Yaqob
| Yaqob ዓፄ ያዕቆብ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emperor of Ethiopia | |||||
| Predecessor | Sarsa Dengel | ||||
| Successor | Susenyos I | ||||
| Reign | 1597–1603 | ||||
| Reign | 1604–1607 | ||||
| Born | c. 1590 | ||||
| Died | 10 March 1607(aged 16–17) | ||||
| Spouse | Nazarena | ||||
| Issue | Cosmas, Saga Krestos | ||||
| |||||
| Dynasty | House of Solomon | ||||
| Father | Sarsa Dengel | ||||
| Mother | Empress Maryam Sena | ||||
Yaqob I(Ge'ez:ያዕቆብ;c. 1590 – 10 March 1607), throne nameMalak Sagad II(Ge'ez: መለክ ሰገድ), wasEmperor of Ethiopiafrom 1597 to 1607, and a member of theSolomonic dynasty.He was the eldest surviving son ofSarsa Dengel.According toE. A. Wallis Budge,Yaqob's mother was Empress Maryam Sena; others sources suggest she wasEmebetHarego of theBeta Israel.Because Yaqob had at least three sons before his death, it is likely he was born no later than 1590. Most Ethiopian sources including Tekle Tsadik Mekuria however state that his mother was Harego, but that Empress Maryam Sena championed his right to the throne as she only bore Emperor Sarsa Dengel daughters, and hoped to dominate a long term regency for the boy monarch.
Life
[edit]Sarsa Dengel had intended to make his nephewZa Dengelhis successor, but under the influence of his wife Maryam Sena and a number of his sons-in-law, he instead chose Yaqob, who was seven when he came to the throne, withRasAntenatewos of Begemderas his regent. Za Dengel and the other rival for the throne –Susenyos,the son ofAbetoFasilides – were exiled, but Za Dengel escaped to the mountains aroundLake Tana,while Susenyos found refuge in the south amongst theOromo.
When Yaqob came to adulthood six years later, he quarrelled withRasAntenatewos, and had him replaced withRasZa Sellase.However, Za Sellase deposed Yaqob, exiling him toEnnarea,and made his cousin Za Dengel Emperor. When Za Dengel proved more troublesome than Yaqob, Za Sellase recalled Yaqob from exile.
Not long after Za Dengel was defeated and killed in battle, Susenyos marched north at the head of an army raised amongst theOromo,and sent a message toRasAntenatewos proclaiming himself as emperor and demanding support from Antenatewos. Unable to communicate with Za Sellase, theRassent his troops to support Susenyos. A similar message to Za Sellase only served to steel Za Sellase into action: he marched on Susenyos, who, sick from fever, retreated into the mountains of Amhara. This lack of resolve convincedRasAntenatewos to waver in his support, and as therainy seasonpassed Za Sellase began to negotiate his submission to Susenyos. At this moment Yaqob revealed himself inDembiyaand bothRasAntenatewos and Za Sellase flocked to his side.
Susenyos managed to first surprise and decimate the forces of Za Sellase atManta DafarinBegemder;when Za Sellase escaped to Yaqob's camp, the Emperor's derision caused Za Sellase to defect to Susenyos. For several days, the armies of the two rival emperors maneuvered in the mountains ofGojjam,to at last meet in theBattle of Gol10 March 1607, where Yaqob and the Coptic ArchbishopAbuna Petros IIwere killed in battle, and his troops slaughtered.[1]
Issue
[edit]According to Zaga Christ, Yaqob had married some years before a foreigner named Nazarena a Roman, by whom he had three sons, one of whom had died before the Battle of Gol. Nazarena sent her surviving sons to safety in exile: Cosmas, the older, went south and was not heard of again; the younger,Saga Krestos,went to the safety of theKingdom of Sennarwhere he was treated well and came of age. When KingRabatproposed that Saga Krestos marry his daughter, Saga Krestos refused, and was forced to flee to another refuge, adoptingRoman Catholicismwhile atJerusalem.Eventually he found his way toRome(1632), and eventually toParis,where he was given lodgings byCardinal Richelieu.Saga Krestos died ofpleurisyin 1638 at the age of 38.Thomas Pakenhamprovides a brief sketch of Saga Krestos' European life in hisThe Mountains of Rasselas,and the book ends with a description of Pakenham's visit to Saga Krestos' grave inRueil-Malmaison.[2]
However,O. G. S. Crawfordhas cast doubts on this story. In an article that discusses the surviving sources for the story of Saga Krestos, he points out a number of problems in his story which include a discrepancy over the possible date of his birth (i.e., Saga Krestos is likely to have been born in either 1610 or 1616, whereas Yaqob died in 1607), and the story of three Ethiopian monks who report that Saga Krestos was an apostate monk who wandered from place to place begging for money.[3]
References
[edit]- ^The date of this battle is taken fromG.W.B. Huntingford,The historical geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704,(Oxford University Press: 1989), p. 158
- ^Pakenham,The Mountains of Rasselas(New York: Reynal & Co., 1959), p. 192. Pakenham transliterates his name as "Zagachrist".
- ^Crawford, "The Strange Adventures of Zaga Christ",Sudan Notes and Records,31(1950), pp. 287-296. Online copy atSudan Open Archive(accessed 24 October 2014)
- Partly based on the narrative of E. A. Wallis Budge,A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia,1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970). The sections about Yaqob and his cousin Za Dengel cover pp. 375–383.
