Gondar or Gonder is a city and separate woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Tana Lake on the Lesser Angereb River and southwest of the Simien Mountains, it has a longitude of 12 ° 36 ′ N 37 ° 28 ′ E with an elevation of 2133 meters above sea level. It is surrounded by the Gondar Zuria woreda. Gondar served as a strong Christian kingdom for many years. Gondar served as the capital of both the Ethiopian Empire and the subsequent Begemder Province; the city holds the remains of several royal castles, including those in Fasil Ghebbi, for which Gondar has been called the "Camelot of Africa". Until the 16th century, the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia had no fixed capital town, but instead lived in tents in temporary royal camps as they moved around their realms while their family and retinue devoured surplus crops and cut down nearby trees for firewood. One exception to this rule was Debre Berhan, founded by Zara Yaqob in 1456. Gondar was founded by Emperor Fasilides around the year 1635, grew as an agricultural and market town.
There was a superstition at the time that the capital's name should begin with the letter'Gʷa', which contributed to Gorgora's growth in the centuries after 1600. Tradition states that a buffalo led the Emperor Fasilides to a pool beside the Angereb, where an "old and venerable hermit" told the Emperor he would locate his capital there. Fasilides built his castle on that same site; the emperor built a total of seven churches. The five emperors who followed him built their palaces in the town. Beginning with Emperor Menas in 1559, the rulers of Ethiopia began spending the rainy season near Lake Tana returning to the same location each year; these encampments, which flourished as cities for a short time, include Emfraz, Ayba and Dankaz. In 1668, as a result of a church council, the Emperor Yohannes I ruled that the inhabitants of Gondar were to be segregated by religion; this caused the Muslims to move within two years. This quarter came to be known as Addis Alem. During the seventeenth century, the city's population is estimated to have exceeded 60,000.
Many of the buildings from this period survive, despite the turmoil of the eighteenth century. By the reign of Iyasu the Great, Gondar had acquired a sense of community identity. Although Gondar was by any definition a city, it was not a melting pot of diverse traditions, nor Ethiopia's window to the larger world, according to Donald Levine. "It served rather as an agent for the quickened development of the Amhara's own culture. And thus it became a focus of national pride... not as a hotbed of alien custom and immorality, as they regard Addis Ababa today, but as the most perfect embodiment of their traditional values." As Levine elaborates in a footnote, it was an orthogenetic pattern of development, as distinguished from an heterogenetic one. The town served as Ethiopia's capital until Tewodros II moved the Imperial capital to Magadala upon being crowned Emperor in 1855. Abdallahi ibn Muhammad sacked Gondar when he invaded Ethiopia June 1887. Gondar was ravaged again on 23 January in the next year, when Sudanese invaders set fire to every one of the city's churches.
After the military occupation of Ethiopia by the Kingdom of Italy in 1936, Gondar was further developed under Italian occupation, the Comboni missionaries established in 1937 the Latin Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of Gondar, which would be suppressed after its only prefect's death in 1951. During the Second World War, Mussolini's Italian forces made their last stand in Gondar in November 1941, after Addis Ababa fell to British forces six months before; the area of Gondar was one of the main centers of activity of Italian guerrilla against the British forces until summer 1943. During the Ethiopian Civil War, the forces of the Ethiopian Democratic Union gained control of large parts of Begemder, during parts of 1977 operated within a few kilometers of Gondar, appeared to be at the point of capturing the city; as part of Operation Tewodros near the end of the Civil War, Gondar was captured by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front in March 1991. Gondar traditionally was divided into several neighborhoods or quarters: Addis Alem, where the Muslim inhabitants dwelled.
Gondar is a noted center of ecclesiastical learning of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, known for having 44 churches – for many years more than any other settlement in Ethiopia. Gondar and its surrounding countryside constitute the homeland of most Ethiopian Jews; the modern city of Gondar is popular as a tourist destination for its many picturesque ruins in Fasil Ghebbi, from which the emperors once reigned. The most famous buildings in the city lie in the Royal Enclosure, which include Fasilide
The Solomonic dynasty known as the House of Solomon, is the former ruling Imperial House of the Ethiopian Empire. The dynasty's members claim the Queen of Sheba. Tradition asserts that the Queen gave birth to Menelik I after her biblically described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. In 1270, the Zagwe dynasty of Ethiopia was overthrown by Yekuno Amlak, who claimed descent from Solomon and reinitiated the Solomonic era of Ethiopia; the dynasty would last until 1974, ended by a coup d'état and deposition of the emperor Haile Selassie. The Solomonic dynasty was a bastion of Judaism and of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, it is claimed that this dynasty ruled Ethiopia as early as the 10th century BC, although there is no historical evidence to support this claim. Records of the dynasty's history were maintained by the Ethiopian Orthodox monasteries to near antiquity. Yekuno Amlak, an Amhara prince from the old province Bet Amhara, re-established the dynasty, tracing his ancestry to the last Solomonic King of Axum, Dil Na'od.
The Dynasty re-established itself on 10 Nehasé 1262 EC when Yekuno Amlak overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty. Yekuno Amlak claimed direct male line descent from the old Axumite royal house that the Zagwes had replaced on the throne. Menelik II, his daughter Zewditu I, would be the last Ethiopian monarchs who could claim uninterrupted direct male descent from Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba; the male line, through the descendants of Menelik's cousin Dejazmatch Taye Gulilat, still existed, but had been pushed aside because of Menelik's personal distaste for this branch of his family. The Solomonic Dynasty continued to rule Ethiopia with few interruptions until 1974, when the last emperor, Haile Selassie I, was deposed; the royal family is non-regnant. Members of the family in Ethiopia at the time of the 1974 revolution were imprisoned. In 1976, ten great grandchildren of Haile Selassie I were extracted from Ethiopia in an undertaking detailed in a book by Jodie Collins titled Code Word: Catherine.
The women of the dynasty were released by the regime from prison in 1989, the men were released in 1990. Several members were allowed to leave the country in mid 1990, the rest left in 1991 upon the fall of the Communist Regime. Many members of the Imperial family have since returned to live in Ethiopia. During much of the dynasty's existence, its effective realm was the northwestern quadrant of present-day Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Highlands; the Empire expanded and contracted over the centuries, sometimes incorporating parts of modern-day Sudan and South Sudan, coastal areas of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Southern and eastern regions were permanently incorporated during the last two centuries, some by Shewan kings and some by Emperors Menelek II and Haile Selassie I. In the modern era, the Imperial dynasty has several cadet branches; the elder Gondarine Amhara line, starting with Susenyos in 1606 ended its rule with the fall of the powerless Yohannes III in 1855 and the coming to power of Tewodros II, whose claims of Solomonic descent were never accepted.
Following Tewodros, Wagshum Gobeze claimed the throne linking himself to the last independent Gondare emperors through his mother, Aychesh Tedla, a descendant of Iyasu I, reigned as emperor of Ethiopia with the title Tekle Giorgis II for some years investing in the renovation of churches and monuments in Gondar. Being an heir to the Zagwe throne, his reign was meant to be a unification of both dynasties in the enthronement of a king bearing both lineages. Tekle Giorgis II fought a battle with the Tigrean Claimant Kassai Mercha, the latter, who had retrieved superior weaponry and armament from the British in return for his assistance in the defeat of Tewodros II, would be able to defeat Tekle Giorgis II's army and killing him; the Tigrean line came to power with the enthronement of Yohannes IV in 1872, although this line did not persist on the Imperial throne after the Emperor was killed in battle with the Mahdists in 1889, the heirs of this cadet branch ruled Tigre until the revolution of 1974 toppled the Ethiopian monarchy.
The Tigrean Cadet branch traces its lineage to the main Solomonic line of Emperors through at least two female lines. The more recent link was through Woizero Aster Iyasu; the Shewan line was next on the Imperial throne with the coronation of Menelik II Menelik King of Shewa, in 1889. The Shewan Branch of the Imperial Solomonic dynasty, like the Gondarine line, could trace uninterrupted male line descent from King Yekonu Amlak, though Abeto Negassi Yisaq, the grandson of Dawit II by his youngest son Abeto Yaqob; the direct male line ended with Menelik II –, succeeded first by the son of his daughter Lij Iyasu from 1913 to 1916 by his daughter Zewditu until 1930, by the son of a first cousi
Iyasu I known as Iyasu the Great, was nəgusä nägäst, r. 19 July 1682 – 13 October 1706 of Ethiopia, a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Empress Sabla Wangel. According to G. W. B Huntingford, Iyasu "owed his reputation to the mildness of his character, exemplified in his treatment of the princes on Wehni in his first year, his attention to religious matters, to his abdication and murder."He was serving as governor of Gojjam when his father Yohannes summoned him and made him heir at the age of 20. During the first year of his reign, he attended to his brothers and other relatives imprisoned on Wehni, a moment recorded by James Bruce who describes how the Emperor replaced their rags with proper clothing and furnished the starving royals with a banquet, his reign is noteworthy for the attention he devoted to administration, holding a large number of councils to settle theological and ecclesiastical matters, matters of state, to proclaim laws. In 1698, Iyasu undertook a number of reforms, affecting customs and taxation, which encouraged trade.
In the second year of his reign, he confronted an invasion of the Yejju and Wollo Oromo into Amhara, defeating them at Melka Shimfa. After Qegnazmach Wale of Damot and Tabdan the Hermit proclaimed Yeshaq emperor in his fourth year, Iyasu suppressed this revolt, captured Yeshaq waited a year before marching beyond southern Gojjam in a punitive expedition against the Agaws who had supported the rebels, it was during his reign. His Royal Chronicle recounts how when the Ottoman Naib of Massawa attempted to levy a tax on Iyasu's goods that had landed at Massawa, he responded with a blockade of that island city until the Naib relented. Solomon Getahun observes that "unlike his immediate predecessors, Iyasu's tenure was noted for endeavors to establish diplomatic ties with Christian monarchies like Louis XIV of France and Ethiopian delegates had been sent to foreign countries." Solomon notes that one of the benefits of these efforts to reach out to other countries was that Emperor Iyasu received a bell from the Dutch governor in India, donated to Debre Berhan Selassie Church in Gondar.
This led to the visit by a French physician, Charles Jacques Poncet, who traveled to the Empire to treat Iyasu and one of his sons. Poncet arrived at Gondar 21 July 1699 and stayed until September 1700. Poncet published an account of his visit to Paris in 1704, which included his personal impression of Iyasu the Great: Although' he is not above one and forty years old, yet he has a numerous issue, he has three princesses. The Emperor has great qualities – a quick and piercing wit, a sweet and affable humor, the stature of a hero, he is the most handsome man. He is a lover of curious arts and sciences, he is brave and undaunted in battles, always at the head of his troops. He has an extraordinary love for justice; such eminent qualities make him fear'd and belov'd by his subjects, who respect him to adoration. While he was campaigning in Gojjam against the Oromo, Iyasu learned that his favorite concubine, Kedeste Kristos, had died. Stricken with grief, he retired to an island in Lake Tana. Supported by Empress Malakotawit, some of the officials argued, after the precedent of the king Kaleb that he had abdicated, crowned his son Tekle Haymanot Emperor.
According to some accounts, this was not Iyasus' intent, he marched from his hermitage in Lake Tana towards to Gondar to protest this. Iyasu's death caused much distress in the capital amongst the priests of Debre Berhan Selassie, who displayed his gifts to them, mourned their dead monarch for a month. Bruce writes that Iyasu was buried on Mitraha Island, where he was shown Iyasu's body interred amongst "the bodies of all his ancestors". Once his brother Tewoflos became Emperor, he initiated Iyasu's canonization
Yifat is a kibbutz in Galilee, northern Israel. Located adjacent to the town Migdal HaEmek and short distances from the cities of Afula and Nazareth, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In 2017 it had a population of 1,164; the kibbutz was established in 1954 by members of Kvutzat HaSharon who lived in Ramat David, as well as former residents of Gevat, including Haim Gvati a government minister. It was named Ihud HaSharon - Gevat, but was renamed after the biblical town of Yefia, as does the name of the Arab town of Yafa an-Naseriyye; the economy of Yifat is based on light industry, greenhouses, plant nurseries, cattle and chickens, as well as the hospitality industry. The sixth-grade school “Western Valley” and a performing arts complex are located within the kibbutz, as is the Pioneer Settlement Museum. Yifat houses a Hebrew ulpan for would-be immigrants. Furthermore and Gentile “volunteers” from many countries have served on the kibbutz. In earlier days, Yifat welcomed non-Jews from Germany among its visitors when some kibbutzim discriminated against those born after World War II.
Shlomo Shriki Official website
Susenyos I was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1606 to 1632. His father was Abeto Fasilides, son of Abeto Yakob, a son of Dawit II; as a result, while some authorities list Susenyos as a member of the Solomonic dynasty, others consider him, instead of his son, Fasilides, as the founder of the Gondar line of the dynasty. Manuel de Almeida, a Portuguese Jesuit who lived in Ethiopia during Susenyos' reign, described him as tall, with the features of a man of quality, large handsome eyes "and an ample and well groomed beard, he was wearing a tunic of crimson velvet down to the knee, breeches of the Moorish style, a sash or girdle of many large pieces of fine gold, an outer coat of damask of the same colour, like a capelhar". As a boy, a group of Oromo fighters captured him and his father, holding them captive for over a year until they were rescued by the Dejazmach Assebo. Upon his rescue, he went to live with Queen Admas Mugessa, the mother of Sarsa Dengel and widow of Emperor Menas, his mother was Ḥamelmal Wärq.
In 1590s, Susenyos was perceived as one of the potential successors to the throne, as Emperor Sarsa Dengel's sons were young. In order to eliminate him from the competition, Empress Maryam Sena had Susenyos exiled, but Susenyos managed to escape and find refuge amongst the Oromo. At the death of his one-time ally, Emperor Za Dengel, he was proclaimed his successor and returned to the realm, although the fight against Emperor Yaqob continued. Susenyos became Emperor following the defeat of first Za Sellase on 10 March 1607 Yaqob at the Battle of Gol in southern Gojjam. After his defeat, Za Sellase became a supporter of Susenyos, but fell out with Susenyos early in his reign, was imprisoned on an amba in Guzamn. After a year, Za Sellase managed to escape and lived as a brigand for a year until he was killed by a peasant, who sent his head to the Emperor. In 1608, a rebel appeared near Debre Bizen; because the body of Yaqob had never been found after the Battle of Gol, there had been some doubt that the previous Emperor was dead, a pretender announced that he was the dead Emperor Yaqob.
The pretender managed to disguise the fact he did not resemble Yaqob by keeping part of his face covered, claiming that he had suffered grievous wounds to his teeth and face from the battle. The governor of Tigray, Sela Krestos heard of the revolt, not trusting the loyalty of a general levy of troops struck against the rebel with his own household and the descendants of the Portuguese soldiers who had followed Cristóvão da Gama into Ethiopia. Despite their defeating the rebels three different times, the pretender managed to escape each battle to hide in the mountains of Hamasien. Meanwhile, Emperor Susenyos was preoccupied with raiding parties of the Oromo. An initial encounter with the Marawa Oromo near the upper course of the Reb River ended in a defeat for the Ethiopians; the Marawa allied with other Oromo, the united force entered Begemder to avenge their defeat. Upon hearing of this, the Emperor responded by summoning his son-in-law Qegnazmach Julius and Kifla Krestos to join him with their troops, defeated the raiders at Ebenat on 17 January 1608.
According to James Bruce, the Royal Chronicle of Susenyos reports 12,000 Oromo were killed while only 400 on the Emperor's side were lost. With the Oromo threat dealt with, Susenyos now could turn his attention to Yaqob the pretender. Despite this act legitimizing his rule, Susenyos had no luck capturing the pretender, was forced to leave the task to his servant Amsala Krestos. Amsala Krestos induced two brothers who had joined the rebellion to assassinate Yaqob the pretender, who sent the dead man's head to Susenyos. Without a scarf obscuring his features, writes Bruce, "it now appeared, that he had neither scars in his face, broken jaw, nor loss of teeth; the emperor sent priests to renew the Orthodox Christianity of the province, though the missionaries seem to have become mired in doctrinal disputes, their accomplishments were limited According to his Royal Chronicle, Susenyos made his power felt along his western frontier from Fazogli, or Fazughli, north to Suakin. Susenyos's reign is best known as the brief period in Ethiopian history when Catholic Christianity became the official religion.
The Emperor became interested in Catholicism, in part due to Pedro Páez's persuasion, but hoping for military help from Portugal and Spain. Some decades earlier, in 1541, Cristóvão da Gama had led a military expedition to save the Ethiopian emperor Gelawdewos from the onslaught of Ahmed Gragn, a Muslim Imam who destroyed the existence of the Ethiopian state. Susenyos hoped to receive a new contingent of well-armed European soldiers, this time against the Oromo, who were ravaging his kingdom, to help with the constant rebellions. Two letters of this diplomatic effort survive, which he entrusted to Páez to send to Europe
Emperor of Ethiopia
The Emperor of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The Emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive and legislative power in that country. A National Geographic Magazine article called imperial Ethiopia "nominally a constitutional monarchy; the title of "King of Kings" rendered imprecisely in English as "Emperor", dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, but was used in Axum by King Sembrouthes. However, Yuri Kobishchanov dates this usage to the period following the Persian victory over the Romans in 296–297, its use, from at least the reign of Yekuno Amlak onward, meant that both subordinate officials and tributary rulers, notably the gubernatorial vassals of Gojjam, the seaward provinces and Shewa, received the honorific title of nəgus, a word for "king." The consort of the Emperor was referred to as the ətege. Empress Zauditu used the feminized form nəgəstä nägäst to show that she reigned in her own right, did not use the title of ətege.
At the death of a monarch any male or female blood relative of the Emperor could claim succession to the throne: sons, uncles or cousins. Practice did not always enforce it; the system developed two approaches to controlling the succession: the first, employed on occasion before the 20th century, involved interning all of the Emperor's possible rivals in a secure location, which drastically limited their ability to disrupt the Empire with revolts or to dispute the succession of an heir apparent. Ethiopian traditions do not all agree as to when the custom started of imprisoning rivals to the throne on a Mountain of the Princes. One tradition credits this practice to the Zagwe king Yemrehana Krestos, who received the idea in a dream. Another tradition, recorded by historian Thomas Pakenham, states that this practice predates the Zagwe dynasty, was first practiced on Debre Damo, captured by the 10th-century queen Gudit, who isolated 200 princes there to death. Taddesse Tamrat argues that this practice began in the reign of Wedem Arad, following the struggle for succession that he believes lies behind the series of brief reigns of the sons of Yagbe'u Seyon.
A constructivist approach states that the tradition was used on occasion, weakened or lapsed sometimes, was sometimes revived to full effect after some unfortunate disputes – and that the custom started in time immemorial as Ethiopian common inheritance patterns allowed all agnates to succeed to the lands of the monarchy – which however is contrary to keeping the country undivided. The potential royal rivals were incarcerated at Amba Geshen until Ahmed Gragn captured that site in 1540 and destroyed it. Rumors of these royal mountain residences were part of the inspiration for Samuel Johnson's short story, Rasselas. Although the Emperor of Ethiopia had theoretically unlimited power over his subjects, his councillors came to play an increasing role in governing Ethiopia, because many Emperors were succeeded either by a child, or one of the incarcerated princes, who could only leave their prisons with help from the outside; as a result, by the mid-18th century the power of the Emperor had been transferred to his deputies, like Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray, who held actual power in the Empire and elevated or deposed Emperors at will.
The Emperors of Ethiopia derived their right to rule based on two dynastic claims: their descent from the kings of Axum, their descent from Menelik I, the son of Solomon and Makeda, Queen of Sheba. The claim to their relationship to the Kings of Axum derives from Yakuno Amlak's claim that he was the descendant of Dil Na'od, through his father, although he defeated and killed the last Zagwe king in battle, his claim to the throne was helped by his marriage to that king's daughter though Ethiopians do not acknowledge claims from the distaff side. The claim of descent from Menelik I is based on the assertion that the kings of Axum were the descendants of Menelik I. While the surviving records of these kings fail to shed light on their origins, this genealogical claim is first documented in the 10th century by an Arab historian. Interpretations of this claim vary widely; some accept it as evident fact. At the other extreme, others understand this as an expression of propaganda, attempting to connect the legitimacy of the state to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Some scholars take an approach in the middle, attempting to either find a connection between Axum and the South Arabian kingdom of Saba, or between Axum and the pre-exilic Kingdom of Judah. Due to lack of primary materials, it is not possible as of 2006 to determine which theory is the more plausible; the restored Solomonic dynasty, which claimed descent from the old Aksumite rulers, ruled Ethiopia from the 13th century until 1974, with on