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OF THE WORKS OF CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD F. BURTON, VOLUME VII. FIRST FOOTSTEPS 1M EAST AFRICA. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME II. FIRST FOOTSTEPS IN EAST AFRICA OR, AN EXPLORATION OF HARAR BY CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD F. BURTON, K.C.M.G., P.R.G.S., Ltc .. &c., lic. BDITKD BY HIS WIPE, ISABEL BURTON Ql1.tmori4f Gbition. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME II. LONDON: TYLSTON AND EDWARDS. MDCCCXCIV (.AU...,.." """,,,.J Printed for the PahlislMn .. T •• M&CCu P .... .. Sobo _ .. x........: w. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTBR. PAGE. VIII.-'-Ten Days at Harar (COIIIi.....a) 1 IX.-A Ride to Berberah 42 X.-Berberah and its Environs 71 Postscript 94 ApPBNDICBS. I.-Lieutenant Speke's Diary H.-Grammatical Outline and Vocabulary of the Harari Language 149 I H.-Lieutenant Heme's Meteorological 01>- servatioDs • 207 IV.-On Infibulation (OIfIitttd) - 215 V.-Account of Lieutenant Barker's Attempt to reach Harar - 219 INDEX - 243 VOL. 1I. 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME ll. H. H. Ahmad Bin Abi Bakr, Amir of Harar to f- TITLB PAGB. Map of Berberab . to f- P. 1 Costume of HaIaI . to f- 16 House at one of .. Kin's" Cities . 127 Ground plan of ruins • 127 Mala at Jid Ali • 128 Plan of foundation of a Fort - 129 ! I n JUIB E ILl II / I~Gt/~-J " .~ .. J ~:.j • '.A , '- "- ~~- ... --1,- _.- , ' ... '" ' . , . .J ,. ..! ' ;. ,A,_ - :~~- , , .c. ~~ ....t_ ~ ...._ ~- --;."- " • ~. - __ ~ J..- • , .. , ~ ". -.!. ~- . "', -.... -!. .~ • .~ ft_ ..t! ~_ ~--e..~ - --- " -' , ..1,...- ~ -- --f-6_.~_'-' J_-"- .,.L --"," Z., A~~ -J-. .,J_ J'_ tI~ _. • • . "- " " , , , , ~. ,- ,-, .. ~. ,'. , FIRST FOOTSTEPS IN EAST AFRICA. CHAPTER VIII.-(CDII"'''ued.) TEN DAYS AT HARAR. I NOW proceed to a description of unknown Harar. The ancient capital of Hadiyah, called hy the citizens" Harar Gay,'" by the Somal" Adari," by the Gallas "Adaray," and by the Arabs and ourselves 0 .. Harar,' n lies, according to my dead reckoning, 220 S.W. of, and '75 statute miles from, Zayla-25:t W. of, and 219 miles distant from, Berberah. This would place it in 9° 20' N. lat., and 42° 7' E. long. The thermometer showed an altitude of about 5,500 feet above the level of the sea.' Its site is the slope of a • Thus M. Isenberg (Preface to Amharic Grammar. p. iv.) calls the city Honar or AIvge. 11 .. Haru." is not an uncommODIl&ID.8 in this part of Eastern Africa: according to some. the city is so c:01led from a kind of tree. according to others, from the nIley below iL . 3 I say abcoI : we were compelled to boll our thermome.... at WiIeDsi, not VOIlt".riDg upoD such OperatiOll within the city. VOL. II. 1 2 First Footsteps .. East A/riclS. hill which falls gently from west to east. On the eastern side are cultivated fields; westwards a terraced ridge is laid out in orchards; northwards is a detached eminence covered with tombs; and to the south, the city declines into a low valley bisected by a mountain bum. This irregular positi0'tt is well sheltered from high winds, especially on the northern side, by the range of which Kondura is the lofty apex; hence, as the Persian poet sings of a heaven·favoured city- .. Its heat is not hot, nor its cold, cold." During my short residence the air reminded me of Tuscany. On the afternoon of the 11th January there . was thunder accompanied by rain: frequent showers fell on the 12th, and the moming of the 13th was clear; but as we crossed the mountains, black clouds obscured the heavens. The monsUn is heavy during one summer month; before it begins the crops are planted, and they are reaped in December and January. At other seasons the air is dry, mild, and equable. The province of Hadiyah I is mentioned by Makrizi as one of the seven members of the Zayla Empire,' founded by Arab invaders, who in the 7th century of our ""a conquered and colonized the low tract between the Red Sea and the Highlands. Moslem Harar exer cised a pernicious inlluence upon the fortunes of Christian Abyssinia.' J '!be proriDce is eight da,.. by DiDe ill _to with a large army. aDd IIIOIIeJ derived from the trade ill ...... ucbo. 1_ chiefty boilowed from Taki a1-DiD Ahmad biD Ali a1-Makrizi. 2 '!be other sis """' lIat, ArabiDi, Duaro. SharlJah, Bali aDd Danh. 3 A c:iJCUlDlltaDtiaI 8CCOIIIIt of the Jihad or Mollem Cl'1IOadeo is. I am told. g;.a ill the Path a1-H._b anfortJmatdy a rare -on. wbich .... _ procarabIe at Zanri..... '!be Amir of Harar bad bat ODe -. and the other is to be foaacJ as Mocba or Hadaydab. VlII.-T... lJtJys III H.tIr. 3 The allegiance claimed by the Ethiopian Emperors from the Ade1-the Dankali and ancient Somal-was evaded at a remote period, and the intractable Moslems were propitiated with rich presents, when they thought proper to visit the Christian court. The Ahys<;inians supplied the Adel with slaves, the latter returned the value in rock-salt, commercial intercourse united their interests, and from war resulted injury to both people. Nevertheless the fanatic lo,",landers, propense to pillage and proselytizing, burned the Christian churches, mas sacred the infidels, and tortured the priests, until they provoked a blood feud of uncommon asperity. In the '4th century (A.O. 1312-1342) Amda Sion, Emperor of Ethiopia, taunted by Amano, King of Haeliyah, as a monarch fit only to take care of women, overran and plundered the Lowlands from Tegulet to the Red Sea. The Amharas were commanded to spare nothing that drew the hreath of life: to ful6l a prophecy which foretold the fall of AI.Islam, they perpetrated every kind of enormity. Peace followed the death of Amda Sion. In the reign of Zan Yakub' (A.o. 1434-1468), the lIame of war was again fanned in Hadiyah by a Zayla princess who was slighted by the Ethiopian monarch on account of the length of her foreteeth: the hostilities which ensued were not, however, of an important nature. 1keda Mariam, the next occupant of the throne, passed his life in a constant struggle for supremacy over the Adel: OIl his death·bed he caused himself to be so placed that his face looked towards those lowlands, upon whose subjuga. tion the energies of ten years had been vainly expended. At the close of the 15th century, Mahfuz, a bigoted Moslem, inflicted a deadly blow upon Abyssinia. I This piDee baiJt -Debra --.•• the -HiDci GIory.-. _ cIedicatod to the Vup. Mary" GaDdor. 1-2 First Footsteps in East Af,ica. Vowing that he would annually spend the forty days of Lent amongst his infidel neighbours, when, weakened by rigorous fasts, they were less capable of bearing arms, for thirty successive years he burned churches aud monasteries, slew without mercy every male that fell in his way, and driving off the women and children, he sold some to strange slavers, and presented others to the Sharifs of Meccah. He bought over Za Salasah, commander in chief of the 1!:mperor's bod} guard, and caused the assassination of Alexander (A.D. 1+78-1495) at the ancient capital Tegulet. Naud, the successor, obtained some transient advantages over the Moslems. During the earlier reign of the next emperor, David If 1. son of Na'ud,' who being but eleven years old when called to the throne, was placed under the guardianship of his mother the Iteghe Helena, new combatants and new instruments of warfare appeared on both sides of the field. After the conquest of Egypt and Arabia by Selim I. (A. D. 1516)' the caravans of Abyssinian pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem were attacked, the old were butchered and the young were swept into slavery. Many Arabian merchants lied from Turkish violence and injustice, to the opposite coast of Africa, whereupon the Ottomans took possession from Aden of Zayla, and not only laid the Indian trade under heavy contributions by means of their war.galleys, but threatened the total destruction of Abyssinia. They aided ami encouraged Mahfuz to continue his depredations, whilst the Sharif of Meccah gave him command of Zayla, the key of the • A priDce of maar title.; be is g........ny ca1Jed Waaag Saggad. " feared amongst the liooo," became be spent the lattu yean of his Jjfe ill the wild. 2 A1-Yaman sabmitted to Sulaymaa Paaba ill A.I•• '5j8. VIII.-Tm Days at Ha,ar. 5 upper country, and presented him with the green banner of a Crusader. On the other hand, the great Albuquerque at the same time (A. D. IS08-151S) was viceroy of India, and to him the Iteghe Helena applied for aid. Her am bassador arrived at Goa, "bearing a fragment of wood belonging to the true cross on which Christ died,"' whicb relic had been sent as a token of friendship to her brother Emanuel by the elllpress of }Ethiopia. The overture was followed by the arrival at Masawwah of an embassy from the King of Portugal. Too proud, how ever, to await foreign aid, David at the age of sixteen took the field in person against the Moslems. During the battle that ensued, Mahfuz, the Goliath of the Unbelievers, was slain in single combat by Gabriel Andreas, a soldier of tried valour, who had assumed the monastic life in consequence of having lost the tip of his tongue for treasonable freedom of speech: the green standard was captured, aDd 12,000 Moslems fell. David followed up his success by invading the lowlands, and, in defiance, struck his spear through the door of the king of Adel.