Abyssinia (from the Arabic name Habesh, 'mixture,' given on account of the mixed population) is that part of Eastern Africa lying between 7° 30' and 15° 40' N. lat., and the meridians of 35° and 40° 30' E. long.; having Nubia on the NW., the Red Sea on the NE., the river Hawash on the SE., and the Blue Nile on the SW. The mountainous part of this tract forms the kingdom of Abyssinia; the chief divisions being Tigré in the north, Amhara in the centre, and Shoa in the south. Between the highlands and the Red Sea lies a low arid tract, which is inhabited by tribes distinct from the Abyssinians, and long claimed as belonging to Egypt. Abyssinia, the area of which is about 200,000 sq. m. (more than a third larger than Great Britain), consists of a huge tableland with a mean elevation of 7000 feet. The declivity to the bordering tract on the Red Sea is abrupt; towards the Nile basin it is more gradual. The main mass has been cut into a number of island-like sections by the streams, which have worn their channels into ravines of vast depth—as much sometimes as 4000 feet. Isolated mountains, with naked perpendicular sides, present the most singular forms. The Samen Mountains have summits rising to the height of 15,000 feet.
In the later part of the tertiary age, Abyssinia must have been the theatre of immense volcanic activity. That activity is now extinct, with the exception of thermal springs in the interior, and rare eruptions on the coast of the Red Sea.
As the main slope of the tableland is towards the W. and NW., the chief watercourses flow to the Nile. The Abai, which flows through Lake Tzana, is an upper branch of the Blue Nile. The Takazzé, receiving the smaller Atbara, joins the Nile under the name of the Atbara, after a course of about 800 miles. The Mareb flows NW. into Nubia, where it loses itself in the sand, or in time of flood reaches the Atbara. The Hawash takes its rise in the southern province of Shoa, and flowing in a north-easterly direction, falls into the Lake of Abhebbad. The largest lake in Abyssinia is Lake Tzana (Tsana) or Dembea, 60 miles long, and in some places 600 feet deep. The mineral wealth of Abyssinia is believed to be great, but has been little explored.
The climate of Abyssinia, notwithstanding its tropical position, is on the whole moderate and pleasant owing to its elevation. The region called the Kollas, with an elevation of 3000 to 4900 feet, has a temperature of 77° to 95°, with a tropical vegetation. The plains of medium elevation (5000 to 8800 feet) have a temperature of 60° to 80°, and are the chief seats of the population. The higher regions, from 8800 to 12,000 feet or over, have usually a day temperature of 48° to 50°, but falling not seldom below freezing. The rainy season is in summer, from April to September. During the rainy season there is snow on the summits in all the higher regions, and above 13,000 feet the snow never melts. In the river valleys and swamps, the heat and moisture are suffocating and pestilential; in the low region towards the Red Sea, the air is glowing hot, and dry.
Abyssinia as a whole is exceedingly fruitful; and its productions are of the most varied nature, from the pines, heaths, and lichens of North Europe to the choicest tropical plants. Two, and in some places three, crops can be raised in one year. The banana-tree, date-palm, sugar-cane, vine, orange, lemon, cotton, and wild indigo and coffee, all flourish. The higher plateaus furnish rich pastures of European grasses, and also oats and barley. The chief industries are the rearing of cattle and the cultivation of grain. Among the wild animals the most dreaded is the hyæna; while the elephant and rhinoceros are found in the low grounds, and there are crocodiles and hippopotami in the rivers. Lions, panthers, and leopards are not infrequent.
The population of Abyssinia, which numbers between three and four millions, consists of various elements, but the nucleus is formed of the Abyssinians proper—a brown, well-formed people, belonging to the Semitic stock, and believed to be the descendants of immigrants from Arabia. The basis of the language is the ancient Ethiopic (see ETHIOPIA) or Geez, a Semitic tongue which is now the sacred language, understood only by the priests. Of the modern dialects, the Tigré of the northern province stands the nearest to the old tongue. That of Amhara (q.v.), spoken also in Shoa, departs more from the mother-tongue, and is the prevalent language of the country. Since the beginning of the 16th century, the Gallas, an African people, have taken possession of many districts. Jewish tribes, called Falashas, retain many of their Jewish peculiarities. In addition to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, the chief employments are the preparation of leather, the weaving of cotton cloth, and the working of copper and iron. There is little commerce. What foreign commerce there is passes through the ports of Massowah and Zeila. The chief town of Tigré is Adowa. Gondar in Amhara and Ankobar in Shoa have decayed. The capital of Shoa and of Abyssinia is Addis Abeba.
The religion of the Abyssinians proper is a debased Christianity; but the Gallas and other alien tribes are mostly Mohammedan, and partly also pagan. Abyssinian Christianity consists entirely in external observances; the people are abjectly superstitious and excessively lax in their morals. They observe many of the rites of
Judaism, such as circumcision and the distinction of animals into clean and unclean. The marriage-tie is very loose, and polygamy is not uncommon. Few except the priests are taught to read. Christianity was introduced in the 4th century by Frumentius (q.v.), who was consecrated Bishop of Abyssinia by the Patriarch of Alexandria. Ever since, the church of Abyssinia has adhered to the mother-church of Egypt, and with her adopted the Monophysite (q.v.) doctrine; and the metropolitan bishop or abuna continues to be nominated by the Coptic Patriarch (see COPTS). The Bible was early translated into the Geez. They have no other literature except some legends of saints. The general ignorance does not exclude religious controversy, and fierce dissensions prevail. There are numerous fasts and feast-days. Drinking (of beer and mead) is carried to excess. Beef is eaten raw, and, if possible, while yet warm. The custom reported by Bruce, of cutting a steak from a live cow, is still not unknown.
History.—The native annals of Abyssinia, tracing their kings from Menilek, the son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, down to recent times, are manifestly fabulous. The real history begins with the kingdom of Axum (see AXUM, ETHIOPIA). Christianity was introduced in the 4th century. Under the Axumite rulers, Abyssinia attained its greatest extent and prosperity in the 6th century, when it embraced Yemen in Arabia. But by the conquests of the Mohammedans in the following century, the frontiers were driven back to the limits of the tableland, and the Abyssinians were cut off from intercourse with the rest of the world. During these struggles the capital was removed from Axum to Gondar, where the monarchs dignified themselves with the title (assumed about the end of the 13th century) of Negusa Nagast za-Itjopja (king of kings of Ethiopia). With the 16th century began the irruptions of the warlike Galla tribes from the interior of the continent, who committed fearful devastations. The search for the kingdom of Prester John (q.v.) brought the Portuguese in contact with Abyssinia in the end of the 15th century. The design was thereupon formed of converting the Abyssinians to the Catholic Church. With this view an embassy was sent to the Negus (1520); and at last, about the beginning of the 17th century, the royal family submitted to the Roman Church. The body of the people, however, looked upon it with aversion; and in 1634, the monarch was obliged to resign in favour of his son, who banished or executed the Catholic priests.
The monarchs lost all control over the great chiefs, who set up as independent rulers in their several provinces. At length Michel Solul, the ruler of Tigré, put the reigning monarch Joas to death (1769); and setting up a member of the royal family as nominal sovereign, exercised at Gondar the powers of sovereignty under the name of Ras or prime minister. Ras Michel was soon driven from power by a Galla chief, who acquired the dominion of Amhara and the control of the titular sovereign, and transmitted his power to his son and grandson. The latter, Ras Ali, held sway in Amhara as viceroy of the empire, when, about 1850, the adventurer Kasa or Kassai, afterwards known as Theodore, began to excite attention. Kassai was a native (born 1816) of Kuara, a province in the west of Amhara, of which his uncle was governor. After the uncle's death, Kassai, defeating the armies of the Ras, compelled his recognition as governor, and became Ali's son-in-law. In 1853 he crushed the Ras, and two years later, after completely defeating the prince of Tigré, he had himself crowned by the Abuna as Negus of Abyssinia, with the name of Theodore. He then subdued the Wollo Gallas; and having next conquered Shoa, he was now master of the whole of Abyssinia, and with greater power than was ever wielded by a Negus. This was the acme of his fortunes, which henceforth began to decline. At first he ruled prudently and with moderation, being chiefly guided by two Englishmen, Mr Plowden and Mr Bell, who had become resident in the country, and the former of whom had been appointed consul. But after he lost his two counsellors (who were killed in an attack by a rebel chief in 1860), his rule became more and more tyrannous. The enormous army (as many at one time as 150,000 out of a population of 3 or 4 millions) exhausted the resources of the country. One province after another rose in rebellion, unable to bear the exactions; and these insurrections were suppressed with unrelaxed rigour.
Theodore had made several attempts to procure the active alliance of England and France against the Mussulman powers; and as all his efforts had failed, he now began to entertain hatred towards Europeans. When Captain Cameron went to Abyssinia in 1862 as consul, Theodore gave him a letter to Queen Victoria, of which, by some neglect, no notice was taken. A similar letter to the Emperor of the French received an answer, but not from the Emperor himself; and these circumstances so enraged Theodore that he began to maltreat the consuls and their servants, and kept them prisoners along with the missionaries and other Europeans in his dominions. The British Government in 1864 sent envoys to Theodore with a royal letter and presents, to treat of the release of the prisoners. The negotiations failed, and the three envoys were put in irons, and shut up along with the other prisoners in the fortress of Magdala. A British military expedition was now resolved upon, and General (afterwards Lord) Napier was chosen as chief. The troops consisted of 16,000 men of all arms, while the transport service and camp-followers numbered at least as many more. The place of landing was Annesley Bay, and on the 9th April 1868 they reached Magdala. They had met with no obstruction from the inhabitants, who rather welcomed them as deliverers from the common enemy. In the meantime, Theodore had occupied the fort with 5000 or 6000 men, three weeks before the arrival of the British. On the 10th April, 5000 Abyssinians rushed down upon a British detachment of 1700 men in the plain below the fort, but their repeated assaults were repulsed with great loss. Theodore sued for peace, and released the prisoners; but as he declined to surrender, the fort was stormed and taken on the 13th. Theodore was found dead—he had shot himself. The fort being demolished, the British forces were entirely withdrawn. The expedition cost the British nation nearly 9 millions sterling.
The departure of the British was the signal for a renewed struggle. Kassai of Tigré vanquished his most powerful rival, and had himself crowned Emperor of Abyssinia in 1872, assuming the name of John. He made repeated but vain attempts to get European help against the Egyptians, with whom Abyssinia had been at enmity since 1860. In 1875 there was a bloody but short and indecisive war between the Khedive's forces and the Abyssinians; and frontier difficulties continued until the Soudan was evacuated by Egypt in 1882. In 1885 the Italians occupied Massowah. On the death of John in 1889, Menelik, king of Shoa, became Negus of Abyssinia, and by treaty Italy took over all foreign relations. But Menelik was a restive vassal; and in February 1896 an Italian expedition was utterly defeated by Menelik near Adowa, the survivors of the Italian army being captured. The treaty of November 1896, which released the Italian prisoners, acknowledged the complete independence of Abyssinia.
Italy retained only the coast strip; Kassala was given to Britain in 1897; in 1898 the Negus ceded 8000 miles of Somali-land to Britain. There have been repeated British missions to the Negus (notably one under Mr Rennell Rodd in 1897); also French, Russian, and other missions.
See besides the articles ETHIOPIA, AXUM, BRUCE, works on Abyssinia by Bruce (1790), Salt (1814), Parkyns (1853), the brothers Abbadie (1830-90), Plowden (1868), Markham (1869), Winstanley (1881), Hartmann (German, 1883), Harrison Smith (1890), Portal (1891), Münzenberger (German, 1892), Bent (1893), Prince Henri d'Orleans (1898), and Gleichen (1898).