Yaqob
Yaqob ያዕቆብ | |||||
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Emperor of Ethiopia | |||||
Predecessor | Sarsa Dengel | ||||
Successor | Susenyos I | ||||
Reign | 1597–1603 | ||||
Reign | 1604–1607 | ||||
Born | c. 1590 | ||||
Died | 10 March 1607 | (aged 16–17)||||
Spouse | Nazarena | ||||
Issue | Cosmas, Saga Krestos | ||||
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Dynasty | House of Solomon | ||||
Father | Sarsa Dengel | ||||
Mother | Empress Maryam Sena |
Yaqob I (
Life
Sarsa Dengel had intended to make his nephew Za Dengel his successor, but under the influence of his wife Maryam Sena and a number of his sons-in-law, he instead chose Yaqob, who was seven when he came to the throne, with Ras Antenatewos of Begemder as his regent. Za Dengel and the other rival for the throne – Susenyos, the son of Abeto Fasilides – were exiled, but Za Dengel escaped to the mountains around Lake Tana, while Susenyos found refuge in the south amongst the Oromo.
When Yaqob came to adulthood six years later, he quarrelled with Ras Antenatewos, and had him replaced with Ras Za Sellase. However, Za Sellase deposed Yaqob, exiling him to Ennarea, and made his cousin Za Dengel Emperor. When Za Dengel proved more troublesome than Yaqob, Za Sellase recalled Yaqob from exile.
Not long after Za Dengel was defeated and killed in battle, Susenyos marched north at the head of an army raised amongst the
Susenyos managed to first surprise and decimate the forces of Za Sellase at Manta Dafar in Begemder; when Za Sellase escaped to Yaqob's camp, the Emperor's derision caused Za Sellase to defect to Susenyos. For several days, the armies of the two rival emperors maneuvered in the mountains of Gojjam, to at last meet in the Battle of Gol 10 March 1607, where Yaqob and the Coptic Archbishop Abuna Petros II were killed in battle, and his troops slaughtered.[1]
Issue
According to Zaga Christ, Yaqob had married some years before a foreigner named Nazarena a Roman, by whom he had three sons, one of whom had died before the Battle of Gol. Nazarena sent her surviving sons to safety in exile: Cosmas, the older, went south and was not heard of again; the younger,
However, O. G. S. Crawford has cast doubts on this story. In an article that discusses the surviving sources for the story of Saga Krestos, he points out a number of problems in his story which include a discrepancy over the possible date of his birth (i.e., Saga Krestos is likely to have been born in either 1610 or 1616, whereas Yaqob died in 1607), and the story of three Ethiopian monks who report that Saga Krestos was an apostate monk who wandered from place to place begging for money.[3]
References
- G.W.B. Huntingford, The historical geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704, (Oxford University Press: 1989), p. 158
- ^ Pakenham, The Mountains of Rasselas (New York: Reynal & Co., 1959), p. 192. Pakenham transliterates his name as "Zagachrist".
- ^ Crawford, "The Strange Adventures of Zaga Christ", Sudan Notes and Records, 31 (1950), pp. 287-296. Online copy at Sudan Open Archive (accessed 24 October 2014)
- Partly based on the narrative of E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970). The sections about Yaqob and his cousin Za Dengel cover pp. 375–383.