The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
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| reached the Foreign Office in London nothing was done about it. The fact was that, at that time, Ethiopian and British interests were far from being in harmony. They differed fundamentally in regard to their attitude towards the Ottoman Empire in particular and to Muslims in general. Theodore's ambition for a crusade found no response in Britain, where a pro-Turkish stance had been adopted in creating the Anglo-French-Turkish alliance against Russia for the prosecution of the Crimean War of 1854-6. Besides, the growing importance both of the Indian possessions and the vital communications route through the Red Sea made the need for maintaining friendly relations with the Islamic world a pillar of British policy. The British Government's failure to reply to his letter, which seems to have been due rather to bureaucratic muddling than deliberate discourtesy, was no doubt a major factor in upsetting the emperor. But minor slights and criticisms easily offended this proud and hot-tempered autocrat. The French, to whom he also made approaches, fared no better and at one moment he exclaimed to Flad, 'I hate all you Europeans; you are all, at heart, my enemies. '(1) Another cause of irritation was the news which had reached him that the British Consul in Jerusalem was no longer safeguarding the interests of the Ethiopian church in Jerusalem. The Turkish authorities had been allowed to expel the clergy from that part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which they had occupied for centuries and had forced them to move on to the roof. And so the relations between Theodore and the Europeans deteriorated. The crisis came when Henry Stern, on a second tour of inspection, was returning, in October 1863, from Gondar to Massawa to embark for England. As he reached the plain of Woggera and finding to his surprise that the emperor was encamped there he decided that 'duty, as well as courtesy, forbade me to advance without saluting His Majesty'. (2) The audience which followed could scarcely have been more disagreeable. Stern and Captain Cameron, the British Consul, were already in Theodore's bad books. The emperor was in ill sorts and had been drinking with his soldiers. When he found that Stern was accompanied by two of Cameron's servants, who were escorting him to the coast, his suspicions were aroused. On a flimsy excuse he ordered the servants to be beaten to death. Forced to witness this atrocity, Stern made an involuntary gesture which the emperor interpreted as a mark of defiance and he immediately (1) Bates, op. cit., p. 49. |
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