LEBNA DENGEL

Lebna Dengel (1496-September 2, 1540) was emperor of Ethiopia from 1508-40. During his reign the Muslim sultanate of Adal, under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, or Ahmad Gran, revolted in 1527, subsequently launching a successful invasion of the empire, and brought it to the brink of dissolution.

Lebna Dengel succeeded his father Naod (reigned 1494-1508) at the age of 12. He was first called Dawit II, but was later known as Wanag Saggad. During his minority the empire was administered by a regency which, besides his mother, Naod Mogassa, included Empress Eléni, his stepmother. He was educated in the religion and laws of Ethiopia, and was a good horseman and soldier. The Muslim sultanates which, since the 13th century, had been Ethiopia’s serious rivals in its southward expansion, had long been subdued and reduced to vassalage. Of these only Adal continued to struggle to recover its independence, but it was subdued after a rebellion in 1517.

From 1520 to 1526, Lebna Dengel played host to the Portuguese mission headed by Dom Rodrigo de Lima. The mission was sent to study the possibility of an Ethiopian-Portuguese alliance against the Muslim powers of the Red Sea. But the Portuguese came without any definite projects for military cooperation. Because of his recent victory over Adal, Lebna Dengel saw no serious threat to his country from Adal or other Muslim powers, but feared that the Turks might occupy the port of Massawa on the Red Sea. He therefore suggested that the Portuguese should fortify and defend these places, and de Lima agreed. Apart from this, nothing further came of this alliance.

He was more interested in cultural than in military cooperation with Portugal, and sought to end Ethiopia’s isolation from Europe. Through developing close ties, he hoped to introduce Europe’s technical and cultural achievements into Ethiopia. In his letter to John III of Portugal (reigned 1521-57), he expressed a desire for Ethiopia and Portugal to exchange permanent embassies. In 1526 he therefore sent the monk saga Zaab with de Lima to represent the emperor in Lisbon. Lebna Dengel also asked for goldsmiths, silversmiths, gunsmiths, printers, engravers, and other craftsmen to be sent to Ethiopia. He made a similar request to Pope Clement VII (reigned 1523-34). In his two letters to the Pope, Lebna Dengel emphasised the need for friendship and cooperation between all Christian nations in order to overcome the Muslim powers. In Europe these letters gave rise to a mistaken belief that he wished to become a Catholic and to unite the Ethiopian Church with that of Rome.

Although Francisco Alvares, the mission’s chaplain, found Lebna Dengel a learned man with an inquiring mind, and a sovereign proud of Ethiopia’s cultural heritage, he unwittingly sketched the picture of an absolute monarch who abused his power. He is said to have made the nobles restive because of his frequent dismissals of some of them from office, and because of the degrading punishments he gave them, Dom João de Castro, the renowned Portuguese naval officer, who visited Massawa in 1541, believed that the emperor’s unpopularity with the nobility and the people made it impossible for him to crush the 1527 rebellion of Adal, or to prevent Adal’s subsequent invasion of the empire.

Apart from the emperor’s unpopularity, the decisive defeat he suffered in 1529 at the battle of Shembera Kuré was due to Ethiopian military inferiority. The Ethiopian forces were no match for Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, also known as Ahmad Gran, the vizier of Adal. Lebna Dengel did not realise until it was too late that Ahmad’s aim was to conquer Ethiopia, replace Christianity with Islam, and make Adal truly independent. This led to the loss of his empire, which was ruled by Ahmad until his death in 1543.

The domination of Ethiopia by Muslim power disrupted the development of the political and cultural institutions of the country. A chronicler of these tragic events estimated that 90 percent of the Christian population was forced to embrace Islam; that military organisations were destroyed; and that monarchical absolutism was permanently weakened. In the succeeding years the country was open to invasion by external enemies, while internally central authority was seriously challenged by ambitious regional lords.

Many of Lebna Dengel’s children and close relatives were killed or captured by the invaders, and he himself became a fugitive in his own empire, hunted by Ahmad. By 1539 the only place where the emperor could find refuge was on top of the mountain of Dabra Damo, which the enemy could not reach. There he died in September, lonely and bankrupt, but not before he had learned that John III of Portugal was sending him military assistance from Goa.

MERID WOLDE AREGAY