Diverting the Nile in Myth and Legend

The Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the 'Gift of the Nile', and so it truly was until the construction of the Aswan Dam. The waters which swelled the Nile during the rainy season in Ethiopia sent a huge volume of water down to Khartoum via the Blue Nile, which there joined the White Nile, and so down to Egypt. The ancient Egyptians dated their years by this event, the season of the Inundation. All over the lands bordering the Nile in the long river valley, a rich dark silt was deposited when the waters went down, rendering Egypt so fertile that its ancient name was Kheme, the Black Land.

The ancients knew where the waters came from, even if later ages forgot. An Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription mentions that a downpour in Punt (nowadays identified as the Sudan/Ethiopia border region) caused the Nile to flood. A natural preoccupation of the Egyptians was attempting to predict the quantity of the inundation each year. Nilometers were constructed so that the rate of flow could be measured, and it could early be seen how ample the waters were likely to be. Incidentally, the record of these can now be employed to reconstruct possible climate trends in Ethiopia as well.

Nothing could impede the massive flow of the stately river. Or could it? Just this doubt sometimes nagged at the minds of the Egyptians, for whom the failure of the Nile caused disastrous famine. It was unfortunate that, sitting right where the largest flow of the waters had its source, was the kingdom of the negusa nagast, King of kings of Ethiopia. This Christian king, by a curious anomaly, received his bishops, always Egyptians, from the patriarch of Alexandria, who lived in Egypt under Muslim jurisdiction. Not infrequently, the kings of Ethiopia were embroiled in rows with Egypt over treatment of Christians and similar matters. Could they interfere with the flow of the Nile? Some thought yes, others rejected the idea.

An early mention of an incident involving the damming of the waters of the Nile is attributed to the patriarchate of Cyril II (1078-92). The story goes that a terrible famine in Egypt was caused by the king of Ethiopia damming the Nile. The Fatimid caliph, al-Mustansir (1039-1094) ordered Patriarch Cyril to send an agent to try to have the dam broken through representations to the king; and this was successful. The Egyptian bishop of Ethiopia, it seems, had also protested at the plan, but had been unable to convince the king. In another version, it was the Patriarch of Alexandria himself who was sent by al-Mustansir, bearing rich gifts. The king met him with reverence and enquired why he had come. After hearing the explanation, the king commanded certain works which restored the flow of the river.

The story, whose main theme recurs not infrequently, seems to be one exploited by the Coptic Christians to influence their treatment at the hands of the sometimes hostile authorities in Egypt. It was nice to know, or at least to say, that down in the mysterious mountains of Abyssinia there was a great king who, at the mere whisper of persecutions for his Christian brothers in Egypt, could react with a terrible weapon. The legendary tone of these tales, however, is probably confirmed by the silence in the official History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria about what would have been so emphatic a propaganda feature for the patriarchate.

Nevertheless, the Ethiopians themselves certainly believed or pretended to believe that they could control the flow of the waters of the Nile, or at least tried to exploit the Egyptians' belief that they could. For example, in the reign of Emperor 'Amda-Tseyon of Ethiopia, in the year 1326, when Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad b. Qala'un was ruler of Egypt, the chronicles mention that envoys from Ethiopia arrived in Cairo. They bore a letter from the emperor, which declared that the sultan should rebuild a number of churches which had been demolished (in 1324), and that the Christians should be well treated. Failing this, he threatened to destroy the mosques in his kingdom, and to tamper with the flow of the Nile. The sultan merely laughed at this and dismissed the embassy. The first threat was a tangible one, and the emperor was throughout his reign engaged in conflict with neighbouring Muslim states. But there has never been any hint - and certainly no demonstrable works - which would encourage the belief that an Ethiopian emperor actually made real efforts to block the Nile.

Still, the story was enjoyed in Ethiopia, entering into the folklore of the country. A book called the Matshafa Tefut relates it again with sovereign disregard for mere chronology, muddling a number of events into a new tale. The Egyptian ruler in the story is Caliph Marwan (745-751). The Patriarch of Alexandria is called Michael. He was arrested, and Sayfa Arad (1344-1372), king of Ethiopia, is said to have invaded Egypt and compelled the ruler to release him. When Sayfa Arad died, the patriarch was re-arrested. But another Ethiopian king, Dawit I (1382-1411), came down to Khartoum to commence the alteration of the waters of the Nile. Ahmad, Merwan's son, duly released the patriarch, and offered an indemnity. But the religious King Dawit preferred a fragment of the True Cross to all the gold of Egypt, and this was sent instead.

The idea that the Nile could be tampered with in Ethiopia grew widespread. Arnold von Harff, between 1496 and 1499, observed that Ethiopian pilgrims were given all sorts of privileges when they passed to and from Jerusalem, when for others impediments were put in the way by the Muslim authorities. He added the old explanation; "no injury must be done them, lest the river Nile should be stopped". Savants in Europe continued to argue the pros and cons of the question, particularly when, from 1520, Jesuit priests began to bring back some real information about Ethiopia.

Centuries later, we find an Ethiopian sovereign delivering the same threat. A letter from Emperor Tekla Haymanot I in 1706 to the authorities in Cairo confirms this. A dispute arose because of impediments in the free transit of ambassadors to and from Ethiopia. The king threatened that "The Nile might be made the instrument of our vengeance, God having placed in our hands its fountain, its passage, and its increase, and put it in our power to make it do good or harm."

What is the reality of the old stories? Very likely, in the days of Cyril II of Alexandria and others, there were real failures of the rains in Ethiopia, with concurrent famine in Egypt. When the low Nile had been noted, it may be that messengers were on occasion sent to Ethiopia, particularly if, by coincidence, some misunderstandings had actually occurred between the two countries. The Ethiopian kings doubtless did nothing to discourage the idea that they were responsible, gaining credit for the next season's liberal Nile. Whatever the case, nowadays elaborate international treaties govern the flow of the Nile for all the countries which share its waters.

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