Zara Yaqob
Zar'a Ya'qob ( äthiop. ዘርአ: ያዕቆብ, "seed of Jacob "; Throne Name: Constantine I; ቈስታንቲኖስ, Kwestantinos I., * 1399, † August 26, 1468 ) was the 19th or 20th Juni 1434 to 1468 Negus Nagast ( Emperor ) of Ethiopia and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was in Tilq, in the province of Fatagar (now a part of Oromia Region, near the Awash ) was born as the youngest son of David I and his youngest queen, Igzi Kebra.
The British Ethiopia expert, Edward Ullendorff argues that Zara Yaqob the greatest ruler was had seen since Ezana Ethiopia to weddings of Aksumreichs. Apart from the Emperors Menelik II and Haile Selassie gave none of his successors up to him.
Paul B. Henze draws on the tradition that the resentment of his older brother Theodore I. courtiers forced Zara Yaqob up to Tigray to create. There he was raised and trained in secret in Aksum and in Debra Abbai monastery. For Taddesse Tamrat this story appears in detail unlikely, even if he did, considered with regard to the religious background of the rise Zara Yaqobs, for invaluable. He argues that Zara Yaqob in his Mashafa Berhan writes that he was only brought to Amba Geshen accession to the throne of his royal prison.
Zara Yaqobs rule
After the death of Emperor Zara Yaqob David was imprisoned on Amba Geshen by his older brother Theodore I.. Benefiting from the rapid succession of various emperors over the next 20 years, which disappeared all of his older brothers and only minor sons left behind, which found no support at court, Zara Yaqob was a constant candidate for the imperial throne.
1434 Zara Yaqob became emperor; However, it took another two years before he was to be in 1436 in Axum, where he lived for three years, crowned. Among the Ethiopian rulers, it was customary to postpone the coronation to a later date.
After taking office, Zara Yaqob married the princess Eleni, who had converted from Islam before marriage. Eleni was the daughter of the king of Hadiya, one of the Sidama kingdoms south of the Abbai River. Although she bore him no children, Eleni is developed into an influential political person. As a conspiracy to light occurred while one of his Bitwoded was involved, responded Zara Yaqob by he entrusted his two daughters Medhan Zamada and Berhan Zamada with these tasks. Chronicles his According to the rule of the Emperor also appointed his daughters and nieces as governors over eight provinces. This indeed turned out to be unsuccessful.
He defeated Badlay ad-Din, the Sultan of Adal in the Battle of Gomit 1445 and thus strengthened his grip on the Sidamo kingdoms in the south as well as the weakened Muslim kingdom on the other side of the Awash. His campaigns in the north against the Agau and Falashas were less successful.
When he saw a bright light in the sky, Zara Yaqob founded the city of Debre Berhan and made it his capital for the remainder of his reign. This light is detected by most historians as Halley 's Comet, which was shown in 1456 in Ethiopia.
At the end of his rule, Zara Yaqob developed more and more into a despot. When the abbot of Debre Libanus, Takla Hawariat, the murder and the beating of people denouncing the emperor ausprügeln the abbot and thrown into prison, where he died after a few months. 1453 was convinced Zara Yaqob of an attack against him and then tightened his brutal actions. Increasingly, he believed that his wives and children were conspiring against him and so he let some of them ausprügeln. Seyon Mogasa, the mother of the future Emperor Ba'eda Mariam died in 1462 at the consequences of this abuse. This led to a rift between father and son. The relations between the two were eventually repaired and Zara Yaqob certain Baeda Mariam publicly as his successor.
Zara Yaqob and the Ethiopian Church
As Zara Yaqob ascended the throne, discussed the Ethiopian church for about a century the role of the Sabbath. A group that was close to the Egyptian bishops who believed that the Sabbath should be observed on only one day; while the trailer Ewostatewos well as their founders wanted to explain the Saturday and Sunday for the Sabbath. He managed two recently arrived Egyptian bishops to talk to a compromise, which should serve to restore harmony with the house Ewostatewos. At the same time, he made efforts to calm the house Ewostatewos. This agreed with the compromise in 1442, while the two Egyptian bishops until 1450 consented at the Council of Debre Mitmaq in Tegulet.
Emperor Zara Yaqob you lead role of defender of the Patriarch of Alexandria continued. When he learned in 1441 of the destruction of the Egyptian monastery Debre Mitmaq by the Sultan Dschakmak, he called for a time of grief, and then strongly protested in a letter to the Sultan. He remembered Jaqmaq that he treated the Muslim subjects neatly in his kingdom and warned him that he had the power to divert the Nile, but this does not do out of consideration for the resulting human suffering. Jaqmaq tried to mitigate the rage with gifts Zara Yaqobs. However, he refused the Coptic churches which he had destroyed, to rebuild.
Edward Ullendorff also highlights the importance of the emperor for the Ethiopian literature by citing that Zara Yaqob is the author of two important theological works. In Mashafa Berha ( "Book of Light" ) Zara Yaqob describes his ecclesiastical reforms and defended his faith. The second book is the Mashafa Milad ( "Book of Birth ").
Foreign Affairs
Zara Yaqob 1450 sent a diplomatic delegation under the Sicilian Pietro Rombulo to Europe to ask directly for professionals. That Pietro Rombulo had previously been successful, on a mission in India and initially sought the Pope Nicholas V on before turning to the court of Alfonso V, his main goal went. The latter showed complacent.