The medieval period
The history of the Ethiopian Church in the years following the waning of Aksum's political power in the later sixth century is little known. The rise of Islam, and loss of Ethiopian control of the Red Sea coast, as well as economic factors all led the Christian kingdom to move its focus progressively further south into the Ethiopian highlands.
Ethiopia's relations with the nascent power of Islam are supposed by Arab historians to have been excellent. The Ethiopian kingdom was placed in Muslim tradition in the almost unique position of being a 'land of neutrality' or dar al-hiyad, and was not subject to attempts at conquest or conversion. This is explained by the Muslim hadith or tradition that the Aksumite king offered sanctuary to Muhammad's followers when the community was being persecuted, and by another hadith that the Aksumite king was so moved by the Prophet's revelations that he secretly converted to Islam. Muhammad himself is said to have mourned the Ethiopian king's death. Whatever the validity of these traditions, it is certain that Ethiopia remained Christian, unimpeded throughout the early centuries of Islam's expansion, and continued to receive its bishops from the Coptic patriarchate of Alexandria.
We know little of the spread of Christianity within Ethiopia during these years, but local traditions suggest a steady settlement by Christian families and building of churches as far south as northern Shoa, to the region where Addis Ababa now stands. This movement did not go unopposed by the indigenous pagan populations, however, and one of the most intriguing stories of this period of Ethiopian history concerns the legend of Queen Gudit (or Yodit, i.e., Judith) who led pagan resistance and destroyed the cathedral at Aksum. The troubles that befell the Christian kingdom in the tenth century through the activities of a pagan queen are confirmed by the Arab historian, Ibn Hawqal, and others (Munro-Hay 199 7: 134-8). It is possible, to judge from later history, that various memories of resistance to the political and religious hegemony of the expanding Christian kingdom are conflated in this legend, and whatever the factual truth of the story the spread of Christianity in early medieval Ethiopia was far from a straightforward process. Hagiographies of the early medieval period, such as that of St Takla Haymanot (1215-1313), one of the greatest and best-known Ethiopian saints, confirm the at times strong resistance to the spread of Christianity. Takla Haymanot was born during the Zagwe dynasty, which probably came to power in the preceding century, and which is associated with a renaissance in Christian culture. Two Zagwe kings were later canonized by the Ethiopian Church; the most famous of them is Lalibala, who is accredited with the founding of the famous collection of rock-hewn churches, the location of which now bears his name. Takla Haymanot is also linked with the change of dynasty in 1269 or 1270 to the family of Yakuno 'Amlak, the so-called Solomonic dynasty, of Amhara origin and claiming descent from the kings of Aksum and thence King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, called Makadda in Ethiopian tradition.
It seems that during the centuries that the Christian kingdom was isolated from the rest of the Christian world except for its fragile links with the See of Alexandria, surrounded by pagan kingdoms and expanding Muslim sultanates to the south and southeast, there developed a sense of identity with the beleaguered Israel of the Old Testament. Christian Ethiopia came to see itself more and more as the inheritor of Israel and deliberately imitated Old Testament institutions. It was in this climate that the Ethiopian version of the Solomon and Sheba legend developed and was expanded, resulting in the national epic called the Kabra Nagast, or Glory of the Kings, which probably reached its final form in the thirteenth century and which provided a literary apology for the incoming Solomonic dynasty as well as codifying the perception of Ethiopia as Israel.
Thus part of the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in the Kabra Nagast is the episode in which Manilak, or Ibn Hakim, the son of their union, returned to Israel and brought back to Ethiopia forty Levites and the Ark of the Covenant. Ethiopia thus claimed to have adopted the Jewish religion before Christianity, something that cannot be substantiated, the presence of the Beta Hsra'el (Falashas) or so-called Ethiopian Jews and the existence of judaizing features in Ethiopian Christian practice notwithstanding.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Christian kingdom continued to grow in power and size, coming into conflict with and overcoming many of the Muslim sultanates and small states to its south and south-east. This was also a period of great expansion in the Church, with the establishment of new monastic communities which formed the powerhouses of Christian culture and learning and provided the vanguard for the evangelization of newly acquired frontier regions. St Takla Haymanot, who founded the monastery of Dabra Libanos in what was then the southern borderlands of the Christian kingdom, has already been mentioned. He was a disciple of 'Iyasus Mo'a (c.1211-92), who founded the monastery of Dabra Hayq on the eastern edge of the home region of the Amharas, and another of his pupils, Hiruta 'Amlak, founded the island monastery of Daga 'Hstifanos on Lake Tana, on the then western frontier of the Christian kingdom (Stoffregen-Pedersen 1990: 16-19). Another great monastic leader of this period was 'Ewostatewos (12 73-1352), who was active in the north of the kingdom, in what is now part of Eritrea. He is, however, perhaps best known as the founder of the movement which promoted the observation of two Sabbaths, Saturday as well as Sunday, for which he and his followers were persecuted by the orthodox Alexandrian party. 'Ewost.atewos himself fled the country, spending the last fourteen years of his life in exile and dying in Armenia. After his death, many of his followers returned and together with those who had remained in Ethiopia consolidated their monastic base in the north, with many houses for nuns as well as for monks, which was unusual in the Ethiopian Church at the time.
This was indeed a fertile period for theological development in the Ethiopian Church, including the introduction of the cult of the Virgin Mary and the veneration of icons. Both of these features were introduced at the beginning of the fifteenth century, during the latter half of the reign of Dawit (r. 1380-1412), but they are perhaps more especially associated with the reign of his son, Zar'a Ya'qob (r. 1434-68). In many ways, his reign marks the culmination of the expansionist developments in the Church during the preceding century and a half. The Church had been growing at a considerable rate, and the Christian faith had been imposed on erstwhile pagan peoples in the newly conquered lands without any great depth of teaching, such that many traditional beliefs and practices still remained with only a thin Christian veneer. Resort to diviners and sorcerers was common, and belief in spirits associated with prominent trees, mountains and expanses of water was often 'christianized' merely by association with a Christian saint. Polygamy was also widespread. Zar'a Ya'qob set about a reform of the Church to tackle not only these 'unchristian' practices, but also to address the growing divisions within the Church, typified by the rift with the followers of 'Ewostatewos, as well as others such as the followers of 'Hstifanos (d. c.1450), who refused to observe the cult of the Virgin Mary, which Zar'a Ya'qob himself championed. A compromise was reached with the followers of 'Ewostatewos, who were permitted to observe the two Sabbaths as long as they did not enter into conflict with those who did not wish to do so. In reforming the church, Zar'a Ya'qob's methods were at times brutal in their fervour, executing those whose pursued unorthodox practices, including his own son, and destroying their property. He also required Christians to bear as a mark of their orthodox faith the sign of the cross on their own persons as tattoos, and as a decorative design on their clothing and possessions. He was at the same time a scholar, and to him is attributed in Ethiopian tradition the Mashafa Barhan or Book of Light, a major work of theology and canon law. Whether or not Zar'a Ya'qob was the author, this work was certainly written under his influence. A further indication of his deep interest in ecclesiastical affairs is his sending Ethiopian emissaries to the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438-41, which aimed to reunite the universal Church.
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