Dil Na'od was the last King of Aksum before the Zagwe dynasty. He lived in either the 9th or 10th century. Dil Na'od was the younger son of Ged'a Jan (or Degna Djan), and succeeded his older brother 'Anbasa Wedem as negus.[1] According to E. A. Wallis Budge, "The reign of Delna'ad was short, perhaps about ten years."[2] However, James Bruce has recorded another tradition, that Dil Na'od was an infant when Gudit slaughtered the princes imprisoned at Debre Damo, his relatives, and forced some of his nobles to take him out of his kingdom to save his life.[3]
| Dil Na'od | |
|---|---|
| Negus of Axum | |
| King of Aksum | |
| Reign | 917–960 |
| Predecessor | Anbasa Wedem |
| Successor | Position abolished |
| Issue | Masoba Warq Abeto Mehabere Widam |
| Father | Degna Djan |
Dil Na'od is recorded as both campaigning in the Ethiopian Highlands south of Axum, and sending missionaries into that region. With Abuna Salama I, he helped to build the church of Debre Igziabher overlooking Lake Hayq.[4]
According to one tradition, he was defeated by Mara Takla Haymanot, a prince from Lasta province, who married Dil Na'od's daughter, Masaba Warq. According to tradition, a son of Dil Na'od was carried to Amhara, that son being Abeto Mehabere Widam, where he was harbored until his descendant, Yekuno Amlak, overthrew the Zagwe Kingdom, and re-established the Solomonic dynasty.
Dil'Naod is credited with building and establishing the original structures for both the church of Debre Egzi-'abhēr & Istifanos Monastery at Lake Hayq.
References
edit- ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 55 n.3.
- ^ E. A. Walis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 276.
- ^ Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1805), vol. 2 pp. 451–53
- ^ Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 47f.
External links
edit- Michael, Belaynesh. "Del-Nä'ad". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. This article was previously published in B. Michael, S. Chojnacki and R. Pankhurst (eds.), The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, Vol. 1: From Early Times to the End of the Zagwé Dynasty c. 1270 A.D (Addis Ababa, 1975).
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