Iyasu V of Ethiopia

Iyasu V (Ge'ez ኢያሱ), also known as Lij Iyasu (Ge'ez ልጅ ኢያሱ; 4 February 1887 - 25 November 1935) was the designated but uncrowned monarch of Ethiopia (1913 - 1916). His baptismal name was Kifle Yaqub. He was never crowned emperor, and as a result is usually referred to as "Lij Iyasu". His excommunication by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church prevented him from being referred to publicly as Iyasu V. His name is sometimes also written as Eyasu. The name Iyasu is the Ethiopian (e.g. Ge'ez) version of the biblical name "Joshua".

Early life

Lij (meaning child, then meaning one born of royal blood) Iyasu, was a grandson of Menelek II of Ethiopia and son of Menelek's daughter Shewaregga, who was a half-sister of Menelik's eldest daughter Zauditu, and was proclaimed heir apparent in 1909. Iyasu had his father Ras Mikael crowned Negus of Zion, Wollo and Tigray in Dessie early Iyasu's reign. His younger sister Zenebework was married off at a young age to Ras Bezabih of Gojjam, but died in childbirth. Iyasu also had an elder half-sister, Woizero Sehin Mikael, married with Jantirar Asfaw, Lord of Ambassel, whose daughter would eventually become Empress Menen Asfaw, wife of Emperor Haile Selassie I. While through his Imperial mother, Iyasu could claim to be decended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, through his father, he claimed decent from the Prophet Mohammed.

Iyasu's first wife was Romanework Mengesha, the granddaughter of Emperor Yohannes IV, and niece of Empress Taitu. However, that marriage ended in divorce after a few years, and Iyasu then married Seble Wongel Hailu, who was the granddaughter of Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam. He additionally seems to have had at least thirteen secondary wives, and an uncertain number of natural children several of whom have been Iyasuist claimants to the Imperial throne. His only legitimate daughter was Imebet-hoi Alem Tsehai Iyasu, by his second wife Seble Wongel.

Iyasu's reign

Iyasu continued Menelik's program of modernization, including the establishment of the first police force in Addis Ababa, but he was accused of being a Muslim. Iyasu was quoted by Fitawrari Tekla Hawariat as saying "If I don't make this country Muslim, then I am not Iyasu!" The Fitawrari, once a firm friend of Lij Iyasu was so offended by this remark, and by other actions of the Prince, that he joined the conspiracy to depose him. He also testified that Lij Iyasu spent much of his time in Dire Dawa and Harrar consuming Khat, a narcotic leaf that is native to the Horn of Africa. He openly prayed in mosques, and scandalized his entourage once by entering a Roman Catholic Church in Dire Dawa. He outraged them even further and horrified the clergy in the Church by lighting a cigarette and smoking during the Catholic Mass. He is quoted by his one time friend Tekla Hawariat as saying that he found Christianity to be "too difficult" a religion and preferred Islam and atheism.

Lij Iyasu showed a pronounced lack of interest in the day to day running of the government, leaving most of the work for the ministers to deal with. The cabinet of ministers remained largely unchanged from the days of his grandfather, and the ministers by now wielded much power and influence. That being said, they were constantly subject to insults and disparagement by Lij Iyasu who referred to them as his grandfather's fattened sheep. He constantly spoke of his intension of dismissing "these Shewans" as he called them, and appointing new officials and creating a new aristocracy of his own choosing. This combined with his constant absences from the capital created the ideal environment for the ministers, led by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, the Minister of War, to plot his downfall. Iyasu many capricious acts served only to further alienate the aristocracy. One was his betrothal of his royal-blooded cousin Woizero Sakamyelesh Seyfu to his former driver, Tilahun. Another was the appointment of his Syrian friend and crony Ydbilli to the position of Negadras (Customs-Master) at the railway depot at Dire Dawa, thus controlling the vast tariff and customs that were collected there.

Iyasu's deposition and later life

While at the city of Harar, Lij Iyasu was deposed 27 September 1916 in favor of his aunt Zauditu. Iyasu sent an army to attack Addis Ababa, which was met at Mieso and turned back. His father initially hesitated, then marched south from Dessie with 80,000 troops, and was defeated at the Battle of Segale on 27 October. Iyasu had reached Ankober the morning of the battle, and fled towards the Eritrean border, where he spent five years at large in the countryside before being taken into custody by Gugsa Araya on 11 January 1921.

In 1931 he escaped from imprisonment at Fichte, but was recaptured shortly afterwards. When the forces of Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the Italian airforce scattered fliers asking the population to rebel against Haile Selassie and support the "true Emperor Iyasu V".

Iyasu's death was announced in March of 1936. The circumstances surrounding his death and his burial place remain shrouded in mystery.

Evaluation

The Ethiopian historian Bahru Zewde describes Iyasu's reign as "one of the most enigmatic in Ethiopian history."Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia (London: James Currey, 1991), p. 121. A common account of his reign is provided by J. Spencer Trimingham, who writes that his acts favoring Islam were

encouraged by German and Turkish diplomats. He made the fuqaha construct a genealogy deriving his ancestry on his father's side from the Prophet.This genealogy is published in E.A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), pp. 546f. He made prolonged stays in Harar where he adopted Muslim dress and customs. He put away his Christian wife, Romane-Warq, and started a harim by marrying the daughters of 'Afar and Galla chiefs, including a daughter and niece of Abba Jifar of Jimma. He built mosques at Dire Dawa and Jigjiga. In 1916 he officially placed Abyssinia in religious dependence upon Turkey, and sent the Turkish consul-general an Abyssinian flag embroidered with a crescent and the Islamic formula of faith. He sent similar flags to his own Muslim chiefs and promised to lead them to the jihad. He entered into negotiations with Muhammed ibn 'Abd Allah, the Mahdi of the Ogaden, and sent him rifles and ammunition. He then issued a summons to all Somalis, some of whom regarded him as true Mahdi, to follow him in a jihad against the Christians, and went to Jigjiga to collect an army.Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), pp. 130f.

Bahru Zewde on the other hand, while admitting that "contradiction and inconsistency were the hallmark of his character and policies", notes that Iyasu's reign was characterized by "a series of measures which, because of the social and economic security they implied, may well be considered progressive." Iyasu modernized many sections of the Ethiopian criminal code, and created a municipal police force, the Terenbulle. His overtures to the Moslem inhabitants of Ethiopia "can be interpreted as one of trying to redress the injustices of the past, of making the Muslims feel at home in their own country."Bahru Zewde, pp. 122-4

However, Iyasu had the misfortune of being succeeded (in Bahru Zewde's words) "by a ruler of extraordinary political longevity who found it in his interest to suppress any objective appreciation of the man."Bahru Zewde, pp. 121 According to Paul B. Henze, during the reign of his cousin Haile Selassie, Iyasu was "practically an 'unperson'. If he was referred to at all, it was invariably in extremely negative terms." While admitting the lack of information about this man, Henze suggests that "the fairest conclusion that can be reached on the basis of present knowledge may be to credit him with good intentions but condemn him for intemperate, inept and in the end, disastrous performance."Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 194. ISBN 0-312-22719-1

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