Lalibela Amhara Ethiopia

A new dynasty comes to power in Ethiopia's Christian highlands in about 1137.

Known as the Zagwe and based in the Agew district of Lasta, it develops naturally out of the long cultural and political contact between Cushitic- and Semitic-speaking peoples in the northern highlands.

Staunch Christians, the Zagwe devote themselves to the construction of new churches and monasteries.

These are often modeled after Christian religious edifices in the Holy Land, a locale the Zagwe and their subjects hold in special esteem.

Patrons of literature and the arts in the service of Christianity, the Zagwe kings are responsible, among other things, for the great churches carved into the rock in and around their capital at Adefa.

In time, Adefa becomes known as Lalibela, the name of the Zagwe king to whose reign the Adefa churches' construction has been attributed.

By the time of the Zagwe, the Ethiopian church is showing the effects of long centuries of isolation from the larger Christian and Orthodox worlds.

After the seventh century, when Egypt succumbed to the Arab conquest, the highlanders' sole contact with outside Christianity had been with the Coptic Church of Egypt, which periodically supplied a patriarch, or abun, upon royal request.

During the long period from the seventh to the twelfth century, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church come to place strong emphasis upon the Old Testament and on the Judaic roots of the church.

Christianity in Ethiopia becomes imbued with Old Testament belief and practice in many ways, which differentiates it not only from European Christianity but also from the faith of other Monophysites, such as the Copts.

Under the Zagwe, the highlanders maintain regular contact with the Egyptians.

Also, by now the Ethiopian church has demonstrated that it is not a proselytizing religion but rather one that by and large restricts its attention to already converted areas of the highlands.

Not until the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries will the church demonstrate real interest in proselytizing among nonbelievers, and then it will do so via a reinvigorated monastic movement.

Queen Gudit had destroyed the remnants of the Aksumite Empire around 960, causing a shift in its temporal power center that later regrouped more to the south.

She had ruled over what remained of the kingdom for forty years, eventually passing on the throne to her descendants.

According to other Ethiopian traditional accounts, the last of her dynasty was overthrown by Mara Takla Haymanot in 1137.

He marries a daughter of the last king of Axum, Dil Na'od, putting control of Ethiopia in Agaw hands.

Since he had married Emperor Dil Na'od's daughter, whois a member of the Solomonic Dynasty, the Zagwes are technically part of the Solomonic Dynasty since Emperor Mara Tekla Haymanot's marriage and offspring thereof make him the only Emperor without ties to the Biblical King Solomon and Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.

Ethiopia's Christians will be confronted from the mid-fifteenth through the mid-seventeenth century by the aggressiveness of the Muslim states, the far-reaching migrations of the Oromo, and the efforts of the Portuguese—who have been summoned to aid in the fight against the forces of Islam—to convert them from Monophysite Christianity to Roman Catholicism.

The effects of the Muslim and Oromo activities and of the civil strife engendered by the Portuguese will leave the empire much weakened by the mid-seventeenth century.

One result is the emergence of regional lords essentially independent of the throne, although in principle subject to it.

Beginning in the thirteenth century, one of the chief problems confronting the Christian kingdom, ruled at this time by the Amhara, is the threat of Muslim encirclement.

By this time, a variety of peoples east and south of the highlands have embraced Islam, and some have established powerful sultanates (or shaykhdoms).

One of these is the sultanate of Ifat in the northeastern Shewan foothills, and another is centered in the Islamic city of Harar farther east.

In the lowlands along the Red Sea are two other important Muslim peoples—the Afar and the Somali.

As mentioned previously, Ifat posed a major threat to the Christian kingdom, but it is finally defeated by Amda Siyon in the mid-fourteenth century after a protracted struggle.

During this conflict, Ifat is supported by other sultanates and by Muslim pastoralists, but for the most part, the Islamicized peoples inhabit small, independent states and are divided by differences in language and culture.

Many of them speak Cushitic languages, unlike the Semitic speakers of Harar.

Some are sedentary cultivators and traders, while others are pastoralists.

As a consequence, unity beyond a single campaign or even the coordination of military activities is difficult to sustain.

Their tendency toward disunity notwithstanding, the Muslim forces continue to pose intermittent threats to the Christian kingdom.

By the late fourteenth century, descendants of the ruling family of Ifat have moved east to the area around Harar and have reinvigorated the old Muslim sultanate of Adal, which becomes the most powerful Muslim entity in the Horn of Africa.

Yekuno Amlak's grandson, Amda Siyon (reigned 1313-44), distinguishes himself by at last establishing firm control over all of the Christian districts of Ethiopia and by expanding into the neighboring regions of Shewa, Gojam, and Damot and into Agew districts in the Lake Tana area.

He also devotes much attention to campaigns against Muslim states to the east and southeast of Amhara, such as Ifat, which still poses a powerful threat to the kingdom, and against Hadiya, a Sidama state southwest of Shewa.

These victories give him control of the central highlands and enhance his influence over trade routes to the Red Sea.

His conquests also help facilitate the spread of Christianity in the southern highlands.

Yekuno Amlak overthrows the Ethiopian Zagwe dynasty, claims the throne and establishes the Solomonic dynasty in 1270.

The power of Ethiopia's negusa nagast (king of kings), as the emperor is called, is in theory unlimited beginning in the fourteenth century, but in reality it is often considerably less than that.

The unity of the state depends on an emperor's ability to control the local governors of the various regions that compose the kingdom, these rulers being self-made men with their own local bases of support.

In general, the court does not interfere with these rulers so long as the latter demonstrate loyalty through the collection and submission of royal tribute and through the contribution of armed men as needed for the king's campaigns.

When the military has to be used, it is under central control but is composed of provincial levies or troops who live off the land, or who are supported by the provincial governments that supply them.

The result is that the expenses borne by the imperial administration are small, whereas the contributions and tribute provided by the provinces are substantial.

In theory, the emperor has unrestrained control of political and military affairs.

In actuality, however, local and even hereditary interests are recognized and respected so long as local rulers pay tribute, supply levies of warriors, and, in general, comply with royal dictates.

Failure to honor obligations to the throne can and often does bring retribution in the form of battle and, if the emperor's forces win, plunder of the district and removal of the local governor.

Ethiopian rulers continually move around the kingdom, an important technique for assertion of royal authority and for collection—and consumption—of taxes levied in kind.

The emperor is surrounded by ceremony and protocol intended to enhance his status as a descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

He lives in seclusion and is shielded, except on rare occasions, from the gaze of all but his servants and high court officials.

Most other subjects are denied access to his person.

The emperor's judicial function is of primary importance.

The administration of justice is centralized at court and is conditioned by a body of Egyptian Coptic law known as the Fetha Nagast (Law of Kings), introduced into Ethiopia in the mid-fifteenth century.

Judges appointed by the emperor are attached to the administration of every provincial governor. They not only hear cases but also determine when cases can be referred to the governor or sent on appeal to the central government.

Egyptian Muslims destroy Ethiopia's neighboring Nile River valley's Christian states in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Tenuous relations with Christians in western Europe and the East Roman Empire continue via the Coptic Church in Egypt.

The Coptic patriarchs in Alexandria are responsible for the assignment of Ethiopian patriarchs—a church policy that Egypt's Muslim rulers occasionally try to use to their advantage.

For centuries after the Muslim conquests of the early medieval period, this link with the Eastern churches constitutes practically all of Ethiopia's administrative connection with the larger Christian world.

A more direct if less formal contact with the outside Christian world is maintained through the Ethiopian Monophysite community in Jerusalem and the visits of Ethiopian pilgrims to the Holy Land.

Ethiopian monks from the Jerusalem community attends the Council of Florence in 1441 at the invitation of the pope, who is seeking to reunite the Eastern and Western churches.

Westerners have learned about Ethiopia through the monks and pilgrims and become attracted to it for two main reasons.

First, many believe Ethiopia is the long-sought land of the legendary Christian priest-king of the East, Prester John.

Second, the West views Ethiopia as a potentially valuable ally in its struggle against Islamic forces that will continue to threaten southern Europe until the Turkish defeat at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

Portugal, the first European power to circumnavigate Africa and enter the Indian Ocean, displays initial interest in this potential ally by sending a representative to Ethiopia in 1493.

The Ethiopians, in turn, send an envoy to Portugal in 1509 to request a coordinated attack on the Muslims.

Europe receives its first written accounts of the country from Father Francisco Álvares, a Franciscan who accompanies a Portuguese diplomatic expedition to Ethiopia in the 1520s.

His book, A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies, stirs further European interest and proves a valuable source for future historians.

Adal comes to control the important trading routes from the highlands to the port of Zeila, thus posing a threat to Ethiopia's commerce and, at times, to Christian control of the highlands.

Although the Christian state is unable to impose its rule over the Muslim states to the east, it is strong enough to resist Muslim incursions through the fourteenth century and most of the fifteenth.

As the long reign of Zara Yakob comes to an end, however, the kingdom again experiences succession problems.

It is the monarchs' practice to marry several wives, and each seeks to forward the cause of her sons in the struggle for the throne.

In those cases where the sons of the deceased king are too young to take office, there can also be conflict within the council of advisers at court.

In a polity that has been held together primarily by a strong warrior king, one or more generations of dynastic conflict can lead to serious internal and external problems.

Only the persistence of internal conflicts among Muslims generally and within the sultanate of Adal in particular prevents a Muslim onslaught.

Zara Yakob (reigned 1434-68) is without a doubt one of Ethiopia's greatest rulers.

His substantial military accomplishments include a decisive victory in 1445 over the sultanate of Adal and its Muslim pastoral allies, who for two centuries have been a source of determined opposition to the Christian highlanders.

Zara Yakob also seeks to strengthen royal control over what is a highly decentralized administrative system.

Some of his most notable achievements are in ecclesiastical matters, where he sponsors a reorganization of the Orthodox Church, attempts to unify its religious practices, and fosters proselytization among nonbelievers.

Perhaps most remarkable is a flowering of Ge'ez literature, in which the king himself composes a number of important religious tracts.

Relations between Christian and Muslim powers take the form of raids and counterraids through the first quarter of the sixteenth century in Ethiopia.

Each side seeks to claim as many slaves and as much booty as possible, but neither side attempts to bring the other firmly under its rule.

By the second decade of the sixteenth century, however, a young soldier in the Adali army, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi, has begun to acquire a strong following by virtue of his military successes and in time becomes the de facto leader of Adal.

Concurrently, he acquires the status of a religious leader.

Ahmad, who comes to be called Gragn (the "Lefthanded") by his Christian enemies, rallies the ethnically diverse Muslims, including many Afar and Somali, in a jihad intended to break Christian power.

In 1525 Gragn leads his first expedition against a Christian army and over the next two or three years continues to attack Ethiopian territory, burning churches, taking prisoners, and collecting booty.

At the Battle of Shimbra Kure in 1529, according to historian Taddesse Tamrat, "Imam Ahmad broke the backbone of Christian resistance against his offensives."

The emperor, Lebna Dengel (Dawit II, reigned 1508-40), is unable to organize an effective defense, and in the early 1530s Gran's armies penetrate the heartland of the Ethiopian state—northern Shewa, Amhara, and Tigray—devastating the countryside and thereafter putting much of what had been the Christian kingdom under the rule of Muslim governors.