The ruler of Abyssinia Negus ("king of kings") Menelik II in 1894, shortly after he ascended the throne and was crowned, undertook a major military operation in a completely different direction from where he was expected to be active. And this led to unexpected results.
For many years Abyssinia was in a state of war with countries such as Great Britain and Italy, which were trying to turn the ancient country mentioned in biblical texts into an ordinary African colony.
However, the Negus, at the head of an 18,000th army, set out to its southwestern border, where there were no enemy armies, and for a long time disappeared from the field of view of European observers in the wildest areas.
Negus Menelik II.
The path of his army lay to Lake Suai, the purpose of the campaign was to capture the Debro-Sina group of islands, stretching over 700 square kilometers. Why would Menelik go with a large army to these islands, which were so part of the territory under his control? This question is not so easy to answer.
Otherwise, this country is called Ethiopia, and its rulers - Negus - descended from the ruler of those places, the Queen of Sheba and the biblical king Solomon. The preachers were among the first to convert the inhabitants of Abyssinia to Christianity, even in the times of the Apostles, and the original culture, very close in spirit to the Orthodox, developed for many centuries surrounded by tribes that did not accept Christianity.
The Abyssinian clergy were considered the most educated class in society, and the Negus himself had a religious education. A unique library of ancient manuscript books and scrolls was gradually gathered in the country, which was kept in the palace of the Negus, as well as in the book depositories of numerous monasteries.
Abyssinia, map of the 17th century.
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When, in the 16th century, the troops of the peoples professing Islam came to the borders of ancient Abyssinia, fearing that in the event of the capture of the capital and the destruction of monasteries, most of the precious manuscripts would perish, by order of the then negus, the books were collected and, together with the royal treasury, were secretly taken far to the south-west country, in the area of Lake Suai.
On the islands of Debro-Sina, dug by numerous caves, they hid treasures and books, and those who took out these valuables were ordered to guard them until their rightful owners arrived for them - the Negus or those whom the Negus would send.
The struggle with the opponents dragged on for many years, and therefore the rulers of Abyssinia considered it good to leave the treasure where they sent it, and those who guarded it remained to live on the islands. Over time, those who arrived there with the caravan died, bequeathed to their children to keep books and jewelry.
The children of those heirs received the same covenant, and so a separate tribe was formed on the islands, the main purpose of whose life was the protection of the caves. Already nobody remembered what the mission was. The protection of the caves has become a ritual act, the desire not to let anyone into the islands, the meaning of life.
Menelik came for the inheritance of his ancestors in order to show the whole world the antiquity of his country and the legitimacy of his power over it, but it was not easy for him to do this. The shores of Lake Suai were swampy and impassable, a lot of unafraid beasts settled in the coastal reeds, people rarely came here - it was a long way to get to these places, and the warlike islanders did not like newcomers.
Menelik ordered his soldiers to cut trees and knit rafts, loaded people and artillery on them, and so his army moved along the waters of the lake to the islands. Here they were trapped by another danger - a huge number of hippos lived in the lake, who also did not want to put up with the fact of the invasion of their "original territory".
Herds of huge animals literally attacked the flotilla of rafts, and if not for the guns of the Abyssinians, they would have had to die. By order of the Negus, the gunners opened rapid fire from all their guns at the hippos, turning them into a panicky flight.
Having made their way through this natural obstacle, the rafts of Menelik's army approached the islands and saw that the army of the tribe guarding the caves was standing on the shore, in full readiness to repel the invasion. Negus ordered, to demonstrate his strength and power, to shoot several times over the enemy's heads from cannons and to fire a volley of blanks from rifles.
The explosions of shells and thunderous volleys sowed panic in the ranks of the islanders, and by the time the first raft hit their shore, they had already decided to surrender to the powerful sorcerer without any resistance.
Negus Menelik II and his retinue.
As befits a great ruler, the Negus sent courtiers to the island to bring the leaders of the tribe to him, whom he graciously accepted on the shore, assuring them that he did not wish them harm, but only came to take what was his. He ordered to take him to the place where the treasures and books were kept, and the leaders, obeying him, led Menelik and his people to the storehouse, which became for them a kind of temple.
It turned out that for at least 200 years there was not a single literate on the island: the books that the islanders guarded had no practical value for them - they worshiped them, considering these objects sacred.
The islanders fished, hunted hippos, cultivated vegetable gardens, reaped fruit, and occasionally raided coastal tribes to obtain what the lake could not provide, as well as for brides to avoid degeneration.
With such a lifestyle, literate people simply had nowhere to come from. For several centuries they had a library in their hands, with the help of which they could convert the whole of Africa to Christianity, but what good was it if no one on the island could read.
Menelik examined the main repository, finding all the manuscripts in excellent condition, and made a decision quite worthy of his distant ancestor, the wise king Solomon. He solemnly announced that he would grant the tribal leaders the title of "Keepers of Lore" and leave the library and treasury in their care.
The Negus ordered the books to be wrapped in silk, for greater safety, and to establish a monastery on the islands, the monks of which would be engaged in the analysis of ancient manuscripts and copying the most valuable of them. These copies were allowed to be removed from the island, and the originals still had to remain in place.
Negus planned to strengthen the islands militarily and organize a steamship service on the lake, but history ordered in such a way that neither Menelik nor his followers were able to carry out these plans.
For more than one generation, Ethiopian manuscripts have occupied the attention of scientists all over the world, but, unfortunately, not only them, since many swindlers put fakes on the market. The demand for these scriptures is so great because, according to legend, they contain many prophecies about the future of humanity.
Several ancient books in the form of handwritten scrolls were sent to Russia with Abyssinian embassies, which, as a rule, consisted of clergy. They were presented to the emperor as gifts of negus "to his brother, the great White Tsar."
Today they are located somewhere in Russian storage facilities. Only a narrow circle of specialists know about them, and only a few have access to them, not in a hurry to notify people about what they managed to read in them. Why? And this is one of the secrets of our time - unlike many others, it is quite genuine.
Valery Yarkho, magazine "Riddles of History" No. 51, 2017