By Fikre Tolossa
In my last two articles I wrote about the contributions of the Oromo and the Amhara to Ethiopian civilization. This article deals with the contributions of the Tigrean to Ethiopian civilization.
Let me make it clear from the outset that it was by assuming that the people of Tigray are the descendants of the ancient Axumites that I decided to entitle this essay, “Tigre Contributions to Ethiopian Civilization,” for I will be dealing with Axumite Civilization in the following paragraphs. One can probably liken the ancient Axumites and present day Tigreyans with ancient and modern Greeks. It is well-known that Axum was the capital of Tigray and the cradle of Ethiopian civilization. Whatever Axum achieved at the zenith of its civilization, I will, therefore, consider it to be the achievement of the Tigre, and as such, of Ethiopians.
The word Tigre is said to have at least two meanings. One is derived from the River Tigris. According to this version, the Tigreans came from the Tigris river valley located in Mesopotamia. The other meaning of the word Tigre is said to be a trader. This latter meaning makes sense to me. Since the Axumites were involved in extensive commerce, they might have started being called Tigreans gradually.
What we today call the province of Tigray was not only the cradle of Ethiopian material culture, but also the center of her spiritual life. It was in Tigray that two of the world’s important religions, both Judaism and Christianity found their way to Ethiopia. According to the Kebre Negest, it was Queen Sheba who brought Judaism from Jerusalem to Ethiopia.
Whether it was she or not who introduced Judaism to Ethiopia, the Bible testifies that the eunuch who was baptized by Philip, was an Ethiopian whose religion was Jewish. From this and other facts, we can infer that there were numerous followers of Judaism in Tigray and the rest of Northern Ethiopia. Christianity was made the official religion of Ethiopia by Emperor Ezana whose capital was Axum in the 4th Century A.D. The foundation of Semitic Ethiopian civilization is Christianity. It was inspired by Christianity that Ethiopians built magnificent churches, wrote great books, created monumental paintings and composed divine hymns and songs. It was cultivated by both Judaism and Christianity that Ethiopians aspired to have a high level of moral, piety and hospitality. Axsum is a holy city for Christian Ethiopians because it is the place where their religion was born.
Tigray is full of rare monuments, edifices, thrones, statues, gravestones, altars, temples, dams, incense burners, and objects made of bronze and copper which are living testimonies of Ethiopia’s glorious past.
The numerous obelisks at Kaskasse and Axum, those great works of art, have had a profound influence upon Ethiopian architecture. Axum is a home of the tallest stelae in the world (33 meters). The triangular inscription of Ezana is a precious piece of Ethiopian history which Axum has preserved for us. It was in Tigray and the regions North of it, that the Semitic peoples of Ethiopia founded a dynasty that lasted for about 2500 years. This dynasty was perhaps one of the oldest and longest in the world.
The St. Mary of Tsion church, the rock-hewn church of Abreha and Asbeha, the famous church of Debre-Damo, the ruins of the old Axumite building at Matara, the thrones at Hawlti, the statues of the seated ladies at Hawlti and Adi Galamo, the Gulo Makida and Hinzat, the birth place and the tomb of the Queen of Sheba, as well as the tombs of Menelik II, Caleb and Gebremeskel. Various crowns found in different monasteries, the bronze lamp from Matara, the excavated site of Matara itself, the paintings in a number of churches including Abba Yime’ata, Gere’alta, the Melazo altar with geometric Sabaean inscription, the Matara gold crosses, the incense burners with Sabaean inscriptions and crescent and disc from Adi Kweih and Adi Gelemo, the stamps of identity marks with Sabaean letters, the dame of Coloe, the ruins of Coloe, all these, are some of the heritages of the ancestors of the Tigreyans.
Pertaining education, it was in Axum that the Ethiopian church school flourished at least 1400 years ago. Traditional Ethiopian education developed highly in the 6th Century A.D. due to the effort of St. Yared. He was an educator, a fine poet and the greatest Ethiopian composer. The curriculum which he designed
then is still in use in Ethiopia.
St. Yared, moreover, is the father of Ethiopian religious music with its notation which is still valid to this day. He tried his hand at writing and composed a book of hymns. He traveled to Europe and shared his experience with his fellow Ethiopians.
The contribution of St. Yared to Ethiopian civilization was not limited only to education and music. He played an important role in enhancing literature, theology, philosophy and history. In his Digwa, a book of hymns and prose, he demonstrates his knowledge of verification and provides the fundamentals of theology, philosophy as well as history by explaining the nature of God, the importance of the love for wisdom and by laying the corner-stone for early Ethiopian church history.
In the field of philosophy, the Axumites Zere Yacob is the greatest Ethiopian philosopher whose treatise is a contribution to world philosophy. Zere Yacob was born in Axum in 1592 A.D. His parents were farmers. He attended a church school as a child. Being a brilliant student he learned faster than other kids and became an instructor upon graduation. He developed his own methodology of pedagogy and proved to be an excellent teacher. People who were jealous of his intelligence plotted to have him killed by Emperor Susenyos who ruled Ethiopia then. He ran away from Axum and found his way to Shoa. He hid in a cave in Shoa for two years developing his philosophy until the death of the Emperor. He was then hired by Ato Habtu, a rich Amhara from Shoa, to teach his son Woldeheywot. Later, Woldeheywot became Zere Yacob’s follower and a philosopher by his own right. The works of Zere Yacob were published after his death by Woldeheywot for fear of persecution. Thus the two Ethiopian philosophers demonstrated the earliest great bond between Tigrean and Amhara scholars.
Zere Yacob entertained rationalism at least 130 years earlier than European philosophers. His views on religion and the search for truth were too advanced and radical for his age and even for our own time. A living testimony of the power of Zere Yacob rationalism is Abe Gubenga’s political novel, Alewoledem, (I will not Be Born) whose protagonist questions and criticizes the religious practice of his society. Alewoledem was written under the influence of Zere Yacob’s critique of religion. Abe Gubenga was exiled to Gore, the remotest part of Ethiopia and the book was suppressed by Emperor Haile Selassie’s government until 1974 because it was thought-provoking.
Zere Yacob wrote rationally about God and questioned the nature of man, religion, prayer, fasting, truth, the law of God and of man, the nature of knowledge as well as marriage.
Ge’ez, the sacred language of the Ethiopians is also the contribution of the ancestors of the Tigre people. It was in this language that Ethiopia preserved rare books of grammar, literature, poetry, history, philosophy, theology, ethics, medicine, magic, astrology, astronomy and law. We are indebted to the Sabeans, the forefathers of the Tigreyans for the Ge’ez alphabets, of which both Ethiopians and black peoples world-wide are proud.
The writing of Ethiopian history was began in Tigray, as evidenced by Sabaean, Ge’ez and Greek inscriptions found on a number of monuments including those of Emperor Ezana. The Axumites documented Ethiopian history and the life history of their emperors and saints on parchments.
Northern Ethiopians were experts in the art of coin making. Compared with peoples who were on the stage of bartering, the Axumite Ethiopians, for instance, were advanced in business transactions and commerce, because money was in circulation amongst them and the peoples with whom they traded, such as the Indians, Romans and the Greeks. During the domination of the world by the Roman empire in the third century, it is said that Northern Ethiopia was the only place in Africa which minted coins. Such coins furnish us with first-hand information about Ethiopian history. The coins of emperors Endybis, Ezana, Ousanas II, and Bete Israel, for example tell us something about the third, fourth, fifth and sixth centuries of Ethiopian history.
Ethiopian numerical, too, were invented by the Axumites. These numericals were applied in mathematics. We use them in our daily lives as well.
Axumite emperors had a strong navy, as well as commercial ships which sailed as far as India. On the other hand, Greek and Roman ships came as close as the Ethiopian port of Adulis. This fact made Ethiopia the center of commerce and culture for Europe and Asia. It exposed Ethiopia to new ideas and inventions. It brought scholars, different skills and books which were translated into Ge’ez from various languages such as Greek, Arabic and Hebrew. Some of these books are still valuable to us.
In the sphere of international diplomacy, the Axumite emperors won a high respect for Ethiopia abroad. As a member of the Christian community of nations, Ethiopia took part in religious conventions in Europe.
Axumite emperors had a good relationship with the Islamic world as well. When the Prophet Mohammed was yet a young man, it was said that he used to listen to Ethiopian preachers preaching the Bible at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Mecca. As a result, he became well-versed with Christianity and Judaism. He learned many Ge’ez vocabularies and used a number of them in the Kuran. When his followers were persecuted he sent them to Northern Ethiopia. Because of the hospitality which Axumite emperors and their citizens showered upon Mohammed’s family and his followers, Ethiopia was able to enjoy a brotherly relationship with the Muslim world for many years.
The contributions of Tigre to Ethiopian civilization dwindled after the fall of Axum in the 10th Century, but never ceased. The descendants of the Axumites who started being called Amharas later continued and extended the Axumite civilization elsewhere in Shoa, Wello, Wadla and Dilanta, Gonder, and Gojjam. Tigray became important again in the 19th Century during the reign of Emperor Yohannes IV. This Tigreyan Emperor, who rose to power by the might of his sword, strengthened Ethiopian unity, protected Ethiopia from foreign aggressors and died while defending the territorial integrity of his country. His general, Ras Alula, was feared by colonialists. When Asmera consisted of only a few houses, he made it the center of his administration and transformed it into a city. This great military strategist and Ethiopian patriot prophesied the dangers which European colonizers such as the Italians and the British were posing to the territorial integrity of Northern Ethiopia. He warned both Emperors Yohannes and Menelik of the consequences of allowing Italian settlements in Eritrea. He beat the Italians in a number of battles including Dogali and could have chased them to the Red Sea, was he not stopped by both Yohannes and Menelik. Eventually, the Italians took over the northern territory of Ethiopia which they named Eritrea, as Alula feared and the future generations of Ethiopia had to pay dearly for this.
As far as culture is concerned, the peoples of Tigray have enriched Ethiopian music and dance. They have unique dance, melody and drumming system. Their language is rich in vocabulary, proverbs, sayings, idioms, riddles and folk tales which have broadened Amharic language and folklore. Tigreyan writers who compose their works in both Tigregna and Amharic languages have contributed immensely to the development of Ethiopian literature.
In the past two thousand years Tigreyans have played a vital role in Ethiopian history, government, politics, military, economy, commerce, religion, social life, architecture, culture, education, art, music, linguistics, literature and philosophy.
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Fikre Tolossa, Ph.D., is Assistant Dean of Faculty at Columbia Pacific University in San Rafael, CA. He is also Associate Editor of ER.