Na'od

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Na'od was nəgusä nägäst (1494 - 31 July 1508) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the second son of Baeda Maryam and his second wife Kalyupe (also called "Calliope").

Like Eskender before him, he relied on the counsel of the Queen Mother Eleni. Despite her help, his reign was marked by internal dissension.

Na'od began construction on a lavish church in Amhara, which was decorated with gold leaf and known as Mekane Selassie. However, he died before it was completed, and he was buried in a tob inside the church; his son Emperor Lebna Dengel completed the construction in 1530.^[1] Francisco Álvares records seeing the church as it was being constructed, and mentions that he was kept from entering it by the local clergy.^[2] However, not long after its completion, Imam Ahmad Gragn managed to penetrate the province of Amhara, and on 3 November 1531, he personally pillaged the structure and set it afire.^[3]

Na'od was killed during a campaign in Ifat against the Muslims.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Sihab ad-Din Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Qader, Futuh al-Habasa: The Conquest of Ethiopia, translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003), pp. 231f
2. ^ C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, The Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), pp. 360f, 582
3. ^ Sihab ad-Din, Futuh, pp. 245ff

Preceded by Amda Seyon II

Emperor of Ethiopia

Succeeded by Dawit II