of the old line, which still held the government of Shoa, by which Naakweto Laab agreed to abdicate, receiving in return a certain mountainous province as a hereditary possession and the right of sitting on the same kind of chair as that used by the sovereign. By the same treaty one-third of the kingdom was granted to the clergy, and it was provided that no native should ever be Abuna, but that the office should be filled by appointees of the patriarch of Alexandria. This was an attempt to renew some connection with the outer world, and shows that the more intelligent Abyssinians keenly felt their isolation. The rise of the Mohammedan power cut Abyssinia off from the coast; the invasion of the rude Gallas from the south in the sixteenth century introduced an alien race into the country, which has always been a harmful and disturbing element. The true Abyssinian type was produced probably by a mingling of the African Hamitic and the Asiatic Semitic stocks, which here came into contact.
Portuguese Jesuit missionaries came into the country in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Portugal took much interest in Abyssinian affairs, assisting the Negus against his enemies, the Turks. The attempts of the Jesuits to supplant the old faith with that of Rome was intensely displeasing to the Abyssinians, who have always clung loyally to their national church. The Jesuits were expelled in 1633, and Abyssinia relapsed again into practical isolation until the nineteenth century. Occasional African explorers entered Abyssinia from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century (see Bruce, James), and some remained, voluntarily or constrained by the laws of the country, which at times were hospitable to the admission of travelers, but did not allow their departure. In the middle of the nineteenth century the power was in the hands of Ali, a ras or prince of the barbarous Gallas, when it was seized by Lij Kasa, an adventurer who was crowned as Negus with the name of Theodore, in 1854. He was at first very friendly to the English, and acted to a great extent under the advice of the English consul, Mr. Plowden; but meeting difficulties in his task of imposing unity upon the disorganized country, he became morose, and taking offense at the neglect by the English Government of a letter sent by him to Queen Victoria, he imprisoned Mr. Cameron, then British consul, and his suite, and followed this by seizing and holding the members of the mission sent by the British Government under Mr. Rassam to negotiate for freeing the consul. After prolonged and useless attempts at negotiation, an army of English and Indian troops, under Sir Robert Napier, invaded the country, and in a vigorous campaign captured Magdala, Theodore's chief stronghold, and released the prisoners (April 13, 1868). Theodore at once committed suicide. He was succeeded by John, ras of Tigré, who proved unequal to the task of quelling rebellion. He fell in 1889 in battle with the dervishes of the Sudan, and Menelek II., ras of Shoa, who claims to represent the old line of kings, obtained the crown.
Menelek represents in the main the spirit of progress. As the only country in tropical Africa suitable for the residence of white men, with considerable latent resources, and its position in the upper basin of the Nile, Abyssinia, with its almost impregnable highlands, is an important stronghold on the borders of savage Africa, and a commanding point with relation to surrounding territories under European flags. It has therefore become an object of interest to European powers since the opening of Africa to trade and colonization.
Italy, eager for lands, began to look in this direction as early as 1870, and having occupied several hundred miles of the Red Sea littoral about Massowah (1881-85), it commenced aggressions upon Abyssinian territory, which would have resulted in open war but for the intervention of England, through the friendly mission of Sir Gerald Portal. The Italians claimed a protectorate over Abyssinia by virtue of a clause in the treaty of Uchali (1889), which read differently in the Amharic and Italian versions. Menelek denounced this treaty in 1893, and when the Italians occupied Kassala in the following year, as an outcome of the Anglo-Italian agreement of 1891, defining the spheres of influence of the two nations, Abyssinia renewed hostilities (1895). After sustaining a terrible defeat at Adowa, March 1, 1896. Italy was compelled, in the treaty of Addis Abeba (October 26, 1896), to recognize fully the independence of Abyssinia. Great Britain, by treaty, in 1898 ceded to Abyssinia about 8000 square miles of British Somaliland, and established a political agency at the Abyssinian capital. The title of the Abyssinian sovereign is Negus Negusti, King of Kings, or more fully in English, "King of the Kings of Ethiopia and Conquering Lion of Judah."
See Africa, section History; Italy. Consult: Wylde, Modern Abyssinia (London, 1891), a useful historical and descriptive book by an English consul-general to the Red Sea; Vivian, Abyssinia (New York, 1901), a recent work by an intelligent observer; Portal, My Mission to Abyssinia (London, 1892); Rassam, Narrative of the British Mission to Abyssinia (London, 1869); Markham, A History of the Abyssinian Expedition (London, 1869), containing an excellent summary of Abyssinian history; Vignéras, Une mission française en Abyssinie (Paris, 1897); Rohlfs, Meine Mission nach Abyssinien (Leipzig, 1883); Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, Volume 1. (London, 1899); T. Bent, The Sacred City of the Ethiopians (London, 1893); Welby, 'Twixt Sirdar and Menelek (London, 1901).
AB'YSSIN'IAN CHURCH, The. The Church founded about the middle of the fourth century by Frumentius (q.v.), whose titles Abuna ("our father") and Abba Salamah ("father of peace") are still used by his successors. The abuna, the head of the Church, is never an Abyssinian, and is appointed by the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria. He is bishop of Axum. In Christology the Church is monophysite; the secular priests are allowed to marry once: circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Levirate law are adhered to. Baptism (of adults by trine immersion, infants by aspersion) and the Eucharist (in which grape juice is exclusively used) are accepted; but confirmation, transubstantiation, extreme unction, purgatory, crucifixes, and image worship are all forbidden. There are 180 festivals and 200 fast days. The Scriptures are read in Geez or Ethiopic, which is now a dead language. The attempts of Roman Catholics and Protestants to build up missions among these Christians have not been permanently successful.
