Emperor Bakaffa

Masih Sagad Bakaffa was born about 1690 into the Solomonic house of Ethiopia, the son of Emperor Iyasu I, called Iyasu the Great, and Lady Maryamawit. Trained in warfare from boyhood, he is said to have accompanied his father's expeditions while still a child. Known by the nickname "Bakaffa," understood to mean "the Inexorable," he came of age amid the instability that followed his father's murder, a period in which royal princes were confined on the mountain of Amba Wehni above Gondar.

After the death of his brother Emperor Dawit III, Bakaffa was raised to the throne, ascending in May 1721 against the wishes of a faction that favored a rival claimant. He would reign until his death in September 1730. His years in power were marked less by great foreign wars than by a patient, determined campaign to break the entrenched power of the Gondarine nobility and to restore the authority of the crown.

Bakaffa governed through diplomatic skill and firm appointments, curbing rebellious lords and asserting the monarchy's hand over the provinces. He was remembered as a ruler close to his soldiers and to the common people, whom he entertained with legendary generosity. At the imperial compound of Fasil Ghebbi in Gondar he raised new buildings, among them a vast banqueting hall on the north side of the Royal Enclosure, and he encouraged novelties such as the first sailing craft launched upon Lake Tana.

In 1722 he married Mentewab of Qwara, who would become one of the most powerful figures in Ethiopian history, ruling as regent for their son, the future Emperor Iyasu II. Through that union Bakaffa's line carried the Gondarine crown into the next generation. May the memory of Emperor Bakaffa, restorer of the throne's dignity, be held in lasting honor.