Yolyos (Ge'ez: ዮልዮስ yōlyōs, "Julius")[note 1] was an early 17th-century Ethiopian noble. He was appointed by Emperor Susenyos as governor of various provinces such as Ifat and Shewa, taking the traditional Ifat title of "Walashma."[citation needed] He took part in several attempts to overthrow Susenyos.

In 1612 Yolyos and Keflo rebelled against Susenyos. They were tried and found guilty and sentenced to death. However, Susenyos spared their lives. Yolyos was pardoned and released from detention after eight days, after Malakotawit having pleaded with her father for clemency.[2][3]

In 1617 there was a conspiracy to overthrow Emperor Susenyos, organized by his close relatives, his officials and nobility who opposed his religious policy, and those who were dissafected by his wars and the amount of annual military expeditions. According to Pedro Paez, a confidante of Susenyos, the principal leader of the conspiracy was Yolyos.[2]

His headquarters in Ifat was on an amba, a natural flat-topped mountain fortress, at Gefegef, which he used to defend against nearby Muslims of Qecheno.[4]

After Yolyos demise, Abuna Simon was soon after executed.[5][1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Paez, Pedro (2011). Pedro Páez's History of Ethiopia, 1622. Vol. 2, Book IV. Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 245–254. ISBN 9781908145017. OCLC 751723123. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b Hassen, Mohammed (2015). The Oromo and the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia: 1300-1700. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 295–296. ISBN 9781847011176. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  3. ^ Galawdewos (2015). The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros: A Seventeenth-Century African Biography of an Ethiopian Woman. Translated by Belcher, Wendy Laura; Kleiner, Michael. Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 106. ISBN 9781400874149. OCLC 1165518498.
  4. ^ Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century (Asmara, Eritrea: Red Sea Press, 1997), p.326
  5. ^ Cohen, Leonardo (2009). The Missionary Strategies of the Jesuits in Ethiopia (1555-1632). Äthiopistische Forschungen. Vol. 70. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 56. ISBN 9783447058926. Retrieved 20 May 2017.

Notes

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  1. ^ Cognate equivalent: Julius. Also spelled in sources as Iulios[1]