Na'od

Na'od
Reign 1494 - 31 July 1508
Predecessor Amda Seyon II
Successor Dawit II
Dynasty Solomonic dynasty
Father Baeda Maryam I

Na'od (Amharic: ናዖስ?) (? – 31 July 1508) was Emperor (nəgusä nägäst) (1494 - 31 July 1508) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty.

Reign

Na'od was the second son of Baeda Maryam I and his second wife Kalyupe (also called "Calliope"), and was born at Gabarge.[1]

Like Eskender before him, he relied on the counsel of the Queen Mother Eleni. Despite her help, his reign was marked by internal dissension.

Na'od began construction on a lavish church in the Amhara province, which was decorated with gold leaf and known as Mekane Selassie. However, he died before it was completed, and he was buried in a tomb inside the church. His son Emperor Lebna Dengel completed the construction in 1530.[2] Francisco Álvares records seeing the church as it was being constructed, and mentions that he was kept from entering it by the local clergy.[3] However, not long after its completion, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad Gurey/Gragn) penetrated the Amhara province, and on 3 November 1531, pillaged the structure and set it afire.[4]

Na'od was killed near Jejeno (possibly Mekane Selassie) while campaigning against Muslim forces.[5]

Notes

  1. James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1805 edition), vol. 3, p. 148
  2. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Qader, Futuh al-Habasa: The Conquest of Ethiopia, translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003), pp. 231f
  3. C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, The Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), pp. 360f, 582
  4. Sihab ad-Din, Futuh, pp. 245ff
  5. G.W.B. Huntingford, The historical geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704, (Oxford University Press: 1989), p. 105
Preceded by
Amda Seyon II
Emperor of Ethiopia
14941508
Succeeded by
Dawit II


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