| Zagwé Dynasty
Near the end of the tenth century CE an
Agew (Agau) leader called Yodit (Gudit or Judith) brought the
thousand–year predominance of the Aksumite kingship to a conclusion.
She conquered their last king and attempted to exterminate the
Christian religion. In Abyssinian traditional tales, she is known to
be a great annihilator of churches contested only by Ahmed Gran (Grañ)
some six centuries later.
By this time, the nation of Aksum (Axum)
had seized to control the seaborne commercial network in response to
Islamic growth and starting from mid-seventh century the ruling
power had migrated down south and by late tenth century had been
established south of Tigray in such Agew districts as Lasta, Wag,
Angot, and eventually Amhara. The movement included the creation of
military territories, which contributed as a central part of the
population from which Aksumite ways, Semitic dialect, and
Christianity, diffused to the Agew peoples. By the tenth century, a
post-aksumite Christian kingship had appeared that ruled the
northern highlands from current Eritrea to Shewa (Shoa) and the
coast from old Adulis and Zeila in modern Somalia. Military
territories were also formed with the Sidama population of the
central highlands and they may have been the ancestors of
Semitic-speaking such as the Argobba, Gafat, Gurage, and Hareri,
although separate settlements of Semitics from south east Arabia is
also likely. Amhara in Shewa, during the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, appears to be the site of the restoration of Christian
expanse. In the long term, this movement can be viewed as a crucial
advance in the amalgamation of Abyssinia because the indigenous Agew
people, up to this time under the a Semitic serfage, now acquired
the upper hand and classes between the rulers and the ruled began to
cease.
The Stronghold of the Zagwé era,
which occurred from about 1137 to 1270 CE, is one of the most
ambiguous in the history of Ethiopia, for there was disappointingly
few records found. Archaeology, so abundant for the Aksumite period,
has very little to furnish for that of the Zagwé dynasty. Unlike
their Aksumite forefathers, they did not produce coins, or create
epigraphs, and, due to their distant allocation from the coast, made
far less use of imported, dateable, articles.
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