Yeshaq I

Isaac or Yeshaq I. ( äthiop. ይሥሓቅ, throne name Gabra Masqal II ገብረ መስቀል, "Servant of the Cross" ) ( † 1429) was from 1414 until his death Negus Nagast ( Emperor ) of Ethiopia and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the second son of David I., and thus the younger brother Tewodros I ( also known as Theodore I. ).

Isaac continued the started even before his reign campaigns against the Falashas and penetrated into the territory of Shanqella to over Agawmeder, a. In the southern part of Ethiopia, he fought against the sons of Sa'ad ad-Din II, who had returned from exile in Arabia.

The first Ethiopian ruler since Aksumreich Isaac sought contact with a European ruler. By means of two dignitaries he delivered a letter to Alfonso V of Aragon, who reached the king 1428. In it, he proposed an alliance against the Muslims, which was to be sealed by a double marriage. This requires that the Infante Don Pedro get together with a group of artisans to Ethiopia in order to marry the daughter of Isaac there.

It is not known whether and in what way Alfonso responded to this letter. In a letter of 1450 reached the successor of Isaac, Zara Yaqob writes Alfonso that he liked craftsman send to Ethiopia, where their safe arrival can be guaranteed as completely at an earlier time, a thirteen- member group of his subjects on the way to Ethiopia had perished.

Taddesse Tamrat believes that the main sources of concealing the death of Isaac in the fight against the Muslims. In contrast, EA Wallis Budge states that he was murdered and buried in Tadbaba Mariam.