Solomonic dynasty

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This article is about the Ethiopian dynasty. For the biblical lineage including Solomon, see Davidic line.
House of Solomon
ሰሎሞናዊው ሥርወ መንግሥት
Sälomonawīwi širiwä menigišiti

Solomonic dynasty
Country Ethiopian Empire
Place of originBete Amhara
Founded1270 AD
FounderYekuno Amlak
Current headZera Yacob Amha Selassie
Final rulerHaile Selassie
Titles
Deposition12 September 1974
Cadet branches

The Solomonic dynasty, also known as the House of Solomon, was the ruling dynasty of the Ethiopian Empire from the thirteenth to twentieth centuries. The dynasty was founded by Yekuno Amlak, who overthrew the Zagwe dynasty in 1270. His successors claimed he was descended from the legendary king Menelik I, the supposed son of the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, in order to legitimize the dynasty's assumption of power. Although this claimed ancestry gave the dynasty its name, there is no credible evidence that the dynasty was descended from Solomon or the Davidic line. The Solomonic dynasty remained in power until 1974, when its last emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by a coup d'état.

History

Main articles: History of Ethiopia and Ethiopian historiography

Foundation and origin myth

Further information: Origin myth

The Solomonic dynasty is the name given by modern historians to the line of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian monarchs that ruled Ethiopia from the late 13th century to 1974.[1] The dynasty was founded by Yekuno Amlak, a noble from Shewa,[2] who overthrew the last ruler of Ethiopia's Zagwe dynasty in 1270 and seized power.[3]

The dynasty later claimed that Yekuno Amlak was a direct male line descendant of the royal house of the Kingdom of Aksum.[1][4] The Aksumite kings had ruled much of Ethiopia from the 1st to the 10th centuries AD when they had been replaced by the Zagwe dynasty.[5] Through the Aksumite royal house, it was also claimed that Yekuno Amlak was a descendant of the biblical king Solomon. The canonical form of the claim was set out in legends recorded in the Kebra Nagast, a 14th century text. According to this, the Queen of Sheba, who supposedly came from Aksum, visited Jerusalem where she conceived a son with King Solomon. On her return to her homeland of Ethiopia, she gave birth to the child, Menelik I. He and his descendants (which included the Aksumite royal house) ruled Ethiopia until overthrown by the Zagwe usurpers. Yekuno Amlak, as a supposed direct descendant of Menelik I, was therefore claimed to have "restored" the Solomonic line.[1]

However, there is no historical evidence supporting the legends or Yekuno Amlak's ancestry. There is no credible basis to the claims that the Aksumite royal house was descended from Solomon (or that any Aksumite king even claimed such an ancestry) or that Yekuno Amlak was descended from the Aksumite royal house. Solomon is dated to the 10th century BCE, hundreds of years before the founding of Aksum.[1] Historian Harold G. Marcus describes the stories of the Kebra Nagast as a "pastiche of legends" created to legitimize Yekuno Amlak's seizure of power.[6] David Northrup notes that

the Kebra Nagast's imaginative and emotive account of a line of descent from Solomon and Sheba to the kings of Aksum and the new Solomonic dynasty is highly improbable and unsupported by evidence. It is a myth.[7]

Although the story originated as a medieval political myth, it nevertheless became embedded in the Ethiopian sense of nationhood. This and the dynasty's continued propagation of the myth was reflected in the 1955 Ethiopian constitution, which declared that the emperor "descends without interruption from the dynasty of Menelik I, son of Queen of Ethiopia, the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Jerusalem".[8]

Later history

Haile Selassie I were in the female line, Lij Iyasu through his mother Shewarega Menelik, and Haile Selassie I through his paternal grandmother, Tenagnework Sahle Selassie). The male line, through the descendants of Menelik's cousin Dejazmatch Taye Gulilat, still existed, but had been pushed aside largely because of Menelik's personal distaste for this branch of his family.[9] The Solomonic Dynasty continued to rule Ethiopia with few interruptions until 1974, when the last emperor, Haile Selassie I, was deposed. The royal family is currently non-regnant. Members of the family in Ethiopia at the time of the 1974 revolution were imprisoned; some were executed and others exiled. In 1976, ten great-grandchildren of Haile Selassie I were extracted from Ethiopia in an undertaking later detailed in a book by Jodie Collins, titled Code Word: Catherine. The women of the dynasty were released by the regime from prison in 1989, and the men were released in 1990. Several members were then allowed to leave the country in mid-1990, and the rest left in 1991 upon the fall of the communist régime
. Many members of the Imperial family have since returned to live in Ethiopia.

Mahdists in 1889, the heirs of this cadet branch ruled Tigray until the revolution of 1974 toppled the Ethiopian monarchy.[11]

The Tigrean Cadet branch (along with its various sub-branches) traces its lineage to the main Solomonic line of Emperors through at least two female lines. The more recent link was through Woizero Aster Iyasu (wife of Ras Mikael Sehul, daughter of Mentewab and her lover, Melmal Iyasu, a Solomonic prince and nephew of Mentewab's late husband Bakaffa).

The Shewan line was next on the Imperial throne with the coronation of

Prince Zera Yacob is his legal heir and therefore the current head of the imperial dynasty. The Shewan branch has several sub-branches, most notably the Selalle line established by Menelik II's uncle Ras Darge.[11]

The oldest junior cadet branch of the Solomonic Dynasty is the Gojjam branch which traces its ancestry through various lines of the main branch of the Solomonic dynasty. One of the more prominent lines comes from Princess Walata Israel, the daughter of Melmal Iyasu and Empress Mentewab. She married Dejazmach Yosedek, who gave rise to the Gojam Imperial House by means of their child "Talaku" Ras Hailu. The Princes of Gojam, which include Ras Merid Hailu (son of Ras Hailu Yosedek), Ras Goshu Zewde, Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, Dejazmach Tadla Gwalu and Ras Desta Tadla all claim royal blood through the main Gonder Imperial House through Empress Mentewab and the Solomonic Prince Melmal Iyasu. Its most recent members include Tekle Haimanot, King of Gojjam; his son Leul Ras Hailu Tekle Haimanot, who was the most senior Ethiopian noble who submitted to the Italian occupation of 1936–1941; and his nephew Ras Hailu Belew, who was a noted figure in the resistance against the Italian occupation.[12]

Coat of arms

See also: Emblem of Ethiopia
monarchists, and Ethiopian nationalists
.

The Imperial coat of arms was adopted by Haile Selassie I, and is currently held by his direct heir in the male line, Prince Zera Yacob, and by the

religious movement) that regards Emperor Haile Selassie as divine.[11]

The phrase "Moa Ambassa ze imnegede Yehuda" (Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah) appeared on the arms, and always preceded the Emperor's official style and titles. The official Imperial Dynastic motto was "Ityopia tabetsih edewiha habe Igziabiher" (Ethiopia stretches her hands unto God), a quote from the Psalm 68:31.[citation needed][12]

The full title of the Emperor of Ethiopia was Negusa Nagast and Seyoume Igziabeher (

Ge'ez: ንጉሠ ጽዮን, 'nəgusä tsiyon)', "King of Zion"), whose seat was at Axum, and which conferred hegemony over much of the north of the Empire (see: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles).[14]

Gallery

Imperial family of Ethiopia
  • Descendants of Princess Ijigayehu:
    • Prince Samson Fikre Selassie
    • Prince Bekere Fikre Selassie
      Princess Donna Fikre Selassie
    • Prince Yisehaq Fikre Selassie
    • Princess Rahel Fikre Selassie
    • Princess Aster Fikre Selassie
    • Princess Meheret Fikre Selassie
  • Princess Maryam Senna
  • Princess Sehin Azebe
  • Princess Sifrash Bizu
Extended family
Descendants of Prince Makonnen:
  • The Dowager Duchess of Harar
  • The Duke of Harar
    The Duchess of Harar
  • Princess Adey-Abeba Makonnen
  • Prince Philip Tafari Makonnen
    Princess Aster Abatow
    • Prince David Tafari Makonnen
    • Prince Isaiah Tafari Makonnen
    • Princess Ayla Tafari Makonnen
  • Prince Baeda Maryam Makonnen
    Princess Mahelate Baeda Mariam
    • Princess Blaine Baeda Mariam

Descendants of Prince Sahle Selassie:

Princess Mahisente Habte Mariam

Extended family
Descendants of Emperor
Yohannes IV
:

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-3-643-90892-6
    .
  2. ISBN 978-1-136-28090-0
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-136-28090-0
    .
  4. ISBN 978-1-134-25986-1
    .
  5. ISBN 978-9987-16-024-2
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-520-22479-7
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-62466-641-4
    .
  8. ISBN 978-90-04-24232-6
    .
  9. ^ "Solomonid Dynasty | Ethiopian history | Britannica.com". Archived from the original on 2017-08-26. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
  10. ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (1270–1527) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p 275.
  11. ^ a b c Cliothèque (Philippe Conrad ed.). "Marie-Laure Derat, L'Éthiopie à l'époque de la dynastie salomonienne". www.clio.fr. Archived from the original on 2011-02-23.
  12. ^ a b "Solomonid Dynasty - Ethiopian history". britannica.com. Archived from the original on 2017-08-26.
  13. ^ "Vlajky a znaky Etiopie" [Flags and emblems of Ethiopia]. Vexilolog (in Czech) (8). 2003.
  14. doi:10.1163/156913311X590664
    .

Bibliography

  • Marie-Laure Derat , Le domaine des rois éthiopiens (1270–1527), Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 2003, 383 pp.
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