Iyasu I

Who was Iyasu I?

Iyasu I, also known as Iyasu the Great, was nəgusä nägäst of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Yohannes I and Empress Sabla Wangel.

According to G.W.B Huntingford, Iyasu "owed his reputation partly to the mildness of his character, exemplified in his treatment of the princes on Wehni in his first year, and his attention to religious matters, and partly to his abdication, retirement, and murder."

He was serving as governor of Gojjam when his father Yohannes summoned him and made him heir at the age of 20. During the first year of his reign he attended to his brothers and other relatives imprisoned on Wehni, a moment recorded by James Bruce who describes how the Emperor replaced their rags with proper clothing and furnished the starving royals with a banquet.