Yekuno Amlak founds the Solomonic dynasty
Yekuno Amlak, the ruler of Amhara, defeated the last king of the Zagwe dynasty and became emperor of Ethiopia; the Solomonic dynasty he founded ruled the country until 1974.
- Date
- 1270year known
- Place
- Bete Amhara (near Lake Hayq)approximate locationtoday: Lake Hayq area, Amhara Region, Ethiopia · Africa
- Participants
- Yekuno Amlak, Zagwe dynasty, Ethiopian Empire
- Threads
- Asia, Africa and the Americas in the 13th century
- Also known as
- Восстановление Соломоновой династии; Соломониды
Yekuno Amlak relied on Amhara and Shewa, received help from the Muslim sultanate of Shewa and had the support of the monasteries: according to the saints’ lives, he was raised and helped to power either by Iyasus Mo’a, abbot of the monastery on Lake Hayq, or by Saint Tekle Haymanot. Sources give different names for the defeated Zagwe king, and the exact date is unknown.
The new dynasty presented itself as the restored line of the Aksumite kings, descended from the biblical Solomon, and branded the Zagwe as usurpers; the power of the Ethiopian emperors rested on this tradition until the 20th century. Yekuno Amlak corresponded with the Mamluk sultan Baibars, asking him to send a metropolitan from Egypt for the Ethiopian Church.
Connections
Related events
- Rock-hewn churches of Lalibelac. 1181 – c. 1221 · AfricaYekuno Amlak overthrew the Zagwe dynasty, to which King Lalibela had belonged
- Mamluks seize power in Egypt2 May 1250 · Middle East and EgyptIn 1273 Yekuno Amlak asked the Mamluk sultan Baibars to send a metropolitan, since the Ethiopian Church was subordinate to the Patriarch of Alexandria
Same participants
- Ethiopian–Adal WarMarch 1529 – 21 February 1543 · Africavia Ethiopian Empire
Adjacent events in the thread
- Eruption of Samalasbetween May and October 1257 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Great Drought and the Ancestral Puebloan departure from Mesa Verde1276–1299 · North America
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 5 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274
Eastern Europe
- Battle of Wesenberg18 February 1268
- Formation of the Principality of Moscowbetween 1263 and 1283
East Asia
- Proclamation of the Yuan dynasty1271
- First Mongol invasion of JapanNovember 1274
- Travels of Marco Polo1271–1295
North America
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Yekuno Amlak
- Wikipedia (English): Solomonic dynasty
- Wikipedia (Russian): Йэкуно Амлак
- Wikipedia (Russian): Соломонова династия
- Taddesse Tamrat. Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.