ETHIOPIA FROM SOLOMON TO MUSSOLINI

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 232, 2 October 1935, Page 16

ETHIOPIA FROM SOLOMON TO MUSSOLINI

A RETROSPECT OF GREAT EVENTS OF POMP AND PAGEANTRY IN A COUNTRY WHOSE HISTORY WAS OLD WHEN EUROPE WAS UNCIVILISED

A retrospect of great events which have taken place in tho history of Abyssinia, dating back from the time of Solomon, is contained in the following article contributed by Mr B. Larson, of Napier, who has taken pains to delve into ancient history on tho subject and put the results of his efforts on paper. In ancient days Ethiopia was an immenso area, extending from tho second Nile cataract to the Indian Ocean, consisting of several kingdoms, namely Sheba (Seba and Sabea), answering to tho British Sudan, with its capital Meroo (Khartoum); Hailah, on the Red Sea (Eritrea); Sabtecah (British and Italian Somaliland), States which held sway in tho interior. The wliolo of this vast combination of peoples was known to Chaldean civilisation as the Land of

Thero was a period when Ethiopia ruled over the whole of Egypt a- d Libya, just ai thero was a time when tho “shepherdkings” of Palestine and Sinai (Iraelite and Iskmaclite immigrants) held sway, so very much resented by Egyptians. But it ha! been a rule with Ethiopia to stay and be 1031 in tho vastness of Africa. In primitive Africa great areas of grass-land must have existed where forest and jungle now cncumbor the earth. For forest spreads gradually, and animal life, equally with man, continually increases when not destroyed by requirements of civilisation. Hence it is reasonable to suppose that the straying, neglected tribes of “Darkest Africa” are the bi-product of wanderers who forsook tho folds of civilisation, who have increased and spread amidst increasing forest and multiplying animal life tho Negro tribes a thorn in the flesh to Abyssinian rulers. But Abyssinia has maintained her language and institutions in the face of bad neighbours and foreign invasion. Ethiopia once embodied and ruled Egypt for several

spirit of Ethiopia. On one occasion -we read '‘a man of Ethiopia, of great authority under Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians—her chancellor—had come to Jerusalem for to worship.’ ’ He met the Apostle Philip near Gaza and received Christian baptism. A Coptic tradition affirm that this Apostle and Matthew preached the gospel, establishing churches, southwards throughout Egypt and Ethiopia and perhaps Queen (or Empress) Candace and her chancellor facilitated the Apostolic Mission (A.D. 40).

Earlier Days. t Put to revert to pre-Christian history as an enlightening factor on tho Ethiopian question. The Jewish Empire of David and Solomon extended from the Euphrates in the north to tho Gulf of Akaba on the Pod Sea, excepting a strip of coastal land between tho Lebanon ranges and tho sea, including the great commercial cities of the Phoenicean’s, Tyro and Sidon, under King Hiram. Solomon had a highway from Jerusalem to his great sea-ports, Ezion-Geber and Eloth, on tho Gulf of Akaba, a popular resort. On one occasion (at least) we read, Solomon paid a visit to these places, evidently of note. His friend King Hiram supplied his royal fleet to take to Solomon from Ophir—the illustrious gold mines of Ethiopia —450 talents of gold (approx. 2} millions sterling) as a gift, it is believed, from the Queen of Sheba. This incident, too, goes to prove that tho Phoonicoan and Jewish traders had intercourse with Ethiopia 3000 years ago, and that ships could then pass through Pharaoh’s canal, from the Nilt. to the Red Sea at Suez, since silted up with drift sand.

Cush, and later as the Ethiopian Empire of the time of David and Solomon, three thousand years ago. Ethiopia (represented in Abyssinia) is the only survival of tho empires founded by the sons of tho patriarch Noah, in its ancient form. The Distant Past To obtain a reliable analysis of its 4500 years old history, it is necessary to search back into the ages before the Roman or Greek, or Persian or Assyrian, or Egyptian empires had risen to make their history; centuries before Abraham' and his retinue camped by the Nile, and ages before Europe was civilised. We find ourselves groping among tho records handed down to us by the very ancient father of races, Noah, and his son Ham, tho father of Cush, from whom the Abyssinians inherit ..is language, and are known as Cushites.

It was at this time that the Queen of Sheba was told of the glory of the Temple Solomon had just completed, and of the great personality of Solomon, himself, and we read that she made tho long journey to prove it for herself. It is noteworthy that Egypt is mentioned separately from Sheba in the history of tho period, also, that Ethiopia is mentioned as having tho same status in ancient records as other Empires, proving that they were a distinct, well organised peoples over four thousand years ago.

Not only does the Abyssinian history of to-day claim such a very ancient pedigree. Hebrew, Egyptian, Chaldean, Greek and Roman records explicitly affirm it is a noted fact. In the earliest records Egypt was known by the name of its founder, Mizraim, son of Ham. Ham had two other sons, Phut, who settled North Africa; and Canaan, who settled the land on the Mediterranean coast known by his name of Canaan, later taken over by his Shemito cousins, the Hebrews under the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, better known as Palestine, the land of tho Jews. Prince Cush, grandson of Noah, made two major settlements (or rather, his descendants did) that have developed into importance, namely Cushia (or Caucasia, as the ranges and adjacent peoples became known), from which the Caucasians sprang ultimately to spread over Europe; and Cush, as Africa, south of Mizraim (Egypt), was called before their cousins tho Hebrews of Palestine named it “Ethiopia,” or “•sunbrowned.” The Queen of Sheba It is not until after the alliance between Solomon and the beautiful Queen of Sheba that we meet with the slanderous epithel “Abyssinia” that so offends modern Ethiopians. Nor is it to be understood this young woman was Empress of Ethiopia: Sh« was tho daughter and heiress of the deceased King of Sheba, one kingdom of several that constituted tho Ethiopian Empire An unmarried princess, recently elevated tc the head of the State, anxious to see thn great world, she perhaps travelled by cameltrain all the great journey from the heat oi Meroo (by Khartoum) to the cool highland! of Jerusalem (still called Jebu-Salem by foreigners of those days) to see the glory of Solomon, and no doubt" behold the wonders of Thebes, Luxor, Memphis, On and other cities and marvels of Egypt en route, as it was in those days, or perhaps she took Solomon's route across tho Red Sea to Eloth and, escorted in royal progress, overland to Jerusalem.

Kin to Europeans. It is impossible to do justice to the importance of a history that dates back 4500 years, as does that of Cush (Ethiopia), in an analysis so brief. Suffice it to note that Ethiopia is the modern remnant of the once great civilisation of Ham in Africa, in decay, equally as certainly as the Teutons of Europe (which include tho Anglo-Saxons) are the maintained descendants of his brother Japheth coupled with the Caucasian overflow from Cushia (Caucasia). So that we see, by going back far enough, the Ethiopian and European are next of kin, both partly or totally Christian, nominally at least. When the sword of Mahomed destroyed the Christian civilisation or Asia and Iforth Africa, when Europe barely escaped and Egypt was left in ruins with only the pyramids to speak to us of her ancient greatness, the numerous and dread armies of Mahomedan conquest swayed, fell and rallied to fall and to finally retreat before tho despeiate Christian Ethiopian multitudes who had been marshalled for defence on tho immense front, from the Red Sea in Nubia to the second Nile cataract. Thus Coptic Christianity retained one central governmental institution in Africa, now known as Abyssinia. The rest fell to the swords of Saracen hordes, while Ethiopia engaged tremendous forces the cruel conquerors badly needed in their struggle for the conquest of Europe. The Present Problem. Ethiopia is now faced with another invasion from the north, when she is divided and under many disadvantages in equipment and military training. Mussolini accuses Abyssinia of being war-like and unneighbourly. But she is only such because she has a neighbour that is possessed of an ambition for conquest, aspiring to be a modern Julius Caesar.

generations, btft she was never conquered or so near being wiped off- the map as in modern times. The Persian conquest hammered on her northern borders, to be repelled at the second Nile cataract, after adding Egypt to the (then) great Persian Empire. The Greek Alexander smashed the Persian Empire and made it Greek, but Ethiopia stopped his southward march at the firs) Nile cataract. Strong in Defence. The Homans followed a century later, conquered all that was Greek, in turn to suffer the same rebuke at the arms of a united Ethiopia. Neither of these great powers could shatter the Ethiopian line of defence. Cush (Ethiopia) has stood the test of forty-five centuries, while great Empires of Asia and Europe have risen to perhaps a greater glory, yet have crashed to heaps of ruins. History (sacred and secular) gives us many beautiful glimpses into the ancient