Za Dengel (
Ge'ez: ዘድንግል; died 24 October 1604), throne name Atsnaf Sagad II (Ge'ez: አጽናፍ ሰገድ) was
Emperor of Ethiopia
The emperor of Ethiopia ( gez, ንጉሠ ነገሥት, nəgusä nägäst, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse ( am, ዐፄ, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century ...
from 1603 until his death in 1604, and a member of the
Solomonic dynasty
The Solomonic dynasty, also known as the House of Solomon, was the ruling dynasty of the Ethiopian Empire formed in the thirteenth century. Its members claim lineal descent from the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Tradition asserts ...
.
Ancestry
Of
Amhara lineage, Za dengel was the son of
Lesana Krestos; brother of Emperor
Sarsa Dengel
Sarsa Dengel ( gez, ሠርጸ ድንግል ; 1550 – 4 October 1597), also known as Sarsa the Great, was Emperor of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His throne name was throne name Malak Sagad I (መለክ ሰገድ ).
Biograp ...
.
Reign
Za Dengel may have been married to ''Woizero'' Wangelawit, eldest daughter of his second cousin
Susenyos (later emperor) and lady Wolde Saala of Walaqa and Marabete (later Empress Sultan Mogassa).
Sarsa Dengel had intended to make his nephew as his heir, recognizing that to avert the civil war that would likely follow his death an adult would be needed, and the emperor's own sons were quite young. These plans were changed primarily through the influence of Empress Sena Maryam, stepmother of Emperor's eldest surviving son Prince
Yaqob
Yaqob I ( gez, ያዕቆብ; c. 1590 – 10 March 1607), throne name Malak Sagad II (Ge'ez: መለክ ሰገድ), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1597 to 1607, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the eldest surviving son of Sarsa Dengel. ...
, who was made emperor in 1597. The empress had Za Dengel seized and confined in a religious retreat on the island of
Dek in
Lake Tana
Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...
. Za Dengel eventually managed to escape, taking refuge in
Gojjam
Gojjam ( ''gōjjām'', originally ጐዛም ''gʷazzam'', later ጐዣም ''gʷažžām'', ጎዣም ''gōžžām'') is a historical province in northwestern Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Marqos.
Gojjam's earliest western boundary ex ...
.
In 1603, Za Dengel was made Emperor by
Ras
Ras or RAS may refer to:
Arts and media
* RAS Records Real Authentic Sound, a reggae record label
* Rundfunk Anstalt Südtirol, a south Tyrolese public broadcasting service
* Rás 1, an Icelandic radio station
* Rás 2, an Icelandic radio stati ...
Za Sellase, who intended Za Dengel to be little more than a figurehead. He was crowned as Asnaf Segad ('He to whom the horizons bow'). However, Za Dengel summoned the
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
Pedro Páez
Pedro Páez Jaramillo, S.J. ( pt, Pêro Pais; 1564 – 20 May 1622) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. Páez is considered by many experts on Ethiopia to be the most effective Catholic missionary in Ethiopia. He is believed to be the ...
to his court at
Dankaz, who persuaded him to embrace
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
This religious conversion led to Za Sellase not only withdrawing his support, but actively working against him and stirred up a revolt in Gojjam. Za Dengel marched to the plain of
Bartcho to put down this revolt, but despite the help of 200
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
musketeer
A musketeer (french: mousquetaire) was a type of soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern warfare particularly in Europe as they normally comprised the majority of their infantry. The musketeer was a pre ...
s Za Dengel perished in battle on 24 October. According to
James Bruce
James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Europ ...
, Za Dengel's corpse lay unclaimed on the battlefield for three days, until some peasants buried it "in a little building, like a chapel (which I have seen), not above six feet high, under the shade of a very fine tree, in Abyssinia called sassa." The body was reinterred 10 years later in
Daga Estifanos
Daga may refer to:
People
* Daga (wrestler), Mexican professional wrestler
* Dagmara Wozniak, American Olympic saber fencer
Geography
* Daga District, Bhutan
* Daga, Bhutan
Daga , also officially referred to as Dagana, is a town in Goshi Gewog, ...
monastery on
Daga Island
Daga Island (Amharic: ደጋ ደሴት ''Däga Däset'') is an island located in the southeastern part of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Southeast of the much larger Dek Island, Daga has a latitude and longitude of . The entire island, consisting of a vo ...
in Lake Tana.
[James Bruce, ''Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile'' (1805 edition), vol. 3, pp. 270f]
Notes
References
Further reading
* E. A. Wallis Budge. ''A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia'', 1928. Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970. The sections about Za Dengel and his cousin Yaqob cover pp. 375–383.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dengel, Za
1604 deaths
17th-century emperors of Ethiopia
17th-century Roman Catholics
16th-century Oriental Orthodox Christians
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Oriental Orthodoxy
Ethiopian Roman Catholics
Solomonic dynasty
Year of birth unknown
Monarchs killed in action