- Gebre Mesqel Lalibela
Gebre Mesqel Lalibela (also called simply "Lalibela", which means "the
bee s recognise his sovereignty" in OldAgaw ) was "negus " or king ofEthiopia , and a member of theZagwe dynasty ; he is also considered a saint by theEthiopian church . According to Taddesse Tamrat, he was the son ofJan Seyum and brother ofKedus Harbe . Tradition states that he reigned for 40 years. [Taddesse Tamrat, "Church and State in Ethiopia" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 56n.] According to Getachew Makonnen Hasen, his reign was from 1189 to 1229. [Getachew Mekonnen Hasen, "Wollo, Yager Dibab" (Addis Ababa: Nigd Matemiya Bet, 1992), p. 22.] He is best known as the king who either built or commissioned themonolithic church es ofLalibela .King Lalibela was born at either
Adefa or Roha (it was later named Lalibela after him) inBugna . He was given the name "Lalibela" due to a swarm of bees said to have surrounded him at his birth, which his mother took as a sign of his future reign asEmperor of Ethiopia . Tradition states that he went into exile due to the hostility of his uncleTatadim and his brother king Kedus Harbe, and was almost poisoned to death by his half-sister. Because Lalibela came to power during his brother's lifetime, Taddesse Tamrat suspects that he came to power by force of arms. [Taddesse Tamrat, p. 61.]Lalibela is said to have seen
Jerusalem in a vision and then attempted to build anew Jerusalem as his capital in response to the capture of old Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187. As such, many features of the town of Lalibela haveBiblical name s - even the town's river is known as the River Jordan. It remained the capital of Ethiopia from the late 12th century and into the 13th century.Details about the construction of his 11 monolithic churches at Lalibela have been lost. The later "Gadla Lalibela", a
hagiography of the king, states that he carved these churches out of stone with only the help ofangel s. [The portion of his "Gadla" describing his construction of these churches has been translated by Richard K. P. Pankhurst in his "The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles" (Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press), 1967.]His chief queen was Masqal Kibra, about whom a few traditions have survived. She induced
Abuna Mikael to make her brother Hirun bishop, and a few years later the Abuna left Ethiopia forEgypt , complaining that Hirun had usurped his authority. [Taddesse Tamrat, pp. 59f.] Another tradition states that she convinced king Lalibela abdicate in favor of his nephewNa'akueto La'ab , but after 18 months of his nephew's misrule she convinced Lalibela to resume the throne. Taddesse Tamrat suspects that the end of Lalibela's rule was not actually this amiable, and argues that this tradition masks a brief usurpation of Na'akueto La'ab, whose reign was ended by Lalibela's son,Yetbarak . [Taddesse Tamrat, pp. 62f.] Getachew Mekonnen credits her with having one of the rock-hewn churches, Bet Aba Libanos, built as a memorial for Lalibela after his death. [Getachew Mekonnen, p. 24.]Unlike the other Zagwe kings, a sizeable amount of written material has survived about his reign, besides the "Gadla Lalibela". An embassy from the
Patriarch of Alexandria visited his court around 1210, and have left an account of him, and Na'akueto La'ab and Yetbarak. [Taddesse Tamrat, p. 62.] The Italian scholarCarlo Conti Rossini has edited and published the several land grants that survive from his reign. [A bibliography for these can be found at Taddesse Tamrat, p. 59.]References
External links
* J. Perruchon. "Vie de Lalibala, roi d'éthiopie: texte éthiopien et traduction française". Paris 1892. ( [http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N203300 Online version] in [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ Gallica website] at the "Bibliothèque National Française")
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