On 7 February 1842, the date given by the historian Sven Rubenson, Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam of Semien and Tigray fought Ras Ali II, the real ruler of Ethiopia, near Debre Tabor. Wube's musketeers routed Ali's army, but a few of Ali's horsemen then captured Wube in his own camp, and the victory passed to Ali.
An empire without an emperor
From 1769 to 1855 Ethiopia went through the Zemene Mesafint, the Era of the Princes. Emperors still sat in Gondar, but they were figureheads: real power had passed to regional lords who fought one another for control. The strongest of them in the 1830s and 1840s was Ras Ali II, of the Oromo dynasty of Yejju, whose capital was Debre Tabor in Begemder; his mother, Menen, also wielded great power.1
Wube Haile Maryam, master of Semien and Tigray, set out to replace him. In 1841 a new Coptic bishop, Abuna Salama, arrived in Ethiopia and joined Wube's cause, which helped him recruit soldiers and win allies. Wube allied himself with Birru Goshu, the young ruler of Gojjam, and denounced Ali as a Muslim at heart who threatened the Church. To bind Birru to him, Wube had his own daughter, Ali's wife, taken from the church of Mahdere Maryam where she had sheltered, and married her to Birru.2
Victory, then capture
The allies marched on Debre Tabor, Ali's seat, and Ali hurried back to meet them. Ali's army was made up largely of Oromo cavalry, and Wube's many guns gave him the advantage. Ali's line broke, he fled, and his army scattered.3
What followed is told in slightly different ways. Plowden, a British consul who arrived a few years later, writes that Birru Goshu, fearing that Wube meant to chain him after the battle, suddenly left the field with his cavalry; Rubenson too has Birru escape to Gojjam. Ferret and Galinier and Plowden agree that Birru Aligaz, a commander of Ali's whom Ferret and Galinier call Ali's uncle, rode with a few horsemen to Wube's camp, found it almost unguarded and captured Wube with his followers, and Rubenson also names Birru Aligaz, a relative and vassal of Ali, as the man who took him. Plowden and the traveler Mansfield Parkyns both say Wube was drunk when he was taken. As the news spread, Ali's men rallied and Wube's army fell apart.4
A strange aftermath
Ali himself did not know he had won. Plowden says he stayed away for seven days and Parkyns for eight before he returned to Debre Tabor. He gave Wube's provinces to Wube's brother, Dejazmach Merso. With the help of Abuna Salama, Wube then negotiated his release, and Ali soon even helped him win back his lands from Merso. The historian Sven Rubenson calls the outcome a puzzle even to contemporaries.5
The victory settled little for Ali. Birru Goshu still openly defied him, and Ali invaded Gojjam year after year without ever capturing him. In 1853 he was overthrown by Kassa Hailu, who was crowned Emperor Tewodros II in 1855 and ended the Era of the Princes. Ethiopia's later wars, including the victory over Italy in 1896, are told in our article on the Battle of Adwa.6
Which day?
The exact date is uncertain. In a later book Sven Rubenson gives 7 February 1842, while Mordechai Abir gives 6 February. In his biography of Tewodros, Rubenson says only February 1842. Ferret and Galinier, who were in Gondar during the campaign, write that Wube's army broke camp on 10 February 1842 and describe several more days of marching and waiting before the battle, which would place the fighting later in February. None of the sources consulted here settles the question, and Ethiopia at the time reckoned dates by its own calendar.7
