Ethiopian

The Ethiopian group includes the Amhara, Tigrinya, Gurage and Tigre peoples of the Ethiopian highlands, together with the Harla of the east and the Beta Israel, the Jews of Ethiopia. In 1270 Yekuno Amlak overthrew the Zagwe dynasty and founded the Solomonic dynasty, which claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Amda Seyon I (1314–1344) and Dawit I made the empire dominant in the Horn of Africa. Zara Yaqob (1434–1468) built churches and monasteries and centralised imperial rule.