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U of K- Annual Conference of Postgraduate Studies and Scientific Research-Humanities and Educational Studies February 2013-

Khartoum-Sudan: Conference Proceedings Volume One

399

Habasha, Abyssinia and Ethiopia: Some Notes Concerning

a Country’s Names and Images

El Amin Abdel Karim Ahmed Faculty of Arts – University of Khartoum

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explain briefly the origin of the names Habasha, Abyssinia

and Ethiopia as well as their derivatives. It also draws attention to the positive and

negative attitudes of the educated and politically conscious Amhara and Tigreans

concerning the use of the aforementioned appellations by outsiders. It continues to

enumerate some of the mythical, conventional and scholarly images that have been

associated with these names in the imagination of men and women at different periods

of history, beside the self-images perceived by the Amhara and Tiqreans about

themselves and their country and which they project to others.



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The existence of centuries-long connections, across the Red Sea, between

the Arabian Peninsula and the northern highland regions of northeast Africa,

commonly known as the Horn of Africa, is agreed to. In view of the

geographical proximity of the African regions to southwestern Arabia and

the Hijaz, the Arab peoples living in these parts of Arabia were the most

favourably positioned to take the lead in maintaining the relations between

the two sides of the Red Sea. Archaeological, classical Greek, early Muslim

Arabic sources and the surviving Ethiopian manuscripts and chronicles

report at some length on various aspects of such relations.1

The Arabs are said to have consistently used the names Al-Habasha or

Habasha, and Habash to refer to the kingdom of Aksum and its people and

their Amhara-Tigrean successors. In the same way they used the matching

appellations Ahbash, Hibshaan and Hubush as the collective generic names

similar to Habash. Sometimes the names were used to refer to neighbouring

areas in the Horn of Africa as well. On a few occasions, however, the name

Habasha was employed with so much vagueness in Arabic sources, as some

classical Greek and mediaeval European writers used the name Ethiopia to

designate almost all the lands and peoples located beyond the southernmost

limits of the Sahara. The Arabs, unlike some European writers, do not

confuse the name Habasha with India.2

It has sometimes been suggested that the name Habasha, meaning "mixture"

or of "mixed blood", was applied to the Aksumites in the first place because

"it was how they presented themselves to the Arabs". The validity of this

suggestion is questionable.3 The alternative, seemingly more plausible,

suggestion is that the names Habasha and Habash were originally derived

from Habashat; the name of a South Arabian Sabaean tribe, some groups of

which had emigrated and eventually settled on the fertile and temperate

northern highland regions of the Ethiopian province of Tigre and southern

areas of Eritrea at a very early date in the distant past where they contributed

to the formation of the later kingdom of Aksum. 4

The name Habashat appears in a number of South Arabian inscriptions

showing evidence of their actual presence in certain districts, with clear

references to their relations with Aksum.5 It occurs as reference to the core

region of Aksum; when the designation was intended for the people of

Habashat the term Ahbash is used. This led Irvine to conclude: “... it is

possible that in Sabaean and Aksumite Ge‟ez the name simply represented

the later Arabic Habasha, Abyssinia.6 Reference in pre-Christian Aksumite

inscriptions to the subjugation of the Habasha perhaps in reference to the

ancestors of the Tigrinya - speaking people of eastern Tigre province.7 The



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term Habashat also occurs in an inscription of Ezana, the fourth century king

of Aksum, where the royal title of the monarch in Ge‟ez reads: “King of

Aksum, Himyar, Kasu, Saba, Habashat, Raydan and Saihin, Tsiamo and

Beja”.8

The other names Ahabish, Habshi and Habesh/Habeshistan which appear to

be associated with the Arabic terms Habasha and Habash deserve a brief

mention. In Watt‟s definition the name Ahabish is a plural form which

means either „Abyssinians‟ as derived from Habash or companies or bodies

of men, not all of one tribe”, derived from Uhbush or Uhbusha. Another

opinion is that the name has been applied to “men who formed a

confederacy either at a mountain called Al Hubshi or at a wadi (valley)

called Ahbash.” The Ahabish who were mentioned in the biographies of the

Prophet (Siira), were a group of small tribes or clans who were at first allied

with other groups against Quraish, but afterwards allied themselves with

them.9

The ethnic identity of the Ahabish and their importance in Meccan society in

the early seventh century has been the subject of dispute. The opinion of

Lammens is that they consisted of Abyssinians and other negro slaves

gathered to a nucleus group of nomad Arabs, and that they constituted the

mercenary forces on which the Meccans depended for ensuring the safety of

their trading caravans and their city as well as serving them as personal

retinues and escorts. Critics of this view pointed that, as reported in the

sources, the Ahabish were free Arabs, not negro slaves, were confederates,

enemies of Quraish and later became their allies (hulafa); and that there is no

evidence to substantiate Lammen's claim that they had much military

importance for the Meccans.10

The name Ahabish, however, is said to have

been employed in Yemen in reference to the Abyssinians.11

Habesh and Habeshistan were the names which the Ottoman Turks gave to

their Africa coastlands of the Red Sea and neighbouring lowland possession

that were constituted into a separate province; the Pashalik of Habesha or

Habeshistan in 1557. The territory extended from Sawakin in the north to

include Massawa and Arkikio up to Zeila on the Gulf of Aden in the south,

including Jidda and its immediate environs on the opposite coast of the Red

Sea. In 1830 the Ottomans finally transferred all claims over the region to

Muhammad Ali, the Pasha of Egypt.12

The name Habshi, on the other hand, was used in a similar inclusive manner

in the Indian sub-continent in mediaeval times as an appellation given for

the communities of descendants of African slaves, the majority of whose

ancestors were brought from regions of the Horn of Africa. They provided



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the officers and soldiers of the armies of the different ruling dynasties. Their

commanding officers often rose to high positions of power and influence,

toppled their ruling masters and took power for themselves.13

The terms Abyssinia and Abyssinians, the European equivalent of the Arabic

terms Habasha and Habash, were used with increasing frequency from the

thirteenth century onwards. The names appear to have made their way into

the various European languages through the Portuguese, whose own name

for the country Abassia was itself a loan-word from the Arabic Habasha.14

A

number of linguists have indicated that the terms Habasha and Habash in the

Ethiopic Ge‟ez, Amharinya and Tigrinya languages are the indigenous

names for the country and its peoples. Ullendorff writes: “Tigrinya speakers

themselves call their language habesha, i.e. „Abyssinian‟ par excellence".l5

Educated and politically conscious Amhara and Tigreans alike use the terms

Habasha and Habash in informal conversation when referring specifically to

their country and to themselves as a collective entity. Yet, most of them

object, sometimes vigorously, to the use of the same terms or their European

equivalents Abyssinia and Abyssinians by outsiders. Instead, they prefer that

foreigners refer to their country and to themselves by the official names of

Ethiopia and Ethiopians.16

In their view the original Arabic name Habasha,

from which the names were derived, had the derogatory connotation of

“mixed” or “impure” blood, an opinion that is said to be unsubstantiated.17

Ethiopia was deliberately chosen as the new official name of the country, in

preference to Abyssinia, when it was admitted to the League of Nations in

1932.18

Aithiopes, from which the name Ethiopia is said to have originally

been derived in classical times, is a Greek word consisting of two

components; Opis which means „face‟ and Aieth meaning „burnt‟, i.e.

literally “burnt faces”. Ethiopia, therefore, was the designation which the

classical Greek and Latin writers used to mean the “Land or country of dark-

skinned peop1es”.l9 The name is said to have been associated with the

ancient Greek legend which reports that “Phoebus‟s golden chariot had

passed too close" to the torrid zone “leaving its people permanently sun-

tanned” as a result.20

In fact, by using the names Ethiopia and Ethiopians the classical Greek

writers actually referred to the Nubian kingdom, with its capital first at

Napata and later at Meroe, located immediately to the south of Egypt and its

peoples. At other times the reference was extended with so much vagueness

to include almost all the lands and peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, northeast

Africa, southern Arabia and India.2I



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Ityopya and Ityopyawan; i.e. Ethiopia and Ethiopians, are the Amharic

names for the country and its Semitic-speaking Amhara and Tigrean

inhabitants. The origin of the names is traced back, according to tradition, to

Atyup or Atyiop, an alleged grandson of Noah and the ancestor of the

Amhara and the Tigreans. An old Ethiopian tradition claims that Atyup had

left the lowland regions after the flood had ended and settled on the adjacent

highlands. It is believed that he is buried in Aksum.22

The name Ethiopia appeared for the first time in an Aksumite Greek

inscription referred to by Cosmas Indicopleustes in the middle of the sixth

century where mention is made to the subjection of the people “to the west

as far as the country of Ethiopia and Sasu.” The reference here is to the

kingdom of Meroe on the Nile according to the current Greek usage of

designating everything located to the south of Egypt as Ethiopia".23

In the

same context Cosmas reports in his Christian Topography that: “from Axum

to the land of incense called Berbera, which, lying on the ocean coast, are to

be found not close to but far from Sasou, the furthest region of Ethiopia; it is

a journey of some forty days.24

The first specific application of the name

Ethiopia to the modern Ethiopian region appears to have been made after the

Graeco-Syrian Bible was translated into Ge‟ez, the old Ethiopic language,

where the Hebrew name “Cush” was translated into Greek as "Ethiopia".25

It

was from then onwards that the name Ethiopia, to which several biblical

references are made, came to be increasingly appropriated for the Christian

state and successor of Aksum. The association was continued still further

when a new dynasty claiming legitimate descent from King Solomon and the

Queen of Sheba came to rule over the country in 1270. Its ruling monarchs

styled themselves Negus Nagast Za Ityopya, i.e. “King of Kings of

Ethiopia.26

The Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Nagast (Glory of Kings), compiled in

the early fourteenth century, in addition to narrating in detail the mythical

story of the visit of the Queen of Sheba, allegedly an Ethiopian named

Makeda, to King Solomon in Jerusalem and the birth of their only son, the

future Menilek I the founder of the Solomonic Ethiopian royal dynasty

provides the final unmistaken identification of the name Ethiopia with the

modern state in the Horn of Africa known by the same name.27

Some European scholars, following on the footsteps of Professor Arnold

Toynbee, make a distinction between the use of the names Abyssinia and

Ethiopia. Abyssinia is used to refer to the Christian Kingdom and the

Amhara and Tigreans of the northern and central highlands. On the other

hand, the use of the name Ethiopia is reserved for the modern state whose



404

borders were extended in the closing decades of the nineteenth century to

incorporate large numbers of Cushitic-speaking largely Muslim and pagan

peoples. Sven Rubenson has seen "no reason to differentiate between the

two" 28

as a concession to the objections on the part of some Ethiopians to

the use of Habasha and Abyssinia. Donald Levine once used the compound

"Amhara-Tigre", instead of Abyssinia, reserving the use of "Ethiopia" for

the national state, which "throughout its history had included other peoples

and traditions as well as the Ambara-Tigre"29

The various conventional and scholarly images associated with Ethiopia and

the Ethiopians in the popular imagination of men and women at different

times over the centuries as well as the self images perceived by the

Ethiopians of themselves and presented to others are equally interesting as

the different names of the country. Donald N. Levine has outlined five main

conventional images of Ethiopia as: (1) a faraway place, a remote country in

terms of geographical distance and from knowledge; (2) a land of pious and

just peoples; (3) a savage country; and (5) a bastion of African

independence.30

Four additional conventional images of Ethiopia have been suggested: the

two parallel images as (6) Africa's Switzerland, and as (7) Africa's Tibet by

Richard Greenfield as well as (8) an island of Christianity and as (9) a land

of continuous famine in need of foreign relief by Hussein Ahmed.31

Moreover three major scholarly images of Ethiopia are said by Levine to

have dominated academic studies of the country: (1) as an outpost of Semitic

civilizations; (2) as an ethnographic museum of peoples, and (3) as an

underdeveloped country32

Classical Greek writers report practically nothing of positive value about the

mythical country they referred to by the mane of Ethiopia and about its

inhabitants the Ethiopians except that the Ethiopians were dark-skinned

people and the most remote of men. In the words of Homer, "the distant

Ethiopians, the farthest outposts of mankind, half of whom lived where the

sun goes down, and half where he rises"; and that they lived "at the earth's

two verges, in sunset lands and lands of the rising sun". Later Herodotus

locates them at "the end of the earth", while Aeschylus reports about "a land

far off, a nation of blank men … men who lived hard by the fountain of the

sun where is the river Aethiops" 33

Europeans writers of the early Christian times, on their turn, made use of

Hellenic assumption and biblical references to the country in order to

produce their own image of “far away Ethiopia” meaning all nations “in the

metaphorical sense”34

. The image of remote Ethiopia, however, has persisted



405

well into the nineteenth and twentieth century, where Ethiopia was viewed

as being remote from understanding, “unknown ... if not unknowable”, and

“a country of which it is impossible to speak the truth”.35

Mention is also made in classical Greek writings of the pious and just

“Blameless Ethiopians” who are loved by the immortal mythical Olympian

gods who go off to feast with them and to take part in their sacrificial rites.

The same image is extended to particular individuals of high moral character

who were reputed for being pious and just like the Nubian King Sabacos and

Abed-Melech the Ethiopian officer at the court of King Zadekiah.36

The image of Ethiopia as a magnificent and mighty kingdom included

reference to both the ancient kingdom of Aksum and its successor the

mediaeval Christian Ethiopian state. Aksum was ranked as “the third among

the great powers of the world”, the valued ally of Byzantium whose kings

were referred to by the honorific Byzantine title of basileus. The Christian

Ethiopian kingdom was described as “the magnificent, powerful and rich

country, the legendary kingdom of Prester John, and the prospective ally of

Christian Europe against the Muslims37

The contrasting image of savage Ethiopia goes back to the description given

by Diodorus of “the other Ethiopians‟1ivig to the south of Meroe being

“entirely savage and display the nature of a wild beast…” and “… are as far

removed as possible from human kindness to one another.” Other Latin

writers continued to portray the Ethiopians as “the most hideous of men”

and their country as "a land of fearful monsters."38

Similar images survived

into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British travelers James

Bruce was so shocked and repulsed by the bloodshed of the civil wars of the

late eighteenth century that his overwhelming obsession was “how to escape

from this bloody country.39

In the latter half of the nineteenth century the

Amhara were described as “object slaves to superstition, possessed by

unscrupulous greed and possessing neither amusement nor intellectual

resources,” The Ethiopians at large were dismissed as “an uncultivated mass

of mingled race ... imbued with the characteristics distinguishing the least

civilized beings”; a “nation of primitive tribesmen led by a barbarian.” In the

mid 1930s the fascist Italian government launched a propaganda campaign

describing Ethiopia as so savage and primitive as well as badly governed so

as to justify its 1935-36 invasion and occupation on the pretext of a

“civilizing mission.40

Of far reaching significance is the image of Ethiopia as “the bastion of

African independence which became widespread in the late nineteenth and

early twentieth century. To begin with, Ethiopia was the only African



406

country that was created by one dominant group, the Shawan Amhara,

imposing their rule over a larger number of other ethnic groups and not by

European colonization.41

In contrast to most of the peoples of Africa, who

were subjected to alien conquest and domination, the Ethiopians fought

against Turco-Egyptian, Sudanese Mahdists and Italian adversaries ending in

the ever- memorable victory over the invading Italian forces at the battle of

Adwa, on 1st March 1896. As a consequence they succeeded in securing the

survival of their country‟s independence and sovereign status, at least for a

generation, after the death in 1913 of Emperor Menilek II, under whose

leadership the victory at Adwa was accomplished. From then onwards the

image of Ethiopia, the independent African country, and “the longest-lived

independent Christian kingdom in the world”,42

began to make its

impressive impact on Africans and Afro-American communities in the

United States and the West Indies. The Bantu independent churches in South

Africa that separated themselves from the control of the European Christian

missions adopted the name Ethiopia for themselves. For their leadership the

name Ethiopia meant that their churches “enjoyed not only the biblical

apostolic succession but also a link with an actual independent Christian

African monarchy.43

For many African political activists in the colonial era, such as Kwame

Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Jomo Kenyatta, the image of independent

Ethiopia was a powerful symbol and a source of inspiration for the

attainment of independence and self- determination for their colonized

countries. The image also inspired the emergence of Marcus Garvey‟s

movement among the Afro-American communities in the United States

which aimed at expressing black self-assertion and pride. Similarly, the

image motivated the growth of semi-religious cults in the West Indies with

the aim of asserting black empowerment, self-assertion and renewed

identification with Africa. Some groups adopted the original name of the

Ethiopian Emperor Haile Sellasie I before his coronation, Ras Tafari, in

calling themselves the Rastafarians. Another group of Afro-Americans in the

United States, who were motivated by a desire to return to Africa, travelled

to Ethiopia in the 1920s with the aim of settling there to “assimilate

Ethiopian culture and establish roots”.44

A final effect of the image of

independent Ethiopia manifested itself in the movements of protest against

and condemnation of the Italian Fascist invasion and occupation of Ethiopia

in 1935-36 launched by many groups of Africans and Afro-Americans in

Europe, the United States, the West Indies and African. Nationalist political

leaders in British West Africa colonies led a popular movement of



407

boycotting European Christian missions that adversely affected evangelical

activities and mission sponsored education.45

Many modern observers have been impressed by the picturesque splendour

of Ethiopia's mountainous environment and by the country's periodic

detachment from the current political developments taking place in the wider

outside world giving rise to the parallel images of Ethiopia as Africa's

Switzerland as well as Africa's Tibet.46

The relative isolation of the northern

and central highland and regions, where the Ethiopian Christian

kingdom/state was geographically located, has impressed many observers.

The image of Ethiopia as "a Christian island" is expressed in the statement

made by Emperor Zar‟a Yaqob (v.1434-1468): “Our country Ethiopia [is

surrounded by] pagans and Muslims in the east as well as in the west” in the

context of his conception of the confined situation of his kingdom in a

religious sense.47

Almost the same words were used by Ras Wolde Sellassie,

an Ethiopian governor of Tigre Province, in a letter to King George III in

1810, in which he complained that his country was surrounded by pagans,

presumably meaning Muslims, on all sides including the sea.48

In the closing

decades of the nineteenth century, Emperor Menilek II (r.1889- 1913)

equally referred to his country as “an island of Christianity surrounded by

paganism”, obviously meaning Muslims, in his 1891 circular letter to the

heads of the European states.49

European scholars too have invoked a similar

notion; Trimingham writes: “... the Christian state in northern Ethiopia was a

beleaguered fortress in the midst of a sea of Islam.50

In Enrico Cerulli‟s

description, Ethiopia was “a Christian island in an ocean of unbelievers.”

However, this notion of Ethiopia as a Christian island reflects an

unwarranted inattention to the centuries-long presence of the Muslims and

the adherents of traditional religious beliefs in the country.52

Hussein Ahmed has raised objections to what he regards the

“misinterpretation” made by Ullendorff and Trimingham, who asserted that

“the role of Islam and Muslims in Ethiopian history and culture was of

marginal significance” Instead, he argues that present-day Ethiopia and even

Abyssinia of the northern and central highlands should be regarded as a

“multi-religious society”, in view of the long presence of the Muslims and of

the followers of traditional religion in the country. He contends that Islam

must be recognized as “an integral part of the history of the formation and

development of the Ethiopian state and culture.53

The synonymous stereotype image of Ethiopia as „an isolated Christian

kingdom” is best demonstrated in the often quoted words of the eighteenth-

century historian Gibbon: "Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their



408

religion, the Aethiopians slept for a thousand years, forgetful of the world by

whom they were forgotten”.54

Gibbon‟s exaggerated contention has been

challenged as historically unsubstantiated and misleading. It is true that

Islam has continued to penetrate in the surrounding regions and into the

Ethiopian highlands, but the Ethiopian state and the Christian Orthodox

church had survived. The struggle for survival has continued throughout the

centuries into modern times and the resultant success in doing so can hardly

be associated with centuries of sleep.55

The Muslim images of Ethiopia and the Ethiopians have played a significant

role in determining the relations of the Islamic world with the country. The

traditional biographies of the Prophet, The Siira reports on the Prophet‟s

affection for Bilal Ibn Rabah, a freed Ethiopian slave and the second male

convert to Islam after Abu Baker as well as the first mu’azzin (caller for

prayer) in Islam, and for his fellow Ethiopian people.56

The early Muslim

groups who were subjected to hardships and persecution by the Meccan

Quraish leadership were advised by the Prophet to undertake the hijra

(religious migration) to Ethiopia (al Habasha), where there was “a king

under whom none are persecuted. It is a land of righteousness where God

will give you relief from what you are suffering.” The same sources and

some Ethiopians Muslims assert that the king, Al Najashi Asham, who

protected the Prophet Muhammed‟s followers who took refuge in his

country, had “declared his belief in the Prophet‟s mission.” The sources add

that on hearing of the Najashi‟s death, the Prophet gathered some of his

followers and led them in praying for his soul. A well-known saying of the

Prophet reads: “Leave Al-Ahbash in peace as long as they do not take the

offensive”: hence, the genesis of the exoneration of the Ethiopians from the

early jihad wars.57

Several Muslims writers have written complementary

treatises on the noble character of the Ethiopians. Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1200 or

1208) wrote a work titled “Tanwir al-ghabash fi fadl as-Sudan wa Al-

Habash”, i.e. The lightening of Darkness on the Merits of the Blacks and

Ethiopians. The Egyptian Al-Suyuti (d. 1505) wrote "Rafc Sha‟n al-

Hubshan", i.e. The Raising of the status of the Ethiopians, which was later

summarized in his Azhar al-cUrush fi akhbar al-Hibush (Flowers of the

Thrones on the History of the Ethiopians). A similar work is that of

Muhammad Ibn „Abd al-Baqi Al-Bukkari Al-Makki Al Tiraz al-Manqush fi

Mahasin al Hubush (The Coloured Brocade on the Good Qualities of the

Ethiopians).58

The last, though not necessarily the least important, conventional image of

Ethiopia and the Ethiopians is that to which Harold Marcus referred as “the



409

black man who turned white” in discussing changing European attitudes

towards the country and its peoples in the period 1850-1800.59

He

demonstrates how the news of the defeat of the invading Italian forces by the

Ethiopians at the battle of Adwa on the ever- remembered day of the 1st

March 1896 produced almost incomprehensible shock and astonishment

among most contemporary Europeans. Italian causalities amounted to nearly

7,000 dead, 1,500 wounded and 3,000 war captives. Five days after the

battle the Italians conceded defeat, sued for a cease-fire and the start of

peace negotiations. The unbelievable had actually happened. The army of “a

civilized European nation” was successfully defeated at the hands of “an

African chief and his warriors”.60

Many Europeans were compelled to

reconsider their prejudices about the Ethiopians at least as distinct and

different people from the rest of black peoples in the world who were

considered to be inherently inferior and incapable of such an outstanding

undertaking.

In order to present a new appraisal of the Ethiopians some Europeans began

a process of “semi-Europeanization” of the Ethiopians by “painting them

white”, attributing to them many European qualities and characteristics.

Emperor Menilek II, previously dismissed as a “semi-barbarian”, was a man

whose visitors "formed a high opinion of his intelligence and of his character

... His manner was {found to be} dignified and at the same time cordially

unreserved ... His energy was astonishing”. He was also “extraordinarily

well acquainted with what is going on in the world, not only from a political,

but from a general and even scientific point of view”. He was said to be

“endowed by nature with the constructive intelligence of a Bismarck and the

faculty of handling men .... {with the} sheer amiability of a McKinley.”. The

Ethiopians were depicted as “men of quick intelligence with pure traits,

although brown, with an elegant appearance, {and} with a graceful carriage,

{and} civilized customs.”. An European author writing in 1892 described

the Ethiopians as “a civilized nation, of an immense intelligence, the only

one that is civilized without wearing trousers and shoes. 61

A different category of images of Ethiopia and the Ethiopians is the

scholarly type which resulted from the academic study of Ethiopian society

and its culture. An outstanding one of such images is that of Ethiopia as “an

outpost of Semitic civilization”, which has as its basic features two main

views. Firstly, that the Amhara and the Tigreans of the northern and central

highlands are identified as the “true” Ethiopians or the “Abyssinians

proper.” Secondly, that the basic elements of their culture are derived from

early South Arabian Semitic influences. Two shortcomings of this view have



410

been observed. One of them is that it neglects the significant contribution of

the non-Semitic elements in Ethiopians culture. The other is that it

contributes to the discredited contention which considers cultures of peoples

with written languages and world religions to be superior to that of illiterate

peoples who adhere to traditional religious beliefs.62

The eminent Italian Ethiopianist Carlo Conti Rossini was the first European

scholar to bestow the memorable label of “a museum of peoples” on

Ethiopia when he wrote in 1929: “... l‟Abissinia 𝑒 un museo di popoli."63

His

major objective was to illustrate the ethnic, linguistic and cultural

heterogeneity of the peoples living within the confines of Ethiopia‟s borders.

Critics of this view have regarded that to see Ethiopia as “a mosaic of

distinct” people is to overlook the many features they have had in common,

... and to ignore the numerous relationship they have had with one another.64

The image of Ethiopia as “an underdeveloped countries” is usually presented

in the writings of economists and political scientists. Similar to the case of

most underdeveloped, politely referred to as developing countries, the

assessment is usually made in relation to the standards in the United States

and Western Europe; with the focus centered on the urban centers. The

countryside is almost totally ignored, though it is where the majority of the

inhabitants who are also the agricultural producers actually lived. They were

the section of the population who have always been the main victims of the

recurrent cycle of epidemic and drought-induced famine.65

Famine condition

in 1989 and 1989-90, for example, affected several millions of peoples; the

journalist and television reports of which stirred the consciences of peoples

and governments all over the world. It was primarily from the United States

and Western Europe that relief was sought.66

Most of the basic constituents of the self-images that the Christian Semitic-

speaking Amhara and Tigreans conceive about themselves and their country

and which they project to outsiders are contained, together with a variety of

other tradition and narratives, in the Ethiopic national sage the Kebra

Nagast, (Glory of Kings), complied in the early fourteenth century.67

The

most significant of these self-images is that they are the “Elect of God, His

Chosen People.” This is elaborated and detailed through progressive stages

that may be briefly outlined as follows. The legendry link of the Ethiopian

monarchs with King Solomon has provided them with blood connections

with the House of David and ultimately with Christ. This genealogical link

replaced an older tradition which reports that the Aksumite kings were

descendants of Noah through Ham and his grandsons Aethiop and Aksmawi.

Their royal female ancestor, the Queen of Sheba, Makeda, had adopted



411

Judaism on her visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. Yet, simple conversion to

Solomon‟s faith by itself would still excludes the Ethiopians from the

“Covenant with God” and confirms their status as slaves, the descendants of

Ham.68

The reversal of the status of the Ethiopians was effected by the clandestine

transfer of the Ark of Zion from Jerusalem to Ethiopia by Menilek‟s retinue

that consisted of the first-born sons of the nobles of Israel and Azariah, the

son of the Israeli high priest Zadok. On their return to Ethiopia with the Ark

of Zion Makeda abdicates in favour for Menilek, who was crowned King,

the first of the line of Solomon‟s descendants. In view of being the first born

of Solomon‟s three sons; the other two were Rehoboam and Adrami, who

became kings. But because the other kings proved to have been wicked and

morally corrupt, the king of the Ethiopians became supreme over all other

kings, protected and blessed by the possession of the Ark of Zion, “feared by

all and fearing no one”. At the last stage it is claimed that as the Jews

rejected the divine mission of Christ and the Ethiopians accepted it and

readily converted to Orthodox Christianity, the Ethiopians took over the

place of the Jews as the Elect of God, His Chosen People.69

As God‟s chosen people the two dominant Ethiopian groups, the Amhara

and Tigreans, are claimed to have been divinely selected and entrusted with

a national mission to promote and protect the true faith of God. In fulfilling

their mission they are empowered by religious and moral obligations, and

provided with the justifications to conquer and subject inferior non-Christian

alien groups to their domination. Conquered peoples are to be converted to

Orthodox Christianity and assimilated culturally while at the same time the

Amhara and Tigreans themselves should continue to safeguard and protect

their political domination, their ethnic purity and the superiority of their

distinctive culture. These, therefore, were the origins of the self-image of the

Amhara and Tigreans as superior, and dominant groups.70

An equally significant self-image which the Amhara and Tigreans have of

themselves is that of a proud people with an ancient, glorious and prestigious

history. Their history is particularly ancient as it is claimed to go back in the

far distant past to the tenth century B.C.; hence, the boastful reference to

“three thousand years of existence.” It is held to be glorious and prestigious

in view of their claim that their first king Menilek I, the founder of their

royal dynasty, was the first-born son of king So1omon.71

The unearthing in the Afar country in 1974 of what is believed by some

archeologists to be part of the remains of the earliest female ancestor of man,

named "Lucy" by foreigners and "Dengenash", i.e. "You are Marvelous" by



412

the Ethiopians, may push the date of the beginnings of Ethiopians history to

three and a half million years ago. Viewed in this context Ethiopia may be

considered as a possible cradle of mankind.72

The image of Ethiopia as a unitary national state has been conceived by the

ruling imperial monarchy and its allies the traditional aristocracy and the

ecclesiastical leadership of the Orthodox Church as well as by the military

junta of the regimes that followed them. This view is based on the fiction

that the peoples of the Ethiopian state “'have lived together … in war and

peace … as citizens of Ethiopia” and “had defended their country against

external enemies as Ethiopians”. Accordingly, Ethiopia's integrity and unity

should be safeguarded at all cost in the face of secessionist movements of

self-determination staged by marginalized ethnic groups within the

country.73

An opposite image of Ethiopia as an oppressive Shawan Amhara

dominated colonial state is held by the leaders and the rank and file of the

secessionist movements. In their view, the Shawan Amhara had participated

in the 'scramble' for Africa with the European colonial powers and that they

conquered peoples that were considered culturally and racially inferior.

Moreover, the Shawan Amhara rule in the conquered and incorporated

territories exhibited all the main features of European colonialism in

Africa.74

Footnotes 1. W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953, pp. 109-117;

Sidney Smith, “Events in Arabia in the 16th

Century AD”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and

African Studies, 16, 1954, pp. 425-468; M.J. Kister, “Some Reports Concerning Mecca: From

Jahiliyya to Islam”, Journal of the Economic and social History of the Orient, 15, 1972, pp. 6 1-93. Cf.

Tekle-Tsadk Mekouria, “The Horn of Africa”, in M. El Fasi and I. Hrbek (eds.), UNESCO General

History of Africa, Vol. 3. Paris, UNESCO/London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1988, pp. 559-

560; Cerulli, “Ethiopia‟s Relations with the Muslim World‟, Ibid., pp. 575-576. Cf. Y. Talib, “The

African Diaspora in Asia”, Ibid., pp. 704-707.

2. J.S. Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 2ed

impression, 1965, p. 5; D.N.

Levine, Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture. Chicago/London: Chicago

University Press, 1967, p. 1; C.F. Buckingham, “Al-Habasha in Muslim Geographical Works”, in B.

Lewis et al (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill, New Edition, 1971, p. 6, in

addition to the editorial note “Habash, Habasha”, p. 2; Talib, op.cit., pp. 708, 712.

3. Trimingham, op. cit., p. 5.

4. Ibid., pp. 32, 33, citing C. Conti Rossini, “Sugli Habashat”, Rendiconti della Academia dei Lincei, ser.

5, Vol. 15, 1906, pp. 39-59; Edward Ullendorff, The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and

People. London: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., reprinted 1967, pp. 50-52; A. K. Irvine,

“Habashat,” in B. Lewis et al, op. cit., p. 9. Cf. Bahru Zewde, A History of Modem Ethiopia, 1885-

1974. London/Addis Ababa, 1991, p. 1.

5. A. K. Irvine, “On the Identity of the Habashat in South Arabian Inscriptions”, Journal of Semitic

Studies, 10 1965, pp. 178-196; Donald N. Levine, Wax & Gold, note 7 on p. 199.

6. Ibid.

7. Richard A. Caulk, “North-East Africa before the Rise of Islam”, in Roland Oliver and Micheal

Crowder (eds.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1981, pp. 107-108.



413

8. Mekouria, op. cit., p. 559. An English translation of the text is published in L. P. Kirwan, “The Decline

and Fall of Meroe”, Kush, 8, 1960, pp. 163-165.

9. Montgomery Watt, op. cit., pp. 153-156; idem., “Ahabish”, in B. Lewis et al, op. cit., pp. 7-8.

10. Ibid., p. 8, mentioning the article H. Lammens, “Les „Ahabis‟ et l‟organisation militaire de la Mecque

au siècle de l‟hégire”, Journal Asiatique (1916), pp. 425-482; Talib, op. cit. p. 708.

11. S. Smith, op. cit., pp. 455, 458, 465; Montgonery Watt, “Ahabish”, in B. Lewis et al, op. cit., p. 8.

12. A. Bombaci, “Notizie sull‟ Abissinia in fonti turche”, Rassegna di Studi Etipici, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1943,

pp. 79-86; P.M. Holt, The Modem History of the Sudan. London, 1961 (reprinted 1963), pp. 23-25; M.

Abir, Ethiopia: The Era of the Prices. The Challenge of Islam and the Reunification of the Christian

Empire 1769-1855. London/Harlow: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1968, pp. xxi, 5-6; T. Isiksal,

“Habesh”, in B. Lewis et al, op. cit., p. 11; Sven Rubenson, The Survival of Ethiopian Independence.

London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., l976, pp. 12, 30, 115.

13. Richard Pankhurst, Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia. London: Lalibela House, 1961,

Appendix E, pp. 409-422; I. H. Quershi, “Muslim India Before the Mugals”, in P.M. Holt et al (eds.),

The Cambridge History of Islam Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970, pp. 3-37; J.

Burton-Page, “Habshi”, in B. Lewis et al, op. cit., pp. 14-16; C.F. Beckingham, op. cit., p. 7.

14. D.N. Levine, Wax & Gold, note 1 on p. 1; Robert L. Hess, Ethiopia: The Modernization of Autocracy.

Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1970, p. xvii; D.N. Levine, Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of

a Multi-ethnic Society. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1974, note 7 on p. 199. Cf. Bahru Zewde,

op. cit., p.1.

15. Ullendorff, op. cit., note 1 on p. 126.

16. Levine, Wax & Gold, note 1 on p. 1; idem., Greater Ethiopia, p. 118; Hess, op. cit., p. xvii; Richard

Greenfield, Ethiopia: A New Political History. London, 1976, p. 11; R. Caulk, “Ethiopia and the Horn”

in A.D. Roberts (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 7. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1986, note 1 on p. 704. Cf. Bahru Zewde, op. cit., p.1.

17. Trimingham, op. cit., p. 5, Hess, op. cit., p. xvii.

18. Caulk, op. cit., note 1 on p. 704.

19. Ullendorff, op. cit., p. 2; Levine, Wax & Gold, note 1 on p. 1; Hess, op. cit., p. xvii; Levine, Greater

Ethiopia, p. 1. Cf. Bahru Zewde, op. cit., p. 1.

20. Hess, op. cit., p. xvii.

21. Ullendroff, op. cit., pp. 1-2 ; Hess, op. cit., p. xvii ; Levine, Greater Ethiopia, pp. 1-2; Sven Rubenson,

op. cit., note on p. 1.

22. Hess, op. cit., p. XVII; Greenfiled, op. cit., p. 28.

23. Trimingham, op. cit., p. 38, note 1, citing Mc Crindle, trans., The Christian Topography, 1897, p. 65;

Caulk, op. cit., p. 108.

24. Mekouria, op. cit., p. 558, note 1, citing Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topography Chretienne. Paris: Le

Cerf, 1968, pp. 36 1-362.

25. Bahru Zewde, op. cit, p.1.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid.

28. Rubenson, op., cit., note 1 on p. 1. 3L. O p.3.

29. Levine, Wax & Gold, note on p. 1.

30. Idem., Greater Ethiopia, pp. 1-14.

31. R. Greenfield, op. cit., p.3.

32. Hussein Ahmed, “The Cross and the Crescent: State and Culture in Ethiopian Society”, Omaly Sy Anio

(Hier et Aujourd‟hui), Nos. 33-36 (1994), p. 149.

33. Ullendroff, op. cit., pp. 1-2; Levine, Greater Ethiopia, p. 1.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.,p.3.

36. Ibid.,pp.3-4.

37. Ibid,pp.4-5

38. Ibid., pp. 6-8.

39. Ibid.,pp.9-10

40. Ibid., pp. 10-11. In the period of the Zamana Masafent, i.e. The Era of the Princes see Mordechai Abir

cited above and Shiferaw Bekele, “The State in the Zamana Masafesst (1786-1853): an Essay in



414

Reinterpretation,” in Taddesse Beyene, Richard Pankhurst and Shiferaw Bekele (eds.), Kasa and Kasa:

Papers on the Lives, Times and Images of Tewodros II and Yohannes IV, 1855-1889. Addis Ababa:

Institute of Ethiopian Studies, 1990, pp. 25-68.

41. Levine, Greater Ethiopia, p. 11.

42. Idem., Wax & Gold, p. 3.

43. Idem., Greater Ethiopia, p. 12; Harold G. Marcus, The Life and Times of Menilek II, 1844-1913.

Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1975, pp. 1, 171-174; Hussein Ahmed, op. cit., pp. 160-16 1.

44. D.R. Buxton, The Abyssinians. London: Thames & Hudson, 1970, p. 56, cited in Graham Connah,

African Civilization: Pre-colonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 68.

45. Levine, Greater Ethiopia, pp. 13-14; Marcus, op. cit. p. 4.

46. Levine, Greater Ethiopia, p. 14.; S.K.B. Asante, “The Catholic Missions, British West African

Nationalists and the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia ,1935-36“, African Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 291, 1974, pp.

204-216.

47. Taddesse Tarnrat, Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-1827. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1972, p.

231; Hussein Ahmed, op. cit., p. 149.

48. Rubenson, op. cit., pp. 50, 408.

49. Ibid., p. 408; Hussein Ahmed, op., cit., p. 177.

50. 4%. Ibid., note 165 citing James Kritzeck and W.H. Lewis (eds.), Islam in Africa. New York, 1969, p.

21.

51. Ibid. note 166 referring to “Islam in East Africa”, in A.J. Arberry (ed.), Religion in the Middle East,

Vol. 2. Cambridge, 1969, pp. 210-211.

52. Hussein Ahmed, op., cit., p. 177.

53. Ibid., pp. 176-177 citing Ullendorff, op. cit., pp. 112-113 and Trimingham, op. cit., p. 143.

54. Connah, op. cit., pp. 67-68, citing E. Gibbon, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”,

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 2. Chicago: Inc., 1952, pp. 159-160.

55. Connah, op., cit., p. 68.

56. W. Arafat, “Bilal B. Rabah”, in B. Lewis et al, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 1215; Cerulli, op., cit., pp. 575-576 ;

Talib, op., cit., p. 709.

57. Trimingham, op. cit., pp. 44-45, 46; Talib, op. cit., pp. 710-711; Hussein Ahmed, op., cit., pp. 171-173.

58. Trimingham, op. cit., note 2 on p. 45; Talib, op. cit., p. 711; Cerulli, op., cit., p. 576.

59. Harold Marcus, “The Black Man Who Turned White: European Attitudes Towards Ethiopia, 1850-

1900”, Archiv Orientalni, Vol. 39, 1971, pp. 155-166.

60. Rubenson, op. cit., pp. 403-404.

61. Marcus, “The Black Man Who Turned White . . .“ pp. 162,163 -64.

62. Levine, Greater Ethiopia, pp. 17-19; Hussein Ahmed, op. cit., p. 150.

63. C. Conti Ossini, L’Abissinia. Rome, 1929, p. 20; idem., Etiopia e Genti di Etiopia. Rome, 1937, p.

169. See also Trirningham, op. cit., p. 5: Ullendroff, op. cit., p. 33; Levine, Greater Ethiopia, pp. 19-

20; Hussein Ahmed, op. cit., pp. 150, 153. Hussein Ahmed erroneously attributed the label to Cerulli;

see Hussein Ahmed, op. cit., p149

64. Levine, Greater Ethiopia, p. 21.

65. Ibid., pp. 22-23. See also Pankhurst, op. cit., pp. 238-247; R. Pankhurst and D. H. Johnson, “The Great

Drought of 1888-1892 in Northeast Africa”, in D.H. Johnson and D.M. Anderson (eds.), The Ecology

of Survival: Case Studies from Northeast Africa. London, 1976, pp. 47-70; Connah, op. cit., pp. 47-70.

66. Patrick Gilkes, “Ethiopia: Recent History”, in Regional Survey of the World Africa South of the

Sahara. London: Europe Publications, 20th ed., 1991, p. 459.

67. Levine, Greater Ethiopia, pp. 92-97.

68. Ibid., pp. 98-102.

69. Ibid., pp. 104-406.

70. Ibid., pp. 107-109.

71. Bahru Zewde, op. cit., p. 7.

72. Ibid., Tsegaye Tegenu, “Ethiopia: What is in a Name?” in Katsuyoshi Fukui et al. (eds.), Ethiopia in

Broader Perspective: Papers of the XIIIth

International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Koyoto 12-17

December 1997, Vol 2, Koyoto, 1997, p. 158.

73. Ibid., pp. 163-164.



415

74. Theodore Natsoulas, “Ethiopia: The Anatomy of an Indigenous African Colonial Empire”, Horn of

Africa, 4,3, 1981, pp. 3-4.

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