Ethiopian scene, agreed that their condition was "with occasional, but rare
exceptions, one of comfort and east." Later observers paint a similar picture:
Waldmeier states that slaves in Bagemder during the time of Emperor Tewodros were
"very kindly treated and regarded as members of the families," while Rassam observed
that the Ethiopians were "generally very kind to servants, treating them as members
...
of the family, especially on their marriage or death."
Slaves, young and old, exported to the coast or Sudan. Note chains, which seem in fact to have been only
rarely used. From T. Waldmeier, Autobiography of Ten Years in Abyssinia (London and Leominster, 1886).
The slaves' own view of their situation - which may of course have differed
4
considerably from that of foreign observers - is not, however, recorded.
4
Pearce (1831) I, 217-8; Johnston (1844) II, 176; Valentia (1809) III, 51; Riippell (1838-40) II, 29;
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 95-6; Beke (1845) 28; Harris (1844) III, 309; Waldmeier (1886) 37;
Rassam (1869) II, 256.
243
The Slave Trade
Besides the many slaves who remained in the country there were large numbers
who were exported to foreign lands. Slave caravans, mainly from the south and west,
were a frequent sight along the principal trade routes, as reported by a number of
foreign observers, several of whom offered estimates of the extent of the slave trade
in their day. Pearce for example reported that 2,000 prisoners of war, 700 young
children and 160 eunuchs were taken through Adwa as slaves in 1812, while Beke in
the 1840's estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 passed through Ankobar each year, and Krapf
that 3,000 were seized annually in the Gurage country.
Slave exports via Tegre to Massawa are known to have been considerable. In
the first decade of the century Salt put shipments from the port at 1,000 a year, while
Ruppell in the 1830's wrote of double that number. In the following decade Degoutin,
the French consul at Massawa, wrote of an annual export of 1,600 (composed of 1,000
slaves captured in war, 300 Galla girls, mainly twelve or thirteen years old, 200
Sanqellas, and 100 eunuchs), and later of 2,500 (made up of again 1,000 prisoners,
besides 800 Galla girls, 300 Galla boys, 200 Sanqellas, 100 kidnapped Christian
children, and 300 eunuchs). Ferret and Galinier at about the same time quoted an
annual export of 1,500 to 2,000 slaves, while official Turkish figures, quoted by
Plowden, reported that 1,100 had been exported in 1852. These and other estimates
show an average annual export from Massawa in the first three-quarters of the century
of about 1,750 slaves. Exports via Sawa to the Gulf of Aden ports of Zayla' and Tajura
were probably somewhat higher, for Harris claimed that no less than 3,000 slaves a
year were shipped from the former port alone. Slave exports on the western trade
route via Matamma to Sudan were more difficult to obtain. Combes and Tamisier,
however, estimated them at 2,000 per annum in the 1830's, but the Italian missionary
5
Massaia put the figure in 1850 at no less than ten times that number.
The condition of slaves on these trade routes, like those in the country itself,
was said, by foreign writers, to have been not unbearable. Beke, describing a caravan
bound for Massawa, for example declares:
"The slaves go along without the least constraint, singing and chattering,
and apparently perfectly happy. They are generally treated with attention,
stopping frequently on the road to rest and feed. They are mostly well
dressed ... The girls, almost without exception, have necklaces and beads.
In fact,it is not to the interest of their owners, to treat them otherwise
than well; for as more than one merchant said to me at Yejjubi, when
asking for medicine for them, 'they are our property (kabt, literally cattle),
and we cannot afford to lose them.'" 6
5
Pearce (1831) II, 207, 236; Beke (1844) Krapf (1867) 62; Valentia (1809) II, 70-1; Salt (1814)
20-1, 27;
426; Douin (1936-41) III, Part I, and Galinier (1847) II, 429; GB House of Commons
262-3; Ferret
(1868) 73, 287; Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 95, 192; Massaia (1885-95) I, 103-4, 139. For
estimates of slaves exported at this time see Pankhurst (1964a) 220-8 and (1968a) 82-4.
6
Beke (1845) 20-1.
244
The women slaves, Beke admits, nevertheless suffered many hardships. "All the
female slaves, without exception, whatever their number, and however tender their
age - and many are children of eight or nine years at most - are concubines of their
master and his servants during the journey, the same continuing through the various
changes of ownership until they are disposed of to their ultimate possessors." It was
customary for slave merchants to "invest the best looking of their female slaves, in
most cases a full-grown girl, with the title of wife during the journey." Treated in
consequence with an "extra degree of attention and kindness," she would frequently
be mounted on a mule, on arriving at a station for the night she would have a hut
built for her (and her master!), and throughout the journey would receive "from the
others the respect to which her temporary rank entitles her." This did not, however,
"prevent her from being sold with the rest on reaching their place of destination."
A slave market at Galabat, on the eastern frontier, in the late 1870's. From A.E. De Cosson, The Cradle
of the Blue Nile (London, 1877).
The Aden ports was probably not dissimilar. Harris claims

trade to the Gulf of
that the majority of slaves were too young to be aware of their subject status, while
the adults, who were unfettered, were mainly "in good spirits, all being well fed and
7
taken care of." He adds:
7
Beke (1845) 20-l;Harris (1844) III, 308.
245
"Although the majority were of tender years and many of them extremely
pretty they did not excite that interest which might have been anticipated,
for they very readily adopted themselves to the will of their new masters
whose obvious interest was to keep them fat and in good spirits. With
few exceptions all were merry and light-hearted. Recovered from the
fatigues of the long march, there was nothing but dancing, singing, and
romping; and although many wore an air of melancholy, which forms a
national characteristic, the little victims of a traffic so opposed to every
principle of humanity, have been conjectured to be
might rather
proceeding on a party of pleasure, than bending their steps for ever from
8
their native land."
Foreign accounts such as the above cannot, however, be accepted at

travellers'
fully face value. Their authors tended to be aloof from the slaves, with whom they
had in the main little or no contact, and were unable to perceive, let alone to share,
their feelings. The slaves' own perception of their condition, we may be sure, was far
less favourable than the British envoy's report would suggest. This is evident for
example in the Oromo slave children's correspondence referred to in a previous
chapter, where the ex-slave boy Otsu, writing to Akafede in fraternal terms, observes:
"My brother, did you say, T will be eaten by the Bulgu [i.e. cannibals] when
you your country?' I myself had water rubbing my stomach. Were you
left
not seized with fear when you left your country? Were you not much
afraid? I was very frightened because I thought I would be taken by the
Bulgu."
Describing his experience in the slave caravan he continues:
T left the country with many Gallas. Many of us left the country, and we
were very frightened. ... Whenever we ate, our stomach burnt with fire, for
we were full of longing; we could not sit and we could not sleep. The
sand burnt our feet."
Akafede likewise declared that many of his compatriots could "do nothing but
grieve at the separation from their fathers and mothers," and Aga agreed, observing
poignantly "we have endured separation from our country, our mothers, our fathers,
our brothers and our sisters."
Revulsion at the trade is likewise apparent in the attitude of an Oromo slave-

girlon the way to the coast in the 1840's, who, when shown a Maria Theresa dollar
by the Saint Simonians Combes and Tamisier, is said to have exclaimed, "It is that
then which serves to buy children and men!"
The journey westwards to the Sudan was, it was generally agreed, significantly
more arduous than those to the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden ports. Slaves travelling
from Gondar to Khartoum, along a route largely bereft of water, are said by Plov/den
to have undergone "great hardship," and perished in numbers, while Beke states that
Harris (1844) I, 233-4.
246
:
Sanqellas conveyed to the Sudan were sometimes shackled at night, so that they could
9
j
only move about by taking short jumps with both feet together.
The principle of slavery, which received recognition, as we have seen, in the

I
Fetha Nagast, was generally accepted by Ethiopian society of this period. The
j
missionary Samuel Gobat recalls that while teaching at Gondar in 1830 he declared
"among other things, that the same God who created us created the Shangalas
(negroes), and that they are children of Adam as well as well as we." On hearing this
revelation one of his young disciples struck his breast, and exclaimed, "What! the
10
Shangalas then are our brethren! And why do we make slaves of them?"
Household Servants
Household servants were by all accounts far less numerous than slaves, and for
the most part no better remunerated, for they received little more than their
subsistence, an occasional gift of clothes, and a very small number of amoles. Servants
!
in Tegre, according to Pearce, were thus paid in salt, but were given the equivalent of
!
only three Maria Theresa dollars a year besides their upkeep. This, the Englishman
felt, was indeed the maximum they could judiciously be given, for, he declares: "I have
often observed, that if through their faithfulness and attention the master may think
fit to make them an addition to their pay, or any present, they become immediately
ungovernable and insolent, the least indulgence spoiling them for good servants."
When not so indulged they were, he says, "very submissive", and "never received
anything from their master's hand without bowing and kissing the article."
Pearce's was of course an employers view - what the servants themselves felt is
11
not recorded.
9
Combes and Tamisier (1838) IV, 95, 192; Pankhurst (1976a) 98-110; GB House of Commons (1868)
119.
10
Gobat (1834) 239.
11
Pearce (1831) I, 342.
247
X
WOMEN AND GENDER RELATIONS

Ethiopian women played an important role in economic, social and cultural life.
Upon them, Henry Salt declared, devolved "most of the laborious occupations",
including the grinding of corn and the carrying of fire-wood and water, as well as
much cultivation, especially in weeding, reaping and winnowing. The country's
womenfolk, who were, in Gobat's view, "far more active and industrious" than
members of the opposite sex, were in fact prominent in agriculture, trade and
handicrafts, as well as in the domestic field in general. Women were also active, as
already noted, as potters and weavers.
Agriculture
Women were not involved in ploughing, which was exclusively carried out by
men, but were much involved, as we have seen, in weeding, reaping and winowing.
They thus helped their husbands, in the fields, Arnauld d'Abbadie, states, as far as
their strength permitted. Weeding was in fact a family occupation, in which all
members participated, and, because of the "great number of weeds," was, according
to Salt, "one of the most irksome of toils." Women sometimes played a leading role
in weeding, as at Degsa, in Tegre, where when the ploughing was completed, they
broke the clods with rude hooked instruments, after which they "most carefully" picked
out all weeds. If any still remained men, women, and children later assembled, when
the grain was half ripe, and, forming a line, plucked out the weeds with singing and
1
merriment. Pearce, a decade or so later, confirms that both sexes were usually
involved in the work, and declares:
"The Abyssinians always help each other to weed their corn, which is done
with great ceremony; a chief will muster every soldier in his service and
march at the head of them to his corn-fields, there they lay down their
arms, form a line, join in chorus to sing, and, in general led by a female,
march on plucking up the weeds. In this way they soon get through a
number of fields, throwing the weeds down as they pluck them, and
leaving the farming-men, boys and girls, to carry them to the borders of
2
the field."
Women were no less prominent in reaping. Many of them were engaged in this
work, as noted by Salt who recalls that they "uniformly greeted" his party with a "shrill
cry", and "a quick and somewhat tremulous application of the tongue to the palate,
producing the sound heli li li li li li li."
Women's participation in animal husbandry varied considerably from region to

region. In Tegre it was "not customary," Pearce reports, for members of the female
1
Gobat (1850) 192; Arnauld d' Abbadie (1980) 152; Valentia (1809) II, 506-7, III, 232.
2
Pearce (1831) I, 345-6.
248
peasant woman from Agame in Tegre. From T. I^efebvre and others, Voyage en Abyssinie (Paris, 1845-8).
249
it would be considered a great disgrace
sex to milk cows or goats, and "in most parts
forthem to do so." Women in the "southernmost districts of Amhara," however, were
sometimes engaged in milking, having apparently been taught this skill by their Galla,
or Oromo, sisters who were said to "attend more to the cattle than the men." This
statement is confirmed by Krapf who observes that, among Oromo agriculturalists,
"the men plough, sow, and reap, while the women look after the oxen, cows, horses,
3
sheep, and goats."
Land-Ownership
Ethiopian noblewomen, as revealed in manuscript marginalia for the reign of

the puppet Emperor Sahlu (1832-1844), continued to own land and be involved in
land transactions. One of the documents of this time records for example that a
certain Wayzaro Mehrak purchased four pieces of land from a priest, Abba Nob, for
six Maria Theresa dollars, while other texts tell of various transactions involving one
Wayzaro Teblats whom we find buying land from her brother Lej Cuffa and an
unspecified vendor, for one or two dollars, selling land to two clerics, Memher Walda
Mika'el and Dabtara Walda Giyorgis, for three dollars and 18 bars of salt respectively,
4
and acting as a guarantor in other purchases and sales.
Spinning
Women played a major role in the production of clothing, which was based on
a rigid sexual division of labour in which they responsible for the first stages of the
operation (cleaning cotton and spinning), while men monopolised the later phases of
the work (weaving and tailoring).
Spinning-women cleaned the cotton with the help of two implements: a twelve
inch long iron rod one inch wide in the centre which tapered towards the extremities,
and a flat stone slightly larger than a brick. The woman, holding the rod in her hands,
would kneel in front of the stone, on the nearest extremity of which she would place
a small quantity of cotton seeds. She would then roll the rod backwards and forwards
over the stone to free the cotton fluff from the seeds which were at the same time
gradually forced backwards off the stone. The fluff was then collected and placed on
a hide, and cleaned of dust and other extraneous matter. The next operation was
carried out with the aid of four other artifacts: a bow made of catgut, a gourd, a
basket, and a leather bag. The spinner, bow in her left hand
still kneeling, held the
above the cotton such a
in way
that it just touched the topmost fibres, while with her
right hand she held the curved neck of the gourd with which she twanged away at
the bow. Each vibration of the string threw up some of the lighter filaments, while
the heavier matter sank to the bottom. The fine cotton thus separated was then
deposited in the basket, after which it was taken out, and twisted around the rod. The
latter was subsequently withdrawn, leaving the cotton in twisted knots, six or seven of
which were then folded together and put into the bag.
3
Valentia (1809) III, 232; Pearce (1831) II, 8; Krapf (1867) 75.
4
B.L. Orient 636; Or. 518, f. 171. See also Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 128.
250
A woman spinning. Note bobbin in her right hand. From S.F. Veitch, Hews in Central Abyssinia (London,
The scene was thus set for the actual spinning operation which was carried out
with a small reed, perhaps 20 cm. long, in many cases tipped with horn or ivory. The
spinner, holding the cotton in her left hand, lifted it to its furthest extent, while with
her right she rotated the reed on her bare thigh. The thickness of the thread depended
on the speed with which the cotton was drawn out. A
hard-working woman toiling full-
time, might spin enough cotton in a month for a samma, and could in this way earn,
Ruppell learnt, dollars a year. A housewife, with other
about ten Maria Theresa
duties, would, however, spin much more slowly, the work probably taking three or
four months. No woman moreover span all the time, and the operation, like most
other work, was not carried out on the Sabbath as Gobat explains.
251
Spinning, though some might think tedious, was considered an honourable
occupation. Well-to-do women, according to Arnauld d'Abbadie, would spend much
of their time spinning the thread required for their husband or children's clothes, and
Parkyns says, "seldom" employed themselves in any manual
"ladies of the higher class,"
operation "except spinning." This tradition continued into the twentieth century when
princesses and noble ladies considered spinning a pastime, and Empress Taytu was
5
proud of her reputation as a spinner.
Wood and Water-Carrying
Women were the principal gatherers, and carriers, of both fire-wood and water.
Wood was collected by young girls, who would leave home at daylight, Pearce says,
with a cake of bread as their sole sustenance, and return only at dark. Their work
was not without its evening after dark at Adwa the girls, he recalls,
dangers. One
were just about town with their loads of wood, and were forming
to enter the
themselves into parties, to come back singing, when there was a great disturbance
among them. Several were screaming violently, and, on running to see what was the
matter, he found that the nose and eyes of the last girl in the line, who was scarcely
more than a child, had been torn away by a hyena.
Many women, of all ages, were likewise engaged in the transportation of water
which they carried on their backs in large earthenware jars. Pearce, who declared it
"almost incredible what a weight of water" a woman could carry, reports: "A young
girl, not more than twelve years of age, will carry to a great distance a jar of water,
which a strong man could with difficulty lift from the ground." Explaining how this
was done he continues, "They fill the jar on the bank of the river or spring, as the
elevation enables them to get it more easily on the back; a leather strap passes from
the neck of the jar round the breast and below the shoulders, and, stooping as they
6
go, they will carry it, though at a slow pace, a long way even up steep roads."
Trade
Men and women were both involved in trade, but there was some division of
labour between them. Men, Gobat notes, thus "seldom" trafficked in cotton, or
"women in meat." Moreover though there were market-vendors of both sexes, itinerant
traders were exclusively male. Women, on the other hand, were the principal vendors
of eggs, poultry, grain and other farm produce. Trade in these articles was a time-
consuming, if not tedious, affair. Saleswomen at the great Sawan market of Aleyu
Amba example would, as we have seen, sit "for the whole day," Johnston notes,
for
beside "very limited stores" which they sought to exchange for grain. The goods they
exposed for sale would consist of "a thimbleful" of kohl, or antimony for blackening
the eyes, a "few lumps" of gum myrrh, a "handful" of frankincense, a few imported
5
Johnston (1844) II, 29, 314; Combes and Tamisier (1838) III, 65; Parkyns (1853) II, 40-1: Gobat (1850)
192; Ruppell (1838^0) II, 224; Arnauld d' Abbadic (1980) 152; Merab (1921-9) III, 407.
6
Pearce (1831) II, 7, 206-7; Ruppell (1868-40) II, 194; Plowden (1868) 235, 373; Combes and Tamisier
(1838) I, 260.
252
blue and red threads for weaving ornamental borders of sammas, and sometimes
"three or four lemons, or as many needles."
Women were no less in evidence at Adwa market where De Cosson later saw
"a group of tawny maidens, with necklaces of blue beads, and leopard skins around
J
their loins, sitting beside the large baskets of Indian corn, lentils, tef, and other kinds
of grain," which they had carried in on their heads over-night.
Women made their way

market even during periods of political turmoil or
to
warfare. The women of Jemma and Horro
for example are said by Plowden to have
attended the markets of Gudru without molestation even in times of conflict, and,
when passing between inimical tribes, would send messages in advance to ensure that
they were received in friendship.
In the markets of Tegre and the north women were also responsible, as in
Alvares's day, for the measuring of grain, and employed servants with measuring
containers for this purpose. For every basket they measured, Pearce reports, they
collected about half a pint of corn called a dergo. Anyone in favour with the lady in
office, on sending their servant to her, would have the grain they wished to buy
measured in a larger container than that in general use. No one dared object to its
use as it was called the government measure. One such woman official was a certain
Wayzaro Sege who held sway at Adwa for "many" market days. "Persons going to
market were likewise often subject to a tax exacted by the governor's cook, who, as
at Gondar, was a woman of some power, for she collected "small duties on all butter,
pepper, onions, wood etc. ... not according to a regular standard, but as she might
7
think proper in her mercy towards the poor peasants."
Grinding of Grain, Preparation of Alcoholic Drinks, Cooking and Banquets
Women had sole responsibility for working in the home. They ground the grain,
prepared both taj, or mead, and talla, or beer, collected herbs and spices for the daily
repast, and, as Pearce says, did "all the cooking." Women's involvement in such activity
was so culturally ingrained that men would starve, Plowden believed, "rather than do
this work."
Women spent much time, and effort, as in the past, in grinding. This was often
carried out on hand-mills which consisted, Johnston says, of "a large flat stone of
cellula lava, two feet long and one foot broad, raised upon a rude pedestal of stones
and mud, about one foot and half from the ground." The rough surface of this stone
sloped gradually forwards into "a basin-like cavity," into which the flour fell as it was
ground. A second stone, which weighed about three pounds, would be grasped in the
hand of grinding-women who would move it up and down the inclined stone, thereby
crushing the grain and gradually converting it into coarse flour. "Very few houses," and
"those only of the poorest people," Johnston recalls, had but one such mill. Most
families had two or more which stood side by side, and the numbers of mills a person
had was often mentioned as a way of conveying an idea of his wealth, and the size of
the retinue to be fed. Grinding, like spinning, was never conducted on the Sabbath.
7
Gobat (1850) 476; Harris (1844) I, 383; Johnston (1844) II, 238; De Cosson (1877) I, 111; Plowden
(1868) 310; Pearce (1838) II, 12. 17.
253
A woman's kitchen yard at Adwa. Note pestel and mortar, large pots, perhaps for containing talla, a local
beer, and some poultry. From M. Parkyns, Life in Abyssinia (London, 1853).
An important household institution over which women presided was the family
granary, upon which the household depended throughout the greater part of the year.
Often placed beside the grinding-mill it might occupy half the room. The contraption
often consisted of a raised platform of stones and clay about two feet high on which
stood what Johnston described as "a huge butt-like basket, smoothly plastered over
inside and out with clay." This container was able to preserve the family's tef, wheat
or other grain from the depredations of mice, "a thorough pest," throughout the year.
The major women in looking after the family's grain - and their
role of
difficulties found expression in an Ethiopian folktale about a woman
with rodents -
servant employed by a rich man to guard his grain - which she did with the help of a
cat. The woman, dissatisfied with her pay, one day resigned, but when she handed over
the grain entrusted to her care it transpired that fourteen dawullas, i.e. about 1,400
kilos, were missing. Her employer, angered, took her to the elders, and demanded that
254
she should return to him the full amount of grain. She replied that there was "no
deficit," for the rats had eaten seven dawulla, and she had used the other seven to
make soup for the cats. Her defence was, however, rejected by the elders who
declared, in a famous judgement, "The moment that cats do not guard against rats one
stops their food."
The kitchen, in which women spent much of the day, cooking and preparing food
and drink, was either part of the main house, or, as often in Tegre, a small separate
structure which, as Parkyns notes, was often full of smoke. The cooking women, who
never stood up to do their work, "squatted as low as possible, either near the door or
fire," while every article in the room became soot black.
Despite their important role in the preparation of food and drink women were
often accorded an only subordinate position in State banquets. Such gatherings were
often sexually segregated. Gobat states that in the houses of governors, and sometimes
even in those of private families when numerous guests were invited, it was customary
for "males and females to take their repast in separate apartments." Where this was
not convenient, curtains would often be suspended between the sexes, "so as entirely
to exclude them from the view of each other." As a result of this segregation women
were excluded from many important State receptions. Plowden in the middle of the
century went so far as to observe that women were "never admitted" as guests, and
that their participation in feasts, as reported by Bruce a century earlier, was a thing
of the past.
At ordinary meals, however, husband and wife "usually" sat "side by side," Gobat
reports, and would introduce and wat "reciprocally, and at the same
rolls of enjara
time into each other's mouth." When this was not the case, and each served himself
8
or herself, it was a sign that they were not on good terms.
Clothes-Washing
Notwithstanding their overriding involvement in household chores women

participated only to very limited extent in the washing of clothes, perhaps because this
was generally carried out in streams or rivers often at some distance from the home.
According to Pearce, they "never" undertook such work, which was considered
"improper for them," and was therefore "appropriated by the men." The only exception,
as noted by Gobat, arose in the case of women's own garments which they chose to
9
wash for themselves.
Valentia (1809) II, 506; Pearce (1831) I, 347; Gobat (1850) 192, 474, 476; Isenberg and Krapf (1843)
188; Krapf (1867) 75; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 194; Johnston (1944) II, 27-8; Moreno (1948) 39-40; Parkyns
(1853) I, 363; Plowden (1868) 185, 383. For other descriptions of banquets see Plowden 211-3, 241-2.
9
Pearce (1831) II, 7; Gobat (1850) 476.
256
Slaves, and Servants
Innumerable women served throughout the country as slaves or household

servants. Slave-owning in the early nineteenth century was widespread, and most well-
we have seen, have several slaves, male
to-do families, according to Riippell, would, as
and female, engaged in household chores. Among the rich the mistress of the house
would spend much of her time, Arnauld d'Abbadie notes, lying on an alga, or bed, and
perhaps spinning, while she directed the work of her many servants or slaves.
Slave women were mainly employed in carrying water or fire-wood, and in the
grinding of grain, for their mistress herself did most if not all the cooking. Slave
women, however, also served the food and drink.
Many slave women were to be found at royal palaces. "Several hundreds of

slaves, particularly females," Krapf records,were employed in each of Sahla* Sellase's
residences, at Ankobar, Angolala, Dabra Berhan and Qundi. The king's "household
slaves, male and female," were said by Harris to have exceeded "eight thousand." Such
women slaves were occupied in most of the duties which normally befell their sex,
notably water-carrying, grinding of grain, the preparation of food and drink, and
serving at table. Johnston judged that about two hundred slave women at Ankobar
were engaged in supplying the king's household with water, and "at least" a hundred
more in grinding flour, brewing alcoholic drinks, and making pepper sauce. Krapf s
estimate of the size of the palace staff was substantially higher. The King's grinding-
women, he wrote, were "three hundred in number," and the "water girls," who carried
"all the necessary water for the King's household" and for foreigners maintained by the
monarch, were "more than that in number." There were, he thought, also at least "two
hundred" cooks, besides "some hundreds" of women preparing mead and beer, so that
the total number of Sahla Sellase's "female-slaves" was in excess of a thousand.
The women slaves at Ankobar caught the attention of several foreign visitors.
Johnston, who has left a vivid description of the drawers of water, tells of a "noisy
crowd of chatting, romping girls, with large jars slung between their shoulders by a
leather belt, or rope ... across the breast." These "water-girls", he explains: "were the
slaves of the Negoos, and their chief employment consisted of this daily duty of
carrying water from the stream to the palace at the summit of the hill ... they supply
allwater required for the use of the courtiers and guests, beside a body-guard of three
hundred gunmen, all of whom are daily fed at the royal table." 10 "The slave w omen
(
engaged in cooking, preparing alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and other domestic
chores, were likewise described by the inimitable Captain Harris. Writing of the "daily
labours" at Ankobar of "three thousand slaves" and their supervision by a palace
eunuch, he observes:
"In one quarter are to be seen groups of busy females, engaged in the
manufacture of bees [i.e. berz, an unfermented honey drink] and hydromel
Flat cakes of teff and wheat are preparing by the hundred under the next
roof, and from the dark recesses of the building arises the plaintiff ditty
of those who grind the corn by the sweat of their brow. Here caldrons of
Arnauld d' Abbadie (1980) 152; Riippell (1838-40) II, 194; Plowden (1868) 212; Isenberg and Krapf
(1843) 120; Harris (1844) III, 306; Johnston (1844) II, 79.
258
red pepper soup yield up their potent steam; and in the adjacent
compartment, long twisted strips of old cotton rag are being dipped into
a sea of molten bees' wax. Throughout the female establishment the
bloated and cross-grained eunuch presides; and his unsparing rod instructs
his loquacious and giggling charge that they are not there to gaze at the
11
passing stranger."
There were also at the palace, it was said, numerous concubines: two hundred
on Johnston's estimate, and three hundred on that of Harris. These women, according
to the former observer, were "kept in the strictest seclusion," under the supervision of
several eunuchs. Though described by foreign observers as "concubines" they had in
fact other functions, for they were responsible, Johnston states, for spinning "the more
elaborately-spun cotton thread ... used for the finer descriptions of cloths, which are
presented by the Negoos to his greatest favourites and governors."
The spinning women at the palace were, as earlier noted, of two distinct
categories. The first, who, according to Krapf, numbered two hundred, produced
thread for the "finer cloth" which the King himself wore, or presented to his friends
and favourites, while the second, about four hundred strong, turned out poorer quality
thread for the clothing of the ordinary soldiers. Both categories of spinners, he
believed,seemed in fact to be "free" women rather than slaves.
The palace of Sahla Sellase's mother, Zanaba Warq, resembled that of her son,
but on a smaller scale, and, according to Krapf, likewise housed "a great number of
12
female servants, mostly slave girls."
Camp-FoIIowers
Women in the early nineteenth century continued to play a by no means

insignificant role in warfare. They often called their menfolk to arms, accompanied
them to battle, and incited them to fight with valour. Women, who, as we have seen,
had long constituted a larger proportion than men of the camp-followers of most
armies, had in fact major duties and responsibilities in the camp and on the march,
as well as in battle.
The encouragement given by women to the soldiers in the civil wars of the early
nineteenth century is who states that Ras Walda Sellase's camps
recalled by Pearce
in Tegre were "full" of Amhara women. Composed of "gangs" of girls in one, and
grown women in the other, they sang to the sound of a drum, which a woman carried
slung with a string about the neck, and beat at both ends. The ditty contained the
following words: "Give the Badinsah [i.e. Ras Walda Sellase] breeches, and he is a
lion: where is the man that will dare to hold his shield to him?" The phrase "give him
breeches" meant "get the chief up, dressed and ready," while the reference to the
shield implied that "no one dared face him."
11
Harris (1844) II, 261.
12
Johnston (1844) II, 79-80; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 120, 292, 295.
259
Testimony to women's involvement in mobilisation is provided by Gobat who
when the news of Ras Webe's advance to Antalo reached
reports for example that
them in February 1831 the women of the nearby villages "collected together every
evening, to cry, at the highest pitch of their voices, 'To arms! To Oubea is
arms!
coming to destroy us!' The soldiers," we are told, "immediately rallied." Some months
later the women were again heard on all sides crying, "To arms! to arms!"
In some Hamasen, women are reported by Pearce

parts of the north, notably
to have actually to "intermixed" with the soldiers when in battle. The women on such
occasions would cry out, Sellase, Sellase, i.e.. "Trinity, Trinity!," and keep up this chant
in a "very dismal tone," until the engagement was over, after which, if victorious, they
13
changed their song to one of "rude merriment."
Female participation in various aspects of camp life elsewhere in the northern

provinces is also noted by Pearce who observes:
"Women of the lower class frequently go to camp with the soldiers, chiefly
for the purpose of carrying jars of maize [i.e. mes, mead] or tsug [i.e. suqo,
an alcoholic drink]. The great people have also their cook and her
servants, who carry the cooking utensils and different articles of provisions,
such as butter, and barley-meal, called bosso [basso]. They have also,
according to their wealth, from fifty to a hundred women called giimbones
[i.e. carriers otgambos, or jars], who carry jars of maize or sowa [i.e. sewa,
or beer]. It is surprising how these poor creatures endure their labour,

having to pass over mountains - and the worst roads, where at times they
are obliged to crawl on their hands and feet up steep precipices, with jars
14
on their backs, yet they are seldom known to break the jars."
These women "always" kept together "in gangs," behind the main army, but
before its main rear-guard.
The important role played by women on the march was later confirmed by
Plowden, who, also writing of the north, states that they carried most of the "earthen
vessels, for cooking and bread-baking, gourds for water, and grindstones," etc.
Women were no less prominent in Sawa. Sahla Sellase's army was thus
accompanied, according to Harris, by a colourful band of "forty dames and damsels,
professing the culinary art." Muffled in "crimson-striped robes of cotton," they had
"elaborately-crisped bee-hive wigs, greased faces bedaubed with ochre, and arched
blue eye-brows." This "demure assemblage" was "rigorously guarded on all sides by
austere eunuchs armed with long white wands," and was accorded an honoured
position in the line of march, immediately behind the fusiliers. The women cooks
were so highly regarded that they were often the first to decide where the army should
halt - and on which spot they should "pursue the important avocations of their calling."
The Sawan army also had "throngs of women carrying pitchers of beer and hydromel j
on their backs."
13
Pearce (1831) I, 236, II, 6-7; Gobat (1850) 397, 417.
14
Pearce (1831) II, 6.
260
Observers varied in their assessment of the camp-followers' lot. Combes and
Tamisier wrote with admiration of these women who accompanied the soldiers, and
who, despite the hard work to which they were condemned, "lived a happy life," often
singing, without a worry about the dangers of war to which their male companions
were exposed. The ever-critical Stern, on the other hand, argued that camp-followers,
"burdened with heavy loads, and ready to drop from incessant fatigue," were "poor
things", albeit, he concedes, "unconscious of their degradation and misery who
"voluntarily chose" their "wretched existence" in preference to what he romantically
describes as "the healthy lot of the peasant, and a quiet and virtuous life in the
mountain-hut."
At the successful conclusion of a battle, women were once more to the fore. On
hearing of the victory, or on catching a glimpse of their chief or leader, they would
15
ululate, and sing loud traditional songs of praise.
Prostitutes or Courtesans
Prostitutes or courtesans, whose profession was considered entirely natural, and

suffered little or no disapprobrium, were to be found in most towns and military
camps. Gondar, the was described by Combes and Tamisier (who had an eye
capital,
for such matters) as "a town of pleasures" which "abounded in courtesans." These
women, according to Ferret and Galinier, displayed "distinction and elegance of
manners," and were "not despised in the capital of Abyssinia like those in our
countries of Europe," for "nothing shameful or degrading" was associated with their
occupation.
Dabra Tabor, the principal settlement in Bagemder, was likewise referred to, by
Combes and Tamisier, as "a town of joy," whose population, composed largely of
pleasure-seeking soldiers, attracted "a large concourse of dancers and courtesans"
from near and far. "All adorned with jewels," their profession was "as lucrative for
them" as it was "agreeable to others."
Dajazmac Webe's camp in Tegre was similarly inhabited by numerous

courtesans who amazed Combes and Tamisier by their beauty, sumptuous clothing,
16
and fine jewellery.
Poets, and Minstrels
The country's minstrels, who roamed the land, included a fair number of
women, some of whom acquired considerable reputations for their versification and
their wit. Many women thus earned a living by making rhymes and attending funeral
lamentations. Often travelling immense distances to attend one for a person of
distinction, they would be rewarded, according to Pearce, by sizeable quantities of
15
Plowden (1868) 215; Harris (1844) II, 168-70, 182; Combes and Tamisier (1838) I, 218; Stern (1862)
55; Pearce (1831) I, 264; Harris (1844) II, 205.
16
Combes and Tamisier (1838) I, 236, II, 61-2, 119, III, 342; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 227-30, 241-2.
261
grain, cattle and cloth. The was in fact a middle-
"best poet" in the country, in his day,
aged woman called Wallata Iyasus. Gondar, and the daughter of a man from
Born at
Tegre, she had studied poetry from infancy, and, though in possession of a large
estate, attended all mourning ceremonies at Adwa "for no other purpose than to
distinguish herself." Many "great men" were said to have asked for her hand in
marriage, but she could never be persuaded to accept any of their proposals.
Songs in praise of valour werecomposed by young women and girls

also often
who used them, Pearce esteem or contempt for one person more
says, to signal "their
than another." A chief and his soldiers would be "obliged to listen" to these
compositions "without shewing their anger," for it would "only make matters worse to
fall out with the women." The only way to put an end to such songs was to be
generous and give a cow to each of them. "On all great holidays," Pearce explains, the
women would "go to the premises of different chiefs there to sing in praise of each,"
until he "gave them a cow," but, if he did not, "the song would be changed to one of
abuse or ridicule," and "if a chief had ever done anything to the prejudice of his
character, such as shewing symptoms of cowardice," the women would "make it the
subject of a song which they would sing over and over again," perhaps "for days on
end." Should he have "no blemish on his character" they would nevertheless "criticise
him for his stinginess," and he would be "obliged to bear it with patience," or "comply
with their demands." If he paid them no attention they might, to the general derision,
even stage a sham mourning ceremony for him. Although he might "order his soldiers
to beat them away, that would only make things worse," as they would get their own
back on the soldiers, by saying, "You can fight with women, but are afraid to meet
your own sex." Very few chiefs therefore had the courage to deny the women their
demands. Even in the case of an ordinary soldier who had killed a lion, elephant, wild
buffalo or human enemy, the young girls of the town would plague his master until he
perhaps gave them a cow.
The was later confirmed by Plowden who states that

existence of such practices
when example arrived in camp with the tusks of an elephant he had
at Fitawrari for
killed, the women were "thrown into an ecstasy of delight." The death of an enemy,
or elephant, justified "a week's song and merry making," and the bearers of the taj,
and the cooks, together comprising perhaps 150 women, obtained "no small profit, as
well as pleasure," for the slayer, as well as all other men or rank, were obliged to
"bestow on them bullocks, dollars, etc. under pain of a fearful castigation in their
songs, and consequently becoming a laughing stock throughout the country." Songs
adapted to passing events, and often "earthy and apt" were "dreaded as much as the
lash of the chiefs." Singing for the killing of an elephant might be carried on by the
women "night and day," while the men looked on, and jokes were "the order of the
day."
Women singers were in many cases attached to a particular chief, and were well
remunerated. This was particularly the case, Plowden says, in Warra Himano and
Yajju, where they were "exceedingly prized," as their praise or blame could make or
mar a reputation. Female songsters were also prominent in Sawa where Krapf
describes them "singing hymns in praise of the King."
Women singers, and dancers, were much in evidence at the principal religious
festivals. On
Christmas day for example they made merry, Pearce recalls, "composing
and singing silly verses," while at Easter Combes and Tamisier tell of "many dancing
262
women" running through the roads of Dabra Tabor, and stopping in front of
important houses where they executed their pantomimes, and never left without
receiving their wages in food or more often in drink. Songs were often sung by a
woman to the accompaniment of a drum, while her companions, grouped in a circle
around her, delivered a quickly repeated chorus, often longer than the song itself.
They also clapped their hands, and uttered occasional shrill cries, while rhythmically
17
swaying their bodies and jerking their necks to the beat of the music.
Churches, and Church Ceremonial
Though barred from the priesthood, and from the vicinity of several monasteries
which dated back to antiquity, women at times played a notable role in church
ceremonial. Outside the church of Abba Garima near Aksum, for example, Pearce
saw "thousands of women" gathered to celebrate an annual festival. While the priests
performed their rites, these women filled the air with their shouting, and "gangs of
18
young girls" danced and sung energetically to the beat of a drum.
Sorcerers, Prophets and Spirit Possession
Women, no less than men, in some instances acquired great reputations as

sorcerers and prophets. In early nineteenth century Gondar for example the "queen
of the boudas or sorcerers" was, according to Gobat, a Falasa woman. The influence
of a woman prophet at Adwa was noted at about the same time by Pearce who recalls
that on one memorable occasion "all the townspeople" formed themselves into large
parties, and posted themselves on the outskirts of the city where they called
incessantly for Christ's forgiveness. The alarm had been
created, it transpired by a
"great poetess"and professed interpreter of dreams who claimed that she had dreamt
that the town would be attacked by three chiefs, and that many people would die
unless the whole population, great and small, prayed to God for three days.
Women, by all accounts, often suffered from various mental disturbances and
epileptic fits. A by Gobat was that of a young woman of his
typical case reported
acquaintance who was
"suddenly seized with a kind of spasms, or convulsion fits," as
a result of which "she almost instantly lost her reason, and, besides the agitation that
shook her limbs, she uttered frightful cries, which strikingly resembled the howlings
of the hyena. This circumstance led the bystanders to conclude that she was under
the influence of boudas, or sorcerers." Several other cases of spirit possession, real or
supposed, were recorded in some clinical detail by Mansfield Parkyns. One related
to a servant-woman at Rohabayta who complained of general languor and a heavy
feeling about the head. This later seemed to increase, whereupon "she cried a little,
but was perfectly reasonable, and excused herself by saying that it was only because
she felt low and melancholy." Later, however, she "burst into hysterical laughter, and
complained of a violent pain in the stomach and bowls." It was at that stage that
people began to suspect that she was under the influence of a buda. She shortly
Pearce (1831) I, 195, II, 224-5; Plowden (1868) 215-6, 407; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 188, 212; Combes
and Tamisier (1838) II, 19, 61.
Pearce (1831) II, 243-4.
263
afterwards became quiet, and "by degrees sank into a state of lethargy, approaching
to insensibility." Her companions tried to wake her by pinching her repeatedly, but
"pinch as hard as we could," Parkyns recalls, "she never moved a muscle of her face,
nor did she otherwise express the least sensation." His application of strong smelling
salts was no less effective. All the time she held her thumbs tightly bent inside her
hands. She did this because the thumbs were said to belong to the buda who would
"allow no person to take them." Several people in consequence tried to open her hand
to get at them, but she resisted with "wonderful strength for a girl," and bit their
fingers till she in more than one instance drew blood. Parkyns later deluged her with
bucketfuls of water, but "could not even elicit from her a start or a pant." At night she
became restless, and spoke several times, both in a strange tone and in her normal
voice. Later that night a hyena was heard howling nearby, whereupon, though tied
hand and foot, she rose, freed herself from her bonds, and crept on all-fours towards
the door, but, prevented from leaving, groaned for hours. On the morrow she
appeared a little better, and talked more rationally, though still wildly, and would
neither eat nor drink. The following day she consented to eat a little bread, but was
immediately sick. A better night, however, did her some good, and by slow degrees
she regained her health.
Though often afflicted from budas women, if we can extrapolate from later
evidence, probably also played a major role in the treatment of persons deemed
affected by such spirits, as well by the "evil eye" in general. A list of medical and other
practitioners at Gondar completed in 1932 records the existence of no less than
women claiming to treat persons so possessed. Reference
fourteen is also made
to a
woman who carried out circumcision, and five others who dealt with such varied
19
medical problems as difficult births, jaundice, neuralgia, fainting and poisonings.
Marriage, Concubinage and Divorce
Marriages, like so many

other practices, were subject to considerable regional
variation. Weddings north generally took place, according to Pearce, when the
in the
bride was "incredibly young." Parkyns agrees that they were contracted "at a very early
age," and he had seen brides no more than "eight or nine years old."
states that
Though rich Amharas
thus often gave away their daughters in marriage before they
were nubile, the Oromos, according to Arnauld d'Abbadie, by contrast married only
at the age fixed by nature.
Most marriages were arranged by the couple's parents, largely for their own
no attention to the future wife's - or in many cases even the
interest, with little or
future husband's - wishes. Chiefs or well-to-do farmers, when seeking to marry their
daughters, would thus "look for some person's son of the same station as themselves,"
and "all great men" strove to increase their influence, Pearce says, "by giving their
daughters to the sons of powerful chiefs, and engaging the daughters of other chiefs
for their sons." A person of substance would moreover "never give two daughters to
men of one district," but, on the contrary, preferred to enter into conjugal ties with
those from districts furthest from their own, "for, if he were to give and take daughters
from his neighbours only, he would have no more connections than he formerly had,
Gobat (1850) 261, 329; Pearce (1831) II, 154; Parkyns (1853) I, 146-9; Antoine d'Abbadie (n.d.) 703;
Rodinson (1967) 78-106.
264
as the true natives of every district consider themselves by birth attached to each
other's cause."
To get their daughter married it was common practice for Amhara and Tegre
parents to "plait her hair very neat," blacken her eyes with kohl, or antimony, and dye
her hands with a dark red dye. She would then be "placed constantly at the door" of
the house, either spinning or cleaning corn, so that everyone who passed might behold
her. She would be taught by her mother to turn up the whites of her eyes whenever
young men or strangers passed, and to "put on a smiling look, between modesty and
bravery when answering their questions." If any man took a liking to her, be he young
or old, he would either go or send to the mother, or any other relation of the girl, and
ask for her. To satisfy himself about her character and qualities he might also send
a female acquaintance to inspect her. The mother would then demand a dowry, which
might be a dress, consisting of a cotton skirt and a piece of cloth, together costing not
more than five Maria Theresa dollars. The bride-to-be would at the same time agree
to work in her husband's house, but, if the family could afford it, would be allowed a
servant or slave to fetch wood and water, and do other drudgery.
An alternative scenario took place, Parkyns explains, when it was a lad who
wished to marry. He would inquire for a suitable girl, preferably one who possessed
"twice the number of oxen" he could muster, or their value. His proposals were then
made to the girl's father, and: "unless there is some strong motive for rejecting him,
he is accepted, and everything is arranged without consulting the lady's taste or asking
her consent. They are usually betrothed three or four months before marriage, during
which time the bridegroom frequently visits his father-in-law elect, and occasionally
propitiates him with presents of honey, butter, a sheep, or a goat, but he is never
allowed to see his intended wife for a moment, unless, by urgent entreaty or a
handsome bribe, he induces some female friend of hers to arrange the matter, by
procuring him a glance... For this purpose he conceals himself behind a door or other
convenient hiding-place, while the lady, on some pretext or other, is led past it. Should
she, however, suspect a trick, and discover him, she would make a great uproar, cover
her face, and screaming, run away and hide herself, as though her sense of propriety
were greatly offended by the intrusion; although previous to his making the offer she
would have thought it no harm to romp with him, or any other male acquaintance, in
the most free and easy manner. Even after she has been betrothed, she is at home to
every-one except to him." When the wedding-day approached the bride-to-be would
be "well-washed, her hair combed and tressed." She was thus "rendered in every way
as agreeable as possible" to her husband.
Marriages were essentially secular, for, as Pearce observes: "No marriages are
performed in churches, or by the interference of a priest. A man may have as many
wives as he chooses, if he does not think it prudent to be attached to one, which is
seldom the case." The result, Combes and Tamisier claim, was that "nothing" was
"more simple" in Ethiopia than the union of the sexes.
Despite the Church's insistence on monogamy, concubinage among the higher

aristocracy, was, according to Krapf, also "habitual and general." Sahla Sellase, he
said, led the way with a "bad example," for "whenever a beautiful woman was pointed
out to him he sent for her." The daughters of many grandees were likewise used "to
effect political alliances," and the King for a time "even wished for an English princess
to consolidate his alliance with Great Britain." Though the idea may have raised
265
eyebrows among the good missionary's readers in England the King was perhaps not
unaware that their monarch, Queen Victoria, was in fact arranging dynastic marriages
for her family throughout Christian Europe.
Marriages, in the nineteenth century, as earlier, were for one reason or another,
often unstable. One of many causes of marital break-down arose from the
reappointment, or transfer, Pearce notes, of provincial officials. An officer, when
dismissed, was often "obliged to fly to another district for refuge, leaving his wife and
children, if he has any, in her native place." The result was that she would "soon get
another husband," while her last, if he prospered, would "marry another wife."
Such practices were, however, opposed by the Church - so much so indeed that
Gobat goes so far as to claim that Ethiopians "after a third divorce" could neither
"contract a regular marriage" nor "partake of the symbols of the sacramental supper"
unless they consented to "embrace the life, and perform the duties of monks". The
above observations are echoed by Combes and Tamisier who assert that men or
women were permitted to divorce "up to three times", but could not do so more than
that "on pain of being excluded from Communion." A man who had divorced his third
wife, and wished to obtain "the privileges of holy communion," might therefore
reconcile himself with one of his former wives, Gobat says, after which the reunited
couple would "live together for the remainder of their days." None of these statements
are confirmed by later writers, but, in view of the missionary's by no means superficial
knowledge of the Ethiopian scene, cannot fully be discounted.
Despite the prevalence of divorce it was also not uncommon for elderly couples
who had been together for many years to enter into indissoluble bonds: "When a man
and woman imagine they can be content with each other, and live together a religious
life," Pearce explains: "they agree in the presence of the elders of the town, or district,
called shummergildas [i.e. semagelle, or elders] to put whatever property they may
have together, which property is considered to belong to them both, and the one
cannot dispose of any part of it without the approbation of the other. Then they swear,
in the presence of the shummergildas, to be mutually faithful, and to take the holy
sacrament together frequently and on holy days; after which they go to church, to
make a confession, and the sacrament is administered to them for the first time."
Though such marriages were supposed to be permanent Pearce claims that

was not uncommon. In such cases the accused party
adultery, or suspected adultery,
was taken before the elders who, if the crime was proved, consulted together and
passed what sentence they thought fit, according to the nature of the offence. If, after
that, the couple wished to remain together - which was often the case - the offender
was obliged to part with his or her property which was given to the offended party as
a penalty, to be at his or her disposal. If, on the other hand, the complainant insisted
on being parted, the offender had to forfeit half his or her property. If they had
children these were divided, according to the sentence of the elders. When there was
a boy and a girl the former was in general taken by the father, and the latter by the
mother. On one occasion he saw there was a dispute about the custody of a girl, and
the parents drew lots. The elders presented the contestants with two sticks which a
stranger then rolled in his hand, and finally threw one down, saying, "In the name of
266
'I God this is the owner" - whereupon the parent thanked God, and the successful one
20
I
took away the child.
Childbirth, Ritualistic Impurity, and Motherhood
Before giving birth an expectant mother would grind grain into flour to make
a kind of porridge which she would eat in the period after her delivery. Later, in the
last stages of her pregnancy, she would be attended by all her female friends and
neighbours. Men at this time were rigidly excluded, in part because their presence at
that time was considered improper, and in part "because the room, and everything in
it" was "considered utterly unclean." A man who entered at that time, Parkyns says,
would indeed be "refused admittance to the church for forty days."
Immediately prior to giving birth the woman would seat herself nearly upright
on two stones a little separated from each other. A female friend then supported her,
holding her shoulders, and constantly calling on the Holy Virgin to provide her
assistance. The patient's feet were propped up on a chair or table, and held there by
another woman who occasionally rubbed her feet and the calves of her legs which she
placed an angle of about eighty degrees with her body. As soon as the shoulders of
the child appeared the delivery was assisted by the women, and the infant was received
into a flat wicker basket filled with flour. The infant was then at once washed in cold
water and perfumed, after which a woman moulded the head and its various features
were shaped by pressing them with her fingers, while a man poked a lance into his
mouth, if a boy, to make him courageous. This was done through a window, to avoid
entering the supposedly poluted chamber. It was also customary at this time for a
young boy to cut the throat of a fowl in front of the new-born babe, while the
womenfolk filled the air ritually with exultation, repeating their cries twelve times if
the infant was male, or three times if female. The women then rushed forth, singing
and dancing their jubilation.
Three days were carried to a nearby river

after the birth the mother's clothes
or stream to be washed, and on the eighth day the child, whether a boy or a girl, was
circumcised. Some days later the house was visited, as we have seen, by priests with
crosses and incense, who sprinkled it with holy water, thereby purifying it and all its
inmates.
Women, in Christian societies,were not allowed to enter a church for forty days
after childbirth. This bar was even more pronounced in the case of Falasas and
Qemants, both of whom kept special houses in which the women of their communities
21
after giving birth were segregated.
Women, it goes without saying, also devoted much of their time to child-bearing
22
and motherhood - and would often be seen carrying children on their backs.
Pearce (1831) I, 283, 307-10, 314-6, II, 21; Parkyns (1853) II, 41-2; Antoine d'Abbadie (n.d.) 756;
Arnauld dAbbadie (1980) 147, 153; Krapf (1867) 41; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 315; Gobat (1850) 451-
2; Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 105-6; Hyatt (1928), 224; Flad (1869) 55; Gamst (1969) 100.
21
Parkyns (1831) II, 34-8.
22
Valentia (1809) II, 506; Pankhurst and Ingrams (1988) 78, 111.
267
Social Life, Coquetry and Seclusion
Women's social life, like that of the menfolk, was enlivened by the activities they
shared in associations, or mahabars, which normally met, as we have seen, once a
month on a particular Saint's day. These clubs generally consisted of twelve persons,
but were sometimes more numerous. Women normally had their own mahabars,
entirely separate from the men's, though when a member of either sex could not
23
attend a gathering a spouse might attend instead.
Female coquetry, according to Pearce, was not uncommon. "Women of superior

were "fond of shewing themselves off." They might do so:
rank," he declares,
"either in attending church, or in paying or returning visits, on which

occasions they are mounted on a mule, with a soldier on each side to
steady them, and a whole train of spearsmen following behind, and a great
number of their female attendants running in front. Whether the lady can
read or not, she has two or three books carried before her, which are
generally tied round the necks of young boys or girls smartly dressed. ...
The ladies, when on their excursions, always keep the head and part of
the face covered with the cloth they wear; when in church, their book is
opened before them, and some one in favour turns over the leaves, as they
pretend to read. Their eyes roll about on all sides, viewing those about
them, though they never stare anyone in the face who looks at them.
Whether going or coming, they take as roundabout and as public a way as
possible, that everyone may see their grandeur. If on foot, their pace is
24
very slow; indeed it would be scandalous to see a lady walk quick."
Notwithstanding such practices Salt states that married women in Tegre, so far
from enjoying the "free intercourse with males" earlier asserted by the at times not too
reliable Bruce, were actually "watched with some caution by their husbands, and even
occasionally secluded from male society." The existence of this latter practice was
confirmed by Arnauld d'Abbadie who says that married women were "more or less
rigidly" secluded. "Every lady of rank, after her marriage," Stern claims, was thus
"closely watched by stern janitors when at home," and, when she rode outside her
house was "enveloped and swathed in a suffocating quantity of white shamas and
cotton belts." This sequestration, d'Abbadie believed, was not, however, resented by
the women, who on the contrary regarded it as "a mark of honour and solicitude
rather than of jealousy." As a proof of her affection for her husband a woman might
in fact declare that there was no value in her being seen by the birds of the sky, nor
even by the rays of the sun, but only by her spouse. Circumstances which allowed a
married woman to appear in public with her face uncovered would be when there
were mourning lamentations, above all for her husband, but also for her father,
mother or very close relative. 25
Pearce (1831) II, 19.
Pearce (1894) II, 194.
Arnauld d' Abbadie (1980) 152; Stern (1852) 85; Girard (1873) 201-2.
268
Jewellery
Jewellery of one kind or another was worn by a large section of the female
population. The use of articles of gold was highly restricted, for the metal, as we have
seen, was the and was forbidden to the population at
"exclusive privilege of royalty,"
large. Jewellery of silver(produced by the melting down of Maria Theresa dollars
which were then coming into increasing circulation), brass and tin, as well as horn and
ivory, was, however, widely worn.
Women according to Mansfield Parkyns, wore "a profusion of

in the north,
silver, in the shape of chains, bracelets, etc." A
"well-dressed lady" thus often hung
three or four sets of amulets around her neck, besides her blue cord, symbol of
Christianity, and a "large flat silver case (purporting to contain a talisman, but more
often some scented cotton) ornamented with a lot of little bells hanging to the bottom
edge of it, ... the whole suspended by four chains of the same metal." Three pairs of
"massive silver and gilt bracelets" often adorned her wrists, and a similar number of
bangles her ankles, while over her insteps and heels were placed "a great quantity of
little silver ornaments, strung like beads on a silk cord." Her fingers, and even their
upper joints, might also be "covered with plain rings, often alternately of silver and
silver-guilt,"while a silver hair-pin would complete her decoration. This prevalence
of jewellery was confirmed by Antoine d'Abbadie, one of whose women acquaintances
wore three rings on each of her fingers, and two on both her thumbs. Women of the
poorer class were also not without their jewellery, and, often, Parkyns says, wore "ivory
or wooden pins neatly carved in various patterns, and stained red with henna-leaves."
Such decorations were also worn on ordinary days by their more prosperous sisters.
The women of Sawa were likewise "exceedingly fond of silver ornaments," which,
according to Johnston, often "constituted all their riches." Some silver earrings weighed
as much as two or three ounces each, and almost invariably took the form of three
large beads surmounted by a fourth, like a bunch of grapes.
Another ornament of silver which women of Sawa often wore, upon their
breasts, hanging from the neck by a chain of silver, was in the form of a clasp, three
or four inches long, and one inch broad, upon the front surface of which a simple
design in waving lines was not infrequently engraved. Bracelets of silver, according
to Johnston, were also "sometimes seen." Those of Muslim women were "invariably
of that metal," but Christian women generally wore plain ones, made of pewter, with
anklets to match. The "silver bracelets of Islam" were different from those of the
Christians in that they consisted of "two or three thick silver wires, twisted upon each
other, and finished at each extremity by a beaten square bead." This artifact was
"looped round the wrist" where it remained until required as a security for loans
which, Johnston believed, was "the most important use" of silver articles amongst
persons of both religious denominations.
Such Christian women as could afford to, also wore "large necklaces of beads,"
which were generally made of "a succession of hoops, consisting of seven or eight
threads of different coloured seed beads, collected at certain lengths into one string,
through a large angular-cut piece of amber. Eight or ten of these loops formed a long
negligee, which, ornamented with a large tassel of small beads, was a present suited
even for the acceptance of royalty." The Muslim women, on the other hand, wore a
string of beads "formed of a hundred large and differently coloured beads," among
269
which "bright red ones" seem to be preferred. They were "divided into lengths by the
interposition of pieces of amber at least twice as long" as those worn by the Christians.
Horn earrings, in some instances ornamented with an inlaid star of silver, were
also widely worn, particularly in Sawa, the jewellery of which also included large tin
bracelets, which were worn in pairs, as well as necklaces of glass beads. Many women,
particularly in the northern highlands, also wore imported beads which, according to
Salt, were used to decorate both their necks and their arms.
Ethiopian women, like those of many countries of the East, also often darkened
their eyelids, as we have seen, with antimony, and also stained their hands and feet
with henna. Some women likewise had themselves tatooed, but in Tegre, this was not
common outside Adwa, and was, in Parkyns's opinion, "a fashion imported from
Amhara." It was also not uncommon among noblewomen in some areas to allow the
nails on their left hand to grow to a "great length", after which these were protected,
26
Salt reports, by leather cases in some instances several inches long.
Education, and Literacy
Church education, the only type of schooling traditionally available in the

country,was largely closed to women, who were therefore for the most part illiterate.
Not a few women nonetheless played an important role in state affairs - and a few
seem to have succeeded to learn to read. Gobat tells of a "female of distinction" whom
he met at Gondar, while Stern writes of a young "lettered female" of Bagemder, who
27
"took an active part in the conversation".
Harris (1844) III, 33; Johnston (1844), II, 334-7; Parkyns (1853) II, 26-7, 29; Arnauld d'Abbadie (1980)
236; Antoine d'Abbadie (n.d.) 454; Rochet d'Hericourt (1841) 271; Valentia (1809) II, 506.
Stern (1862) 245; Gobat (1850) 196.
270
PART FOUR
SOCIAL CHANGE AND ATTEMPTED REFORM

I
SOME CHANGING FEATURES OF SOCIAL LIFE

Despite the elements of continuity in the half millennium or so covered by the
present volume it would be a mistake to assume, as some have done, that the
Ethiopian social scene was in some inexplicable manner fossilised, or that the country
resembled a museum of unchanging old-time customs. It is on the contrary evident
from the foregoing pages that the Ethiopian world was far from static. Changes in
some areas, particularly those connected with the State, government and war, were so
dramatic that they were obvious alike to contemporary observers and later historians.
Change in other fields, on the other hand, was in some cases so gradual that it was
often not apparent to any single generation, and was therefore scarcely, if at all,
mentioned in chronicles or other contemporary writings. Some developments can in
fact only be seen by examining the unfolding of events over a span of several centuries
To illustrate some of the long-term changes that were occurring throughout this period
it may be convenient to recall the fluctuations that took place in the powers of the
monarchy, and then focus attention on several less apparent areas of change, namefy
three developments originating from within the society itself, i.e. population growth,
urbanisation and deforestation, three connected with the imports from abroad, i.e. the
coming of fire-arms, Maria Theresa dollars, and foreign medicines, and three customs
on which the Church had much to say, i.e. Sabbath observance, smoking and snuffing,
and the drinking of coffee.
Changes in Monarchical Power
Reference has been made, in earlier chapters, to the changes in the power and
prestige of themonarchy which varied greatly over the period, but for the most part
declined. The principle of the Divine Right of Kings, annunciated in the thirteenth
century Fetha Nagast, found its highest expression perhaps during the reign of
Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob (1434-1468) when, according to his chronicle, "everyone
trembled" before the "power of the king." Little over half a century later, however, his
great-grandson Lebna Dengel (1508-1540), was defeated by the Muslim warrior
Ahmad Gran, and reduced to the status of a hunted fugitive fleeing from one
mountain fortress to another. Though Gran's ascendancy lasted no more than a
decade, the monarchy never fully recovered from the blow it had suffered.
Later in the century Lebna DengePs grandson Sarsa Dengel (1563-1597)

nevertheless won many notable victories which once more strengthened the monarchy,
and served as a prelude early in the following century to the rise of the Gondarine
state. Founded by Fasiladas (1632-1667) this polity reached its apogee only three
generations subsequently, during the reign of his grandson Iyasu I, also known as
Iyasu the Great (1682-1706), the closing years of which, however, marked the
beginning of another period of political decline. His son Bakaffa (1721-1730),
according to Bruce, "cut off the greatest part of the ancient nobility" in the Gondar
area, and thus "saved his country from aristocratical or democratical usurpation." This
achievement was, however, short-lived, for the death of his grandson Iyasu II (1730-
1755), sometimes called Iyasu the Little, only a few decades later coincided with the
beginning of the era of the masafent or judges, a period of disunity and civil war
273
during which the monarchs were scarcely more than puppets in the hands of the feudal
lords. Itwas of this time, as we have seen, that a chronicler bemoaned that the
kingdom had become "contemptible to striplings and slaves," and a "laughing stock to
the uncircumcised."
The of the late eighteenth century, which marked the dissolution of

difficulties
the monarchy, coincided with the decline of Gondar, the growing
traditional
independence of several of the provinces, notably Tegre, Bagemder, Gojjam and Sawa,
and the rise of a Yajju dynasty in Wallo. The first half of the nineteenth century
continued to be characterised by disunity, and civil war, but was followed only a few
years later by the meteoric rise of Emperor Tewodros (1855 - 1868) whose attempts
to restore the powers of the monarchy, important as they were, endured scarcely more
than a decade.
The unfolding of these events, which involved innumerable wars and civil
disturbances, as well as major changes in the system of government and taxation, had
far-reaching effects, not only on the court, but also on many aspects of social life - and
left a vivid impression on Ethiopian historical consciousness. It was not surprising that
the royal chronicles, which were largely written in sycophantic vein to praise the
reigning monarch, should have tended to identify the state of the nation with the
fortunes - and indeed the character - of the ruler. A chronicle of the era of the
masafent thus quoted a "king among kings," asking "a wise man among wise men,"
how the "goodness of a time" should be reckoned, whereupon the latter is supposed
to have replied, "The times are indeed as art thou. If thou art evil the times are evil,
and if thou art good the times are good." Reiterating this view the text cited the
Biblical saying, "As is the ruler, so is the land," and concluded, "The destruction of a
city is by the wickedness of her ruler and the life (prosperity) of a city is in the
1
goodness of her ruler."
Population Growth
Documentation on the Ethiopian demographic history of the period is virtually

non-existent, but it would seem probable that the five centuries covered by these
pages were characterised, as in the corresponding period in many other countries, by

significant population growth. Pressure on the land was therefore almost certainly
increasing - and was doubtless a major cause of deforestation, which, as we shall see,
was then in progress.
The ratio of people to livestock was probably also increasing. Support for this
admittedly tentative view may be found in accounts by Alvares of vast herds seen in
the country in the early sixteenth century, as well as in the practice, reported by Lobo
in the following century, whereby cattle-owners counted their livestock by the
thousand, and held ritual baths each time that figure was reached. This custom was
not reported in the post-Jesuit era, by which time it may well have fallen into disuse.
The herds described by later observers moreover would appear to have been
significantly smaller than those of the past.
1
Perruchon (1893) 16; Basset (1909) 343, 347-8, 359, 363-5, 370, 453; Bruce (1790) II, 607; Weld Blundell
(1922) 417, 471-2, 549. On "turning-points" in Ethiopian history see Tubiana (1966) 162-3.
274
Urbanisation
Though the country throughout the period under review remained a land of
small villages and isolated homesteads major changes occurred in the field of
urbanisation. The Middle Ages, as we have seen, were characterised by the existence
of large royal camps which were commanded and presided over by monarchs who
were constantly on the move, as the chronicle of Emperor Galawdewos states, until
they reached their "last resting place," the place of their "eternal repose." Composed
of immense agglomerations of population their camps consisted not only of courtiers
and warriors, but also of numerous non-combatants, among them wives, servants and
slaves,armourers, tent-carriers, muleteers, priests, traders, prostitutes, beggars, and
even not a few children, some of whom had perhaps been born on an expedition.
The late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by contrast witnessed the rise
of a succession of more with the construction of
static capitals, largely associated
stone castles, the first of which were probably of foreign inspiration, erected with the
aid of Indian or Portuguese craftsmen, though later ones, as earlier noted, seem to
have been of entirely native origin. Foremost among such early settlements were
Emfraz (or Guzara) and 'Ayba, established during the reign of Emperor Sarsa Dengel,
and Gorgora and Danqaz in that of Susneyos^
The development camps culminated in the emergence, in the

of castle-based
late-1630's, of the city of Gondar which became a great political, religious, and
commercial centre. By far the most extensive urban centre in the land, it had a
population in heyday, on Bruce's evidence, of perhaps 60,000 inhabitants. The
its
capital in consequence developed an urban civilisation, with a specialisation of labour -

and development of commerce and handicrafts - unparalleled in the realm at large.
The dissolution of the empire in the second half of the eighteenth century, and
the rise of virtually independent provincial rulers, subsequently led to the decline of
Gondar, and the growth of a number of local capitals, among them Adwa, Antalo,
Calaqot and Addigrat in Tegre, Saqota in Wag, Dabra Tabor in Bagemder, Bicana
and Dima in Gojjam, and Ankobar, Angolala and Dabra Berhan in Sawa. These
settlements to a greater or lesser extent all developed urban characteristics, with
specialised craftsmen in the service of State or Church scarcely seen elsewhere in the
2
country.
Deforestation
Deforestation, which resulted from both population growth and the development
of agriculture and pasturage, seems to have taken place throughout Ethiopian history.
It is quite possible, as themodern forestry expert, Dr. H.F. Mooney, has argued, that
Ethiopia was "a densely wooded country in ancient, and not so remote times." It is,
however, no less apparent that Ethiopian trees were slow-growing, and that forests
were easily depleted in areas of human habitation, particularly in the vicinity of
settlements. The picture of Ethiopia half a millennium ago as presented by Alvares
2
Pankhurst (1982) 317-21; Conzelman (1895) 149-50.
275
was already one of grass-lands, with some cultivated fields, rather than of extensive
forests. The extent of deforestation was later apparent to Almeida who in the
seventeenth century expressly stated that the country had "not much woodland." The
shortage of trees, he explained, was "not the soil's fault," "but the inhabitants," for the
latter cut down trees "every day" for the construction of houses, and firewood - but
"none of them" had "the energy or the will to replant a single one."
Deforestation was most apparent in the most densely populated areas, and those
longest inhabited- such as much of Tegre, as well as in the neighbourhood of towns.
After the establishment of Gondar in 1636 for example the lands in its vicinity were
soon depleted of whatever trees had earlier grown there. The citizens of the capital,
Bruce reports, had thus "everywhere extirpated" available supplies of wood, and in
consequence laboured "under a great scarcity of fuel."
By the early nineteenth century the principal areas of settlement, as evident from
foreign writings - and engravings - were all largely denuded of trees. In the north the
Asmara plain was described by Arnauld d'Abbadie as treeless with very little bush,
while the area around Adwa was said by Lejean to be suffering from an acute shortage
of timber. The whole of Tegre, a region of settlement for thousands of years, was,
according to Girard, likewise extensively deforested. Evidence of this could be seen at
the time of the British expedition against Tewodros. The construction by the British
of a military telegraph line in the San'afe area was reported by Hozier to be "much
impaired" by "want of poles," while Henty wrote: "Not a single tree is to be met which
could be used for telegraph poles; the engineers were completely at a non plus." At
Addigrat the British commander was therefore obliged to offer one Maria Theresa
dollar for six poles, and the population was "so eager to obtain the prized coin that
many pulled timbers out of their houses."
The more important areas of settlement in Sawa were by this time also largely
deforested. The province as a whole was described by Harris as a "timberless realm,"
and the land around Dabra Berhan as "barren of trees", while in the area between it
and Ankobar there was "not a tree, nor even a shrub higher than the Abyssinian
thistle". The vicinity of Angolala, site of one of Sahla Sellase's capitals, was similarly
denuded. The French Scientific Mission reported that trees were "rare" and that "none
but mimosas" were to be seen. Many neighbouring areas were also greatly denuded.
Johnston described the "high tableland of Abyssinia" as "but poorly wooded," while the
French Scientific Mission noted that the stretch of country between Angolala and
Finfini (the site of present-day Addis Ababa) was "completely clear of trees."
Deforestation had a significant impact on economic and social life, as well as

on the ecology, leading to drought, often followed in turn by famine and epidemics.
Besides making possible extended agricultural and pastoral activity, the cutting down
of trees also contributed significantly to the decline in wild life, which, as we shall see,
had implications for the population at large. The steady elimination of trees from
j
areas of settlement also affected the social life of the people at large, particularly of
women who were traditionally responsible for the carrying of fire-wood, and were
obliged to travel further and further afield in search of trees and bushes. Shortage of
fire-wood became in many places so acute that people were obliged to make do with
276
dung for burning, a practice which in the long run led to significant impoverishment
3
of the soil.
The Coming and Increasing Diffusion of Fire-arms
The advent, and increasing diffusion of fire-arms, which was of crucial military
importance throughout the period, also had widespread political and social
ramifications.
(i) The Middle Ages
Fire-arms, which reached Ethiopia early in the fifteenth century, were at first the
exclusive possession of emperors who employed a small - but steadily increasing -
number of Weapons, however, were later more and more diffused,
riflemen.
Tegre where they greatly enhanced the political power of the province,
particularly in
and were acquired by numerous chiefs and even some of the peasantry, thereby
significantly modifying the texture of social life.
The Ethiopian ruler with access to fire-arms was probably Emperor Yeshaq
first
I who is reported by Maqrizi to have made use

(1414-1429), one of the rulers of Sawa,
of the services of a certain Tabunga Muqrif, a former Turkish governor of upper
Egypt, to train his men in their operation. Despite this initiative the difficulty of
importing such weapons into the interior was so great that few were acquired by the
rulers of Ethiopia for almost a century. In the 1520's Emperor Lebna Dengel was
thus reported, by Alvares, to have had only two swivel guns - and fourteen muskets
then recently purchased from the Turks. The scarcity of fire-arms at this time was so
great that those which were imported were probably all in the possession of the
monarch, whose power vis-a-vis his subjects was thereby enhanced. Fire-arms were
moreover so scarce that there were still only a small number of riflemen in the
country, almost all of them in royal employ.
The Ethiopian soldiers of this period were for the most part unfamiliar with fire-
arms, and above all with cannons. Lebna Dengel and his forces were therefore at a
serious disadvantage when Ahmad Gran, a Muslim ruler in the east of the country,
rebelled and began his military incursions into the highlands in 1527. Gran, who
enjoyed easy access to the Gulf of Aden port of Zayla', was able to import substantial
numbers of guns which were to prove of major strategic importance. The military
inexperience of Lebna Dengel's soldiers was vividly displayed at the battle of Antukyah
which began - and virtually ended - when Gran's men opened fire with their artillery.
One of the first shells crashed into Christian army, where it cut an olive tree in two;
the Emperor's soldiers are said to have been so terrified by this that they "tumbled
the one on the other," and fled.
Mooney (1955) 15; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 188, 264 et passim, (1954) 48, 188; Bruce
(1790) III, Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 108; Lejean (1872) 48; Girard (1873) 54; Hozier (1868) 113;
192;
Holland and Hozier (1870) II, 139; Shepherd (1868) 204; Henty (1868) 231; Harris (1844) II, 13, 48-
9, 52; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, 223, 236; Johnston (1844) II, 226. For illustrations of forests in this period
see Pankhurst and Ingrams (1988).
277
Lebna Dengel, however, later acquired a number of cannons of his own, and |
A
during subsequent fighting in the was area the imperial army was reported by Arab-
Faqih to have been obliged to abandon eight pieces of artillery, while the insurgents ;
were said to have been using six cannons captured from their enemies. It is, however, ]
doubtful whether many Ethiopians had yet been trained as cannoneers. The Christian j
artillery, according to Sihab al-Din, was then in fact operated by two individuals called
Hasan al-Basri and 'Abd Asfar Turki who would appear to have been renegade Arabs,
and, to judge by their names, came respectively from Basra and Turkey.
Though the Emperor's soldiers in Sawa were thus for the most part ignorant of j
fire-arms, a significant number of theseweapons were at this time finding their way j
into the north of the country. This was particularly the case in Tegre, whose !
inhabitants could obtain them relatively easily through the port of Massawa. Such fire-
|
arms came into the possession, not just of the ruler, as was the case in the interior,
j
but also of a wider section of the population. The first evidence of this development j |
is found in the statement by Sihab al-Din in 1533 that people of the province had ;
"cannons and muskets."
The struggle with Ahmad Gran meanwhile entered a new phase when the I
Portuguese, responding to an Ethiopian appeal for help, landed a well-armed j
expeditionary force led by Vasco da Gama, son of the famous Vasco, at Massawa in
1541. The presence of the Portuguese, who had no less than 400 rifles, transformed j
the military balance of power, for the musket, as one of da Gama's men observed at
the time, was then still a weapon that "the Abyssinian does not understand." The I
advent of the Portuguese, with their near-monopoly of fire-arms, thus played a decisive
j
role in Gran's defeat and death in battle in 1543.
The importance of fire-arms was by then so obvious that Lebna Dengel's son j
and successor Emperor Galawdewos deemed it desirable to retain the services of some j
170 Portuguese soldiers who had assisted in Gran's defeat. He rewarded them, Telles j
says, with "considerable Lands, on which they liv'd plentifully, after the Country j
Fashion, most of them having Horses, Mules and Servants to attend them both in
|
Peace and War." Friction between the Emperor and the Portuguese, however, soon j
developed. The latter's arrogance - and their attempt to impose Catholicism on the
country - led to conflict, and, in due course, to their banishment to the provinces.
Fighting with the Muslims to the east was not long afterwards resumed, for
Gran's nephew, Nur ibn al-Wazir Mujahid, who, like his uncle, had ready easy access
to fire-arms, determined on a war of revenge. Galawdewos, though confronted, like |
his father before him, by a far-better armed enemy, was reported to have had a
hundred musketeers - six times more than his father only a generation or so earlier.
Galawdewos also had the services of some the Portuguese who had earlier fought j
against the common enemy: eighteen of them were reported to have been with him
when he was later fatally wounded by one of the enemy's bullets.
The number of Ethiopian riflemen continued to increase in the following

decades. Emperor Sarsa Dengel, faced by a Turkish advance inland from Massawa;
in 1578, is said to have on one occasion reinforced his army with 150 musketeers. !
Since unlikely that he began the battle without any others it is probable that his
it is |
total force of riflemen must have been at least a couple of hundred strong. He soon
afterwards defeated the Turks in a series of engagements which culminated in his
278
capture of their fort at Debarwa. In the course of these battles he seized many
prisoners, as well as an immense booty, including many rifles and all the enemy's
cannon. The debacle of the Turks was so great that many of their riflemen
surrendered and entered Ethiopian service. They are thereafter mentioned in the
chronicles as Nar, the Arabic word for "fire." These or other Turks also served as
riflemen during the reign of Sarsa Dengel's son Ya'qob, who, however, also employed
a number of Portuguese musketeers. The latter were described by Bruce as the
"remnants" of Christovao da Gama's expeditionary force, who had by then "multiplied
exceedingly," the children having been "trained by their parents in the use of fire-
arms." The force consisted, according to Telles, of "about 200 Men, able to bear
Arms."
The descendants of the Portuguese continued to play an important role during

the reign of Emperor Susneyos (1607-1632), who, according to Almeida and Telles,
employed "many" of them in his army and rewarded them with the gift of a number
of good estates. These foreign riflemen were, however, made subordinate to a trusted
Ethiopian courtier called Yolyos who was accorded the Arabic title of basa which had
earlier been used by the chief of the Turkish and Arabic musketeers. Susenyos also
attempted to obtain further arms, and musketeers, from Portugal, and to that end
went so far as to adopt the Catholic religion.
Despite the manifest military importance of such foreigners there were by this
time also a sizeable number of Ethiopian riflemen. Almeida estimated that there were
"more than 1,500 muskets" in the country. The riflemen who handled them thus
constituted a sizeable force, though "no more than 400 or 500" of them, he believed,
ever participated in any single expedition. They were moreover still poorly trained,
for "most of them" had "so little skill" that they could not "fire more than once in any
action." This was scarcely surprising for gunpowder and bullets were "so scarce" that
there were "not many" men with "enough" bullets "to practice four shots at a target
now and then in the year." Some of the grandees were able to fire their guns from
time to time, but they did so only from a stand or rest which they had no time to use
in actual battle,so that what they learnt was of "little use to them." Underlining the
Ethiopian soldier's then inability to make effective use of fire-arms Almeida adds:
"guns have not been much used hitherto, they handle them so badly that they do not
fightmuch with them." Even limited use of fire-arms nevertheless terrified opposing
armies unaccustomed to such weapons - which explains LudolPs observation that in
the fighting of that time the Gallas "might easily be vanquish'd" by the Emperor's
armies, if the latter only knew "the use of Muskets."
The fire-arms situation in the north meanwhile continued to be appreciably

different from that in the rest of the country. In the later 1580's a peasant of
Hamasen, called Walda Ezum, defeated a Turkish force armed with "many rifles"
which he succeeded and as a result became so well-armed that he
in capturing,
rebelled against Emperor Sarsa Dengel, but was later defeated. Further conflicts with
the Turks occurred in the following century, during which time the latter suffered
more reverses, and lost a significant number of arms to the Ethiopians. In one
incident, in 1616, sixty muskets changed hands, and in another two hundred, while on
a third occasion the Ethiopians actually attacked a Turkish fort at the small Red Sea
port of Dafalo, and captured five cannon. Though discouraged by the Ottoman rulers
at Massawa the local rulers of Tegre, according to Barradas, also received fire-arms
by secret purchase, and as gifts. The result was that muskets, he reports, could be
279
found over the entire province. All the local aristocrats had many good guns, and
invariably carried them when travelling or going to war. Musketry skill, as elsewhere
in the country, was, however, still fairly low. The inhabitants of the province carried
their weapons mainly for bravado, and in general used them "little and badly" because
they were unable to practice with them. Skilled riflemen were nevertheless "now and
then" found. One man, however, told him that though he always carried a musket he
had never fired it as he had never thought fit to provide himself with ammunition.
The existence at court of a force of indigenous musketeers, and the reduced

need to depend on foreigners, meanwhile enabled Susenyos's son and successor
Emperor Fasiladas to break the military power of the Ethio-Portuguese riflemen, by
banishing them to the provinces. This was in its way a daring decision for they were
by then very numerous. One of the Jesuits, Antonio da Virgoletta, estimated them in
1639 at no less than 3,000 strong. Going so far as to claim that they were not allowed
to leave the realm "because without them" the Emperor could "not make war," he
claimed that they were the country's "musketeers and bombardeers," for no one else
used such arms or knew "how to make war." Their final political elimination was,
however, later successfully accomplished by Fasiliidas's son Yohannes I whose church j
council of 1668 which decreed that all Faranj, or foreigners, should embrace the
Ethiopian faith or leave the country. Most of the riflemen of Portuguese descent seem
to have chosen the second alternative, and, before leaving, were obliged to surrender
4
their weapons, which included "a large quantity of muskets."
(ii) The Gondar Monarchy
The influx continued throughout the period of the Gondar

of fire-arms
monarchy. Its away from the coast, were less able than the
rulers, situated far j
|
inhabitants of Tegre to import fire-arms, but nevertheless succeeded in obtaining i
sizeable numbers. Emperor Yohannes I, who was trained as a musketeer in his youth, j
thus obtained weapons from various sources, including the Dutch East India Company j
i
which presented him with an ornamented cannon in 1675. His son Iyasu I while of
tender years likewise learnt how to fire a musket "which sounded like the thunder of ;
the rainy season," "burnt rapidly like lighting," and "dispersed like dust all the forces !
of the enemy."
Despite the increasing number of fire-arms - and the resultant emergence of an J
expanding class of native riflemen - use continued to be made of foreigners. Some

came from various parts of the Arab world, and served under the command of an j
I
Ethiopian official with the long-established Arabic title of basa. Iyasu's troops thus j
i
included a number of Turkish musketeers, and a contingent of black troops - probably

Sudanese - who were dressed in Ottoman style and carried muskets. Iyasu's great- i
grandson Iyo'as (1755-1769), on the other hand, made use of a number of Greek j
fusiliers. Besides such elite units there were by then also sizeable contingents of j
Ethiopian riflemen, who, according to his chronicle, possessed "innumerable rifles".
4
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 516, (1954) 77-8, 186; Basset (1909) 185-6, 218, 240-1, 407;
Whiteway (1902) 194; Tellez (1710) 131-2, 141, 171; Cozelman (1895) 175-6: Ludolf (1684) 174, 218;
Conti Rossini (1907) 77, 82, 84-5, 117-22, 146, 152, 170; Esteves Pereira (1900) 71, 130, 185; Bruce
(1790) II, 243; Beccari (1903-17) I, 347-9, 378, IV, 155-60, 471; Jesuits (1626) 5-7, 65; Guidi (1903) 8.
280
The number of rifles - and riflemen - in Tegre meanwhile was still expanding.
The weapons greatly increased the
influx of political importance of the province, the
premier status of which was recognised in 1690, when Iyasu I laid down that its ruler
had precedence over all other provincial rulers. Confirmation of the vast number of
fire-arms in the province is found in the chronicle of Iyasu II which noted that when
the latter visited it in 1730 he was greeted by the inhabitants with "many muskets." The
riflemen of Tegre were by then so highly regarded that many of them entered the
service of Emperor Iyo'as, who was reputed to have employed no less than five
hundred of them. The abundance of fire-arms - and riflemen - in the province later
contributed greatly to the rise of one of its most remarkable rulers, Ras Mika'el Sehul,
who succeeded in overcoming Turkish opposition to the import of weapons via
Massawa, and early in his career won the favour of his overlord, Emperor Iyasu II, by
supplying him with a "large" annual tribute, which included "many rifles."
The possession of fire-arms by this time was, however, no longer restricted to

the Emperor's army and the inhabitants of Tegre, but was spreading to soldiers in
other parts of the north, notably to the chiefs of the Amhara provinces, the sound of
whose firing was likened in Iyo'as's chronicle to the thunder heard during the rainy
season. Fire-arms, the control of which had earlier strengthened the central power of
the emperor, thus began to contribute towards disunity by facilitating provincial
rebellions against the government at Gondar.
By far the largest number of fire-arms was, however, controlled by Ras Mika'el,
who, according to a contemporary chronicle, left his capital, Adwa, in 1767 with
"thousands of musketeers," and, travelling across Tegre, received extensive tribute,
including, significantly, "many rifles." Iyo'as, faced by insubordination in other parts
of the realm, had little option but to ask Mika'el to come to the capital in the
following year The ruler of Tegre accordingly rode to Gondar with a "large number
.
of musketeers" and other soldiers, the entire force equal, a chronicler claims, to "the
stars in the sky or the sand of the sea." The large number of riflemen deployed was
later confirmed by Bruce, who, arriving in the country a year or so later, noted that
Mika'el had "26,000 men, all the best soldiers in Abyssinia, about 10,000 of whom were
armed with fire-locks", i.e. perhaps six hundred times more than had existed in the
country at the time of Lebna Dengel two and a half centuries earlier. It was to these
weapons, the chiefs nephew was quoted as saying, that the Ras "owed all his victories."
Bruce, who accepted this view, estimated at about this time that in the whole country
there were about 7,000 muskets, all but 1,000 of which were in the possession of the
soldiers of Tegre who were moreover "very expert in the management of them," and
therefore the best in the empire.
Musketry techniques realm as a whole seem, however, to have advanced

in the
little and a half earlier. Most Ethiopian soldiers
since the time of the Jesuits a century
thus did not rest their guns on their hands, but placed them on rests, a practice which
had been abandoned in Europe a century earlier. Such stands, which were made of
long sticks of wood about four feet long with hooks or rests on each side at alternate
intervals, were issued, Bruce states, to all musketeers, and at the outset of any
engagement would be stuck in the ground. The musketeer would then place his
weapon upon the rest best suited to the height of the object at which he wished to fire.
This procedure was, however, so time-consuming that it precluded fast shooting of any
kind. Another difficulty confronted by most Ethiopian musketeers was that they were
still chronically short of ammunition with which to practice, and usually had to make
281
do with locally-made iron bullets, sometimes even with stones. The local Greeks,
Greek half-castes and such Muslims as had been in Arabia, India or Egypt -or had
contacts therewith - were in this respect at a marked advantage in that they used lead
bullets which fitted better into their guns.
Despite their deficiencies the fire-arms in use, according to Bruce, were still of
tremendous psychological importance. The mere fixing of the gun-sticks into the
ground, a process which made a greater noise than the cocking of muskets, produced
"a fatal and most unreasonable" fear on the part of the enemy. On hearing this sound
soldiers unused to fire-arms would "halt immediately," even if about to charge, and
thus give opportunity to their enemies to take aim, and after "suffering from a well-
directed fire," would usually "fall into confusion, and run, leaving the musquetry time
to re-charge." The influence of such fire-arms depended in fact more on the fear with
which they were regarded than on their actual efficiency. It was as if the soldiers
without guns, Bruce observes, had "voluntarily" agreed to their own "destruction," for
if the cavalry, on hearing the infantry fixing their sticks in the ground, or after the
latter had discharged their guns, decided to gallop at the musketeers the latter would
have been "cut to pieces every time they were attacked." This, the Scotsman comments,
however, never in fact happened until late in the eighteenth century.
A major turning-point in the fire-arms story came in 1771 when Ras Mika'el,
then in possession of "nearly 7,000 musqueteers," was confronted by a rival provincial
chief, Bawandwassan of Bagemder. The latter's soldiers had by then acquired a few
hundred rifles, and, more important, having "been trained and disciplined" with the
troops of Tegre, had seen "the effect of fire-arms, which they no longer feared as
formerly." Unknowingly following Bruce's above quoted prescription for success, they
"boldly rushed in upon the musqueteers, sometimes without giving them time to fire,
or at least before they had time to charge again." Three battles were fought. In the
first the ruler of Tegre, thanks to his overwhelming superiority in fire-power, was
victorious, and in the second his rifles threw the enemy into the "utmost confusion."
In the third engagement, however, the small Bagemder force of riflemen succeeded
in capturing one of Mika'ePs most strategic positions, after which 300 riflemen from
Lasta turned against the old Ras who was in consequence obliged to flee the field.
The confrontation between Mika'el and his enemies was of major importance
in the history of fire-arms, for the Tegre army, far away from its home base, was
obliged to surrender its weapons which thus fell into the hands of the men of
Bagemder and other Amhara provinces who in this manner for the first time came
into possession of large numbers of guns. The significance of this development was
not lost on the French traveller Arnauld d'Abbadie, who, visiting the country half a
century later, learnt that the fire-arms which Ras Mika'el had brought to Gondar
gradually spread over the north-western provinces as far as Gojjam. This diffusion
all
of weapons, which for the first time brought vast populations to the south of Tegre
into intimate touch with fire-arms, also had important strategic implications in that it
increased the power of their new Amhara owners vis-a-vis the Oromos south of the
282
Blue Nile. The latter had long held the military initiative, but, being virtually without
5
fire-arms, were thereafter placed very definitely on the defensive.
The importof fire-arms in the early nineteenth century was, as in the past,
discouraged but far from prevented - by the Ottoman administration at Massawa.
-
Many weapons continued to find their way into the country, the majority, as
previously, being retained in Tegre. The soldiers of that province thus remained the
best armed - and most skilled - riflemen in the country. In 1809 Nathaniel Pearce
reported that Ras Walda Sellase, the then ruler of the province, had 5,500 matchlocks,
and his chiefs a further 3,400, i.e. a total of 8,900, as compared with only 500 in
Gojjam, 450 at Gondar and 100 in Lasta. The figure for Tegre, which was almost
twenty times greater than that for Gondar, the capital, was later corroborated by
Henry Salt who shortly afterwards wrote that Walda Sellase commanded "upwards of
eight thousand soldiers armed with matchlocks". This imbalance between the number
of weapons in Tegre and the rest of the country continued in the decades which
followed. In the 1830's Plowden estimated that Tegre had 8,000 rifles while Riippell
put those in Gondar at no more than about 400, i.e. one-twentieth of those in the
northern province. Later again, around the middle of the century, d'Abbadie stated
that Dajazmac Webe of Tegre had some 16,000 rifles in his army, and 12,000 in his
stores, or a total of 28,000, whereas his nominal overlord, Ras Ali Alula, had scarcely
4,000, or a seventh of that number. Limited numbers of fire-arms by this time were,
however, being imported into several provinces south of Tegre. They had been
introduced, Plowden believed, into Yajju, Warra Himano and Wallo. The ruler of the
latter region possessed about a thousand rifles, according to Krapf, while the chief of
Wag, because of his contact with Massawa, was thought to have several times as many.
The riflemen of Tegre, on account of their familiarity with fire-arms,

nevertheless remained the best in the land. Combes and Tamisier
1830s in the
considered them the "most skilled", while Plowden a decade or so later stated that
because Amharas were still "little acquainted with guns," the "most expert" riflemen
in Sawa and Wallo were of Tegre origin, the "most skilful" of all being those of
Agame. Tegre riflemen in fact retained their reputation throughout our period, at
the end of which Markham observed that the men of Addigrat in Agame were
renowned for their "excellence as musketeers," while Girard declared that those of
Teltal had great renown. Among the "few" riflemen in the Amhara country there
were, however, also some Sanqellas slaves, who, according to Plowden, were generally
the "best shots", as they were strong and most ready to learn, though their shooting,
he felt, was, by then European standards, still "very ordinary indeed."
Sawa, because of its rulers' ability to import fire-arms through the Gulf of Aden
ports, was also moderately well supplied with rifles. The province, in the opinion of
both Krapf and Johnston, had about a thousand, i.e. the same number as Wallo, or
little more than a thirtieth of that of Tegre. These weapons, as in the past, seem to
Ludolf (1681) 261; Guidi (1903) 7, 61, 103, 130-1, 152-3, 197, 223-4, 234, (1912) 22,102-4, 181, 185-8, 191-
2, 197-9, 204-6, 214, 216-7, 226, 235, 248, 308-9 Conti Rossini (1942) 101; Basset (1882) 144, 161-2, 170;
Bruce (1790) II, 703, 706, III, 233, 549, IV, 9, 63, 199-200, 202, 210, 232, 253-6; Antoine d' Abbadie
(n.d.) 753, 770-1; Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 269.
283
have been kept almost entirely in the possession of the monarch, so that whereas the
soldiers of the north tended to have their own fire-arms, those of Sawa were held in
the ruler's possession, and even the king's guards usually handed them in before
leaving the palace. The degree of the soldiers' dependence on the monarch in the
two regions thus varied immensely.
Despite the steady influx of fire-arms, and the increase of riflemen, actual
armament was slow to change. Around the middle of the century two basic types of
rifle were in use: the old match-lock or wick-gun, called qwad in Amharic, and the
more modern flint-lock, known as bulad. The former was fired, as its name suggests,
with the aid of a match which was used to light a wick serving as a fuse, which burned
until it reached, and ignited, the gunpowder, and thereby discharged the bullet. The
flint-lock by contrast made use of a trigger mechanism which struck a flint, thereby
producing a spark which set fire to the powder. Guns embodying this latter device
were technically more efficient in that they could be fired more or less exactly when
required, whereas with the older type of weapon there was an inevitable, and
somewhat unpredictable, delay between the lighting of the fuse and the actual shooting
of the bullet. Despite the manifest advantage of the flint-lock, with its faster shooting
and therefore more accurate marksmanship, this weapon was generally disliked in
Ethiopia as its firing mechanism easily went out of order, and, in the absence of skilled
mechanics, could not easily be repaired. Flint-locks were therefore "little valued,"
Plowden says, except in Tegre where, because of longer familiarity with fire-arms,
maintenance facilities, it may be presumed, were more easily available. Wick-locks on
the other hand were in universal demand.
Prices of fire-arms at this time varied greatly, In Tegre the cheapest could be
obtained for as little as four or five dollars, and those of better quality for from 15 to
18, but, if decorated with a little gold or silver, fetched 20 to 30, while fine ones with
elaborate ornament might cost as much as 200. Prices further inland, however, were
considerably higher, and weapons could sometimes be scarcely obtained at any price.
An old-fashioned Ethiopian rifle and cartridge-helt as seen in Sawa by the Italian geographical mission
of the 1880's. From A. Cecchi, Da Zeila alk frondere del Caffa (Rome, 1885-7).
Because of the difficulty of importing fire-arms, and their consequent expense,

many old, and indeed obsolete, weapons were retained long after they had ceased to
be efficient. Not a few old models, according to Combes and Tamisier, had
inordinately long - and hence unwieldy barrels. Each gun, Johnston recalls, moreover
-
required "three or four individuals" to hold it, while another ran up with a lighted stick
284
to discharge which those who stood behind found it "desirable to get out of
it, after
the way," for the recoil threwit "several yards out of the hands of the gunmen." Guns
in service around the middle of the century are said by Arnauld d'Abbadie to have
included Indian, Persian, Turkish or Kurdish carbines of considerable antiquity, many
of which were so badly equilibrated that they no longer shot straight.
Little improvement had likewise taken place in the bullets used in this period.
Because of import difficulties, and non-availability of lead, the only projectiles
generally available, even in Tegre, were stone pebbles or crude locally made pieces
of iron. Such "bullets", which seldom fitted the gun-barrels, often damaged the latter,
and rendered accurate shooting difficult if not impossible. The use of stones was
particularly common in Sawa, where King Sahla Sellase, according to Johnston, "never"
issued his men with "more than five or seven" iron bullets each. His men therefore had
little opportunity of gaining much practice.
The gunpowder in general use was also scarcely any better than that of medieval
times. The soldiers for the most part made their own supplies, out of local sulphur,
saltpetre and charcoal. The resultant mixture was often lumpy, Combes and Tamisier
explain, and the exact proportions of its components sometimes varied considerably,
thereby leaving much to be desired. Local saltpetre moreover sometimes contained
extraneous salts, above all sodium nitrate. The latter, "not decomposing by explosion,"
left "a residuum of globules" which, Johnston says, "besides fouling the barrels of the
guns, deteriorates, considerably, the exploding effects of the powder; so much so, that
an ordinary charge for a common musket, is two or three large handsful, and it is
nothing unusual to see the ram-rod, after loading, projecting twelve, or even eighteen
inches beyond the muzzzle." Most locally-made gun-powder was at this time, in the
6
Englishman's opinion, therefore "very bad."
The difficulties associated with such antiquated weapons, bullets and powder
were graphically described by Parkyns who observed that most Ethiopians of his day
were "exceedingly clumsy" in the use of guns, for, they:
"prefer large, heavy, matchlocks to load which is a labour of some minutes.
They carry their powder hollow canes, and having no fixed charge pour
in
out at hazard a small quantity with the hand. This they measure with the
eye, occasionally putting back a little if it appears too much, or adding a
little if it seems not enough. After this operation has been performed two
or three times, till they are well satisfied as to its quantity, it is pounded
into the barrel. The proper charge is now tested by the insertion of the
ramrod. Lastly, when all is settled, some rag and a small bar or ball of
roughly-wrought iron are rammed down. This last operation (with the
exception that the ramrod often sticks in the rag for half an hour) is not
6
B.L.,MS. 19, 347 f. 68; Salt (1814) 288-9; Plowden (1868) 70, 76, 376; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 180-1; GB
House of Commons (1868) 122, (1868F) 105; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 348, 487; Combes and Tamisier
(1838) I, 215-6; Plowden (1868) 67; Markham (1869) 229; Girard (1873) 104, 111; Krapf (1867) 36;
Johnston (1844) II, 75-6, 261, 264, 400-2; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 401, 431; Arnauld d' Abbadie
(1868) 249; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 180-1.
285
difficult, as the ball is made about a quarter of an inch less diameter than
7
the bore of the piece for which it is intended."
Shooting, under such circumstances, was still both slow and inaccurate!
Change by the middle of the nineteenth century was, however, in the air, most
noticeably in Sawa, where the King's riflemen seem to have been particularly well
organised and armed. In the 1820's a Greek called Elias is said to have rendered
King Sahla Sellase the "great service" of teaching the riflemen to shoot in groups of
three. One man would kneel down, the second placed the rifle on the latter's shoulder,
and the third lit the wick. The old, and, as we have seen, highly inefficient, use of
wooden gun-rests was thus abandoned. The Sawan riflemen's weapons were likewise
improved at this time, or a little later, by an unknown foreigner, who shortened the
barrels of many old weapons, thus, Johnston says, producing "something like portable
guns." The coming of percussion guns, which seem to have first arrived in Sawa in the
1840's, doubtless by way of the Gulf of Aden ports, marked, however, a far greater
technological break-through, for these weapons, which were to gain increasing
popularity in the decades which followed, for the first time made possible fast and
accurate shooting.
Sahla* Sellase's policy of monopolising weapons entering his country nevertheless

militated against their diffusion in Sawan society. This was apparent to Captain
Graham of the British diplomatic mission. Conceding that the use of fire-arms in the
early 1840s was "partially known and fully appreciated," and that the King's company
of fusiliers was "gradually increasing," he notes that because of the monarch's "habitual
suspicions" guns were "always deposited within the walls of the palace, except during
the actual period of the expedition," and that this prevented the natives of the province
from becoming "thoroughly acquainted with the use of fire-arms."
Despite their manifest advantage percussion guns remained rare for many years,
and the country continued to rely heavily on antiquated muskets to the very end of our
period. Early in his career Emperor Tewodros's soldiers, according to his chronicle,
were thus armed "mainly with matchlocks," qwad, and "a few flintlocks," buladf
(iv) Emperor Tewodros's Innovations
Tewodros, whose modernising interests centred largely, as we shall see, on

matters military, captured a significant number of weapons from the provincial rulers
he conquered, including 7,000 rifles and two cannon from Dajazmac Webe of Tegre
and three cannon from Sahla and successor King Hayla Malakot of Sawa.
Sellase's son
The reforming monarch cannon and 100 rifles from Said Pasha of
also obtained four
Egypt, and attempted to import no less than 20,000 muskets through Yohannes
Kotzika, a Greek trader in Sudan. Deeply conscious of the need to conserve and
marshal his weapons, Tewodros guarded his fire-arms jealously, and assigned them to
responsible officers, Heuglin states, who issued them exclusively to worthy soldiers,
7
Parkyns (1853) II, 23^.
8
Graham (1843) 640; Fusella (1954-5) 72, 75.
286
thereby helping to establish greater military discipline in his army than had formerly
northern provinces.
existed, at least in the
* 3
Dragging one of Tewodros's mortars, called "Sebastapol" after the battle in the Crimean war, from Dabra
Tabor to Maqdala. From H. Rassam, Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore (London, 1869).
Notwithstanding this policy Tewodros suffered throughout his brief but heroic
career from the fact that he was based, like the rulers of Gondar before him, in the
north-west of the country, far away from the ports. He was therefore less able than
the rulers of Tegre - and perhaps even Sawa - to obtain the fire-arms he so
desperately desired. Small-arms, it is be smuggled to him across
true, could always
hostile but the import of cannons of any size - which could not be
territory,
transported inland without the prior construction of special roads for them - was
virtually impossible. It was this overriding factor of geography, and the resultant acute
shortage of fire-arms, which lay behind his remarkable efforts, discussed in the
following chapter, to cast cannons: a project for which he will ever be remembered.
The British assault on Tewodros's mountain fortress at Maqdala in April 1868, which
brought an end to his reign, was in itself another turning-point in the history of fire-
arms in Ethiopia, for the invading army was equipped inter alia with breech-loading
rifles. These fast-firing weapons, which were used at Maqdala for the first time in
287
war - and were later to be imported into the country in sizeable quantities - were
9
destined to play an increasingly decisive role in the decades which followed.
(v) Armourers
The coming of increasing numbers of fire-arms had implications in many fields

of Ethiopian life. One of these was the emergence in the more important early
nineteenth century towns of a number of armourers specialising in the repair of rifles
and other weapons. Some of these craftsmen, who were originally taught, according
to Combes and Tamisier, by Egyptian Copts, Armenians or Greeks, were said to be
extremely skilled, and capable of repairing any guns, as well as effectively soldering
broken cannon.
The population of Gondar in the first decades of the century thus included a
number of gunstock-makers and gun-menders, mainly foreigners from Greece or
Egypt, some of whom had the reputation, according to Ruppell, of cheating by
soldering over weapons instead of mending them properly. This sometimes produced
accidents, particularly if the gun was loaded with more than its proper charge of
powder. A class of gunsmiths also emerged in Sawa where the afore-mentioned Greek,
Elias,is said to have introduced the craft in the 1820's to several Ethiopians. Before
long King Sahla Sellase had a number of such workers, as well as other craftsmen at
his palaces at Ankobar and Angolala, one of whom, according to Combes and
Tamisier, had actually made a complete rifle plate.
Emperor Tewodros armourers whose ranks - and

later also had his
sophistication were greatly swollen when he embarked, as we shall see, on his
-
10
ambitious programme of casting cannons and mortars.
Hunting and the Destruction of Wild Life
The coming, and increasing diffusion, of fire-arms also contributed to another

significant development in the period under review, namely a substantial decrease in
wild life, the numbers of which were to be further greatly reduced in the next half
century or so.
Though hunting had doubtless taken place since time immemorial, Ethiopia in
the medieval period is said to have still abounded in wild animals which carried out
many depredations. In the sixteenth century Alvares reported that the country was
inhabited by "many animals of various kinds," including lions and "tigers" (by which he
probably meant panthers or other members of the greater cat family), as well as
elephants, foxes, jackals and other beasts. The multitude of such beasts was not
9
Herbert (1867) 142; Heuglin (1857) 107-8, (1868) 358; Krapf (1867) 440; Dufton (1867) 131; Stern
(1862) 69, 75, (1868) 221; Moreno (1942) 161, 175; Beke (1867) 161; Lejean (1865) 19; Stanley (1974)
273; GB House of Commons (1868) 188-9, 192-3; Methodios of Aksum (1970) 55; Pankhurst (1972b)
91-2
10
Ruppell (1838-40) II, 118; Combes and Tamisier (1838) I, 216, III, 9-10, 23-4, IV, 98-9; Lefebvre (1845-
8) III, 246; Beke (1840-3) 306; Krapf (1867) 23-4.
288
surprising, he observes, for the people did not know how to kill them, and had "no
devices" for the purpose. Virtually the only wild creatures hunted were therefore
partridges, which were killed, he says, with bows and arrows
and was still the sport,
-
it will be recalled, of some of the early nineteenth century children whose lives were
described in a previous chapter. The result was that game bred extensively, and, being
"not pursued," was "almost tame."
A serious consequence
of this abundance of wild life was that the people - and
livestock of this time suffered greatly from the ravages of lions, "tigers" and other
-
animal predators which Alvares describes as "very pestilent". In one not untypical
incident,which took place in a village near Debarwa, a man was sleeping with his little
son door of his enclosure guarding his cows, when a lion entered, killed and
at the
seriously mauled the father, but mercifully spared the child. In a second incident, in
another village, "tigers" broke into the settlement and carried off a boy, after which
they attacked a large farm, where Alvares was himself residing. A mule and a donkey
were so frightened that they broke out of the compound, and one of them was
immediately devoured by predators.
People in this period were indeed so terrified of attack by wild animals that they
did not dare to go out of their houses at night "for fear of the wild beasts." Domestic
animals, notably cattle, sheep, mules and donkeys, were in many cases shut up every
night. At Debarwa for example the inhabitants of a group of ten to fifteen houses
would keep all their livestock in a closed yard with a gate which they kept "well
fastened." They then lit a "great fire," and appointed watchmen to guard against the
wild animals that roamed about the town all night. Without such precautions, Alvares
believed, "nothing alive would remain which they would not devour," and even as it
was they often broke into the enclosures to "kill the cows, mules and asses at night."
The Portuguese author wrote from personal experience. On one occasion he and his
companions spent the night in fear that they were going to be eaten by "tigers," while
on another they tied their mules together to prevent them from panicking, after which
his companions guarded them with drawn swords. Fierce battles with wild animals
often occurred, and the Portuguese, we are told, once "spent the whole night thrusting
their lances at tigers," which attacked them so "vigorously" that they could not sleep
all night.
The coming of fire-arms in the next few centuries brought about a major change
in the relationship between man and beast, for it led to the extensive destruction of
wild animals, as well as to a great expansion in the export of ivory and animal skins.
(i) Royal Hunts
One - and best documented - results of the acquisition

of the most spectacular
of fire-arms was the institution, during the hey-day of the Gondarine monarchy in the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, of great royal hunts which became a
notable feature of court life.
Perhaps the first monarch to undertake such an expedition was Emperor Iyasu
I,who was referred to in his chronicle as a skilled rifleman, and by Poncet as "the best
marksman in his dominions". In 1683, the chronicle reports, Iyasu and his courtiers
went down to the Blue Nile valley in search of wild animals, and killed two buffaloes.
289
Three years later he undertook a much greater hunt to the Sanqella country, where
he killed "many elephants, in number 200", while countless other animals were hunted
down by his guards. Later in the same year he bagged an elephant, and in 1687 a
buffalo and hippopotamus. In 1691 he enjoyed three days' relaxation in the Takkaze
gorge where he once more hunted wild animals, and killed a large elephant, while his
followers successfully hunted others. The kill in 1693 likewise included "many" elephant
and buffalo. Iyasu went off to hunt again in 1696, in 1697 when he killed "a powerful
animal called awraris" i.e. a rhinoceros, in 1698 when he ventured into the lowlands
of Wagara, and in 1700 when he killed an "innumerable quantity" of beasts. On these
expeditions he was often accompanied by his son Fasiladas, who, the chronicler claims,
did battle with elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes and other wild animals. Though not
admitted in the official records, such hunting was not always successful, for on at least
one occasion the monarch is reported, by Poncet, to have commanded a cannon to be
fired against hippopotami on the shores of lake Tana, but the soldiers "not being
nimble enough in shooting, the animals dived into the water and disappeared." Iyasu
was, however, remembered as a notable hunter, and after his death was referred to
as "the mighty elephant killer."
Royal hunts were carried out by most of the later Gondarine rulers. Emperor
Takla Haymanot (1706-1708) for example is reported to have killed a buffalo, while
Yostos (1708-1711) carried out at least three great hunts. In the first he killed various
unspecified wild animals; in the second he wrought "immense carnage"; and in the
third he slaughtered an unstated number of elephants and buffaloes. Emperor Bakaffa !
continued the hunting tradition. He and one of his courtiers both killed a rhinoceros
in 1726, albeit with a lance, and in 1728 is reputed to have hunted down many animals.
Iyasu II later also led many notable hunts. In 1728, while still of tender years,
he captured a herd of monkeys which he brought back to Gondar, the capital.
Subsequently, on reaching maturity, he asked permission from his mother, in 1741, to
carry out a more serious hunt. She at first refused, but later consented, whereupon,
according to Bruce, he proclaimed a "general hunt" as a declaration of his "near
approach to manhood," and duly killed two elephants and a hippopotamus, whereupon
the nobles, "seeing his bravery," were "astonished, and admired greatly." In the
following year he slaughtered another elephant, a rhinoceros, and a giraffe, while his
kill in 1743 included four buffaloes on which occasion his courtiers struck down a fifth I
buffalo, three elephants, two rhinoceroses and a giraffe. A much larger hunt took
place towards the end of the reign, and resulted in the shooting by the king's guards
in 1754 of a huge lion, two leopards, "numerous buffaloes" and a twenty cubit long
snake, while one nobleman and his followers killed fourteen elephants, and another
no less than ninety buffaloes. Other lords slaughtered "innumerable elephants," besides
smaller numbers of rhinoceros and buffalo.
Bruce, writing of this period, recalls that it was the "constant practice" of the
rulers "tomake a public hunting-match the first expedition of their reign". On such
occasions the monarch, attended by "all the great officers of state", reviewed his young
nobility, who all appeared "to the best advantage as to arms, horses, and equipage,
with the greatest number of servants and attendants". The "scene of hunting" was
always the qolla, [or lowlands], which were "crowded with an immense number of the
largest and fiercest wild beasts, elephants, rhinoceros, lions, leopards, panthers, and
buffaloes fiercer than all, wild boars, wild asses, and many varieties of the deer kind."
290
Subsequent hunts took place during the era of the mdsafent, or judges, by which
time the provincial nobles had, as already stated, usurped most of the powers hitherto
wielded by the sovereign - and thus also emerged as great hunters. In 1767 for
example Ras Mika'el Sehul, ruler of Tegre, is said to have attacked "elephants without
number," while later in the year his overlord, Emperor Iyasu II, also went chasing and
killing wild beasts. Other hunts, by a variety of nobles, are also referred to in later
chronicles.
(ii) Professional Elephant Hunters
The increased diffusion of fire-arms, which took place, as we have seen, first in
Tegre, and later in other northern provinces, was accompanied in the late eighteenth
or early nineteenth century, by the emergence of bands of professional elephant
hunters. Mostof them made use of wick-guns, which, according to the French
ScientificMission of the 1840's, were, however, far from satisfactory for they took so
long to fire that the elephants often smelt the burning fuse and therefore made good
their escape before the bullet left the barrel.
Hunting was by the import into the northern provinces

later greatly facilitated
of a new type of which fired heavy bullets weighing a quarter of a pound, and
rifle
cost 15 to 28 Maria Theresa dollars. These weapons were, however, clumsy, and often
broke, especially if overloaded; their blast moreover was so violent that the hunter
was sometimes knocked over by the recoil. A much improved type of elephant gun
was nevertheless introduced in the later 1850's, mainly through the good offices of
Walter Plowden, then British Consul at Massawa. This weapon was light to carry, and,
being based on the percussion principle, for the first time made possible rapid, and
infinitely more efficient, firing. Most hunters, however, continued for many years to
use more antiquated weapons.
The advent of large numbers of fire-arms of varying efficiency led to a vast

expansion of hunting, at first in the northern provinces and later in the country south
of the Blue Nile. The most important hunts in the 1840's were in such areas as
Walqayt, Sire and Wajerat in Tegre, Saraye and the Teltal country in the north, Ras
al-Fil in the west, and the lands south of the Blue Nile. Such expeditions, though
carried out by private hunters,were often encouraged or provoked by merchants who,
according to the French Scientific Mission, in many instances actually purchased the
ivory in advance. Hunts were mainly carried out in January, February and March
when the animals, who were then short of water and tormented by flies, left the
relatively inaccessible lowlands for cooler plateau districts. Hunting required the
permission of local rulers, but this was in most cases easily obtained in return for a
present or due. Elephants were killed almost entirely for their ivory, as the carcase had
no other value, except for its skin which was sometimes used in the manufacture of
shields.
The early nineteenth century also witnessed a great expansion in the ivory trade.
Twelve caravans, according to the Scientific Mission, thus passed through Adwa in
1841 with no less than 800 mules laden with tusks bound for Massawa, while two other
caravans with 20 loads went by way of Antalo, and another 20 through Saraye. A
further 300 mule loads were said to have passed that year through Aleyu Amba. There
was also a not insignificant export of tusks via Galabat to Sudan. Ivory by the end of
291
our period was moreover on sale at all the principal markets of the country, notably
Gondar, Adwa, Dabra Abbay, Antalo, and, further south, at Aleyu Amba in Sawa. I
The result, Parkyns notes, was that elephant-hunting was "one of the best I
speculations". A man who had capital enough to invest in a few guns of sufficient
|
calibre" had "only to intrust these to men of some respectability and skill in hunting", ij
and would "possibly in a short time obtain a (comparatively speaking) large fortune."
He himself knew "many instances of this. 11
Hunting, which had thus been steadily increasing for some three and a half
centuries, led throughout this period to a gradual decline in the country's population
of wild life, particularly in the northern provinces. The relationship between man and
wild-animals had begun to tilt significantly in the former's favour. People were less i
frightened than formerly of wild animals - which within only a few more decades
would be entirely eliminated in many areas.
Fire-arms in Social Ritual
Contacts with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, and with the Turks in the I
seventeenth, showed that fire-arms were not only invaluable in war, and hunting, but
could also have a by no means insignificant ceremonial role.
(i) Fusillades for Royalty
One first occasions when this was seen was in 1541, during the fighting
of the
with Ahmad Gran, when the men of Christovao da Gama's expeditionary force invited
Queen Sabla Wangel to visit them. They received her, Bermudes recalls, "with
trumpets and the firing of artillery, with which she was much astonished, for it is not
their custom," i.e. that of the Ethiopians. The Turkish troops in the north followed a
similar practice, as later reported in the chronicle of Emperor Sarsa Dengel (1563-
1596), which states that it was their habit to fire cannons and rifles whenever their
commander returned to his fort at Debarwa. Sarsa Dengel, as we have seen, later
j
succeeded in defeating the Turks, after which the garrison surrendered, and honoured
him with a fusillade similar to that which they fired for their own leader.
The victorious monarch, who was much taken by this salute, and had, as already
noted, recruited a number of Turkish musketeers, was perhaps the first ruler to j
introduce fusillades into the Ethiopian coronation ceremony. by the The role played
new weapons is colourfully depicted in his chronicle which relates that "the muskets
and cannon were fired, and the noise was like that of thunder." The procedures
instituted by Sarsa Dengel soon became firmly established. They were followed almost
exactly by Emperor Susneyos who was crowned at Aksum in 1609, on which occasion
the formalities once again included the firing of fusillades. A contemporary account
by Baltazar Telles states that "the air resounded with Acclamations of joy, Vollies of
11
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 67, 92, 113, 117, 172, 174, 182-3, 186, 251; Foster (1849) 127,!
136; Guidi (1903) 64, 76, 98-9, 103, 107-9, 118, 120-1, 160, 173, 185, 196, 202; Basset (1882) 62-3, 67-
8, 174, 180-1; Guidi (1912) 92, 108, 170-2, 232-3; Weld Blundell (1922) 36, 67, 70-3, 92, 117-8, 120-1, 353,
305-5; Bruce (1790) II, 451, 629; Pankhurst (1972a) 52; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part II, 31-3, 46; Salt !
(1814) 425; Ferret and Galinier (1847) II, 426; Guillain (1856-7) II, Part II, 530-9; Parkyns (1853) I, 268. i
292
small Shot," as well as "the Noise of Trumpets, Kettle Drums, weights and all other
Musical Instruments."
Such fusillades subsequently captured the imagination of the rulers of Gondar

whose supplies of fire-arms, as we have seen, increased considerably in the second half
of the seventeenth century. Riflemen, the chronicles reveal, began to participate more
and more in court ceremonial. The first state occasion on which they are reported to
have made their appearance was in 1686 when Emperor Iyasu I held a military review
at which the firing of cannon and rifles is said to have sounded like thunder. Their
presence at court is confirmed by an illustration in a Ta 'antra Maryam, or Miracles
of Mary, housed in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, which depicts
the monarch preceded by a contingent of musketeers. Not long afterwards, in 1697,
a chronicle notes that one of the Emperor's commanders, Blattengeta Baselyos, had
his men discharge a "large number of rifles" to impress a visiting Amir who was in
consequence "very frightened."
at about the same time also began to be seen, and heard, at religious
Fire-arms
The first such occasion recorded was the feast of the Assumption of the
festivals.
Virgin at Gondar in 1699. Poncet, who left a vivid description, recalls that the
Emperor walked to church with his courtiers followed by "musqueteers, in their
closebody's coats of different colours," and that on the monarch's entry and departure
"they discharged two pieces of cannon." The Easter celebrations of 1704 were likewise
the occasion, according to the chronicler, of shooting which had already been adopted
for Epiphany. The Emperor ordered his soldiers and servants armed with rifles to
discharge all their rifles together, so that the "entire land of Gibe trembled." The
importance of fire-arms in the thinking of this period is further apparent in the
prominence given to them in contemporary paintings: one, which gained considerable
popularity, depicts the armies of the Pharaoh attempting to cross the Red Sea
anachronistically with guns in their hands.
Fusillades continued to form an essential part of coronation ritual throughout

the eighteenth century.During the ceremonies for the accession of Iyasu II at Gondar
in 1730, for example, his chronicler claims that "the earth trembled" because of the
noise, which included the "thundering of rifles which were heard from far off." Such
displays were also adopted on royal marches. Iyasu is said have been preceded in
1746 by soldiers whose guns "resounded like thunder" so that the earth once more
"trembled." Iyasu's death, and the accession of his son Iyo'as in 1755, likewise
witnessed several impressive fusillades. On the first day the archers at Gondar
discharged their arrows, and the riflemen their guns, while on the next morning the
rifles once again resounded far and wide. Volleys of this kind are said to have been
most impressive, but sometimes created no small fear among persons unused to the
noise, and were probably not without some danger to bystanders. At a reception given
by Emperor Takla Giyorgis in 1781 it is reported for example that the soldiers brought
"guns without number" whereupon the people "covered their faces and feet ... that they
might be saved from the fire that flew from the hands of the riflemen."
(ii) Fusillades for the Nobility
The growing supply of fire-arms in the late eighteenth century, as well as the
rising power of the nobility, led to an increase in the number of persons honoured by
293
the firing of fusillades, which began to be discharged in honour of the more important
lords, especially in Tegre. A
chronicle, describing the fusillade fired on Iyasu IFs death
in 1755, states that such shooting was by then the custom of the people of Tegre. A
decade or so later, in 1766, Ras Mika'el Sehul is said to have been welcomed in
Bagemder by his Tegre troops, not only with singing and music, but also with the
noise of which resembled the thunder of keremt [i.e. the rainy season], and could
rifles
be heard a day's journey away. The people of Bagemder and Dawent were so
"astonished" by this uproar, the chronicler declares, that it seemed to them that they
were witnessing nothing less than the coming of Christ. Mika'el' Sehul's arrival in
Gondar in 1767 was likewise celebrated by both the beating of drums and the firing
of guns which is again likened to thunder. The custom of firing fusillades for members
of the nobility later spread to other parts of the country. A chronicle reports that
when one of the chieftains of Gondar, Haylu Esate, marched into Wagara, he was
received "with salutes of guns" according to the custom of that country.
Fusillades by the late eighteenth century were also fired throughout the northern
provinces to announce the death of members of the nobility. A
chronicle for 1782 for
example indicates guns informed the people of the death of
that a discharge of
Dajazma'c Baqatu, one of the governors of Amhara, while Pearce, describing the
funeral at Antalo in 1807 of Dabab, brother of Ras Walda Sellase, the ruler of Tegre,
states that on the appearance of the cortege, "numbers of soldiers in front began firing
their matchlocks."
(iii) Fusillades for the Common People
The import of increasing numbers of fire-arms into Tegre and other areas of the
north in the early nineteenth century led to a further significant widening in the class !
of persons whose funerals were honoured by fusillades. By the 1840's the firing of
rifles had thus become common at many funerals in and around Adwa, where j
Mansfield Parkyns reported that "those who have guns discharge them in the air." The
use of funeral fusillades was also reported at about the same time in Bagemder where
Antoine d'Abbadie noted that rifle shots were customarily fired over the grave.
By time fire-arms also played a prominent role, at an increasingly popular

this I
level, in festivities. Pearce notes that the dowry of many a chiefs son
Tegre wedding
would include "a certain number of matchlocks," besides Maria Theresa dollars, and
such traditional items as swords, cattle, cloth and amole, or salt bars. generation A j
or so later Parkyns indicated that the better-to-do farmers in the Adwa area were by !
then also in possession of fire-arms which accordingly formed part of many dowries,
j
Such gifts, depending on the wealth and generosity of the family, usually consisted of !
"a gun or two," in addition to "a two-edged sword mounted in silver," a rug, some
brass utensils, such as a ewer and basin, and several articles of furniture. Poorer
farmers, though in most cases not yet possessing their own fire-arms, were likewise
accompanied to their weddings by "a considerable number of men carrying guns,"
which would, however, be "all borrowed." The bridegroom nevertheless carried himself
as gallantly as possible, and looked "as proud as if the gunners, shield-bearers, mules,
finery, and all really belonged to him; though perhaps only the day before he was
toiling and cracking his whip behind his plough oxen."
294
Rustic weddings in Tegre, as a result of the diffusion of fire-arms, were thus by
then accompanied by fusillades reminiscent of the royal ceremonies of old. On the
wedding day the bridegroom and his party setting out for the house of his betrothed
would by then take a number of fire-arms with them. On reaching their destination
the bridal party would "commence galloping around," whereupon, Parkyns states, the
gunners fired off their match-locks, and lancers dashed here and there, enacting a sort
of sham-fight. Another prominent feature at many weddings in Tegre was the deball,
or war dance, which was performed by men "armed with shields and lances," who,
"with bounds, feints and springs", attacked others armed with guns, so as "to approach
them, and at the same time avoid their fire", while the gunners made "similar
demonstrations", and at last fired off their guns "either in the air or into the earth".
Fusillades by this time were so common in the northern provinces that they were
also employed at church festivals in the more important towns. At Dabra Tabor the
feast of St. John was thus celebrated in 1834, Combes and Tamisier state, with such
old-style features as music and dancing, to which was added, by way of novelty, the
firing of rifles. At Adwa the celebration of Masqal, or Feast of the Cross, likewise
began, Parkyns records, with "a discharge of fire-arms at sunset, from all the principal
houses."
Fusillades, which little more than a century earlier had been the exclusive
prerogative of emperors, had thus by the early nineteenth century entered the life of
12
the common people.
The Advent of Money and its Consequences
Though money had been coined in the Aksumite kingdom for close on a
millennium, the Ethiopian economy throughout most of the period covered by this
volume was based on barter or on exchange employing such items of "primitive
money" as bars of salt or iron or pieces of cloth. Foreign currency, which was to have
a significant impact on economic, social and cultural life in a number of directions,
nevertheless made its appearance in medieval times, and expanded greatly in
circulation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
(i) Foreign Medieval Coins
Coins, which were imported into Ethiopia in the course of trade, seem to have
arrived in the country in the early medieval epoch. In the fourteenth century
first
Egyptian dinars and drams, according to Ibn Fadl Allah, had some currency in the
eastern provinces, notably Ifat, while a century later the Ethiopian monk Brother
Antonio of Lalibala told Zorzi that Hungarian and Venetian ducats and the "silver
coins of the Moors" were employed in purchasing consignments of imported goods at
the major trading centre of Gendebelu in eastern Sawa. The circulation of such coins
12
Whiteway (1902) 148; Conti Rossini (1907) 77; Esteves Pereira (1900) 95-6; Tellez (1710) 184;
Pankhurst (1972a) 53, 56; Guidi (1903) 100, 187, 246-7, (1912), 43, 136, 181, 219-20, 226; Foster (1949)
117-8; Weld Blundell (1922) 258, 262; Pearce (1831) I, 193, 316; Parkyns (1853) II, 53, 55, 63, 83;
Antoine d' Abbadie (n.d.) 44.
295
Amole, or bars of salt, traditionally used as currency, but by the mid-nineteenth century beginning to be
replaced by the Maria Theresa dollar. From A.H. Quiggin,yl Survey of Primitive Money (London, 1949).
was, however, limited, and trade, continued to be based in the main on barter, or j
13
"primitive money."
(ii) The Maria Theresa Dollar
Foreign currency made its appearance on a larger scale towards the end of the
eighteenth century, when the Maria Theresa dollar, or thaler, began to be brought into
Ethiopia by foreign merchants. The coin, which was first struck in Vienna in 1751, and
soon gained popularity throughout the Middle East, owed its circulation in Ethiopia
to the fact that the value of the country's exports, through Massawa and other ports
and trade routes, was greater than that of non-monetary imports, the difference being
made up by the import of currency.
Maria Theresa dollars, like fire-arms, were imported along the main trade
routes, and therefore found their way first to the ports and principal commercial
centres inland, and later to the country at large. Tegre, because of its relative
proximity to Massawa, was one of the provinces in which the coin first arrived in
substantial quantities. Supplies in the early days were, however, far from plentiful. In
the opening decade of the nineteenth century Henry Salt reported that he had been
unable to obtain any coins either at the great market town of Adwa or at Antalo, Ras
Walda Sellase's capital, where the chief told him that it was a town of "cattle, bread,
and honey," and added, "Why do you want money? There is none to be had here."j
Money, Salt commented, was "an extremely scarce article", and its shortage "a most
serious inconvenience". Stocks, however, seem to have later increased fairly rapidly,
for when the old Ras died in 1816 his treasurer, Gabra Maryam, revealed that his
master had amassed no less than 75,000 Maria Theresa dollars. Imports into Sawa
by way of the Gulf of Aden ports, and into the Gondar area from Sudan, were also
considerable. In the 1830's Ruppell estimated that almost 100,000 coins were in,
circulation in the northern provinces, while in the following decades there werej
13
Gaudefroy-Demombynes (1927) 14; Crawford (1958) 173.
296
reports, as we shall see, of even larger numbers entering Sawa. Testimony to the
advent of money is found in Bagemder land sales many of which are
of this period,
recorded term used for Maria Theresa dollars, rather than
in berr, literally silver, the
in waqet, or ounces, of gold, as was customary in earlier records.
The Maria Theresa thaler, or dollar, first imported into Ethiopia in the late eighteenth century and the
main coin in circulation in the nineteenth. From G. Bianchi, Alia terra del Galla (Milan, 1886).
The new currency, despite obvious advantage over barter and "primitive
its
money," was not easily accepted. Many

people, particularly in the central or southern
provinces, were thus reluctant to use or receive coins. The Gallas, or Oromos, at Bollo
Warqe market near Angolala in Sawa were for example said by Krapf to have had "a
great aversion to money." Harris likewise recalls that during the preparation for one
of Sahla Sellase's expeditions a chief called Abagaz Maracfoffered his horse for sale.
"Two hundred pieces of salt was the price fixed upon," but "as this small change was
not procurable within thirty miles, and moreover would have formed the load of two
jack-asses," ten Maria Theresa dollars "were forwarded in lieu thereof." The chief,
far from pleased, replied, "I have kept your silver because you have sent it; but in
future when I sell you a horse, I shall expect you to pay me in salt."
The peasants, who had formerly scrutinised bars of salt and other items of
"primitive money" (the size and quality of which was highly variable) with great care
before accepting them, subjected the new currency to a similar critical inspection.
Coins, Riippell reports, were accepted only after careful examination. Vendors when
offered a dollar might insist for example that Maria Theresa's diadem should have
seven clearly marked pearls, that her face be free from any veil, that the star on her
shoulder be of the right size and be surrounded by a distinctly visible row of pearls.
Suspicious persons would even look out to ascertain that the minters' initials "S.F."
were visible under the queen's head. Thalers of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria,
though of the same size and silver content as the Maria Theresa dollar, were likewise
accepted only with difficulty, and at a discount of at least ten or fifteen per cent, while
Spanish piastres and other silver coins, though in use in many parts of the Middle
East, were entirely rejected. A merchant who arrived at Gondar from Sennar in
ignorance of this fact was reported to have been obliged to change his Spanish coins
for Maria Theresa dollars at an exchange rate of three to two before he could do
business. Coins other than the Maria Theresa dollar, though rejected by the peasants
297
and the public at large, nevertheless had non-monetary value, as they could be handed
over to silversmiths for melting down into jewellery - or be disposed of to traders
travelling outside the country.
The situation in Sawa was not dissimilar. Maria Theresa dollars were invariably
treated with the most careful scrutiny, and to be acceptable, Krapf says, had not only
to have the seven points and the initials "S.F.", but should be "spick and span", for it
was widely suspected that a dirty coin might have had filth applied to it to conceal the i
fact that it was a forgery. Coins bearing the effigy of Maria Theresa were often spoken
of as set berr, or "woman dollars," to distinguish them from those Franz Josef, referred
to as wand berr, or "man dollars," which had as much as a quarter less purchasing
14
power.
(iii) Increasing Taxation
Despite much popular opposition to the new currency, the coming of substantial
quantities of coins was important in that it provided Ethiopian society with a new and
in many ways much more convenient form of wealth than had previously existed This
was particularly useful to rulers and governors who used the newly introduced money
both for immediate purchases, especially of fire-arms, and as a means of saving,
mainly for the future acquisition of weapons.
As long as taxes had been collected in kind, in such articles as grain, cattle, salt,
honey, butter, etc., the amount that a chief could effectively use - or store - was fairly
restricted, but with the advent of money there was no such limitation. The revenue
he desired, and sought to obtain, was thus greatly expanded, with the result that the
exactions on the peasantry, traders, and common people in general were
correspondingly much increased.
The coming of money thus resulted in a significant increase in taxation. A first,

and apparently substantial, augmentation appears to have taken place in Tegre in the
middle of the eighteenth century during the time of Ras Mika'el Sehul, whose great
wealth is evident from the chronicle of Iyasu II (1730-1755) and that of the latter's son
and successor Iyo'as I. These annals ecstatically report the tribute which the Ras
received in gold, "silver"- almost certainly Maria Theresa dollars - carpets and other
objects, much of which he later gave to his dependants or passed on to his nominal
overlords at Gondar. Mika'el was "violent in the pursuit of riches... in his owr
province", Bruce wrote, and "spared no means nor man to procure them," but, or
coming to Gondar, was "lavish of his money to the extreme; and indeed ... set no value
upon it farther than it served to corrupt men to his end," with the result that "al
Gondar were his friends." The importance of such taxes was not lost on Iyo'as';
chronicler, who quotes Biblical sanction for it in the words, "Render ... unto Caesai
the things that are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."
Memories of what must have been a considerable rise in taxation were still aliv*'
in the early nineteenth century when Henry Salt visited Tegre, and was told by ai
14
Valentia (1809) III, 63, 154; Pearce (1831) II, 95-6; Ruppell (1838-40) II, 18-9, 332; Harris (1844) $
171, III, Pankhurst (1968a) 468; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 275, 365; Combes and Tamisier (1838|
28;
IV, 108-9; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, Part II, 81; Johnston (1844) II, 234.
298
old man I (1682-1706) his district had "paid only three
that during the reign of Iyasu
hundred pieces of but that Ras Mika'el had "raised it to three thousand."
cloth,"
Further evidence of an increase in taxes is afforded by oral tradition, recorded by
Perini, which states that during the reign of Emperor Iyasu II a levy of a Maria
Theresa dollar per animal on peasants ploughing with beasts of burden, and half a
dollar on persons cultivating by hand, was introduced in the districts of Hamasen,
Saraye and Akkala Guzay.
A subsequent increase, and apparent monetarisation, of taxes took place in the

late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries during the governorship of Ras Walda
Sellase, the very time when large quantities of the new currency were being imported.
The imposition of taxes in this period is recalled in the oral traditions of Sa'azzaga and
Hazzaga, as recorded by Kolmodin: referring to an earlier codification of taxes carried
out by Iyasu I in 1698, these relate that Walda Sellase called important chiefs to the
market town of Kodofalassi, where he asked each of them, "How much do you pay,
according to the tax of the King of Kings Iyasu?" The people of Karnesem, who were
dishonest, replied, "Our tribute is three hundred and fifty dollars," but Kantiba Zar'ay,
a nobleman who wished to win the Ras's favour, intervened, saying, "That is a lie!
Your tribute is five thousand!" The men of Karnesem, realising that their statement
was disbelieved, then changed their tune, and remarked to the other representatives
there assembled, "Then you can pay as much as us, and you must also do so!", a
suggestion which Walda Sellase of course promptly accepted. The inhabitants of
nearby Daqatasem then assembled, presumably on their master's orders, to decide on
their taxes, although, significantly enough, they had never paid anything at all in the
time of Iyasu.
Walda were also levied on the merchants, and in particular on

Sellase's taxes
those engaged in export-import business who had easiest access to money, and other
imported commodities. From such traders the ruler of Tegre extracted a share of
their wares, among them "dollars", as well as "cloths, matchlocks, carpets, velvets, silks,
and other articles." The right of tax collection was granted, or farmed out, to special
officials, often bearing the we have seen, of nagadras, or chief of the traders,
title, as
who held "the office of collector"and paid "a certain sum yearly for it, whether trade
be slack or brisk." Income from such taxes amounted at Adwa to 110 ounces of gold,
or the equivalent of 1,760 dollars per year, besides two-thirds of all duties upon foreign
goods brought up from the coast, as well as on slaves, ivory, and civet from the
interior. Receipts at Antalo were somewhat smaller: 55 ounces of gold in addition to
a third of the duty on slaves, horses, mules, and ivory, and all those on salt. Special
taxes, levied partially in cash, were also on occasion ordered, notably in 1815 when
Walda Sellase proclaimed, as we have seen, by the beat of the drum that every village
chief should "collect from his tenants two dollars each in hard money, cloth, or salt,
and the larger towns from ten to twenty each, as a subscription to pay the expenses
of bringing a patriarch from Egypt."
The collection of taxes in Maria Theresa dollars appears to have been further
stepped up in the second and third decades of the century. In Akkala Guzay, one of
the few areas for which information is available, the nominal yearly tribute was one
I
carpet and a rifle until the time of Dajazmac Sabagades (1817-1824), who introduced
a tax of 1,000 Maria Theresa dollars, albeit payable in either silver or cattle, as
Antoine d'Abbadie asserts. This was subsequently increased by Dajazmac Webe (1825-
1855) who, according to traditions collected by Perini, established an annual tax of
299
5,000 dollars, for which reason the Italian considered him the real initiator of the
district's taxes. It was
however, long, d'Abbadie states, before the tax was
not,
j
augmented to 11,000 or 12,000 dollars. A similar expansion in monetary taxes occurred

in neighbouring Hamasen and Saraye, which, according to Combes and Tamisier,
together provided Webe in the 1830's with an annual revenue of 30,000 dollars.
Rulers of the country were by then so interested in obtaining revenues in cash

that,spurning their subjects' prejudice against all but the most perfect of dollars, they
|
often gave orders to the merchants, Combes and Tamisier report, to "accept any kind
of dollars." Despite his injunction, the traders, doubtless reflecting the more
conservative attitudes of the populace, "always refused" to use any but Maria Theresa
dollars.
Taxation towards the middle of the century reached considerable proportions.

Webe, after his defeat by Ras Ali in 1842, levied a special tax on Adwa to make good I
his losses, and, according to Isenberg, collected 2,400 dollars which worked out at
about a dollar per citizen. Peasants throughout Tegre and other northern provinces j
were by this time also subjected to a significant amount of taxation in cash, as well as
in kind. "Numerous imposts" on land - as opposed to trade, where cash payments had
been common somewhat earlier - thus, according to Consul Plowden, "sometimes took
the form of a regular tax in money." The burden of the common people moreover was
not confined to taxes, but also included all sorts of fines, which, Parkyns observes,
were "frequently converted by bad men - especially in troubled times, when the throne
is unstable, and men do as they please - into a means of cruel extortion."
Efforts were also made to augment the monetary revenues from trade. Though
the records on the subject are imprecise, and difficult to correlate, the evidence tends
to suggest that the number of kella, or internal customs posts at which merchants were
obliged to pay dues, was increased. The proportion of dues collected in money seems
likewise to have risen. Merchants passing through Antalo early in the century paid
mostly in imported cloth and berelle, or glass bottles, as Salt records, but by the 1830's
Ruppell and Blondeel both record heavy monetary exactions, while Combes and
Tamisier exclaimed that the tolls, notably at Adwa, had "above all in recent times"
become "revolting." The proportion of taxes actually collected in cash varied, however,
greatly from place to place, and depended largely on the uneven penetration of money.
At the smaller tolls it was still normal practice in the 1840's, Ferret and Galinier
affirm, for dues to be levied in cloth, salt and even tobacco, and only "rarely" in
money, but at an important place like Adwa they were largely paid in currency. Webe,
according to a British naval officer, Commander Nott, thus collected a dollar on every
slave passing through the town, and two dollars on every ivory tusk, while Plowden
reported in 1852 that dues there and at Dabareq "generally" amounted to "about 1
dollar per mule-load."
While Walda Sellase was introducing new taxes in Tegre, the system of tribute !
was likewise being reorganized in Sawa, where significant quantities of money were
then also beginning to arrive. The new dues were imposed by the local ruler
Maredazmac Asfa Wassan (1775-1808), who, according to Rochet d'Hericourt, for the
first time levied "a light tax on each village," and thereby "created an annual revenue
not enjoyed by his predecessors." Taxes in Sawa, as in Tegre, fell heavily on trade. By
the early 1840's Aleyu Amba market was said by Barker to have yielded an annual
300
revenue of not less than 3,000 dollars in cash as against only 2,000 in kind. The
monetization of taxation by this time was thus well advanced.
Changes in the tax structure also took taken place in Bagemder around the turn
of the century or a little later when Ras Gugsa Mersa (1799-1825) appropriated lands
from the nobility, and, according to Arnauld d'Abbadie, "increased his revenues by a
considerable figure." Taxes in this province, as elsewhere, were largely levied on trade.
Such dues in early nineteenth-century Gondar were estimated by Pearce at 520 ounces
of gold, or the equivalent of 8,320 dollars perannum, while the city's chief customs
officer,Nagadras Asaber, later told Gobat in 1830 that he paid the provincial ruler
"five thousand dollars yearly." The revenues of Dabareq were likewise considerable,
and provided 3,000 dollars to the governor of Samen, and the same amount again to
the nagadras, or chief of customs, whom the people accused of being a "tyrant."
The coming of large numbers of coins had thus by the middle of the century
substantially increased the revenues of the rulers, as well as the tax burden on the
15
common people throughout the country.
(iv) Capital Accumulation and Money-Lending
The advent of money, and the related augumentation of taxes, greatly facilitated
the accumulation of capital by the few. Several rulers succeeded in filling their
treasuries with coin,much of which, as above noted, was from time to time dispensed
in the purchase of fire-arms, while a number of churches and monasteries receiving
dues in money also acquired small fortunes. A group of merchants engaged in export-
import trade likewise obtained much wealth in cash. Usury, a practice earlier banned
at Gondar, and hitherto virtually unknown in the country at large, thereupon began
to flourish.
In Tegre Ras Walda Sellase amassed considerable wealth. At the time of his
death in 1816, he was, as we have seen, reported to have been in possession of no less
than 75,000 silver dollars, as against 50 ounces i.e. 800 dollar's worth, of gold. His
successor, Dajazmac Sabagades (1818-1831) similarly possessed a considerable amount
of cash which enabled him on one occasion to give his British aide Coffin 2,000 dollars
for the purchase of fire-arms, and the chiefs sons were later reported to be buying
percussion rifles for over 50 dollars each. Several of the more important religious
establishments of Tegre likewise acquired extensive stocks of silver, in part because,
unlike the rulers, they had no need to spend their money on arms. A monastery in
the "wilderness" of Tamben was thought by Pearce to have thus come into possession
of no less than 5,000 dollars.
The rulers of Samen also followed an acquisitive policy. Ras Gabre and his
successor Dajazmac Hayla Maryam are stated by Parkyns to have both accumulated
Pankhurst (1979-80) 43-4; Bruce (1790) II, 650, III, 107, 112, 118; Guidi (1903) 125-6, 132, 156, 206-7,
!
214, 220, 222, 224, 226-30, 264-5; Kolmodin (1912-5) 97-8; Pearce (1931) I, 340-1, II, 11-5, 51, (1920),
47; Perini (1905) 75-6; Antoine d'Abbadie (n.d.) 352-3, 562; Parkyns (1853) II, 231; Lefebvre (1845-8)
:
I, xliii; Plowden (1868)
137; Valentia (1809) III, 213-5; Combes and Tamisier (1831) IV, 124-5; Tamisier
and Combes (1837) 33; Ferret and Galinicr (1847) II, 411-2; Ruppell (1838-40) I, 249,310, 327, 337, 355,
358, 360, 371, 375-6, 391, 394-5; Biondeel (1838-42), 42-4; Isenberg (1843) 17 June; Rochet d'Hericourt
(1841) 212, (1846) 243; Cecchi (1885-7) I, 240; Gobat (1834) 76, 233; Barker (1906) 289.
301
"much wealth." The latter's famous son, Dajazmac' Webe, subsequently paid his
nominal overlord, the Emperor at Gondar, what Plowden describes as the "small
yearly tribute" of 5,000 to 10,000 Maria Theresa dollars, while retaining the greater
part of his revenues at his mountain fortress of Amba Hay. When captured by
Emperor Tewodros in 1855, his treasury there was found to contain, according to;
Stern, 40,000 dollars, besides "a great quantity of gold and silver plate," "a vast quantity;
of copper, and a countless number of coloured Venetian bottles." The figure of 40,000
dollars was also quoted by other travellers, among them Lejean and Dufton.
A not dissimilar horde of wealth was collected in Bagemder where Empress

Manan, mother of Ras Ali Alula, is said to have held in her treasury 30,000 dollars
which she was later obliged to hand over to Tewodros, as Flad asserts. Several
monasteries in the province also acquired considerable stocks of cash, among therm
that at Qorata, whose members were reputed by Gobat to have been "very rich.*'!
Despite earlier clerical opposition to usury, they are reputed, as we have seen, to have,
exacted 240% interest per annum as against the more usual 10% per month, or 120%i
per year.
The merchants of Bagemder, and above all of Gondar, were also able tc
accumulate sizeable amounts of cash. One of the most prosperous, in the 1830's and
1840's, was Nagadras Kidana Maryam, described as "a rich merchant" and "one of the
wealthiest" men in the country, who supplied cash to Gobat and Combes and Tamisier.
normally at a rate of interest of 10% per month. Another wealthy merchant was
Walda Kidana Maryam, possibly the son of the latter, who was said by Flad to have
been worth 60,000 dollars. On his deathbed in 1858 he bequeathed five dollars to each
of Gondar's forty-four churches, and fifteen dollars to each of his 40 slaves whom he
then manumitted.
The rulers of §awa similarly obtained substantial monetary revenues whicl

probably reached their peak during the reign of King Sahla Sellase, whose annua
income, Harris asserts, amounted to 80,000 or 90,000 dollars a year, accrued chiefb
from duties on foreign merchandise, slaves and salt, whereas state expenditure did no'
exceed 10,000 dollars.
Sahla Sellase, who, because of his relative isolation had less need than the ruled
of the north to purchase extensive quantities of fire-arms, probably indeed saved ;
considerable proportion of his income. A "large part" of the coins entering the realm
according to Rochet, thus ended up in the royal treasury, with the result that "ver
few" remained in circulation. Johnston agreed that "all the coin" coming to the country
if not melted down to produce jewellery, fell "into the hands of the King." This pictun
is confirmed by Harris who declared it "probable" that the monarch, during his lonj
reign of nearly thirty years, "must have amassed considerable treasure" which wa
"carefully deposited underground and not lightly estimated by its possessor."
Rochet, who claims, perhaps truthfully, to have been allowed to see Sahl
Sellase' treasury, asserts thatwas situated at Qundi, north of Ankobar, and consiste<
it
of a cave ten metres long by three wide and two high in which the coins were kept ii
two rows of closely packed jars with a narrow passage of only two or three fee
between them. There could have been, he claimed, almost three hundred jars, eacl
containing 5,000 to 6,000 dollars, i.e. a total of 1,500,000 to 1,800,000 coins - whic
must, however, be reckoned an improbably high figure. Hitherto, he was told, the kin
302
had followed his predecessors' example in having the coins melted down, but later,
"realising that the principal advantage of money" was its "mobility," contented himself
with keeping it in sacks. Reference to this treasury was, interestingly enough, also
made by Johnston who states that the money was "securely packed in jars, and
deposited in caves." The hill of Qundi, he adds, was "pierced by numerous
subterranean passages, in which are hidden in this manner immense treasures in gold
and silver. They are kept closed by heavy doors of iron, and the whole hill, which is
surmounted by a church, dedicated to the Virgin, is under the care of a vast number
of priests."
Sahla Sellase's interestin money is also evident from the fact that he went so far
as to ask the missionaries Krapf and Isenberg, in 1843, whether they "understood" how
to stamp dollars," and, when asked what he needed from Europe, replied that he
"wished for nothing, except a coining apparatus." The monarch's wealth, and that of
his son and heir King Hayla Malakot, were legendary. One probably apocryphal story,
recorded in the early twentieth century by British Consul Walker, has it that when the
latter ruler realised that his death was near "he caused to be written a paper of
declaration telling of all the money he had. Fearing lest his boy [i.e. Menilek] in his
ignorance might not gather together all the wealth, he made a list of all - not omitting
one broken needle - and had the writing sewn up in a leather case. And this was
strung upon the long neck-cord of Menilik. But, before the boy had grown to manhood
and knowledge, there came an enemy, the Emperor Theodore, who seized him and
asked where was his father's money. And Menilik replied, 'My father gave me nothing
- only this which I carry round my neck.' Then Theodore broke the stitches and found
where the money was buried."
The advent Sawa led, as in the northern

of coins in early nineteenth century
provinces, to a fair amount of money-lending, which was based on a rate of interest
of one bar of salt per dollar, or the equivalent of between 5% and 10% per month,
or 60 to 120% per annum. Some of the province's peasants seem also to have realized
the advantages of hoarding money. The people of Yefat were thus reported by Krapf
in the 1840's to be storing their wealth in cash, a far easier commodity in which to do
16
this than in primitive money.
(v) Emperor Tewodros's Wealth
The rise of Emperor Tewodros led, as we have seen, to his seizure of

considerable quantities of coin, including 40,000 dollars in Samen, 30,000 in Bagemder,
and an undefined amount in Sawa. Though thus gaining access to unparalleled
quantities of wealth, Tewodros never had sufficient to meet his needs, and in 1866
complained bitterly to Rassam of his compatriots' niggardliness, declaring, "The people
of my country would sooner bury their money in the ground than trade with it or pay
me a percentage out of it."
Rochet d' Hericourt gave a much higher estimate of Sawan revenues, which, he claimed, were running
at250,000 to 300,000 dollars a year, an "enormous sum in a country where money is excessively rare,
and almost never employed in individual transactions," while the king's expenses, he agrees, were
This revenue figure must, however, be regarded with suspicion, particularly when it is
"insignificant".
realised that average annual mintings ofMaria Theresa dollars in Vienna in the 1840s totalled scarcely
over 250,000 coins - which were exported not only to Ethiopia, but also throughout the Middle East.
303
Tewodros's revenues, which fluctuated with his military fortunes, were extracted
from the various provinces under his sway. In 1859, for example, he obtained 10,000
dollars from Sawa, as noted by the chronicler Zanab. The Emperor's subsequent
conquest of Tegre was important in that it made possible the collection of taxes in
that province, as well as in the districts north of the Marab river which were of great
fiscal significance because of their relative proximity to the coast through which Maria
Theresa dollars were imported. The prevalence of currency in the Hamasen area in
this period is illustrated by a tradition which tells of a local chief, Bahr Nagas
Asgadom of Safe'a, offering a bet of no less than ten thousand dollars.
Tewodros's annual revenues in the early 1860's, as indicated in tax records, ran
at some 240,000 Maria Theresa dollars, of which 190,000, or about 80%, came from
Tegre. Of that amount 32,000 dollars were collected from the lands "beyond the
Marab" river, i.e. Hamasen and Saraye, 15,000 from the area beyond Sire, 15,000 from
Akkala Guzay, 10,000 from the Teltal nomads to the east, and 25,000 dollars in
caravan dues. The magnitude of the taxes levied on the highland areas nearest the
coast is confirmed by Egyptian records which state that Hamasen was supposed to pay
62,000 dollars a year, though it ceased to do so after 1861.
Bagemder and the country to the west, which obtained their currency as a result
of trade through Sudan, also contributed significantly to the Emperor's coffers. One
of Tewodros's tax documents indicates that the province yielded about 47,000 dollars,
17
or about 20% of the total recorded revenue.
Supplies of cash were also obtained by Tewodros though not on a regular basis
- from punitive confiscations and fines. Abuna Salama was said by Flad to have been |
obliged to surrender 20,000 dollars in 1863 for insulting the monarch, while two rich I
merchants of Qorata were made to part with 20,000 and 10,000 each in 1865, and the ]
rich Muslim merchants at Darita were reported by Massaia to have on one occasion
provided 15,000 dollars. Gondar, whose inhabitants "refused to pay the usual taxes,"
Rassam notes, was sacked in 1864 and 1866 when the soldiers, according to Blanc,
"searched every house" and "plundered every building," after which the monarch i
returned to his camp, Flad's wife Pauline reports, "laden with gold and valuables"!
which he showered on his European favourites, Mrs. Flad herself receiving 50 dollars.
Some coins, including a cache of 590 dollars found at Gondar, were also melted down, I
together with sundry copper vessels, chronicler Walda Maryam relates, for the casting!
of one of the Emperor's most highly prized cannons.
Tewodros's monetary revenues which, taken together, must have been by no

means inconsiderable, enabled him to spend large, but unfortunately not recorded,
sums of cash on the import of arms, as well as to attempt the introduction of
monetary payments to the troops. He also rewarded sundry European gunsmiths with;
Much higher figures were, however, quoted by Tewodros's European captives. Blanc (1868, 310)
believed that the taxes of Bagemder amounted to 300,000 dollars a year, while Rassam (1869, II, 16)|
wrote of 350,000. Both figures should perhaps be treated with caution. Much of the taxes collected in;
Bagemder came from trade, Rassam claiming that Celga, one of the main customs posts on the!
western trade route, yielded 100,00 dollars per annum.
304
sums of 1,000 or 500 dollars each, and displayed unprecedented largesse, presenting
18
Rassam, for example, with two gifts each of 5,000 dollars.
(vi) The Dollar as a Unit of Weight
The arrival of the Maria Theresa dollar also had notable non-monetary
consequences, one of which was to provide the society with its first accurate measure
of weight. The Ethiopians had long possessed scales, and had used a number of
conceptual units of wealth, the most popular of which were the wdqet, or ounce, and
the rotl, or pound, both borrowed from the Arabs, as well as several Biblical
measurements which are mentioned in literary texts. Actual weights with which to
weigh were, however, for practical purposes non-existent, though there are indications
that foreign coins had sometimes been made to serve the purpose, as recorded by
Alvares who states that in the sixteenth century the Portuguese cnisado was so used.
The widespread diffusion of Maria Theresa dollars, however, greatly facilitated
weighing, for it became customary, as Beke noted in 1852, for these coins to be
"placed in the scale as a weight." The dollar was equated with the wdqet, while a dozen
or more coins - actually anything between 12 and 19 - were taken as equal to the rotl.
Though grain and other such provisions were usually measured in locally-made
baskets or other units of capacity, the dollar, or wdqet, became the principal
measurement used in the weighing of precious goods, principally gold, silver and civet,
while the rotl was much used for ivory and other export articles, among them coffee,
wax, civet and cardamom. The Maria Theresa coin thus played an important role in
19
introducing a more accurate system of measurement than in pre-monetary times.
(vii) Marriage and Funeral Ceremonies
After their appearance Maria Theresa dollars, like fire-arms, soon became a
familiar feature in the social life of the commercially more advanced areas of the
country. Early in the nineteenth century it was thus customary in Tegre, when a chiefs
son or daughter was married, for the dowry to include "hard money" and matchlocks
besides such traditional gifts, Pearce says, as swords, cattle, cloth and salt. similar A
state of affairs Sawa, a decade or so later, where Graham stated that
was reported in
it was by then not unusual, when concluding a marriage contract, for "a mule, an ass,
a dollar, a shield and some spears" to be "noted against the lady's stock of wheat,
cotton and bed-steads."
Pearce (1831) II, 95; Ruppell (1838-40) I, 327; Combes and Tamisier (1838) III, 347, IV, 110; GB
House of Commons (1868) 67-8; Parkyns (1853) II, 115; Lejean (1864) 218; Dufton (1867) 131; Gobat
(1834) 87, 167-8, 242, 303; Veitch (1860) 59; Harris (1844) II, 96, III, 28; Rochet d' Hericourt (1841)
286-7, 301; Johnston (1844) II, and Krapf (1843) 137, 306; Walker (1933) 32; Rassam
235-6; Isenberg
(1869) I, 35, 305, II, 7, , (1942) 174; Kolmodin (1912-5) 146; Pankhurst and Germa-
45, 131; Moreno
Sellassie Asfaw (1979) 7-8; Douin (1936-41) III, Part I, 333; Flad (1922) 141, 143, 163, 177; Massaia
(1885-95) IX, 27; Mondon-Vidailhet (1905) 177.
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) 1, 123-4; Beke (1852) p. 18; Parkyns (1853) I, 406, 408-21; Lefebvre
(1845-8) II, Part II, 31, 34. For the measures cited see Pankhurst (1970) 58 et passim.
305
On the death of a man of substance it likewise became the practice in Tegre,
according to Parkyns, for the "price of forty days' masses" to amount to "from six to
twelve dollars, or more, according to the wealth of the family."
Fines and "blood money" by this time were also paid in cash. A murderer at
Dabareq, Gobat reports, was thus condemned to pay 200 dollars, and in consequence
took his stand in the market, begging for charity, until he had the wherewithal to pay.
This was no unusual case, for the governors often proposed that the death penalty be
20
commuted to a money payment, often as much as 250 dollars.
(viii) A Source of Silver
The coming of the Maria Theresa dollar was also important in overcoming the
country's hitherto acute shortage of silver, a deficiency that was the more acute in
that the use of gold, as we have seen, was traditionally restricted to royalty, and
therefore not available for the population at large. By the 1830's vast numbers of
coins, Combes and Tamisier suggest, were already being melted down for the
manufacture of jewellery, an operation which, Parkyns noted a decade or so later,
yielded handsome profits to the jewellers of Tegre. Artifacts of silver, which had been
little known until this time, also gained great popularity in Sawa where the womenfolk,
Johnston recalls, were, as earlier noted, "exceedingly fond of silver ornaments," so

much so indeed that almost "all their riches" consisted of "such stores."
The Maria Theresa dollar thus came to constitute in the words of the
subsequent Georgian physician Dr. Merab, "the silver mine of the Ethiopians," and
thereby provided the society with the metal out of which a large proportion of its
jewellery was fashioned - and it was in the nineteenth century that the personal name
21 j
Berru, literally "The silver" or "His silver", seems to have first become popular.
The Coming of Modern Medicine

|
There was a great yearning throughout this period for foreign medicines and
medical treatments which, like fire-arms and coins, made headway at first in royal and
princely circles, and later gained currency among the nobility, and more generally,
among the population of capitals and other centres of political power.
(i) Medieval Times
h
Interest in foreign medicine can
be traced back at least to the early sixteenths
century when Emperor Lebna Dengel wrote in 1521 to King Joao of Portugal, asking j
the latter to supply him with "men who make medicines and physicians and surgeons j
to cure illnesses." This request evoked no response, but Joao Bermudes, a barber-
j
surgeon attached to the Portuguese mission of that time, was considered so valuable;
zv
Pearce (1831) 316; Great Britain, India Office, Political and Secret Letters 5/ 420, para 2; Parkyns;
(1853) II, 65; Gobat (1850) 443-4. |
21
Parkyns (1853) II, 15-6; Johnston (1844) II, 335; Merab (1921-9) III, 401.
306
that he was retained in the country for over a decade during which time he is believed
22
to have introduced the monarch's court to European medical treatment.
(ii) The Gondar Period
Shortly after the founding of Gondar in 1636 a German Lutheran missionary,

Peter Heyling, carried out a number of European-style cures in that city. A favourite
of Emperor Fasiladas he was given a "delightful Apartment", Ludolf says, together
with a large revenue. The metropolis, because of its foreign contacts, was probably the
site of other medical innovations. One such was the use of steam-baths for the
sudorific treatment of syphilis. A
number of such bath-houses - which had then
recently become popular in Europe - were constructed in the vicinity of the great
castle of Fasiladas, the palace of Empress Mentewwab, and other imperial structures.
Considerable interest in foreign medicine was later displayed by Emperor lyasu

I who sent one of his trade agents, Haji Ali, to Cairo in 1698 to procure medical
assistance for himself and his son, both of whom were afflicted by a troublesome skin
complaint. In response to this request a French physician, Charles Poncet, duly
travelled to Gondar where he arrived in July 1699, and at once began treating the
23
royal patients, who, he claims, were soon "perfectly cur'd." Iyasu is said to have been
deeply interested in the Frenchman's medical knowledge, for, Poncet reports:
"I had carried with me into Aethiopia a little chest of chemical medicines,
which had cost me the labour of six or seven years. The Emperor inform'd
himself exactly after what manner those remedies were prepar'd, and how
they were applied: what effects they produc'd: for what distempers they
were proper. He was not satisfied with only a verbal account of things,
but he order'd it to be taken in writing. But what I most admir'd (i.e.
wondered at) was that he seem'd to be extremely pleas'd with the physical
24
reasons I gave him of everything."
The Frenchman also taught Iyasu how to make a "bezoar," or cure, for
"intermitting fevers," from which the monarch and two of his sons were later suffering,
and treated Iyasu's consort, Queen Malakatawit, for some other unidentified illness.
Before leaving, Poncet left the Emperor a box of medicines, as well as some
familiarity with European treatment - but no doctor.
Determined to remedy this latter deficiency Iyasu wrote in September 1701 to

the French Consul in Cairo, M. de Maillet, for a good doctor or surgeon. Nothing
came of the request, but the Emperor shortly afterwards took into his service a Greek
physician named Demetrius. The Greek medical presence in Gondar thus initiated
may well have continued for many years, for Bruce in 1770 found a Greek there called
Abba Christophorus who acted as a physician as well as a priest. The Scotsman, for
his part, also practiced medicine, first at Adwa, where he claims to have "saved many
Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) I, 61, 72, 390, II, 505; Rey (1929) 127-8;
-
23
Ludolf (1684) xxxv; Foster (1949) xxiv, 115-7; Pankhurst (1975a) 209-10;
24
Foster (1949) 131-2.
307
young peoples' lives" during a smallpox epidemic, and later at Gondar where he
treated other smallpox patients, among them several royal princes and some children j
in the Muslim quarter of the city. He subsequently also effected a number of cures
25
in other parts of the country.
The Early Nineteenth Century
The impact of Western medicine increased substantially in the early nineteenth

century, as a result of growing contacts between Ethiopia and the outside world. In
the 1830's Combes and Tamisier discovered that King Sahla Sellase was already in
possession of a "mass of European medicines which he had received from India by
way of Zeila." One of the foreign medicines which gained considerable popularity at
thistime was sarsaparilla, a cure for syphilis then widely used in Europe as well as the
Arab world. This medicine became known in Ethiopia as weseba, a term reported
early in the century by Pearce. Confirmation of the use of this drug is provided by
Combes and Tamisier who stated a generation later that it was used in particular by
Ethiopians who travelled down to the port of Massawa. Sarsaparilla was also
employed in Sawa where it was, however, almost prohibitively expensive, a complete
26
cure in the early 1840's costing no less than twenty Maria Theresa dollars.
Growing Ethiopian awareness of foreign medicine owed much to the increasing

numbers of foreign travellers who arrived at this time. Most of them, like those of
former times, practiced medicine to a greater or lesser extent, and seem indeed to
have been constantly asked to provide such assistance. "Everyone," Combes and
Tamisier recall:
"was perfectly persuaded that as whites we must be profoundly versed in

the study of medical sciences; also each person is anxious to consult us,
to ask for remedies or amulets with the conviction that we could achieve
the cure of the ill with which they were afflicted. ... Important men
appealed to us to give them aphrodisiacs and sterile women thought we
could procure for them the means of becoming fertile. A priest came to
present to us his son who was afflicted by a disease considered in Europe
27
as incurable."
The extent to which Ethiopians of this time had resort to foreigners for medical;
treatment confirmed by other travellers, among them Gobat, who, while in Gondar
is
j
in 1830, noted in his diary on May 4 that he could "hardly get across the city," fori
"everybody stops me, begging me to go to see the sick. The more I tell them I am not
a physician, the more they are persuaded that what I advise is the best remedy." Om
May 25 he likewise wrote, "today I had to deal only with sick people," while on May!
27 he added, "passed the forenoon in visiting the sick," and on the following day that!
"from sun-rise, till ten o'clock" his house was "full of people" seeking treatment. Other}
Foster (1949) xxiv, 115-7, 120, 131-2; Beccari (1903-17) XIV, 178, 348-9, 486; Bruce (1790) III, 200, 210,
245, III, 209-12.
Combes and Tamisier (1838) I, 279, II, 17-8, 34, 351; Pearce (1831) I, 301-2; Kirk (1843) 21.
Combes and Tamisier (1838) II, 8-9.
308
foreigners practicing medicine at this time included Arnauld d'Abbadie, who visited
many parts of the north, and was reportedbe treating people with "considerable
to
success;" the Protestant missionary Krapf, who travelled across the country, and found
calomel, or choloride of mercury, "very useful" in the treatment of venereal diseases;
and Mansfield Parkyns who used the same specific in Tegre to cure "many" cases with
"much success." Several foreign visitors also practiced medicine in Sawa, among them
Rochet d'Hericourt, who treated King Sahla Sellase for rheumatism, and his consort,
Queen Bazabes, for toothache; and one of the first medical practioners, the British
ship's captain, Charles Johnston, who supplied undefined "professional services" at
Ankobar, Angolala and Aleyu Amba.
The French scientific mission of 1839-43 and the British diplomatic mission of
1841-2 were both also involved in medicine. The former included two physicians, Petit
and Quartin-Dillon, who treated many sick people and carried out numerous
inoculations, mainly in Tegre, but also in Sawa. The British embassy, which also
included two medical practitioners, Kirk and Impey, handled 2,000 to 3,000 patients,
in and around Ankobar. Sahla Sellase is said to have taken a keen interest in the
medicaments brought in by his British visitors. Harris thus reported, on May 8, 1942:
"The King's attention would appear to be now solely engrossed in amassing medicines.
Finding that the stock of calomel had been nearly exhausted in the cure of fifteen
hundred syphilitic patients he has sent constantly during the last fortnight to request
supplies of every drug contained in the stores, with explicit directions for use."
Reverting to the matter in a subsequent report of June 20, the envoy noted, "The royal
stock of medicines was again brought down to be labeled, although very ample
directions relative to their properties had previously been given in Arabic writing at
Debra Berhan."
Besides visiting physicians there were a number of resident foreign practitioners

of sorts. They included an Armenian called Gorgorius who lived in Tegre and
administered corrosive sublimate in the cure of venereal diseases, a Turkish veterinary
assistant who had deserted from the Egyptian army and provided treatment in
Gondar, and an Ottoman bashibazouk at Massawa who made use of foreign medicines
acquired from various foreign travellers.
The cumulative effect of the coming, and residence in the country, of these and
other foreigners, as well as of the import of foreign medicines in the course of trade,
had far-reaching implications. Though the majority of the Ethiopian population
continued to depend on local, or traditional, medicines - based for the most part on
a wide range of local plants, the period under review witnessed a significant increase
in the use of foreign medicines, many of them chemicals, imported from abroad. This
development, which affected mainly the court and aristocracy, prominent traders with
access to the ports, and the better-to-do sections of the urban population, was
particularly noticeable in the treatment of venereal diseases, the medical field in which
28
the Ethiopian public was perhaps most responsive to change.
Gobat (1834) Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 159; Parkyns (1853) II, 274; Rochet d' Hericourt (1841)
194-5;
22-3, (1846) 125; Johnston (1844) II, 256; Lefebvre (1845-8) II, 355-66; India Office, Bombay Secret
Proceedings, 159/ 1486B, Krapf December 2, 1841, 185/ 1440 Barker, January 7, 1842, 189/2040, Harris,
March 3, 1842, 193/2918A, Harris, May 8, 1842, 193/2919, June 2 and 12, 1842, 193/2919A, Harris, May
8, 1842; Blanc (1868) 71-2, (1887) 361.
309
Sabbath Observance
Besides the above changes, connected with population growth, urbanisation,

deforestation and the advent of fire-arms, currency and foreign medicine, there were
other developments which no less directly affected the life of the Ethiopian people.
One such area of change, or proposed change, was that of Sabbath observance
which was the subject of controversy throughout much of the period under review.
The practice of observing Saturday as well as Sunday as the Sabbath dates back to
antiquity, and can be traced, according to Taddese Tamrat, to as early as the eleventh
century. Despite its antiquity Sabbath observance was vigorously opposed by the
Coptic Abuns from Egypt. These prelates, who constituted the apex of the Ethiopian
Church hierarchy, condemned it as a Jewish heresy, and gradually won over the
Ethiopian monarchy to their views. How far they succeeded in changing actual
behaviour in the countryside cannot be determined. It is, however, clear that many of
the Ethiopian clergy were unwilling to yield to anti-Sabbatarian pressure from officials
of either Church or State.
The arguments of the Coptic hierarchy were challenged in the fourteenth

century by the Ethiopian monk Ewostatewos who was persecuted for his opposition
to its attempt at Sabbath reform. His followers, however, soon became so powerful
that the reigning monarch, Emperor Dawit I, was obliged to call off attacks on the
Ewostatewosians, and went so far in 1404 as to grant them his protection. The views
of the pro-Sabbath partly thereupon rapidly gained ground, even within the court.
Emperor Zar'a Ya'qob, who came to the throne in 1434, was in particular a supporter
of the Ewostatewosian theses, and convened a church council in 1450 which ruled that
God had revealed the duty of the faithful to observe the two Sabbaths. This view was
likewise proclaimed in his Mashafa Berhan.
Coptic intransigence nevertheless continued, and gained ground in the late

fifteenth century during the reign of Eskender (1478-1494) who issued a doubtless
j
unpopular decree ordering that Saturday observance should be abandoned. Whether)

this was followed must again be a matter for speculation. Alvares, who learnt of the |
dispute a generation or so later from the Coptic Patriarch of his day, Abuna Marqos,i
states, however, that the anti-Sabbath position collapsed when two foreigners, thej
Venetian artist Brancaleone and the Portuguese Pero de Covilhao, arrived, and began!
to observe the Sabbath like the Ethiopian population. Some of the priests thenj
approached the Emperor, and, criticising the Coptic position, declared: "What thing!
is this? These Franks who have come from Frankland, each one from his owni
Kingdom, and they keep our ancient customs, how is it that this Abima [Abun], whoi
has come from Alexandria, orders things to be done which are not written in the!
books?" It was as a result of this initiative, Alvares was informed, that the Emperor!
gave orders that the country should return its "former usages."
Sabbath observance, which had been challenged for so long by the Coptic!
Abuns, later came under even fiercer attack from Roman Catholics, missionaries and
others. The first assault took place in the immediate aftermath of Ahmad Gran's
defeat in 1543 when the Portuguese, hoping to profit from Ethiopian gratitude for the
help they had rendered in the late war, tried to persuade Emperor Galawdewos to
accept the tenets of Catholicism. The monarch, however, refused to listen to the
310
blandishments of his erstwhile allies, and wrote his famous tract, the Confession of
Faith, to rebut the contentions of the Faranj. One section of the work dealt specifically
with the Sabbath, and, rejecting the Catholic argument that his compatriots had not
freed themselves from the ideas of the Jews, cleverly, if disingenuously, emphasised
i
the difference between Ethiopian and Jewish ideas and practices. The Confession,
referring to the Sabbath, thus observed: "We do not celebrate it after the manner of
the Jews, who crucified Christ, saying, 'His blood be on us and our children.'
(Matthew xxvii, 25). For the Jews do not draw water, or light a fire, or cook a dish of
food, or bake bread, or go from one house to another. But we celebrate the Sabbath
as the day in which we offer up the offering (i.e. the Sacrament), and we make feasts
thereupon, even as our Fathers the Apostles commanded. We do not celebrate the
Sabbath as the first day of the week, but as a new day, whereof David said, This is the
day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.' (Psalm cxviii, 24). For
on the Sabbath our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and on it the Holy Spirit
descended upon the Apostles in the upper room of Zion, and on it the Incarnation
took place in the womb of Saint Mary, the perpetual Virgin, and on it [Christ] will
come again to reward the just and to punish sinners."
A further,
and even more violent, confrontation over Sabbath observance began
some fifty more years later when the Jesuits arrived, and in due course succeeded
or
in converting Emperor Susenyos to Catholicism in 1626. Not long after this the Jesuit
Patriarch, Affonso Mendes, a man of extreme bigotry, attacked the celebration of the
Sabbath and other Ethiopian festivals, which, Ludolf later noted, had no specifically
religious basis, but "depended meerly" on Ethiopian custom, The prelate proceeded
to order the newly converted monarch to punish employers who failed to make people
work on Saturdays. Susenyos therefore issued a proclamation, which, according to
Bruce, stated that "all outdoor work, such as ploughing and sowing, should be publicly
followed by the husbandman on the Saturday, under penalty of paying a web of cotton
cloth, for the first omission, ... the second offence was to be punished by a confiscation
of movables, and the crimes were not to be pardoned for seven years." This edict was,
however, short-lived, for popular opposition to this, and other Jesuit policies, led to
so many rebellions that Susneyos was obliged to issue a new proclamation, in 1632,
restoring to the people "the faith of your fathers." The observance of the Sabbath,
which, despite the decree, had probably continued in most of the Christian regions,
was thus officially restored, and was doubtless strengthened when Susenyos's son
Fasiladas, a firm supporter of the Orthodox faith, shortly afterwards succeeded to his
father's throne.
The Sabbath observance, as we have seen

traditional Ethiopian practice of twin
was thus in force throughout the rest of the period covered in
in earlier chapters,
these pages." Gobat reported, that on the Saturday Sabbath, Ethiopian men and
women generally abstained from all their main occupations, though the womenfolk as
a rule continued with their spinning, while Harris, writing of Sawa, declared:
Taddesse Tamrat (1972) 209, 213, 216-7, 219, 222. 226, 230; Beckingham and Huntingford (1961) II, 354,
358; Ludolf (1684) 357-8; Bruce (1790) II, 338; Gobat (1850) 192; Budge (1928b), II, 354. See also
Hammerschmidt (1965) 5-11; Ullendorff (1968) 109-13.
311
"The Jewish Sabbath is strictly observed throughout the Kingdom. The ox
and the ass are at rest. Agricultural pursuits are suspended. Household
avocations must be laid aside, and the spirit of idleness reigns throughout
the day, and when, a few years ago, one daring spirit presumed, in advance
of the age, to burst the fetters, His Majesty the King of Shoa, stimulated
by the advice of besotted monks, issued a proclamation that those who
violated the Jewish Sabbath should forfeit his property to the royal
30
treasury and be consigned to the state dungeon."
Sabbath observance was if anything stronger in Gojjam where Plowden observes:
"The Saturday... is held of equal sanctity with the Sunday, so that water
cannot be drawn, nor wood hewn, from Friday evening to Monday
31
morning."
Smoking and Snuffing
Though most of the dictates of the Church, including fasting, food prohibitions
and celebration of the twin Sabbath, continued throughout the period, some changes
in connection with smoking, taking snuff and the drinking of coffee were beginning to
take place.
Smoking, a practice which is said to have originated among the Muslims, and
later gained popularity with other non-Christian sections of the population, for that
reason incurred the animosity of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The custom,
according to a tradition recorded in a nineteenth century Amharic History of Gran
and the Gallas of uncertain historical accuracy, was introduced into the Ethiopian
realm in the sixteenth century, during the reign of Lebna Dengel (1508-1540). The
text claims that smoking was brought in by the Oromos, and later adopted by the
Emperor and his Christian subjects who as a result were consumed by the sins of
pride, debauchery and idolatry. The Ecage, or chief of the monks, it is said, was
deeply concerned at the introduction of smoking, but a group of Egyptian and other
foreign Christians told the Emperor that the practice was permitted in their own
countries. He therefore prevented the clergy from condemning the custom, after which
"all the priests began to smoke." The practice gained such popularity that a monk at
Dabra Metmaq is said to have taken tobacco while celebrating Mass, but was
reputedly struck down as a punishment for this offence.
Opposition to smoking was expressed in even stronger terms in the Dersana

Ragu'el, or "Homily in honour of the Archangel Ragu'el," a work of about the same
period, which refers to tobacco by the mysterious term "plant of Setatira," and declares
that it was "poisoned by the devil," and "more impure than hyena's flesh." The text
focuses on the supposed coming of tobacco during the reign of Lebna Dengel, and
claims that Ragu'el warned the monarch against smoking, prophesying that if they
smoked the monarch's soldiers would be defeated, for God would "cut them to pieces"
M Harris (1844) III 150-1.
31
Plowden (1868) 90.
312
by placing "the sword of malediction" in the hand of their enemies," and the country's
priests would be "exterminated in war and famine." Support for the belief that tobacco
gained acceptance during the reign of Lebna Dengel is found in the writings of the
Ethiopian historian Alaqa Asma Giyorgis, as well as in the chronicle of Menilek II
which asserts, on what evidence it does not state, that the sixteenth century monarch
smoked tobacco and smeared his horse with blood after the fashion of the Gallas.
A very different traditional explanation for the rejection of tobacco was

subsequently recorded by Pearce. It states that use of the plant had been banned on
account of a priest called Zar'a Beruk who had been accustomed to smoke, and,
running out of tobacco, while on a pilgrimage to Dabra Libanos, had replenished his
supply by selling his silver cross to a "pagan" Galla. The smoker subsequently
confessed his sin to the Ecage at Gondar who "instantly" issued an order forbidding
Christians from making any use of the plant.
The Ethiopian Church at this time waged a strong, though by no means fully
effective, war against tobacco. In the north of the country Pearce in the first decades
of the century reported that "the priests and clergy abhor the smoking of tobacco, and
no one is allowed to enter a church who has previously been smoking, though
numbers of them take snuff. Indeed, the smoking of tobacco is forbidden by the
priests to all classes, yet many are addicted to the habit, for which they are answerable
to their father-confessor, it being accorded a sin." The priests of Sawa were likewise
strongly opposed to smoking. One of their arguments against it, according to Harris,
was that it was stated in Biblical writ that "what cometh out of the mouth of man
defileth him."
The - and of coffee, with which, as we

intensity of clerical dislike of tobacco
shall see, itwas often popularly associated - doubtless owed much to the fact that
both addictives were used in "pagan" or "animist" ceremonies. One such was the
wadaja of Wallo in which the "chief men", according to Krapf, met early on Thursday
and Friday mornings for prayer, at which time they smoked tobacco, drank coffee, and
chewed the narcotic "cat. At such gatherings it was believed that the Oromo religious
leaders received "spiritual revelations in reference to military expeditions and other
matters," and the populace prayed that they might be "blessed with increase of cows,
clothes, etc.," and that Allah would "bestow gold and silver on their chief, and increase
his power and dominion." The Gallan Gallas were likewise said to make annual
sacrifice to their God, Waq, at which time they alluded to the weed, saying, "O Wake,
give us tobacco, cows, sheep and oxen, and help us kill our enemies."
Evidence of the extent of Church opposition to the "unchristian practices" of

smoking, and coffee drinking is evident from the statement by Harris that the British
diplomatic mission to Sawa when attempting to enter the church of Maryam at
Ankobar, received what he termed the "insolent reply" that "since the English were in
the habit of drinking coffee and smoking tobacco, both of which were Mohammadan
!
abominations interdicted in Shoa upon religious grounds, they could not be admitted
within the precincts of the hallowed edifice as it would be polluted by the foot of a
Gyptzi [i.e. European]." Confirmation of this account is provided by Graham who
recalls that he and his compatriots were considered as Muslims, because they were
known to smoke, and drink coffee, and "only escaped excommunication by a timely
present of money to the priests." Hostility to smoking was expressed also by Falasas,
who, according to Flad, were likewise "strictly forbidden" from smoking, and, like the
I
313
Christians whom they resembled in so many ways, were not allowed to enter their
places of worship if they took snuff.
Despite such widespread opposition to tobacco, snuffing towards the end of our
period seems to have been gaining popularity. Around the middle of the century
Arnauld d'Abbadie reported that "many" Ethiopians, both men and women, were by
then taking snuff. European-style snuff-boxes were, however, rare, most people making
use instead of such local substitutes as a hollow cane or a cow's horn. generation A
or so later the Armenian traveller Dimotheos was even more emphatic, observing that
by Tewodros's time "all the Abyssinians, without exception of age or sex, took tobacco
to snuff." Smoking, however, was still "entirely unknown," and foreigners seen smoking
32
were on occasion loudly criticised for this unchristian habit.
Coffee-Drinking
Coffee-drinking, which was unknown at the beginning of our period, was another
custom which, as we have seen, was often condemned by the Church whose
opposition, however, later somewhat diminished.
The coffee plant, though native to south-western Ethiopia, does not seem to
have been introduced into other parts of the country until around the latter part of the
sixteenth century, at the time of the great northward movement of the Oromos, who,
Bruce believed, had actually "transplanted" it to some parts of the north. One of the
first such places where its presence is recorded, by Almeida in the early seventeenth
century, was in the Azazo area immediately north of Lake Tana.
Coffee-drinking in the northern provinces at least gained popularity, however,

only slowly. At the end of the seventeenth century, Poncet found that people did not
"esteem" coffee "much," made "no use" of it, and cultivated it "only as a curiosity."
Bruce, three-quarters of a century later, seems to confirm that coffee was still of little
significance in the Christian highlands, for he reports use only at the port of
its
Massawa, and among some of the Gallas of the south-west. The latter did not drink j
it, but roasted and pulverised the beans which they then mixed with butter to form
j
balls, about the size of billiard-balls, which, they claimed, kept them "in strength and
spirits during a whole day's fatigue, better than a loaf of bread, or a meal of meat."
Coffee cultivation seems to have expanded in the years which followed, and by
the early nineteenth century was fairly extensive in several parts of the north-west. The
bush grew, according to Pearce, in Agawmeder and "most of the Galla districts," while \
Riippell a few decades later reported that it was cultivated in several areas around
Lake Tana, notably at the largely Muslim town of Qorata, on the eastern shore, where
almost every dwelling had a group of coffee trees, as later observers also testify.
Coffee by this time was also grown in some parts of Wallo, and southern Sawa,
particularly on river banks.
Caquot (1957a) 141-2, (1957b) 94, 113, 116; Pearce (1831) I, 335-6; Bairu Tafia (1987) 97, 181; Guebre
Sellassie (1930-1) I, 31; Harris (1844) II, 20, III, 176; Krapf (1867) 83; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 151;
Graham (1867) 14; Krapf (1867) 83; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) 151; Graham (1867) 14; Flad (1869)
58; Arnauld d' Abbadie (1868) 527; Dimotheos (1771) II, 37.
314
Opposition to coffee-drinking in this period was, however, still widespread
I throughout the Christian areas of the country. The Christians of the north had "a
prejudice" against it, according to Pearce, because it was "used so frequently by the
! Mahomedans." Riippell, a generation later, agreed that the practice was "customary
1
only with Muslims" - but added that "all Christians occasionally drunk it with
pleasure." The Church was, nevertheless, still strongly opposed to the bean, and had
"forbidden" its use by the Christian population, as Ferret and Galinier note.
Coffee-drinking was particularly strongly opposed by the priests of Sawa, in part,

according to Krapf, because of their "opposition to the Mahomedans" who liked it
"very much," and in part because it was seen to be connected with "pagan" Galla
worship. The extent of clerical opposition to coffee is confirmed by Harris who states
that, thought the plant flourished wild in many areas, coffee-drinking was "at all times
strictly forbidden on pain of exclusion from the church." The extent of the popular
prejudice against coffee is evident from the fact, noted by Krapf, that he and his
travelling companions "could never prevail on Christians" to let them make coffee in
their houses, "as they instantly took us for Mahomedans and sent us out of their
houses, nor would they by any means give us a vessel for making coffee because it
would make the vessel unclean." Despite such dislike of coffee, it is interesting to note
that no restriction seems to have been placed either on its sale within the country, or
to its export, which took place both via Massawa and Zayla', as well as along the trade
route to Sudan.
The Ethiopian Church's condemnation of coffee was attacked over the years by
severalEuropean missionaries. Krapf in particular held many disputations, in which
he claims to have "proved" - at least to his own satisfaction - that "everything created
by God" was "clean, good," and, if received with thanksgiving, "not to be refused." The
Almighty, he declared, had made coffee grow "as well as other things for the use of
man," and anyone who forbade its use was therefore "in opposition to the Creator."
Besides such theological arguments he offered more practical considerations, telling
his Ethiopian audiences, with reason, that their country could produce "plenty of
coffee" which they could sell abroad for their "temporal welfare." It is doubtful,
however, whether such preaching had much influence on the population at large.
Opposition to coffee, as to tobacco, was nevertheless perhaps beginning to wane.

Though earlier foreign travellers had noted strong rejection of coffee those of
Tewodros's time, such as Rassam and Stern, report that when on their travels they
offered people coffee it was warmly accepted, but only in private. A decade or so later
coffee-drinking, according to the great Ethiopian Church scholar Alaqa Lam ma Haylu,
was still only drunk in secret, and did not become popular among Christian Ethiopians
33
until after the founding of Addis Ababa in the late 1880s.
Riippell (1838-40) I, 368, II, 225-6; Bruce (1790) II, 226, III, 13, V, 37; Beccari (1903-17) VI, 387; Foster
(1949) 106, 155; Pearce (1831) II, 13, GB House of Commons (1868) 98; Waldmeier (1896) 126; Ferret
and Galinier (1847) II, 401; Isenberg and Krapf (1843) [33], 190-1, 237, 429, 445-6; Bairu Tafia (1987)
91; Graham (1867) 12; Harris (1844) III, 176; Rassam (1869) II, 205, 309; Pankhurst (1962) 114; Stern
(1862) 240,(1868) 230; Mangestu Lam ma (1959) 91-3.
315
The period under discussion thus witnessed a number of significant changes in
social life, some of which foreshadowed even more substantial development in the
decades which followed.
316
THE ATTEMPTED REFORMS OF EMPEROR TEWODROS II
The attempted reforms of Emperor Tewodros II (1855-1868), though only

partiallyimplemented and in the event largely unsuccessful, provide a convenient point
of termination for this volume in that they serve to underline some of the more
important problems facing Ethiopian society in the closing years of our period - and
suggest at least one possible scenario by which they might have been tackled if not
solved. These issues, the resolution of which were to take many decades, included
the need for the reunification of the war-torn land, the erosion of feudalism, the
curtailment of the soldiers' exactions on the peasantry, land reform, particularly in
relation to what many considered excessive Church holdings, the reduction in the
number of internal customs posts, the replacement of Ge'ez by Amharic as the
country's principal written language, the despatch of students for study abroad, the
introduction of written messages and commands, the abandonment of Gondar as the
imperial capital, road-building, some measure of industrialisation, abolition of the slave
trade, and the modernisation of many aspects of the economy, society and government.
Unification, and the Curtailment of Feudal Power
Tewodros rose to power by overthrowing the principal feudal leadership in the

north of the country. It was thus only by crushing Ras Ali Alula and the latter's
mother Empress Manan in Bagemder, and later Dajazmac Webe of Samen and Tegre
that Tewodros could proclaim himself King of Kings, and begin the work of
reunification so generally associated with his name. His objective, as his British
admirer Consul Plowden reported, was to integrate the country by placing "the soldiers
of the different provinces under the command of his own trusty followers" to whom
he gave "high but "no power to judge or punish," thus in fact creating "generals
titles,"
in place of feudal chieftains more proud of their own birth than of their monarch." In
this way he started "organising a new nobility, a legion of honour dependent on
himself, and chosen specially for their daring and fidelity," and thus began "the arduous
task of breaking the power of the great feudal chiefs - a task achieved in Europe only
during the reign of many consecutive Kings."
1
Military Reorganisation, and Limitation of Looting by the Soldiery
The which Tewodros waged at the beginning of his career against the
battles
technically more advanced armies of the Egyptians on Ethiopia's western frontier
showed him the military advantages of a modern army, as well as the difficulties
created by his country's traditional unpaid soldiers who, as we have seen, were
constantly ravaging the countryside in search of provisions. As early as 1853, two years
before his coronation, he was reported, by Plowden, to have "in a degree disciplined
his army," and, a year later the Consul went so far as to declare that the chief, having
1
GB House of Commons (1868) 150. See also Beke (1868) 36.
317
"taught his soldiers somediscipline," was able to make war without baggage or camp
followers. Later, in June 1855, Plowden explained that Tewodros, who had been
crowned four months earlier, had "adopted the practice of giving his soldiers sums of
money from time to time, thereby accustoming them to his intention of establishing
a regular pay," and was himself drilling his matchlockmen who had been placed under
officers commanding from 100 to 1,000. "In the common soldiers," he added, "he has
effected a great reform, by paying them, and ordering them to purchase their food, but
in no way to harass and plunder the peasant as before." To implement this policy
granaries for the troops were set up, according to Heuglin, at several places, most
notably at Dabra Tabor, Maqdala and Zebit.
Anxious to establish a "regular standing army armed with muskets only" j
Tewodros also wished, according to Dufton, to adopt "European discipline." To this

end he placed some 1,000 men under the command of a British adviser, John Bell,
who had instructions to train them. The men, however, do not seem to have taken
kindly to the marching, saluting and such-like discipline expected of them, and the
scheme had therefore soon to be abandoned. Undeterred the Emperor himself carried
out much of the training. Two or three Frenchmen are, however, said to have also
served for a time as drill-masters.
Tewodros's projected reforms were, however, difficult to effect and enforce, j
Zanab's chronicle of this time records, for example, that the Emperor, apparently
conceding the need for at least some appropriation of supplies by the troops, told the
latter when they were in Dalanta in 1856 that they could take what they needed to eat,
i.e. presumably grain, but insisted that they should touch neither the inhabitants' cattle
nor their clothing. The men nevertheless seized, and slaughtered, all the livestock they
could find, whereupon Tewodros is said to have cursed them, declaring, "Soldiers, as
you have killed that which belongs to the poor, so God will do unto you!"
Despite his attempted reforms the movement of his troops, like those of
Ethiopian rulers throughout the country's recorded history, seems to have often
occasioned grave disquiet among the peasantry. Stern, who accompanied Tewodros's
army, was a bigoted critic, but may not be altogether exaggerating when he claims j
that the Emperor's soldiers, though much "admired" when ravaging enemy country,
j
were "to judge from the anxious looks and terrified countenances which greeted our
arrival not much courted when they approached one of their own native settlements. !
The poor peasants, who dreaded to receive a dozen of these hungry heroes for guests, ]
were in an ecstasy of delight when they saw them saluting their chief, and cantering j
across the plain towards the neighbouring villages." The "fear of an impending famine,
which a night's sojourn of our troops might have brought upon the small settlement, i
had thus been averted."
Testimony to Tewodros's enduring desire to eradicate the abuses of looting, is, j
however, afforded by other observers, notably Rassam, a fairer observer, who recalled, I
as late as 1866, that it was "cheering to see how well his Majesty protects the crops of
his faithful subjects," by "sending parties commanded by officers to guard the corn-
|
fields and villages against the ravages of the soldiery." Tewodros was, however, by no
means always able to afford the peasantry such protection, and the chronicles and j
other Ethiopian sources, like the memoirs of foreign travellers, are unfortunately
replete with descriptions of the ravages effected by his men.
318
King of Kings Tewodros II (1855-1868) inspecting his men cross a ravine. From
H. Rassam, Narrative of
the British Mission to
Theodore King of Abyssinia (London, 1869).
319
The extensive fighting of Tewodros's reign was all in all characterised by
extensive warfare no less detrimentalthan that of the period of the masafent which
preceded it. Many accounts of pillage are to be found in the writings of the Ethiopian
chroniclers Walda Maryam and Zanab, as well as in the contemporary Amharic letters
of Dabtara Assaggahan. Some of the worst destruction occurred in Bagemder, while
the renowned coffee plantations of Zage were hacked to the ground, and the towns
of Gondar and Ifag both ravaged. One of the results was that a famine broke out at
the capital where, Dabtara Assaggahan states, "many people died of hunger," while
Walda Maryam confirms that "the people suffered much."
The depredations some detail by foreign

of the period are also described in
writers. Stern, describing Tewodros's expedition to Wallo in 1856, states that "the
villages were burnt, the fields laid waste, and men, women and children unsparingly
butchered, or dragged into irredeemable captivity." Later expeditions were no less
destructive. Rassam, writing of Dambeya in 1866, observed, "only two years before
this district was in a most flourishing condition, every foot of it was under cultivation,
and a succession of villages dotted the length and breadth of the plain." Since that
time, however, the area had become "almost a desert owing to the King's continued
oppression of the poor inhabitants ... only a field here and there appeared to be under
tillage, and the villages - small groups of miserable huts - were few and far between,
while the bulk of the inhabitants were said to have died of hunger or disease."
Notwithstanding all that it had suffered the area was soon afterwards again raided, the
"whole district" being "completely despoiled of everything which the rapacious soldiery
could lay hands on." Tewodros's missionary craftsman Martin Flad agrees that many
villages were repeatedly plundered, many people being burnt to death in their houses,
and that in a region which had once abounded in cattle not a single cow could then
be seen. On one occasion, he believed, over 80,000 head of livestock were slaughtered,
large numbers being left for the hyenas, and on another no less than 1,000,000 were
killed in a fortnight, and "no one was allowed to keep a cow."
Considerable destruction was likewise noted in other areas. At Me&!a, for

example, Rassam reported in 1866 that Tewodros's soldiers had been "engaged in
laying waste every village and cultivated spot within reach; the former were generally
set fire to; and the latter plundered of the standing crops." On reaching Bifata, the
Emperor, we are told, learnt that all the inhabitants had fled, whereupon he "ordered
all the villages to be burned, and all the standing crops to be appropriated by the
soldiery - an order no sooner issued than it was eagerly carried into execution -
volumes of smoke almost immediately rising up in all directions, darkening the
atmosphere for miles around." At Zage the ravages were so great that the locality,
Stern claimed, would "for years not recover from the horrors of its King's latest visit."
The ills of this period were later summed up by the Italian missionary Massaia who
observed that many regions were reduced to acute poverty, with plough oxen and
cattle slaughtered, granaries despoiled, people killed or mutilated, and youths taken
2
away to fight.
2
GB House of Commons (1868) 76, 119, 150; Heuglin (1868) 306, 313, 326; Dufton (1867) 183-4; Dye
(1880) 472; Beke (1867) 36; Moreno (1942) 160-1, 169, 172-3. 179; Stern (1862) 34, 86-7, 212, 286; Weld
Blundell (1906-7) 492; Mondon-Vidailhet (1905) 25, 27, 29, 41-3, 46, 48-9, 54; Fusella (1954-5) 68-9, 79,
106-7, 109; Conti Rossini (1935) 455-6; Rassam (1969) I, 215; Flad (1922) 201, 206; Massaia (1885-95)
VIII, 10.
320
Pacification, and Opening of Trade Routes
Though involved throughout his reign in frequent fighting, Tewodros appears to

have been well aware of the country's need of pacification. Early in his reign he issued
a decree at Amba Cara, in August 1855, stating, according to French consul Guillaume
Lejean, that "everyone should return to his lawful avocation, the merchant to his store,
and the farmer to his plough." This edict was intended, Plowden states, as "a
reassurance to the country, till then so distracted by civil war, that the primary aim of
its ruler was imperatively directed towards the establishment of peace and prosperity
throughout the realm."
These Tewodros failed to achieve, and there is no evidence

aspirations, however,
that his reign witnessed any amelioration of the heavy and often arbitrary burdens
imposed on the peasantry which were intensified by the needs of the war. In 1866 for
example we find him levying a tax in Bagemder, Rassam states, of no less than one-
fifth of all cattle, and sheep - less no doubt than a ravenous army left to itself might
exact, but almost certainly more than the taxes operative in earlier, more peaceful,
times.
Tewodros nevertheless took resolute action to uproot banditry, and, according

to Lejean, did so with "draconian severity." The people of Tisba, who were incorrigible
bandits, once came to the ruler's presence, armed to the teeth, asking him to confirm
their right, which they claimed had been recognised by Emperor Dawit (conceivably
the early eighteenth century ruler of that name) to be allowed to exercise the
profession of their fathers. "What is this profession?", asked Tewodros without
suspicion. "Highway robbery," they insolently replied. "Listen," he declared, "your
profession is dangerous, and agriculture is more profitable. Go down to the plain and
cultivate it. It is the most beautiful in the empire. I will myself give you oxen and
ploughs." The men of Tisba proving obdurate he dismissed them, giving them a later
appointment at which they were suddenly, and without warning, put to death. Such
severity, according to Lejean, achieved its result. The roads then blood-stained by
brigandage and civil war, became as safe as those of France or Germany. "An
inhabitant of Jenda said to me that before Theodore this village did not count a
...
single market-day which was not followed by a murder: under the new reign not a
single murder had taken place in the village or its surroundings." This picture is
corroborated by the British traveller Henry Dufton who observed that Tewodros did
his best to open the caravan routes which had been closed by war, and "dealt very
mercilessly with the bandits and highway-robbers, whose ravages had tended to ...
make the roads unsafe."
Further to assist trade Tewodros also "put an end" to the vexatious number of
internalcustoms posts that had hampered commerce, and ordered, as Plowden noted
in June 1855, that duties should be levied "at only three places in his dominions." This
is confirmed by Dufton who observed that the monarch "simplified the regulations
regarding commerce and customs dues". The reform was however, short-lived, and, as
E.A. De Cosson, a subsequent British traveller, discovered, was "discontinued at
3
Theodorus's death."
3
1
Lejean 1865) 63-4; GB House of Commons (1868) 151; Dufton (1867) 137; De Cosson (1877) I, 220.
321
Innovations at Gafat
Tewodros's ambition to strengthen and modernise his army had implications in

the of technology. His awareness of the need for mechanical and other
field
innovations in the military field caused him to accept with enthusiasm an offer by the
former Protestant missionary Samuel Gobat, by then the Anglican Bishop of
Jerusalem, to provide him with missionary craftsmen. These artisans, who were Swiss-
Germans trained at the Pilgrim's Mission at St. Chrischona, near Basle in Switzerland,
consisted of Messrs. Bender, Kienzlen, and Mayer who arrived in 1855, and were
joined three years later by two colleagues, Waldmeier and Saalmuller.
Gafat soon became the site of a royal workshop and arsenal, and was described
by Waldmeier as "quite a colony of Europeans." No less important, "large numbers"
of Ethiopians soon joined them, and not long afterwards the missionaries opened a
school at which they taught handicrafts, in addition to reading, writing and religion.
Several technically-minded foreigners, who had come to Ethiopia independently

to seek their fortune, were also settled at Gafat. They included Moritz Hall, a Polish
Jew who was said to have deserted from the Russian army,Bourgeaud, a French
gunsmith who had previously lived in Egypt, his compatriot Jacquin, a metal worker,
and the enterprising German scientist Dr. Schimper, a renowned botanist who
incidentally devised a way of producing local champagne. At Gafat these and other
foreigners worked together fairly harmoniously. They served, Heuglin notes, as smiths,
carpenters, engineers, saddlers, carriage-builders, and even armourers and
manufacturers of cannon. They were hard-working, and, Waldmeier asserts, before
long erected "a powerful water wheel" to power different kinds of machinery. The
workshops at Gafat thus outclassed those of earlier rulers such as Dajazmac Berru
Gosu or Negus Sahla Sellase.
Tewodros, an innovator in this as in other matters, "also contemplated" sending

a batch of Ethiopians to England and France "for the purpose of learning useful
trades," as Dufton reports. No such project seems to have ever been envisaged by
4
earlier nineteenth century rulers of the country.
The Gafat Foundry
The foundry at Gafat, which deserves an honourable place in the history of

Ethiopian technology, made use, according to Waldmeier, of three feet high furnaces,
which were operated with the help of traditional skin bellows worked by hand, and
produced a temperature of 700 degrees centigrade. The coal for the foundry came
from Celga and the right bank of the Galila river where there were six seams,
according to Beke, of "very good quality" coal three miles long and ten inches deep,
while the lime was obtained from Dabra Tabor and Dalanta. Though produced by
unskilled missionaries and their largely untrained Ethiopian assistants the metal 1
obtained at Gafat, Stern was told, "needed only more skilful preparation to equal the
best English pig-iron."
4
Dufton (1867) 72-92, 167; Stern (1862) 77-9; Blanc (1868) 169-70; Waldmeier (1886) 63-9, (1896) 9, 46;
Heuglin (1868) 304-5.
322
The foreigners at Gafat were not allowed to leave the country, but were well
treated by their royal master, who, whenever in the neighbourhood, paid frequent visits
to inspect the progress of their labours. The monarch, Rassam noted in June 1866,
"used to go down almost
every day to see his artisans at work." Thanks to his
encouragement, and the craftsmen's efforts, Gafat was "transformed," Flad observes,
"into a large arsenal and factory where gunpowder, carriages, cannons, and bombs
were manufactured and broken flintlocks were repaired." In addition to the Europeans
close on a thousand Ethiopians worked at Gafat. "All the clever men of Abyssinia,"
Waldmeier claims, were "brought thither by order of the king." The labour force is
said to have comprised 200 Christian Amharas, 300 Gallas, and 200 Falasas, some of
whom the proselytising missionaries succeeded in converting.
The establishment at Gafat made a deep impression on the local Ethiopian

population. The foreign artisans built a "fine town," a contemporary chronicler
observed, with running water inside and outside the compound, a water-mill capable
of cutting wood and grinding and sieving gunpowder, and a "fine house" with glass
doors and windows. The entire compound was protected by a strong wall guarded by
four cannon. The remains of these buildings and the surrounding wall can still be
seen. Abbabaw Yegzaw, an Ethiopian scholar from the area who revisited it in 1971-
2, claimed that amid the ruins he was able to discern the manner in which water had
been made to flow into four successive compartments. "What is astounding," he wrote,
"is that the remains of iron and glass are still found. The elders of the area know
what each compartment was used for. This is where the charcoal was prepared; here
5
was the area for smelting, etc."
Cannon-Making
The highlight of the craftsmen's presence at Gafat was the manufacture of

cannon, which was the most remarkable technological event of the reign. Tewodros,
whose power base lay in the north-west of Ethiopia, where it was extremely difficult
to import cannon, was deeply conscious of the need to manufacture such weapons in
the country. He seized the opportunity of attempting to do so in 1861 when a French
metal-caster called Jacquin declared his willingness to make a mortar if assisted by
the other craftsmen at Gafat. The result, as the Swiss missionary Theophilus
Waldmeier later reported, was that "the King wrote us a letter ordering us to stand
by Jacquin in every way, to support him with advice and action, and to serve him as
translators. We made no objection to this for we had been recommended as people
who possessed technical skill and who were ready to help with anything required. The
work was therefore undertaken, and a blast furnace was built and a bellows installed.
The iron was carried on the back of loyal servants from far away. After much time and
many efforts the day for pouring arrived. A great crowd stood around the furnace
awaiting the happy result while the others worked the bellows with great speed hoping
for a great reward from the King. M. Jacquin soon noticed that the work had failed,
...
for the furnace, which was made out of poor material, had melted before the iron
reached melting-point. The Frenchman began to lament and weep; he went half-mad,
cried wildly, and finally asked the King's permission to leave."
5
Waldmeier (1886) 19, 46, 73, (1896) 127-8; Beke (1867) 319-20; Stern (1862) 320; Rassam (1869) II,
148; Flad (1869) 55; Fusella (1954-5) 105-6; Abbabaw Yegzaw (1965 E.C.)
323
Not long after the Frenchman's departure Tewodros, Waldmeier continues,
"came to Gafat and swore by his death that we should not abandon Jacquin's work,
but go on trying. We replied, 'Your Majesty, we have neither knowledge nor
experience in this matter, and are quite ignorant of it, and we are afraid to undertake
what is above our strength.' That does not matter,' answered the King, 'If you are my
friends, try. If God allows it to succeed, it will be well; if not, it will be well.'" To
underline his insistence on the missionaries' cooperation, however, he arrested the
latters' servants.
Waldmeier and his colleagues, however, continued to argue that they were
"incapable of establishing a blast furnace," but were "willing to undertake any other
work to which they were equal." Tewodros, who showed himself much displeased at
this, make a cart, but later, in an effort to overcome
replied by asking the visitors to
the royal displeasure, Waldmeier made a gunstock, whereupon the monarch expressed
himself delighted, and at once released the missionaries' imprisoned servants. He then
asked their masters to devote their attention to making a blast-furnace for the
manufacture of guns. At about this time the enterprising Polish Jew, Moritz Hall,
succeeded in casting a small mortar and some bullets. "When the King saw this,"
Waldmeier reports, "he jumped with happiness and thanked God, but he was not fully
mortar was too small for him, so he gave Moritz orders to cast a
satisfied, for the
bigger one. Herr Moritz said, 'I am unable to undertake such a work, but if the
...
Europeans at Gafat help me I hope to be able to oblige your Majesty.' 'Good,' replied
the King, 'Waldmeier and all the Europeans shall be at your disposal.'"
Tewodros then ordered Waldmeier and his comrades to help the project in every
way. could not oppose this," the missionary recalls, "for I had good reason not to
"I
arouse the King's wrath." The missionaries accordingly set to work, but, Waldmeier
continues, "Herr Moritz, the caster, was at a loss what to do, and the work made us
unhappy. We were in moody King who
great difficulty and were helpless vis-a-vis the
work had succeeded. Time and time
sent us letter after letter asking us whether our
again we were obliged to give a negative answer, but the King's patience was greater
than ours; he comforted us and sent us word: 'Begin again from the beginning.' This
we did, but in vain."
The workers at Gafat nevertheless continued to persevere. "After unspeakable

effort," reports Waldmeier, "we made a final despairing attempt ... and, behold, for
the first time we were successful. All the Abyssinians of the area, who had for a long
time laughed at our work, came to share our joy and to congratulate us. We ourselves,
together with our new brothers, were glad, for we, as well as they, could now count
on a good reception on the part of the King. ... The King was pleased beyond all
measure with our little piece of metal, kissed it and cried, 'Now I am convinced that
it is possible to make everything in Habbesh. Now the art has been discovered God
has at last revealed Himself. Praise and thanks be to Him for it.' The King ... then
asked us what, apart from his crown and the throne, would we like to have from him.
'Your Majesty,' we answered, we wish for nothing but to remain in constant possession
of your love and friendship.' He replied, 'I will give you my love and friendship, and,
in addition, each one of you shall have 1,000 dollars and provisions for your 1
household.'" Soon afterwards he asked the missionaries to make a larger gun, and,
Waldmeier duly notes: "We cast a bigger mortar with which all the Abyssinians were
very pleased."
324
Gun-making then proceeded apace, and when Dufton visited the country in
1862-3 he found that the Europeans were engaged in the manufacture of cannon and
mortars, while their Ethiopian assistants and trainees were "beginning to profit" from
the work. The craftsmen, he adds, soon afterwards "produced a small mortar, which,
considering the manner in was made, was a marvel. The metal was melted
which it
in some thirty crucibles, on fires ground, blown by hand-bellows of the most

in the
primitive description - consisting of a leather bag, the mouth of which is opened on
being drawn up for the receipt of air, and closed again when the air is to be driven by
pressure through the clay tube conducting to the fire every encouragement is given
...
by the king to his people in their endeavours to perfect themselves in the manufacture
of these implements, for he is fully aware that this is the best way for him to secure
his independence of other nations."
Tewodros made extensive use of missionary craftsmen, it should be noted,

because he had scarcely any other source of skilled manpower. He was, however, like
many of his predecessors over the last four centuries, constantly trying to import other
workers, as well as fire-arms, from abroad. In October 1862 for example he spoke to
British Consul Cameron of his desire to purchase weapons from England, and
Cameron subsequently reported to London that the most acceptable presents for the
monarch would include mortars, rockets, small cannon, grenades, fire-arms and
ammunition. Such hints were, however, largely ignored by the British Foreign Office.
The ruler later, in January 1864, sent Flad to England, in an unsuccessful attempt to
engage gun-smiths and other artisans. Later again - at the height of his quarrel with
the British Government - we find Tewodros attempting to obtain skilled workers
through the assistance of the British envoy Hormuzd Rassam who recorded, in April
1866, that the Emperor had sent him a note declaring, "My desire is that you should
send to her Majesty, the Queen, and obtain for me a man who can make cannons and
muskets, and one who can smelt iron; also an instructor of artillery. I want these
people to come here with their implements and everything necessary for their work,
and then they shall teach us and return." The Ethiopian ruler's tragedy resulted in
large measure from the fact that the British Government failed to heed these requests.
Tewodros meanwhile was redoubling his efforts, and demands, for the local
manufacture of weapons. In 1863 Moritz Hall and the missionaries cast a large mortar
which, however, Waldmeier reports, only whetted the royal appetite for more. The
labours of the gunsmiths were therefore again intensified. Writing of 1866 the
missionary observes: "We had to work like slaves night and day under the orders of
the King who had set up his camp at Gafat. The King wanted work from us which
was beyond our skill and power. He wanted us to cast 30 pounders, 7 feet long. We
could not oppose the constantly irritated King, for the least thing drove him to such
fury that he could easily have attacked us.... We undertook the work trembling, but
after the second attempt we succeeded."
Waldmeier, whose relations with the monarch had then seriously deteriorated,
records, with venom, that toward the end of the year the latter "ordered us to cast a
mortar from which a 1,000 pound cannon-ball could be fired. We were afraid to refuse
and were afraid to obey, but God did not abandon us in this hour of need. ... The
Lord helped us by letting our work succeed. ... The king wanted to put us all in chains
and throw us into prison, but because we were busy making this great gun he was
prevented from doing us harm, for he wished to satisfy his boundless pride through
this colossal work for which he needed white slaves."
325
The making of guns strained the Emperor's' resources to the utmost. Brass was
collected, chronicler Walda Maryam recalls, from all parts of the country to be melted
down, together with 30 vases from Maqdala, after which "the Negus manufactured a
cannon, which they called Bomba, of such a size as had never been seen in Ethiopia
before. A man could get into it and come out again the other end." This weapon,
which was later christened Sebastapol after the famous battle in the Crimean war, is
said to have weighed seven tons, and, required as many as 500 people, Rassam says,
to pull it uphill. "It was unquestionably a wonderful piece of ordnance for its size," the
envoy commented, "and more wonderful still as the workmanship of his Majesty's
European artisans who had no experience of casting cannon." Tewodros later declared
that the day of its casting was one of the happiest of his life.
By such means Tewodros succeeded in building up the first significant arsenal

of artillery in Ethiopian history. At Maqdala the Ethiopian ruler, Clements Markham,
the British geographer-cum-historian reports, had twenty-four brass cannon, four
cannon and nine brass mortars, the latter all made in Ethiopia, "some with neat
6
inscriptions in Amharic."
First Steps in Road-building
Tewodros can be seen as an innovator also in the field of road-building which

until his time had been rare in Ethiopia. His motivation, like that of great road-
builders in other lands, was primarily military, and sprang from his need to move his
troops - and cannon - quickly from one part of the country to another. An early
glimpse of his activity as a road-builder is afforded by Consul Plowden, who, in a
report of March 1859, noted that the Ethiopian ruler was then employing some
Europeans in road-making, and paid them "handsomely' for their work as he said that
he "could only succeed in conquering all his foes by making wide roads, that he may
pass with his army rapidly from one point to another." By working at the roads with
his own hands Tewodros, the consul adds, overcame his men's traditional dislike of
manual labour, and showed himself "delighted with the operation of blasting." Not long
after this Tewodros, with the help of the Protestant workmen's mission, began the
construction of the country's first embryonic road network, to link Dabra Tabor with
Gondar, Gojjam and Maqdala. The craftsmen, with Tewodros's approval, at about
this time also constructed a carriage to travel on these roads - one of the first such
vehicles ever seen in the land.
Tewodros's courage and determination as a road-builder in the last months of

his reign, when he was engaged in transporting his cannon from Dabra Tabor to the
mountain citadel of Maqdala, was later described by Henry Blanc, who though one of
the Emperor's British captives, wrote with admiration that "from early dawn to late
at night Theodore was himself at work; with his own hand he removed stones, levelled
the ground, or helped to fill up small ravines. No one could leave so long as he was
there himself; no one would think of eating, drinking, or of rest, while the Emperor
showed the example and shared the hardships." Describing the country traversed by
6
Waldmeier (1886) 7-9, 11-2, 47, 55-8, 60-7; Dufton (1867) 84-6, 166-7; GB House of Commons (1868)
219, 467, 486, 570; Rassam (1869) II, 101-3, 303-4, 306; Weld Blundell (1906-7) 26-7, 33; Markham
(1969) 367.
326
the road in the vicinity of Maqdala, Blanc adds: "the work now before him would have
driven any other man to despair. ... He went, however, steadily to work. Little by little
he made a road, creditable even to a European engineer."
The immensity of the work likewise later impressed members of the British
expeditionary force despatched against the reforming Ethiopian ruler. Captain H.M.
Hozier described Tewodros's road to Maqdala as "a grand feat of rude engineering,"
and adds: "rocks had been hurled aside or blasted through, at an immense expense of
labour and of time." Markham agrees that the road was "a most remarkable work -
a monument of dogged and unconquerable resolution. Rocks were blasted, trees sawn
down, revetment walls of loose stones mixed with earth and branches built up, and
everywhere a strengthening hedge of branches at the outer sides, to prevent the
earthwork from slipping. The details of blasting and revetting were of course done
under the direction of his German [in fact Swiss!] artisans; but the King himself was
the chief engineer, who selected the trace and organised the labour. At one or two
points several trial traces were marked out, before the final one was adopted. ... From
early dawn until dark the Europeans were obliged to be in attendance on this
extraordinary man, whose resolute determination to overcome all obstacles never
failed him. ... Well might Mr. Flad exclaim 'He has indeed an iron perseverance!'"
Alexander Shepherd, a reporter for the Times of India, took a similar view, observing
that the road "bore witness to the perseverance and pains-taking efforts of its maker,"
for though the gradient was sometimes too steep, the road was "altogether a kingly
structure; its august engineer had scorned to adopt the little devices in vogue among
the profession for overcoming or avoiding whatever difficulties unkind nature had
placed in his way. If rocks could be rolled aside bodily, they had been so rolled aside;
if otherwise, they had been cut asunder at an immense sacrifice of time, labour, and
powder; but in no instance had they been allowed to interfere with the symmetry of
7
the King's highway. So with the hills and every other species of let or hindrance.
A Boat on Lake Tana
Tewodros's innovative mind also found expression, albeit abortive, in an attempt

to establish a fleet on Lake Tana. Blanc, who describes this remarkable initiative,
comments that "there was no doubt that his Majesty had made up his mind to have
a small navy." To this end he asked the European craftsmen at his court to start boat-
building, but they replied, as they had done in the question of casting the cannon, that
they lacked the necessary skill though they were willing to learn under experts.
Notwithstanding this refusal Waldmeier and his missionary colleague, Saalmuller,
subsequently made a raft. Tewodros also asked Rassam about boat-building, but the
latter, according to Stern, "shirked the question" by pleading ignorance.
Tewodros was, however, not to be dissuaded by such replies. "Seeing that

everybody seemed reluctant to help him," writes Blanc, "he went to work himself; he
made an immense flat-bottomed bulrush boat of great thickness, and to propel it made
two large wheels worked by hand: in fact he had invented a paddle steamer, only the
locomotive agent was deficient." Rassam, who has also left an account of this attempt
at boat-building, states that for nearly a month, in April 1866, Tewodros was "engaged
7
Dufton (1867) 137-8; GB House of Commons (1868) 189-90; Waldmeier (1886) 73; Stern (1862) 103;
Blanc (1868) 342-4; Hozier (1869) 178; Markham (1869) 294-7; Shepherd (1868) 217, 222.
327
in building what he called an imitation of a steamer. Two large boats, sixty feet long
and twenty feet wide midships, with wooden decks, and a couple of wheels affixed to
the sides of each, to be turned by a handle like that attached to a common grindstone,
were accordingly constructed; but although nearly a hundred men were taken on
board, the wheels were only immersed about four inches. The day they were launched, I
he invited the members of the [British diplomatic] Mission to witness the experiment,
and the vessel in which he had embarked moved so rapidly after the bulrushes had got
well soaked, which made it subside deeper into the water, that he seemed frantic with
joy, whilst the natives looked on with admiring wonder.... He proceeded to try how the
vessel would behave against the wind, and on rounding the peninsula encountered a j
strong breeze, which soon convinced him of the futility of the attempt. The
incongruous material of which the boat was constructed, one elastic and the other the
opposite - no effort having been made to ensure an equal pressure upon them from
without - began to give way after a little tossing, and his Majesty deemed it prudent
to return as speedily as possible to the smooth water of the bay." This, Rassam notes,
was the end of Tewodros's attempt at building a navy - which was scarcely surprising
8
as he was soon to face a major land invasion which was to lead to his death.
Attempted Suppression of the Slave Trade
Tewodros differed from earlier rulers- Emperor Susenyos perhaps alone

excepted - he was a strong opponent of the slave trade. In November 1854 -
in that
some three months before his coronation - he wrote to Plowden, stating that he had
forbidden the export of slaves on pain of severe punishment. On coming to power
the reforming monarch again declared the trade illegal - but, like later rulers who
followed in his foot-steps, was in no position to enforce his anti-slavery decrees.
Realising the impossibility of achieving complete abolition he permitted existing slaves
to be sold to Christians, provided that they purchased them for charity, and himself
set the example by paying the Muslim dealers for slaves which he then had baptised.
Later, however, he seems to have had second thoughts as to the wisdom of this policy,
and informed Consul Cameron of his intention to "stop the trade effectively - not as
a concession to us, but because he hated it himself." The Emperor subsequently
ordered the amputation of the right hand and left food of anyone found guilty of
selling Christian slaves. The sincerity of his anti-slavery credentials was fully accepted
by Waldmeier who recalls that Tewodros wrote to him, saying, "Teach these young
boys arts and religion, ... and I will pay all their expenses." His opposition to the
enslavement, and sale of slaves, was based on the Fetha Nagast, or traditional
Ethiopian code of law, and was therefore concerned primarily with Christians -
moreover it did not prevent his men while on campaign from capturing many "pagans" !
9
as slaves.
Blanc (1868) 147, 164; Stern (1868) 251; Rassam (1869) II, 120.
9
Methodios of Aksum (1970) 51; GB House of Commons (1868) 221; Beke (1867) 255; Waldmeier
(1886) 71-2; Moreno (1942) 175, 177; Blanc (1868) 2; Stern (1862) 129, 146.
328
Attempted Land Reform
Tewodros was also a would-be land reformer. On gaining control of Sawa he

at once endeavoured to reform its land system by strengthening rights of tenure. He
accordingly issued a proclamation, chronicler Walda Maryam states, designed to
institute private property in the province. He decreed that land should belong to those
whose fathers had already held it as fiefs, and that persons without such claims should
look to him as their father. Though this edict was at first universally acclaimed it is
v
said that after its promulgation there was no one in Sawa who did not claim land or
pretend that this or that property belonged to his father. There were in consequence
so many disputes that Tewodros was obliged to issue a new decree reinstating the old
institutions.
Some of the priests also clamoured for a share in the land distribution
proclaimed in Sawa. In September 1857 they are said by Dabtara Zanab to have been
asked to be allowed the lands they had possessed prior to the period of the masafent,
but the monarch, who felt that the Church was already over-endowed with landed
property, was unsympathetic. "What shall I eat and give to my soldiers?," he is
supposed to have said. "You have taken all the lands, calling them 'Lands of the
Cross!' [i.e. Church lands]". In the ensuing dispute a priest insolently declared that
Tewodros should follow the time-honoured practice of marching from place to place
in order to spread the burden of his court and army over the whole empire. "Remain
four months," he said, and eat up Armaccaho, Sagade, Walqayt and Tegre, then
establish yourself at Aringo, and eat up Bagemder, Lasta, Yajju, Mecca, Agawfmeder],
Damot and Gojjam as was done in the past." Tewodros, however, was not amused,
and cried out, "You effeminate one, if you found me alone, you would kill me with
your muslin turban as was done to Emperor Iyasu!" A fierce quarrel then broke out
between the Emperor and his soldiers, on the one side, and the Abun and the priests
on the other. Tewodros likewise made some changes in land tenure elsewhere in the
country, notably in the north where he restored certain lands in Akkala Guzay which
had earlier been given, by Dajazmac Webe, to personalities in Saraye, and also
established hereditary ownership of land in the former district.
Perhaps the most important of Tewodros's proposed land reforms, however, was
in relation to Church property. His efforts in this field were described by Stern, who,
though himself a critic of the Church's extensive ownership of land, was even more
critical of Tewodros for trying to reduce it. The extent of Church land-holding was,
as he put it, "a great eyesore" to the monarch who, "anxious to appropriate these
extensive possessions for his own use ... artfully promised to provide for the wants of
the clergy, while depriving them of their land." This proposal was, predictably, opposed
by the clergy, whose objections so angered him that, the missionary claims, "he would
probably have evoked the sword to decide the quarrel, but his faithful followers
reminded him that the troops and the nation were with the priests, and that serious
consequences might ensue". The result was that "the storm abated," and Tewodros,
"convinced of the unreasonableness of a conflict that might, at the very outset of his
reign, convulse the whole realm to its very centre, yielded to the dissuasions of his
friends, and the church spoliation plan was suspended till 1860, when it was carried
into effect." Blanc, who tells the story with somewhat different emphasis, declares that
Tewodros "could not tolerate any the State but his own," and that when he
power in
judged the time favourable he "confiscated all the Church lands and revenues,"
including some of the Abun's own property. All land belonging to ecclesiastical
329
establishments, anonymous Amharic document of the time confirms, was
an
accordingly seized, and the number of priests attached to a church was limited to five,
or seven in the case of the more important ones. Tewodros, the text claims, disliked
monks and above all dabtaras, complaining that they "wore turbans on their heads and
neither fought nor paid taxes," preferring to "live in cities with prostitutes or other
people's wives."
Tewodros's attack on Church property not surprisingly produced much

discontent on the part of the clergy. Stern, writing,it will be recalled, as a critic, states
that the latter were "not so easily gulled" by the Emperor's offer to look after their
material needs while taking their lands, and "all unanimously declared that they would
not be slaves dependent on royal bounty." The Abun's anger at this time, Blanc says,
"knew no bounds", while Dufton says that the Emperor's action "aroused the inveterate
enmity of the sacerdotal caste." His kindness to poor priests, however, "proved that he
was not conspiring against the religion of the land, and justified the act of spoliation
in the eyes of the people", while the increased revenues thus obtained "helped him to
support his numerous soldiery, and to carry out those other measures for the
improvement of the country which he had instituted, he himself living in the simplest
and most unkingly manner possible."
Opposition from the priesthood nonetheless seems to have contributed

significantly toTewodros's troubles and ultimate fall. His defeat by the British, and
subsequent suicide, brought an end to these attempted reforms, for Wagsum Gobaze
(later King of Kings Takla Giyorgis), the ruler of Amhara, proved his zeal for the
Orthodox faith, according to the French historian Georges Douin, by at once declaring
10
the restoration to the Church of its former lands.
Abandonment of Gondar
One of the most important decisions taken by Tewodros, at the very beginning
of his reign, was his decision to establish himself at Ras Ali Alula's capital, Dabra
Tabor (which he subsequently abandoned in favour of the mountain fortress of
Maqdala). Tewodros's successive use of these two capitals - and his armed attacks on
the city of Gondar on two separate occasions in 1864 and 1866 - finally sealed the fate
of the old metropolis, which, unable to survive the collapse of centralised imperial
power, had been declining for a little over a century. Gondar, which in Tewodros's
time thus forfeited its status as a empire-wide capital, thereby lost most of what was
left of its old political, commercial and religious importance, and was abandoned by
many of its churchmen - including the Abuna, as well as not a few of the traders and
craftsmen whose work and activities have been described in these pages. 11
Mondon-Vidailhet (1905) 17-8; Moreno (1942) 166-7; Perini (1905) 107; Fusella (1954-5) 90-1; Stern
(1868) 24-5; Blanc (1868) 281; Dufton (1867) 140-1; Douin (1936-41) III, Part II, 293.
11
Pankhurst (1985) 41-88.
330
Marriage and Dress Reform, Letter- Writing and the Use of Amharic
Despite his conflict with the Church, Tewodros was a keep protagonist of
Opposed to the lax sexual mores
Christian values, particularly in relation to marriage.
of his day, he was, according to Plowden, "married himself at the altar and strictly
continent," and "ordered or persuaded all who love him to follow his example." He
also "forbade the maintenance of concubines," Kotzika, a Greek merchant, states; and
insisted, the consul says, on "the greatest decency of manners and conversation."
Another of his attempted reforms related to dress, where he insisted, according

to Plowden that "all about his person" should wear "loose flowing trowsers," instead
of the "half-naked costume" which had by then introduced by the Oromos. On the
other hand he criticized the old sumptuary laws, which had prevented all but the
nobility from wearing shirts, as a "childish custom," and decreed that all Ethiopians,
Rassam states, "might wear a cotton shirt, which, however, was not to descend below
the knees." At the same time he used dress to distinguish his officers from his other
subjects "by raising the silk shirt into an Order of distinction, retaining its investiture
as a prerogative of the Sovereign, and decreed that all those on whom it had not been
conferred, and who held offices under the State, were to wear their cotton shirts below
the knees."
Tewodros also took steps early in his career "to substitute letters", as Plowden
reports, "for verbal messages." Most of these written communications have disappeared
with the passage of time, and many were doubtless destroyed by the British in 1868
when they looted Maqdala and later burnt it to the ground. Sufficient are, however,
extant to show that their author was familiarising his courtiers and officials with a
more literate, efficient and structured system of administration than had existed in
former times.
Doubtless aware of the country's cultural decline, to which reference has been
made in an earlier chapter, he likewise took steps to collect a great library of
Ethiopian manuscripts - the finest such collection ever assembled. These works were
housed in the compound of the church of Madhane 'Alam at Maqdala which
Tewodros had earlier erected, but were subsequently looted by the British who took
some four hundred volumes, the best in the collection, to London in 1868.
The innovating ruler seems also to have appreciated the need to promote
Amharic in place of the classical language Ge'ez. It was in this connection significant
that he had a volume of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark in Amharic written for
himself, and that the chronicles of his reign, unlike those of previous centuries, were
written in that language which was thereafter to remain the country's administrative
and literary language.
Most of Tewodros's efforts, however, were rendered futile by the debacle of

Maqdala. They were, however, historically important, for they indicate the direction
in which the reforming ruler had hoped to steer his country's destiny. His attempted
reforms for the most part were not substantially implemented during his lifetime, but
for that very reason remained in a sense blue-prints for the rest of the century.
12
GB House of Commons (1868) 150-1; Methodios of Aksum (1970) 51; Rassam (1869), I. 199, II, 5, 6,
11; Heuglin (1868) 347; R.J. Pankhurst (1973) 15-42; B.L. Orient 733; Wright (1878) 34.
331
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351
INDEX
Index
Ababitay 70 Akafede Dalle, a slave 122, 246

Abagaz Mara?', chieftain 297 Akkala Guzay 299, 304, 329
Abagaz Sa'una, chronicler 169, 175 Aksum 27, 29, 32, 42, 44, 47, 60, 62, 71, 98,
Abba Bagibo, King 214 128, 182, 183, 188, 199, 200, 234, 263, 272, 288,
Abba Garima, monastery 33, 42, 188, 263 292, 328, 331
Abba Pantalewon, monastery 29, 33 Alaqas 66, 81, 130, 179, 182, 200, 203, 313, 315
Abbabaw Yegzaw 323 alcohol 201
Abbagasoc 165 Alexandria 34, 40, 181, 186, 310
Abbadie, Antoine d' 112, 126, 128-30, 177-9, Aleyu Amba, market 209, 211, 217-219, 221,
181-2, 205, 214, 269, 300 224, 242, 252, 291, 292, 300, 309
Abbadie, Arnauld d' 160, 162, 213-5, 232, 234, alga 257, 258
248, 258, 268, 276, 282-3, 285, 301, 309, 314 Ali Alula, Ras 150-1, 164, 171-2, 220-1, 283, 300,
Abbeye, Maredazmac 109 302, 317, 330
Abe to, 88 Ali, Haji 307
Abbo, Gondar 100 Ali Muz, trader 214
'Abd al-Qadir, merchant 102 Alleluya, monastery 32
'Abd Allah, merchant 102 Almeida, Manoel d' 7-11, 13, 15-17, 20, 22,
'Abd Asfar Turki, artilleryman 278 24-26, 28, 34, 45, 46, 51, 53, 55, 59, 60, 65,
'Abd-al-Rasul, market 218 67-70, 72, 81, 105, 276, 279, 314
Abraham, Armenian mercchant 54 alms-giving 64, 189
Abraham, Biblical personage 69 altars 38, 39, 96, 186, 331 See also: tabot
abstinence 43, 201 Alvares, Francesco 3, 5-10, 13, 16, 18-21, 24,
Abu Beker, Nagadras 219 26, 27, 29, 31-38, 40-47, 49-51, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59,
Abuns 26, 27, 29, 34-37, 40, 45, 93, 94, 97, 99, 60, 62, 63, 65, 67-72, 176, 253, 274, 275, 277,
102, 114, 128, 178, 179, 181-183, 186, 200, 201, 288, 289, 305, 310
229, 304, 310, 329, 330 Amade Leban, chief 204
Abuquer, Abba 36, 70 Amajah 57
Abusaker 186 amallat 111
acacias 133, 228 Amaritas 68
Acel, market town 56, 65 Amata Watin, Wayzaro 18
Adal 13, 47, 65, 217, 240 amba 27, 169, 209, 211, 217-219, 221, 224, 242,
addax 145 252, 291, 292, 300, 302, 309, 321
addi embilta 163 Amba Cara 321
addi ndgarit 163 Amba Gesen 27
addi qdndd 163 Amba Hay 302
Addigrat 146, 170, 192, 236, 275, 276, 283 amber 269, 270
Addis Ababa 276, 293, 315 'Amda Masqal, Behtwaddad 18
Aden 49, 55, 204, 209, 216, 218, 244-246, 277, 'Amda Seyon, Emperor 7, 15, 49, 53
296
283,- 286, Amha Iyasus, Maredazmac* 88
Admas Sagad, Emperor 28 Amhara 6, 7, 15, 29, 65, 68, 86, 150, 152, 213,
adoption 122 216, 223, 224, 250, 259, 265, 270, 281-283, 294,
adultery 70, 186, 266 330
Adwa 9, 96, 104, 120, 122, 128, 156, 157, 168, Amharic 35, 131, 143, 166, 205, 284, 312, 317,
170, 181-183, 191, 193, 198, 204, 205, 207, 209, 320, 326, 330, 331
211-214, 216, 219, 220, 234-236, 244, 252-254, ammunition 280, 281, 325
262, 263, 270, 275, 276, 281, 291, 292, 294-296, amoles 34, 49, 51, 65, 179, 181, 212, 217, 221,
299, 300, 307 241, 247, 294, 296
adzes 229, 232 amputation 163, 328
'Afar ix, 19, 49, 51, 55, 101, 212, 217 amulets 131, 179, 203, 237, 269, 308
Agabja 241 Anbasa Bet 81
Agame 136, 152, 163, 170, 249, 283 Angerab river 83, 100, 212
Agawmeder 50, 79, 212, 314 Angolala 217, 237, 238, 258, 275, 276, 288, 297,
Agaws ix, 77, 202 309
agriculture ix, 6, 67, 77, 145, 147, 148, 153, 159, Angot 3, 6, 7, 10, 15, 31, 50, 68
207, 248, 275, 321 ankle 81
Ahmad 'Ali, merchant 102 Ankobar 128, 169, 188, 195, 201, 217, 232, 237,
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Gazi, known as Gran 238, 241, 244, 258, 275, 276, 288, 302, 309, 313
13, 14, 18, 21, 24, 47, 48, 54, 57, 72, 273, 277, Antalo 102, 154, 170, 199, 211, 219-221, 236,
278, 292, 310, 312 260, 275, 291, 292, 294, 296, 299, 300
Aichinger, C, German craftsman 236 antelopes 202, 240
Ajubay 219 antimony 213, 216, 217, 252, 265, 270
355
Antonio, Brother 55, 229, 280, 295 Ba'eda Maryam, Emperor 28, 35, 63
Antonius, Falasa village 132 Baasa 102
ants 10, 209 Badeqe 57
apostasy 47 bdgdna 185
apparel 9, 19, 37, 62, 72, 186, 189 Bagemder 15, 68, 77, 84, 86, 87, 93, 111, 131,
Aqabe Sa'at 29, 35, 93, 94 162, 164, 172, 173, 223, 224, 233, 236, 243, 261,
Arab-Faqih see: Sihab al-Din 270, 274, 275, 282, 294, 297, 301-304, 317, 320,
Asaber, Nagadras 301 321, 329
Arabia 49, 53, 55, 65, 66, 88, 102, 104, 118, 147, baggage 11, 15, 17, 21, 65, 84, 106, 159, 318
214, 216, 217, 224, 282 Bahr Dar 200, 214
Arabic 35, 279, 280, 309 Bahr Nagas 9, 19, 21, 24, 29, 32, 33, 42, 43, 45,
Arabs 51, 53-4, 60, 232, 278, 305 50, 70, 72, 94, 98, 104, 163, 304
archers 111, 293 Bajerond 155
Aredam, Ras 19 Bakaffa, Emperor
5, 89, 98, 111, 273, 290
Argobba 217, 219 bakers 232
Aringo 329 Balassa 141, 233
Arkaledes, Abba 128 Balaw 204
Arkiko 49 see also: Hergigo bandits 321
Armaccaho 329 banners 17, 144
armament 80, 149, 284 banquets 7, 117, 141, 148, 166, 173-174, 253,
Armenians 54, 79, 103, 104, 117, 204, 235, 236, 256
238, 288, 309, 314 Banyans 105, 208, 216
armies 62, 65, 80, 81, 86, 106, 133, 140, 155, baptism 41, 45, 64, 195-196
317
157, 259, 279, 293, Baqatu, Dajazmac 294
armourers 224, 232, 235-237, 238, 275, 288, 322 baqqolo 123
arms 10, 15, 16, 19, 45, 63, 65, 80, 81, 87, 88, Barara 62
102, 103, 111, 118, 126, 135, 148, 150, 152-154, Baratti, G. 5, 66
157, 159, 170, 171, 183, 193, 199, 212, 213, 216, barbers 306
248, 259, 260, 270, 273, 277-284, 286-296, 298, Barbosa, Duarte 55
301, 302, 304-306, 310, 325 Barker, W.C., Lieutenant 217, 218, 238, 300,
army 13-15, 17, 18, 24, 25, 27, 57, 62, 63, 67, 301, 309
68, 79, 81, 85, 92, 93, 106, 116, 146, 150, barley 6, 7, 10, 33, 84, 135, 138, 139, 209, 260
155-157, 159, 172, 202, 234, 260, 277-279, Barradas, Manoel 8, 11, 12, 33, 55, 59, 279
281-283, 287, 309, 317, 318, 321, 322, 326, 329 Barroni, R. 214
Arno river 101 barter 49, 50, 57, 118, 217, 295-297
arrows 289, 293 Baselyos, Blattengeta 293
arsenic 103 basket-making 230
artillery 236, 277, 278, 292, 325, 326 baskets 211, 218, 230, 250, 253-255, 267, 305
artisans 59, 105, 106, 109, 217, 233, 322, 323, Basso 213, 214, 220
325-327 baths 7, 274, 307
artists 14, 61-63, 82, 95, 106, 109, 185, 232-233, battles 13, 15, 16, 19, 47, 84, 116, 122, 141, 143,
237, 310 150, 154, 155-158, 163, 167, 172, 237,
152,
Asab Rufa'el Fanta, artist 106 259-261, 277-279, 282, 287, 289, 290, 317, 326
asdildt 112 Bazabes, Queen 175, 309
Asfa Wassan, Maredazmac 300 beads 71, 101, 103, 104, 118, 180, 213, 216-218,
Asgadom, Bahr Nagas 304 244, 253, 269, 270
Asma Giyorgis, Alaqa 109, 313 beans 138, 139, 209, 314-315
Asmara plain 276 beards 25, 36, 46, 93, 191
Asnaf Sagad, Emperor 28 Beckingham, C.F. 4-13, 15-17, 19-22, 25-29, 32,
Assaggahah, Dabtara 320 33, 35-38, 40-44, 46-48, 50-54, 56, 59-63, 66-69,
asses 10, 49, 289, 290, 297, 305, 312, 320 71, 72, 105, 177, 277, 280, 292, 305, 307, 311
astronomy 129, 130 beds 190, 193, 198, 229, 232, 257, 258, 305
asylum 128, 159, 161, 199, 200, 214, 223, 236 beer 67, 68, 142, 143, 193, 201, 205, 241, 253,
Atshergee, Falasa village 132, 224, 226 254, 258. 260
auguries 46, 202 beggars 128, 174, 176, 177, 200, 223, 275 see
Austria 297 also: mendicants
Avostalla, Greek jeweller 235 begging 34, 126, 177, 179, 195, 306, 308
Awas river 57, 141, 217, 278 Beluwaddad 18, 21
awraris 290 see rhinoceroses Beke, C.T. 126, 138, 139, 173, 218, 236, 238,
Awsa 217 243-246, 288, 305, 317, 320, 322, 323, 328
axes 58, 83, 109, 133, 222, 229 Belgians 131
'Ayba 105, 275 Bell, J. 318
Ayrara river 238 bellows 222, 237, 322, 323, 325
Azazo 314 bells 37-40, 60, 155, 183, 189, 200, 201, 214,
Azevedo, Aloisus de 66 235, 239, 269, 318
356
Bender, C. 322 301, 303, 309, 313, 317-319, 321, 325-327,
Berbera 49, 55 330-332
berelle 219, 300 brocades 19, 20, 25, 41, 55, 62
Bermudes, Joao 7, 34, 47, 292, 306 bronze 57, 60, 61
berr 297, 298 Bruce, J. 10, 15, 32, 35, 37, 40, 42, 43, 47, 56,
Berru, name 306 60, 61, 67, 68, 71, 75, 77-79, 81, 83-94, 96-106,
Berru Gosu, Dajazmac 173, 203, 236, 322 109, 111, 112, 116-118, 133, 137, 138, 178, 212,
ben 258 256, 268, 273-277, 279-283, 290, 292, 298, 301,
Beylul 54, 55 307, 308, 311, 314, 315
Bibles xi, 39, 130-132, 178, 205 budas 203, 223, 263, 264
Bicana 214, 275 buffaloes 16, 168, 202, 213, 239, 262, 289, 290
Bicini, Hieronimo 63 Bugna 7
Bijaya 56 builders 105, 106, 229, 230, 232-234, 322, 326
birds 46, 47, 126, 145, 193, 202-203, 268 bulad 284, 286
births 4, 26, 45, 114, 121, 164, 179, 195, 201, Bulgu 246
264-265, 267, 317 Bulla, Bahr Nagas 21
Bizamo 213 bullets 16, 58, 154, 222, 232, 236, 278, 279, 282,
blacksmiths 58-60, 152, 222-224, 226, 232-235, 284, 285, 291, 324
237, 238 bullocks 144, 189, 262
Blanc, H. 171, 213, 304, 309, 322, 326-330 burials 46, 97, 98, 179, 196, 223
Blattengeta 155, 293 burning 8, 120, 137, 142, 144, 277, 291
Blondeel, van Cuelebroeck 131, 132, 214, 300, burnous 19, 26, 37, 183
301 bushes 133, 135, 137, 153, 276, 314
Blue Nile 34, 52, 79, 88, 101, 105, 173, 212, butter 33, 43, 49, 55, 67, 72, 77, 85, 121, 140,
213, 241, 245, 283, 289, 291 141, 147, 154, 165, 171, 212, 213, 216-218, 228,
boat-building 327 229, 253, 260, 265, 298, 314
boats 42, 55, 216, 327, 328 see also: ships cabbages 43
bode 123 Caca river 237
Bogos 204, 206 Cairo 35, 42, 56, 66, 113, 214, 307
Bollo Warqe, market 218, 297 £akol, Ato, armourer 238
Bomba, cannon 326 £alaqot 138, 199, 200, 236
bombardeers 280 calicoes 167, 205, 213
Bombay 216, 309 calomel 309
Bonga 214 Cambay 55, 57
book-binders 232, 233 camels 11, 12, 52, 55, 57, 78, 204, 207, 209, 213,
books 3-5, 35, 36, 39, 44, 57, 63, 75, 76, 80, 91, 217, 221
92, 97, 101, 126, 128, 130, 132, 173, 175, 178, Cameron, CD., Consul 325, 328
188, 192, 232, 233, 268, 310 camphor 50
bottles 203, 213, 219, 240, 300, 302 camps 13-17, 19, 25, 48, 58, 62, 63, 67, 68, 84,
Bourgeaud, M. 322 116, 148, 150, 155-157, 159, 162, 163, 170, 207,
;
bows 4, 5, 86, 142, 187, 202, 250, 289 209, 210, 259-262, 275, 304, 318, 325
I
boys 3, 9, 43, 97, 112, 121-123, 125, 126, 128, candles 38, 41, 47, 60, 98, 129, 195, 201
129, 131, 135, 138, 142, 190, 191, 193, 195, 205, canes 106, 187, 196, 211, 225, 230, 285, 314
244, 246, 248, 266-268, 289, 303, 328 cannon-making 323
i
bracelets 118, 237, 239, 240, 269, 270 cannons 57, 235, 277-279, 280, 286-288, 290,
braid 63 292, 293, 304, 322, 323, 325-327
Brancaleone, Nicolo 62, 310 canons 3, 29, 31, 33, 44
I branding, cattle 8 caps 19, 37, 180, 186, 233

brass 81, 103, 189, 217, 234, 235, 238, 239, 269, capes 19, 37, 101
294, 326 capitals 11, 25, 27, 29, 50, 54, 58, 63, 75, 77, 79,
brassware 236, 239 81, 87, 91-93, 101, 102, 104-106, 109, 111, 117,
bread 33, 38, 39, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50, 54, 58, 67, 128, 147, 169, 170, 172, 173, 183, 188, 195, 200,
!
140, 143, 147, 148, 167, 190, 198, 201, 209, 222, 212-214, 216, 217, 227, 232-234, 236, 241, 261,
252, 260, 264, 296, 311, 314 275, 276, 281, 283, 290, 292, 296, 301, 317, 320,
bread-baking 260 330, 332
;
!
breeches 9, 25, 37, 142, 259 caravans 49-51, 55, 57, 101, 102, 104, 125, 126,
bribes 153, 265 207, 209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 216, 217, 218, 244,
I
bridegrooms 45, 46, 265, 294, 295 246, 291, 304, 321
!
brides 45, 46, 264, 265 cardamom 101, 305
;
bridges 51, 105, 145, 173 carpenters 59, 63, 105, 229, 231-238, 322
bridles 21, 37, 62, 72, 81 carpet-weaving 230
Britain 114, 204, 207, 216, 265, 306 carpets 55, 96, 187, 198, 213, 216, 230, 232, 233,
British 4, 14, 30, 76, 78, 89, 92, 102, 106, 114, 298, 299
122, 126, 128, 133, 141, 143, 155, 165, 170, 188, cartridge-belts 149, 284
!
204, 205, 214, 216, 246, 276, 286, 287, 291, 300,
357
Castanhoso, Miguel de 13, 14, 19, 25, 37, 41, Church Services 18, 19, 38^1, 58, 102, 150,
72 152, 168, 173, 179, 196, 199, 233, 234, 277, 278,
castles 76, 105, 106, 275, 307 309
castration 65, 84, 157 churches 3, 8, 17, 29, 31-33, 35-38, 40, 42, 55,
Castro, Joao de 66 58, 94, 96, 98, 109, 128, 159, 178, 179, 181,
Catholicism 33, 45, 47, 278, 310, 311 see also: 186-190, 198, 200, 226, 263, 265, 301, 302
Roman Catholics churchyards 46, 98, 128, 196
Zat 313 circumcision 45, 71, 264, 267
cats 125, 254, 256, 288 civet 55, 101, 102, 212-214, 216, 219, 299, 305
cattle ix, 6-10, 19, 49, 77-79, 84, 123, 124, 134, clergy 3, 28, 29, 31, 32, 36, 38-43, 45, 47, 58, 60,
137, 138, 141, 142, 144, 145, 147, 160, 171, 190, 63, 70, 93, 95, 114, 126, 131, 178, 179, 183, 186,
211-214, 216-218, 228, 239, 244, 250, 262, 274, 187, 189, 191, 195, 196, 198, 200, 201, 206, 212,
289, 294, 296, 298, 299, 305, 318, 320, 321 232, 233, 234, 310, 312, 313, 329, 330 see also:
cattle-owners 7, 274 prelates, priests
cavalry 14, 16, 81, 83, 112, 150, 152, 158, 163, climate 78, 133, 138
282 see also: horsemen cloaks 25, 26, 72, 121, 127, 232
cawa 99 cloth 9, 19, 20, 25, 26, 34, 36-38, 44, 47, 50, 55,
Cecchi, A. 218, 229, 238, 284, 301 57, 58, 60-63, 70-72, 91, 101, 104, 153, 165, 168,
Celga 59, 213, 304, 322 170, 182, 189, 196, 199, 203, 213, 214, 216, 217,
celibacy 36 218-220, 224, 225, 230, 232, 234-238, 259, 262,
censers 38-39, 192 265, 268, 294, 295, 299, 300, 305, 311
Ceqa sum 163, 164, 166 clothes 19, 20, 25, 38, 56, 60, 62, 67, 71, 96, 97,
chains 24, 46, 81, 129, 222, 232, 239, 243, 269, 104, 118, 154, 186, 189, 190, 195, 198, 232, 247,
325 252, 256, 267, 313 see also: clothing
chairs 35, 229, 232, 267 clothing 9, 19, 20, 26, 36, 46, 53, 55, 58, 62, 67,
chanting 28, 46, 128, 130 71, 72, 83, 118, 166, 211, 227, 250, 259, 261, 318
charcoal 222, 232, 237, 238, 285, 323 cloves 55, 71, 213
charcoal-makers 232, 238 clubs 16, 268
charity 176, 177, 306, 328 coal 322
charms 131, 173, 179, 223, 239 coats-of-mail 16, 81, 83
chess 242
63, 168, coffee 58, 212, 213, 216, 217, 273, 305, 312-315,
chessmen 237, 240 320
chickens 32, 216 see also: poultry coffee-drinking 58, 314, 315
chiefs 19-22, 24, 33, 68, 80, 86, 126, 142, 147, Coffin, W. 97, 143, 170, 212, 229, 233, 301
150, 154, 155, 162-164, 167, 169, 170, 172, 173, coiners 235
175, 181, 187, 189, 204, 207, 220, 232, 241, 262, coining 238, 303
263, 264, 277, 281, 283, 299, 317 coins 57, 61, 238, 239, 276, 295-298, 301-306
childbirth 195, 267 see also: thalers
childhood 3, 86, 102, 122 Combes, E. 109, 117, 125, 126, 138, 139, 141,
children 3, 5, 10, 13, 18, 20, 27, 34, 36, 45, 64, 144, 145, 147, 172, 181, 188, 211, 213, 214,
65, 70, 93, 98, 104, 121-123, 125-131, 135, 146, 216-219, 222-224, 226, 227, 229, 230, 232,
159, 167, 181, 183, 190, 201, 205, 209, 218, 230, 234-240, 242, 243, 244, 246, 247, 252, 261-263,
235, 242-248, 252, 266, 267, 275, 279, 289, 308, 265-267, 283-285, 288, 295, 298, 300-302, 305,
311, 320 306, 308
chinaware 216 commerce 49, 53, 54, 60, 64-66, 103, 104, 181,
chintz 213 211, 214, 215, 217, 275, 321
chivalry 156 compasses 232
Chojnacki, S. 62, 106, 109 concubinage 264, 265
christenings 179 concubines 245, 259, 264, 265, 331
Christianity 45, 53, 59, 157, 178, 195, 204, 205, confessions 40, 45, 179, 266, 311
269 Constantinople 66, 105
Christians 3, 5, 13, 15, 26, 40, 42-45, 47, 48, 50, Conti, Nicolo de 55
53-57, 59, 64-66, 68, 69, 71, 96, 100, 101-104, conversions 47, 204-206
111-112, 128, 130, 131, 146, 153, 155, 157, 182, cooking 58, 65, 67, 209, 226, 253, 256, 258, 260
183, 186, 187, 193, 200, 203-206, 207, 212, 214, cooks 67, 222, 253, 258, 260, 262, 311
217, 223, 224, 234, 235, 241, 244, 266, 267, 269, copper 63, 83, 118, 213, 217, 232, 233, 302, 304
270, 277, 278, 311, 312-315, 323, 328, 331 Copts 29, 35, 40, 93, 181, 201, 235, 288, 310
Christmas 42, 43, 193, 262 coquetry 268
Christophorus, Abba, Greek physician 307 cords 28, 195, 236, 240, 269, 303
chronicles 3, 5, 23, 63, 84, 89, 98, 102, 111, 116, corn 6, 70, 84, 116, 123, 135, 140, 143-146, 148,
188, 273, 274, 279, 291, 293, 318, 331 170, 172, 209, 217, 248, 253, 258, 265, 318
church councils 99, 100, 104, 117, 280, 310 coronations 27, 71, 292, 293, 317, 328
church paraphernalia 38, 47, 109, 193 Corsali, Andrea 25, 55, 57
costumes 183, 331
358
cotton 9, 20, 37, 41, 49, 56, 60, 61, 81, 97, 101, Dalanta 318, 322
104, 137, 191, 211, 213, 214, 216, 217, 218-220, damasks 20, 53
224, 228, 235-237, 250-252, 259, 260, 265, 268, Dambeya 7, 24, 34, 51, 59, 72, 99, 138, 320
269, 305, 311, 331 Damot 7, 15, 50, 65, 68, 220, 329
couches 34, 45, 46, 86, 120, 142, 143, 190 dancers 261, 262
courts 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 19-21, 24, 26, 34, 38, 41, dancing 38, 40, 46, 193, 246, 262, 267, 295
46, 50, 51, 54, 57, 60, 62, 63, 66-68, 90, 102, 106, Danqaz 105, 275
111, 114, 116, 155, 165, 167, 169, 170, 173, 174, Daq, island 105, 233, 299
176, 236, 237, 274, 280, 289, 293, 307, 309, 310, ddrdba bete 113
327, 329 ddrdbdbet 113
courtesans 68, 261 Darita 212-214, 219, 224, 236, 304
courtiers 16, 18, 19, 50, 63, 68, 92, 170, 221, dates 79, 195, 213, 310
258, 275, 279, 289, 290, 293, 331 daughters 5, 18, 24, 26, 66, 68, 122, 199, 262,
Covilhao, Pero de 44, 310 264, 265, 305
cows 7, 8, 10, 11, 19, 43, 49, 50, 70, 71, 78, 133, Dawit, King of Israel 28, 126,
138, 142, 143, 170, 191, 198, 211, 250, 262, 289, Dawit I, Emperor 13, 310
313, 314, 320 Dawit III, Emperor 111, 321
craftsmanship 58, 60, 62, 106, 109, 233, 234 De Cosson, E.A. 52, 245, 253, 321
craftsmen 59, 60, 62, 63, 105, 106, 109, 217, deacons 28, 29, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 41, 93, 97,
223, 227, 229, 230, 232-234, 236-240, 275, 288, 181
322, 323, 325-327, 330 death 21, 27, 45, 46, 59, 64, 89, 95, 97, 111, 115,
crime 266 127, 163, 164, 166, 170, 196, 198-200, 202, 224,
crop rotation 135 242, 243, 262, 273, 278, 290, 293, 294, 301, 303,
crops 7, 77, 135, 138, 139, 146, 164, 166, 318, 306, 320, 321, 324, 328
320 Debarwa 29, 32, 33, 42, 44, 50, 68, 104, 279,
crosses 25, 28, 36, 38-40, 42, 45, 46, 51, 58, 60, 289, 292
90, 93, 97, 98, 107, 141, 145, 154, 183, 189, 191, decoration 106, 168, 269
192, 195, 201, 235, 218, 239, 259, 267, 293, 295, deer 290
313, 319, 329 deforestation 273-276, 310
crowns 21, 25, 62, 92, 188, 189, 200, 232, 235, Degalhan, Abeto 18
324 Degsa 104, 131, 182, 248
crucibles 238, 325 Del Wanbara 57
£uffa, Lej 250 Delakus 102
cultivation 6, 9, 133, 135, 137, 144, 145, 159, Demetrius see Sidi Petros
248, 314, 320 Demetrius, Greek craftsman 238
currency 16, 295-300, 304, 306, 310 Demetrius, Greek physician 307
Currum Chand, Indian merchant 216 Dengel 50,
curtains 24, 37, 41, 47, 60, 90, 256 dergo 253
cushions 198 Dersana Ragu 'el 312
customs 34, 51, 102, 141, 187, 203, 207, 219, detention of princes 27, 91
235, 243, 273, 300, 301, 304, 310, 317, 321 Dilbo, a slave 241, 242
customs posts 51, 219, 300, 304, 317, 321 Dillon, R.C., Dr. 309
cutlery 213 Dima 108, 110, 275
Dabab Kefla Iyasus 294 Dimotheos, Saprichian 314
ddbal 198 dishes 211, 218, 226, 311
Dabareq 102, 213, 219, 300, 301, 306 divination 85
Dabat 141 divorce 69, 70, 117, 264, 266
Dabra' Abbay, monastery 183, 292 Doba 50
Dabra Berhan 154, 218, 238, 241, 258, 275, 276 dogs 37, 123, 125
Dabra Berhan Sellase, church 100 donkeys 33, 51, 52, 148, 207, 211, 213, 218, 219,
Dabra Bizan, monastery 3, 8, 32, 33, 51, 94 220, 289
Dabra Halole, monastery 32 doors 24, 35, 36, 40, 41, 45, 62, 90, 96, 112,
Dabra Libanos, monastery 35, 57, 94, 188, 313 122, 142, 177, 187, 190, 196, 229, 242, 256, 264,
Dabra Metmaq, monastery 312 265, 289, 303, 323
Dabra Tabor 172, 195, 261, 263, 275, 287, 295, Dori, Bahr Nagas 21, 70
318, 322, 326, 330 Dorze 168
dabtaras 29, 36, 114, 128, 130, 131, 178, 179, Douin, G. 244, 305, 330
181, 183, 193, 233, 250, 320, 329, 330 dress 19, 24, 25, 37, 46, 62, 136, 149, 154, 167,
Dafalo, port 279 172, 180, 186, 191, 238, 265, 331
Daga Estifanos 61, 62 dress-makers 238
daggers *16,222 dresses 232
dagusa 138, 139 Drida 77
Dajazmac 79, 86, 142, 145, 155-157, 163, 164, drills 222
170, 173, 176, 181, 204, 219, 224, 236, 261, 283, drinks 41, 43, 68, 97, 142, 191, 196, 198, 201,
286, 294, 299, 301, 302, 317, 322, 329 203, 204, 256, 258, 263, 264, 313, 314
359
drinking 17, 58, 67, 104, 137, 142, 167, 190, 193, exports 49, 55, 64, 88, 103, 111, 147, 213, 216,
203, 213, 216, 232, 235, 237, 239, 253, 258, 273, 218, 243, 244, 289, 291, 296, 299, 301, 305, 315,
312-315, 326 328
drinking-horns 237 fainting 264
droughts 42, 276 Falasas, x, 45, 59, 60, 71, 100, 105, 106, 109,
drugs 55 122, 130-132, 179, 223, 224, 226, 229, 233, 263,
drummers 153, 163, 188 267, 313, 323
drums 20, 38, 46, 146, 153, 159, 163, 167, 182, famines 161, 174, 276, 313, 318, 320
188, 189, 194, 200, 259, 263, 293, 294, 299 Faraj al Funi, Haj, merchant 65
Dufton, H. 171, 178, 179, 182, 206, 223, 224, Faranj 63, 280, 311
230, 233, 234, 288, 302, 305, 318, 320-322, fardsdhha 163
325-327, 330 Fasil, Abeto 98, 290
dung 277
44, 143, Fasil, Dajazmac' 85
Durbit, market 50 Fasiladas, Emperor 91, 100, 105, 106, 111, 273,
durrah 55, 138, 147 280, 307, 311
dye 118, 265, 320 Fasiladas, Saint 85
earrings 168, 239, 240, 269, 270 fasting 43, 193, 195, 201, 312
earthenware 60, 63, 67, 116, 211, 218, 226, 234, Fatagar 13
252 feasting 46, 141, 179, 189, 193, 199
Easter 15, 40, 41, 191, 262, 293 feasts 8, 46, 96, 98, 117, 141, 148, 154, 156, 163,
eating 11, 135, 161, 167, 190, 191, 203, 326 188, 189, 191, 195, 196, 198, 211, 256, 293, 295,
Ebna Hakim, i.e. Menilek I 28 311
Ecage 29, 35, 93, 94, 126, 200, 312, 313 feathers 218
ecclesiastics 5, 28, 32, 35, 94 Felsata 195
education 3, 5, 121, 126, 128, 130, 132, 178, female 18, 24, 26, 28, 32, 45, 46, 68, 71, 88, 98,
242, 270 112, 116, 122, 131, 135, 168, 176, 191, 198, 218,
eggs 43, 218, 252 241, 245, 248, 256, 258-260, 262, 265, 267-270
Egwalu, Emperor 114 fennaj 112
Egypt 34, 35, 42, 53, 55, 65, 94, 102, 103, 105, fences 156, 209
181, 182, 213, 217, 277, 282, 286, 288, 299, 310, Fere Seyon, Abba 61, 62
322 Ferret, P.V.A. 135, 137-139, 147, 178, 179, 181,
Egyptians 29, 40, 42, 65, 93, 102, 105, 182, 204, 183, 186, 188-190, 200, 201, 207, 211-214, 216,
233, 288, 295, 304, 309, 312, 317 219, 220, 226, 234, 236, 244, 261, 285, 292, 300,
Eila, Falasa village 132 301, 315
Eleni, Queen 27, 43, 54 fertility of the land 6, 7, 9, 138
elephants 81, 145, 146, 168, 183, 262, 288, 290- fessassy 170
292 Fetha Nagast 23, 36, 37, 53, 64, 66, 69, 130,
Elias, Greek craftsman 238, 286, 288 173, 176, 247, 273, 328
Emetu, Wayzaro 114 fetters 129, 312
Emfraz 101, 105, 106, 111, 275 feudalism 18, 23, 80, 86, 162, 164, 170, 274, 317
Enarya 213-4, 217-8 fevers 307
En?atkab 223 Fez 56
Endarta 170 fiefs 13, 19-22, 33, 116, 164, 182, 329
enjara 58, 67, 68, 256 fields 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 25, 33, 53, 67, 70, 77,
Entotto 232 79, 81, 84, 125, 129, 135, 139, 141-144, 146, 153,
epidemics 276, 308 156, 163, 165, 166, 178, 200, 224, 228, 229, 233,
Eskender, Emperor 13, 310 248, 273, 275, 276, 282, 288, 309, 318, 320, 322,
Eslam Bar 102 326, 329
Eslam Sagad, courtier 19 fifers 188
Eslambet 212 fighting 13, 14, 16, 18, 63, 72, 84, 106, 113, 145,
Eslamge 102, 212 152, 156, 157, 159, 278, 279, 292, 320, 321
eunuchs 65, 244, 258, 259, 260 files 222
Europe 5, 50, 69, 77, 96, 128, 131, 156, 168, Finfini 276
176, 189, 200, 222, 223, 232, 261, 266, 281, 303, finger-millet 138, 139
307, 308, 317 fire-arms 16, 19, 80, 81, 87, 88, 102, 103, 111,
Europeans 129, 205, 206, 224, 283, 304, 307, 126, 150, 152, 170, 183, 193, 199, 212, 213, 216,
308, 314, 315, 318, 322-327 273, 277-284, 286-289, 291-296, 298, 301, 302,
evil eye 203, 223, 264 305, 306, 310, 325 see also the various types of
ewers 39, 294 weapon
excommunication 35, 47, 94, 186, 313 fire-wood 25, 65, 122, 133, 142, 241, 248, 252,
executions 100 258, 276
expeditions 16, 42, 48, 68, 92, 94, 106, 111, 116, fires 17, 137, 209, 325
128, 134, 145, 148, 149, 151, 152, 155, 156, 159, fish 43, 201
168, 184, 188, 192, 197, 202, 241, 242, 255, 275, Fitawrari 155, 262
276, 279, 286, 289, 290, 291, 297, 313, 320, 332
360
Flad, M. 59, 122, 131, 213, 224, 233, 234, 302, Gibe 293
304, 305, 313, 314, 320, 323, 325, 327 Giesim 102
flies 291 gifts 24, 94, 109, 141, 148, 152, 163, 164, 175,
flint-locks 284 182, 186, 191, 205, 221, 247, 279, 294, 305
Florentine 25, 55 gimlets 229, 232
flour 13, 54, 67, 68, 84, 228, 241, 253, 258, 267 ginger 101
fly-whisks 180 giraffes 290
food 6, 11, 15, 33, 41, 43, 44, 50, 58, 69, 122, Girard, A., Captain 61, 139, 222, 226, 227, 229,
143, 147, 168, 174, 190, 191, 193, 196, 226, 243, 230, 268, 276, 277, 283, 285
256, 258, 263, 311, 312, 318, 328 girls 9, 43, 68, 71, 112, 125-127, 131, 135, 145,
forests 25, 44, 109, 125, 187, 275-277 183, 188, 189, 190, 191, 193, 195, 241, 244, 245,
fortress 188, 273, 279, 287, 292, 302, 330 246, 248, 252, 257, 258, 259, 262, 263, 264-268
fortune-tellers 202 Gishe 13
fowls 50, 140, 198, 267 Giyorgis church, Ankobar 128
foxes 202, 229, 288 Giyorgis, Egyptian envoy 102
France 97, 103, 321, 322 Giyorgis, Saint 187
frankincense 101, 217, 252 glasses 103, 104, 118, 213, 216, 217, 219, 233,
Franks 62, 63, 310 270, 300, 323
Franz Josef, Emperor 297, 298 Goa 63
Fremona 7 goats 37, 55, 70, 72, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144,
French 11, 19, 77, 86, 97, 117, 125, 126, 139, 211, 216, 222, 227, 230, 250, 265
175, 183, 188, 232, 244, 282, 307, 321-323, 330 Gobat, S. 117, 121, 122, 126, 127, 129-132,
French Scientific Mission 138, 182, 183, 188, 144-146, 150, 154, 155, 157, 161, 162, 166, 167,
216, 219, 222, 224, 228, 229, 232, 233, 238, 240, 169, 178, 179, 181, 187, 190, 195, 196, 198-206,
276, 291, 309 212, 213, 241, 247, 248, 251-253, 256, 260, 263,
funerals 45, 141, 195-199, 261, 294, 305 264, 266, 267, 270, 301, 302, 305, 306, 308, 309,
furniture 58, 142, 229, 294 311, 322
fusiliers 260, 280, 286 Gobaze Gabra Madhen, Wagsum 330
fusillades 292-295 Gojjam 15, 21, 34, 50, 65, 72, 78, 85, 86, 88,
gdbata 168 108, 110, 130, 138, 144, 173, 176, 179, 186, 213,
Gabra Maryam, tailor 63 220, 223, 236, 240, 274, 275, 282, 283, 312, 326,
Gabra Maryam, treasurer 296 329
Gabra Manfas, Saint 191, 202 Golba 242
Gabra Sellase, carpenter 231, 234 gold 19, 22, 25, 26, 28, 34, 35, 46, 50, 53, 55-57,
Gabra Sellase, chronicler 84 60-63, 70, 79, 81, 88, 91, 94, 99, 102, 104, 114,
Gabra Walda Sellase, servant 168 170, 175, 183, 187-189, 200, 212, 213, 216, 217,
Gabre, Ras 302 219, 220, 232, 234, 235, 237, 238, 269, 284,
Gabre'el church, Adwa 193 297-299, 301-306, 313
Gadld Zena Marqos 53 goldsmiths 59, 63, 232, 235, 238
Gafat 322-325 Gomma 214
Galabat 245, 291 Gona 241
Galawdewos, Emperor 8, 14, 26, 40, 45, 275, Gonco 169
278, 310 Gondar 4, 59, 75-77, 80, 81, 84-89, 92-94, 96,
Galila river 322 98-109, 111, 112, 114, 116-118, 126, 128-130, 132,
Galinier, J.G. 135, 137-139, 147, 178, 179, 181, 147, 161, 163, 169, 172, 181-183, 188, 190, 200,
183, 186, 188-190, 200, 201, 207, 211-214, 216, 205, 207, 209, 211-214, 219, 220, 223, 224,
219, 220, 226, 234, 236, 244, 261, 285, 292, 300, 229-238, 240, 241, 246, 247, 253, 261-264, 270,
301, 315 273-276, 280-283, 287, 288, 290, 292-294,
Gallan Gallas 313 296-298, 301, 302, 304, 307-309, 313, 317, 320,
Gallas 21, 24, 34, 88, 101, 128, 152, 218, 241, 326, 330
244, 246, 250, 279, 297, 312-315, 323 see also: Gorgora 105, 132, 212, 275
Oromos Gorgora Eyla, Falasa village 226
Gama, Christovao da 48, 278, 279, 292 Gorgoreyos, Abba 9, 15, 17, 46, 59, 60, 71
Gama, Vasco da 235 Gorgorius 309
;
Gan 68 Gosu Zawde, Dajazmac 173
Gandabta 183 Gospels 4, 14, 30, 36, 39, 40, 45, 46, 48, 99,
garlic 33, 71 130, 331, 205
garments 36, 55, 167, 170, 198, 205, 256 gourds 193, 250, 260
Ge'ez 3, 45, 53, 92, 126, 130-132, 179, 317, 331 Graham, D.C., Captain 141, 142, 188, 238, 286,
I
Gedem 68 305, 313-315
Gendebelo 54 grain 10, 13, 19, 38, 49, 55, 67, 84, 122, 123,
Germans 9, 59, 60, 84, 113, 128, 131, 135, 138, 128, 137, 143, 148, 152, 159, 160, 168, 190, 200,
232, 236, 307, 322, 327 211, 217, 218, 228, 229, 248, 252-256, 258, 262,
Germany 122, 321 267, 298, 305, 318
Gibbertis 101, 103 granaries 77, 172, 174, 254, 318, 320
361
grandees 265, 279 harvest cycle 138
grapes 39, 43, 77, 269 Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Haymi 55, 100, 102, 105
grass 10, 17, 79, 133, 156, 187, 228, 276 Hasan al-Basri, artilleryman 278
graves 98, 196, 294, 318 hatchets 58, 222, 229
Grazmac 155 hay 230
Greece 53, 56, 65, 105, 288 Hayla Malakot, Negus 286
Greeks 103, 106, 233, 235, 237, 238, 280, 282, Hayq, lake 186
286, 288, 307, 331 Hazorta 118
greens 43 Hazzaga 299
Gregory see Gorgoreyos helmets 16, 83
grenades 325 hens 71, 203
grinding 67, 68, 84, 116, 122, 145, 209, 233, 236, henna 269, 270
238, 241, 248, 253, 254, 258, 267, 323 herbs 44, 253
grinding-mills 67, 233, 236, 238, 254, 260, 328 herds 6, 7, 51, 78, 141, 145, 147, 193, 202, 212,
grinding-women 241, 253, 258 274, 290
guards 19, 57, 80, 81, 92, 111, 112, 146, 150, herdsmen 79, 121, 212
152, 155, 156, 165, 174, 209, 210, 254, 256, 258, Hergigo 49, 50, 54, 55, 94, 104, 204
260, 284, 289, 290, 318 hermits 29, 44
Guba'e 105 Heuglin, T. 130, 182, 207, 213, 220, 239, 286,
Gudru 203, 212-214, 253 288, 318, 320, 322, 331
Guidi, I. 4, 5, 23, 65, 84, 94, 98, 99, 101-104, Hezekiel, artist 106
109, 112, 113, 116, 117, 280, 283, 292, 295, 301 hides 9, 49, 72, 77, 101, 125, 203, 209, 213, 216,
Gujarat 105 217, 227, 228, 232, 233, 250, 265
guks 193 hippopotami 212, 213, 290
gullelat 226 hiria 123
gult 34, 163 hockey 193
gum 101, 216, 217, 252 hoes 109, 136, 218
Guma 113, 213 holy water 39, 46, 195, 201, 267
gunpowder 16, 100, 149, 213, 236, 237, 279, honey 49, 55, 68, 77, 121, 140, 141, 153, 165,
284, 285, 323 167, 171, 212, 213, 216, 218, 258, 265, 296, 298
guns 97, 126, 143, 146, 150, 152, 154, 199, 235, hoods 37
239, 277, 279-286, 288, 291-295, 324, 325, 326 hora 123
gunsmiths 63, 288, 304, 322, 325 horns 78, 79, 84, 116, 137, 163, 212, 213, 219,
Gurages ix, 7, 125, 187, 203, 217, 241, 244 232, 237, 239, 240, 251, 269, 270, 314
Gureyon, blacksmiths' village 237 Horro 253
Guzara 105, 275 horsemen 14, 16, 81, 82, 83, 156, 157, 163, 172,
Gwangul 172 183
gwudgwads 143 horses 14, 15, 21, 33, 37, 38, 46, 49, 53, 62, 65,
Gyptzi 313 81, 82, 83, 85, 92, 112, 127, 137, 141, 144, 152-
Habab 204, 206 156, 183, 187, 189, 198, 199, 203, 207, 211, 213,
Habte, Ato, blacksmith 152 214, 218, 219, 220, 222, 232, 236, 239, 250, 278,
Hadeya 7, 15, 65 290, 297, 299, 313
Hagos Daras, merchant 207 hospitality 11, 50, 142, 186
hail 6, 146, 179 houses 11, 18, 21, 26, 34, 36, 46, 58, 64, 66, 79,
hair 44, 46, 71, 72, 79, 83, 97, 118, 154, 166, 81, 84, 94, 97-99, 100, 101, 112, 113, 122, 125,
228-230, 265, 269 132, 141, 142, 146, 150, 152, 154-157, 159, 160,
hair-shirts 72 161, 162, 164, 166, 167, 172, 179, 181, 183, 186,
Halay 78 188, 189, 190, 191, 193, 195, 196, 198, 199, 200,
half-castes 282 201, 206, 207, 211-213, 216, 217, 219, 220, 226,
Hall, M. 97, 98, 174, 322, 324, 325 229, 233, 234, 241, 243, 244, 247, 253. 256, 258,
Hamasen 79, 147, 260, 279, 299, 300, 304 263, 265, 267, 268, 276, 285, 288, 289, 295, 304,
hammers 105, 222 305, 307, 308, 311, 315, 317, 320, 321, 323,
hand-bellows 325 326-328, 331
handicrafts 58, 60, 61, 6.2, 67, 105, 109, 222, housewives 251
230, 232, 233, 234, 237, 238, 248, 275, 322 Hozier, H.M., Captain 130, 236, 276, 277, 327
Harar 213, 217 Hula 123
Hararis 217 Hungarian 57, 295
harbours 55 hunters 168, 202, 290, 291
harness-makers 232 hunting 3, 5, 123, 125, 168, 202, 237, 288, 289-
Harris, W.C., Captain 126, 128, 130, 141, 142, 292
153-155, 165-167, 169, 173-175, 187, 189, 190, Huntingford, G.W.B. 4-13, 15-17, 19-22, 25-29,
195, 201-203, 217, 218, 237, 238, 241, 243-246, 32, 33, 35-38, 40-44, 46^8, 50-54, 56, 59-63,
253, 258-261, 270, 276, 277, 297, 298, 302, 305, 67-69, 71, 72, 177, 277, 280, 292, 305, 307, 311
309, 311-315
harvests 6, 77, 122, 138, 139, 144, 145, 164, 166
362
husbands 11, 18, 26, 36, 69, 70, 100, 117, 122, jewellery 19, 50, 67, 118, 175, 217, 237-239, 261,
127, 166, 190, 191, 196, 248, 252, 256, 264-266, 269, 270, 298, 302, 306
268 "Jewish influences" 40, 310-312
huts 113, 128, 143, 144, 145, 155, 156, 189, 218, Jews x, 40, 83, 311
245, 261, 320 Jidda 118
hyenas 122, 146, 190, 203, 223, 252, 263, 264, Johannes, Greek builder 238
312, 320 Johnston, C, Dr. 126, 141, 142, 150, 152, 154,
hymns 28, 76, 129, 130, 262 155, 164, 165, 173-176, 204, 206, 217, 218, 221,
ibex 239 227-229, 234, 238-240, 243, 252-254, 256, 258,
Ifag 320 259, 269, 270, 276, 277, 283-286, 298, 302, 303,
Ifat 13, 68, 204, 295 305, 306, 309
illnesses 59, 63, 203, 224, 306, 307 joiners 238
imboy 228 Judah, tribe of 86
Impey, surgeon 309 Judaic x, 45, 59, 179
imports 49, 55, 81, 88, 103, 104, 182, 213, 216, judges 65, 70, 75, 101, 114, 173, 176, 273, 278,
220, 273, 277, 280, 281, 283, 285-287, 291, 294, 291, 317, 318
296, 299, 301, 304, 309, 323, 325 justice 5, 11, 176, 200
incense 33, 45-47, 50, 55, 96, 97, 120, 195, 196, Kafa ix, 212-214, 217, 241
213, 239, 267 Kaibara 104
India 53-57, 65, 66, 104-106, 216, 217, 280, 282, kale 43, 44
306, 308, 309, 327 Kanisa, soldiers 111
Indians 26, 37, 56, 105, 208, 213, 216, 253, 275, Kdnisot, soldiers 111
285 Kantiba 29999,
infantry 14, 16, 152, 156-158, 282 kantuffa 83, 228
insects 10, 137, 146 Karnesem 299
intoxication 190 Karutta 77
iron 8, 16, 36, 44, 57, 59, 60, 81, 83, 93, 97, 103, Kasa see: Tewodros and Yohannes
133, 135, 211, 212, 217, 222, 223, 232, 236, 237, Kasa of Qorata, merchant 207
239, 250, 282, 285, 295, 303, 322, 323, 325, 327 Kassam river 57
ironware 58 Kebran island 109
ironworks 237 kella 219, 300
irrigation 137, 138 Kenfu, Wagsum 144
Isenberg, C.W. 126, 130, 139, 150, 152, 155, keretnt 294
166, 175, 187, 188, 195, 201, 204, 206, 218, 229, kettledrums 28
230, 236, 238, 240, 256, 258, 259, 263, 267, 285, Khartoum 235, 246
298, 300, 301, 303, 305, 314, 315 Kidana Maryam, Nagadras, merchant 207, 302
Islam 269
47, 204, 205, Kings 2, 3, 7, 18, 20, 21, 23-28, 31, 46, 53, 54,
i
Isma'el, merchant 215 59, 63, 64, 66, 75, 88, 90, 96, 99, 112, 128, 141,
Isma'el, soldier 235 145, 150, 152-155, 162, 164, 166, 169, 172-176,
Italians 5, 13, 55, 66, 112, 128, 204, 214, 229, 185-188, 195, 203, 204, 214, 232, 233, 236-238,
235, 244, 284, 300, 320 241, 242, 258, 259, 262, 265, 266, 273, 274,
ivory 53, 55, 88, 102, 103, 106, 212, 213, 216, 284-286, 288, 290, 299, 302, 303, 306, 308, 309,
217, 219, 220, 237, 239, 240, 251, 269, 289, 291, 312, 317, 319, 320, 323-325, 327, 330
I
299, 300, 305 Kinos, Abba 153
I Iyasu I, Emperor 5, 34, 81, 84, 89, 91, 96, 106, Kirk, R., Dr. 308, 309
\
111, 116-118, 273, 280, 281, 289, 293, 299, 307 kissing 90, 96, 165, 183, 187, 191, 247
Iyasu II, Emperor 5, 84, 92, 94, 98, 102, 106, kitchens 67, 69, 193, 254, 256
111, 273, 281, 290, 291, 293, 294, 298, 299 knives 58, 71, 129, 213, 216, 222, 232, 240
Iyo'as, Emperor 84, 111, 117, 280, 281, 293, 298 Kodofalassi 299
jackals 288 kofari 133
Jacobis, Justin de 52, 245, 253, 321 kohl 101, 103, 104, 217, 240, 252, 265
1
M. 322-324
Jacquin, Kolmodin, J. 79, 299, 301, 305
Jammadu Maryam, monastery 33 kosso 232
j
Jan Bet 81 Kotzika, Yohannes, merchant 286, 331
;
Janjero 66, 213, 217, 241 Krapf, J.L. 125, 126, 128, 130, 139, 150, 152,
jars 60, 68, 116, 122, 143, 198, 205, 211, 212, 155, 166, 175, 186-188, 195, 201, 203, 204, 206,
218, 226, 252, 258, 260, 302, 303 213, 218, 229, 230, 234, 236-238, 240-242, 244,
i jaundice 264 250, 256, 258, 259, 262, 263, 265, 267, 283, 285,
jealousy 33, 268 288, 297, 298, 303, 305, 309, 313-315
Jemma 203, 253 Kwer'atd Re'esu 92
Jenda 229, 321 labour 19, 33, 34, 59, 67, 105, 135, 141, 159,
i
Jerusalem 29, 42, 189, 205, 322 165, 188, 189, 226, 228, 230, 242, 250, 252, 260,
! Jesuits 7, 11, 17, 26, 43, 45, 47, 59, 60, 66, 70, 275, 285, 307, 323, 326, 327
I 105, 205, 274, 280, 281, 311 labour service 34
jewellers 232, 235, 237-239, 306 labourers 136, 228
363
Lalibala, city xii, 29, 42, 55, 295 Malak Sagad, Emperor 28 see also: Sarsa
Lamalmo 69 Dengel
Lamma, local governor 130, 144, 315 Malakatawit, Queen 118, 307
Lamma Haylu, Alaqa 315 Malindi 56
lancers 295 see also spearsmen Mama 203
lances 83, 172, 267, 289, 290, 295 see also: Mamite, Wayzaro 114
spears Mammo, Dajazmac 79
land sales 114, 297 Manadeley 6, 7, 42, 50, 56, 67
land tenure 13, 22, 162-3, 165, 171, 329 Manan, Queen 302, 317
landlords 78, 133 mdnbara tabot 38
Lasta 15, 29, 144, 187, 202, 233, 282, 283, 329 manbete 113
lathes 226, 239 Mangestu Lamma 130
law 18, 19, 25-27, 36, 64, 66, 117, 129, 130, 142, mangudo 125
173, 175, 265, 328 Manoel I, King 46
lead 37, 63, 72, 118, 209, 213, 232, 236, 282, manumission 64, 302
285, 328 manure 135
leather 9, 37, 83, 121, 213, 228, 232, 233, 235, manuscripts 2, 4, 14, 30, 35, 36, 39, 60, 80, 82,
238, 240, 250, 252, 258, 270, 303, 325 89, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 114, 130, 132,
leather-workers 232, 235 186-188, 192, 233, 237, 250, 331
leatherwork 236 Manz 13, 230
Lebna Dengel, Emperor 14, 16, 18-20, 25-27, maqdas 37
31, 32, 34-36, 41, 46, 56, 57, 60, 62, 63, 67, 70, Marab river 202, 304
273, 277, 278, 281, 306, 312, 313 Marye Gugsa, Ras 145
Lehkut, Wayzaro 114 Maria Theresa dollars 131, 133, 139, 165-168,
Lejean, G., Consul 171, 201, 204, 206, 276, 277, 170, 179, 181, 182, 186, 199, 205, 209, 213,
288, 302, 305, 321 216-218, 220, 229, 232, 233, 235, 238, 242, 246,
lemons 49, 217, 229, 253 247, 250, 251, 265, 269, 273, 276, 291, 294,
Lent 15, 43, 44, 181, 190 296-300, 302-306, 308
lentils 6, 44, 138, 139, 253 markets 32, 47, 49, 50, 51, 54, 57, 63, 65, 66,
leopards 168, 229, 253, 290 69, 77, 84, 100, 104, 144, 153, 163, 181, 207, 211,
lepers 42, 176, 177 212, 214, 216-221, 235, 241, 242, 245, 252, 253,
letter-writing 331 292, 296, 297, 299, 300, 306, 321
libraries 4, 14, 30, 76, 78, 89, 106, 114, 187, market-women 69, 217
188, 331 Markham, C. 236, 283, 285, 326, 327
lime 105, 322 Marowti 101
Limmu 214, 217 Marqos, Abuna, 16th century 34-5, 310
lions 19, 24, 72, 81, 146, 168-170, 173, 229, 259, Marqos, Abuna, 18th century 93
262, 288-290 marriages 18, 26, 27, 36, 45, 67, 69, 70, 112,
literacy 121, 131, 132, 270 117, 118, 122, 179, 186, 195, 243, 262, 264-266,
livestock 7, 8, 19, 49, 52, 70, 78, 79, 122, 141, 268, 305, 331
153, 165, 209, 211, 274, 289, 318, 320 Maryam Seyon 188, 234, 272 see also Seyon
loans 269 Maryam Zacharias, church 188
Lobo, Jerome 7, 8, 11, 13, 29, 32, 43, 46, 47, mdsafent 75, 84, 86, 89, 175, 273, 274, 291, 320,
52, 60, 94, 274 329
locusts 6, 10, 11, 145, 146, 179 Mdshafd Berhan 310
London 52, 75, 120, 127, 130, 134, 137, 140, masomya 111
149, 151, 174, 180, 184, 192, 221, 243, 245, 251, masons 59, 63, 105, 106, 232, 233, 237, 238
254, 255, 272, 287, 296, 319, 325, 331, 332 Masqat 18, 141, 154, 191, 193, 295
looking-glasses 104 see also: mirrors Mass 26, 32, 36, 37, 39^1, 43, 45, 70, 93, 96,
looms 225, 226 114, 178, 183, 198, 201, 232, 308, 312 see also:
looting 11, 13, 92, 114, 143, 144, 148, 159, 160, Sacrament
188, 233, 317, 318, 331 Massaia, G., Cardinal 121, 124, 160, 171. 213,
Ludolf, H. 8, 9, 15, 17, 20, 25, 37, 43, 46, 54-56, 225, 244, 304, 305, 320
58-60, 71, 163, 164, 279, 280, 283, 307, 311 Massawa 6, 49, 53-55, 66, 102, 104, 147, 182,
Madhane 'Alam church, Ankobar 232 204, 208, 212-216, 218-220, 222, 233, 238, 244,
Madhane 'Alam church, Maqdala 331 278, 279, 281, 283, 291, 296, 308, 309, 314, 315
Madhen Zamada, Princess 68 Matamma 213, 244
mdhabdr 190 mats 30
Mahal Wanz 237 match-locks 81, 167, 284, 295
Mahbuba, slave girl 113 matchlockmen 152, 157, 318
Mahdara Qal Tawalda Madhen 205 Matthew, Armenian merchant 54
Mahfuz 15, 43 Matthew, St. 4, 23, 92, 99, 311, 331
Mahometans 101, 104, 207 see also: Muslims May Gwagwa 104
Maillet, Charles de 307 Mayer, J. 322
maize 190, 198, 260
364
mead 46, 60, 68, 148, 150, 175, 193, 241, 253, monks 6, 8, 29, 32-39, 41-44, 47, 51, 60, 61, 62,
258 64, 93, 94, 96, 97, 126, 128, 130, 176, 177, 178,
meat 8, 43, 50, 54, 55, 142, 148, 150, 174, 205, 180-183, 186-189, 202, 204, 234, 266, 295, 310,
206, 211, 252, 314 312, 330
Mecca 224
20, 55, 102, 214, monogamy 26, 265
Mecca 320 Mooney, H.F. 275, 277
medicines 63, 179, 188, 213, 244, 273, 306-310 Moors 47, 53, 55, 56, 57, 81, 83, 295 see also:
Mendes, Alfonso 311 Muslims
mendicants 176 see also: beggars moqimoqo 118
Menilek I, son of Queen of Sheba 29 Morat 224, 229
Menilek II, Emperor 84, 127, 232, 313 Morocco 56
menstruation 71 mortar 105
Mentewwab, Queen 84, 95, 106, 109, 115, 117, mortars (artillery) 105, 287, 288, 323-326, 326
307 mortars (grain) 190, 229, 254
Merab, P, Dr 252, 306 mortification of the flesh 44
merchandise 46, 50, 55-57, 103, 126, 207, 209, Moses 23
217, 302 mosques 102
merchants 47, 49-57, 65, 66, 69, 79, 100-104, Mota 214
113, 125, 181, 183, 207-214. 216-220, 238, 243, motherhood 267
244, 245, 291, 296, 297, 299-302, 304, 321, 331 mountains 6, 17, 27, 29, 44, 51, 52, 77, 79, 91,
mercury 233, 309 123, 135, 146, 152, 169, 178, 188, 220, 260, 261,
mes 198, 260 273, 287, 302, 326, 330
messengers 5, 24, 94, 156, 168, 176 mourners 46
Metical Aga, merchant 102, 103 mourning 46, 97, 98, 190, 196, 198, 262, 268
mice 10, 137, 254 moving capitals 25, 50, 54, 58, 63, 93, 234
Migra 241 Muhammad Ali, Pasha 182
Mika'el, Archangel 193 Muhammad, Nagadras 101
Mika'el, Greek jeweller 235 Muhammad Ibrahim, merchant 214
Mika'el Sehul, Ras 79, 81, 87, 88, 99, 102, 116, mules 21, 17, 19, 21, 34, 35, 37, 38, 49, 50, 52,
176, 281, 291, 294, 298, 299 70, 71, 72, 83, 84, 106, 116, 118, 137, 141, 144,
Milan 121, 124, 160, 171, 225, 297 152, 168, 183, 187, 199, 190, 198, 207, 209, 210,
milk 7, 43, 85, 142, 143, 147, 204, 216, 228, 229, 211, 213, 214, 218, 219, 220, 222, 232, 239, 245,
250 268, 278, 289, 291, 294, 299, 300, 305
milking 135, 138, 250 muleteers 275 17,
millers 232 Munnai 144
river
millet 10, 33, 42, 138, 139, 190 Munzinger, W. 159
mimosas 276 Murad, Armenian merchant 79, 103, 104
mines 19, 51, 60, 238, 306 murder 186, 200, 321
minstrels 174, 261 music 130, 263, 294, 295
mirrors 106, 213, 216, 233 musicians 28
missionaries 11, 45, 59, 70, 117, 125, 128, 131, musketeers 16, 28, 150, 154, 278-283, 292, 293
178, 180, 182, 183, 186, 204, 205, 206, 224, 236, muskets 16, 81, 198, 199, 277-282, 285, 286,
244, 247, 266, 303, 307, 309, 310, 315, 320, 292, 318, 325
322-325, 327, 329 Muslims 13-15, 26, 43, 42, 45, 47-50, 53, 54, 56,
mobilisation 13, 83, 153, 154, 260 57, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65-67, 89, 100-104, 106, 111,
Mogadishu 56 168, 182, 200, 204, 205, 207, 212, 214, 217-219,
monarchs 3, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20-28, 31, 36, 224, 227, 233, 235, 238, 243, 269, 273, 277, 278,
j
38, 41, 49, 54, 63, 68, 79-81, 83, 84, 86, 89, 90, 282, 304, 308, 312, 313, 314, 315, 328 see also:
|
92-94, 98, 103, 112, 114, 118, 141, 153, 162, 164, Moors
165, 169, 170, 173, 174, 176, 187, 202, 219, 237, myrrh 50, 55, 101, 217, 252
I
238, 258, 266, 274, 275, 277, 284, 286, 289, 290, Na'ibs 204
j
292, 293, 302-304, 307, 310-313, 317, 321, 323, nagadras 50, 101, 212, 219, 299, 301, 302
324, 325, 328, 329 see also individual rulers by Nagassi, Abeto 88
name nails 71, 98, 118, 213, 222, 270
,
monarchy 18, 27, 75, 79, 83, 86, 88, 89, 92, 93, Na'od, Emperor 26
I
162, 169, 170, 273, 274, 280, 289, 310 Nar 279
monasteries 3, 8, 29, 32-34, 35, 42, 44, 57, 62, Nasar craftsmen 236
'Ali,
i
71, 94, 126, 128, 178, 187, 188, 199, 217, 234, Nayzgi, Dajazmac* 79
263, 301, 302 Nazaret, Armenian leather-worker 236
i money 19, 34, 49, 50, 53, 56, 84, 104, 106, 141, NeburaEd 199
156, 170, 172, 179, 181, 186, 212, 216, 217, 219, necklaces 46, 239, 244, 253, 269, 270
235, 236, 238, 242, 295-301, 303, 305, 306, 313, needles 58, 101, 213, 216, 217, 222, 237, 240,
1
318 253, 303
I money-lending 104, 301, 303 Negusd Ndgdst 169
: monkeys 145, 146, 290 neuralgia 264
Nob, Abba 250 peasantry 6, 9-12, 18, 19, 20, 22, 33, 36, 49, 58,
nobles 11, 16-22, 25, 26, 27, 53, 68, 69, 86, 89, 70, 77-79, 133, 135, 138-148, 153, 157, 159, 164,
90, 96, 117, 126, 162-164, 166-168, 172, 189, 273, 165, 172, 182, 200, 227, 229, 241, 249, 253, 261,
290, 291, 293, 294, 301, 306, 317, 331 277, 279, 297, 298, 299, 300, 303, 317, 318, 321
Nono 241 penitence 44
Nott, A., Commander 300 pepper 50, 55, 139, 211, 213, 216, 219, 253, 258,
Nubia 116 259
nuns 29, 32, 33, 36, 37, 42^4, 47, 54, 234 Pereira, Bernado 55
Nuro, Haji, carpenter 235 Perini, R. 299, 301, 330
oaths 47, 143 Persia 65
officers 5, 11, 19, 24, 68, 81, 83, 94, 98, 99, 103, Persians 217, 285
155, 165, 172, 193, 216, 266, 286, 290, 300, 301, pests 254
10, 137, 145,
318, 331 Petit, A., 309
Dr.
Oigba, Falasa village 131 Petros, Greek or Armenian merchant 238
olives 94, 108, 277 pewter 269
omens 47, 202, 203 physicians 63, 131, 238, 306-309
onions 33, 211, 253 pigs 237
Ormuz 56 pilgrimages 42, 188, 189, 201, 207, 214, 313
ornaments 33, 170, 172, 188, 191, 198, 200, 239, pilgrims 42, 205, 224, 322
240, 269, 284, 306 pillage 159, 320 see also: looting
Oromos ix, 21, 24, 34, 88, 101, 113, 122, 152, pincers 222
172, 203, 217, 239, 241, 246, 250, 264, 282, 297, pistols 229
312, 313, 314, 331 see also: Gallas pitchers 226, 260
ostriches 218 planes 229
ostrich feathers218 ploughs 7, 58, 78, 84, 133-135, 138, 141, 159,
Otsu Aga, a slave 122-3, 246 166, 170, 222, 229, 250, 294, 320, 321
Ottomans 66, 102, 103, 220, 279, 280, 283, 309 ploughing 78, 164, 248, 299, 311
oxen 7, 9, 44, 52, 70, 133-135, 137, 141, 144, ploughshares 59, 109, 133, 135, 170, 218
170, 179, 193, 203, 209, 212, 213, 232, 239, 250, Plowden, W., Consul 131-133, 135, 137,
265, 294, 312, 313, 320, 321 139-146, 148, 150, 152. 155-157, 159, 161, 162,
pack animals 51, 54 164, 172, 178, 179, 188, 200-207, 209, 213, 217,
Paes, Pero 105 219, 220, 233, 244, 246, 252, 253, 256, 258,
"pagans" 148, 156, 200, 313, 315, 328 260-263, 283-285, 291, 300-302, 312, 317, 318,
painters 62, 63, 106, 236, 237, 238 321, 326, 328, 331
painting 38, 60, 61, 74, 92, 106; 118, 187, 188, plumb-line 232
293 poets 261, 262
palaces 26, 29, 35, 57, 80, 90, 93, 94, 98, 100, poetry 128-130, 262
105, 106, 111, 112, 148, 150, 152, 155, 157, 173, Polo, Marco 49, 57
174, 232, 237, 238, 240, 258, 259, 284, 286, 288, Poncet, C. 11, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42, 77, 81, 83, 86,
307 93, 94, 96-98, 100-104, 111, 117, 118, 289, 290,
Palm Sunday 40, 192 293, 307, 314
palms 39, 40, 46, 90, 118 population 6, 22, 28, 29, 32, 43, 47, 50, 56, 57,
panthers 288, 290 64, 65, 69, 70, 75, 77, 98, 100-102, 104, 111-113,
paper 103, 303 131-133, 145, 146, 148, 150, 153, 154, 159, 162,
parasols 2, 28, 127, 230 167, 168, 178, 179, 181-183, 186, 187, 199, 200,
parchments 61, 227, 232-234 206, 207, 209, 212, 214, 217, 224, 230, 232-234,
Paris 2, 48, 74, 85, 99, 129, 130, 136, 158, 161, 236, 238, 241, 261, 263, 269, 273-276, 278, 288,
171, 175, 194, 205, 208, 210, 215, 227, 249, 257 292, 306, 309, 310, 312, 315, 323
Parkyns, M. 131, 132, 138, 139, 141-145, 148, porridge 190, 193, 267
150, 152, 154-157, 159, 161, 163, 164, 167, 168, porringers 17, 60, 67
170, 171, 189-191, 193, 195, 196, 198, 199, porters 51, 207, 209, 219, 220
201-206, 214, 216, 223, 224, 228-230, 235, 236, Portugal 41, 46, 54, 63, 66, 279, 306
240, 252, 254, 256, 263-265, 267, 269, 270, 285, Portuguese 3, 7, 10, 13, 16, 17, 19, 25, 27, 33,
286, 292, 294, 295, 300, 301, 305, 306, 309 34, 44, 48, 50, 55, 56, 65, 70, 72, 275, 278-280,
partridges 125, 289 289, 292, 305, 306, 310
pastoralists 147 pots 16, 58, 60, 67, 218, 226, 228, 254, 255, 257
peaches 43 potters 58-60, 67, 106, 218, 226, 227, 233, 234,
Pearce, N. 122, 125, 126, 128-133, 135, 137-146, 248
152-157, 159, 161, 167-169, 171, 177-179, pottery 58-60, 227, 232
181-183, 186-191, 195, 196, 198-201, 203-206, poultry 218, 252, 254 see also: chickens
211, 213, 219, 220-223, 230, 234, 236, 241-244, prayers 38, 40, 42, 46, 80, 82, 91, 92, 96, 97,
247, 248, 250, 252, 253, 256, 259-268, 283, 294, 128, 130, 173, 180, 190-194, 196, 198, 199, 201,
295, 298, 301, 305, 306, 308, 313-315 206, 313
peas 118, 135, 139, 190, 191 pregnancy 45, 267
366
prelates 29, 34-36, 70, 93, 99, 181-183, 200, 310, rhinoceroses 168, 213, 232, 290
311 see also: clergy ribbons 219
Prester John 21, 27, 36, 56 riding 3-5, 62, 90, 92, 93, 172, 187
priests 3, 10, 19, 27-29, 32-42, 44-47, 54, 64, 65, Rif 42
70, 71, 93, 96, 97, 114, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, rifle-butts 229, 232
141, 148, 176, 178-183, 186-189, 190, 191, riflemen 80, 156, 183, 277-284, 286, 289, 293
193-196, 198-203, 204, 205, 206, 232, 250, 263, rifles 5, 92, 126, 149, 150, 152, 207, 222, 223,
265, 267, 275, 303, 307, 308, 310, 312, 313, 315, 229, 232, 233, 236, 237, 238, 278-284, 286-288,
329, 330 see also: clergy, priests 291-295, 299, 301
primitive money 49, 212, 295-297, 303 rings 83, 222, 232, 239, 269
primogeniture 27 rivers 15, 17, 41, 51, 57, 83, 88, 97, 100, 101,
princes 27, 46, 86, 90, 91, 98, 113, 102, 176, 308 138, 144, 145, 154, 191, 193, 202, 212, 214, 233,
prisoners 65, 91, 112, 156, 241, 244, 279 237, 238, 252, 256, 267, 304, 314, 322
proclamations 22, 46, 83, 84, 153, 163, 181, 311, roads 10, 11, 32, 51, 101, 153, 155, 183, 205,
312, 329 218, 219, 244, 252, 260, 263, 287, 317, 321, 326,
prophecies 94, 187, 202 327
prophets 224, 263 road-building 317, 326
prostitutes 261, 275, 330 see also: courtesans robbers 207, 321
Protestants 59, 125, 131, 182, 183, 204-206, 309, robes 37, 60, 183, 260
322, 326 Rochet d'Hericourt, C.F.X. 171, 175-177, 217,
provisions 10, 11, 13, 34, 50, 54, 55, 83, 84, 87, 218, 222, 226, 237, 238, 270, 300-303, 305, 309
100, 104, 116, 142, 143, 148, 153, 154, 159, 161, Roge, market 218, 242
198, 209, 260, 305, 317, 324 Rohabayta 145, 263
Psalms 2, 3, 5, 30, 38, 41, 96, 97, 126, 128, 130- Rohlfs, G. 128, 130
1, 185, 311 Roman Catholics 33, 36, 70, 206, 279, 310-1
pupils 3, 127-129, 131 see also: students see also: Catholicism, Jesuits
Qaha river 83, 100, 101, 212, 233 Romana Warq, Princess 36, 70
Qalamsis, Abba, librarian 188 Rome 47, 53, 105, 121, 124, 160, 171, 202, 206,
Qanazmac 155 225, 284
qdy 112 royalty 70, 72, 162, 169, 269, 292, 306
qeddastd qedusan 38 Rufa'el, Brother 62, 100
Qeddusan mdsdhaft 130 Rufa'el stream, Gondar 100
Qemants x, 233, 267 rugs 294
qene 37, 130 rulers 4, 7, 13, 18-20, 21-24, 26, 27, 28, 33, 46,
qennaj 112 47, 53, 54, 58, 65, 68, 81, 86-89, 92, 94, 96, 98,
Qerellos, Abuna 181, 186, 201 102, 103, 106, 109, 111, 142, 144, 145, 148, 150,
Qoran 204 152, 153, 155, 157, 159, 162-165, 169-176, 179,
Qorata 181, 207, 212, 214, 236, 239, 302, 304, 182, 186, 187, 202, 204, 219, 234, 235, 236, 274,
314 275, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281-284, 291, 292, 293,
Qundi 237, 258, 302, 303 294, 298, 299-302, 303, 318, 321, 325-327, 328,
qwad 284, 286 330, 331
qwalqwal 230 running 125, 146, 168, 172, 173, 229, 252, 263,
Qwara 59, 187, 214 268, 303, 313, 323
qwerban 38 Ruppell, W.P.S.E. 58, 84, 135, 137-139, 141,
Qwesqwam 109 144-147, 159, 161, 171, 207, 211-214, 216, 217,
rafts 51, 327 219, 220, 222, 224, 226, 227, 229, 232-234, 236,
Ragu'el, Archangel 312 239, 241, 242, 243, 244, 251, 252, 256, 258, 283,
rains 15, 25, 51, 79, 122, 128, 138, 146, 147, 285, 288, 296-298, 300, 301, 305, 314, 315
209, 212 Sa'azzaga 299
raisins 33 Sabagades, Dajazmac 156, 157, 170, 181, 186,
Ras al-Fil 291 236, 299, 301
Rassam, Hormuzd 167, 213, 243, 287, 303-305, Sabbath 40, 131, 251, 253, 273, 310-312
315, 318-321, 323, 325-328, 331 Sabla Wangel, Queen 19, 26, 72, 292
rate of interest 302, 303 sacks 128, 207, 216, 228, 303
rats 10, 137, 256 Sacrament 39, 184, 189, 193, 200, 266, 311 see
razors 46, 71, 213, 216, 222, 237 also: Mass
reading 3, 5, 66, 128, 130, 131, 196, 322 Sadaqa Nesrani, builder 105
rebellions 12, 13, 22, 150, 165, 172, 176, 220, saddles 21, 62, 83, 202, 217, 218, 227, 232, 235
281, 311 Safe'a 304
refuge 200, 223, 266 see also: asylum sdhafd lam 7
Regeb Bar, Gondar 100 Sahay, Wayzaro 120
revenues 32, 33, 34, 91, 94, 99, 103, 148, 162, Sahla Sellase, Negus 128, 141, 145, 150, 154,
164, 167, 169, 172, 179, 181, 219, 298, 300-304, 165, 169, 171, 173-176, 186, 187, 195, 203, 204,
307, 329, 330
rheumatism 309
367
232, 236-238, 240-242, 258-260, 265, 276, 285, Sewasew 130
286, 288, 297, 302, 303, 308, 309, 322 sewers 238
Sahlu, Emperor 250 Seyon 28, 62, 71, 188, 234, 272
Saho 220
ix, shalms 28
Said Pasha 286 Sheba, Queen of 29, 162
Saint Simonians 117, 125, 237, 238, 246 sheep 9, 55, 72, 140-142, 144, 189, 191, 193,
saints 3, 117, 125, 146, 177, 187-191, 201, 206, 198, 203, 211, 216, 217, 222, 229, 230, 250, 265,
237, 246, 268, 311 289, 313, 321
Saints'Days 146, 189, 190 sheepskins 9, 71, 121, 142, 163
sala 240 Shepherd, A.J. 121-123, 236, 277, 327
Salama, Abuna 94, 181-183, 304 shepherd-boys 121
Salawa 163 shepherds 121
saleswomen 252 shields 16, 46, 62, 127, 149, 151, 152, 161, 164,
Salomon, King of Israel 28 165, 167, 183, 198, 199, 207, 210, 212, 213, 227,
salt 19, 34, 44, 49-52, 69, 93, 101, 131, 153, 166, 232, 235-237, 239, 259, 291, 294, 295, 305
181, 182, 212-214, 216, 217, 220-1, 241-2, 247, shieldsmen 167
250, 292, 294-7, 299, 300, 302, 303, 305 shipping 55, 147
Salt, H. 133, 135, 137-9, 147, 170-1, 176, 207, ships 55, 309 see aslo: boats
211, 214, 216, 217, 219, 221, 223, 230, 233, 236, shirts 19, 20, 36, 62, 72, 167, 186, 232, 233, 331
239-12, 244, 248, 268, 270, 283, 285, 292, 299 shoe-makers 240
saltpetre 285 shoes 37, 90, 96, 213, 240
Samen 59, 144, 170, 171, 223, 230, 301, 303, shooting 156, 172, 281, 283-286, 290, 293, 294
317 shops 46, 211
San'afe 276 sickles 58, 109, 135, 222
Sancaho 102 Sidi Petros, Greek tailor 235
sandal-makers 232 Sihab al-Din 47, 278
sandals 186, 213 silks 19, 20, 25, 37, 50, 53, 55, 56, 60, 62, 71,
sanga 137, 239 72, 79, 90, 167, 183, 187, 188, 189, 195, 198, 217,
Sanqellas 81, 111, 112, 213, 242, 290 219, 236, 269, 299, 331
Saqota 219, 220, 275 silver 25, 28, 50, 57, 60-63, 70, 83, 104, 166,
Sara, Biblical personage 69 167, 170, 181, 187-189, 199, 200, 232-235,
Saraye 24, 147, 291, 299, 300, 304, 329 237-240, 269, 270, 284, 294, 295, 297-299,
Sarbakusa, battle 81, 116 301-303, 305, 306, 313
Sarsa Dengel, Emperor 27-8, 278-9, 292 silversmiths 63, 232, 235, 238, 298
sarsaparilla 308 singing 28, 40, 41, 46, 47, 128, 135, 179, 189,
satin 19, 20, 26 191, 193, 195, 199, 202, 244, 246, 248, 252, 261,
Sawa 3, 7, 15, 45, 50, 54-57, 62, 63, 68, 86, 88, 262, 267, 294
90, 94, 109, 111, 126, 128, 138, 141, 144, 145, sins 10, 40, 312
150, 153, 154, 162, 164-167, 171, 173, 175, 176, Sirak, artist 106
186, 188, 195, 201-203, 213, 216, 217, 218, 219, Sire 24, 33, 144, 146, 291, 304
224, 229, 230, 232, 234, 236-238, 240, 241, 242, sistra 60, 206, 239
243, 244, 252, 260, 262, 269, 270, 274-278, skins 8, 9, 16, 19, 37, 44, 49, 51, 71, 72, 98, 127,
283-288, 292, 295-298, 300, 302-306, 308, 309, 142, 196, 198, 199, 207, 209, 211, 213, 216, 217,
311, 313-315, 329 222, 227-229, 253, 289, 291, 307, 322
saws 222, 229, 232 skirts 6, 9, 265
scarification 71 slave caravans 246
scent 213, 239 slave prices 65, 242
Schimper, W., Dr. 322 slave trade 5, 53, 64-66, 125, 181, 218, 244, 317,
schooling 3, 5, 129, 270 328
schools x, 5, 102, 126-131, 235, 322 slavery 64, 65, 111, 125, 241, 247, 328
scissors 216, 222, 237 slaves 5, 25, 42, 49, 53, 55, 56, 63-67, 88, 89,
scribes 7,131, 232, 238 100-103, 111-113, 120, 122, 125, 126, 145, 153,
Se'ela Krestos, Ras 26 154, 168, 174, 181, 182, 195, 204, 209, 212-214,
seftennat 162 216-220, 235, 241-247, 257-259, 265, 274, 275,
Sege 253 283, 299, 300, 302, 317, 325, 328, 330
segregation 100, 176, 256, 267 sleeping-skins 227
semagelle 266 slippers 232, 235
Sennar 92, 102, 209, 214, 297 smallpox 179, 308
servants 11, 19, 22, 35, 58, 66, 69, 83, 96, 100, smelting 58, 222, 323
112, 120, 121, 126, 128, 142, 148, 153, 164, smiths 59, 236, 322, 325
166-168, 175, 189-191, 199, 203, 209, 241-243, smoking 79, 201, 273, 312-314
245, 247, 253, 254, 258, 259, 260, 263, 265, 275, snakes 290
278, 290, 293, 323, 324 snuff 201, 205, 273, 312-314
set berr 298 Soddo 241
Setatira, plant of 312
368
soil 6-7, 9, 41, 78, 135, 137-138, 144, 173, 276, Susneyos, Emperor 3, 15, 25, 26, 33, 66, 105,
277 275, 279, 292, 311
soldiers 5, 11, 13, 15-17, 19, 33, 50, 57, 62, 63, Swiss 117, 159, 322, 323, 327
64, 66, 68, 79-81, 83, 84, 86, 99, 112, 116, 126, Switzerland 162, 206, 322
135, 139-141, 143-145, 148-157, 159, 161, 163, swords 2, 16, 24, 28, 46, 62, 63, 151, 152, 158,
167, 168, 182, 183, 189, 193, 200, 202, 223, 224, 161, 166, 167, 172, 183, 207, 210, 213, 216, 218,
235, 237, 248, 259-262, 268, 277-279, 281-286, 222, 232, 236, 239, 289, 294, 305, 313, 329
290, 293, 294, 304, 312, 317, 318, 320, 329 Synaxarium 27
Solomon, King of Israel 2, 26, 162 tables 60, 69, 142, 152, 230, 258, 267
Somalis 217 tabots 38, 42, 92, 96, 186, 188, 189, 193, 194
songs 15, 93, 98, 130, 135, 159, 189, 242, 260, Taddesse Tamrat 13, 27, 28, 49, 53, 54, 57, 311
261-263 taffeta 25, 86
soothsayers 202 tailors 59, 62, 63, 232, 235
sorcerers 59, 223, 263 tdj 68, 167, 175, 253, 258, 262 see also: mead
sorcery 223, 224 Tajura 217-8
sorghum 123, 139 Takkaze river 88, 144, 212, 214, 216, 242
sowing 6, 33, 42, 138, 164, 311 Takla'Giyorgis I, Emperor 114, 293
Spanish 105, 297 Takla Giyorgis II, Emperor 330
spears 4, 5, 16, 58, 59, 62, 83, 92, 116, 125, 126, Takla Giyorgis I, governor 11
149, 151, 152, 158, 161, 167, 183, 198, 207, 210, Takla Haymanot, Emperor 79, 84, 90, 114
218, 222, 223, 224, 229, 232, 236, 239, 305 see Takla Haymanot, Saint 3
also: lances talismans 173, 269
spearsmen 168, 268 talla 68, 253, 254
Spencer, Diana 62 Tamben 24, 301
spices 47, 49, 55, 57, 103, 211, 213, 216, 253 Tamisier, M. 109, 117, 125, 126, 138, 139, 141,
spikenard 213 144, 145, 147, 172, 181, 188, 211, 213, 214,
spinning 58, 127, 237, 250-253, 258, 259, 265, 216-219, 222-224, 226, 232,
227, 229, 230,
311 234-240, 242, 243, 244, 246, 247, 252, 261-263,
spinning-women 237, 250 265-267, 283-285, 288, 295, 298, 300-302, 305,
spirit possession 263 306, 308
springs 125, 201, 295 Tana, lake 7, 55, 61, 62, 77, 101, 102, 109, 145,
stables 176, 193 212, 214, 233, 290, 314, 327
standard of living 147 Tanguri 101
Stefanos, Armenian silversmith 238 tanners 227, 235, 238
Stella, Giovanni, Father 204 tanning 227, 228, 236
Stern, H.A. 131, 132, 146, 165, 171, 177, 180, tapsters 68
182, 201, 211-213, 223, 224, 226, 230, 239, 261, Taranta 182
268, 270, 288, 302, 315, 318, 320, 322, 323, Tasfa Haylu, merchant 207
j
327-330 tatooed 270
stibium 101, 213 taxation 7, 13, 102, 133, 139, 140, 142, 170, 189,
stirrups 58, 81, 83, 85, 92, 109, 222, 225 220, 274, 298, 300, 301
stone 4, 38, 41, 71, 105, 146, 184, 187, 222, 228, taxed 165, 221
233, 236, 238, 250, 253, 275, 285 taxes 8, 19, 34, 51, 57, 79, 102, 104, 125, 139,
stone-masons 105 141, 142, 144, 148, 163, 164, 165, 166, 170, 204,
\
stones 19, 44, 53, 67, 68, 105, 133, 135, 146, 207, 219-221, 253, 298-301, 304, 321, 330
187, 209, 222, 228, 230, 238, 239, 253, 254, 267, Taytu, Queen 252
.
282, 285, 326, 327 Te'elmar, Wayzaro 114
! straw 133 teachers 3, 128, 129, 131, 242
|
students 3, 5, 126-131, 177, 178, 317 see also: Teblats, Wayzaro 250
1 pupils tef 10, 133, 135, 138, 139, 253, 254
I
Suakin 42 Tegre 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 21, 24, 28, 29, 33, 34, 37,
\ succession 6, 23, 25, 27, 34, 54, 105, 173, 187, 42, 43, 50, 51, 67, 68, 72, 77-79, 81, 84, 86-88,
I
211, 269, 275, 320 94, 99, 102, 104, 118, 131, 136-138, 141, 142, 144,
Sudan 49, 55, 56, 102, 103, 111, 212, 213, 243, 150, 152, 154, 162-164, 166-168, 170-173, 176,
i
244, 246, 247, 286, 291, 296, 304, 315 183, 184, 186, 187, 192, 196, 198, 200, 202, 204,
Sudanese 213, 280 206, 213, 218-220, 223, 224, 235, 236, 241, 242,
sugar 216 244, 247-249, 253, 256, 259, 261, 262, 265, 268,
sulphur 213, 285 270, 274-287, 291, 294-296, 298-301, 304-306,
Sum 163, 164, 166 309, 317, 329
sumptuary laws 25, 26 Telles, Baltazar 66, 105, 278, 279, 292
superstitions 206, 223 Telq 13
suqo 260 Teltal 156, 283, 291, 304
Surat 101, 104, 219 Temmenon, a farmer 141
j
surgeons 63, 71, 238, 306, 307 temperature 138, 322
j
Suriano, Francesco 13 Temqat 41, 96, 154, 193, 194
369
tent-makers 105, 106, 230 Tulu Tulam 123
tent-pegs 222 tumtu 123
tents 16, 17, 19, 34, 35, 36, 38, 41, 42, 46, 50, tunic 36, 37
60, 62, 67, 83, 96, 105, 106, 148, 150, 155, 156, tunics 19
187, 189, 193, 194, 205, 207, 210, 222, 227, 230, Tunis 56
238 275 turbans 37, 60, 180, 183, 186, 218, 329, 330
tenure 13, 22, 162, 163, 165, 171, 329 Turkey 278
Terunes, Queen 197 Turkish 5, 16, 66, 81, 101, 103, 235, 244,
Tewodros, Emperor II 188, 317, 319 277-281, 285, 292, 309
Tewoflos, Emperor 114 Turks 56, 66, 102, 205, 277-279, 292
textiles 212, 216 tusks 88, 220, 262, 291
thalers 131, 132, 168, 179, 181, 182, 186, 198, Tutschek, K. 122
209, 213, 216, 217, 218, 229, 230, 232, 233, 235, tweezers 58, 222
238, 242, 296, 297 ululation 183, 261
thatchers 106, 230, 233 umbrellas 34, 47, 60, 92, 198
Thomas, Brother 4, 6, 20, 24, 32, 33, 37, 40, 41, unification 317
43, 47, 48, 50, 55-57, 60 urbanisation 273, 275, 310
thongs 41, 83, 222, 225, 227, 228 usury 104, 301, 302
threshing 137 Valentia, Lord 120, 132, 137, 139, 147, 155,
thrones 24, 27, 90, 165, 166, 169, 300, 310, 311, 162, 168, 169, 171, 176, 211, 217, 220, 230, 234,
324 236, 240, 242-244, 248, 250, 256, 267, 270, 272,
timber 25, 196, 212, 232, 276 298, 301
tin 18, 83, 213, 232, 269, 270 Valieri, Italian armourer 235
Tisba 321 vassals 11, 13, 26, 86
tobacco 201, 216, 219, 300, 312-315 vegetables 43
Tobya 13 velvets 20, 55, 167, 213, 299
toothache 309 venereal diseases 309
torches 193 Venetians 5, 6, 57, 62, 63, 92, 104, 235, 238,
Tovmacean, Yohannes, Armenian jeweller 117 295, 302, 310
towns 6, 7, 17, 19, 50, 56, 57, 62, 96, 97, 98, Venice 56, 103, 106
100-102, 104, 128, 141, 143, 144, 181, 183, 189, vestments 36,38, 47, 60, 97
190, 191, 193, 195, 199-201, 209, 214, 217, 220, Vienna 296, 303
221, 229, 230, 234, 236, 237, 252, 261, 262, 263, villages 8, 11, 32, 34, 56, 59, 60, 63, 67, 69, 94,
266, 276, 288, 289, 295, 296, 299, 300, 314, 320, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106, 122, 123, 128,
323 130, 131, 132, 141-146, 164, 166, 182, 183, 190,
trade 5, 47, 49, 52-57, 59, 60, 64-69, 79, 88, 200, 204, 211, 224, 226, 233, 237, 260, 275, 289,
100-104, 111, 125, 159, 168, 179, 181, 207, 299, 300, 318, 320, 321
211-214, 216-219, 222-224, 234, 236, 238, Virgoletta, Antonio da 280
244-246, 248, 252, 291, 295, 296, 299-301, 303, Vis, market town 20, 53, 56, 277, 282, 324
304, 307, 309, 315, 317, 321, 328 vows 94, 189, 190, 201
trade routes 54, 88, 102, 103, 216, 244, 296, 321 wadaja 313
traders 16, 19, 25, 49, 50, 53, 55, 56, 57, 66, Wag 15, 144, 187, 275, 283, 330
100-102, 207, 209-214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, Wagara 77, 78, 138, 145, 147, 220, 290, 294
252, 275, 286, 298-300, 309, 330 Wahama 141
transport 11, 52, 207 Wajerat 291
travellers 3, 5, 11, 13, 10, 11, 37, 44, 50, 55, 56, Walda Ezum, peasant warrior 279
66, 75, 77, 78, 86, 97, 101, 104, 117, 126, 128, Walda' Gabre'el, governor 235
138, 139, 141, 142, 144, 176, 178, 188, 202, 220, Walda Giyorgis, architect 106
232, 237, 242, 246, 282, 302, 308, 309, 314, 315, Walda Giyorgis, Dabtara 250
318, 321 Walda Giyorgis, jeweller 235
treasure 27, 57, 302 Walda Kidana Maryam, merchant 302
treasurers 109, 155, 179, 296, 303 Walda Maryam, Alaqa 304, 320, 326, 329
trees 10, 83, 133, 135, 142, 153, 187, 228, 229, Walda Mika'el, governor 96, 97
232, 275, 276, 277, 314, 327 Walda Mika'el, Memher 250
Trengo, Wayzaro 114 Walda Sellase, merchant 207
tribute 7, 8, 18, 19, 21, 23, 34, 56, 59, 77, 79, Walda Sellase, Ras 144, 154, 168, 170, 176,
117, 163, 165, 166, 170, 220, 281, 298-300, 302 182, 186, 187, 198-200, 207, 235, 236, 241, 242,
Trimingham, J.S. 172, 204, 206 259, 283, 296, 299, 301
trinkets 213, 216, 217, 239 Waldebba 94, 186
trophies 84 Waldmeier, T. 75, 127, 131, 132, 243, 315,
troops 15, 87, 88, 100, 111, 112, 143, 159, 172, 322-328
280, 282, 292, 294, 304, 318, 326, 329 Wallata Iyasus, poetess 262
trousers 36, 183, 186, 191 Wallo 9, 50, 56, 65, 150, 186, 204, 216, 274,
trumpets 98 283, 313, 314, 320
trumpeters 63, 188, 189 Walqayt 79, 212, 216, 291, 329
370
Wanag Sagad, Emperor 28 windows 267
wanca 137 wine 17, 33, 39, 43, 54, 67, 167, 212
wand berr 298 winnowing 137, 140, 248
Wande of Qorata, merchant 207 wires 103, 217,269
Wandege 105 Wis, market town 56
Waq 313 wives 18, 20, 26, 27, 32, 35, 36, 44, 57, 68-71,
waqet 104, 170, 220, 297, 305 100, 126, 138, 141, 148, 166, 167, 190, 191, 196,
warehouses 56, 57 199, 221, 245, 256, 264-266, 275, 304, 330
warfare 13, 16, 65, 84, 144, 156, 157, 162, 193, Wolff, J. 183
253, 259, 320 women 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32, 36,
WarqSaqala 81 41, 43, 45, 46, 50, 58, 59, 65, 67-69, 71, 72, 84,
warqe 170, 204, 218, 297 94, 98, 111, 112-114, 116-118, 121, 122, 127, 135,
Warqe Karabet, Armenian envoy 204 137, 150, 155, 156, 159, 168, 175, 183, 188-191,
Warra Himano 204, 262, 283 193, 196, 198, 199, 201, 211, 217, 218, 223, 226,
Warrer 203 227, 230, 232, 233, 237-239, 241, 242, 245, 248,
warriors 13, 14, 16, 57, 62, 84, 112, 148-150, 249-255, 256, 258-270, 276, 298, 308, 311, 314,
155, 161, 165, 172, 175, 183, 202, 273, 275 320
wars 3, 13, 21, 15, 18, 22, 54, 57, 64, 65, 75, 79, wood 17, 25, 32, 61, 65, 83, 90, 122, 133, 135,
80, 86, 106, 116, 125, 126, 128, 132, 139, 141, 142, 143, 187, 193, 196, 217, 225, 226, 229, 230,
144, 145, 148, 150, 152, 153, 157, 159, 164, 169, 232, 233, 238, 239, 241, 248, 252, 253, 258, 265,
170, 176, 188, 193, 201, 202, 203, 204, 207, 212, 276, 281, 312, 323
233, 237, 241, 242, 244, 259, 261, 273, 274, 278, wood-cutters 133, 238
280, 287, 288, 292, 295, 310, 313, 317, 318, 321, wood -work 232
326 wood-workers 229
Wasan, artist 106 wool 225, 230, 238
Wasan Sagad, Ras 176, 237 woollens 9, 55, 156, 230
Waslu 65 writing 3-5, 48, 77, 99, 117, 130, 131, 144, 179,
wat 256 242, 246, 258, 260, 290, 303, 307, 309, 311, 320,
water 17, 39, 41-46, 51, 55, 56, 65, 67, 96, 97, 322, 325, 330, 331
122, 125, 137-139, 148, 191, 193, 195, 201, 209, Yajju 148, 172, 262, 274, 283, 329
212, 216, 222, 228, 229, 239, 241, 246, 248, 252, yaman bet naw? 113
257, 258, 260, 264, 265, 267, 290, 291, 311, 312, Ya'qob 279
322, 323, 328 Yefag 213, 214
water-carrying 67, 252, 258 Yefat 49, 109, 303
wax 33, 55, 71, 77, 97, 98, 101, 129, 201, 213, Yekuno Amlak, Emperor 89
216, 217, 259, 305 Yemen 104
Wavzaros 18, 26, 114, 116, 120, 163, 250, 253 Yemrehanna Krestos 29, 33
wealth 7, 32-34, 71, 86, 170, 173, 174, 179, 182, Yeolo 154
193, 198, 207, 212, 220, 241, 253, 260, 294, 298, Yeshaq, Emperor 277
301-303, 305, 306 Yohannes, Armenian armourer 235
weapons 16, 57, 62, 97, 102, 148, 152, 166, 167, Yohannes I, Emperor 4, 92, 99, 100, 106, 111,
183, 200, 232, 233, 235, 277-288, 291, 292, 298, 117, 280
323, 325, 326 see also by individual names Yohannes IV, Emperor 126
Weatherhead, Capt. 216 Yohannes, Haji, Armeninan jeweller 235
weavers 58-60, 224, 225, 226, 230, 232-235, 237, Yohannes, Saint 191
248 Yolyos, a courtier 279
weaving 58, 60, 211, 224, 230, 238, 250, 253 Yostos, Emperor 111, 290
Webe, Hayla Maryam, Dajazmac 142, 145, Zage 320
155-157, 170, 171, 176, 204, 219, 224, 236, 260, Zalla 224
261, 283, 286, 299, 300, 302, 317, 329 Zanab, Dabtara 259, 304, 318, 320, 329
weddings 45, 46, 264, 265, 294, 295 Zanaba Warq, Queen 259
weeding 135, 248 zar 203
weeds 133, 135, 164, 248, 313 Zar'a Beruk, Abba 313
Wehni 91 Zar'a Ya'qob, Emperor 13, 18, 24, 27-8, 56,
weights 121, 239, 252, 293, 305 59, 62, 68
wellaj 111, 112 Zayla' 54, 277, 284, 308
weni 123 Zebit 318
Werkleva 102 zema 130
wheat 6, 7, 10, 33, 50, 55, 69, 77, 104, 138, 139, Zeynu, Nagadras 219
147, 254, 258, 305 zinc 217, 232, 233
whips 19, 24, 34, 41, 129, 133, 294 Zorzi, Allessandro 5, 6, 32, 33, 63, 295
wick-guns 284, 291
widows 11, 18, 36, 68, 242
wild animals 126, 159, 223, 288-290, 292
wild life 276, 288, 289, 292
371
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
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COPLEY S
GENERAL LI
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dicates the date on or before which
this book should be returned to the
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Pleasedo not remove cards from this
IK-AM,
his Volume dealing with various aspects of
Ethiopia's varied social history, is devoted by
and large to the northern and central highlands,
1— and covers the period from early medieval
times to the reign of Emperor Tewodros n which is considered
a turning-point in the country's history - and serves at the
same time as a point of departure for dramatic changes that

were to characterize the late nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. The region under review was important in that
it constituted the core of the traditional Ethiopian State,
and was over centuries to exerciseno small influence on
the other parts of the country. The area was at the same
time distinctive - and formed a cohesive entity - in that it
had a unique highland, and predominantly Christian,
culture. The region is moreover of special interest on
account of its indigenous chronicles and hagiographies,
and the many descriptions by foreign travellers, which
made it, at least until the middle or second half of the
nineteenth century, by far best documented part of Ethiopia.

It is thus an area that can be studied over a considerable
span of time."
richard panKhursi
one of the most prolific writers on Ethiopian social history,
is the author of An Intro duction ta the Medical History of.
Ethiopia fflie Red Sm Press. 1991). He teaches at the

Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University,
Ethiopia.
History /AFRICA
ISBN: 0-932415-85-7 Cloth $49.95
0-932415-86-5 Paper $16.95

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BOSTON

THE &RED SEA PRESS

First Published by the

Copyright © Institute of Ethiopian Studies, 1992

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may

Cover Design by Carles J. Juzang

Pankhurst, Richard Keir Pethick, 1927 -

A and central highlands

III THE SOLDIERS 13

VI THE CLERGY AND RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS 29

VII THE TRADERS 49

III THE NOBILITY 86

VI THE TRADERS 100

VIII SLAVES 111

II THE PEASANTS 133

III THE SOLDIERS 148

IV THE NOBILITY 162

V PROVINCIAL RULERS 169

VI THE CLERGY, THE CHURCH, AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 178

VII THE TRADERS 207

VIII HANDICRAFT WORKERS 222

IX SLAVES AND SERVANTS 241

X WOMEN AND GENDER RELATIONS 248

CHANGING FEATURES OF SOCIAL LIFE 273

(iii) The Early Nineteenth Century

(iv) Emperor Tewodros's Innovations

Fire-arms in Social Ritual:

(i) Foreign Medieval Coins

(iii) Increasing Taxation

(iv) Capital Accumulation and Money-Lending

(ix) A Source of Silver

The Coming of Modern Medicine:

(iii) The Early Nineteenth Century

Sabbath Observance; Smoking and Snuffing; Coffee-Drinking

ATTEMPTED REFORMS OF EMPEROR TEWODROS II 317

St. James and St. John viii Winnowing 140

In introducing the present essay on the Social History of Ethiopia, it should be

predominated in the all-important northern and central highlands, Muslims were no

requires detailed study. Any comprehensive examination of so rich, and geographically

I am grateful to Dr. Taddese Beyene, the devoted Director of the Institute of

THE MIDDLE AGES

Education and Training

Early historical data on children in Ethiopia is so scant that it is almost as

Confirmation that a sizeable proportion of students were drawn from clerical

Not all were children of the clergy. A party of Portuguese

Children of ruling families, and, we may assume, of the aristocracy, in many

was carefully brought up in wisdom and discipline, and

attended by "many scholars", while another embraced "every faculty".

Children and the Slave Trade

The peasants, who constituted the overwhelming majority of the population,

Fertility of the Land

Medieval Ethiopian agriculture, if we can believe the scant documentation

The was first described in the early

Agricultural yields of this magnitude permitted the growth of a sizeable

Livestock by all accounts was also plentiful. On approaching Manadeley the

Tribute and Taxation in Cattle

Cattle-owners were subject to considerable taxation. The antiquity of this tribute

Tribute in livestock seems to have been shortly afterwards increased, or was at

Peasant women were Married women in the Adwa