Yemrehana Krestos

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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]

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, Yemrehana Krestos Church was built in a large northeast-facing cave on the west side of Mount Abuna Yosef. 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.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Quoted in E.A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 277
  2. ↑ 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
  3. ↑ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 61 n.3.
  4. ↑ Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, the unknown land: a cultural and historical guide (London: I.B. Tauris, 2002), p. 225
  5. ↑ Francisco Alvarez, The Prester John of the Indies translated by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), chapter 59.
  6. ↑ David W. Phillipson, Ancient Churches of Ethiopia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 75ff
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Germa Seyum		 Emperor of Ethiopia Succeeded by
Kedus Harbe
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