Gospel
Gospel meant the Christian message itself, but in the 2nd century it came to be used for the books in which the message was set out. The four canonical gospels — Matthew, Mark and John — were written between AD 66 and 110, building on older sources and traditions, each gospel has its own distinctive understanding of Jesus and his divine role. All four are anonymous, it is certain that none were written by an eyewitness, they are the main source of information on the life of Jesus as searched for in the quest for the historical Jesus. Modern scholars are cautious of relying on them unquestioningly, but critical study attempts to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the authors. Many non-canonical gospels were written, all than the four, all, like them, advocating the particular theological views of their authors; the Gospel of Mark dates from c. AD 66–70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions all four are anonymous, none were written by eyewitnesses.
Like the rest of the New Testament, they were written in Greek. In the immediate aftermath of Jesus' death his followers expected him to return at any moment within their own lifetimes, in consequence there was little motivation to write anything down for future generations, but as eyewitnesses began to die, as the missionary needs of the church grew, there was an increasing demand and need for written versions of the founder's life and teachings; the stages of this process can be summarised as follows: Oral traditions — stories and sayings passed on as separate self-contained units, not in any order. Gospels formed by combining written collections and still-current oral tradition. Mark, the first gospel to be written, uses a variety of sources, including conflict stories, apocalyptic discourse, collections of sayings, although not the sayings gospel known as the Gospel of Thomas and not the Q source used by Matthew and Luke; the authors of Matthew and Luke, acting independently, used Mark for their narrative of Jesus's career, supplementing it with the collection of sayings called the Q document and additional material unique to each called the M source and the L source.
Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because of the close similarities between them in terms of content and language. The authors and editors of John may have known the synoptics, but did not use them in the way that Matthew and Luke used Mark. There is a near-consensus that this gospel had its origins as a "signs" source that circulated within the Johannine community expanded with a Passion narrative and a series of discourses. All four use the Jewish scriptures, by quoting or referencing passages, or by interpreting texts, or by alluding to or echoing biblical themes; such use can be extensive: Mark's description of the Parousia is made up entirely of quotations from scripture. Matthew is full of quotations and allusions, although John uses scripture in a far less explicit manner, its influence is still pervasive, their source was the Greek version of the scriptures, called the Septuagint – they do not seem familiar with the original Hebrew. The four gospels share a story in which the earthly career of Jesus culminates in his death and resurrection, an event of crucial redemptive significance, but are inconsistent in detail.
John and the three synoptics in particular present different pictures of Jesus' career. John has no baptism, no temptation, no transfiguration, lacks the Lord's Supper and stories of Jesus' ancestry and childhood. Jesus's career in the synoptics takes up a single year while in John it takes three, with the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of his ministry while in the synoptics it happens at the end, in the synoptics the Last Supper takes place as a Passover meal, while in John it happens on the day before Passover; each gospel has its own distinctive understanding of his divine role. Mark never calls Jesus "God" or claims that Jesus existed prior to his earthly life, never mentions a virgin birth, makes no attempt to trace Jesus' ancestry back to King David or Adam. Crucially, Mark had no post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, although Mark 16:7, in which the young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author may have known of the tradition.
Matthew reinterprets Mark, stressing Jesus' teachings as much as his acts and making subtle changes to the narrative in order to stress his divine nature – Mark's "young man" who appears at Jesus' tomb, for example, becomes a radiant angel in Matthew. The miracle stories in Mark confirm Jesus' status as an emissary of God, but in Matthew they demonstrate his divinity. Luke, while following Mark's plot more faithfully than does Matthew, has expanded on the source, corrected Mark's grammar and syntax, eliminated some passages notably most of chapters 6 and 7, which he felt reflected poorly on the disciples and painted Jesus too much like a magician. John, t
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a scholarly religious congregation of the Catholic Church for men founded by Ignatius of Loyola and approved by Pope Paul III. The members are called Jesuits; the society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations. Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, cultural pursuits. Jesuits give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social ministries, promote ecumenical dialogue. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a Basque nobleman from the Pyrenees area of northern Spain, founded the society after discerning his spiritual vocation while recovering from a wound sustained in the Battle of Pamplona, he composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. In 1534, Ignatius and six other young men, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber and professed vows of poverty and obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the Pope in matters of mission direction and assignment. Ignatius's plan of the order's organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the "Formula of the Institute".
Ignatius was a nobleman who had a military background, the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world, where they might be required to live in extreme conditions. Accordingly, the opening lines of the founding document declared that the society was founded for "whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God to strive for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine." Jesuits are thus sometimes referred to colloquially as "God's soldiers", "God's marines", or "the Company", which evolved from references to Ignatius' history as a soldier and the society's commitment to accepting orders anywhere and to endure any conditions. The society participated in the Counter-Reformation and in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council; the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is led by a Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome.
The historic curia of Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit mother church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit to be elected Pope, taking the name Pope Francis; as of 2012, the Jesuits formed the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. The Jesuits have experienced a decline in numbers in recent decades; as of 2017 the society had 16,088 members, 11,583 priests and 4,505 Jesuits in formation, which includes brothers and scholastics. This represents a 42.6 percent decline since 1977, when the society had a total membership of 28,038, of which 20,205 were priests. This decline is most pronounced in Europe and the Americas, with modest membership gains occurring in Asia and Africa. There seems to be no "Pope Francis effect" in counteracting the fall of vocations among the Jesuits; the society is divided into 83 provinces along with six independent regions and ten dependent regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and the US.
Their average age was 57.3 years: 63.4 years for priests, 29.9 years for scholastics, 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa; the society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in various countries around the world and is active in the Philippines and India. In the United States the Jesuits have historical ties to 28 colleges and universities and 61 high schools; the degree to which the Jesuits are involved in the administration of each institution varies. As of September 2018, 15 of the 28 Jesuit universities in the US had non-Jesuit lay presidents. According to a 2014 article in The Atlantic, "the number of Jesuit priests who are active in everyday operations at the schools isn’t nearly as high as it once was". Worldwide it runs 172 colleges and universities. A typical conception of the mission of a Jesuit school will contain such concepts as proposing Christ as the model of human life, the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning, lifelong spiritual and intellectual growth, training men and women for others.
Ignatius laid out his original vision for the new order in the "Formula of the Institute of the Society of Jesus", "the fundamental charter of the order, of which all subsequent official documents were elaborations and to which they had to conform." He ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, community life, apostolate of the new religious order, its famous opening statement echoed Ignatius' military background: Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the Cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the Name of Jesus, to serve the Lord alone and the Church, his spouse, under the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity and obedience, keep what follows in mind. He is a member of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching and any other ministration whatsoever of the Word of God, further by means of ret
Sabagadis Woldu
Sabagadis Woldu was a Dejazmach of Tigray from 1822 to 1831. Sabagadis' name is derived from gaadis. Sabagadis gained some notoriety in the first decade of the 19th century for rebelling a number of times against his overlord, Ras Wolde Selassie, but just before the death of Wolde Selassie it seems that he made up with his master and became one of his loyal lieutenants. Following Wolde Selassie's death in 1816, he defied the authority of Wolde Selassie's son, became the most powerful warlord in Tigray. Making Adigrat his capital, he ruled Tigray, a small strip of the coastal plains of Eritrea by 1818, his rule extended to the Eritrean highlands. Dejazmatch Sabagadis was the son of the Hasaballa Irob chief Shum Agame Woldu Kumalit, who ruled Agame from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries. Shum Agame Woldu's legacy was the ascendancy of Saho-speaking local Irob rulers over Tigrinya-speaking Agame in the 18th century. Following his father's death in 1802, Sabagadis and his four brothers clashed over their respective fiefs.
The most disgruntled brother, joined the services of the Tigrayan overlord Ras Wolde Selassie of Enderta, who in turn appointed him ruler of important parts of his father's estates. Sabagadis remained a dissident contender for most of the 1810s, he consolidated his power in Agame by foiling a series of punitive expeditions by Las Wolde Selassie. In 1811, Sabagadis rallied several Tigrinya-speaking vassals of Adwa and Hamasien against the ras. By the mid-1810s, Sabagadis de facto placed the whole of Agame under his authority. Ras Wolde Selassie confirmed Sabagadis authority in return and recognition of the ras's overlordship. After the death of Wolde Selassie, Sabagadis was one of the strongest chiefs seeking to succeed the Ras, he fought a series of devastating wars with regional contenders and acquired the Tigrayan overlordship in 1822. Sabagadis governed Tigray for a decade by members of his family. Assuming the title of Dejazmatch, he followed the ambitions of his predecessors to remove Yejju political supremacy from Gondar.
This was the case after the death of Ras Gugsa Mersa in 1825. To this end, he requested British recognition as well as the supply of military trainers, experts in various fields, more firearms to boost his army. Dejazmach Sabagadis believed that firearms were vital to neutralize the power of the Yejju cavalry, so he devoted much time and effort to both collecting them, seeking European help in buying them; as a consequence, Sabagadis was one of the first Ethiopians to attempt building peaceful relationships with other countries in modern times. As a result of these things, by the 1820s he was seen both in Europe—and in Ethiopia—as the champion of Christianity. Sabagadis masterminded strong political and military alliances with some prominent regional chiefs in northern Ethiopia Dejazmatch Wube Hailemariam of Semien, Wag Shum Kanfu of Lasta and Dejazmatch Goshu Zewde of Gojjam against the Yejju ruler in Gondar, Ras Maruye Gugsa, he presented himself as a protector of Christianity, accusing the Yejju lords of being Muslim agents.
He aspired to become protector of the weak kings in Gondar. Three of his letters have survived. One to the Patriarch of Alexandria Peter complains of the behavior of Abuna Qerellos, sarcastically asking, "Was it because you hated Ethiopia that you sent him? Did you not know his conduct before, so you sent him?" Another one is addressed to King George IV of Great Britain, asking for "one hundred cavalrymen, a carpenter, a church builder who will build the way in your country". Sabagadis maintained constant communication with the most important Christian lords in Ethiopia. Building upon his reputation, he formed a coalition with the warlords of Gojjam and Semien against Ras Marye of Yejju, the Enderase or regent of the Emperor. Marye defeated Dejazmach Goshu in Gojjam, marched the bulk of his army to Lasta quickly turned to Semien Province and attacked Wube Haile Maryam. Subagadis watched the battle on the border of Lasta, subsequently did not come to the aid of Wube. Wube preferred to submit to Marye rather than have to face him alone.
Marye decided to put an end to the Tigrayan threat. At the head of contingents from Wollo, Yejju and Amhara, now supported by the armies of Wube and Goshu, Marye advanced beyond the Tekezé River into Tigray. Neither Sabagadis foreign contacts nor his military pact with Wube Hailemariam bore fruit, he was soon overtaken by a fresh outbreak of extensive fighting engulfing the whole of northern Ethiopia. Maruya won Wube to his side after initial military encounters led to the rampaging of his province of Semien. In 1830, Sabagadis ravaged Semien, having defeated and chased Wube out of his fortress called "Amba Tazzan" and "Amba Hay". Sabagadis retired to Tigray after appointing Wubde's rival and half-brother, Dejazmatch Merso Hailemariam, as his representative to Semien. However, this victory triggered Maruye, in collaboration with the fugitive Wube, to launch a vigorous campaign against Tigray. Three Tigrayan vassals of Sabagadis, including his own sons-in-law Dejazmatch Sahlu of Haramat, Dejazmatch Gebre Mikael of Dera, Wedaj of Shire were said to have defected.
They conspired against Sabagafis with Maruye Gugsa. According to informants, Sabagadis did not accept the advice to wait near Adigrat for the enemy to march into Tigray wh
Tewodros II
Tewodros II was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his death in 1868. He was born Kassa Hailegiorgis, his rule is placed as the beginning of modern Ethiopia, ending the decentralized Zemene Mesafint. Tewodros II's origins were in the Era of the Princes, but his ambitions were not those of the regional nobility, he sought to reform its administration and church. He sought to restore Solomonic hegemony, he considered himself the Elect of God. Tewodros II's first task was to bring Shewa under his control. During the Era of the Princes, Shewa was more than most provinces, an independent entity, its ruler styling himself Negus, a royal title denoting monarchy. In the course of subduing the Shewans, Tewodros imprisoned a Shewan prince, Menelik II, who would become emperor himself. Despite his success against Shewa, Tewodros faced constant rebellions in other provinces, he committed suicide at the Battle of Magdala, during the British Expedition to Abyssinia. In the first six years of his reign, the new ruler managed to put down these rebellions, the empire was peaceful from about 1861 to 1863, but the energy and manpower necessary to deal with regional opposition limited the scope of Tewodros's other activities.
Tewodros II never realized his dream of restoring a strong monarchy, although he took many important initial steps. He sought to establish the principle that judges must be salaried appointees, he established a professional standing army, rather than depending on local lords to provide soldiers for his expeditions. He introduced the collection of books in the form of a library, tax codes, as well as a centralized political system with respective administrative districts, he intended to reform the church but he was confronted by strong opposition when he tried to impose a tax on church lands to help finance government activities. His confiscation of these lands gained him enemies in the church and little support elsewhere. Tewodros was a talented military campaigner. Kassa was the son of a Christian nobleman of the Qwara district of the province of Dembiya named Hailegiorgis Woldegiorgis, his paternal grandfather, Dejazmatch Woldegiorgis, was a respected figure of his time. Dembiya was part of the large territory known as Ye Maru Qemas, or "the taste of the honey".
It was the personal fief of Dejazmach Maru, a powerful warlord, relative of Kassa Hailu. Kassa's mother, Woizero Atitegeb Wondbewossen, was of the upper nobility, was from Sayint, her mother Woizer Tishal was a member of a noble family of Begemder, while her paternal grandfather, Ras Wodajo, was a powerful and influential figure. Tewodros II, in his reign, claimed that his father was descended from Emperor Fasilides by way of a daughter; when Kassa was young, his parents divorced and Woizero Atitegeb moved back to Gondar taking her son with her. Not long after their departure, news reached them. Popular legend states that Kassa's paternal relatives split up the entire paternal inheritance, leaving young Kassa and his mother with nothing and in dire circumstances financially. In these hard times, his enemies came with a saying that his mother, Woizero Atitegeb, was reduced to selling "Kosso", a native herbal remedy used to purge patients of intestinal worms. There is no evidence that Woizero Atitegeb was a Kosso seller, several writers such as have stated outright that it was a false rumor spread by her detractors.
Evidence indicates that Woizero Atitegeb was well to do, indeed had inherited considerable land holdings from her own illustrious relatives to lead a comfortable life. Kassa's youth was not lived lavishly, but he was far from a pauper. Kassa was sent to school between Gondar and Lake Tana. In this asylum he took refuge until it was sacked by a defeated Galla chief named Dejazmatch Maru, who by burning and cutting to pieces children, took cowardly vengeance on their victories parents! Kassa escaped and fled to the protection of his kinsman, Dejazmatch Kenfu his uncle but believed to be his half-brother, he became familiar with the Bible and Ethiopian literature. For his time, Kassa was a well-educated man, he received instruction on the techniques of Ethiopian warfare from Kenfu. When Kenfu died, his two sons were defeated by another Dajazmach, Dajazmach Goshu of Damot and Gojjam, Kassa was forced to make another start in life, offered his services to Goshu. Kassa Hailu was born into a country rife with civil war, he defeated many regional noblemen and princes before becoming emperor during time known as the Zemene Mesafint or "Age of the Princes".
During this era, regional princes, noble lords of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds vied with each other for power and control of the Gondarine Emperor. A puppet Emperor of the Solomonic dynasty was enthroned in Gondar by one nobleman, only to be dethroned and replaced by another member of the Imperial dynasty when a different regional prince was able to seize Gondar and the reins of power. Regions such as Gojjam and Shewa were ruled by their own branches of the Imperial dynasty and, in Shewa, the local prince went as far as assuming the title of King. In Wollo, competing royal powerful Or
Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi Asres was an Ethiopian politician, the 13th Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 to his death in 2012. From 1989, he was the chairman of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the head of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front since its formation in 1991. Before becoming Prime Minister in 1995, he served as President of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995. In 1975, he left Haile Selassie I University to fight Derg. After the overthrow of the Derg's military government, he was elected as President of the transitional government and as Prime Minister, he lifted his country from the ruins of civil war and transformed it into one of Africa's fastest-growing economies. Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father Zenawi Asres from Adwa and Alemash Guebreluel from Adi Quala, Eritrea, he was the third of six children. His first name at birth was "Legesse". However, he became better known by his nom de guerre Meles, which he adopted in honor of University student and fellow Tigrayan Meles Tekle, executed by Mengistu Haile Mariam's Derg government in 1975.
He received primary education at Queen of Sheba Junior School located in Adwa. It took him 5 years to complete the regular 8 years program as he was able to skip grades and join the next level, he joined the prestigious General Wingate High school in Addis Ababa on full scholarship and completed high school in 1972. Upon graduating with honors from General Wingate High school, Prime Minister Zenawi was awarded the Haile Selassie I Prize Trust, a selective award given only to the most outstanding students. At this time, he entered the University of Addis Ababa Medical school, where he spent the next few years. In 1975, Prime Minister Zenawi left the University and became a founding member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Meles Zenawi was an Orthodox Christian, a follower of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. After high school, Meles studied medicine at Addis Ababa University for two years before dropping out his studies in 1974 to join other students and form Tigrayan National Organization the forerunner TPLF in Dedebit, Tigray.
Aregawi Berhe, a former member of the TPLF, notes that historians John Young and Jenny Hammond "vaguely indicated" Meles as founder TPLF in their books. Aregawi insists that both Sebhat Nega joined the Front "months" after it was founded. While a member of the TPLF, Meles established the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray. TPLF was one of armed groups struggling against Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam and the Derg, the junta which lead Ethiopia under iron fist from 1974-1991. Meles was elected member of the leadership committee in 1979 and chairman of the executive committee of TPLF in 1983, he was the chairperson of both the TPLF and the EPRDF after the EPRDF assumed power at the end of the Ethiopian Civil War in 1991. He was president of the transitional government of Ethiopia, during which Eritrea seceded from the country and a federal Government, based on representing the nation and nationality of the country started. Meles stated that EPRDF's victory was a triumph for the thousands of TPLF-fighters who were killed, for the millions of Ethiopians who were victims of the country's biggest famine during the Derg regime, when some estimates put up to 1.5 million deaths of Ethiopians from famine and the Red Terror.
Accordingly, he maintained that the big support it received from peasants and rural areas helped EPRDF maintain peace and stability. Foreign support was diverse. "What the implications of this will be in terms of relations between Ethiopia and the European Union, we will have to wait and see but I don't think you will be surprised if Ethiopia were to insist that it should not be patronised."The United States facilitated peace talks between different rebel groups including EPRDF and the Derg to bring an end to civil war which lasted for 17 years and reach some kind of political settlement in 1991. The talks didn't bear any fruit as EPRDF's force were moving to the capital and Mengistu fled the country; the United State agreed to support the EPRDF which would have seized power without anyone's support. Many angry demonstrators in Addis Ababa reacted to this by protesting against Herman Cohen, the U. S. State Department's chief of African affairs who attended a conference that demonstrators viewed as legitimizing the EPRDF.
In July 1991, Convention of Nationalities was held. It was the first Ethiopian multinational convention where delegates of various nations and organizations were given fair and equal representation and observed by various international organizations including the United Nations, Organization for African Unity, European Economic Community, the United States and the United Kingdom. Although Meles and his administration claimed they preferred a united but federal state that included the Eritrean state, since Meles' TPLF fought together with EPLF, Meles left the decision to the Eritrean citizens in the hope that the independence referendum would vote against secession, according to Time magazine's 1991 analysis. However, after the EPLF secured their borders when Mengistu's regime fell, after the majority of Eritreans vot
Gondar
Gondar or Gonder is a city and separate woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Tana Lake on the Lesser Angereb River and southwest of the Simien Mountains, it has a longitude of 12 ° 36 ′ N 37 ° 28 ′ E with an elevation of 2133 meters above sea level. It is surrounded by the Gondar Zuria woreda. Gondar served as a strong Christian kingdom for many years. Gondar served as the capital of both the Ethiopian Empire and the subsequent Begemder Province; the city holds the remains of several royal castles, including those in Fasil Ghebbi, for which Gondar has been called the "Camelot of Africa". Until the 16th century, the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia had no fixed capital town, but instead lived in tents in temporary royal camps as they moved around their realms while their family and retinue devoured surplus crops and cut down nearby trees for firewood. One exception to this rule was Debre Berhan, founded by Zara Yaqob in 1456. Gondar was founded by Emperor Fasilides around the year 1635, grew as an agricultural and market town.
There was a superstition at the time that the capital's name should begin with the letter'Gʷa', which contributed to Gorgora's growth in the centuries after 1600. Tradition states that a buffalo led the Emperor Fasilides to a pool beside the Angereb, where an "old and venerable hermit" told the Emperor he would locate his capital there. Fasilides built his castle on that same site; the emperor built a total of seven churches. The five emperors who followed him built their palaces in the town. Beginning with Emperor Menas in 1559, the rulers of Ethiopia began spending the rainy season near Lake Tana returning to the same location each year; these encampments, which flourished as cities for a short time, include Emfraz, Ayba and Dankaz. In 1668, as a result of a church council, the Emperor Yohannes I ruled that the inhabitants of Gondar were to be segregated by religion; this caused the Muslims to move within two years. This quarter came to be known as Addis Alem. During the seventeenth century, the city's population is estimated to have exceeded 60,000.
Many of the buildings from this period survive, despite the turmoil of the eighteenth century. By the reign of Iyasu the Great, Gondar had acquired a sense of community identity. Although Gondar was by any definition a city, it was not a melting pot of diverse traditions, nor Ethiopia's window to the larger world, according to Donald Levine. "It served rather as an agent for the quickened development of the Amhara's own culture. And thus it became a focus of national pride... not as a hotbed of alien custom and immorality, as they regard Addis Ababa today, but as the most perfect embodiment of their traditional values." As Levine elaborates in a footnote, it was an orthogenetic pattern of development, as distinguished from an heterogenetic one. The town served as Ethiopia's capital until Tewodros II moved the Imperial capital to Magadala upon being crowned Emperor in 1855. Abdallahi ibn Muhammad sacked Gondar when he invaded Ethiopia June 1887. Gondar was ravaged again on 23 January in the next year, when Sudanese invaders set fire to every one of the city's churches.
After the military occupation of Ethiopia by the Kingdom of Italy in 1936, Gondar was further developed under Italian occupation, the Comboni missionaries established in 1937 the Latin Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of Gondar, which would be suppressed after its only prefect's death in 1951. During the Second World War, Mussolini's Italian forces made their last stand in Gondar in November 1941, after Addis Ababa fell to British forces six months before; the area of Gondar was one of the main centers of activity of Italian guerrilla against the British forces until summer 1943. During the Ethiopian Civil War, the forces of the Ethiopian Democratic Union gained control of large parts of Begemder, during parts of 1977 operated within a few kilometers of Gondar, appeared to be at the point of capturing the city; as part of Operation Tewodros near the end of the Civil War, Gondar was captured by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front in March 1991. Gondar traditionally was divided into several neighborhoods or quarters: Addis Alem, where the Muslim inhabitants dwelled.
Gondar is a noted center of ecclesiastical learning of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, known for having 44 churches – for many years more than any other settlement in Ethiopia. Gondar and its surrounding countryside constitute the homeland of most Ethiopian Jews; the modern city of Gondar is popular as a tourist destination for its many picturesque ruins in Fasil Ghebbi, from which the emperors once reigned. The most famous buildings in the city lie in the Royal Enclosure, which include Fasilide
Askari
An askari was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa in the African Great Lakes, Northeast Africa and Central Africa. The word is used in this sense in English, as well as in German, Italian and Portuguese. In French, the word is used only in reference to native troops outside the French colonial empire; the designation is still in occasional use today to informally describe police and security guards. During the period of the European colonial empires in Africa, locally recruited soldiers were employed by Italian, Portuguese and Belgian colonial armies, they played a crucial role in the conquest of the various colonial possessions, subsequently served as garrison and internal security forces. During both World Wars, askari units served outside their colonies of origin, in various parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Askari is a loan word from the Arabic عسكري, meaning "soldier"; the Arabic word is a derivation from عسكر. Words for " soldier" derived from these Arabic words are found in Azeri, Malay, Somali, Tajik and Urdu.
In the Belgian Congo, the askaris were organised into the Force Publique. This combined military and police force was commanded by white Belgian officers and non commissioned officers; the Imperial British East Africa Company raised units of askaris from among the Swahili people, the Sudanese and Somalis. There standardised weaponry. Many of the askaris campaigned in their native dress. Officers wore civilian clothes. From 1895 the British askaris were organised into a regular and uniformed force called the East African Rifles forming part of the multi-battalion King's African Rifles; the designation of "askari" was retained for locally recruited troops in the King's African Rifles, smaller military units and police forces in the colonies until the end of British rule in Kenya and Uganda during the period 1961–63. Because of its colonial connotations the term was discarded during the 1960s; the German Colonial Army of the German Empire employed native troops with European officers and NCOs in its colonies.
The main concentration of such locally recruited troops was in German East Africa, formed in 1881 after the transfer of the Wissmanntruppe to German imperial control. The first askaris formed in German East Africa were raised by DOAG in about 1888. Drawn from Sudanese mercenaries, the German askaris were subsequently recruited from the Wahehe and Angoni tribal groups, they were harshly disciplined but well paid, trained by German cadres who were themselves subject to a rigorous selection process. Prior to 1914 the basic Schutztruppe unit in Southeast Africa was the feldkompanie comprising seven or eight German officers and NCOs with between 150 and 200 askaris —including two machine gun teams; such small independent commands were supplemented by tribal irregulars or Ruga-Ruga. They were used in German East Africa where 11,000 askaris and their European officers, commanded by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, managed to resist numerically superior British and Belgian colonial forces until the end of World War I in 1918.
The Weimar Republic and pre-war Nazi Germany provided pension payments to the German askaris. Due to interruptions during the worldwide depression and World War II, the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany voted in 1964 to fund the back pay of the askaris still alive; the West German embassy at Dar es Salaam identified 350 ex-askaris and set up a temporary cashiers office at Mwanza on Lake Victoria. Only a few claimants could produce the certificates given to them in 1918; the banker who had brought the money came up with an idea: as each claimant stepped forward he was handed a broom and ordered in German to perform the manual of arms. Not one of them failed the test. During World War II, the Germans used the term "askaris" for Red Army, predominantly Russian, deserters and POWs who formed units fighting against the Red Army and in other action on the Eastern front. Western Ukrainian volunteer units like the Nightingale Battalion, Schuma battalions, the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS were called Askari.
These battalions were used in many operations during World War II. Most of them were either Red Army deserters or anti-communist peasants recruited from Western Ukrainian rural areas under German occupation; the Italian army in Italian East Africa recruited Eritrean and subsequently Somali troops to serve with Italian officers and some NCOs. These forces comprised infantry, camel-mounted and light artillery units. Somali personnel were recruited to serve with Royal Italian Navy ships operating in the Indian Ocean; the Italian askaris fought in the Mahdist War, Battle of Coatit, First Italo–Ethiopian War, Italian-Turkish War, Second Italo-Abyssinian War and in the World War II East African Campaign. Many of the Askaris in Eritrea were drawn from local Nilotic populations, including Hamid Idris Awate, who reputedly had some Nara ancestry. Of these troops, the first Eritrean battalions were raised in 1888 from Muslim and Christian volunteers, replacing an earlier Basci-Buruk corps of irregulars.
The four Indigeni battalions in existence by 1891 were incorporated into the Royal Corps of A
Ethiopia
