Mentewab

Empress of Ethiopia (r. 1730-1770)

• Born: c. 1700
• Birthplace: Qwara, Ethiopia
• Died: 1772
• Place of death: Gondar, Ethiopia

Mentewab’s reign represented the last effective central authority before Ethiopia drifted into decentralization and regional turmoil in the second half of the eighteenth century. Mentewab is also remembered for her patronage of the Church and of the arts and architecture. Many of the splendid religious artworks and palaces she commissioned still exist.

Early Life

Mentewab, the dowager empress who dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly half a century, was born at the turn of the eighteenth century in the district of Qwara, in northwest Ethiopia. Popular tradition attributes the beginning of her palace career to a chance encounter with the Emperor Bakaffa, who was said to have fallen ill during one of his trips in disguise in a remote part of his empire and was nursed to life by the beautiful Mentewab. This legend notwithstanding, Mentewab’s kin from Qwara were already represented in Bakaffa’s court, and it is likely that she owed her introduction to the emperor to the influence of her kinsmen rather than to the romantic encounter of the tradition.

Once she arrived in the capital in 1721 as the emperor’s consort, Mentewab quickly established herself as a key political player in the imperial court. The fact that Bakaffa was himself a powerful emperor who jealously guarded monarchical authority did not hinder Mentewab from building her own independent base of power in the palace. The illness of the emperor in 1728 afforded Mentewab an opportunity to emerge as the most powerful political actor in the Ethiopian empire.

Mentewab fortified her position in the palace by placing her close relatives from Qwara in key military and administrative posts. These relatives included her brother Wolde Leul, whom she elevated to the rank of ras (the highest rank below emperor), her uncles Dajazmach Arkeledis and Ras Niqoliyos, and her cousin Dajazmach Eshete. When Emperor Bakaffa died on September 19, 1730, Mentewab, who had carefully planned for this eventuality, moved swiftly to ensure the succession of her infant son, Iyasu II. She made herself his regent, thereby becoming the real power behind the Ethiopian throne. A few months later, she had herself crowned as coruler of the Ethiopian empire.

Life’s Work

The extensive political work she had done during the last years of Bakaffa’s reign enabled Mentewab to step in immediately to seize the reins of imperial power. She set out to strengthen her personal hold over the provinces through the appointment of a coterie of trusted governors and generals, most of whom came from her own district of Qwara. Mentewab’s ambitious centralization of power and the rapid ascendancy of her Qwara clique threatened to erode the authority of the provincial lords, however. In 1732, a coalition of regional lords mounted a rebellion and briefly besieged the capital city of Gondar, threatening to unseat the empress. The rebels sought to turn the predominantly Orthodox Christian public against the empress by accusing her of secretly adhering to Catholicism.

Ironically, the rebellion further enhanced Mentewab’s image by providing her with an opportunity to dispel the bias against her gender and to prove to her subjects that she was as capable of decisive leadership as any in her position. She personally led the war council and was instrumental in the suppression of the rebellion. When the crisis was over, despite lingering resistance from disgruntled members of the nobility, Mentewab’s position was firmly established throughout the empire.

In later years, especially after the death of some of her trusted lieutenants from Qwara, Mentewab began to look for allies from among the outlying regions of the empire. She married her son Iyasu II to the daughter of a prominent Oromo chief from Wollo, thereby inaugurating a new era of Oromo ascendancy in palace politics. She also married one of her daughters to the son of Mikael Sehul, a rising star in the province of Tigray. Mentewab elevated Mikael to the title of ras and after helping him vanquish rival lords in Tigray, she appointed him governor of the entire region of the north. In subsequent years, Mikael married Mentewab’s other daughter, enhancing his power further and making himself indispensable both to Mentewab and to Emperor Iyasu II.

Her alliance with Mikael Sehul proved Mentewab’s undoing. Posing as a trusted lieutenant, Mikael skillfully cut the ground from under Mentewab’s feet by destroying one palace faction after another, eventually leaving only himself as the most powerful figure in the empire. His control of the areas close to the Red Sea coast allowed him to monopolize the import of firearms into the country. Mikael’s army was the best equipped in the empire.

The death of Emperor Iyasu II in 1755 and the passing away of many of Mentewab’s old guards from Qwara left a political void that was quickly filled by Mikael Sehul. When the new king, Iyoas, attempted to resist Mikael’s usurpation of imperial authority, Mikael had the king strangled in 1769 and installed his own puppet on the throne. The old and isolated Mentewab mounted one last effort to eject Mikael from her capital, but she lost and faded into political obscurity until her death in 1772. Although Mikael Sehul himself was defeated and chased out of the capital city by a coalition of rival lords, the precedent he set continued for several decades to come. In this period, popularly referred to as the Era of Princes, the great lords of the country became the kingmakers.

Significance

Few women in Ethiopia’s long history have had roles in public life to rival Mentewab. A young girl from an obscure district, Mentewab quickly carved her own political career in Emperor Bakaffa’s palace. By the time that Bakaffa died, Mentewab, who was barely thirty years old, had established herself as the most formidable political figure in the empire. She engineered the succession of two kings, made herself regent to both, and crowned herself as coruler. Mentewab was the last of the illustrious rulers from Gondar who exercised effective centralized power before authority slipped away from the hands of the monarchy and the country was thrown into an era of feudal disorder and political abyss.

Mentewab is also remembered as one of the greatest benefactors of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. She built magnificent churches and lavished the clergy with generous land grants. She was a great patron of the arts, architecture, and literature. Gondar, the capital city, flourished under Mentewab’s care as the center of a refined court life.

Bibliography

Abir, Mordecai. Ethiopia: The Era of Princes, the Challenge of Islam, and the Reunification of the Christian Empire, 1769-1855. London: Longmans Green, 1968. One of the most important works on the political history of Ethiopia that traces the rise of the great lords and the usurpation of imperial authority in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Blondel, Weld H., ed. Royal Chronicles of Abyssinia. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1922. A collection of chronicles of selected Ethiopian kings, indispensable for students interested in the lives and times of eighteenth century Ethiopian emperors.

Bruce, James. Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile. Selected and edited by C. F. Press. New York: Horizon Press, 1964. A fascinating account of eighteenth century Ethiopian politics and court life in the city of Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia, by the Scottish traveler who arrived in Ethiopia in 1770 and was intimately acquainted with the political elite in the Ethiopian kingdom, including the empress dowager, Mentewab.

Crummey, Donald. Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia: From the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2000. A social and political history of Ethiopia, with detailed accounts of Mentewab’s political career and her patronage of the church.

Doresse, Jean. Ethiopia. London: Elek Books, 1959. A survey of the cultural history of Ethiopia with useful description of the art and architecture that flourished in Gondar during the time of Mentewab.

Henze, Paul B. Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia. New York: Palgrave, 2000. A readable general work that is especially useful in tracing the process of the expansion and shrinking of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia under the leadership of the Solomonic rulers of Ethiopia. It also includes interesting information on daily life, art, architecture, and religion.

Marcus, Harold. History of Ethiopia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. A general survey of Ethiopian history from ancient times to the present by a distinguished scholar of Ethiopian studies.

Pankhurst, Richard, ed. The Ethiopian Chronicles. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1967. A collection of contemporary writings that chronicle the lives and careers of eighteenth century Solomonid kings.