|
|
|
Caught in the Storm of Progress: Timoteos Saprichian, Ethiopia, and the Modernity of Christianity*
JAMES DE LORENZI
University of Pennsylvania
| WHEN TIMOTEOS SAPRICHIAN departed from Jerusalem in 1867, he ventured into a corner of the Ottoman world in profound upheaval. Arriving first in Jaffa, he and his companions traversed northeast Egypt by train, meeting along the way many of the foreign emissaries then transforming the region's cites and countryside.1 After reaching Suez, he inspected the canal's final stages of construction, briefly visiting European firms interested in enhancing their prestige with the local community of Armenian laborers. He then boarded a British steamer, just emptied of haj pilgrims and Indian migrant workers, before sailing to Jedda and then back across the Red Sea to southern Sudan. In doing so, he quite consciously noted the crossing of a familiar frontier, remarking that the last Ottoman consul in Arabia was "a glory to the Grand Vizier on the corner of his empire."2 His party's subsequent switch from the civilized comforts of train and steamer—themselves manifestations of Europe's presence in the region—to a camel caravan surely only confirmed this impression further.3 After crossing the desert and arriving in the Ethiopian highlands, his final destination, he encountered tumult even more extreme than the cultural and economic changes to the north—and moreover, a people and culture much less familiar. He and his companions witnessed the turbulent final year of the reign of Emperor Téwodros II, which plunged the region into violent conflicts pitting local rulers against their emperor, religious dissenters against the Orthodox hierarchy, and, most dramatically, the Ethiopian monarchy against an invasion by the British colonial army. Managing to quietly navigate this political instability, Saprichian and his companions eventually made their way to Adwa, where they began the long return to Jerusalem through the intercession of the British consul. Clearly, it was a journey through a region marked by remarkable transformations—one in which European power was intensifying around the Ottoman Empire as much as within it, and one in which local and supralocal processes of change coalesced. It was, in short, a moment in which the cultures and economies of several global systems of empire were deeply entangled. |
. . . |
There are about 10186 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
