| Sons of Yagbe'u Seyon | |
|---|---|
| Emperors of Ethiopia | |
| Reign | 1294–1299 |
| Predecessor | Yagbe'u Seyon |
| Successor | Wedem Arad |
| Dynasty | House of Solomon |
| Father | Yagbe'u Seyon |
| Religion | Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo |
Five men known as sons of Yagbe'u Seyon ruled as Emperor of Ethiopia in succession between 1294 and 1299. Their names were:
- Senfa Ared IV (Amharic: ሰንፈ አርድ ፬ኛ) (1294–1295)
- Hezba Asgad (Amharic: ሕዝበ አስግድ) (1295–1296)
- Qedma Asgad (Amharic: ቅድመ አስግድ) (1296–1297)
- Jin Asgad (Amharic: ጅን አስግድ) (1297–1298)
- Saba Asgad (Amharic: ሳባ አስግድ) (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, sources disagree about how the five Emperors who reigned between them are related. There are multiple different intrepretations:
- Both James Bruce and the traditions collected by Antoine d'Abbadie 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 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.[1]
- The Gadla of Saint Basalota Mika’el states that Qedma Asgad was the son of Yekuno Amlak.[2]
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.[3] Taddesse Tamrat, on the other hand, records that his reign was followed by dynastic confusion, during which each of his sons held the throne.[4] E.A. Wallis Budge adds the tradition that Jin Asgad initiated the use of Amba Geshen 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.[5]
Whatever the succession situation truly was, it came to an end when Wedem Arad seized the throne.
References
- ^ Páez, Pedro (2008). Isabel Boavida; Hervé Pennec; Manuel João Ramos (eds.). História da Etiópia (in Portuguese). Assirio & Alvim. p. 109.
- ^ Taddesse Tamrat, "The Abbots of Dabra Hayq, 1248-1535," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 92f and notes
- ^ Henze, Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 60.
- ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 72.
- ^ Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 287. According to G.W.B. Huntingford, this information comes from the Jesuit historian Pedro Páez, who was told this story by Emperor Susenyos (The Historical Geography of Ethiopia [London: The British Academy, 1989], p. 75).
This page was last edited on 4 January 2024, at 12:12