Amda Seyon I

Amda Seyon I, also known as Amda Tsiyon I (Ge'ez: ዐምደ ፡ ጽዮንʿAmdä ṣəyon, Amharic: አምደ ፅዮንāmde ṣiyōn, "Pillar of Zion"), throne name Gebre Mesqel (ገብረ መስቀል gäbrä mäsḳal, "Servant of the Cross"), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344 and a member of the Solomonic dynasty.

The most important source for the military actions undertaken during his reign is G.W.B. Huntingford's translation of his Ge'ez chronicle, The Glorious Victories. This has also come to be the name for his conquests in modern times. He is best known in the so-called chronicles as a heroic warrior against the Muslims, and is sometimes considered to have been the founder of the Ethiopian Empire. Chekroun notes the chronicle was likely composed in the 15th century, after the events it describes. Hirsch has argued that, despite its epic framing around Amda Seyon, the narrative actually describes 15th-century conflicts between kings Dawit I and Yeshaq I against the Sultanate of Awfat, rather than the 14th-century wars of Amda Seyon's own reign. Edward Ullendorff argued the work was clearly written by an eyewitness, citing its vivid depiction of the king's campaigns and its engagingly personal anecdotes about his life. Other historians like Richard Pankhurst have praised the chronicle as a "masterpiece" of historiography.

Most of his wars were against the Muslim sultanates to the southeast, which he was able to fight and generally defeat, and substantially enlarge his kingdom by gradually incorporating a number of smaller states. His conquests of Muslim borderlands greatly expanded Christian territory and power in the region, which were maintained for centuries after his death. Amda Seyon asserted the strength of the new Solomonic dynasty and therefore legitimized it. These expansions further provided for the spread of Christianity to frontier areas, sparking a long era of proselytization, Christianization, and integration of previously peripheral areas.

According to British historian Edward Ullendorff, "Amda Seyon was one of the most outstanding Ethiopian kings of any age and a singular figure dominating the Horn of Africa in the fourteenth century."