Zara Yaqob (throne name Kuestantinos I or Constantine I) (1399 - 1468) was negus (1434 - 1468) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonid dynasty. Born at Tilq in Fatagar, he was the youngest son of Yeshaq I.
The British expert on Ethiopia, Edward Ullendorf, stated that Zara Yaqob "was unquestionably the greatest ruler Ethiopia had seen since Ezana, during the heyday of Aksumite power, and none of his successors on the throne -- except only the emperors Menelik II and Haile Selassie -- can be compared to him."1
According to Paul B. Henze, the jealousy of his older brother Tewodros I forced the courtiers to take Zara Yaqob to Tigray where he was brought up in secret, and educated in Axum and at the monastery of Dabra Abbay.2 However, Taddesse Tamrat states that he was confined at Amba Geshen, as was the practice for rivals to the Emperor at the time.3
Zara Yaqob married the daughter of the king of Hadiya, Eleni, who converted from Islam before their marriage. According to the Chronicle of his reign, Zara Yaqob appointed his daughters and nieces as governors over eight of his provinces. Unfortunately, this act was not successful.4
He played an important role in the affairs of the Ethiopian Church. He was successful in persuading two recently arrived Egyptian bishops, Mikael and Gabriel, to accept a compromise aimed to restore harmony with the followers of Ewostatewos. When he heard in 1441 of the destruction of the Egyptian monastery of Dabra Mitmaq by Sultan al-Zahir Jaqmaq, he called for a perod of mourning, then sent a letter of strong protest to the Sultan. He reminded Jaqmaq that he had Muslim subjects whom he treated fairly, and warned that he had the power to divert the Nile, but refrained from doing so for the human suffering it would cause. Jaqmaq responded with gifts to appease Zara Yaqob's anger, but refused to rebuild the Coptic churches he had destroyed.3
His efforts to produce peace in the Ethiopian church were realized in a council of the clergy in 1450 at his new church of Debra Mitmaq in Tegulet.4
He defeated Badlay-ud-din, the Sultan of Adel at the Battle of Gomit in 1445.
Zara Yaqob sent another diplomatic mission to Europe (1450), this one led by a Sicilian Pietro Rombulo who had previously been successful in a mission to India, specifically asking for skilled labor. Rombulo first visited Pope Nicholas V, but his ultimate goal was the court of Alfonso V of Aragon, who responded favorably.5
In his later years, Zara Yaqob became more despotic. When Takla Hawariat, abbot of Dabra Libanos, criticized Yaqob's beatings and murder of men, the emperor had the abbot himself beaten and imprisoned, where he died after few months. Zara Yaqob was convinced of a plot against him in 1453, which led to more brutal actions. He increasingly became convinced that his wives and children were plotting against him, and had several of them beaten. Syon Morgasa, the mother of the future emperor Baeda Maryam, died from this mistreatment in 1462, which led to a complete break between son and father. Eventually relations between the two were repaired, and Zara Yaqob publically designated Baeda Maryam as his successor.
References
- Quoted in Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p.64
- Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time, p. 68.
- Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 220f
- G.W.B. Huntingford, Historical Geography of Ethiopia (London: British Academy, 1989), p.95.
- Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State, p. 264f