Find Prester John

Yesterday I teased information about Prester John. I wrote about him long ago (here and here), and he got mentioned in other contexts (mostly popes like Honorius III and Eugene III hoping for his aid during the Crusades, and the link to Ethiopia, since it was a Christian nation from early on).

The link to yesterday's post is because Eldad ha-Dani's description of the Bnei Moshe and the unusual geography where they lived was repeated in  letters supposedly sent to Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenos in 1165 from "John, Christian Sovereign and Lord of Lords." The letter also referred to the Bnei Moshe Jewish group living in his land.

Belief in a Christian sect or nation south and east of Europe was bolstered by the stories of St. Thomas the Apostle traveling to India to evangelize. Europeans happily accepted the idea that Thomas' mission was successful. Reports of Christian inroads into the Mongols and Turks of Central Asia by Nestorian Christianity further supported the idea that (it was hoped) there was a large and influential Christian presence in other parts of the world.

The information in the letter also spoke of John's fabulous wealth. Like many medieval literary works, the legends got copied and conflated with others. For example, John later was given adventures taken right from the tales of Sinbad the Sailor.

Besides the fanciful stories of wealth and the exotic land in which he lived, communication with John from the West was much desired because of the possibility that he would meet up with the Crusades with a large army and help to defeat the Saracens in the Middle East. Pope Alexander II sent a letter to John via Alexander's physician, Philip, on 27 September 1177. There is no record of Philip's mission. It is possible that he simply disappeared into the wilderness while fruitlessly searching for his target, but if he did return, obviously there was no recorded result.

Examination of the letter that started it all suggests that, though it was written in Hebrew, the use of several Italian words means it was written by a European, likely someone Jewish living in Italy. Why would someone produce this? To create false hope for Christians? Just to have fun?

As forgeries go, this was a very powerful seed that sprouted into a legend that hung on for centuries. The illustration above shows Prester John on his throne from a 16th century map of East Africa made for Queen Mary.

Forgeries in the Middle Ages were fairly common, and we'll look at some starting tomorrow.

The Man Who Found the Lost Tribes

The Tribe of Dan, one of the 12 Tribes of Israel, was compared to a lion's whelp by Moses, signifying strength (Deuteronomy 33:22). Numbers 2:25-31 tells how they filled the rearguard while the Israelites marched through the wilderness, protecting the other tribes.

When the Israelites reached Canaan, the Danites were given territory in the western coastal plains, but suffered from encounters with the Philistines. They therefore looked for other lands to inhabit. Judges 18 tells that they moved far north and captured and renamed a peaceful city.

There are theories that they were one of the first of the tribes to travel so far that they were "lost." This brings us to the Jews in Ethiopia and Eldad ha-Dani. 

Eldad ben Maḥli ha-Dani was active c. 851 – c. 900, traveling all over and writing about his thoughts and theories. Besides being a merchant, he studied the different dialects he found during his wanderings, writing about them in his work, the Sefer Eldad, which has been a valuable resource for scholars of the languages used by Jews.

Outside of writing about language, his accounts are too fanciful to be taken at face value. He writes that he and a companion from the Tribe of Asher sailed on a boat that was wrecked in a storm, but God saved them in a box which then came ashore among Ethiopians who ate his much larger companion. Eldad was put in a pit to be fattened up to be eaten, but another tribe attacked the cannibals and took Eldad prisoner. After four years he was taken to a place called Azanian (theorized to be southern Africa), where he was exchanged for 32 pieces of gold to a Jewish merchant from the Tribe of Issachar.

He claimed knowledge of some of the Lost Tribes. Dan traveled to Kush (in Africa), and was later joined by Asher, Gad, and Naphtali. The four tribes were nomadic and fought constantly with the Ethiopian kings. They have the Scriptures except for the Book of Esther and Lamentations. They know the Talmud, but have none of the commentaries by Talmud scholars.

There is more, but that is enough to know that his account—although widely accepted for a few centuries—was looked at with raised eyebrows by later scholars. One of his claims, however, corresponded with a claim made in another document, and that may have created a medieval legend that would not die.

Eldad wrote that, on the other side of the river of Kush where these Jewish tribes lived, there was the Bnei Moshe, the Tribe of Levi, surrounded by the River Sambastion. Sambastion flows with sand and stones for six days and stops on the Sabbath. Fire surrounds the river, and no one can approach it. The other tribes communicate with the Bnei Moshe by yelling across the distance.

Curiously, this place is described in a different medieval story, and it ties into the legend of a powerful Christian king outside of Europe, a king that the Crusades hoped to contact and ally with during the Crusades. Tomorrow we touch on the subject of Prester John.

Beta Israel and Ethiopia

Beta Israel (Ge'ez for "House of Israel") is the name for Jews who established a presence in the Kingdom of Aksum, supposedly during the 4th century. According to a 9th-century Jewish traveler, Eldad ha-Dani, they were members of the Tribe of Dan who traveled south along the Nile to wind up in Aksum in Abyssinia (Ethiopia and Eritrea). Separated from their homeland, their traditions were different from those of Jews in the Middle East.

A Jewish-Italian traveler and Jewish scholar, Elijah of Ferrara, writes to his children in 1435 that he had encountered a member of this group. He says they follow a blend of oral and written traditions, that they did not observe Hanukkah, were not familiar with the Talmud, and that they included the Book of Esther (a later addition to the Bible that does not mention God and whose historicity has been questioned).

Around that time, Ethiopian missionaries decided to evangelize the Jewish communities in the Semien Mountains, which led to rebellion. The rebellion was dealt with brutally by Emperor Zara Yaqob (1399 - 1468), who mounted a strong campaign against any un-Christian practices. Zara Yaqob in one chronicle was given the title "Exterminator of the Jews."

The 1500s saw the Chief Rabbi of Egypt acknowledging the Beta Israel as "ethnically Jewish." It also saw the imam of the Adal Sultanate (an eastern region of Ethiopia populated by Muslims) attacking Ethiopia, forcing Emperor Dawit II to hide in the Semien Mountains. Pursuing him, the imam found the Jewish community there, who promised to be loyal to the imam if he would free them from persecution by the Christians. He did so, but later they switched their allegiance back to Dawit's son Galawdewos when he became emperor.

Revolts of the Beta Israel in 1614 and 1625 led to the successful suppression of their independence. The Jewish became forbidden in Ethiopia, and much of their culture was lost. The mid-19th century saw the beginning of "modern Ethiopia"; at the time, there were at least 200,000 Jews living there. Although there were still attempts to convert them, and questions as to how Jewish they were (compared to "mainstream" Middle Eastern Judaism), the Beta Israel community exists today.

The man who claimed they were of the Tribe of Dan traveled extensively and had many stories of the Lost Tribes of Israel in the Middle Ages. Let's see what he had to say next time.

Ethiopia's Religions, Part 3

After the Christian conversion of the Kingdom of Aksum, and before the asylum given to some of the first Muslims, there were Jews in Aksum. Referred to in Ge'ez as Beta Israel ("House of Israel"), they were Jews who refused to convert to Christianity during the time of Ezana and Frumentius.

According to tradition, the Jews rebelled against the Christians and established an independent state in the Semien Mountains, but there is no evidence to support this. There are other traditions. One of them is that a Jewish queen named Judith made an alliance with some pagans, the Agaw, and invaded Aksum's capital city, destroying churches and monasteries. Again, there is no evidence for this.

A 9th-century Jewish merchant and traveler, Eldad ha-Dani (c.851 - 900), claimed one of the 12 Tribes of Israel, the Tribe of Dan, went down the Nile and established themselves in Ethiopia. An Ethiopian Jewish community is also mentioned by both Marco Polo and Benjamin of Tudela.

The earliest recorded reference is found in the chronicles of Emperor Amda Seyon of Ethiopia, who sent troops to Semien to deal with unrest among Jews "and others." Ethiopian history and Beta Israel tradition both agree that Emperor Yeshaq (1414 - 1429) exerted pressure on Jews in Ethiopia. After the Jews rebelled against this, Yeshaq divided them into three regions with commissioners to watch over them. Jews were told to convert or lose their lands, and they were given second-class status below Christians.

Separated from Israel, Ethiopian Jews were different from the Middle Eastern brethren. A letter in 1435 by a Jewish traveler, Elijah of Ferrara, to his family tells of meeting an Ethiopian Jew. He recounts that they do not celebrate Hannukah, did not know the Talmud, and followed the Oral Torah, passed down through the generations orally.

The history of the Beta Israel had many twists and turns, and we will look at more tomorrow.

Ethiopia's Religions, Part 2

In the first part, we looked at the introduction of Christianity into what became Ethiopia during the 4th century. The Muslim presence in the area is almost as old, having fled there from Arabia very early in the 7th century while Ethiopia was still the Kingdom of Aksum.

Islam at its start was persecuted in Arabia by the Quraysh, the Arab confederation that controlled Mecca until its eventual takeover. Christian Aksum actually welcomed the asylum-seeking strangers. This event is called the Migration to Abyssinia (Abyssinia was the name for the Ethiopian and Eritrean region). Historians of Islam list two parts to this migration, a few years apart. The first was 12 men and four women in 613 or 615CE. One of the women was Ruqayyah, a daughter of Muhammad, whose husband Uthman ibn Affan became the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.

A year after arriving in Aksum, word came that the Quraysh had converted to Islam, so they sailed back east, only to discover in Mecca that the Quraysh had not changed. They returned to Aksum, a group of 83 men and 18 women.

The Quraysh ruler of Mecca considered them fugitives, and sent a messenger to the Negus (ruler) of Aksum, demanding the Muslims be returned to Mecca. The Negus said he needed to hear from the Muslims before he would consider it. The Muslim spokesperson explained to the Negus that they were once a wicked people but a holy prophet rose among them who taught them to give up idolatry and worship the one true god. There was more, and it closely allied with Christian beliefs; the Negus believed their change was inspired by Jesus, and was inclined to let them stay.

Some eventually returned to Mecca in 622 and made the pilgrimage to Medina with Muhammad. But it was clear that Muslims were welcome in Aksum, and their numbers grew until they populated the Dahlak Archipelago in the Red Sea. By the 11th century they had founded the Sultanate of Dahlak. The number of Muslims grew to fill a significant part of eastern Ethiopia, eventually clashing with Emperor of Ethiopia Amda Seyon in the early 14th century, when he managed to conquer all the Muslim-population territories.

The last of the Abrahamic religions in the region is, of course, Judaism. Tomorrow we look at the Beta Israel.

Ethiopia's Religions, Part 1

Ethiopia was a fiercely Christian country in the Middle Ages, long before European colonization brought Christianity to Africa. To be fair, Medieval Ethiopia was home to all three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Before Ethiopia, it was the Kingdom of Aksum, in which Semitic polytheism was practiced, reaching the area from South Arabia.

Christianity is said to have begun with Frumentius and his brother Edesius. They were children who accompanied their uncle Meropius on a voyage that stopped at a port on the Red Sea, whereupon the entire crew was slaughtered except for the two young boys, who were taken to Aksum as slaves of the king.

The boys served the king faithfully, gaining position and privilege. The king gave them their freedom just before his death, but his queen asked them to stay at court and help raise the king's young son, Ezana. Frumentius taught Ezana about Christianity, and the two boys encouraged local Christian traders to practice Christianity openly so that people could learn about it.

When Ezana reached his majority, the brothers left for Tyre (their birthplace). Edesius became a priest. Frumentius stopped at Alexandria and asked the patriarch of Alexandria, Athanasius, to send missionaries to Ethiopia. Athanasius believed that Frumentius was the best person for the job, made him a bishop, and sent him back where he established his episcopal see, the first diocese in Ethiopia. This was between 328 and 346CE.

Bishop Frumentius converted King Ezana, with whose help many churches were built.

There was an early controversy when Byzantine Emperor Constantius II asked King Ezana to replace Bishop Frumentius with Theophilos Indus. Theophilos, however, was a proponent of Arian Christianity (to which Constantius was friendly). Most Christians considered Arianism heresy, so the request was turned down.

Frumentius gets credit for translating the New Testament into the local Ge'ez language, and for turning the Ge'ez alphabet from a consonant-only (abjad) version to a syllabic (abugida) version.

Next time we'll look at the almost-equally as old establishing of Islam and Judaism in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia versus Muslims, Part 2

The Emperor of Ethiopia, Amda Seyon I, was surrounded by threats from Muslims who were opposed to Ethiopia's Coptic Christianity. Each side wished to convert the other. Amda's army was able to dominate some of the Muslim territories and install governors in them, but there were others outside his control that wanted to push back against his expansion.

One of these Muslim-controlled territories was Adal to the east, between Ethiopia and the Gulf of Aden. Amda repelled their attacks. His soldiers, feeling the job was done, asked to go home. Amda, however, told them:

Do not repeat in front me what you have just said, for I will not leave so long as the ungodly Muslims make war on me, who am the King of all the Muslims of Ethiopia, and I have confidence in the help of God.

When Jamal ad-Din, whom Amda had recently installed as governor of Ifat (after a rebellion of Muslims there) also asked him to return home and ravage their countryside no more, Amda told him:

While I am attacked by wolves and dogs, by the sons of vipers and children of evil who do not believe in the Son of God, I will never return to my kingdom, and if I leave without going as far as Adal I am no longer the son of my mother; let me no more be called a man, but a woman.

So Amda led his army into Adal, where they were attacked more than once, even during the night. In one attack, an enemy got so close to Amda that from behind the enemy's sword slashed Amda's belt, but Amda spun around and killed his attacker.

Jamal ad-Din, despite being made governor after Amda defeated Jamal's brother's rebellion, allied with Adal's rebellion. Soldiers of Ifat and Adal surrounded the Ethiopian army in the Battle of Das, but Ethiopia prevailed. The Ethiopian army then marched to the capital of Adal where the rulers surrendered. He then went to Ifat and replaced Jamal with another brother, Nasir ad-Din.

Amda spent two years traveling with his army, defeating Muslim rulers and plundering their lands. This event took place around either 1329 or 1332. Amda's reign secured Ethiopian influence over the region for the next two centuries.

How did Christianity come to Ethiopia so early and become so strong? That's a good topic for next time.

Ethiopia versus Muslims, Part 1

Emperor of Ethiopia Amda Seyon (reigned 1314 - 1344) was a Christian whose constant focus was fighting the surrounding Muslims and trying to expand Christianity. This did not sit well with the Muslims. Yesterday's post (see the link above) told how he invaded the Kingdom of Hadiya and defeated its ruler, Amano, who was later killed in battle by Amda.

A prophet/advisor of Amano's escaped Amda's approach and continued to speak out against him and Ethiopia. A chronicle of Amda's reign called The Glorious Victories says:

The false prophet fled to the land of Ifat and lived there propagating his false teaching... And when Sabr ad-Din asked him for council he told him saying: "The kingdom of the Christians has now come to an end; and it has been given to us, for you will reign on in Siyon [i.e. Ethiopia]. Go, ascend [the mountains], and fight the king of the Christians; you will defeat him, and rule him together with his peoples."

This was the same disastrous advice given to Amano. Sabr ad-Din was the brother of Haqq ad-Din, ruler of Ifat who had been killed by Amda after Haqq killed one of Amda's envoys. Sabr, living under Amda's rule since his brother's defeat, confiscated some of the goods traveling with merchants to Ethiopia, causing Amda to say:

You took away the commodities belonging to me obtained in exchange for the large quantity of gold and silver I had entrusted to the merchants... you imprisoned the traders who did business for me.

Sabr's rebellion was a grandiose plan to not just shake off Ethiopia's rule, but to conquer Ethiopia completely. He boasted:

"I wish to be King of all Ethiopia; ... I will destroy their churches...I will nominate governors in all the provinces of Ethiopia,...I will transform the churches into mosques. I will subjugate and convert the King of the Christians to my religion, I will make him a provincial governor, and if he refuses to be converted I will hand him over to one of the shepherds, ... that he may be made a keeper of camels. As for the Queen Jan Mangesha, his wife, I will employ her to grind corn.

Amda Seyon  met the approaching Muslim army and scattered them. Sabr fled and hid. Amda promised not to return to his kingdom until he had found Sabr and dealt with him. The Ethiopians destroyed Ifat's capital, plundered it of anything precious, and killed many men, women, and children.

Sabr ad-Din sent a message to Amda's queen, Jan Mengesha, asking for clemency, but she upheld her husband's vow not to return until Sabr had been found and dealt with. Sabr realized the only way to end the conflict was to surrender himself to Amda. Rather than execute Sabr, Amda had him imprisoned, and then appointed Sabr's brother, Jamal ad-Din, as Amda's governor in Ifat. Jamal urged Amda to stop ravaging Ifat, and let his people rebuild so that they could send their tribute to Amda.

Amda's soldiers also wanted to return home, but Amda had other uprisings to deal with from Muslims to the east. The story of Glorious Victories continues tomorrow.

Amda Seyon I

When Christians and Muslims were burning down each other's houses of worship in Egypt during the reign of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (lived 1285 - 1341), the emperor of Ethiopia sent him a message: ensure the safety of the Coptic Christians, or else.

The "or else" was serious, and contained two parts. The first part was the threat to send a military legion to conquer Egypt. al-Nasir might not have balked at that: his armies were large and fierce. It was the second part that was the more serious threat: before attacking, they would divert the Nile River and cut off Egypt's greatest source of fresh water and transportation. This bold declaration came from Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344. Let's talk about him.

Ge'ez chronicles, the source of much of what we know about Amda Seyon, were written a century later and get some events mixed with other emperors. (Ge'ez is an ancient Semitic language.)

He was part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a Christian Church that existed long before European colonization. It was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria since the early 300s. The chief doctrine differs from Latin and Eastern Orthodox and others in that it believes in Miaphysitism, in one perfectly unified combination of the human and divine in Christ, not in two separate natures.

Most of Amda's fighting was against Muslims in the southeast in what is now Somalia, enlarging his kingdom and spreading Christianity. In one instance, after invading the Muslim Hadiya Kingdom and exiling its people, he demanded that its ruler, Amano, visit him to pay tribute. A Muslim prophet told Amano not to go and not to be afraid, because if Amda Seyon attacked, Amano would be triumphant. Quite the contrary. The angry Amda Seyon invaded Hadiya, killed many, and took Amano prisoner. Conquering Hadiya hindered the Muslim slave trade and affected Muslim wealth in that part of the world.

After giving Amda's warning to al-Nasir, the messenger on the way back to Ethiopia was captured by Haqq ad-Din I, sultan of Ifat, who was encouraged by al-Nasir to attack Ethiopia. Haqq ad-Din tried to convert the messenger to Islam; he failed, and killed the messenger. Hearing this, Amda Seyon called up his army to attack Ifat. Amada himself with only seven horsemen rode ahead of the army to Ifat and killed many of Haqq ad-Din's soldiers. The army then destroyed Ifat's capital, and Amda took much of its gold and other materials. Haqq ad-Din was killed in battle against Amda Seyon in 1328.

The prophet who had given such bad advice to Amano is credited with continuing to stir up Muslims in the region against the powerful Ethiopian Christian kingdom. This led to Haqq ad-Din's brother and successor deciding it was time to conquer Ethiopia. That is a story for next time.

Who's the Pope?

With the recent posts on rival popes and antipopes, it may be worthwhile to examine the title "pope" a little.

From the start, St. Peter was recognized as the bishop of Rome, and his position was considered a sort of "first among equals." His successor (so far as we know; we cannot always be certain of such early records) was Pope Clement I, who may be the Clement mentioned by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. Pope Clement wrote his own letter to the Corinthians, in which he tells them to be unified and heal a schism that was dividing them. It is considered the earliest example of the bishop of Rome acting authoritatively over far-flung Christians. There is no evidence that his right to instruct them was questioned. In fact, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church considers Clement's letter part of the New Testament.

We refer to him as "Pope Clement," but there is no evidence that he used that title himself. The first bishop of Rome to be referred to as pope (from Latin meaning "papa," but you knew that) was Damasus I (c.305 - 384), who grew up benefitting from Constantine's Edict of Milan granting protection to Christians. In fact, since "pope" meant "father," it could be and was used for bishops. Pope Leo I (called "the Great"; 440 - 461) called himself Pope, and from his time forward that title was reserved for the exclusive use of the bishop of Rome.

Rome became a suitable resting place for the bishops of Rome when Constantine granted them the use of the Lateran Palace (see photo), but sometimes the politics in Rome became unstable and prompted the pope to re-locate, not always by choice. In the 1200s the papal court could sometimes be found in Viterbo, or Orvieto or Perugia. When a pope died, the College of Cardinals would meet in his location to hold the Conclave to elect a successor.

Then there was the pope who fled Rome in disguise because of the Holy Roman Emperor. He just happens to be a pope whose time in office—ten and a half years—includes numerous references to items mentioned throughout this blog. I can't wait to tell you more.

The Two Sabbaths

Sebinkarahisar, possible burial site of Ewastatewos [link]

The word "sabbath" has a long history. Our word is from the Old English form of the Latin sabbatum,  which came to Latin from Greek, which got it from the Hebrew šabbāṯ from the verb šāḇaṯ, "to rest." We can glean from the writings of the early Christian fathers that a regular day of rest was being observed on Sunday. Jews were celebrating Shabbat on their original day, Saturday.

There was one man who thought we should be observing both days.

Ewostatewos* [ኤዎስጣቴዎስ] was an important religious figure in Ethiopia. He was born in 1273 and called Ma`iqabe Igzi; at the age of seven he was sent to live in a monastery whose abbot was his uncle, Daniel. When he became a monk at 15, he took the name Ewostatewos. Eventually, he left the monastery to found his own, which became very popular, in what is now Eritrea. His views were attractive to his followers, but different from the mainstream, and when a Coptic bishop (Ethiopia was originally under the Coptic Church) visited his monastery about 1337, Ewostatewos left it with many of his followers, going to Cairo to meet with the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Patriarch Benjamin of Alexandria, and explained his views.

Among other ideas, Ewostatewos believed that the evidence of the Bible and early christian writings meant there were two sabbaths to be observed. Saturday was the Lesser Sabbath of the Old Testament, and Sunday (because Christ resurrected on a Sunday) was the Greater Sabbath of the New Testament.

His followers continued to expound his views after Ewostatewos died in 1352 in Armenia. His burial place is unknown, but suspected to be “next to the tomb of the holy marty Behman, in a church of Armenia (likely to be the so-called Bozuk Kilise, the “Ruined Church”, of Sebinkarahisar.” [link] He was considered a saint, and a finger bone of his was taken to Ethiopia.

*Sometimes Westernized to Eustathius.

The Ethiopian Connection

In the Middle Ages, the evidence suggests that Ethiopia was a Christian nation surrounded by hostile Muslim territories. Medieval manuscripts explain that there was a Solomonic dynasty in Ethiopia—that is, the heirs of King Solomon, descended from the son born to the Queen of Sheba. Unprovable, but it would explain the Christian presence in that part of the world. In fact, "Dawit I" is what he is called in the West; Ethiopian sources call him "Dawit II," because they consider the first "Dawit" to be King David.

One of the members of the heirs of Solomon was Dawit I (1382-1413). There are stories that Dawit led armies against his Muslim neighbors to the east, and that he also advanced against the emir that held Egypt at the time, until the emir asked the Patriarch of Alexandria to tell Dawit to cease in order to preserve the peace in the kingdom.

There is also reason to believe that he was in communication with Europe, making a request to Venice to send him artisans for the beautification of his realm. Documentary evidence exists that this request reached Venice in June 1402, and that 5 artisans did leave for Ethiopia.

We don't know if they ever arrived, but we can turn to circumstantial evidence. The Portugese missionary and explorer, Francisco Álvares (c.1465-c.1540), claims to have seen a Venetian chalice during his six years in Ethiopia. Also, an unsigned manuscript exists that documents a trip from Venice to Rhodes, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Cairo, and finally to the court of Prester John at Shewa, a region in Ethiopia that has Addis Ababa (Ethiopia's modern capital) at its center. (Prester John was often said to have his kingdom "in India"; for most Europeans, however, geography outside of Europe was a pretty vague topic. You can learn more about Prester John here and here). This itinerary shows an unambiguous knowledge of the stages of a journey from Venice to Ethiopia, suggesting that perhaps the legend of Dawit's interest in European artwork was based on truth.

Alas, Dawit died young, kicked in the head by a horse. He is interred at a monastery on Daga Island in Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, along with other members of his dynasty.