Sarsa Dengel

From Freepedia

Sarsa Dengel (Amharic "Sprout of the Virgin") (1550 - 1597) was negus negust (throne name Malak Sagad I) (1563 - 1597) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonid dynasty. He was the son of Menas.

He was elected king by the Shoan commanders of the army and the Queen Mother. Upon his coming of age, Bahr Negash Yishaq presented himself to Sarsa Dengel and made peace. However, Sarsa Dengel had to confront a number of other revolts: his cousin Hamalmal in 1563, another cousin Fasil two years later, and in 1575 Yishaq once again revolted, with support of the Ottoman Empire. Sarsa Dengel then marched to Tigray that next year, where he defeated and killed in battle the Bahr Negash and his allies, Ozdemur Pasha and Sultan Muhammed IV of Harar.

Sarsa Dengel was the first negus to confront the encroachment of the Oromo, who had defeated Nur ibn Mujahid as Nur returned from killing his uncle Gelawdewos in battle. In his tenth regnal year (1573), campaigning in the south, he defeated the Oromo in a battle near Lake Zway. He campaigned against them again in his 15th (1578) and 25th (1588) regnal years.

Sarsa Dengel campaigned against the Falasha in Semien in 1580, then again in 1585. He also campaigned against the Agaw in 1581, and in 1585. He campaigned against the Gambo, who dwelled in the lands west of the Coman swamp, in 1590. He made a punitve expedition against the Ottoman Turks in 1588, in response to their raids in the northern provinces. Sarsa Dengel campaigned in Ennarea twice, the first time in 1586, and the second time in 1597. On this second outting, his Chronicle records,¹ a group of monks tried to dissuade him from this expedition; failing that, they warned him not to eat fish from a river he would pass. Sarsa Dengel passed by the river the monks warned him about, and ate fish taken from this river; he grew sick and died on October 4, 1597.²

References

1. Partially translated by Richard K. P. Pankhurst in The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles. Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1967.
2. G.W.B. Huntingford, Historical Geography of Ethiopia (London: British Academy, 1989), p.149.

Preceded by:	Emperor of Ethiopia	Succeeded by:
Menas		Yaqob