SABLA WANGEL

Empress Sabla Wangel (?-1568) was the wife of Emperor Lebna Dengel [reigned 1508-40], and participated in the events which occurred during the difficult years which followed the Muslim invasion of the Ethiopian empire in the earlier 16th century.

PHOTO CAPTION: Empress Sabla Wangel. SOURCE: EA Library

She was born in the district of Ganz, but little is known of her family. Between 1526 and 1540, she shared with her husband the hardships and vicissitudes that came upon the country because of the Muslim invasion from the eastern emirate of Adal, led by Ahmad ibn Ibrähim [Ahmad Grän]. 

In 1539 she saw her eldest son, Figtor, killed, and her fourth son, Minas, taken prisoner. After her husband’s death in 1540, Sabla Wangel stayed in Tegré, while her second son, Emperor Galawdéwos [reigned 1540-59], went to Shawa to arouse the people there against Ahmad.

On December 15, 1541, Sabla Wangel joined at Dabarwa, 20 mi (36 km) south of Asmara, the 400 Portuguese soldiers sent by King John Ill of Portugal (reigned 1521-57) to help her husband. Her presence was very opportune, for the people through whose districts they passed brought them provisions, and many joined them to fight Ahmad. 

In the engagements with Ahmad’s forces, in which the Portuguese were greatly outnumbered, the empress tended the wounded and was evidently greatly grieved by the death of many, especially that of their leader, Christovão da Gama. But on February 23, 1543 she was avenged when the surviving Portuguese helped Galawdewos to kill Ahmad in battle. Her happiest moment came when she ransomed her son Minas from the Turks, to whom he had been handed over by Ahmad.

The hard-won peace was, however, soon shattered by the northward thrust of land-hungry Galla nomads, who moved into the power vacuum left by a generation of warfare. Galawdéwos was killed in 1559, fighting Nur ibn Mujahid, emir of Harar and of Adal.

Minas became emperor (1559-63) but in his short reign faced further Galla incursions and a powerful coalition of rebellious lords. Sabla Wangel retained her prestige and influence, however, and helped her young grandson, Sartsa Dengel, who was to reign from 1563-97, to assert his right to the throne against the claims of rival pretenders.

MERID WOLDE ARAGAY