By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
Harbe, whose history we considered last week. was succeeded by his
brother Lalibala. The best known of the Zagwe rulers he is renowned as a
great builder, or, more exactly, excavator of rock-hewn churches.
Lalibala and Legend
Lalibala’s life is enshrined in legend. It is traditionally claimed
that he was surrounded, shortly after his birth, by a cloud of bees,
whereupon his mother, seized by the spirit of prophecy, cried out, `The
bees know that this child will become king!’. He was accordingly named
Lalibala, which means, `The bee recognises his sovereignty’.
Lalibala, and no doubt other members of his dynasty, are said to have
also asserted their legitimacy by reference to Biblical writ. They are
reported to have identified themselves with Moses, who, according to the
Book of Numbers, 12:1, had `married an Ethiopian woman’. Abu Salih,
probably reflecting a contemporary local tradition, claims that the
Zagwe ruler was ‘of the family of Moses and Aaron, on account of the
coming of Moses into Abyssinia’, and that Moses had `married the king’s
daughter’.
Lalibala, who, like some of his predecessors, had his capital at a
place called Edessa, appears to have turned his attention to a nearby
site called Roha, where the land lent itself to the excavation of
rock-hewn churches. The locality was renamed Al-Roha, the Arabic name
for Edessa, the holy city of Syrian Christendom. There he reputedly
built a group of rock-hewn churches, for which he was canonised. They
were so remarkable that after his death the place was renamed Lalibala
in his honour.
Monolithic Churches
Great as was Lalibala’s reported contribution to the excavation of
rock-hewn churches, it should be emphasised that neither he nor his
dynasty was in the initiator of them. Monolithic churches, some in the
vicinity of Aksum, probably date back long before the Zagwe to within a
century or two of the coming of Christianity, and over a hundred have
been described in Tegray alone. Rock-hewn churches can moreover be seen
all over Ethiopia, from east of Keren, in Eritrea, to the vicinity of
Goba, in Bal, a thousand miles away in the south.
The rock churches of Lalibala are unique, not so much for their
beauty and architectural distinction – remarkable as this is, but
because they were located in close proximity to each other. Eleven
churches are situated in two clusters within little more than a stone’s
throw apart. Whether they were all originally churches is, however,
uncertain, and perhaps doubtful. One or more may well have originally
been secular buildings, later converted for ecclesiastical use. Over a
dozen other churches, several very remarkable, are also to be found
within a day or so’s journey of the town.
Francisco Alvares
The first foreign traveller to describe the Lalibala churches was the
early sixteenth century Portuguese traveller Francisco Alvares.
Recalling the impression they made on him, he concludes:
`It wearied me to write more of these works, because it seemed to me
that they will not believe me if I write more, and because as to what I
have already written they will accuse me of untruth. Therefore I swear
by God, in whose power I am, that all that is written is the truth, and
there is much more than I have written, and I have left it that they may
not tax me with its being falsehood’.
The churches, several of which we will consider in greater detail
next week, are eleven in number. They are clustered in two main groups,
with a further isolated church apart from the rest.
The first, and larger, group consists of six churches, namely those
of Madhane Alem, Maryam, Denagel, and in close proximity to each other,
Sellase, Mika’el and Masqal.
The other group comprises four places of worship, i.e. those of Amanu’el, Marqorewos, Abba Libanos, and Gabr’el-Rufa’el.
The single isolated church is that of Giyorgis, i.e. St. George, which is cruciform in shape.
Two of the above structures, Marqorewos and Gabr’el-Rufa’el , may originally have been intended for secular use.
Marqorewos, unlike other Ethiopian churches, does not face to the
East, which would suggest that it was probably not at first conceived as
a place of worship. Gabr’el-Rufa’el has a monument facade, which leads
some authorities to believe that it may have been once a palace. This
view is reinforced by the fact that iron shackles have been found in
that church, giving rise to the belief that captives may once have been
held prisoner there. (It was not unusual in Ethiopia for palaces to have
a room, or rooms, of detention attached to them).
Abba Libanos, according to tradition, was actually the work of Lalibala’s widow Masqal Kebra.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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