The Zagwe dynasty (
Ge'ez: ዛጔ ሥርወ መንግሥት) was an
Agaw
The Agaw or Agew ( gez, አገው ''Agäw'', modern ''Agew'') are a pan-ethnic identity native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak the Agaw languages, which belong to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic la ...
medieval dynasty that ruled the northern parts of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
and
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopi ...
, after the historical name of the
Lasta province. Centered at
Lalibela
Lalibela ( am, ላሊበላ) is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone, it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important sit ...
, it ruled large parts of the territory from approximately 900 to 1270 CE, when the last Zagwe
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
Za-Ilmaknun was killed in battle by the forces of the
Amhara King
Yekuno Amlak. The name of the
dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...
is thought to derive from the ancient
Ge'ez phrase ''Ze-
Agaw
The Agaw or Agew ( gez, አገው ''Agäw'', modern ''Agew'') are a pan-ethnic identity native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak the Agaw languages, which belong to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic la ...
'', meaning "of the Agaw", in reference to the Mara Tekle Haymanot, the founder of the dynasty.
Zagwe's best-known King was
Gebre Mesqel Lalibela, who is credited with having constructed the
rock-hewn monolithic churches of Lalibela.
David Buxton has stated that the areas under the direct rule of the Zagwe kings apart from the centre of power in
Lasta "probably embraced the highlands of modern
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopi ...
,
Tigray,
Waag
A weighhouse or weighing house is a public building at or within which goods are weighed. Most of these buildings were built before 1800, prior to the establishment of international standards for weights, and were often a large and representative ...
and
Bete Amhara and thence westwards towards
Lake Tana (
Begemder)." Unlike the practice of later rulers of Ethiopia,
Taddesse Tamrat
Taddesse Tamrat ( am, ታደሰ ታምራት; 4 August 1935 – 23 May 2013) was an Ethiopian historian and scholar of Ethiopian studies. He is best known as the author of ''Church and State in Ethiopia 1270–1520'' (1972, Oxford University Pre ...
argues that under the Zagwe dynasty the
order of succession was that of brother succeeding brother as king, based on the Agaw laws of
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Of ...
.
History
According to one tradition, around 960, Queen
Gudit destroyed the remnants of the
Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in w ...
, causing a shift in its temporal power centre that later regrouped more to the south. For 40 years she ruled over what remained of the kingdom, eventually passing on the throne to her descendants, with Mara marrying the daughter of the last king of Aksum,
Dil Na'od. According to other Ethiopian traditional accounts, the last of her dynasty was overthrown by
Mara Takla Haymanot in 1137.
Still more, according to another tradition, Mara was born in the province of
Lasta, which was his power base. Originally a general of Dil Na'od, whose daughter ''Masoba Warq'' became his wife, Mara overthrew his father-in-law to found the new dynasty.
[ James Bruce, on the other hand, presents another tradition that Dil Na'od was overthrown by Gudit, and that Mara Takla Haymanot (whom Bruce calls "Takla Haymanot") was a cousin of Gudit who succeeded her after several of her own family.
The Zagwe period is still shrouded in mystery; even the number of kings in this dynasty is disputed. Some sources (such as the Paris Chronicle, and manuscripts Bruce 88, 91, and 93) give the names of eleven kings who ruled for 354 years; others (among them the book Pedro Páez and Manuel de Almeida saw at ]Axum
Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015).
It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole regio ...
) list only five who ruled 143. Paul B. Henze reports the existence of at least one list containing 16 names.
According to Carlo Conti Rossini, the shorter mooted length of this dynasty is the more likely one. He argues that a letter received by the Patriarch of Alexandria John V shortly before 1150 from an unnamed Ethiopian monarch, in which the Patriarch is asked for a new ''abuna
Abuna (or Abune, which is the status constructus form used when a name follows: Ge'ez አቡነ ''abuna''/''abune'', 'our father'; Amharic and Tigrinya) is the honorific title used for any bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as ...
'' because the current office holder was too old, was from Mara Takla Haymanot, who wanted the ''abuna'' replaced because he would not endorse the new dynasty.
The mystery of the Zagwe dynasty is perhaps darkest around its replacement by 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 asser ...
under Yekuno Amlak. The name of the last Zagwe king is lost—the surviving chronicles and oral traditions give his name as ''Za-Ilmaknun'', which is clearly a pseudonym (Taddesse Tamrat translates it as "The Unknown, the hidden one"), employed soon after his reign by the victorious Solomonic rulers in an act of damnatio memoriae. Taddesse Tamrat believes that this last ruler was actually Yetbarak. The end of the Zagwe came when Yekuno Amlak, who never personally claimed to be descendant of Dil Na'od or King Solomon, and acting under the guidance of either Saint Tekle Haymanot or Saint Iyasus Mo'a, pursued the last king of the Zagwe and killed him at the Battle of Ansata.
Foreign relations
Unlike Aksum, the Zagwe were virtually unknown to the contemporary powers of the Mediterranean. The only regular relations seem to have been maintained with Egypt and Jerusalem. Although their presence is often claimed to have been of considerable antiquity, it is only in the 11th and 12th centuries when Ethiopians are firmly attested to have lived in Egypt.[El-Antony, Fr. Maximous; Blid, Jesper (2016). "An Early Ethiopic Manuscript Fragment (Twelfth–Thirteenth Century) from the Monastery of St Antony (Egypt)", ''Aethiopica'', 19, pp. 47–48] A rare testament for their presence during the reign of the Zagwe is a fragmentary manuscript written in Ge'ez that was recently discovered in the Monastery of Saint Anthony, dating to the mid-12th to mid-13th centuries.[
The earliest sources confirming an Ethiopian community in Jerusalem date to the second half of the 13th century. Yet it is still probable that Ethiopians had lived there before. In the late 12th century, King Lalibela's knowledge of the town was sufficient enough to have inspired him during the expansion of his capital, adopting Jerusalem's form, attributions and toponyms.]
See also
* Ethiopian historiography
* History of Ethiopia
* Kings of Axum
* List of Emperors of Ethiopia
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
Ethiopian History
Tekeste Negash, "The Zagwe period re-interpreted: post-Aksumite Ethiopian urban culture"
{{Empires
Ethiopian noble families
African royal families
10th-century establishments in Africa
13th-century disestablishments in Africa
Medieval Ethiopia
States and territories established in the 10th century
Former kingdoms
Christian states