In 1270 a new dynasty came to power in Christian Ethiopia. Founded by Yekuno Amlak, it is traditionally known as the “Solomonid” dynasty because its kings were said to be descended from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The advent of this new dynasty is also traditionally referred to as a “restoration,” to distinguish it from the preceding Zagwe dynasty, which was claimed to be illegitimate, and to associate it with the renowned rulers of the ancient kingdom of Aksum.
The early decades of the new dynasty were not especially auspicious. Yekuno Amlak’s assumption of power was not universally accepted, and after his death a series of disputed successions destabilized the kingdom. It was only when his grandson, Amda Tsiyon (1312-1342), became king that his dynasty was finally able to consolidate its paramountcy within the heartlands of the Christian kingdom and to extend its authority over neighboring regions. Indeed, such was the expansion of the Christian state at this time that it can accurately be termed an empire.
Ethiopia, thirteenth-sixteenth centuries.
Amda Tsiyon’s expansionist policies inevitably brought him into conflict with the Muslim states flanking the southern and eastern borders of his realm, and his reign is principally remembered for the campaigns he waged against them. It is important, however, to stress that relations between the two were not always hostile. They were also characterized by a considerable amount of commercial cooperation, which was profitable to both sides. Furthermore, although Amda Tsiyon’s military successes ensured that the Christian state gained and maintained the upper hand in relation to its Muslim neighbors, these victories were not in themselves decisive. The Muslim states, benefiting from their contacts with the wider Islamic world, proved to have a remarkable capacity for recovery, and Amda Tsiyon’s successors found themselves facing much the same problems. Only in the sixteenth century, when the Muslims, led by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, declared a full-scale jihad (holy war), did the power struggle between the two reach a crisis point. Between 1529 and 1543, Muslim troops overran almost the entire Christian empire. It was, at least in part, as a result of the growing contacts between Christian Ethiopia and European Christendom, especially the Portuguese, who had dispatched an embassy to Ethiopia in 1520, that the beleaguered king, Galawdewos (1540-1559), was finally able to reverse the situation. With the help of a small, but wellarmed, Portuguese contingent, the Christian forces drove the Muslims out of the central highlands. After this destructive conflict Christians and Muslims did not confront each other again in a major war.
Another important theme was the revival of the Ethiopian church, which brought Christianity to the recently subjugated parts of the empire. In many of these areas, however, the process of Christianization was superficial, and the local populations continued to adhere to their old religious beliefs and practices. This gave rise to a religious syncretism or “mixed Christianity” that was at variance with the ordinances of the Alexandrian patriarchate in Egypt but that the poorly organized Ethiopian Church was unable to tackle.
In the central regions, religious life was marked by increasingly bitter theological disputes, particularly over the observance of the Sabbath. The northern-based monastic movement founded by Ewostatewos (c.1273-1352) advocated the observance of the two Sabbaths (Saturday and Sunday), which had been proscribed by the Egyptian church. They were opposed by a strong anti-Sabbath party within the Ethiopian church, especially by the monastic order founded by Takla Haymanot (c.1215-1313) with its base at Debra Libanos in Shoa. The ensuing persecution of the followers of Ewostatewos resulted in their leading an existence almost entirely independent of both the Ethiopian church and the Alexandrian patriarchate, to whose power and prestige their persistent defiance posed a direct and highly embarrassing challenge.
By the reign of Zara Yaqob (1434-1468), the Sabbath controversy was threatening to tear the Ethiopian church apart. Accordingly, in 1450, the king convened the Council of Debra Mitmaq, which attempted to resolve the schism. The issue was decided in favor of the observance of the two Sabbaths, and a reconciliation was effected between the opposing parties. Zara Yaqob also initiated a program of religious reforms, aimed especially at stamping out the “mixed Christianity” of the peripheral regions, with limited success.
The revival of the Ethiopian church was accompanied by a blossoming of Ethiopian literature. Many of the works produced were translated from Arabic, such as the Senkessar, a compilation of the lives of the saints. Others were original, including the Metshafa Berhan (Book of Light), which is attributed to Zara Yaqob. This deals, in particular, with the Sabbath controversy and expounds the king’s religious reforms, offering guidance to the Christian community, refuting heresies and attacking non-Christian practices. Another important literary genre was the royal chronicles, beginning in the reign of Amda Tsiyon with an account of his campaigns against the Muslims. These provide a remarkably rich source for the study of Ethiopian history. But the most important work of this era, although not an original Ethiopian composition, was the Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings), which was adapted to exemplify Ethiopian concepts of royal legitimacy, linking it not only to an Old Testament heritage, through descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, but also to a New Testament heritage through relationship with Christ.
Thus, under the descendants of Yekuno Amlak, the fundamental characteristics of the Christian Ethiopian state had been established. It had become an expansionist military power, the distinctive nature of Ethiopian Christianity had been defined, and in the political sphere the appropriation of concepts of royal legitimacy, given expression in the Kebra Nagast, and the closer identification of church with state, had greatly enhanced the prestige and power of the monarchy. Nevertheless, on the eve of the Muslim conquest, the Solomonid state was to prove surprisingly vulnerable—so much so, in fact, that it was almost completely destroyed.
Caroline Orwin
See also: Aksum, Kingdom of; Ethiopia: Aksumite Inheritance, c.850-1150; Ethiopia: Zagwe Dynasty, 1150-1270; Lalibela and Ethiopian Christianity; Religion, History of.
Further Reading
Alvarez, F. Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia during the Years 1520-1527. Translated and edited by Lord Stanley of Alderley. 1881. Facsimile reprint, New York: Burt Franklin, 1970.
Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, trans. The Queen of Sheba and her Only SonMenyelek(I): Being the ‘Bookof the Glory of Kings’ (Kebra Nagast). London: Oxford University Press, 1932. Kaplan, S. The Monastic Holy Man and the Christianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1984. Taddesse, Tamrat. Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.
Taddesse, Tamrat. “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn.” The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 3, c.1050-c.1600, edited by Roland Oliver. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
Ullendorff, E. “Literature.” In The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
World History
