Lalibela

Who he is

Name

Gebre Meskel Lalibela

Title

King (negus)

Since

Not pinned: about 1181 on the king-list reckoning (Taddesse Tamrat), 1185 in later manuscripts of the churches (Derat); first dated grant 1204

Born

Not pinned (the Gadla Lalibela places his birth at Roha)

Family

Son of Jan Seyum of Bugna and Kirwerna; brother of the deposed king Kedus Harbe; husband of Masqal Kibra; father of Yetbarak; guardian of his nephew Na'akueto La'ab

Confidence

medium

Taddesse Tamrat 1972, pp. 56-64; Derat via Wikipedia for the charters of 1204 and 1225

What it holds

• Bugna, with Roha and the royal residence of Adafa
• The cave church of Yemrehanna Krestos, foundation of an earlier king of the house, north-east of Roha
• The rock churches of Bilbala north of Roha (attributed to Lalibela by tradition)
• Wag round Sekota, the Agaw core of the dynasty
• The upland between the upper Tekeze and the Bashilo (assignment not pinned)
• Royal estates elsewhere in the kingdom (not recorded)

How it was acquired

Inherited homeland of the house; the crown taken from his brother Kedus Harbe, very probably by force (Taddesse Tamrat).

Allies and rivals

His courtiers of Bugna; the queen's kin, chief among them her brother Hirun; the metropolitan. Rivals: the partisans of the deposed Harbe, whose son lives at court.

How things stand that morning

Held in person by the king on the usual reckoning; the court sits at Adafa. Which of the Roha churches are finished on 1 January 1200 is not known; the priests told Alvares in the 1520s that the work took 24 years.

Wealth

Royal estates and the dues of the Agaw farmers and herders of Lasta and Wag; the court's household economy; the king's grants of land to churches.

Military

The king's household troops and the Agaw levies of Lasta and Wag; no figures.

Threats

• A rising of Harbe's party round Na'akueto La'ab
• Bad harvests (see the realm record on the failed Nile flood of 1200)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1204 and 1225Land grants of Lalibela, the earliest and latest dated documents of the reign.Depends on: Lalibela still reigning. Stopped by: His death or deposition.
2. 1210The envoys of Patriarch John VI reach Adafa and meet the king, his two 'sons' Yetbarak and La'ab, and the court.Depends on: The quarrel over the metropolitan Mika'el (from about 1205). Stopped by: No vacancy or quarrel in the see.

Places of note

• Roha (Lalibela): The royal church town.
• Adafa: The royal residence (site approximate).
• Yemrehanna Krestos: Cave church of an earlier king of the house.
• Sekota: Centre of Wag in later times.

Where the sources disagree

• Lalibela's reign dates: see the realm record. Taddesse Tamrat suspected that Lalibela took the crown by force; the Gadla says Harbe yielded after a vision.

Evidence: The hagiography of the king and of his successors, read critically by Taddesse Tamrat, with the patriarchal envoys' account of 1210; nothing on the royal lands is dated to 1200.

On the map: The king's own lands are drawn as the whole dynastic homeland; how much of it was royal estate and how much was held by Agaw chiefs under him is not known.

Primary sources for Zagwe kingdom

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Glory of the Kings, Yeshaq of Aksum (compiler) (1314 to 1322 in Ge'ez; the colophon claims an Arabic version of 1225). Nothing on events, but the ideology that unmade the Zagwe: the story that Ethiopia's rightful kings descend from Solomon and Menelik, compiled a century after 1200 to justify Yekuno Amlak's seizure of the throne in 1270 and to brand the Zagwe as usurpers. Read online
• History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrij and continuators (Various) (compiled in Arabic 1088 to 1094 from Coptic lives; continued for the patriarchs of 1102 to 1243 and later). The Coptic church's own record. Read online
• The Golden Gospel of Dabra Libanos: Zagwe land grants (the acts were entered on the Gospel's blank leaves from the twelfth century onward; the Zagwe acts date from about 1150 to 1270). The only documents of the Zagwe state: grants of land and rights written into a Gospel book at Dabra Libanos of Ham in Eritrea, in the names of Zagwe kings (Tantawedem, Lalibela with his queen Masqal Kebra, Na'akueto La'ab) and their officers, with lists of estates and titles.
• The History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some Neighbouring Countries, Abu al-Makarim (formerly attributed to Abu Salih the Armenian) (about 1177 to 1208; the core about 1200). The one Christian text written in Egypt around 1200 that looks south: it describes the kingdom of the Nubians with its king at Dongola, his churches, the eparch of Nobadia, the churches of Qasr Ibrim and the raid of Shams al-Dawla Turanshah in 1173, the kingdom of Alwa (Alodia) with its 400 churches and its capital Soba, and the Abyssinians with their king, their metropolitan sent from Alexandria, the church of Aksum and the Ark, as a Coptic churchman heard of them through the patriarchate. Read online
• The Life of Lalibela (probably the fifteenth century, from earlier material; the date is disputed). The only narrative about the Zagwe king who reigned in 1200: Lalibela's birth at Roha, the persecution by his brother King Harbay (Harbe), his exile and marriage to Masqal Kebra, his vision of Jerusalem, his accession, the building of the rock churches with angelic help, and his abdication in favour of his nephew Na'akueto La'ab. Read online