Sahle Selassie
Sahle Selassie ሣህለ ሥላሴ | |
---|---|
Debre Berhan, Ethiopian Empire | |
Issue | Haile Melekot Seyfe Sahle Selassie Darge Tenagnework Sahle Selassie Ayahilush Wossenyelesh Birkinesh Tinfelesh |
Father | Wossen Seged |
Mother | Zenebework |
Religion | Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo |
Sahle Selassie (Amharic: ሣህለ ሥላሴ, 1795 – 22 October 1847) was the King of Shewa from 1813 to 1847. An important Amhara noble of Ethiopia, he was a younger son of Wossen Seged. Sahle Selassie was the father of numerous sons, among them Haile Melekot, Haile Mikael, Seyfe Sahle Selassie, Amarkegne and Darge Sahle Selassie; his daughters included Tenagnework, Ayahilush, Wossenyelesh, Birkinesh, and Tinfelesh.
Biography
When their father had been murdered, Oromo rebels in Marra Biete kept Sahle Selassie's older brother Bakure from promptly marching to their father's capital at Qundi to claim the succession. Although still a teenager, Sahle Selassie seized this chance at rule by rushing from the monastery at Sela Dingay where he was a student "and probably with the support of his mother Zenebework's Menzian kinsmen was proclaimed the Ras and Meridazmach of Shewa."[1] Bakure belatedly arrived at Qundi only to be imprisoned in the state prison at Gonchu with his other brothers and some of his supporters.
Once securely in control, Sahle Selassie turned his attention to the rebels. He used diplomacy to win over the
On the other hand, he continued the policy of his ancestor
After a few years, Sahle Selassie felt his position secure enough that he proclaimed himself Negus, or king, of Shewa,
During the ongoing dispute over
By this time, Sahle Selassie's health had begun to fail, and he was unable to pursue his intentions on the Imperial throne. Only the intervention of his close friends and advisers kept the Negus from abdicating the throne in favor of his son, and the final years of his reign are otherwise unremarkable.[6]
Achievements as ruler of Shewa
Despite his many reverses against his political rivals inside Shewa and out, considered against any other period of history, Negus Sahle Selassie was a progressive and benevolent ruler. A contemporary British visitor, Dr Charles Johnston, commented that the:
- ...contemplation of such a prince in his own land is worth the trouble and the risk of visiting it ... his character for justice and probity has spread far and wide, and the supremacy of political excellence is without hesitation given to the Negoos [Negus] of Shoa throughout the length and breadth of the ancient empire of Ethiopia. To be feared by every prince around, and loved by every subject at home, is the boast of the first government of civilized Europe, and strangely enough this excellence of social condition is paralleled in the heart of Africa, where we find practically carried out the most advantageous policy of a social community that one of the wisest of sages could conceive – that of arbitrary power placed in the hands of a really good man.[7]
Abir provides several examples of Sahle Selassie's interest in the well-being of his subjects:
- In time of famine he opened the royal granaries to the population. When a plague carried off most of the work-animals of the farmers, he distributed oxen and mules. He kept enormous stores of salt so that his people would not lack this important commodity should the roads to the coast be cut.[8]
After a few years, Sahle Selassie felt his position secure enough that he proclaimed himself Negus, or king, of Shewa,
His reforms extended beyond criminal law and included administrative reforms. He developed a new structure of
Sahle Selassie also worked to modernize his country, and like his contemporaries Goshu of Gojjam and Wube Haile Maryam of Tigray, he made contacts with European countries like France and Great Britain in hope of gaining craftsmen, educators, and above all firearms. Like his contemporaries, he understood the value of firearms, and increased the number in his armories from a few score when he took office to 500 in 1840, and doubled that number again by 1842.[14] He signed treaties of friendship with both France (16 November 1841) and Great Britain (7 June 1841).[15] The Negus also encouraged foreigners to settle in Shewa, and offered considerable incentives to them, such as the revenue from a large village he granted a Greek mason by the name of Demetrios. As a result, at one point a number of foreigners were present in Shewa, who included a number of Greeks, at least one Armenian, and several traders from Eastern lands.[16]
"Despite his understanding of the value of foreign technology and the need for craftsmen from abroad Sahla Sellase had no desire for foreign missionaries," Pankhurst notes,[17] and although the arrival of two Protestant missionaries in 1837 led to a diplomatic mission from Britain by William Cornwallis Harris, both men were gently but firmly expelled in 1842.
Notes
- ^ Abir, Mordechai (1968). Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes; The Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of the Christian Empire (1769–1855). London: Longmans. p. 152.
- ^ Abir, p. 153.
- ^ Richard P.K. Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800–1935 (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968), pp. 217, 625.
- ^ The outline of this narrative is based on Abir, pp. 156f.
- ^ Abir, pp. 158f.
- ^ Abir, pp. 176f.
- ^ Quoted in Pankhurst, pp. 2f.
- ^ Abir, p. 160.
- ^ Richard P.K. Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800–1935 (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968), pp. 217, 625.
- ^ The outline of this narrative is based on Abir, pp. 156f.
- ^ Abir, p. 170.
- ^ Abir, p. 173.
- ^ Abir, p. 161.
- ^ Abir, p. 176.
- ^ These two documents have been published with English translations in Sven Rubenson, Acta Aethiopica, Volume I: Correspondence and Treaties, 1800–1854 (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1987), letters 44 and 66.
- ^ Pankhurst, p. 52.
- ^ Pankhurst, p. 5.