Sissinios of Ethiopia
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Sissinios (throne name Malak Sagad III) was negus negust (1607 - September 7, 1632) of Ethiopia. He was the son of Fasilidos, a descendant of Dawit II; as a result, while some authorities list him as a member of the Solomonid dynasty, others consider him the founder of the Gondar dynasty.
As a boy, a group of marauding Oromo captured him and his father, holding them captive for over a year until they were rescued by the Dejazmach Assebo. Upon his rescue, he went to live with Queen Admas Mogasa, the wife of Sarsa Dengel.
He became ruler following the defeat of first Za Sellase, then Yaqob at the Battle of Gol, located in southern Gojjam, in 1607. However, he delayed being crowned until March 18 1608, in a ceremony at Axum described by Joao Gabriel, the captain of the Portugese in Ethiopia. Because the body of Yaqob had never been found after the Battle of Gol, for the first few years of his reign Sissinios was troubled by revolts from a number of men claiming to be the dead king.
Sissinios campaigned against the Agaw and the encroaching Oromo.
He was interested in Catholicism, in part due to Pedro Páez' ability, but also due to the benefits of military help from Portugal. He showed the Jesuit missionaries his favor by a number of land grants, most importantly one at Gorgora, located on a penninsula on the northern shore of Lake Tana.
In 1613, Sissinios sent a mission led by Fr. Antonio Fernandes to the south, in an attempt to reach Malindi, a port on the Indian Ocean, hoping to break through the effective blockade that the Ottoman conquests had created around his empire. The mission failed to reach Malindi.
Sissinios at last converted to Catholicism in 1622 in a public ceremony, and separated himself from all of his wives and concubines except for his first wife. However, the tolerant and sensitive Paez died soon afterwards, and his replacement Alfonso Mendez, who arrived at Massawa on January 24, 1624, proved to be haughty and less tolerant of traditional practices. Strife and rebellions over the enforced changes began within days of Mendez' public ceremony in 1626, where he proclaimed the primacy of Rome and condemned local practices.
In 1630, the Viceroy of Begemder, Sarsa Krestos, proclaimed Sissinios's son Fasilidos emperor; Sarsa Krestos was promptly captured and hanged. Two years later, Sissinios's brother Malta Krestos revolted in Lasta, which was put down at the cost of 8,000 lives. This purposeless loss of life depressed Sissinios, and on returning to his palace at Dankaz, he granted his subjects freedom of worship, in effect restoring the traditional Ethiopian Church.
He ended his reign by abdicating in favor of his son, Fasilidos, and dying September 7, 1632. He was buried at the church of Genneta Iyasus.
Bibliography
- Paul B. Henze. Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
- Richard K. P. Pankhurst. The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles. Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1967.
- E. A. Wallis Budge. A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928. Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970.
| Preceded by: | Emperor of Ethiopia | Succeeded by: |
| Za Dengel | Fasilidos |
