# Samuel Gobat's mission at Adwa (1830)

URL: https://allhistories.com/ethiopia/timeline/1830-samuel-gobat-s-mission-at-adwa
Location: Adwa, Tigray (present Tigray Region)
Themes: main-event

In 1830 Samuel Gobat, a Swiss missionary working for the Church Missionary Society, reached Adwa in Tigray after earlier CMS attempts to enter the country from the Red Sea coast. Under the protection of the local ruler, Dejazmach Sabagadis, Gobat began studying the Ge'ez and Amharic languages and discussing doctrine with Orthodox priests. He later became Anglican-Prussian Bishop of Jerusalem. His residence in the north marked an early Protestant presence in the country. Protestant societies of the early nineteenth century saw the ancient Ethiopian church as a possible partner for evangelical reform. Gobat reported on Tigray's ecclesiastical customs and political conflicts, including the rivalry between Sabagadis and Ras Wube, and worked with his colleague Christian Kugler, who died in the early 1830s. His publications and those of his colleagues informed European understanding of the country and encouraged further CMS and Basel missions. At the date of this event the principal authority over the largest part of present-day Ethiopia lay with Gigar (restored), Emperor of Ethiopia (Negus Negast) (1826–1830). Locally, Sabagadis (Dejazmach of Agame (Tigray), c. 1823–1831) held authority in the region concerned. Gobat's mission opened the long relationship between European Protestant missions and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a relationship that alternately produced cooperation and conflict. Missionary artisans and writers later became important for Tewodros II's court and for the diplomatic crises that ended in the British expedition of 1868.

## Why it matters
It launched European Protestant mission work in Ethiopia, which later shaped diplomacy and the crises of the 1860s.

Ruler at the Time: [Gigar (restored)](https://allhistories.com/ethiopia/rulers/gigar-restored)

## Sources
- [Samuel Gobat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Gobat)
- [Tewodros II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tewodros_II)
- [History of Ethiopia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ethiopia)