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Northeast African Studies

The Tragedy ofEmperor Libne-Dingil of Ethiopia (1508-1540) Reidulf K. Molvaer Frognerkilen, Oslo Prefatory Note Emperor Libne-Dingil is one of the emperors of Ethiopia about whom only a very brief royal chronicle was written or preserved, unlike most rulers of Ethiopia from Amde-Siyon (1314-1344) to Empress Zewdïtu (1916-1930). In the following, I report what two "traditional" Ethiopian historians have written about Libne-Dingil and his times. Much of what they write concerns the devastation wrought by "Graññ," the Left-handed, i.e., Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim alGhazi . Historians have relied much on the Tarìke-Negest (in Geez, edited by R. Basset) and the Arabic history of Graññ's campaign (also edited by R. Basset, as well as by Fahim Muhammed Satlut, Cairo 1974) called Fituh al-Habesha by Shihab ad-Din Ahmed Ibn Abd al-Qadir (also known as Areb Faqih) for this period of Ethiopian history. The Portuguese also wrote about part of LibneDingd 's reign.1 During my second long stay in Ethiopia, I came to know about some ...

The Tragedy of Emperor Libne-Dingil of Ethiopia (1508-1540)