Begemder
Begemder (also
Gondar or
Gonder after
its capital) was a province in the north-western part of
Ethiopia. Its name could come from
Bega (
Beja) plus
meder (land) (meaning land of the Bega or Beja), as an inscription of
Emperor Ezana of
Aksum describes his movement of 4400 conquered Beja to a not yet located province named
Matlia.
[Munro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), pp. 48.] The earliest recorded mention of Begemder was on the
Fra Mauro map, (c.
1460), where it is described as a kingdom. Emperor
Lebna Dengel, in his letter to the King of
Portugal (
1526), also described Begemder as a kingdom but one that was part of his empire.
Following the restoration of Ethiopian rule, in
1942 Semien was added to Begemder. With the adoption of the constitution in
1995, Begemder was divided between the new ethnic regions (or
kilil): a strip in the southwest corner became part of the
Metekel Zone of the
Benishangul-Gumaz Region, another strip in the northwestern corner became part of the
Mi'irabawi Zone of the the
Tigray Region, and the remainder became the basis of the
Amhara Region.
*
History of Ethiopia*
Gondar*
Subdivisions of Ethiopia
