Zara Yaqob

Emperor of Ethiopia (r. 1434-1468)

• Born: 1399
• Birthplace: Telq, Ethiopia
• Died: 1468
• Place of death: Aksum, Ethiopia

With an authoritarian hand, Zara Yaqob instituted religious reform, centralized imperial powers, encouraged Ethiopic literature, and maintained ties with Europe. His life was devoted to the institution of Christianity and the conversion of pagans within his realm.

Early Life

Ethiopia’s greatest medieval emperor, Zara Yaqob (ZAH-rah YAH-kob) was born Constantine I Zara Yaqob (seed of Jacob) to Emperor Dawit I and Empress Egzi Kebra. At the time, bitter upheavals divided Coptic (Egyptian Orthodox) Christianity deeply, to which Ethiopia had adhered since 331. Threatening to shatter the empire, these controversies concerned Old Testament regulations, particularly dietary laws, male circumcision, and, above all, the observance of Sabbath on Saturdays as well as Sundays.

The chief advocate of strict observance, Ewostatewos, had been forced into exile in 1337. Following his 1352 death, his sympathizers were permitted to establish a monastery in Hamasien. Gaining great prestige and many converts throughout northern Ethiopia, they challenged church authorities. Dawit organized a theological debate on the Sabbath question around 1400 and, influenced by followers of Ewostatewos, decreed religious toleration in 1404, a move seen as subversive by many.

Following Dawit’s death in 1412, his sons and grandsons succeeded one another in rapid succession. Hence Zara Yaqob’s childhood was subjected to much intrigue. A widely revealed prophecy predicted future greatness for him. The resulting jealousy of his brothers, especially Tewodros (r. 1412-1413), led his mother to remove him from the royal court and have him secretly educated in a monastery in the ancient religious and political capital of Aksum. Remaining incognito, he later joined the monastery of Debre Abbi in Shire. This intimate exposure to Christian learning and to Aksum proved highly significant throughout his life.

Life’s Work

On the death of Yetshak, the last of Zara Yaqob’s brothers, in 1430, troops were dispatched to search for the hidden prince. Some accounts claim that he was forcibly returned to court and crowned. He later claimed he was an active contender for the Crown and was brought from the royal prison at Amba Gishen on the eve of his accession in 1434.

Ethiopian monarchs were usually crowned at the most important church wherever they were when they came to power. Zara Yaqob, however, reinstated the ancient tradition of being crowned in Aksum, thereby investing the monarchy with the historic city’s prestige. Subsequent rulers continued this tradition. He later granted land to Aksum’s cathedral, Maryam Seyon (Mary of Zion), where, according to Ethiopian tradition, the Hebraic Ark of the Covenant reposes.

Ethiopia’s monarchy had profoundly changed since Aksumite times, when monarchs ruled as feudal lords over loosely controlled provinces where only hints of Christian influence were evident in their courts. Some exceptional early rulers, such as Ezana, Lalibela, and Amda Tseyon, were able to increase their control. By Zara Yaqob’s time, emperors had consolidated their power and Christianity had become extremely important. The centralized rule of a single emperor ran parallel to the Christian emphasis on a single god.

Strengthening these trends throughout his thirty-four-year reign, Zara Yaqob expanded the imperial bureaucracy. He frequently appointed daughters or sisters as provincial governors. At one point, his administration was mostly female. Choosing whom his female kin married and which of their male heirs would eventually be governors, he was able to control his realm’s provinces for many years to come. In the expanding empire’s distant regions, however, newly conquered populations remained barely touched by Christianity. Language differences and the limited education of most clergy rendered priests incapable of effectively transmitting their faith, beyond officiating at routine ceremonies. Ge’ez, the Ethiopian Church’s liturgical language, was incomprehensible to most. Pagan practices flourished in this atmosphere, and many Christians consulted pagan priests and evoked magic to ward off evil spirits.

As theologian-emperor, Zara Yaqob energetically pursued a relentless religious agenda with often oppressive results. Not hiding his sympathies, he found Ewostatewos’s ideas both personally inspiring and politically convenient at a time when Ethiopia had gone twenty-three years without an abuna, its primate or spiritual head. Passionately interested in religious education, he required all churches to establish libraries and all priests to preach on the essentials of the faith. Numerous churches were built, and monastic education was improved. A staunch defender of Orthodoxy, Zara Yaqob introduced dramatic reforms in church practices and policies, including changes in the liturgical cycle. Following a Christmas Day victory over an invading Muslim army greatly outnumbering his own, he decreed that henceforth Christmas would be celebrated every month. Devoted to the Virgin Mary and inspired by reports of her miraculous appearance at Metmaq in Egypt, he ordered all churches to dedicate altars to her and commanded that all thirty-three of her feast days be observed as Sabbaths, regardless of when they fell.

Backed by imperial troops, monks enforced the strict observance of fasts and feasts, including compulsory church attendance on the now two official Sabbaths. Every Christian was to have a priestly confessor whose recommendation was necessary for receiving Holy Communion. Every believer’s forehead was to be tattooed with the Trinity, and the sign of the cross was to be affixed to all belongings. Two Egyptian bishops, who arrived in 1438, bolstered these reforms and oversaw the ordination of new priests. To enforce measures regulating clergy behavior, provincial governors were ordered to confiscate the property of disobedient priests.

Zara Yaqob tried to stamp out paganism, mysticism, and mixed forms of Christianity. Offering sacrifices to spirits and using magical prayers were equated with devil worship and became punishable by death. Pagan priests were flogged and their homes burned. The emperor ordered the destruction of all talismans and writings associated with the tebab, Ethiopia’s esoteric tradition. Based on neo-Pythagorean and Neoplatonic sources, the tebab was a body of mystical wisdom, spells, and cures, which ran parallel to alchemy and the Jewish Kabbalah.

Writing numerous works in Ge’ez, Zara Yaqob was part of a literary renaissance that began in the thirteenth century. Freer, more poetic, and richer in description, metaphor, and alliteration than its earlier Aksumite form, Ge’ez flowered in royal chronicles, accounts of the lives of saints, original compositions, and translations from Greek, Arabic, and Latin. Most of the homilies and other religious writings attributed to Zara Yaqob contain admonitions and regulations related to his reforms. In particular, his Meshafa Berhan (book of light) expounds on his ideas and attacks paganism and heresies. Many classic works of Ge’ez literature dating from his reign, and influenced by him, are connected with the veneration of the Theotokos (mother of God). Despite royal opposition, mystical writings also appeared, including the Lefafa Tsedeq (decree of righteousness), a scroll containing magical names buried with the dead to aid their entry into heaven.

Zara Yaqob is noted for fostering ties with the Catholic West, whose contacts with Ethiopia date from the 1300’s. The appearance of translations from Latin, in particular the Miracles of the Virgin, demonstrate his interest in Western Christianity and Europe, which he saw as potential allies against Islam. He allied Ethiopia with Aragon and initiated contacts with Pope Eugenius IV. Hoping to help mend the rift between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, he sent delegates to the Council of Florence (1431-1445) and sponsored a meeting between Orthodox theologians and the Venetian monk Francisco de Branca-Leone. In 1443, his representatives in Cairo protested the persecution of Christians there. Convening a council at Debra Metmaq in 1450, he took a leading role in deciding the Sabbath issue in favor of Ewostatewos’s followers, who in turn agreed to be ordained by Egyptian bishops. Venetian Niccolò de’ Conti, Spaniard Pero Tafur, and other European visitors believed him to be the legendary ruler Prester John , the object of numerous searches by Christians in the West.

Zara Yaqob’s religious reforms were unpopular, even among the staunchly Orthodox. A Western-style Madonna painted by Branca-Leone provoked riots. The monks of Debre Libanos condemned his two-day Sabbath as Judaizing. Saint Takla Hawaryat and other noted church figures opposed his harsh measures. Revealing a hypocritical side, Zara Yaqob feared magic and, though forbidding polygamy, had many wives and concubines. His ruthless punishments led many to conform outwardly to Christianity while continuing pagan practices in secret. His despotism promoted increasing unrest, forcing him to repeatedly dismiss officials after 1450.

Fear of coups, particularly after an attempt to depose him in 1453, and a desire to appear implacably impartial in the enforcement of his decrees led him to execute members of his family, including three of his daughters and one of his empresses. Though his son Be’eda succeeded him on his death in 1468, his favorite empress, Elleni, effectively ruled until her son Lebna Dengel came to power in 1508.

Significance

Despite his authoritarianism, Zara Yaqob became a popular figure in Ethiopian history. His formidable personality, strengthening of imperial authority, promotion of monasteries, and encouragement of Ethiopic literature all proved to be lasting achievements, even if his attempt to transform Christianity failed. Chroniclers recorded him as a second Solomon.

Bibliography

Mercier, Jacques. Art That Heals: The Image as Medicine in Ethiopia. New York: Prestel Books and the Museum for African Art, 1997. A good work on Ethiopia’s esoteric tradition of tebab.

Munro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. An excellent look at Ethiopia’s ancient capital, including much about Zara Yaqob.

Pankhurst, Richard, ed. “Zara Yaqob.” In The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Oxford University Press, 1967. Contemporary accounts of Zara Yaqob’s life.

Silverberg, Robert. The Realm of Prester John. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1972. A thorough examination of the Prester John legends, including that surrounding Zara Yaqob.

Sumner, Claude. The Treatise of Zara Yaqob and of Wolde Heywot: An Analysis. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: University of Addis Ababa, 1978. Detailed work, with the title below, on Zara Yaqob’s writing.

Sumner, Claude. The Treatise of Zara Yaqob and of Wolde Heywot: Text and Authorship. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: University of Addis Ababa, 1976.