Tigray

Who he is

Title

Governor or governors of Tigray for the Zagwe king (the title used in 1200 is not recorded; hasani later denotes a provincial governor)

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

No governor of Tigray is named for the Zagwe period in the sources reached; Taddesse Tamrat 1972, p. 64, on Tigrayan opposition held down by Lasta

Overlord

Lalibela

What it holds

• The country round Aksum and Adwa, with Yeha
• Shire to the west, toward the Tekeze and the Setit
• The north-east toward the Mereb and the Irob hills, with Debre Damo
• Tembien west of modern Mekele
• The south-east round modern Mekele, Wukro and Hawzen (Enderta and its neighbours in later names)

How it was acquired

Part of the Christian kingdom since Aksumite times; under the Agaw dynasty since the twelfth century.

Allies and rivals

The clergy of Aksum and the monasteries; the merchants of the coast road. Hostile to the Agaw dynasty, in Taddesse Tamrat's reading.

How things stand that morning

Under the Zagwe king; governors not named. Across the Mereb, the Eritrean plateau with the Shimezana convents (endowed by Lalibela) is drawn with the Horn of Africa; the Afar lowlands lie below the eastern escarpment.

Wealth

Farming of the plateau, cattle, the tolls and gifts of the coast trade, the revenues of the old churches.

Military

Provincial levies; no figures.

Threats

• Tigrayan resentment of the Agaw kings

Places of note

• Aksum: Holy city of the Ark.
• Debre Damo: Cliff monastery.
• Yeha: Temple ruin and church.

Where the sources disagree

• District names used here (Shire, Tembien, Enderta) are attested from the fourteenth century or later.

Evidence: The province's subjection is certain from the church and charter evidence; its governors are unknown.

On the map: The northern edge follows the modern Ethiopia-Eritrea border along the Mereb, the eastern edge the modern Tigray-Afar boundary, which runs along the foot of the escarpment.

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