Menas of Ethiopia

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Menas
ሜናስ
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo

Menas (

Ge'ez: ሜናስ, romanized: mēnās) or Minas, throne name Admas Sagad I (Ge’ez: አድማስ ሰገድ, died 1563), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1559 until his death in 1563, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was a brother of Gelawdewos and the son of Emperor Dawit II
.

Early life

According to a genealogy collected by

Lebna Dengel arranged Menas to be married to the daughter of Robel, governor of Bora and Selawe; upon becoming empress she took the name Adimas Moas. They had two children, Fiqtor and Theodora.[2]

During

Muslims, included Menas in an assortment of extravagant gifts to the sultan of Yemen in return for military aid. Portuguese Jesuit, Jeronimo Lobo stated that he was held a long-time prisoner in Yemen where he had converted to Islam.[4]

However, Imam Ahmad's son was later captured in the aftermath of the

Pankhurst, "when the royal family was reunited there were many days of celebrations."[5]

Reign

Menas was crowned emperor at

Semien province.[6]According to Jeronimo Lobo, Menas was known to have all the bad qualities of his brother but not any of the good.[7]

Menas made no use of his ancestors capitals in Shewa and Fatagar or of his predecessor's (Galawdewos) in Wej, and instead He established his residence in Guba'e (now known as Emfraz) a settlement located near Lake Tana.[8]

He banished the

Frumentius
.

About one year into his reign, Bahr Negus

Shire. The emperor found him there and defeated Yeshaq, then turned south to Emfraz where he defeated the remaining supporters of Tazkaro on 2 July 1561. Tazkaro was captured, and Menas afterwards ordered him thrown from the rock of Lamalmon to his death.[10]

Bahr Negash Yeshaq then obtained the support of Özdemir, the Ottoman Pasha of Massawa, and proclaimed Tazkaro's infant brother, Marqos, nəgusä nägäst. In 20 April 1562 Emperor Menas defeated, or at least put to flight, Bahr Negash Yeshaq and his Turkish, Arab, and Portuguese allies.[11]

According to the Royal Chronicle of his reign, which Bruce follows in his account, the Emperor fell back to Atronsa Maryam to regroup for another assault on the Bahr Negash, but came down with a fever during the march, and died at Kolo on 1 February 1563.[12] Budge, however, states Minas returned to Shewa, and then to the lowlands of Wag, where he was seized by the fever and died after a short illness.[11]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Budge, E. A. Wallis (1928). A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia (Volume 2). London: Methuen & Co. p. 356.
  2. ^ Bruce, James. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1805 edition) vol. 4 p. 97, editor's note.
  3. OL 6934058M
    .
  4. ^ Lobo, Jerónimo (1735). Sequel of the Account of Abyssinia. A. Bettesworth, and C. Hitch. p. 318.
  5. OL 5646190M
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-19-726055-5
    .
  7. ^ Lobo, Jerónimo (1735). Sequel of the Account of Abyssinia. A. Bettesworth, and C. Hitch. p. 317.
  8. ISBN 978-0-932415-19-6. Archived
    from the original on 12 March 2023. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  9. ^ Letter of Emanuel Fernandez to James Leynez, dated 29 July 1562, cited in Baltazar Téllez, The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia Archived 12 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine, 1710 (LaVergue: Kessinger, 2010), p. 142
  10. ^ Bruce, Travels, vol. 3 p. 231
  11. ^ a b E.A Wallis Budge, Ethiopia and the Ethiopians, vol. 2 p. 359
  12. ^ Bruce, Travels, vol. 3 p. 234
Regnal titles
Preceded by Emperor of Ethiopia
1559–1563 		Succeeded by
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