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Amhara
አማራ

1st row: Sahle Selassie • Menelik II • Zewditu 2nd row: Haile Selassie • Tewodros II
Total population
20,330,000
Regions with significant populations
Ethiopia 19,870,651
United States	127,000
Israel	100,000
Sudan	85,000
Somalia	58,000
Eritrea	32,000
Canada	16,000
Sweden	12,000
Yemen	9,400
Germany	5,800
Djibouti	4,300
Norway	3,200
Egypt	3,200
Languages
Amharic
Religion
Ethiopian Church · Sunni Islam · Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Tigrinya · Tigre and other Habesha people

Amhara (Template:Lang-am, Template:Lang-gez) are an ethnic group (but see below) inhabiting the central highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census. They speak Amharic, the working language of the federal authorities of Ethiopia, and traditionally dominated the country's political and economic life.

Etymology

The derivation of the name "Amhara" is debated; according to some it comes from the word amari, meaning "pleasing, agreeable, beautiful and gracious" (also mehare, "gracious", containing the same m-h-r root as the verb to learn), while some Ethiopian historians such as Getachew Mekonnen Hasen say it is an ethnic name connected with Himyarites. Still others say that it derives from Ge'ez, meaning "free people" (i.e. from Ge'ez ዓም "ʿam" meaning "people," and ሓራ "h.ara" , meaning "free" or "soldier"), though others, such as Donald Levine, have dismissed this as a folk etymology. Ultimately, however, the name for the language and ethnic group came from the medieval province of Amhara, located in central Ethiopia in modern Amhara Region and the pre-1995 province of Wollo.

Agriculture

About 90% of the Amhara are rural and make their living through farming, mostly in the Ethiopian highlands. Prior to the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution, absentee landlords maintained strict control over their sharecropping tenants, often allowing them to accumulate crippling debt. After 1974, the landlords were replaced by local government officials, who play a similar role.

Barley, corn, millet, wheat, sorghum, and teff, along with beans, peppers, chickpeas, and other vegetables, are the most important crops. In the highlands one crop per year is normal, while in the lowlands two are possible. Cattle, sheep, and goats are also raised.

Religion

The predominant religion of the Amhara for centuries has been Christianity, with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church playing a central role in the culture of the country. According to the 1994 census, 81.5% of the population of the Amhara region (which is 91.2% Amhara) were Ethiopian Orthodox; 18.1% were Muslim, and 0.1% were Protestant ("P'ent'ay"). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church maintains close links with the Egyptian Coptic Church. Easter and Epiphany are the most important celebrations, marked with services, feasting and dancing. There are also many fast days throughout the year, when only vegetables or fish may be eaten.

Marriages are often arranged, with men marrying in their late teens or early twenties. Traditionally, girls were married as young as 14, but in the 20th century, the minimum age was raised to 18, and this was enforced by the Imperial government. Civil marriages are common, as well as churches. After a church wedding, divorce is frowned upon. Each family hosts a separate wedding feast after the wedding.

Upon childbirth, a priest will visit the family to bless the infant. The mother and child remain in the house for 40 days after birth for physical and emotional strength. an infant boy is baptized on the 40th day and eighty days for a girl, before going to the church for baptism.

Art

Ethiopian art is typified by religious paintings. One of the most notable features of these is the large eyes of the subjects, who are usually biblical figures.

History

Certain Semitic-speaking tribes, notably the Habesha, built the Kingdom of Aksum around two millennia ago, and this expanded to contain what is now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, and at times, portions of Yemen and Sudan. The Amhara inherit their religion and monarchical tradition from Axum, as do Tigrayans .

The region now known as "Amhara" in the feudal era was composed of several provinces with greater or less autonomy, which included Gonder, Gojjam, Wollo and Shewa.

Some time in the late Middle Ages, the Amharic and Tigrinya languages began to be differentiated. Amhara warlords often competed for dominance of the realm with Tigrayan warlords. While many branches of the Imperial dynasty were from the Amharic speaking area, a substantial amount were from Tigray. The Amharas seemed to gain the upper hand with the accession of the so-called Gondar line of the Imperial dynasty in the beginning of the 17th century. However, it soon lapsed into the semi-anarchic era of Zemene Mesafint ("Era of the Princes"), in which rival warlords fought for power and the Yejju Oromo inderases (or regents) had effective control, while emperors were just as figureheads . The Tigrayans only made a brief return to the throne in the person of Yohannes IV, whose death in 1889 allowed the base to return to the Amharic speaking province of Shewa.

The Amhara have contributed many rulers over the centuries. The latter include Haile Selassie, who was of mixed heritage. Haile Selassie's mother was paternally of Oromo descent and maternally of Gurage heritage, while his father was paternally Oromo and maternally Amhara. He consequently would have been considered Oromo in a patrilineal society, and would have been viewed as Gurage in a matrilineal one. However, in the main, Haile Selassie was regarded as Amhara: his paternal grandmother's royal lineage, through which he was able to ascend to the Imperial throne.

One possible source of confusion for this stems from the mislabelling of all Amharic-speakers as "Amhara", and the fact that many people from other ethnic groups have Amharic names. Another is the fact that most Ethiopians can trace their ancestry to multiple ethnic groups. In fact, the last Emperor, Haile Selassie I, often saw himself a member of the Gurage tribe on account of his ancestry, and his Empress, Itege Menen Asfaw of Ambassel, was in large part of Oromo descent . The expanded use of Amharic language results mostly from its being the language of the court, and was gradually adopted out of usefulness by many unrelated groups, who then became known as "Amhara" no matter what their ethnic origin.

Validity of ethnic group status

Up until the last quarter of the 20th century, "Amhara" was only used (in the form amariñña) to refer to Amharic, the language, or the medieval province located in Wollo (modern Amhara Region) . Still today, most people labeled by outsiders as "Amhara," refer to themselves simply as "Ethiopian," or to their province (e.g. Gojjamé from the province Gojjam) . According to Ethiopian ethnographer Donald Levine, "Amharic-speaking Shewans consider themselves closer to non-Amharic-speaking Shewans than to Amharic-speakers from distant regions like Gonder." Amharic-speakers tend to be a "supra-ethnic group" composed of "fused stock." Takkele Taddese describes the Amhara as follows:

The Amhara can thus be said to exist in the sense of being a fused stock, a supra-ethnically conscious ethnic Ethiopian serving as the pot in which all the other ethnic groups are supposed to melt. The language, Amharic, serves as the center of this melting process although it is difficult to conceive of a language without the existence of a corresponding distinct ethnic group speaking it as a mother tongue. The Amhara does not exist, however, in the sense of being a distinct ethnic group promoting its own interests and advancing the Herrenvolk philosophy and ideology as has been presented by the elite politicians. The basic principle of those who affirm the existence of the Amhara as a distinct ethnic group, therefore, is that the Amhara should be dislodged from the position of supremacy and each ethnic group should be freed from Amhara domination to have equal status with everybody else. This sense of Amhara existence can be viewed as a myth.

See also

• Habesha
• History of Ethiopia
• Solomonic dynasty

References

1. Haile Selassie's mother was paternally of Oromo descent and maternally of Gurage heritage, while his father was paternally Oromo and maternally Amhara. He consequently would have been considered Oromo in a patrilineal society, and would have been viewed as Gurage in a matrilineal one. However, in the main, Haile Selassie was regarded as Amhara: his paternal grandmother's royal lineage, through which he was able to ascend to the Imperial throne (see history).
2. ^ "Census 2007", first draft, Table 5.
3. ^ "Joshua Project – Amhara, Ethiopian Ethnic People in all Countries". U.S. Center for World Mission. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
4. Amharic-speaking Jews component 85% from Beta Israel; Anbessa Tefera (2007). "Language". Jewish Communities in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries – Ethiopia. Ben-Zvi Institute. p.73 (Hebrew)
5. Getachew Mekonnen Hasen, Wollo, Yager Dibab (Addis Ababa: Nigd Matemiya Bet, 1992), p. 11.
6. Herausgegeben von Uhlig, Siegbert, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003. pp. 230.
7. FDRE States: Basic Information – Amhara, Population (accessed 26 March 2006)
8. ^ "African Marriage ritual". Retrieved 9 February 2011.
9. Kjetil Tronvoll, Ethiopia, a new start?, (Minority Rights Group: 2000)
10. Peter Woodward, Conflict and peace in the Horn of Africa: federalism and its alternatives, (Dartmouth Pub. Co.: 1994), p.29.
11. Donald N. Levine "Amhara," in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica:A-C, 2003, p.231.
12. ^ Takkele Taddese "Do the Amhara Exist as a Distinct Ethnic Group?" in Marcus, Harold G., ed., Papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, 1994, pp.168–186.

Bibliography

• Wolf Leslau and Thomas L. Kane (collected and edited), Amharic Cultural Reader. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2001. ISBN 3-447-04496-9.

Further reading

• Donald N. Levine, Wax & Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture (Chicago: University Press, 1972) ISBN 0-226-45763-X

External links

• Lemma, Marcos (MD, PhD). "Who ruled Ethiopia? The myth of 'Amara domination'". Ethiomedia.com. Retrieved 28 February 2005.
• People of Africa, Amhara Culture and History

v t e Habesha peoples
	Amhara Gurage Tigrayan Zay Tegaru-Tigrinya People of Ethiopia People of Eritrea
	Multi-ethnic civic nationalism Ethiopian nationalism Eritrean nationalism

v t e Eastern Christianity
Cultural area of Christian traditions that developed since Early Christianity in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, North and East Africa, Asia Minor, South India, and parts of the Far East.
Main divisions	Communions Eastern Orthodox Church Oriental Orthodox Churches Eastern Catholic Churches Assyrian Church of the East Ancient Church of the East Independent Churches/Communions Old Believers Spiritual Christianity True Orthodox churches Tolstoyans Protestantism Eastern Protestantism	Christ Pantocrator (circa 1261) in Hagia Sophia
History	Christianization of Armenia Christianization of Georgia Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire Copts Proto-orthodoxy Ecumenical council Heresies Nestorianism Iconoclasm Paulicianism Bogomilism Church of the East China Sichuan India Mongols Oriental Orthodox Churches Council of Chalcedon Saint Thomas Christians/Malankara Church Arab Christians Antiochian Greek Christians Melkite Ghassanids Christianization of Bulgaria Christianization of Kievan Rus' Turkic Christians Eastern Orthodox Church East–West Schism Raskol Moscow–Constantinople schisms 15th–16th centuries schism 1996 schism 2018 schism
Scriptures	Canon Old Testament New Testament Deuterocanon Septuagint Peshitta
Theology	Hesychasm Icon Apophaticism Filioque clause Miaphysitism Dyophysitism Nestorianism Theosis Theoria Phronema Philokalia Praxis Theotokos Hypostasis Ousia Essence–energies distinction Metousiosis
Worship	Sign of the cross Divine Liturgy Iconography Asceticism Omophorion

• Use dmy dates from September 2011
• Habesha peoples
• Ethnic groups in Ethiopia