Gadisa Tasisa
3 min readJun 10, 2022

๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐š [ ๐๐ˆ๐‹๐ˆ๐‹๐‹๐„๐„] โ€” ๐Ž๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ๐จ slave girl who won the heart of a ๐†๐ž๐ซ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐œ๐ž.

She was born in 1820 in ๐†๐ฎ๐ฆ๐š, a ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ง ๐ซ๐ž๐ ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž of ๐„๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐จ๐ฉ๐ข๐š. Her parents named her โ€œ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ž๐žโ€ which literally means ๐ฐ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ-๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐ฉ๐ž๐ or ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ๐ญ๐ฒ. But she later came to be known as ๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐š which means โ€˜๐Œ๐ฒ ๐๐ž๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐โ€™ in ๐€๐ซ๐š๐›๐ข๐œ.

In 1835/36, when she was 15, a civil war broke out around ๐†๐ฎ๐ฆ๐š and she ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ her ๐Ÿ๐š๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ and ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฑ ๐›๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ. As her village was burned to the ground, invading captors grabbed her, her sister and her mother and dragged them away as slaves.

Mahbuba was first taken north to ๐†๐จ๐ง๐๐š๐ซ, then soon after to ๐Š๐ก๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฆ. After that, in 1837, slave traders took her to ๐‚๐š๐ข๐ซ๐จ. There they hoped to ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ her to the ๐ก๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐›๐ข๐๐๐ž๐ซ among the rich sheiks and princes that happened to be in town.

it so happened that, in 1837, ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐‡๐ž๐ซ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐ง ๐…๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐•๐จ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐œ๐ค๐ฅ๐ž๐ซ-๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ค๐š๐ฎ of Germany was traveling thru ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก ๐€๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐š. While in ๐‚๐š๐ข๐ซ๐จ, he went to the slave market, a popular venue for tourists. There he saw and was instantly struck by the ๐›๐ž๐š๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐  ๐„๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐จ๐ฉ๐ข๐š๐ง โ€˜๐’๐ฅ๐š๐ฏ๐žโ€™ ๐ ๐ข๐ซ๐ฅ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐š๐ฅ๐ž. He immediately bought her, disguised her as his ๐Œ๐š๐ฆ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ค๐ž ๐›๐จ๐ฒ, and took her with him on his travels.

The prince became completely besotted by ๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐š as they continued their travels together through ๐๐š๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ž, ๐’๐ฒ๐ซ๐ข๐š and ๐ˆ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ง๐›๐ฎ๐ฅ. He was [๐ฌ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ณ๐ž๐] by her ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ฅ ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž, and eagerness to learn Western ways. For her part, ๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐š appeared to enjoy the ๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฒ of her new and totally un-imagined life.

When they arrived in Europe, they stayed in Budapest for a while; and there, Mahbuba received ๐‡๐จ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐š๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ. The Prince sent her for a time to the ๐›๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ฏ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐ฌ๐œ๐ก๐จ๐จ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ง ๐•๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ง๐š, where he asked the nuns to teach her European ways. But to their surprise, she soon delighted them all ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ฅ ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ž and ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž. It was said that Mahbuba could light up any room she entered with her ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ž. It also quickly became clear that she had an aptitude for languages as it took her no time at all to be ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ž๐ง๐ญ in ๐ˆ๐ญ๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐š๐ง and ๐†๐ž๐ซ๐ฆ๐š๐ง. She was delightful company, and ๐ฌ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ as well. High Society was enthusiastic to entertain the Prince and his โ€˜princessโ€™, and to be ๐ซ๐ž๐ ๐š๐ฅ๐ž๐ ๐›๐ฒ ๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐šโ€™๐ฌ ๐ž๐ฑ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐œ ๐›๐ž๐š๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฒ. She was the ๐ญ๐จ๐š๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐•๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ง๐š, written about in the ๐ง๐ž๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐š๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ, and always the subject of enthusiastic conversation. When she was presented to the Emperor and his royal court, she was applauded. ๐„๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ.

Sadly, it was soon discovered that Mahbuba could not get ๐š๐œ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐ž๐ to the ๐๐š๐ฆ๐ฉ and ๐œ๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐„๐ฎ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ž๐š ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ž. At some point, ๐ฌ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐š๐ ๐ง๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ฎ๐›๐ž๐ซ๐œ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฌ, and her health started to decline. As the Prince had to urgently go on a brief business mission to Berlin, he instructed their doctor to give Mahbuba the best of care.

๐“๐ฐ๐จ ๐๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐š๐Ÿ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ the ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐œ๐žโ€™๐ฌ ๐๐ž๐ฉ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž, on ๐Ž๐œ๐ญ๐จ๐›๐ž๐ซ 27, 1840, a servant drew back the curtains in ๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐šโ€™๐ฌ room and found her ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐ž๐š๐. ๐’๐ก๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ ๐๐ข๐ž๐ ๐š๐ฅ๐จ๐ง๐ž, a ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐š ๐ฅ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐ž ๐›๐ž๐.

๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐š was buried in the ๐ฅ๐จ๐œ๐š๐ฅ ๐œ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ, ๐ฆ๐š๐ซ๐ค๐ž๐ by a ๐ฅ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ง๐ž-๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐ฉ๐ž๐ ๐ฌ๐š๐ซ๐œ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐š๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ, with a single word: โ€˜๐Œ๐š๐ก๐›๐ฎ๐›๐šโ€™. The ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ฏ๐ž-๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ๐ž is visited by ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐š๐ง๐๐ฌ of ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ.

โ€œ๐ˆ ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ฅ๐ญ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ง ๐ˆ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿ ๐œ๐š๐ฉ๐š๐›๐ฅ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ,โ€ the ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ง to a ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐,โ€œ [๐‡๐ž๐ซ ๐๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ก] ๐™ฌ๐™–๐™จ ๐™ข๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™ข๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™š ๐™ฅ๐™–๐™ž๐™ฃ