Menas of Ethiopia

Menas (throne name Admas Sagad I) was negus (1559 – February 1, 1563) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonid dynasty. He was a brother of Gelawdewos.

He campaigned against the Falasha in Semien.

He banished the Jesuit Andre da Oviedo and his companions to a village between Axum and Adowa called Maigoga, which the Jesuits optimistically renamed Fremona, after the missionary Frumentius.

About one year into his reign, Bahr Negash Yishaq rose in revolt in Tigray proclaiming Tazkaro, the illegitimate son of Menas' brother Yaqob as negus. This revolt occupied Menas attention for the remainder of his short reign. He marched into Lasta, at which point Yishaq retreated into Shire (now part of the region of Amhara). Menas found him there and defeated Yishaq, then turned south to Gubae where he defeated the remaining supporters of Tazkaro on July 2, 1561.

Yishaq then obtained the support of Zennur, the Ottoman Pasha of Massawa, and proclaimed Tazkaro's infant brother, Marqos, negus. Menas marched north again, but was defeated at Endarta by Yishaq; he fell back to Atronsa Maryam to regroup for another assault on Yishaq. However, Menas came down with a fever on the march, and died at Kolo on February 1, 1563.