Yetbarak

Who he is

Name

Yetbarak

Title

Prince, the king's son

Since

Not applicable

Born

Not pinned. Probably born before 1200: he is named as a son of the king in 1210 and commands troops before his father's death (about 1221-1225); a birth in the first years of the thirteenth century cannot be excluded.

Family

Son of Lalibela and Masqal Kibra

Confidence

medium

Taddesse Tamrat 1972, pp. 62-64

Overlord

Lalibela

What it holds

• No land of his own recorded for 1200; a governorate late in his father's reign, perhaps in Tigray

How it was acquired

Not applicable.

Allies and rivals

His mother's party at court; rival of Na'akueto La'ab.

How things stand that morning

Probably a child or youth at court, if already born; no office recorded.

Wealth

Not recorded.

Military

Later commands troops against a rebel governor (date not pinned).

Threats

• His cousin's claim

Where the sources disagree

• Some lists give Yetbarak 17 or 40 years after Na'akueto La'ab; others omit him.

Evidence: The envoys' account of 1210 and hagiography read by Taddesse Tamrat.

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