IslHornAfr

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Identification

Iyasu V ኢያሱ
Ləǧ ልጅ

Titles: Abeto, Ləǧ

Dates

  • Birth

    Expressed

  • Death

    Expressed

Biographic comments

He was the uncrowned king of Ethiopia from 1911 (de facto) or 1913 (de jure) until his deposition in 1916. He was accused of religious apostasy and irresoluteness by his anemies, in particular by Ḫaylä Śəllase I. He was the son of the powerful ruler of Wällo, ras Mikaʼel and Šäwarägga, doughter of Mənilək II who officially designated him heir to the throne in 1909. His succession was disputed by Mənilək's powerful spouse, ətege Ṭaytu who had different plan for the imperial succession. Nonetheless he could exercise regal power and introduce social and legal reforms and his reign also marked the first serious attempt to address the issue of the country's religious and ethnic pluralism; in fact it was during his reign that historically marginalized groups such Muslims of the Ethiopian highlands and people such as the Somali and ʻAfar felt for the first time that they belong to Ethiopia. He was definitely well-intentioned in his policy but the measures he adopted also also victimised people he did not like, resulting for example in the enslavement and deportation of entire groups. To the colonial powers he represented a demonic inluence on their colonial subjects and the alliance of the oppressed domestic force with the foreign one brought about his deposition in September 1916. He bacame fugitive for a period of about 5 years during which he was guest of the autonomous sulṭān of Awsa, Yāyyò Maḥàmmad Ḥanfaɖe; then he was finally captured in a church in Təgray in 1921. The legacy of Iyasu survived through his offspring, issue of about a dozen marriages with doughters of diverse political and economic leaders. Iyasu V is generally remembered with the Amharic title Ləǧ, meaning "child, junior" which in the late 19th cent. came to dignate the male children of both the nobility and the Solomonic dynasty, whilst the old title Abeto was to be applied only to the male members of the emperor's close family (the princes). His predecessors were instead titled as Aṣe, reserved to the Ethiopian monarchs.

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