Thesiger in EncyclopaediaAethiopica2010 4 O-X

Northeast African Studies

Dedjazmatch Zewde Gabre-Sellassie, MA.; D.Phil. (Oxon.) Presented to The Second International Littmann Conference Ed. Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD, Axum, January 6-12, 2006 The Birth Place of the Ethiopian State: Axum, the Seat of the earliest Ethiopian kingdom and one of the holiest grounds, the Church of St. Mary of Zion, is located in what is now known the Regional State of Tigray. The earliest monasteries in Ethiopia, established by the “Nine Saints” who spread the gospel are also found in Tigray. It was also during the Axumite period that the first group of Moslems that migrated from Arabia and sought refuge in Ethiopia. Thus, it is properly considered the birthplace of Ethiopian state, religion, culture and civilization. As an arena for trade and communications to and from the ports of Adulis and subsequently Massawa, Tigray was the gateway of the Ethiopian Empire. During the last quarter of the 19th century, there had been constant internal and external warfare and famine in Tigray. August Wylde who came to Adwa right after the Italo-Ethiopian war in 1896 pointed out that when he had visited Adwa during his earlier visit in 1884. "It was a flourishing town of about 15000 inhabitants, the commercial centre of the district. Now it is a ruin, a charnel house. War and pestilence have done their work, leaving their mark in ruined homes and blackened walls. I do not think there were a thousand people left in Adwa".

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 1984

Africa

""Gäbre-Heywät Baykädañ (1886-1919) grew up at a Swedish mission in Eritrea and studied in Germany and Austria before he was recruited as an interpreter for a German diplomatic mission to Addis Ababa. He soon became an important figure in Menelik's entourage. After Menelik's death and the 1916 coup, he was first appointed controller of the railways and later collector of customs in Dérre Dawa, where he died. Most experts have portrayed Gäbre-Heywät as a European-educated intellectual who, fascinated with European civilization, took a harsh stance vis-à-vis the condition of his own country. This paper argues that his ideas were much more than a simple mimicry of European modernity and offered an original perspective on the challenges that Ethiopia was facing as part of its incorporation into the capitalist world economy. He struggled to see his country turn modern, while maintaining its cultural and political independence: his ultimate goal was Ethiopia's 'sovereign modernity'. The paper therefore rejects the notion that Gäbre-Heywät was Eurocentric. His thought was very much the product of a new world view that characterized intellectual production in Menelik's Ethiopia. Notes, ref., sum. in French and Italian. [ASC Leiden abstract]""

Research Paper, 2022

The main question this paper intends to answer is how Ethiopia changed from a quite powerful, defensive, sovereign country, feared by the biggest European imperial powers, to one of the least developed countries in the world, scoring 175th of all 191 countries examined in the Human Development Index (HDI).

Annales d'Éthiopie, 2015

The Indian presence in Ethiopia has attracted little attention in Ethiopian historiography. Yet Indian businessmen were as instrumental to Ethiopia’s early 20th century economy as they were in British East Africa at the same period. As part of a broader research project aimed at addressing this gap, this article explores the life and achievements of Mohamedally Shaikh Sharafaly, the best known of these Indian businessmen, who set up one of the largest commercial and industrial businesses in Ethiopia. The account follows the narrative of an un-published letter the merchant wrote in 1940 about his business trajectory. From his arrival in Harar in the late 19th century to the eventual expulsion of his company in 1937, his story is highly revealing of the political context in which large foreign businesses would emerge, involving both friendship with the Ethiopian emperors and diplomatic protection, in the case of Indians as British subjects. Mohamedally Shaikh Sharafaly created an extensive network of Indian outlets throughout the country and organized a powerful multi-partnershipwith Indian fellows, with branches in Djibouti, Aden, and Berbera. The G. M. Mohamedally & Co was much more than a mere business. On several occasions, the company provided intelligence to foreign countries and it actively supported Ethiopians against the Italian occupation. On the social scene, it remained a long-term leader of the Indian community and was famous for its various philanthropic engagements. The 1937 expulsion, as brutal as it was, also showed the political power exercised in India by the company and its founder.

Kadim, 2022

This study examines the long-standing hostile and distrustful relations between Ethiopia and the Ottoman Empire. The Ethio-Ottoman antagonistic relation was not coincident; somewhat, the interest of the Ottoman to supervise the political, economic, and religious life of the Red Sea and Northeast Africa regions primarily stemmed the hostility. The presence of the Portuguese in the Red-Sea region and its subsequent alignment with Ethiopia further worsened the Ethio-Ottoman belligerency. The positioning of the Ottomans with the Adal Sultanate had also complicated the Ethio-Ottoman relations and brought with them generations of distrust. This article recounts the dynamics of the Ethio-Ottoman relations, mainly focusing on the changing aspects of hostility and understanding. The paper tries to address the Ethio-Ottoman relations in three major sections. The first section of the study explains the root of the Ethio-Ottomans' hostile and distrustful relations. The second section of the paper is devoted to showing the dynamic of the essence of the Ethio-Ottoman relations in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The last section elucidates the Ethio-Ottoman connections during the era of Sultan Abdülhamit II. The study employs an analytical, interpretive approach to analyze archival documents and secondary works of literature.

Lund University Press eBooks, 2021

The background and aim of the series Acta Aethiopica was explained by Sven Rubenson, the editor of the series, in the pre face and introduc tion to the first volume, Correspondence and Treaties 1800-1854, published by Addis Ababa University Press and Northwestern University Press in 1987. Co-editors of the first volume were Getatchew Haile, Collegeville, and John Hunwick, Evanston. The second volume, Tewodros and His Contemporaries 1855-1868, was published in 1994 by Addis Ababa University Press, with the Lund University Press of those days-a scheme of collaboration between various Lund University departments and the academic publisher Studentlitteratur-as co-publisher, and the third volume, Internal Rivalries

Aethiopica