Maps, dear reader, were, as you know, rare all over the world in former times -including Ethiopia.
There was, however, one old-time Ethiopian map – or more exactly a diagramatic sketch of one, with which we are concerned today. At least five variations of it are known to the present writer. They are included in five different 18th century Ethiopian manuscripts – works of the later Gondarine period as historians call it.
One of these manuscripts, interestingly enough, was looted by the Napier Expedition from Maqdala, and was placed in the British Museum (later British Library) – but was returned to Ethiopia at the request of Emperor Yohannes IV (reigned 1872-1889). This manuscript, which bore the stamp of the British Museum, is currently in the possession of St Raguel’s Church in the Addis Ababa market area, where it was inspected a few years ago by the present writer.
The map, or diagram, in question is reminiscent of early European Christian maps which put the “holy city” of Jerusalem or the “eternal city” of Rome in the centre of the work, or of Arab maps which place Mecca in that honoured position. The maps with which we are today concerned were, however, Ethiopian maps. As such they indicated the holy Ethiopian city of Aksum, rather than Jerusalem, Rome or Mecca, as their centre.
Aksum, it will be recalled, was the site of the ancient obelisks – and hence in a sense of the birth of Ethiopian civilization. Aksum was the place where many kings of old-time Ethiopia, as well as several later monarchs, were crowned. Aksum was the location of the country’s paramount church – that of St Mary of Seyon. Aksum was the city where the Abun, or Metropolitan of the Ethiopian church, resided, and where Ethiopian priests were ordained.
There was thus – all in all – a strong case for designating Aksum as the centre of the old-time Ethiopian maps which we are today considering.
The maps under consideration consist of three concentric bands, with the name “Aksum” placed in the centre. The innermost band comprises eight sections comprising the cardinal points, and intermediate directions. The map’s outer band indicates what were then considered the most important provinces of historic Ethiopia, and their approximate location as viewed from the map’s central point, i.e. Aksum.
What, you may ask, was the area depicted on these maps?
Central, as we have seen, was Aksum itself, around which are clustered what the Ethiopian map-maker considered his country’s twelve principal provinces. These together cover an area of some three hundred kilometres from north to south, and as many again from east to west.
Three of these provinces, or a quarter of the total, lay to the north or north-east of Aksum. They comprised the provinces of Hamasen, Seraye and Bur. All three were at that time ruled by the Bahr Nagash, who, as his name suggests, was the traditional Ethiopian governor of the Province towards the Red Sea. All three provinces currently form part of Eritrea.
Hamasien, the more northerly of the three, was the location of the town of Debarwa, then the head-quarters of the Bahr Nagash, as well as of the old-time village of Asmara, now capital of Eritrea.
Seraye, south-west of Hamasien, was a region closely associated with Aksum, which lay on the opposite, or southern side of the Marab river. It was a province where Emperors Sayf Ar;ad (reigned 1342-1370) and Lebna Dengel (reigned 1508-1540) had both given important land to the Church of St Mary of Aksum.
Bur, far to the north in the direction of the Red Sea coast, also contained lands subject to the Church of St Mary at Aksum, The province traditionally consisted of two sub-provinces: a highland region known as Upper Bur, and a lowland one, as you would expect, as Lower Bur.
A further six provinces, or half the total, lay to the east, north-east or south-east of Aksum. They consisted from north to south of Agame, Amba Senayt, Garalta, Tanben, Endarta and Sahart.
Five of the above, namely Agame, Garalta, Tanben, Endarta and Sahart, figure in the chronicles of Emperor Zar;a Yaqob (reigned 1433-1468).
Agame, which lay due inland from Bur, was a name dating back to ancient Aksumite times. Its inhabitants by the time the map was made, were beginning to be rated as some of the best riflemen in the entire country.
Amba Senayt, due south of Agame, was the so-called Beautiful Amba, or Mountain – it was reputedly named after a local woman ruler who had once rebelled against an unspecified ruler of earlier time.
The two remaining provinces, to the west and south-west of Aksum respectively, were Shire and Abargale. Both likewise formed part of Zar’a Ya’qob’s domains.
A word in conclusion should be said about the cardinal points as understood in Ethiopia.
The most important – and most visible – were those of the East and West axis, which could easily be identified by the rising and setting of the Sun. These two points were known in Ethiopia as Mesraq, literally Place of Rising, i.e. East; and Me’rab, Place of Setting, i.e. West.
The North-South axis was less important – as evident from the fate of the Ethiopian word Samen. This term, in Aksumite times, originally meant South, and was identified with the mountain range of that name, which stood to the South of Aksum. But, as Ethiopian civilization itself moved south, the said mountains came to be perceived to the north – with the result that the name Samen, formerly meaning South, came to mean North.
So, dear reader, you can truly say, “South – North, Same Thing”.
(Originally published in Capital newspaper)
Richard Pankhurst 
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