Five men known as sons of Yagbe'u Seyon ruled as

Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia (, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse (, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The emperor w ...

in succession between 1294 and 1299. Their names were: *Seyfa Ared () (1294–1295) (Throne name – Bahr Asgad) *Hezba Asgad () (1295–1296) *Qedma Asgad () (1296–1297) *Jin Asgad () (1297–1298) *Saba Asgad () (1298–1299) Though later tradition remembered them as sons of Yagbe'u Seyon, their actual relationship is not clear, though they did succeed him.

Reigns

Yagbe'u Seyon's five successors ruled Ethiopia between his reign and that of Wedem Arad. Although all of the primary sources agree that Yagbe'u Seyon and Wedem Arad were sons of

Yekuno Amlak Yekuno Amlak (); throne name Tesfa Iyasus (; died 19 June 1285) was Emperor of Ethiopia, from 1270 to 1285, and the founder of the Solomonic dynasty, which lasted until 1974. He was a ruler from Bete Amhara (in parts of modern-day Wollo and ...

, sources disagree about how the five Emperors who reigned between them are related. There are multiple different intrepretations: * Both

James Bruce James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who physically confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North and East Africa and in 1770 became the fir ...

and the traditions collected by

Antoine d'Abbadie Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie d'Arrast (3 January 1810 – 19 March 1897) was a French-Basques, Basque explorer, geographer, ethnologist, linguist and astronomer of Irish birth, renowned for his expeditions in EthiopiaAlthough referred to as Ethiop ...

state that these were the sons of Yekuno Amlak. * The oldest surviving list of Ethiopian kings lists four of these five (omitting Saba Asgad) without any mention of their filial relationship. * A regnal list quoted by

Pedro Páez Pedro Páez Jaramillo, S.J. (; 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 first European ...

did not name these five monarchs directly, but simply stated that Yagbe'u Seyon was followed by two sons who reigned for three years in total, followed by three grandsons of Yagbe'u Seyon who reigned for two years in total. * The ''Gadla'' of Saint Basalota Mika’el states that Qedma Asgad was the son of Yekuno Amlak. Historians disagree over the situation that his successors experienced. Paul B. Henze states that Yagbe'u Seyon could not decide which of his sons should inherit his kingdom, and instructed that each would rule in turn for a year. Taddesse Tamrat, on the other hand, records that his reign was followed by dynastic confusion, during which each of his sons held the throne.

E.A. Wallis Budge Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (27 July 185723 November 1934) was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East. He made numerous trips t ...

adds the tradition that Jin Asgad initiated the use of

Amba Geshen Amba Geshen is the name of a mountain in northern Ethiopia. It is in Ambassel, South Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, northwest of Dessie, at a latitude and a longitude of . Part of Ambassel woreda, Amba Geshen is one of the mountains of Ethiopi ...

as a royal prison for troublesome relatives of the Emperor, when he was forced to imprison his treacherous brother Saba Asgad; at the same time he imprisoned his other three brothers and his own sons in Amba Geshen.Wallis Budge, ''A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia'', 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 287. According to

G.W.B. Huntingford George Wynn Brereton Huntingford (19 November 1901 – 19 February 1978) was an English linguist, anthropologist and historian. He lectured in East African languages and cultures at SOAS, University of London from 1950 until 1966.

, this information comes from the Jesuit historian

, who was told this story by Emperor Susenyos (''The Historical Geography of Ethiopia'' ondon: The British Academy, 1989 p. 75). Whatever the succession situation truly was, it came to an end when Wedem Arad seized the throne.

References

{{Emperors of Ethiopia 13th-century emperors of Ethiopia 13th-century monarchs in Africa Quintets