Solomon

The Solomonic dynasty ruled the Christian Ethiopian highlands from 1270, when the Shewan noble Yekuno Amlak overthrew the Zagwe kings. Its legitimacy rested on the claim in the Kebra Nagast that the line descended from Menelik I, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and had restored the kingship of Aksum.

Amda Seyon I, who reigned from 1314 to 1344, broke the sultanates of Ifat and Adal in 1332. Zara Yaqob, reigning from 1434 to 1468, centralized government, founded Debre Birhan as a capital and built churches.

In the 1530s the Adal imam Ahmed Gran overran most of the empire until his defeat and death in 1543 with Portuguese aid; Oromo migrations then eroded the south. Emperor Fasilides founded Gondar in 1636, but after the 1760s the emperors became puppets of regional lords in the era of princes.