Bakaffa

Bakaffa was negus (throne name Asma Sagad, later Masih Sagadwas) (May 18 1721 – 1730) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonid dynasty. He was a son of Iyasus I.

Bakaffa spent his childhood confined on Wehni, but during earlier unrest escaped to live with the Oromo; when he was recaptured, part of his nose was cut off as punishment, to disqualify him for the throne. Nevertheless, upon the death of his brother Dawit III, he was selected to succeed him against the wishes of a sizeable group backing Walde Giyorgis, the son of Nagala Mammit.

While his reign was mostly peaceful, and he worked to encourage the economic growth of his people, Paul B. Henze believes that "his most valuable contribution to his capital and his country was his wife, Mantuab ('How Beautiful!')".¹

His reign was one noted for its lack of warfare, and its economic growth. A marvel of his reign, recorded in his Royal Chronicle,² was the construction of a new kind of boat on Lake Tana in 1726 by two foreigners from Egypt, Demetros and Giyorgis, unlike the traditional ones built from reeds.

References

1. Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p.104
2. Translated in part by Richard K. P. Pankhurst in The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles (Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1967).