Battle of Debre Abbay
| date | February 14. 1831 |
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| place | Tigray Province , Ethiopia |
| output | Victory of the Yejju Oromo |
| Parties to the conflict | |
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Tigray |
Yejju Oromo |
| Commander | |
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The Battle of Debre Abbay was fought by Ras Marye of Yejju , the regent of the Ethiopian emperor, and his rival Dejazmach Sabagadis of Agame , from the Tigray province . Ras Marye fell in battle, but his followers, the Oromo , won the battle and killed Dejazmach Sabagadis after his surrender.
Ras Marye had inherited the title of Regent of the Ethiopian Emperor . Although he was of Christian faith, his ethnic origin as Oromo earned him the resentment of the Ethiopian nobility. Dejazmach Sabagadis tried to take advantage of the unpopularity of the regent and entered into an alliance against Ras Marye with Gojam , Lasta and Semien , two other Christian nobles of Ethiopia.
However, Ras Marye found out about this conspiracy, attacked his opponents involved in the alliance individually and defeated them. After defeating Dejazmach Goshu in Gojam, Ras Marye turned north, invaded Semien and attacked Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam . This received no support from his ally Sabagadis and surrendered to Wube instead of facing him alone to fight. Then Ras Marye crossed the Tekezé to attack the now reliant Sabagadis. He was supported not only by Oromo troops from Wollo , Yejju , Begemder and Amhara , but also by the armed forces of his former opponents Dejazmaches Wube and Goshu.
On February 14, 1831 , the two opposing armies met at Mai Islami near Debre Abbay (this is why the battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Mai Islami ). Sabagadi's forces had a much higher number of firearms, but his shooters were poorly used and failed to overpower the famous Oromo cavalry. The battle was extremely costly and Ras Marye himself was killed. After his defeat, the Dejazmach tried to save himself from the revenge of the followers of Ras Maryes by surrendering to his former ally Wube. Wube, however, handed him over to the victorious Oromo, who executed the Dejazmach.
Under their new leader, Ras Dori von Yejju , the Oromo ravaged Tigray, but then withdrew to Begemder when his health deteriorated before his death. In the turmoil after Sabagadi's death, Wube succeeded in asserting himself as the most powerful warlord of Tigray.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The description of the battle is based on the following source: Abir, The Era of the Princes: the Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of the Christian empire, 1769-1855 (London: Longmans, 1968) pp. 35f.
- ↑ Samuel Gobat describes the reign of terror after the defeat in his book Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia , 1851 (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), pp. 385–389.