Yekuno Amlak

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  • Yekuno Amlak
  • ይኩኖ አምላክ
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
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Yekuno Amlak (

Zagwe king.[5]

Origins and rise to power

Non-contemporary portrait painting of Emperor Yekuno Amlak from 17th century

Yekuno Amlak hailed from an ancient Amhara family.[6][7][8] Later medieval texts, written in support of his dynasty, claimed that he was a direct male line descendant of the former royal house of the Kingdom of Aksum which was, itself, descended, it was claimed, from the biblical king Solomon. However, there is no credible historical evidence for such an ancestry or that the Aksumite kings ever claimed descent from Solomon. The claims, nevertheless, formed the basis of his dynasty's pretense that Yekuno Amlak "restored" the Solomonic dynasty to the Ethiopian throne when he overthrew the last of the Zagwe kings in 1270. The Zagwe dynasty, which had replaced the Aksumite royal house several centuries earlier, were depicted as "non-Israelite" usurpers.[9][10] Yekuno Amlak's descendants, the Ethiopian emperors of the Solomonic dynasty, continued to propagate this origin myth into the 20th century when the dynasty's claimed descent from Solomon was enshrined in the 1955 Ethiopian constitution.[11]

Yekuno Amlak was the local ruler of

Ethiopian Church. However, neither of these traditions is contemporary with any of the individuals involved.[14]

There was also the story, related in both the "Life of Iyasus Mo'a" and the Be'ela nagastat, that a rooster was heard to prophesize outside of the house of the Yakuno Amlak for three months that whoever ate his head would be king. The king then had the bird killed and cooked, but the cook discarded the rooster's head—which Yekuno Amlak ate, and thus became ruler of Ethiopia. Scholars have pointed out the similarity between this legend and one about the first king of Kaffa, who likewise learned from mysterious voice that eating the head of a certain rooster would make him king, as well as the Ethiopian Mashafa dorho or "Book of the Cock", which relates a story about a cooked rooster presented to Christ at the Last Supper which is brought back to life.[15]

Traditional history further reports that Yekuno Amlak was imprisoned by the Zagwe King Za-Ilmaknun ("the unknown, the hidden one") on Mount Malot, but managed to escape. He gathered support in the

Wollo history, Getatchew Mekonnen Hasen, states that the last Zagwe king deposed by Yekuno Amlak was Na'akueto La'ab.[18]

Reign

The church of Genneta Maryam, which is traditionally believed to have been built by Yekuno Amlak

Yekuno Amlak took the name of his father as his

Sultanate of Shewa successfully appealed to Yekuno Amlak in 1279 to restore his rule.[19] Due to Yekuno Amlak's friendly relations with the Emirs of Harar, he founded Ankober, an alternative capital near their principality.[20][21]

Recorded history affords more certainty as to his relations with other countries. For example,

Baibars, who was suzerain over the Patriarch of Alexandria (the ultimate head of the Ethiopian church), for his help for a new Abuna in 1273; the letter suggests this was not his first request. When one did not arrive, he blamed the intervention of the Sultan of Yemen, who had hindered the progress of his messenger to Cairo.[23]

Taddesse Tamrat interprets Yekuno Amlak's son's allusion to

Coptic bishops forced Yekuno Amlak to rely on the Syrian partisans who arrived in his kingdom.[24]

Yekuno Amlak is credited with the construction of the Church of Gennete Maryam near Lalibela, which contains the earliest surviving dateable wall paintings in Ethiopia.[25]

His descendant Emperor Baeda Maryam I had Yekuno Amlak's body re-interred in the church of Atronsa Maryam.[26]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5
    .
  2. ^ Stuart Munro-Hay (2002). Ethiopia: The Unknown Land. I.B. Tauris. p. 24.
  3. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
    , University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies, 1985.
  4. ISBN 978-1-136-28090-0
    .
  5. ISBN 978-1-317-14098-6
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1136970221
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0241555620
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0810874572
    .
  9. ISBN 978-3-643-90892-6
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1-134-25986-1
    .
  11. ISBN 978-90-04-24232-6
    .
  12. ISBN 978-1136970221
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0062700568
    .
  14. ^ See Huntingford, "'The Wealth of Kings' and the End of the Zāguē Dynasty", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 28 (1965), pp. 2f
  15. ^ Huntingford, "'Wealth of Kings'", pp. 4–6
  16. ^ Oromo of Ethiopia with special emphasis on the Gibe region (PDF). p. 4.
  17. ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 68 n.1
  18. ^ Getachew Mekonnen Hasen, Wollo, Yager Dibab (Addis Ababa: Nigd Matemiya Bet, 1992), pp. 28–29
  19. ^ Selassie, Sergew (1972). Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270. p. 290.
  20. ^ Tuffa, Tsegaye. The Dynamics of Tulama Oromo in the History of Continuity and Change, Ca. 1700–1880s (PDF). University of South Africa. pp. 209–210.
  21. ^ Ankobar. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
  22. ^ Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 285.
  23. ^ Taddesse, Church and State, pp. 126f.
  24. ^ Taddesse, Church and State, pp. 69ff.
  25. ^ Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 59.
  26. ^ "Local History in Ethiopia" Archived 19 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 28 January 2008)
Regnal titles
Preceded by Emperor of Ethiopia
1270–1285 		Succeeded by
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