Dil Na'od was the last

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

Aksum Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole regio ...

before the

Zagwe dynasty The Zagwe dynasty ( Ge'ez: ዛጔ ሥርወ መንግሥት) was an Agaw medieval dynasty that ruled the northern parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, after the historical name of the Lasta province. Centered at Lalibela, it ruled large parts of the t ...

. He lived in either the 9th or 10th century. Dil Na'od was the younger son of Ged'a Jan (or Degna Djan), and succeeded his older brother 'Anbasa Wedem as ''negus''. According to E. A. Wallis Budge, "The reign of Delna'ad was short, perhaps about ten years." However, James Bruce has recorded another tradition, that Dil Na'od was an infant when

Gudit Gudit ( gez, ጉዲት) is the Classical Ethiopic name for a personage also known as Yodit in Tigray, and Amharic, but also Isato in Amharic and Ga'wa in Ţilţal. The personage behind these various alternative names is portrayed as a power ...

slaughtered the princes imprisoned at

Debre Damo Debre Damo (), also spelled Debre Dammo, Dabra Dāmmo or Däbrä Dammo), is the name of a flat-topped mountain, or amba, and a 6th-century monastery in Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The mountain is a steeply rising plateau of trapezoidal shape, abou ...

, his relatives, and forced some of his nobles to take him out of his kingdom to save his life. Dil Na'od is recorded as both campaigning in the

Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...

south of

Axum Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole regio ...

, and sending missionaries into that region. With

Abuna Abuna (or Abune, which is the status constructus form used when a name follows: Ge'ez አቡነ ''abuna''/''abune'', 'our father'; Amharic and Tigrinya) is the honorific title used for any bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as ...

Salama I, he helped to build the church of Debre Igziabher overlooking

Lake Hayq Lake Hayq (Amharic: ሐይቅ ሐይቅ, ) is a freshwater lake of Ethiopia. It is located north of Dessie, in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region. The town of Hayq is to the west of the lake. Lake Hayq is 6.7 km long and 6 km ...

.Paul B. Henze, ''Layers of Time'' (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 47f. According to one tradition, he was defeated by Mara Takla Haymanot, a prince from Lasta province, who married Dil Na'od's daughter, Masaba Warq. According to tradition, a son of Dil Na'od was carried to Amhara, where he was harbored until his descendants overthrew the Zagwe, and re-established the

Solomonic dynasty The Solomonic dynasty, also known as the House of Solomon, was the ruling dynasty of the Ethiopian Empire formed in the thirteenth century. Its members claim lineal descent from the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Tradition asser ...

. Dil'Naod is credited with building and establishing the original structures for both the church of Debre Egzi-'abhēr & Istifanos Monastery at

References

External links

* This article was previously published in B. Michael, S. Chojnacki and R. Pankhurst (eds.), ''The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, Vol. 1: From Early Times to the End of the Zagwé Dynasty c. 1270 A.D'' (Addis Ababa, 1975). Kings of Axum 10th-century monarchs in Africa {{Ethiopia-royal-stub