አቶ ማሞ ይንበርበሩ (ማሞ ካቻ ) ማናቸው
አቶ ማሞ ይንበርብሩ (ማሞ ካቻ) አቶቢሲ ማሞ ካቻ፣ የት ትሄዳለህ? ገብረ ጉራቻ... ታዳጊው ማሞ ይንበርበሩ ገና በጨቅላ እድሜው አባቱ አቶ ይንበርበሩ በሥራ ምክ ንያት ወደ ኢሊባቦር ጎሬ ሲዛወሩ አብሮ ሄደ።
Medieval Fortresses in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia
By Tedla Melaku
The medieval Solomonic emperors of Ethiopia hailed from Amhara, or Beth Amhara (House of Amhara), a central province in ancient and medieval Ethiopia in today's Amhara region. The Amhara emperors were venerable scholars as well as indomitable fighters, and their time is remembered by scholars as a golden age of prosperity and illumination in the History of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
The Amhara emperors were also masterful builders, and built phenomenal Orthodox Christian houses of worship and wondrous mediaeval fortresses the likes of which are seen nowhere else in the continent. According to old sources, such as Arabi Faqih's (a Yemeni chronicler) "Futuh Al Habesha", one of the emperors of Amhara, Na'od, built a 130-feet tall Orthodox Church made entirely of gold that blazed like a fire, as witnessed by the invading Arabs and Turks, and completely destroyed during the 16th-century Adalite war.
That epic medieval castles were built in Ethiopia centuries ago is not a popular fact even among world historians who are not always very comfortable with the fact that dark-skinned Orthodox Christian emperors of ancient Ethiopian and Israelite royal descent, speaking a biblical tongue, that did not receive their Christianity from Europeans, and having entire rituals around the most venerated biblical relics dating to Solomonic times, were building complicated and prodigious medieval Castles in the continent of Africa.
But even those who are well aware of the fact, are mainly just aware of emperor Fasiledes' famous castle, in the fortress-city of Gondar, in the Amhara region. But archaeology is revealing that these spectacular medieval castles were built all over the Amhara region, which was the political and economic center of the Ethiopian empire for centuries and centuries.
Prior to the founding of the city of Gondar as a Fortress city by emperor Fasil or his father and predecessor, Susneyos, in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, the political and economic center was in Shewa, where today's Ethiopian Capital, Addis Abeba, is located. The Amhara emperors had their capital cities in Shewa up until the calamitous invasions and wars of the 16th century, which left an unfathomable amount of wealth and prosperity, and hundreds of years worth of progress, utterly destroyed.
Relatively new archaeological findings and centuries-old maps are revealing now that there were indeed phenomenal fortresses and castles in Shewa, Amhara, dating to when the emperors resided in the historical mountainous lands a few kilometers from Addis Abeba -- the ruins of which are being discovered and changing the perspective of modern scholars.
In Gondar, although most people know mainly about Emperor Fasil's famous fortress, his father Susneyos also had his own other one, at Danqaz. Emperor Sarsa Dengel, whose glorious wars against invaders have been recorded by the chronicler and monk Abba Bahrey, also, had his own fortress, known as the Guzara Castle, in Emfraz, Gondar.
In Shewa, just as displayed on Fra Mauro's map showing a massive fortress near the lost city of Barara, which was an Amhara Imperial Capital of Ethiopia near Addis Abeba for about a century (from the 15th to the 16th centuries) and destroyed during the invasions and wars, ruins of a typical imperial fortress in Shewa of which little is left for view was located on Mount Wechacha. Ruins of stupendous castles are also seen a few kilometers from Addis Abeba, in Zequala, and in Yerer. Mount Menagesha in Shewa, was also of particular interest to the medieval Amhara kings, and according to old Ethiopic sources, was the seat of King Gebre Mesqel (in the 6th century!) in Axumite times, where he ruled over the Southern dominion of the ancient empire.
The Amhara region is full of such wonders reminiscent of legends and folklore like Camelot, but in the Horn of Africa. Much lays buried in the ground, and more interest to the region in regards to history and heritage could reveal magnificent witnesses of the golden past!
-Tedla Melaku Worede
Author of "Reason and the Sacred"
