Shewa

Coordinates: 9°00′N 39°00′E / 9.000°N 39.000°E / 9.000; 39.000
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article is about the area in Ethiopia. For the town in Pakistan, see Shewa Adda. For the Hebrew vowel sign, see Shva.
Shewa as a province during the reign of Haile Selassie.

Shewa (

Arabic: شيوا), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (Scioà in Italian[1]), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa
is located at its center.

The towns of

Gurages and eastern Shewa has large Oromo and Argobba Muslim populations. The monastery of Debre Libanos, founded by Saint Tekle Haymanot, is located in the district of Selale, Oromia[2] Modern Shewa includes the historical Endagabatan province.[3]

History

Rochet d'Héricourt's map of his 1842–1844 expedition, showing the Rouyam de Choa (Kingdom of the Choa)

Shewa first appears in the historical record as part of a

Muslim state (Makhzumi dynasty), which G. W. B. Huntingford believed was founded in 896, and had its capital at Walalah.[4] In a recent discovery, a team of French archaeologists uncovered three urban centers believed to have been remnants of the former Sultanate of Ifat, with the Nora site in eastern Shewa being the most notable among them.[5][6]

Sultanate of Adal to the east, and its ancient cities were destroyed.[8][9][10][11]

Most of Shewa was overran by the Oromos during the late 16th century. Its eastern fringe was reportedly inhabited by the Harla people according to the Karrayyu Oromo.[12][13][14] According to oral traditions, Shewa had a powerful king named Sarako, who prevented the people from bearing arms. A certain giant arose against Sarako, and his children, and destroyed them. When the clans of the Borana, Gombichu and Ada, entered Shewa, they found no-one to stop them, since the children of Sarako had been killed. Enrico Cerulli believes that this tradition is related to the Amhara tradition of an arrogant king, which is attributed to Emperor Dawit II. However, he also notes that Sarako is the Gurage name for Emperor Zara Yaqob, from this he concludes that the Oromo acquired the Sarako tradition through their contact with the Gurage.[15]

Sahle Selassie, king of Shewa from 1813 to 1847

The Amhara Shewan ruling family was founded in the late 17th century by

Tulama Oromo, whom he defeated in the early 1820s. He followed this victory by rebuilding Debre Berhan, which had been burned in an Oromo raid, as well as a number of other towns and consolidated his hold by founding a number of fortified villages, like Angolalla, in the Abichu territory. He extended the frontier of Shewa into Bulga and Karayu, to the southeast into Arsi, and as far south as the territories of the Gurage. After a few years, Sahle Selassie felt his position secure enough that he proclaimed himself Negus, or king, of Shewa, Ifat, the Oromo and the Gurage peoples, without the authority of the Emperor of Ethiopia in Gondar.[16]

After the death of

Debre Berhan from falling into the hands of his enemy and had the town put to flames, he then fled to a nearby hill where he hoped to hide but soon died of an illness on November 10. After Haile Melekot' death, Tewdoros' opponents rallied behind the late king's son, Menelik II. Tewdoros left his camp at Debre Berhan and pursued the boy to Bakarat where he was captured and imprisoned at his mountain stronghold in Amba Mariam. After crushing the Amhara opposition in the province, Tewdoros then turned his attention towards the Oromo and according to Zanab "exterminated all the Gallas, from Debre Berhan to Ankober so that their corpses covered the ground like a carpet."[17]

Egyptian-Ethiopian War, Emperor Yohannes IV, who was angered over Menelik's claim to be the Emperor, marched into Shewa and ravaged the towns. Menelik, realizing that resistance was futile, was forced to submit to Yohannes.[18]

Escaping influence from Yohannes, Menelik moved his capital south from Ankober to Mount Entoto in 1884. There, his wife Taytu Betul was attracted to a nearby spring known as Finfinne by the local Oromo inhabitants. In the spring of 1886, Menelik chose the site for Addis Ababa, his future capital. Building began at once, and, when Menilek became emperor of the whole country in 1889, Addis Ababa became the capital of Ethiopia.[19]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Shoa" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 991.
  2. ^ "Niras in Ethiopia". www.niras.com. 24 October 2011. Archived from the original on 18 November 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  3. ^ Hassan, Mohammed. Oromo of Ethiopia (PDF). University of London. p. 234.
  4. ^ G. W. B. Huntingford, The historical geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704, (Oxford University Press: 1989), p. 76
  5. ^ Francois-Xavier, Fauvelle. Nora, a Medieval Islamic City in Ethiopia (14th-15th Centuries). ERC COG HornEast project.
  6. ^ Hirsch, Bertrand (2006). "Reconnaissance de trois villes musulmanes de l'époque médiévale dans l'Ifat". Annales d'Éthiopie. 27: 134.
  7. ISBN 9781440840418
    .
  8. ^ Proceedings of the ninth international congress. Snippet view. 1988. p. 105.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Lincei, Accademia Nazionale dei (1974). Problemi Attuali. 550. pp. Snippet view.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Lincei, Accademia Nazionale dei (1974). Problemi Attuali. p. 551.
  11. ^ Lincei, Accademia Nazionale dei (1974). Problemi attuali Di scienza de cultura quaderno. Snippet view. p. 549.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ Braukamper, Ulrich. Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia Collected Essays. LitVerlag. p. 17.
  13. ^ Mohammed, Ayantu. Mapping Historical Traces: Methogensis, Identity and the Representation of the Harela: A Historical and Anthropological Inquiry (PDF). Wollo University. p. 111.
  14. ^ Harla. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
  15. ^ "The Oromo of Ethiopia 1500-1800" (PDF). p. 243.
  16. ^ Mordechai Abir, Ethiopia: the Era of the Princes (London: Longmans, 1968), pp. 144ff.
  17. ^ Pankhurst, Richard (1982). History of Ethiopian towns from the mid 19th century to 1935. p. 151.
  18. ^ Pankhurst, Richard (1982). History of Ethiopian towns from the mid 19th century to 1935. p. 157.
  19. ^ "Shewa". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 11 November 2023.

9°00′N 39°00′E / 9.000°N 39.000°E / 9.000; 39.000

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