Emfraz

Infobox Settlement
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pushpin_label_position =right
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pushpin_map_caption =Location in Ethiopia
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_type1 = Region
subdivision_name =‎ Ethiopia
subdivision_name1 = Amhara Region
subdivision_type2 = Zone
subdivision_name2 = Semien Gondar Zone
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population_total = 9,162 (est)
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timezone = EAT
utc_offset = +3
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utc_offset_DST = 12° 16' 1.20", +37° 38' 42.00"
latd=12|latm=16|lats=1|latNS=N
longd=37|longm=38|longs=42|longEW=E
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Emfraz or Enfraz (also spelled "Imfraz", "Infraz", Ge'ez: እምፍራዝ "imfrāz" or እንፍራዝ "infrāz". Also called "Guba'e", Ge'ez: ጉባኤ "gūbā'ē", "assembly" and "Guzara", Ge'ez: ጉዛራ, "gūzārā") [Hiob Ludolf refers to the town as Gubae, or "Assembly", and stated that it was the residence of the Queen of Ethiopia.] is a historic town and district in northern Ethiopia. Located in the mountainous area overlooking the northeast shore of Lake Tana in the Semien Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of coord|12|16|N|37|38|E.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Emfraz has an estimated total population of 9,162, of whom 4,375 were males and 4,787 were females. [ [http://www.csa.gov.et/text_files/2005_national_statistics.htm CSA 2005 National Statistics] , Table B.4] The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 5,302 of whom 2,302 were males and 3,000 were females. It is one of four towns in Gondar Zuria woreda.

History

The earliest notice of Emfraz was in the 14th century, when Gebre Iyasu, a disciple of Ewostatewos, founded a monastery there. [Taddesse Tamrat, "Church and State in Ethiopia" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p.208] The Imam Ahmad Gragn camped there during the rainy season of 1543, after he defeated Cristovão da Gama at the Battle of Wofla. The Emperor Menas later used it as his camp during the rainy season of 1559, [Ref Ethiopia|Pankhurst-1982|pages= p. 94] and thereafter it was favored as an administrative center by the succeeding Emperors: Sarsa Dengel spent the rainy season there three times between 1571 and 1580, then every rainy season for four years beginning with 1585, eventually building a stone castle there, possibly modelled on the Ottoman fort at Debarwa. [Pankhurst, "History", p. 96. According to Pankhurst, the ruins of this structure can still be seen.]

Despite the move of the capital to Gondar, Emfraz still retained some importance in the following years. When the European traveller Charles Poncet visited the town around 1700, he compared it favorably to Gondar. He describes how it was an important marketplace for slaves and civet, favored by Ethiopian Muslims because the there they could openly practice their religion, unlike in Gondar. [William Foster, editor, "The Red Sea and Adjacent Countries" (London, Hakluyt Society, 1949), pp. 136, 143] The Emperor Tewoflos held his coronation in Emfraz a few years later.

While over the next fifty years Emfraz declined in importance, when James Bruce visited the town he remarked on its trade in blue Surat cloth with the Oromo. [Pankhurst, "History", pp. 97f]

Records at the Nordic Africa Institute website records that by 1967 the Ethiopian Telecommunications Company had a pay telephone station in this town, but no telephone subscribers. [ [http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/i/ORTIND.pdf "Local History in Ethiopia"] (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 3 June 2008) ]

Notes

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External links

* [http://pwp.netcabo.pt/patrimonio.sgl/sitebuild/architecture/guzara_and_dabsan_.htm 16th century Guzara castle and 17th century Dabsan or "Patriarch's house" in Enfraz district] .