The abuna

Who he is

Name

Not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

Metropolitan (abuna, 'our father'): the only bishop of the Ethiopian church, a Coptic monk consecrated in Egypt by the patriarch of Alexandria

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not known

Family

Not applicable

Confidence

low

The list has a gap here. Atnatewos is known only from a hagiography of King Yemrehanna Krestos (Sergew Hable Selassie, via the Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography). The next named, Mika'el II, bishop of Fuwwa, was consecrated about 1205 by John VI at Lalibela's request, after a long search (Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, after the History of the Patriarchs).

Overlord

The Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, John VI (1189-1216), in Cairo

What it holds

• The episcopal palace near Adafa
• Villages granted for his support (attested for Mika'el)
• The ordination of all clergy and the consecration of churches and altar tablets (tabot)
• Justice in church matters

How it was acquired

Consecration in Egypt by the patriarch at the king's request.

Allies and rivals

The king, who asks for him and endows him; the Coptic patriarch; rivals at court among the clergy of Bugna (Hirun, later).

How things stand that morning

Not pinned: the holder, and whether the see is vacant, are not recorded.

Wealth

Endowment in villages; fees and gifts of ordination (not described).

Threats

• Court factions of Bugna
• Death far from Egypt, leaving the church without ordinations until a successor arrives

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. About 1205Mika'el, bishop of Fuwwa, is consecrated metropolitan by John VI and received with honour.Depends on: A vacancy and the king's embassy. Stopped by: A living metropolitan.
2. About 1209-1210Mika'el flees to Egypt after attacks on his house; he is deposed and banished, and Yeshaq is sent as metropolitan (Yeshaq is inferred to serve until about 1225, when Giyorgis is metropolitan).Depends on: The quarrel with Hirun's party. Stopped by: The king protecting Mika'el.

Places of note

• The metropolitan's palace: Near the royal residence (site approximate).

Where the sources disagree

• The patriarch's investigator, Abba Musa, found that the attacks on Mika'el came from the family of a church dignitary whom Mika'el had had killed on suspicion of theft, not from Hirun, who died soon after Mika'el's flight.

Evidence: The History of the Patriarchs for Mika'el and his successors; nothing names the holder in 1199-1200.

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