Solomonid dynasty

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The Solomonid dynasty is the traditional royal house of Ethiopia, claiming descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who is said to have given birth to the traditional first king Menelik I after her Biblically-described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. The identification of Ethiopia with Biblical Sheba, and particularly the traditional accounts of the dynasty's founding are not universally acknowledged.

The dynasty, a bastion of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, came to rule Ethiopia in 1270 when Yekuno Amlak overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty. Yekuno Amlak claimed direct male line decent from the old Axumite royal house that the Zagwe's had replaced on the throne. The Solomonids continued to rule Ethiopia with few interuptions until 1974, when the last emperor, Haile Selassie, was deposed. The royal family is currently in exile but still claims authority.

During much of dynasty's existence, its effective realm was the northwestern quadrant of present-day Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Highlands. Southern and eastern regions were added during the last two centuries, some by Shewan kings and some by Emperors Menelek II and Haile Selassie; though much of the central, and southern regions were incorporated into the empire under the Emperors Amda Seyon I and Zar'a Ya'iqob but peripheral areas were lost after the invasion of Ahmad Gragn.^{[#endnote_TaddesseTamrat]}

Notes

↑ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (1270 - 1527) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p 275.

Solomonid dynasty

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See also