''Abba'' Bahrey ( Ge'ez: ባሕርይ ''bāḥriy'', "pearl") was a late 16th-century

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

, and ethnographer, from the southern region of Gamo. He is best known for his 1593 work on the history of the Oromo and their migrations in the 16th century, the "History of the Galla" ("ዜናሁ ፡ ለጋላ" ''zēnāhū lagāllā''), "Galla" being a historical and now pejorative term for the Oromo. This short work is considered the ultimate source for information on the sixteenth century history of the Oromo that Manuel de Almeida borrowed heavily from in writing his history of Ethiopia, and Hiob Ludolf derived much of his information on the Oromo from Baltazar Téllez's abridgment of Almeida's work. Bahrey was also the author of

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Sarsa Dengel Sarsa Dengel ( ; 1550 – 4 October 1597), also known as Sarsa the Great, was Emperor of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His throne name was throne name Malak Sagad I (መለክ ሰገድ ). He is considered one of the greatest w ...

's chronicle, "The History of King Sarsa Dengel."Baxter, Paul T. W., "Baḥrəy" in Uhlig, Siegbert, ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C'' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), p. 446.

Life

Bahrey was born and lived in the southernly region of Gamo near the shores of

Lake Abaya Lake Abaya (Amharic: አባያ ሐይቅ) is a lake in the South Ethiopia Regional State of Ethiopia. It is located in the Main Ethiopian Rift, east of the Guge Mountains. The town of Arba Minch lies on its southwestern shore, and the souther ...

until he was victimized by an earlier Oromo raid, as he later wrote that they "devastated his country" and "looted all that he possessed". He then fled to the northwestern part of the empire and entered into the service of Emperor

. Carlo Conti Rossini published an extract from a short manuscript where Bahrey is explicitly mentioned as being the author of

's chronicle. From this, most contemporary historians regard Abba Bahrey as being the author of "The History of King Sarsa Dengel." Bahrey was most well known for his work ''Zenahu la Galla'', or "History of the Galla". In this work, Bahrey records the history of the Oromo migrations in great detail, he also documents on other aspects of Oromo society, such as the Gadaa system, their tribal divisions and their egalitarian social structure. The manuscript primarily acted as a sort of position paper on how to halt the Oromo invasions. Bahrey was deeply saddened by the Christian inability to halt the Oromo invasions, he writes that even though the population of the Christians were vast and they were better armed, their actual fighting force was very small compared to that of the Oromos and "because of the fewness of these, our country is destroyed." In the end he called for the total mobilization of all Christians for the purpose of stopping the Oromo advances. In his work, Bahrey consistently described the Oromos as being bloodthirsty and violent, claiming they had only come to "destroy and kill us", as a result of his obvious prejudice, Mohammed Hassen claims that this "depreciates the value of his great work in the eyes of Oromo nationalists."Baxter, Paul T. W., "Baḥrəy" in Uhlig, Siegbert, ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C'' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), p. 446. Bahrey was later mentioned in the chronicle of

Susenyos I Susenyos I ( ; –1575 – 17 September 1632), also known as Susenyos the Catholic, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1607 to 1632, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His throne names were Seltan Sagad and Malak Sagad III. He was the son of '' ...

where he was present among the nobles, administrators and advisors at the unofficial coronation of Susenyos in 1604. This suggests that he might have become an important official at the royal court.

Life

Notes

References

See also