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ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM OF ALEQA WOLDE MARIAM'S CHRONICLE OF TEWODROS II (R. 1855-1868) [Abstract ID: 0513-03]
Chronicles had been an important component of the Ethiopian historical milieu until the beginning of the 20th century. The tradition of composing Christian-Ge’ez chronicles dates as far back as the 14th century, though there existed an earlier local Arabic tradition.
Among three of the chronicles written on the reign of Emperor Tewodros II, one was composed by Aleqa Wolde Maryam. Wolde Mariam was not Tewodros’s court chronicler. He was a confidant of Abune Selama, the then Egyptian metropolitan of Ethiopia. He completed composing his chronicle of Tewodros around 1880/81, a little over a decade after the tragic death of the monarch. The story in this chronicle covers the life of the sovereign from Quara to Magdala- from childhood to end of his life in a fairly genuine but sketchy manner. The fact that Wolde Mariam’s chronicle is critical in treating both the positive and negative aspects of Tewodros’s period has necessitated a deeper analysis and criticism of it in this article. Besides this very chronicle, several other primary and secondary sources, including the other two chronicles of Emperor Tewodros II, have been used in the process of writing this article. In so doing, the facts provided in the chronicle were checked against other pertinent sources of the period for reliability and authenticity. This article contends that the chronicle, with all the limitations it has, can yield a great deal of information about the life and times of Emperor Tewodros II with which a balanced view of the period can be made.