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Ethiopia The "Restoration" of the "Solomonic" Line
The Zagwe's championing of Christianity and their artistic
achievements notwithstanding, there was much discontent with
Lastan rule among the populace in what is now Eritrea and
Tigray and among the Amhara, an increasingly powerful people
who inhabited a region called Amhara to the south of the
Zagwe center at Adefa. About 1270, an Amhara noble, Yekuno
Amlak, drove out the last Zagwe ruler and proclaimed himself
king. His assumption of power marked yet another stage in
the southward march of what may henceforth be termed the
"Christian kingdom of Ethiopia" and ushered in an era of
increased contact with the Levant, the Middle East, and
Europe.
The new dynasty that Yekuno Amlak founded came to be known
as the "Solomonic" dynasty because its scions claimed
descent not only from Aksum but also from King Solomon of
ancient Israel. According to traditions that were eventually
molded into a national epic, the lineage of Aksumite kings
originated with the offspring of an alleged union between
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, whose domains Ethiopians
have variously identified with parts of Southwest Arabia
and/or Aksum. Consequently, the notion arose that royal
legitimacy derived from descent in a line of Solomonic
kings. The Tigray and Amhara, who saw themselves as heirs to
Aksum, denied the Zagwe any share in that heritage and
viewed the Zagwe as usurpers. Yekuno Amlak's accession thus
came to be seen as the legitimate "restoration" of the
Solomonic line, even though the Amhara king's northern
ancestry was at best uncertain. Nonetheless, his assumption
of the throne brought the Solomonic dynasty to power, and
all subsequent Ethiopian kings traced their legitimacy to
him and, thereby, to Solomon and Sheba.
Under Yekuno Amlak, Amhara became the geographical and
political center of the Christian kingdom. The new king
concerned himself with the consolidation of his control over
the northern highlands and with the weakening and, where
possible, destruction of encircling pagan and Muslim states.
He enjoyed some of his greatest success against Ifat, an
Islamic sultanate to the southeast of Amhara that posed a
threat to trade routes between Zeila and the central
highlands (see fig. 3).
Upon his death in 1285, Yekuno Amlak was succeeded by his
son, Yagba Siyon (reigned 1285-94). His reign and the period
immediately following were marked by constant struggles
among the sons and grandsons of Yekuno Amlak. This
internecine conflict was resolved sometime around 1300, when
it became the rule for all males tracing descent from Yekuno
Amlak (except the reigning emperor and his sons) to be held
in a mountaintop prison that was approachable only on one
side and that was guarded by soldiers under a commandant
loyal to the reigning monarch. When that monarch died, all
his sons except his heir were also permanently imprisoned.
This practice was followed with some exceptions until the
royal prison was destroyed in the early sixteenth century.
The royal prison was one solution to a problem that would
plague the Solomonic line throughout its history: the
conflict over succession among those who had any claim to
royal lineage.
Data as of 1991
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