Fasilides

Who was Fasilides?

Fasilides was nəgusä nägäst of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Susenyos I and Empress Sultana Mogassa, born at Magazaz in Shewa before 10 November 1603.

Fasilides was proclaimed Emperor in 1630 during a revolt led by Sarsa Krestos, but did not actually reach the throne until his father abdicated in 1632. Once he became Emperor, Fasilides immediately restored the official status of the traditional Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He sent for a new abuna from the Patriarch of Alexandria, restoring the ancient relationship that had been allowed to lapse. He confiscated the lands of the Jesuits at Dankaz and elsewhere in the empire, relegating them to Fremona. When he heard that the Portuguese bombarded Mombasa, Fasilides assumed that Afonso Mendes, the Roman Catholic prelate, was behind the act, and banished the remaining Jesuits from his lands. Mendes and most of his followers made their way back to Goa, being robbed or imprisoned several times on the way. In 1665, he ordered the "Books of the Franks"—the remaining religious writings of the Catholics—burnt.