Yekuno Amlak had many sons, and to avoid a bloody succession conflict he had his sons agree to rule in succession for a single year each after he died in 1294. This scheme worked until the fifth son decided he liked being king and threw his brothers all in jail in 1299. The parentage of Amde Seyon may also have had something to do with this.
Amde Seyon (Pillar of Zion) was born to this fifth son Wedem Arad’s wife, but his father was Wedem Arad’s brother Qidma Asgad. Amde Seyon found this embarrassing and a terrible fate befell anyone who brought up anything related to this in the presence of Amde Seyon. Wedem Arad was either not aware of the parentage of Amde Seyon or didn’t care, because he made Amde Seyon his heir.
Early in his reign it was Amde Seyon who commissioned the Kebre Negest, a fraudulent document based off an Egyptian history of King Solomon that connected the ruling dynasty of Amde Seyon to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, rewriting most of Ethiopian history up to that point, and granting his rule a divine destiny.
Attached picture features the expansion of the early Habashat kingdom. The red area is the domain of Yekuno Amlak and the yellow area the domain of the Zagwe dynasty. The orange bordered area is …
historyinthehorn.wordpress.com