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Amda Seyon I
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Amda Seyon I
Amda Seyon I, also known as Amda Tsiyon I (Ge'ez: ዐምደ ፡ ጽዮን ʿAmdä ṣəyon, Amharic: አምደ ፅዮን āmde ṣiyōn, "Pillar of Zion"), throne name Gebre Mesqel (ገብረ መስቀል gäbrä mäsḳal, "Servant of the Cross"), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344 and a member of the Solomonic dynasty.
The most important source for the military actions undertaken during his reign is G.W.B. Huntingford's translation of his Ge'ez chronicle, The Glorious Victories. This has also come to be the name for his conquests in modern times. He is best known in the so-called chronicles as a heroic warrior against the Muslims, and is sometimes considered to have been the founder of the Ethiopian Empire. Chekroun notes the chronicle was likely composed in the 15th century, after the events it describes. Hirsch has argued that, despite its epic framing around Amda Seyon, the narrative actually describes 15th-century conflicts between kings Dawit I and Yeshaq I against the Sultanate of Awfat, rather than the 14th-century wars of Amda Seyon's own reign. Edward Ullendorff argued the work was clearly written by an eyewitness, citing its vivid depiction of the king's campaigns and its engagingly personal anecdotes about his life. Other historians like Richard Pankhurst have praised the chronicle as a "masterpiece" of historiography.
Most of his wars were against the Muslim sultanates to the southeast, which he was able to fight and generally defeat, and substantially enlarge his kingdom by gradually incorporating a number of smaller states. His conquests of Muslim borderlands greatly expanded Christian territory and power in the region, which were maintained for centuries after his death. Amda Seyon asserted the strength of the new Solomonic dynasty and therefore legitimized it. These expansions further provided for the spread of Christianity to frontier areas, sparking a long era of proselytization, Christianization, and integration of previously peripheral areas.
According to British historian Edward Ullendorff, "Amda Seyon was one of the most outstanding Ethiopian kings of any age and a singular figure dominating the Horn of Africa in the fourteenth century."
It is not known how Amda Seyon became Emperor. However, a few pieces of information indicate that he may have been involved in the succession struggle against Wedem Arad.
It is argued that sufficient evidence shows that Amda Seyon was the son of Wedem Arad. However, when a deputation of monks led by Basalota Mika’el accused him of incest for marrying Emperor Wedem Arad's concubine Jan Mogassa and threatened to excommunicate him, he claimed to be the biological son of the Emperor's brother Qedma Asgad; this explanation may have had its origins in court gossip. Whatever the truth of Amda Seyon's parentage, the imperial history known as the Paris Chronicle records that he expressed his rage at his accusers by beating one of them, Abbot Anorewos of Segaja, and exiling the other ecclesiastics to Dembiya and Begemder.
The real cause of the conflict, which continued into the reign of his son Newaya Krestos, remains disputed. On the surface it was provoked by the attempt of ecclesiastics to force the Emperor to abandon old marital customs and follow Christian norms. However, the growing administrative and economic independence of the church and monastic institutions, backed by resistance from local nobility against the emperor's centralising authority, appears to have been the deeper source of tension.
Taddesse Tamrat reports that he found a contemporary note written in a manuscript now kept in the island monastery of Lake Hayq, which mentions that in 1309 AM (1316/7 AD), Emperor Amda Seyon successfully campaigned against the Pagan Damot as well as the Muslim Hadiya Kingdom. The note describes his conquest of Damot, many of whose people he exiled to another area, and then the conquest of Hadiya, to whose people he did likewise. Though his early control of these regions was minimal, it is evident by 1332 (or 1329) that Hadiya had been fully integrated, providing troops for his 1332 campaigns against the Sultanate of Ifat. The King of Hadiya, Amano, refused to visit the emperor and give his tribute, encouraged by, according to Amda Seyon's chronicler, a Muslim "prophet of darkness" named Bel'am. According to the emperor's Chronicle, Bel'am told him to rebel:
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Amda Seyon I
Amda Seyon I, also known as Amda Tsiyon I (Ge'ez: ዐምደ ፡ ጽዮን ʿAmdä ṣəyon, Amharic: አምደ ፅዮን āmde ṣiyōn, "Pillar of Zion"), throne name Gebre Mesqel (ገብረ መስቀል gäbrä mäsḳal, "Servant of the Cross"), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344 and a member of the Solomonic dynasty.
The most important source for the military actions undertaken during his reign is G.W.B. Huntingford's translation of his Ge'ez chronicle, The Glorious Victories. This has also come to be the name for his conquests in modern times. He is best known in the so-called chronicles as a heroic warrior against the Muslims, and is sometimes considered to have been the founder of the Ethiopian Empire. Chekroun notes the chronicle was likely composed in the 15th century, after the events it describes. Hirsch has argued that, despite its epic framing around Amda Seyon, the narrative actually describes 15th-century conflicts between kings Dawit I and Yeshaq I against the Sultanate of Awfat, rather than the 14th-century wars of Amda Seyon's own reign. Edward Ullendorff argued the work was clearly written by an eyewitness, citing its vivid depiction of the king's campaigns and its engagingly personal anecdotes about his life. Other historians like Richard Pankhurst have praised the chronicle as a "masterpiece" of historiography.
Most of his wars were against the Muslim sultanates to the southeast, which he was able to fight and generally defeat, and substantially enlarge his kingdom by gradually incorporating a number of smaller states. His conquests of Muslim borderlands greatly expanded Christian territory and power in the region, which were maintained for centuries after his death. Amda Seyon asserted the strength of the new Solomonic dynasty and therefore legitimized it. These expansions further provided for the spread of Christianity to frontier areas, sparking a long era of proselytization, Christianization, and integration of previously peripheral areas.
According to British historian Edward Ullendorff, "Amda Seyon was one of the most outstanding Ethiopian kings of any age and a singular figure dominating the Horn of Africa in the fourteenth century."
It is not known how Amda Seyon became Emperor. However, a few pieces of information indicate that he may have been involved in the succession struggle against Wedem Arad.
It is argued that sufficient evidence shows that Amda Seyon was the son of Wedem Arad. However, when a deputation of monks led by Basalota Mika’el accused him of incest for marrying Emperor Wedem Arad's concubine Jan Mogassa and threatened to excommunicate him, he claimed to be the biological son of the Emperor's brother Qedma Asgad; this explanation may have had its origins in court gossip. Whatever the truth of Amda Seyon's parentage, the imperial history known as the Paris Chronicle records that he expressed his rage at his accusers by beating one of them, Abbot Anorewos of Segaja, and exiling the other ecclesiastics to Dembiya and Begemder.
The real cause of the conflict, which continued into the reign of his son Newaya Krestos, remains disputed. On the surface it was provoked by the attempt of ecclesiastics to force the Emperor to abandon old marital customs and follow Christian norms. However, the growing administrative and economic independence of the church and monastic institutions, backed by resistance from local nobility against the emperor's centralising authority, appears to have been the deeper source of tension.
Taddesse Tamrat reports that he found a contemporary note written in a manuscript now kept in the island monastery of Lake Hayq, which mentions that in 1309 AM (1316/7 AD), Emperor Amda Seyon successfully campaigned against the Pagan Damot as well as the Muslim Hadiya Kingdom. The note describes his conquest of Damot, many of whose people he exiled to another area, and then the conquest of Hadiya, to whose people he did likewise. Though his early control of these regions was minimal, it is evident by 1332 (or 1329) that Hadiya had been fully integrated, providing troops for his 1332 campaigns against the Sultanate of Ifat. The King of Hadiya, Amano, refused to visit the emperor and give his tribute, encouraged by, according to Amda Seyon's chronicler, a Muslim "prophet of darkness" named Bel'am. According to the emperor's Chronicle, Bel'am told him to rebel:
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