Taddesse Tamrat (1935–2013)

Professor Taddesse Tamrat was the leading historian of medieval Ethiopia. His book, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527, published by Oxford University Press in 1972, represented a breakthrough in Ethiopian medieval studies at the time of its publication and is now widely regarded as a classic by the Ethiopianist community. One of the distinctive features of this book is that the author drew upon a large number of hagiographies for his reconstruction. The lives of saints pose a serious challenge to historians because their authors make very serious efforts to demonstrate the holiness of their subjects by concentrating on their miracles and other saintly virtues. For this reason, they include very few, if any, hard historical facts. Taddesse, however, teased an impressive amount of information out of these sources. After the publication of his magnum opus, Professor Taddesse went on to produce other meticulously researched and groundbreaking articles, apart from teaching generations of students.

Professor Taddesse was born on 4 August 1935 in Addis Ababa. His father, aläqa Tamrat Gebre Yesus, was a noted ecclesiastical dignitary in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church. When Taddesse came of age, aläqa Tamrat sent his son to a prestigious church school in Debre Birhan in Northern Shewa; from there the young Taddesse went on to the medieval monastery of Debre Libanos to continue his studies. From these studies, Taddesse acquired, among other things, a mastery of the Ge’ez language, which he would put to excellent use in his later scholarly career.

Taddesse was then sent for modern education to Addis Ababa. From September 1951 to the spring of 1957, Taddesse completed his elementary and secondary education and passed the national school leaving examination with “great distinction.” In the fall of 1957, he joined the University College of Addis Ababa (which later evolved into Haile Selassie I University and was subsequently renamed Addis Ababa University), where he read political science, history, and law, i.e. the composite major that was being offered in those days. He graduated with flying colors and was hence recruited as a graduate assistant in the soon-to-be-established Department of History. For his advanced studies, the University sent him to the prestigious School of African and Oriental Studies of the University of London, where he stayed for four years (1964–68). His thesis, “Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527,” was received with much acclaim by his examiners and was recommended for immediate publication by Oxford University Press.

Upon his return to the university in Addis Ababa, Taddesse embarked on a life of teaching, research, and institution-building. He taught generations of students the medieval history of Ethiopia and advised a large number of undergraduate and graduate students on their theses. Over the years, students produced a series of original and brilliant theses on the various regions of Ethiopia extending from Tegray to Southern Ethiopia. These theses have advanced our knowledge of the country considerably and in every one of them it is easy to see the hand of the master of the historian’s craft—rigorous analysis of the sources and careful historical reconstruction. Professor Taddesse believed also in mentoring young scholars after they were recruited into the University. The present writer is a beneficiary of this mentoring.

He was also engaged in teaching in universities in the United States. From 1973 to 1976, he taught at the University of California at Los Angeles (1973), Bucknell (1973–75), Northwestern (1975–76), and later at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1992–93).

His research continued to focus on medieval history, to which he made a big contribution. His studies can be divided into three themes: (1) processes of ethnic interaction and integration, (2) aspects of the history of the Ethiopian church, and (3) methodological issues. Perhaps his greatest contributions were in the area of ethnic integration and interaction in which he achieved very important breakthroughs in our knowledge of the peopling of medieval Ethiopia. He published four essays on this theme: the history of the Gafat people (now extinct), the Agaw of Gojam, the Gumuz, and the people of Gojam as a whole...