Kingdom of Damot

The Kingdom of Damot (Amharic: ዳሞት) was a medieval kingdom in what is now Ethiopia, and ruled by Welayta people or Sidama.[1][2] The territory was positioned below the Blue Nile.[3] It was a powerful state that forced the Sultanate of Showa (also called Shewa) to pay tributes and annihilated Zagwe dynasty the armies thet were sent to subdue its territory. Damot had conquered several Muslim and Christian territories.[4] The Muslim state Showa and the new Christian state under Yekuno Amlak formed an alliance to counter the influence of Damot in the region.[5]

Kingdom of Damot

1100–1317
The kingdom of Damot and its neighbours
CapitalDamot
Common languagesSidama??, Wolayta??
Religion
Pagan
GovernmentMonarchy
Motalami 
History 
• Established
1100
• Disestablished
1317
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Sultanate of Showa
Zagwe Dynasty
Hadiya Sultanate
Ethiopian Empire
"Damot" redirects here. For other uses, see Damot (disambiguation).

Damot seized as an independent entity after the conquest of the region by Emperor Amda Seyon in the fourteenth century and remained under the Solomonic dynasty's influence of power thereon.[6] Originally located south of the Abay and west of the Muger River,[7] under the pressure of Oromo attacks the rulers were forced to resettle north of the Abay in southern Gojjam between 1574 and 1606.[8]

The kings, who bore the title Motalami, resided in a town which, according to the hagiography of Tekle Haymanot, was called Malbarde.[9] The kingdom was reduced to smaller size and the name became the Kingdom of Wolayta. Their territory extended east beyond the Muger as far as the Jamma.[7]

References
  1. Shinn, David (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Scarecrow Press. p. 111.
  2. Tolo, Arne (1998). Sidama and Ethiopian: the emergence of the Mekane Yesus Church in Sidama. Uppsala Universitet. p. 26.
  3. Shillington, Kevin. Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set. Routledge.
  4. Bounga, Ayda (2014). The kingdom of Damot: An Inquiry into Political and Economic Power in the Horn of Africa (13th c.). Annales D'ethiopie. p. 262.
  5. Hassen, Mohammed. Oromo of Ethiopia (PDF). University of London. p. 4.
  6. Quirin, James (1992). The evolution of the Ethiopian Jews: a history of the Beta Israel (Falasha) to 1920. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 43.
  7. G.W.B. Huntingford, Historical Geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704 (London: British Academy, 1989), p. 69
  8. The dates for this movement are discussed by Huntingford in his Historical Geography, at pp. 143f
  9. Bouanga 2014, pp. 33-37.

Further reading


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