Zagwe Dynasty
12th - 13th Century 		1500-1667







Abyssinia
Neo-Solomonian Dynasty, 1270-1500



Ca. 1270, an Amharic prince, YEKUNO AMLAK, succeeded in purging the last Zagwe king and establishing the NEO-SOLOMONIAN DYNASTY. He, and his descendants claim to be direct offsprings of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The dynasty was explicitly christian and claimed the ARK OF THE COVENANT as their most valued possession. Abyssinia's political center now lay in the Amhara region.
Emperor AMDA SIYON (1314-1344) destroyed the SULTANATE OF SHOA on the east. After expanding for some time, Abyssinia lost territory to the SULTANATE OF ADAL (which had succeeded Shoa) in the 15th century.
In the 15th century, the KEBRA NEGAST was codified, a law codex largely based on Coptic law.

For a list of Ethiopian Kings of the Solomonic dynasty, from Iyassu's Homepage, click here






EXTERNAL
FILES 		The Solomonic Dynasty Rises, from African Cultures
Library of Congress, Country Studies Ethiopia
Imperial Ethiopia Home Page, Dynasty in Exile website
The Solomonic Kings of Ethiopia, from Iyassu's Homepage
DOCUMENTS Kebra Negast, 1905 edition in Ge'ez, from Library of Ethiopian Texts
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on November 7th 2004

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics