Ethiopian Christian Warrior King

Standing over the body of Prince Khaled, General Abel raised his head to the heavens, arms wide and howled a cry of triumph which reverberated throughout the palace. Although not a large man, General Khaled had about him an air of quiet authority which hinted at ferocious inner strength. Five feet nine inches tall, slender and dark-skinned, clad in a suit of iron armor and kilt, bleeding from a shoulder wound sustained during his fierce battle against the Arab leader, the General was the picture of virility and serenity.

Everywhere he looked, he saw his men, some bloody and barely standing, some hale and hearty but all of them stalwart and strong. The Ethiopian warlord nodded to them, and bent down to attend to a particularly nasty piece of business which could not wait. Such is the business of war, gruesome and bloody, but absolutely necessary at times. In his forty three years, General Abel, son of Ethiopian prince Adama and his consort princess Jerusalem, had seen much of war. He'd fought Somalis, whom the Arabs enslaved before mass-converting them to Islam during their conquest of a wide swatch of East Africa. He never dreamed the defense of his beloved motherland would take him as far away as Mauritania, where the Arabs ruled.

Grabbing the slain Arabian princeling by his blood-matted turban, Abel cleanly cut off his head. Brandishing it in his fist, he showed it to his men. Let no man forget what happens to those who invade the Ethiopian motherland, Abel bellowed, before hurling his vanquished foe's head into the air. His men cheered loudly, their chants filling the remnants of the palace. The Ethiopian warriors cheered their stalwart leader, who had proven once and for all that the fierce Arabian warriors weren't invincible. Before their very eyes he slew one of the most powerful leaders of the Arab world, Prince Khaled, ruler of Mauritania.

General Abel sighed, and crossed himself. Everything he did today he did for the sake of Christendom and the Ethiopian motherland. The Arabs were relentless, eager to subjugate all of Africa and forcing those kissed by the sun to bow to their religion everywhere they went. Already Somalia and many other African kingdoms had fallen before them. Not the Kingdom of Ethiopia, Abel thought bitterly. We are a Christian nation and so we shall remain until Jesus Christ himself comes back. The motherland of Ethiopia will not bow to Arab tyranny disguised as religion. The Arabs first came to the Kingdom of Ethiopia claiming to be messengers of peace, intent on sharing the religion of Islam with the Ethiopians. The reigning ruler of Ethiopia at the time, King Getachew ignored the dire warnings of his closest advisers and actually welcomed the Arabian preachers and scholars into Ethiopia.

At the time of the Arabs arrival, the Kingdom of Ethiopia was made up of Christians and Jews, along with a few Pagans. The wily Arabs proclaimed to love Jesus Christ, whom they called Isa Al Masih in the Arabic language. While many Ethiopians welcomed the Arab visitors and their preachers, General Abel did not number among them. He saw the look of revulsion on the Arab men's faces when they saw semi-nude young Ethiopian men racing through the streets of Arba Minch, southern Ethiopia. Surely men who claim to speak for the One True God couldn't feel disdain bordering on hatred for their fellow man based on appearance?

Out of curiosity, Abel asked one of the Arab preachers for a copy of the Quran. Interesting book, to say the least. The prophet Mohammed clearly stated that the Black man was not below the Arab man or the White man and that feelings of superiority based on race were haram or forbidden in Islam. Yet the Arabs behaved like princes among paupers while visiting the Kingdom Ethiopia, insulting and mistreating the locals on their own soil. They mocked Ethiopian architecture and history, referring to Ethiopians as ignorant savages. While they seemed to barely contain their disdain for Ethiopian men, the lust that Arabian men felt for Ethiopian ladies was evident. They took many Ethiopian women as 'bedroom companions' as they visited town after town, village after village.

General Abel recalled an incident which forever altered his view of the Arabs, whom he had been willing to give the benefit of the doubt until they revealed themselves as the hate-filled wretches they were. In the City of Debre Berhan, central Ethiopia, the General was forced to intervene when Youssef, an Arabian scribe attached to the entourage of Imam Ali Abdullah, got in a row with Laban, a young Ethiopian scholar who accosted Fatouma, a lovely young Arabian woman whom Youssef evidently considered his slave and concubine. Laban told Youssef that in Ethiopia, slavery was illegal and women had rights, which incensed the Arabian scholar to the point that he drew his sword on Laban. The stalwart young Ethiopian promptly disarmed the insolent Arabian scholar, who knew more about literature and religion than combat, and had been ready to spear him when General Abel intervene. Even though the Arabian wretch had insulted Laban's honor and threatened his life, the King of Ethiopia looked on the Arabian visitors fondly and killing any of them without his permission would be considered a crime.

When he questioned Laban about what happened, the General learned that the young Ethiopian only intervened when he saw Youssef the Arabian scholar smack his Arabian female companion in public, as if she was nothing. The resigned look on the beautiful young Arabian woman's face chagrined Laban, and he chivalrously intervened. After helping Youssef to his feet, the General warned him that while in Arabia women were slaves for men, in the Kingdom of Ethiopia, a woman was considered a citizen of the nation, with basically the same rights as men. For Christian values and principles dictated public and private life as well as law and culture in Ethiopian society. When he learned this, Youssef actually scoffed and declared that when Islam became law of the land in Ethiopia, Ethiopian men would be kings and Ethiopian women would be slaves. As it is among men and women in every country dominated by Islam.

The Arab scholar's absolute confidence stunned General Abel, who reiterated that Ethiopian was a Christian country and no force on earth would change that. The Arab had laughed, and General Abel inwardly fought for self-control, asking his savior the Lord Jesus Christ to give him the strength to resist the temptation to gut the insolent Arab where he stood. The Arabs went throughout Ethiopia, sharing their faith to those who would listen. Then came the mosques, and the preachers. All of a sudden, Ethiopian society found itself in turmoil. Many Ethiopians were surprised by what happened, General Abel wasn't one of them.

Men who were once proud Christians converted to Islam and overnight they became filled with arrogance and intolerance, viewing Christians with disdain and superiority, and becoming dictators instead of husbands to their wives at home. The change wasn't just limited to men. Feisty, hot-blooded and fiercely independent Ethiopian Christian women became fascinated by Islam, converted, and actually embraced the values of male domination, female subjugation and religious tyranny fostered onto the new converts of Islam. As their numbers grew, Ethiopian Muslims began threatening the social order. Scandal erupted when Ethiopia's very own King Adama converted to Islam, taking the name Malik Hassan. The King began dismissing his ministers, replacing them with Muslim scholars. He declared that he had seen the light thanks to Islam and that Ethiopian society had to change. He wanted to impose Sharia Law. Only one man dared to oppose the maddened King Adama, and that man was Prince Bekeret, General Abel's older brother.

Prince Bekeret and a group of Ethiopian Christian warriors stormed the Royal Palace of King Adama/Malik in the City of Addis Ababa and after a long drawn-out struggle, King Adama/Malik was beheaded. Prince Bekeret crowed himself the new King of Ethiopia, and declared war on the Ethiopian Muslim community, whom he accused of wanting to enslave their fellow Ethiopians in order to sell out the country to their Arabian masters. Upon hearing this, the Ethiopian Muslim community rose up in rage. Prince Bekeret turned to his brother General Abel and asked him to deal with the Muslim uprising. General Abel did this happily, for he had never trusted the converts anyway.

The General had done his homework on the Arabs. Everywhere they went, they tried to spread their religion by any means necessary. First they came to a country and tried to convert as many of the locals to Islam as possible. Once those new Muslims converts had sufficient numbers, they revolted against the non-Muslims, slaughtering their fellow countrymen just like their Arabian preachers encouraged them to. Thus Somalia, Gambia, Senegal and various other African kingdoms had fallen to Islam thanks to the wily Arabian preachers. General Abel was determined that the same thing wouldn't happen to the motherland of Ethiopia.

As his first order of business, General Abel hunted down Imam Abdullah and his entourage. Accompanying him on this mission was Laban, the brave young Ethiopian who stood up to the Arabian scholar who beat his concubine Fatouma. Laban returned to General Abel's camp one night with a horde of Ethiopian Christian warriors shouting in victory. Their mission had been successful. Laban deposed at the General's feet the severed heads of Imam Abdullah and Youssef. With him Laban also brought a live captive. A tall, curvy, bronze-skinned, raven-haired and green-eyed Arabian beauty originally from Morocco. Fatouma, the former slave and concubine of Youssef the Arab. When General Abel questioned the wisdom of sparing Fatouma's life, she was after all an enemy of Christendom by the very nature of her upbringing, Laban told the General how Fatouma had saved his life the night the Ethiopian Christian troopers stormed the Arabians camp. In his second fight with Youssef, Laban hadn't fared so well for Youssef wounded him with an arrow. The Arabian scholar had been ready to kill him when Fatouma stabbed Youssef in the back, saving Laban.

General Abel looked at the two of them. The young Arabian woman held tightly onto Laban, who cradled her protectively in his strong arms. A tall, dark-skinned and muscular young Ethiopian Christian warrior and an Arabian Muslim female slave. What is to be done with them? Looking Fatouma in the eyes, General Abel asked her why she sided with them. The young Arabian woman glared past him, at Youssef's head, and told him that she was avenging herself on the man who repeatedly raped her and beat her ever since he bought her at a slave auction in Morocco. Laban tenderly took Fatouma's face in his hands and told her that no man had the right to treat a woman like that. In Ethiopia, whose laws are based on Christian values and principles outlined in the Bible, women could be anything they wanted to be. Fatouma nodded and smiled, noting that she'd seen Ethiopian female soldiers among those who stormed the Arabian camp.

Laban and Fatouma smiled at each other, then kissed. The next day, the Christian army's Chaplain, bishop Benti of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, baptised Fatouma and welcomed her into Christianity. That same day, Laban and Fatouma got married. Although the General needed all the able-bodied Christian warriors, both male and female, whom he could find, he allowed Laban to return to Addis Ababa with his new bride. When his brother Bekeret questioned the wisdom of that decision, General Abel laughed and said he was a young man once. Laban wouldn't be able to focus on matters of war with images of his new wife dancing about in his head anyways. Let him enjoy his honeymoon and return to the war effort in a month or two.

The war continued, and the Ethiopian Muslims found a capable leader in Abdirahman, an Ethiopian warrior Prince once known as Abebe before he converted to Islam. Under Abdirahman's leadership, the Ethiopian Muslims were joined by Somali warriors and some Arabian soldiers dispatched from distant Mauritania by relatives of the slain Imam Abdullah. This unified Muslim army began taking the Kingdom of Ethiopia town by town, forcing thousands to convert to Islam or perish. Furious, General Abel retaliated by storming several Somali towns and burning them to the ground. He did the same thing to any Ethiopian Christian town that showed sympathy to the Islamist army. In this fashion, he routed the Muslims and finally killed Prince Abdirahman, though this didn't stop the Muslim war effort. Reinforcements continued to pour in from Somalia, Gambia and Senegal, all funded by distant Mauritania.

A new leader revealed himself to the enemies of the Ethiopian Muslim community. His name was Prince Khaled of Mauritania, nephew of the slain Arabian Imam Abdullah. He came to Ethiopia to conquer it, make it bow to Islam and avenge his uncle. The Ethiopian Christian community rallied behind Prince Bekeret and General Abel, and together with the Jews and Pagans, they were able to rout the Arabian invaders, their Somali allies and the Ethiopian Muslims allied with them. They effectively drove them from the Ethiopian motherland, but this wasn't enough for General Abel, who vowed to destroy the enemies of Christendom wherever they may be found.

For the first time in ages, the two leaders of Ethiopia, the Prince and the General, had a strong disagreement. Prince Bekeret wanted to unify Ethiopia once more. He frowned upon some of the terrible things the General had done during the war. General Abel once crucified five hundred captured Ethiopian Muslim rebels, and hurled their corpses into a pit filled with starving pigs, knowing that pigs are considered unclean beasts by those who follow the religion of Islam. This didn't sit right with many of the commanders of the Ethiopian Christian army, but General Abel was a man no one dared cross. For this, he was no longer seen as the great hero with no fear, savior of Ethiopia and protector of the Christian faith. He was called the Butcher, feared by Muslim and moderate Christian alike.

When General Abel announced his intention to amass an army to travel to distant Mauritania to destroy Prince Khaled and his fleeing armies, the Christian nobility of Ethiopia stood against him. Nevertheless the General gathered an army of twelve thousand 'volunteers', many of them under twenty years of age, and set sail for Mauritania. After traveling three thousand miles across forest and valley, ocean and desert, the Ethiopian Christian army waged a three-year war against the Mauritanians. Fortunately for them, they encountered little resistance for many Mauritanians had gone to fight to defend Muslim lands from European armies during the Crusades. Mauritania itself was largely undefended, city after city fell. General Abel ultimately stormed the palace of Prince Khaled in the City of Atar, in northwestern Mauritania. There, he killed the Prince and his entire family.

General Abel, a Christian warrior from Ethiopia conquered the Kingdom of Mauritania, a Muslim realm which has been a stronghold of the Arabs since time immemorial. When he returned to Ethiopia several years later, he did not receive a hero's welcome, though. His brother Bekeret had become King of Ethiopia in his absence, and promptly threw General Abel in prison upon his return. The man who saved Christendom from radical Islam, the hero who saved a proud African kingdom from Arabian tyranny spent the remainder of his days in a squalid prison. He was put there by his own brother. Such is the fate of many great leaders of African communities in this time and throughout time. They can fight any enemy, vanquish almost any foe, surmount the odds and overcome almost anything. Yet it's always their own brothers who bring about their downfall. It's the way of things in Africa.