Yemrehana Krestos
Yemrehana Krestos (called "Abraham" by Francisco Álvares) was negus of Ethiopia, and a member of the Zagwe dynasty. According to Taddesse Tamrat, he was the son of Germa Seyum, the brother of Tatadim; however the Italian scholar Carlo Conti Rossini published in 1902 a document that stated Yemrehana Krestos was the successor of Na'akueto La'ab, and succeeded by Yetbarak.[1] According to a manuscript Pedro Páez and Manuel de Almeida saw at Axum, (where he is called "Imrah"), he ruled for 40 years a suspiciously round number.[2]
Taddesse Tamrat describes him as the king of Ethiopia closest to a priest, noting that he insisted on ruling Ethiopia according to Apostolic canons.[3] Stuart Munro-Hay speculates that "Abu Salih's description of the kings of Abyssinia as priests might have been based on information about this ruler that had reached Egypt.[4] Francisco Alvarez also recorded the tradition that it was Yemrehana Krestos who began the tradition of confining rival heirs to the Imperial throne at Amba Geshen.[5]
[edit] Yermrehana Krestos church
Yemrehana Krestos is credited with the construction of a stone church built in the Aksumite style, which bears his name. Located 12 miles northeast from Lalibela, the church was built in a large northeast-facing cave on the west side of Mount Abuna Yosef. The entrance of the cave is closed by a modern wall, built in the 1980s to replace an older one. Until the construction of a road in 2000, according to David Phillipson, this church was reachable only after "a long day's arduous journey on foot or mule." The building is notable for its resemblance to the ancient church on Debre Damo, with walls that, according to Phillipson, "show a similar horizontal pattern of inset beams and projecting stonework", with "wooden quoins, door- and window-frames [that] are essentially Aksumite in style".[6] Munro-Hay believes that the church's interior decorations make "Yimrehana Krestos the most elaborate of all known ancient Ethiopian churches."[7] Mural paintings high on the nave walls are considered the oldest surviving mural paintings in Ethiopia.[8] The cave also contains a second structure north of the church, which tradition describes as a palace or residence of Negus Yemrehana Krestos, but now serves as a residence and storage space for the local priests.[9]
Alvarez left a description of what the church looked like in the early 16th century, in his Prester John of the Indies.[10] Taddesse suggests that construction of this church is related to the record of an Ethiopian delegation that came to Caliph Saladin in 1173, and is recorded as presenting a letter and many gifts to the Caliph; in the Gadla Yemrehana Krestos, there is a passage that relates how he obtained the door from the Caliph's palace for his church.[11] This would agree with Phillipson's dating of this church to either the 11th or 12th century.[8] Paul B. Henze provides a list of several other rock-hewn churches attributed to this king.[12]
South of the church is a tomb which Munro-Hay describes as "a substantial cloth-covered structure", and alongside it a smaller one said to belong to his slave, Ebna Yemrehana Krestos. Munro-Hay reports he was told that in the cave behind the church "are many skeletons of monks and others, who have been buried in this holy spot, some dating from Yimrehana Krestos' time."[13]
[edit] References
- ^ Quoted in E.A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 277
- ^ G.W.B. Huntingford, "'The Wealth of Kings' and the End of the Zāguē Dynasty", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 28 (1965), p. 8
- ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 61 n.3.
- ^ Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, the unknown land: a cultural and historical guide (London: I.B. Tauris, 2002), p. 225
- ^ Francisco Alvarez, The Prester John of the Indies translated by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), chapter 59.
- ^ David W. Phillipson, Ancient Churches of Ethiopia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 75ff
- ^ Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, p. 228
- ^ a b Phillipson, Ancient Churches, p. 188
- ^ Phillipson, Ancient Churches, p. 80
- ^ Alvarez, chapter 53.
- ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State, p. 58.
- ^ Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 51.
- ^ Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, p. 230
| Preceded by Germa Seyum |
Emperor of Ethiopia | Succeeded by Kedus Harbe |
