Dawit II

Dawit II (c. 1496 – 2 September 1540) ruled Ethiopia from 1508 until his death. He is more commonly referred to by his birth name, Lebna Dengel, and also by the macaronic name Wanag Segad—a title combining Geʽez and Harari terms, likely earned from a significant victory over Emir Mahfuz of Adal. A male-line descendant of the medieval Amhara kings and a member of the House of Solomon, he was the son of Emperor Na'od and Empress Na'od Mogesa. His political center and palace were located in Shewa.

Early reign

Unlike many previous emperors, Dawit took only one wife, Seble Wongel, whom he married around 1512–13. They had eight children: four sons and four daughters. This monogamy was regarded as a Christian act in line with Church ideals. Until Dawit came of age in 1516, his step-great-grandmother, Empress Mother Eleni, served as regent despite being well into her seventies.

Aware that neighboring Muslim states were receiving support from larger Muslim powers like the Ottoman Empire, Eleni sent the Armenian Mateus to Portugal to request assistance. The Portuguese response did not arrive until 9 April 1520, when an embassy led by Dom Rodrigo de Lima landed at Massawa. They reached Dawit’s camp on 19 October of that year, and Francisco Álvares later described the emperor.

In 1517, the monk Gebre Andrias—a follower of Dawit’s late father—killed Emir Mahfuz at the Battle of Fatagar. Around the same time, a Portuguese fleet attacked and burned the Muslim stronghold of Zeila. Dawit then ravaged Adal and destroyed the residence of Sultan Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din in Dakkar.

Contemporaries believed the Muslim threat to Ethiopia was over, so when the Portuguese mission finally arrived, Dawit rejected Mateus’s authority to negotiate treaties, ignoring Eleni’s advice. After six years, the Portuguese departed, leaving a governing class that felt securely in control. As Paul B. Henze notes, “They were mistaken.”

Ethiopian–Adal War

Two decades into Dawit’s reign, a young man named Ahmed Ibrahim rebelled against Adal’s leaders and spread terror. Dawit sent his general Delghan to confront him, but the Abyssinian army was defeated at the Battle of Hubat. With the death of Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad in 1520, the general and imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi consolidated control over the Adal Sultanate, making Umar Din sultan. Shortly before, the Ottoman Empire had conquered Mamluk Egypt and sought to expand into the Red Sea region.

Though Ethiopians had stolen firearms from the Mamluks during Yeshaq I’s reign, they had not used them. In the 1520s, Dawit bought two swivel-guns from the Portuguese and fourteen muskets from Turks, leaving him ill-equipped for the Ottoman-backed invasion of 1527, which included thousands of Turkish and Arab flintlocks and matchlocks. The Imam crossed the Awash River into Fatagar in 1528, looting and burning the town of Badeqe before Dawit could arrive. Dawit began to withdraw across the Samara, a tributary of the Awash.

The Imam’s followers were used to lightning raids, not pitched battles, and Ahmad Gragn struggled with desertions. Dawit caught up with him on 7 or 9 March 1529 at the Battle of Shimbra Kure, but failed to destroy the Imam’s army. Arab Faqīh records that many Somalis on the left flank retreated, with Ethiopians pursuing and killing many, while the Harla on the right flank held their ground. Though not a clear victory, the battle proved to the Imam’s followers that they could fight and defeat the Ethiopian army.

Ahmad spent the next two years beyond the Awash, returning in 1531 to scatter the army under General Eslamu by firing the first cannon in the Horn of Africa. Dawit withdrew into the highlands, fortifying passes into Bet Amhara and leaving eastern and southern territories under General Wasan Sagad. Wasan Sagad was killed near Mount Busat on 29 July while fighting Ura’i Utman, and his army scattered.

The Imam surprised Dawit at the Battle of Amba Sel on 27 October, nearly capturing the emperor. According to R.S. Whiteway, this reversal left Lebna Dengel “never in a position to offer a pitched battle to his enemies.” The Imam’s followers poured into Bet Amhara, pillaging churches including Mekane Selassie, Atronsa Maryam, Debre Nagwadgwad, and Ganata Giyorgis. Dawit fell back behind the Abay River to Gojjam. Only the failure to capture the royal compound at Amba Geshen slowed the Muslims.

In April 1533, Ahmad assembled troops at Debre Berhan to ravage Tigray, Begemder, and Gojjam. Both Ethiopia and Dawit suffered heavily: the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion was destroyed, and Lake Tana’s island establishments were looted. Dawit’s eldest son, Fiqtor, was killed at Zara in Wag on 7 April 1537; another son, Menas, was captured.