An Ethiopian emperor threatened to divert the Nile to protect Egypt's Christians
Around 1321, Emperor Amda Seyon of Ethiopia sent envoys to Cairo with a startling warning: stop persecuting Coptic Christians, or he would turn the Nile from its course. The Mamluk sultan ignored him, but Egyptian fear that Ethiopia might one day cut off the river lingered for centuries.
Amda Seyon, whose name means Pillar of Zion, ruled Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344 as part of the Solomonic dynasty. How he took the throne is unclear. He was probably a son of Emperor Wedem Arad, but when monks accused him of incest for marrying his predecessor's concubine, he claimed another father instead and punished his accusers. Historians see a deeper quarrel underneath: a church and monasteries growing more independent while the crown tried to centralise power.
Early campaigns around 1316 and 1317 brought Damot and the kingdom of Hadiya under his control, and by 1332 Hadiya was supplying troops. Capturing inland trade routes weakened the Muslim sultanates to the east, which began to band together for the first time. In the north, when a governor of Enderta acted like an independent king and rebelled, Amda Seyon split up his titles, settled a military colony at the centre of the revolt, and installed first his queen and then his son as governor.
The Nile threat grew from events in Egypt, where the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad was destroying Coptic churches around 1320. On the way home, one of Amda Seyon's envoys was seized by Haqq ad-Din of Ifat and killed after refusing to convert. The emperor answered by invading Ifat, reportedly leading with just seven horsemen, and carried off its wealth.
Most of what we know comes from a Ge'ez chronicle known as The Glorious Victories. Edward Ullendorff thought an eyewitness wrote it and called Amda Seyon one of Ethiopia's greatest kings, and Richard Pankhurst praised it as a masterpiece. Other scholars date it to the 15th century and suspect it partly describes later wars. Either way, his conquests greatly expanded Christian territory, and they held for centuries.
Source: Amda Seyon I
