Demissie of Semien (746-18 April 801) was King of Semien from 769 to 801, preceding Tewodros. Demissie was the first ruler of the Dube dynasty of Ethiopia, and he presided over the conquest of the Christian kingdoms of Gondar, Gojjam, Damot, and Ankober and successful wars with the Ethiopian Empire, founding a powerful East African Jewish empire.
Biography[]
Demissie as Duke of Semien
Demissie was born to the Ethiopian Jewish Dube dynasty, and he rose to the throne of Semien in 769 after being anointed by its rabbis amid an interregnum. That same year, Demissie took Falashina as his wife. Demissie, inspired by the Israelite kings of old, sought to forge a Jewish empire in East Africa, and he hired a mercenary army led by Captain Semer of Abyssinian Band and first waged war on the Miaphysite Christian kingdom of Gondar to the south. Gondar fell by the end of 769, followed by Gojjam in 770. On 8 November 770, he had himself crowned "King of Semien" after taking the duchies of Gondar and Gojjam for himself, combining his three duchies into a united Jewish monarchy. In 771, Demissie added Damot to his growing kingdom, followed by Ankober in 780. That same year, he crushed a rebellion by the militant priest Hackeem in Ankober, and suppressed Teka's uprising in the same region in 781.
Demissie as a king
By 782, Demissie had fathered several daughters with Falashina, but still no sons. An impatient Demissie decided to seek love elsewhere, taking the Christian Teru as a mistress in 782 and persuading her to convert to Christianity before making her Keeper of the Swans. She gave birth to the illegitimate daughters Genat in 783 and Desse Dube in 784, and, in 786, Demissie took Nyala as another lover. Over the next few years, Demissie ruled over a kingdom at piece, granting titles to his followers in a bid to secure their loyalty. However, most Ethiopian nobles openly despised Demissie for hoarding many titles for himself, as the king intended to wait for the arrival of a son before dispensing his titles to them to ensure that they would be in an ideal situation for succession. On the death of Chief Merille of Ankober in 788, Demissie found a new lover in Merille's widow, Sisay; while Queen Falashina forced Nyala to break up with the king on pain of death, the king took the scullery maid Bekele as a lover in 789.
During the 790s, the King campaigned against the might Ethiopian Empire, wounding King Dedem the Chaste in battle at Lashwa on 30 August 790. That same year, his first son, Tewodros, was born to Teru, and his second son Amare was born six months later to Bekele. In January 792, Demissie took Mandera Semien, the daughter of his promiscuous courtier Bathsheba, as his lover. A year later, Demissie was devastated by the death of his wife Falashina, but married Teru within the same month to secure a future for his firstborn son Tewodros. In 795, he went to war with Ethiopia again, acquiring Red Sea access and expanding at the expense of the decaying Zagwe dynasty. In 796, he slew King Liban of Berbera in personal combat at the Battle of Maydh, and he seduced his imprisoned widow Delombira two years later.
Demissie lived to see his eldest six daughters come of age and arranged their betrothals and marriages to Jewish dignitaries as far afield as Abkhazia and as near as Ethiopia. In 800, he challenged the Muhallabids of Egypt for control of central Sudan, but he died of severe stress in 801 at the age of 55 and was succeeded by Tewodros.