This would fall within
the reign of Icon AMLAK according to Bruce's chronology, but not according
to Salt's, and a fortiori not according to any chronology throwing the
reigns further back still.
In Quatremere's Egypte we find another notice of a letter which came to
the Sultan of Egypt from the King of Abyssinia, IAKBA SIUN, in Ramadhan
689, i.e. in the end of A.D. 1289.
Again, this is perfectly consistent with Bruce's order and dates, but not
with Salt's.
The same work contains a notice of an inroad on the Mussulman territory of
Assuan by David (II.), the son of Saif Arad, in the year 783 (A.D.
1381-1382).
In Rink's translation of a work of Makrizi's it is stated that this same
King David died in A.H. 812, i.e. A.D. 1409; that he was succeeded by
Theodorus, whose reign was very brief, and he again by Isaac, who died in
Dhulkada 833, i.e. July-August 1430. These dates are in close or
substantial agreement with Bruce's chronology, but not at all with Salt's
or any chronology throwing the reigns further back. Makrizi goes on to say
that Isaac was succeeded by Andreas, who reigned only four months, and
then by Hazbana, who died in Ramadhan 834, i.e. May-June 1431. This last
date does not agree, but we are now justified in suspecting an error in
the Hijra date,[6] whilst the 4 months' reign ascribed to Andreas shows
that Salt again is wrong in extending it to 7 years, and Bruce
presumably right in making it 7 months.
These coincidences seem to me sufficient to maintain the substantial
accuracy of Bruce's chronology, and to be fatal to the identification of
Marco's story with that of the wars of Amda Zion. The general identity in
the duration of reigns as given by Rueppell shows that Bruce did not tamper
with these. It is remarkable that in Makrizi's report of the letter of
Igba Zion in 1289 (the very year when according to the text this
anti-Mahomedan war was going on), that Prince tells the Sultan that he is a
protector of the Mahomedans in Abyssinia, acting in that respect quite
differently from his Father who had been so hostile to them.
I suspect therefore that Icon Amlak must have been the true hero of
Marco's story, and that the date must be thrown back, probably to 1278.
Rueppell is at a loss to understand where Bruce got the long story of Amda
Zion's heroic deeds, which enters into extraordinary detail, embracing
speeches after the manner of the Roman historians and the like, and
occupies some 60 pages in the French edition of Bruce which I have been
using. The German traveller could find no trace of this story in any of
the versions of the Abyssinian chronicle which he consulted, nor was it
known to a learned Abyssinian whom he names. Bruce himself says that the
story, which he has "a little abridged and accommodated to our manner of
writing, was derived from a work written in very pure Gheez, in Shoa,
under the reign of Zara Jacob"; and though it is possible that his
amplifications outweigh his abridgments, we cannot doubt that he had an
original groundwork for his narrative.
The work of Makrizi already quoted speaks of seven kingdoms in Zaila'
(here used for the Mahomedan low country) originally tributary to the Hati
(or Negush) of Amhara, viz., Aufat,[7] Dawaro, Arababni, Hadiah,
Shirha, Bali, Darah. Of these Ifat, Dawaro, and Hadiah repeatedly occur in
Bruce's story of the war. Bruce also tells us that Amda Zion, when he
removed Hakeddin, the Governor of Ifat, who had murdered his agent,
replaced him by his brother Sabreddin. Now we find in Makrizi that
about A.H. 700, the reigning governor of Aufat under the Hati was
Sabreddin Mahomed Valahui; and that it was 'Ali, the son of this
Sabreddin, who first threw off allegiance to the Abyssinian King, then
Saif Arad (son of Amda Zion). The latter displaces 'Ali and gives the
government to his son Ahmed. After various vicissitudes Hakeddin, the son
of Ahmed, obtains the mastery in Aufat, defeats Saif Arad completely, and
founds a city in Shoa called Vahal, which superseded Aufat or Ifat. Here
the Sabreddin of Makrizi appears to be identical with Amda Zion's
governor in Bruce's story, whilst the Hakeddins belong to two different
generations of the same family. But Makrizi does not notice the wars of
Amda Zion any more than the Abyssinian Chronicles notice the campaign
recorded by Marco Polo.
(Bruce, vol. III. and vol. IV., pp. 23-90, and Salt's Second Journey to
Abyssinia, II. 270, etc.; both these are quoted from French versions
which are alone available to me, the former by Castera, Londres, 1790,
the latter by P. Henry, Paris, 1816; Fr. Th. Rink, Al Macrisi, Hist.
Rerum Islamiticarum in Abyssinia, etc., Lugd. Bat. 1798; Rueppell,
Dissert. on Abyss. Hist. and Chronology in his work on that country;
Quat. Makr. II. 122-123; Quat. Mem. sur l'Egypte, II. 268, 276.)
NOTE 6. - The last words run in the G.T.: "Il ont singles de plosors
maineres. Il ont gat paulz (see note 2, ch. xxiii. supra), et autre
gat maimon si devisez qe pou s'en faut de tiel hi a qe ne senblent a vix
d'omes." The beautiful cocks and hens are, I suppose, Guinea fowl.
[We read in the Si Shi ki: "There is (in Western Asia) a large bird,
above 10 feet high, with feet like a camel, and of bluish-grey colour. When
it runs it flaps the wings.
