Why Did King Fasilädäs Kill His Brother? Sharing Power in the Royal Family in Mid-Seventeenth Century Ethiopia

Anaïs Wion (1)

1 CEMAf - Centre d'Etudes des Mondes Africains

The Ethiopian monastery of Qoma Fasilädäs (Bägemdér) keeps a rather unusual high number of archival documents testifying of its foundation in the first half of the 17th C. by the queen Wäld Sä'ala : three waqf in Arabic, two gult and a foundation charter in Ge'ez. Examining this documentation, this article traces back the opposition of the queen against her husband, the catholic king Susneyos, and against their eldest son, king Fasilädäs (1632-67). The monastery and lands of Qoma have been the head quarter of a political and religious network lead by the queen, her son Galäwdéwos and the Coptic metropolitan Marqos. They lose the battle but still, their voices can be heard through the subtle language of legal documents and forgery.

Mots clés: diplomatic; forgery; Ethiopia; seventeenth-century; king-Fasiladas

Mots clés: Ethiopie; dix-septième-siècle; roi-Fasiladas; waqf; succession; fratricide; diplomatique

Domaines: Histoire

Anaïs Wion. Why Did King Fasilädäs Kill His Brother? Sharing Power in the Royal Family in Mid-Seventeenth Century Ethiopia. Journal of Early Modern History. Contacts, Comparisons, Contrasts, 2004, 8 (3-4), pp.259-293. ⟨10.1163/1570065043124002⟩. ⟨hal-00450501⟩