SARTSA DENGEL

Sartsa Dengel (circa 1550-September 2, 1597) was emperor of Ethiopia from 1563-97. He was a great warrior king who during his long reign devoted his energies to safeguarding his throne and preserving the integrity of the realm.

The son of Emperor Minas (reigned 1559-63) and of Admas Mogasa, he became emperor in February 1563 at the age of 13, with the name of Malak Saggad I. A few months after his accession, his cousin Hamalmal, who had been one of the generals of Minas, claimed the throne on the grounds that he was a grandson of Emperor Naod (reigned 1494-1508) through his mother, Princess Romana Warq, sister of Emperor Lebna Dengel [reigned 1508-40].

With the help of two other generals of Minas, Hamalmal won over part of the army, after which he rebelled openly, setting up a puppet king, Takla Maryam, an old man who was a descendant of Emperor Newaya Krestos (reigned 1343-71). Yeshaq, the Baher Nagash  (literally “King of the Sea,” the ancient title of rulers of the Eritrea and Tegré), who in the reign of Minas had set up Tazkara Qal, a grandson of Lebna Dengel, as a puppet king, at first supported Hamalmal, but later quarrelled with him and set up his own puppet king, a boy named Marqos. Too many opposition parties thus came into being, and Hamalmal was finally compelled to hand over both puppet kings to Sartsa Dengel, who treated them kindly.

Hamalmal then made peace with the emperor, and was made governor of Gojam, while Taklo became governor of Damot. Hamalmal died in 1564, and in 1566 Taklo was replaced in Damot by Fasilio, another cousin of the emperor. Taklo nevertheless remained loyal, but Fasilio with Yeshaq’s support, immediately set out to revolt. Abuna rosab, the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was sent to him as mediator, but the rebellion continued until Fasilio was captured in 1567, having meanwhile set up yet another puppet king.

During Fasilio’s rebellion, Sartsa Dengel made two expeditions to the south. In 1566 he went to the Gibé region. In 1567 he led a punitive expedition against the Bosha of southeastern Jemma in which he was helped by his ally Sepenhi, the non-Christian ruler of Enarea. In 1568 a force was sent to attack Azé, ruler of Hadeya, south of Shawa who had refused to pay tribute. Azé was defeated in 1569, and pardoned, but was later executed in 1570. In 1572, on hearing that the Galla had captured Waj, a district in eastern Shawa, Sartsa Dengel sent a large force under the governors of Gojam, Damot, and Waj, and heavily defeated them.

In 1575, Baher Nagash Yeshaq started another rebellion, and in 1576 Muhammad, king of Adal, who had succeeded his father Nur ibn Mujahid as leader of the Muslim lowlands, invaded Waj, hoping for Yeshaq’s support. With his usual treachery, Yeshaq failed him, and Muhammad was defeated. The emperor could not turn his attention to Yeshaq, who, in spite of repeated efforts at reconciliation made by the Ethiopian court, had overrun much of Tegré in alliance with the Turks of Massawa. He had also set up a puppet king, who was eventually beheaded.

Sartsa Dengel came north to Tegré, defeated the Turks, and killed Yeshaq in battle in 1580. In the same year, the victorious Sartsa Dengel went to Aksum, where the ancient rulers were crowned, and there, following an ancient coronation ritual, was anointed and publicly crowned on January 23, 1579. It appears that this important ceremony had not taken place since it had been performed by Emperor Zarea Yaeqob (reigned 1434-68] in about 1450.

Refusal to pay tribute led to a campaign against the Falasha in the difficult, cold, and mountainous region of Shawada, a district of Semén, where the two Falasha leaders, Raday and Kaleb, were defeated. Sartsa Dengel then set out in 1581 on his first expedition to reduce the Agaw of Agaw Meder, the country west of Gojam and Damon.

Four years later the Falasha again gave trouble and were again attacked, with much of the fighting taking place around the fort of Warq Amba, near Dabarq in Semén. The Falasha leaders, Gushan and Gedewon, were eventually defeated. A second expedition to Agaw Meder followed in 1585-86, after which the emperor went south to Enarea, where he was received by its ruler, Badancho. Christianity had lapsed there, though Badancho’s father and predecessor, Laasonhi, had been inclined to it, and Sartsa Dengel’s main object was to reconvert the people, who were then exempted from tribute.

In 1588 the Turks again invaded Tegré. Sartsa Dengel came north from Bagemder, and reduced the Turks to submission, at the same time dealing with a rebel named Walda Ezum, who held an amba (a steep-sided mountain serving as a fortress) near Addi Naaman in Hamasén, then in northern Tegré. He then returned to his headquarters at Gubae, and in 1590 transferred them to Ayba, near Gondar.

When the rains ended, he set out to devastate the Gambo region, west of the Choman swamp, and south of the Abbay river (the Blue Nile), to avenge the blood of the Christians spilt by the hands of the Gambo peoples,” as the chronicler puts it. During this expedition, he bridged the Agwel river, north of the Choman swamp.

Sartsa Dengel’s last expedition was in 1596, to Great Damot in the land of Gibe,” to fight the Borana Galla. He was warned by some monks against going, but was told that, if he must, he should not eat fish from a certain river. He disregarded the warning contracted dysentery, and became so ill that he was carried in a litter as far as the area between the Didessa and Abbay rivers, where he died on September 2, 1597. By his wife, Empress Maryam Sena, he had only daughters, and therefore left the throne to his nephew, Za Dengel. The empress, however, had his natural son Yaeqob crowned as Emperor Malak Sagad II (reigned 1597-1603).

Throughout his reign, Sartsa Dengel was troubled by rebellions both of individuals and of subject peoples. Consequently, little work of constitutional importance took place during his reign, although in 1580, after he had visited the cathedral of Aksum, he produced an ordinance to safeguard its privileges, and he also had some titles and offices altered.

G. W. B HUNTINGFORD