The Zagwe kingdom of Lalibela

Who rules

Name

Lalibela (Gebre Meskel Lalibela)

Title

King (negus, the title Lalibela uses in his land grants of 1204 and 1225); throne name Gebre Meskel ('servant of the Cross')

Since

Not pinned. About 1181 on the king-list reckoning followed by Taddesse Tamrat and Getachew Mekonnen Hasen (reign 1181-1221); 1185 in later manuscripts of the Lalibela churches (Derat). His first dated document is the land grant of 1204.

Born

Not pinned. The Gadla Lalibela tells of his birth at Roha to Kirwerna, a woman of his father's household; modern retellings put it about 1162, which no early source dates.

Family

The Agaw royal house of Bugna in Lasta (called Zagwe, 'of the Agaw', only in later sources). Son of Jan Seyum, who held Bugna; brother of King Kedus Harbe (Harbay), whom he displaced. Wife: Queen Masqal Kibra. Son: Yetbarak. Nephew and ward: Na'akueto La'ab, son of Harbe.

Confidence

medium

Taddesse Tamrat 1972, pp. 56-64 (after the Gadla Lalibela, the king lists and the History of the Patriarchs); Wikipedia 'Zagwe dynasty' after Derat (land grants of 1204 and 1225). See notes_discrepancy for the reign dates.

Overlord

None in temporal matters. In the church the kingdom depends on the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, John VI (1189-1216), who alone consecrates its metropolitan (abuna) and who lives in Cairo under the Ayyubid sultans.

What the realm holds

• Lasta and Wag, the dynasty's homeland: Bugna with Roha and the royal residence of Adafa; Wag round Sekota (drawn as the king's own lands)
• Tigray with Aksum, Adwa, Yeha, Debre Damo, Tembien and Enderta, under governors whose names are not recorded for 1199-1200
• Angot, the eastern highlands between Lasta and the Afar escarpment
• Amhara (Bete Amhara) between the Bashilo and the Wanchet, with Lake Hayq
• Eastern Begemder toward Lake Tana (direct rule probable on Buxton's reading; not documented for 1200)
• The Eritrean plateau beyond the Mereb, where Lalibela and Masqal Kibra made land grants to convents in Shimezana (that ground is researched with the Horn of Africa)
• The loyalty of the Christian communities of north Shewa (Menz, Merhabete and their neighbours), loosely
• Contact with Gojjam: the hagiographies speak of Zagwe power there, and a Gojjam chronicle tells of Lalibela's war with his brother; no governor is known

How it was acquired

The Agaw dynasty took the Christian kingdom from the last kings of the Aksumite line in the first half of the twelfth century (the date is not pinned: about 1137 on a common reckoning; Conti Rossini linked a request for a new metropolitan, received by Patriarch John V shortly before 1150, to the founder Mara Takla Haymanot). Lalibela took the crown from his brother Kedus Harbe while Harbe was alive; Taddesse Tamrat thinks by force of arms, citing the story that Harbe met his victorious brother on foot.

Allies and rivals

Allies and partners: the Coptic patriarch John VI and the Coptic church; the Ayyubid court of Egypt, with which the Zagwe keep friendly relations (an Ethiopian embassy reached Saladin in 1173, and in 1189 Saladin reportedly gave the Ethiopians many sites in Jerusalem, Taddesse Tamrat p. 58; Lalibela's later embassies bring rich gifts); the Muslim merchants of the Red Sea coast and Dahlak, who carry the kingdom's trade. Neighbours: the Makhzumi sultanate of Shewa (no recorded dealings about 1200); the house of Walasma in Ifat (al-Maqrizi says a king of Abyssinia appointed its first lord).

Rivals and dangers: the kingdom of Damot, which tradition says destroyed Zagwe armies sent against it (undated); the unsubdued Agaw and Beta Israel forebears of Semien and the west; inside the realm, the deposed line of Kedus Harbe, whose son Na'akueto La'ab grows up at court, and the Semitic-speaking Christians of Tigray and Amhara who resent the Agaw dynasty (Taddesse Tamrat, mostly visible after 1220).

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 (the Ethiopian year 1192, begun 29 August 1199) Lalibela is king on the usual reckoning, though no document of his is dated before 1204. The court is in Bugna: the king's residence at Adafa, the metropolitan's palace near it, and the works at Roha. Many courtiers are men of Bugna who hold high church and lay posts, among them Hirun, the queen's brother. The heirs, Lalibela's nephew Na'akueto La'ab, son of the deposed Harbe, and (if already born, which is probable but not pinned) his son Yetbarak, grow up together at court; their ages are not recorded.

The name of the metropolitan serving in 1199-1200 is not recorded. Tigray, Wag, Angot and Amhara are ruled through governors whose names are not known for these years. No war is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200. The church is in communion with the Coptic patriarch John VI in Cairo; across the Red Sea and in Egypt the kingdom's neighbours are Muslim powers with which it trades.

Wealth

Plough farming of the highlands (teff, barley, wheat, pulses) and cattle; the king lives off the tribute and dues in kind of the provinces and the yield of royal estates. Churches and monasteries hold land by royal grant: Lalibela's charters of 1204 and 1225 survive, and his hagiographer praises him for paying for the land on which he built his churches. Long-distance trade runs from Tigray and the Eritrean plateau to the Red Sea coast and the Dahlak islands, whose Muslim sultan and merchants handle it, and from Shewa toward Zeila: slaves, ivory, gold from the south-west, civet and hides go out; cloth, glass, metalwork and luxuries come in.

The kingdom strikes no coins (the Aksumite coinage ended centuries earlier); later sources describe salt bars and cloth used as money.

Military

The king's household following, the levies of governors and lords, and the Agaw fighting men of Lasta and Wag; no figures survive. Lalibela took the crown in arms and was away on campaign when the metropolitan Mika'el was attacked (about 1205-09). Flat-topped mountain refuges (amba) and cliff monasteries such as Debre Damo serve as strongholds. Tradition says Damot destroyed Zagwe armies sent to subdue it (undated).

Threats

• Damot south of the Abay, remembered for destroying Zagwe armies and for invading Christian Shewa in the early thirteenth century
• The succession: Na'akueto La'ab, son of the deposed Harbe, against Lalibela's own son Yetbarak (the quarrel breaks out late in the reign)
• Resentment of the Agaw dynasty among the Christians of Tigray and Amhara (Taddesse Tamrat)
• Dependence on Alexandria for the metropolitan: a vacancy or a quarrel leaves the church without ordinations
• Failure of the summer rains (the Nile flood of 1200 fails badly; see likely_course_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.

In 1200

1. Summer rains (kiremt) of 1200, June to SeptemberThe Nile flood of 1200 fails badly, bringing the great famine of 1200-1202 to Egypt (described by Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi); a failed flood means weak rains on the Ethiopian highlands, so dearth in the kingdom is likely though no Ethiopian source records it.Depends on: The weather. Stopped by: Nothing in play.
2. 1200 (Munro-Hay, as reported in a recent summary; not checked against the patriarchal history)Lalibela sends envoys with gifts to the Ayyubid sultan al-Adil, who makes himself master of Egypt during 1200; they may seek safe passage for pilgrims, or a metropolitan. A second embassy follows in 1209-1210.Depends on: Al-Adil's hold on Cairo and the king's need of the sultan's goodwill (pilgrims to Jerusalem; the metropolitan's journey). Stopped by: War in Egypt between the Ayyubid princes, or no need of a new metropolitan.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1204Lalibela makes the earliest of his land grants that carries a date (Derat).Depends on: Lalibela still reigning. Stopped by: His death or overthrow.
2. About 1204-1205A royal embassy to Cairo asks for a metropolitan; Patriarch John VI, after a long search, consecrates Mika'el, bishop of Fuwwa, who is received with honour and endowed with villages.Depends on: A vacancy in the see and good relations with the patriarch and the Ayyubid court. Stopped by: A living metropolitan, or a breach with Egypt.
3. About 1205-1210Mika'el quarrels with Hirun, the queen's brother, whom he was pressed to make a bishop; his house is attacked while the king is on campaign and he flees to Egypt (about 1209). After a drought Lalibela sends rich gifts and asks for a new metropolitan; Mika'el is deposed and Yeshaq sent. The patriarch's envoys reach Adafa in 1210.Depends on: Mika'el's appointment and the court factions of Bugna. Stopped by: Another choice of metropolitan, or the queen's party losing favour.
4. Late in the reign (not pinned)Tradition: Lalibela abdicates in favour of Na'akueto La'ab at the queen's urging and takes the crown back about eighteen months later. Taddesse Tamrat reads it as a short usurpation ended by Yetbarak.Depends on: Lalibela surviving into old age with both princes grown. Stopped by: An earlier death or a settled succession.
5. 1221 on the king-list reckoning; after 1225 on the charter evidenceLalibela dies; the princes fight over the succession, Na'akueto La'ab reigning and Yetbarak contesting.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Violent death or deposition earlier.
6. Early thirteenth century (before the birth of Takla Haymanot, about 1215)Damot under its king (motalami) invades Christian Shewa as far north as the Jamma river.Depends on: Damot's strength and the weakness of the Christian and Muslim communities of Shewa. Stopped by: A Zagwe or Shewan defence of the Shewan plateau.

Places of note

• Roha: the rock-hewn churches (Lalibela): The royal church complex in Bugna, cut in several phases; much of it attributed to Lalibela's reign.
• Adafa, the royal residence: The Zagwe capital just outside Roha, with the metropolitan's palace nearby (site approximate).
• Aksum and the Ark of Zion: The ancient holy city whose church keeps the Ark.
• Debre Damo: The cliff monastery of Tigray, reached only by rope.
• Yemrehanna Krestos: The cave church of an earlier Zagwe king, north-east of Roha.

Where the sources disagree

• Reign dates: 1181-1221 on the king-list reckoning (Getachew Mekonnen Hasen; Taddesse Tamrat p. 56n; Budge's long list puts Kedus Harbe 1141-1181); about 1185-1225 in other summaries. Derat dates Lalibela's land grants to 1204 and 1225, so he was alive in 1225, which contradicts a death in 1221. Either way he is king on 1 January 1200 unless his accession was later than all reckonings give.
• The king lists disagree on the dynasty: a five-name short list (about 1179-1270, seen by Paez and Almeida at Aksum) and longer lists of eleven or sixteen names reaching back to the tenth century; Conti Rossini preferred the short list.
• Capital: Taddesse Tamrat puts the Zagwe capital at Adafa, first named by the patriarch's envoys in 1210 and confirmed by the hagiography of King Yemrehanna Krestos, at a site near Madage Abbo on the western foothills of Mt Ashetan overlooking Lalibela; older identifications with Adwa (Conti Rossini) or Yifat (Esteves Pereira) are rejected. Many summaries call Roha itself the capital.
• The name Zagwe does not appear in contemporary sources (Derat 2020); the kings call themselves king (negus).
• Derat (2020, as summarised): two grants in the Gospels of Dabra Libanos show Lalibela reigning in 1204, and a grant to the church of Bete Medhane Alem shows him still reigning in 1225; later manuscripts of the churches date his accession to 1185 and the completion of his churches to 1208; Na'akueto La'ab reigns until about 1250 and Yetbarak, the last Zagwe king, until 1270.
• Ethiopians in Jerusalem: Taddesse Tamrat reports that Saladin gave them many sites in 1189; van Donzel finds firm evidence of an Ethiopian community there only in the second half of the thirteenth century.
• Abu al-Makarim's Abyssinian chapter mixes reports: the same passage calls the king of al-Muqurra (Nubia) the great king of the Abyssinians. His Ark passage is precise and is used here, with that caution.

Evidence: The reign rests on a late hagiography (Gadla Lalibela), the king lists, the Arabic History of the Patriarchs (the metropolitan Mika'el and the envoys of 1210), Abu al-Makarim, and Lalibela's land charters of 1204 and 1225. Nothing contemporary is dated to 1199-1200 itself; the provinces' governors are not named.

On the map: Medieval provinces had no fixed borders; the outline follows the Mereb, the Afar escarpment, the Wanchet and the Tekeze, which mark the Christian highlands but not any surveyed line. The western limit against the Agaw and the Beta Israel forebears is a guess.

Primary sources for this realm

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