Royal kin and queens · The Zagwe kingdom of Lalibela · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Na'akueto La'ab

Son, very probably, of the king Lalibela deposed.

He is brought up at court with Lalibela's son Yetbarak; the patriarch's envoys of 1210 call the two of them Lalibela's sons, naming Yetbarak first. Queen Masqal Kibra distrusts him and keeps him watched near the capital. Late in the reign, by tradition, Lalibela abdicates in his favour at the queen's urging and takes the crown back after about eighteen months; Taddesse Tamrat sees a short usurpation by a prince who was 'a rallying point for disaffected elements'.

After Lalibela's death he reigns (forty years in the lists, 1221-1261 on one reckoning; until about 1250 in Derat's account). A seventeenth-century Gadla credits him with churches at Sewa'a, which Huntingford identifies with Ashetan Maryam just east of Roha, and at Qoqhena, and says Zagwe power reached Gojjam in his time.

Who he is

Name
Na'akueto La'ab
Title
Prince of the deposed line, raised at court
Since
Not applicable
Born
Not known. If he is, as Taddesse Tamrat thinks, the son of the king Lalibela deposed (about 1181-1185 on the usual reckoning), he was born before that deposition and is a young man on 1 January 1200.
Family
Probably son of Kedus Harbe (Taddesse Tamrat); his own hagiographer names his father as Gabra Masqal, that is Lalibela, which Taddesse treats as a rewriting
Confidence
medium

Taddesse Tamrat 1972, pp. 62-64; Wikipedia 'Na'akueto La'ab'

Overlord

Lalibela

What it holds

  • No land of his own recorded for 1200; a governorate only late in Lalibela's reign (Taddesse Tamrat)

How it was acquired

Not applicable.

Allies and rivals

The disaffected at court and the partisans of his father; rival of Yetbarak; distrusted by the queen.

How things stand that morning

At court in Bugna, under watch; no office recorded.

Wealth

Not recorded.

Military

None recorded.

Threats

  • The queen's hostility

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. Late in Lalibela's reign (not pinned)Brief reign at Lalibela's abdication, about eighteen months, ended by Lalibela's return or by Yetbarak.Depends on: Lalibela's abdication. Stopped by: The queen's party prevailing, or the prince's death.

Where the sources disagree

  • The lists give him 40, 47 or 48 years; Taddesse Tamrat thinks the official succession was altered to remove Yetbarak.

Evidence: The patriarchal envoys' account of 1210 and late hagiography.

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

Sources and studies

  1. Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-1527 (Oxford 1972), pp. 53-64 (the Zagwe), 98, 121-124
  2. Wikipedia, 'Na'akueto La'ab' (after Taddesse Tamrat, Pankhurst, Huntingford)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.