The Battle of the Dindar River was fought near the

Dinder River The Dinder River ( ar, نهر الدندر Nahr-ud-dindir, also spelled Dindar; ) is a tributary of the Blue Nile. It flows through Ethiopia and Sudan for . Course The Dinder River rises in the Ethiopian Highlands, west of Lake Tana in the Ethio ...

in 1738, between the forces of the

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

n Emperor Iyasu II and the

Sennar Sennar ( ar, سنار ') is a city on the Blue Nile in Sudan and possibly the capital of the state of Sennar. It remains publicly unclear whether Sennar or Singa is the capital of Sennar State. For several centuries it was the capital of the F ...

army under King

Badi IV Badi IV (reigned 1724–1762; died 1764), also known as Badi abu Shilluk, was a ruler of the Kingdom of Sennar. He was the son of his predecessor, Nul. When Emperor Iyasu II of Ethiopia invaded his realm in 1738, the army of Sennar under the l ...

. The battle was a disaster for the Ethiopians and for Iyasu. Stung by lampoons which called him ''Iyasu Tannush'' ("Iyasu the Little", in contrast to his earlier namesake " Iyasu the Great") and described him as more interested in pursuing his pleasures and amusements than to the well-being of his own subjects, Emperor Iyasu decided to conquer the Kingdom of Sennar. He summoned the army of Ethiopia, and marched west from

Gondar Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...

into Sennar, following the course of the Dindar River. The inhabitants of Sennar fell back before the overwhelming force of the Ethiopians, although some under Nail Wad Agib defected to the Ethiopians and saved their lives for the moment. Some local inhabitants along the Dindar (whom Wallis Budge describes as "Arabs") opposed the invaders, but Iyasu's general Waragna, commanding the vanguard of the army, scattered them "with great slaughter". Although King Badi had assembled an army, he was unnerved at the size of the Ethiopian army before him. However, Hamis, a prince of

Darfur Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...

in western

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, proposed a strategy to defeat the invaders. On his advice, the main part of the Sennar army feigned a retreat from the Ethiopian army, drawing them forward. Meanwhile, Hamis led 4000 horsemen around and behind the army and fell upon the main body of 18,000 men under the command of

Wolde Leul Wolde is a municipality in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country i ...

. Welda Uhlo escaped with some of his officers, and a number of soldiers found safety in the nearby woods, but the rest were slaughtered in Hamis' attack. Hamis also captured a number of relics that Emperor Iyasu had brought with him, which included an icon of Christ and a piece of the

True Cross The True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was said to have been crucified, particularly as an object of religious veneration. There are no early accounts that the apostles or early Christians preserved the physical cross themselves, althoug ...

. While a follower of Nail Wad Agib brought word of the ambush to the vanguard with Emperor Iyasu, it was clear that they would be unable to reach the fighting in time to save them.James Bruce, ''Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile'' (1805 edition), vol. 4 p. 127 Instead, Emperor Iyasu followed the main stream of the Nile north to where the

Tekezé River The Tekezé or Täkkäze River ( amh, ተከዜ, ti, ተከዘ; originally meaning "river" in Ge’ez, ), also spelled Takkaze, is a major river of Ethiopia. For part of its course it forms a section of the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Erit ...

entered it, wreaking destruction upon the villages he encountered, burning houses and capturing cattle, aware that he had been defeated. Once he reached the Tekezé, Iyasu followed that river upstream into his realm. Upon entering Gondar, the Emperor paraded the cattle his soldiers had captured proclaiming his campaign a success. However, he quietly sent his courtier Tensa Tammo to Sennar who ransomed the captured relics for 8,000 ounces of gold.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dindar 18th century in Ethiopia Dindar River the Dindar River History of Sudan 1738 in Africa 1738 in Ethiopia