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. It is a saint's life written long after by the clergy who held his shrine, so the politics are schematic and the dates absent; but its names (Harbay, Masqal Kebra, Na'akueto La'ab, Yetbarak) and its picture of a devout king building a New Jerusalem are what the Atlas has for the Zagwe court. Lalibela's reign is usually put at about 1181 to 1221; land grants dated 1204 and 1225 show him as king.
About this source
- Title
- Gadla Lalibala
- Author
- Anonymous
- Author's dates
- a cleric of the Lalibela churches, probably of the fifteenth century
- Written
- probably the fifteenth century, from earlier material; the date is disputed
- Language
- Ge'ez
- Covers
- the life and reign of King Lalibela (about 1180 to 1225)
- Kind
- Saint's life
Perruchon used only one manuscript (British Library Orient. 719); a new edition is in preparation (Nafisa Valieva). The lives of Yemrehanna Krestos and Na'akueto La'ab are of the same family and later. Marie-Laure Derat's L'énigme d'une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice (2018) is the modern study, and she dates the Zagwe kings later than the traditional lists.