Fasilides of Ethiopia

:"For the Turkish suite, see Fasıl".Fasilides (Ge'ez ፋሲልደስ "Fāsīladas", modern "Fāsīledes"; throne name ʿAlam Sagad, Ge'ez ዓለም ሰገድ "ʿĀlam Sagad", modern "ʿĀlem Seged", "to whom the world bows"; 1603 - 18 October, 1667) was "IPA|nəgusä nägäst" (1632 - October 18, 1667) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Susenyos and Empress Sultana Mogassa, born at Magazaz in Shewa before 10 November 1603.

Fasilides was proclaimed Emperor in 1630 during a revolt led by Sersa Krestos, but did not actually reach the throne until his father abdicated in 1632. Fasilides immediately acted to restore the power of the traditional Ethiopian Orthodox Church.He sent for a new "abuna" from the Patriarch of Alexandria, restoring the ancient relationship that had been allowed to lapse. He confiscated the lands of the Jesuits at Dankaz and elsewhere in the empire, and relegated them to Fremona. When he heard that the Portuguese bombarded Mombasa, Fasilides assumed that Alfonso Mendez, the Roman Catholic prelate, was behind the act, and banished the remaining Jesuits from his lands. Mendez and most of his followers made their way back to Goa, being robbed or imprisoned several times on the way. In 1665, he ordered the "Books of the Franks" -- the remaining religious writings of the Catholics -- burnt.

He is commonly credited with founding the city of Gondar in 1636, establishing it as Ethiopia's capital. [See the discussion in Solomon Getamun, "History of the City of Gondar" (Africa World Press, 2005), pp.1-4] . Whether or not a community existed here before he made it his capital is unknown. Amongst the buildings he had constructed there are the beginnings of the complex later known as Fasil Ghebbi, as well as some of the earliest of Gondar's fabled 44 churches: Adababay Iyasus, Adababay Tekle Haymanot, Atatami Mikael, Gimjabet Maryam, Fit Mikael, and Fit Abbo. [Getamun, "City of Gondar", p. 5] He is also credited with building seven stone bridges in Ethiopia; as a result all old bridges in Ethiopia are often commonly believed to be his work. [There are many lists of these seven bridges; an example can be found in Richard Pankhurst, "Economic History of Ethiopia" (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie University Press, 1968), pp. 297f]

Fasilides campaigned against the restive Agaw in 1637, and for the rest of his reign he was occupied either with repelling Oromo raids into his realm, or punitive expeditions against the Agaw.

Fasilides dispatched an embassy to India in 1664-5 to congratulate Aurangzeb upon his accession to the throne of the Mughal Empire.

In 1666, after his son Dawit rebelled, Fasilides incarcerated him at Wehni, reviving the ancient practice of confining troublesome members of the Imperial family to a mountaintop, as they had once been confined at Amba Geshen.

Fasilides died at Azazo, five miles south of Gondar, and his body was interred at St. Stephen's Monastery on Daga Island in Lake Tana. When Nathaniel T. Kenney was shown Fasilides' remains, he saw a smaller mummy also shared the coffin. A monk told Kenney that it was Fasilides' seven-year-old son Isur, who had been smothered in a crush of people who had come to pay the new king homage. [Nathaniel T. Kenney, "Ethiopian Adventure", "National Geographic", 127 (1965), p.557.]

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