Begemder (; also known as Gondar or Gonder) was a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in northwest

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 ...

. The alternative names come from its capital during the 20th century,

Gondar Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on ...

Etymology

A plausible source for the name ''Bega'' is that the word means "dry" in the local language, while another possible interpretation could be "sheep," where rearing of sheep is ''beg'' in

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

. Thus, ''Begemder'' likely refers to "land that rears sheep" or "the dry area." Another etymology is that the first two syllables come from the Ge'ez language ''baggi`'' for sheep (

: ''beg medir'') "Land of Sheep." Beckingham and Huntingford note that Begemder originally applied to the country east of

Lake Tana Lake Tana (; previously transcribed Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and a source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wide, with a maximum depth of , and ...

, where water is scarce, and concluded, "The allusion to the lack of water suggests Amharic ''baga'', "dry season," as a possible source of the name." Another, less likely, etymology proposed for the name is that it came from ''Bega'' ( Beja) plus ''meder'' (land) (meaning land of the Bega or Beja), as an inscription 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 ...

( Ezana) of Aksum describes his movement of 4,400 conquered Beja to a not yet located province named ''Matlia''.

History

The earliest recorded mention of Begemder was on the

Fra Mauro map The Fra Mauro map is a World map, map of the world made around 1450 by the Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) cartographer Fra Mauro, which is “considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography." It is a circular planisphere drawn on ...

, (c.1460), where it is described as a kingdom. While Emperor Lebna Dengel, in his letter to the King of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

(1526), also described Begemder as a kingdom, he included it as a subdivision of his empire. Kanfat in southern Begemder was briefly governed by Abubaker Qecchin of Adal in the sixteenth century. The Guzara royal castle; built by Emperor Minas in 1560 in Enfraz, Begemder ( east of Gonder) as a site of royal residence and camp a century before Emperor Fasilides founded and built the castles of

. During the later 18th century, its capital was at Filakit Gereger, where '' Ras'' Ali died in 1788. Begemder's boundaries were revised as a result of Proclamation 1943/1, which created 12 ''taklai ghizat''s from the existing 42 provinces of varying sizes. Begemder had an estimated population of 3 million in the 1984 cenus.

References

{{Coord, 12, 30, N, 37, 00, E, display=title, region:ET_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki States and territories established in 1942 States and territories disestablished in 1995 History of the Amhara Region History of Benishangul-Gumuz Region Former provinces of Ethiopia History of Gondar

Etymology

History

See also

References