kingdom · Horn and East Africa
Zagwe dynasty
Origins
After the decline of the Kingdom of Aksum, power shifted south to the Agaw people of Lasta. Around 1137, by the date usually given, an Agaw lord traditionally named Mara Takla Haymanot took the throne, founding the Zagwe line. Later Solomonic writers treated the dynasty as usurpers, so its beginnings are poorly recorded and other chronologies place it earlier.
Rule and society
The Zagwe kings were devout Christians who kept close ties with the Coptic Church of Alexandria, which sent the head of the Ethiopian church. Their capital at Roha, later renamed Lalibela, became a pilgrimage centre. King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela, c. 1181 to 1221, is credited with its eleven monolithic churches cut from the rock, conceived as a new Jerusalem. Trade with the Red Sea continued through Muslim intermediaries.
Decline and legacy
In 1270 Yekuno Amlak, a noble from Amhara claiming descent from Solomon and the Aksumite kings, overthrew the last Zagwe king, founding the Solomonic line of the Ethiopian Empire. Rulers of Wag, with the title wagshum, later claimed Zagwe descent, and the churches of Lalibela remain in use as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lineage
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Zagwe dynasty. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zagwe-dynasty
- MLA
- “Zagwe dynasty.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zagwe-dynasty. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Zagwe dynasty.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zagwe-dynasty.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Zagwe dynasty’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/zagwe-dynasty (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻