Ba'eda Mariam

Ba'eda Mariam I. ( Ethiop . በእደ ማርያም , "who is in the hand of Mary "; * 1448 in Debre Berhan , Amhara ; † November 8, 1478 in Abasi Wera Gabayi ) was from August 26, 1468 until his death on November 8, 1478 Negus Negest ( Emperor ) of Ethiopia and a member of the Solomon dynasty . He was born to Zara Yaqob and Seyon Morgasa in Debre Berhan.

Life

As he got older, Zara Yaqob became more and more convinced that his family members were conspiring against him and had some of them beaten up. In 1462, Seyon Morgasa, the mother of Ba'eda Mariam, died as a result of this abuse. Ba'eda Mariam had his mother secretly buried in Maqdesa Mariam Church not far from Debre Berhan and donated incense and other gifts to the church. Zara Yaqob then turned his anger against Ba'eda Mariam until members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church bridged the gap between the two. Ultimately, Zara Yaqob publicly designated his son as his successor.

Since his own mother was dead, Ba'eda Mariam made his father's wife, Eleni , queen mother. She turned out to be a powerful member of the royal family, and Paul B. Henze adds that she actually acted as an equal ruler under her stepson. According to Edward Ullendorff, however, Ba'eda Mariam did not succeed in holding his father's huge empire together: some of the recently conquered, remote provinces became increasingly unruly, the feudal lords, whom Zara Yaqob had controlled centrally for a short time, asserted their regional claims and the upper clergy fell back into the old established practices and ecclesiastical organization.

Ba'eda Mariam moved his court to the land of the Gurage and used it as a base for campaigns in Dawaro and Bale . These regularly undertaken campaigns led to a peace treaty with Muhammad , the son of Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din . He used the resulting calm on his southern borders to take action against the stubborn Falashes in the northern areas. When Muhammad died, however, the war with Adal broke out again .

Ba'eda Mariam died in Abasi Wera Gabayi and was buried in Atrousa Mariam on the left bank of the Blue Nile . His tomb was known for a depiction of Mary and Christ made by the Venetian artist Brancaleon , who emigrated to Ethiopia . The tomb was later destroyed in an Oromo raid in 1709 . The Oromo ransacked the church, enslaved or killed everyone present, and threw the coffin of Ba'eda Mariam from the nearby rocks.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ His chronicle has been partially translated into English by Richard KP Pankhurst: The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles . Oxford University Press, Addis Ababa 1967.
2. ^ Paul B. Henze: Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia . Palgrave, New York 2000, p. 75.
3. ^ Edward Ullendorff : The Ethiopians: An Introduction to the Country and People . second edition Oxford University Press, London 1960, p. 70.
4. ^ EA Wallis Budge : A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia . 1928 Anthropological Publications, Oosterhout, Netherlands 1970, pp. 313f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Zara Yaqob	Emperor of Ethiopia 1468 - 1478	Eskandar