The 1922 regnal list of Ethiopia is an official regnal list used by the Ethiopian monarchy, which names over 300 monarchs across six millennia. The list is partially inspired by older Ethiopian regnal lists and chronicles, but is notable for additional monarchs who ruled Nubia, which was known as Aethiopia in ancient times. Also included are various figures from Greek mythology and the Biblical canon who were known to be "Aethiopian", as well as figures who originated from Egyptian sources (Ancient Egyptian, Coptic and Arabic).
This list of monarchs was included in Charles Fernand Rey's 1927 book In the Country of the Blue Nile and is the longest Ethiopian regnal list published in the Western world. It is the only known regnal list that attempts to provide a timeline of Ethiopian monarchs from the 46th century BC up to modern times without any gaps. However, earlier portions of the regnal list are pseudohistorical and were recent additions to Ethiopian tradition when the list was written. Despite claims by at least one Ethiopian court historian that the list dates back to ancient times, the list is more likely an early 20th-century creation, possibly originally written by Alaqa Taye Gabra Mariam or Heruy Wolde Selassie. The earlier sections of the list are clearly inspired by the work of French historian Louis J. Morié, who published a two-volume history of "Ethiopia" (i.e., Nubia and Abyssinia) in 1904. His work drew on then-recent Egyptological research but attempted to combine this with the Biblical canon and writings by ancient Greek authors. This resulted in a pseudohistorical work that was more imaginative than scientific in its approach to Ethiopian history.
This regnal list contains a great deal of conflation between the history of modern-day Ethiopia and Aethiopia, a term used in ancient times and in some Biblical translations to refer to a generalised region south of Egypt, most commonly in reference to the Kingdom of Kush in modern-day Sudan. As a result, many parts of this article will deal with the history of ancient Sudan and how this became interwoven into the history of the Kingdom of Axum, the region of Abyssinia (which includes modern-day Eritrea), and the modern state of Ethiopia. The territory of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea was known as "Abyssinia" to Europeans until the mid-20th century, and, as such, this term will be used occasionally in this article to distinguish it from 'ancient' Aethiopia (i.e., Nubia).
Background
Origins and alleged antiquity Charles Fernand Rey's 1927 book In the Country of the Blue Nile included a 13-page appendix listing Ethiopian monarchs, written by the Prince Regent Tafari Makonnen, who later became the Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Tafari's list begins in 4530 BC and ends in 1779 AD, with dates following the Ethiopian Calendar, which is several years behind the Gregorian calendar. Tafari's cover letter was written in the town of Addis Ababa on the 11th day of Sane, 1914 (Ethiopian Calendar), which was June 19, 1922 on the Gregorian Calendar according to Rey.
Rey revealed in another book he wrote, Unconquered Abyssinia, that this list was given to him in 1924 by a court historian who was a "learned old gentleman". This court historian had "caused to be compiled [...] on the instructions of Ras Tafari" a complete list of "rulers of Abyssinia from the beginning of time up to date." Rey noted that the list contained many names "of Egyptian origin", which was a "good illustration" of the difficulties in researching the history of Abyssinia. The court historian claimed that the regnal list had already been compiled before the "advent of the Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt" and that the original version had been taken to Egypt and left there, afterward becoming lost.
Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, president of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, acknowledged the regnal list in a speech given in 2011 in which he stated:
The goal of the 1922 regnal list was to showcase the immense longevity of the Ethiopian monarchy. The list does this by providing precise dates spanning 6,300 years and drawing upon various historical traditions from both within and outside Ethiopia.
Multiple versions of the regnal list are known to exist. Tafari's regnal list has 313 numbered monarchs from 4530 BC to 1779 AD (E.C.) while Taye Gabra Mariam's version of the list continued up to contemporary times to include influential Rases of the Zemene Mesafint and emperors who had reigned since the time of Tewodros II.
The first three dynasties (4530–982 BC) of the list are mostly legendary and take various elements from the Bible, as well as Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, Greek, Coptic and Arab sources. Many of the monarchs of the Menelik dynasty (982 BC–AD 920) appear on Ethiopian regnal lists written before 1922. Still, these lists often contradict each other, and many of the kings themselves are not archeologically verified, though in some cases their existence is confirmed by Aksumite coinage. Many of the historically verified rulers of the Ag'azyan (1985–982 BC) and Menelik dynasties did not rule over the region of modern Ethiopia but rather over Egypt and/or Nubia. It is only from the mid-1st century onward that the monarchs are certainly Aksumite or "Abyssinian" in origin.
Each monarch on the list has their respective reign dates and the number of years in their reign listed. Two columns of reign dates were used in the list. One column uses dates according to the Ethiopian calendar, while the other column lists the "Year of the World", placing the creation of the world in 5500 BC. Other Ethiopian texts and documents have also placed a similar date for the creation of the world.G.W.B. Huntingford, "'The Wealth of Kings' and the End of the Zāguē Dynasty", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 28 (1965), p. 7 The dating of 5500 BC as the creation of the world was influenced by calculations from the Alexandrian and Byzantine eras which placed the world's creation in 5493 BC and 5509 BC respectively.
Authorship Neither Tafari Makonnen nor Charles Rey explicitly stated who originally wrote the regnal list or who supplied Tafari with a copy. Both Heruy Wolde Selassie and Alaqa Taye Gabra Mariam included versions of the list in their work; there is clear evidence that a large part of the list's early sections was lifted from the work of an obscure French historian, Louis J. Morié.
Heruy Wolde Selassie and Wazema
German historian Manfred Kropp believed the author of the regnal list was Ethiopian foreign minister Heruy Wolde Selassie (1878–1938). Selassie was a philosopher and historian, and had mastered several European languages. He had previously served as secretary to Emperor Menelik II (r. 1889–1913). At the time the list was written in 1922, Selassie was president of the special court in Addis Ababa, whose job was to resolve disputes between Ethiopians and foreigners.
Kropp noted that Selassie's historical sources include the Bible, Christian Arab writers Jirjis al-Makin Ibn al-'Amid (1205–1273) and Ibn al-Rāhib (1205–1295), and Christian traveller and writer Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160–240). Kropp argued that Selassie was one of the Ethiopian writers who sought to synchronize Ethiopian history with the wider Christian-Oriental histories. This was aided by the translation of Arabic texts in the 17th century. Kropp also felt that the developing field of Egyptology influenced Selassie's writings, particularly from Eduard Meyer, Gaston Maspero, and Alexandre Moret, whose works were published in French in Addis Ababa in the early 20th century. Kropp believed that Selassie was also assisted by French missionaries and the works they held in their libraries. Kropp additionally theorized that Tafari Makonnen played a large role in the writing of the list.
Selassie wrote a book titled Wazema, which contained a version of the regnal list. The title "Wazema" translates to The Vigil, a metaphor celebrating the history of the kings of Ethiopia. The book was divided into two sections: the first covers Ethiopian political history from the dawn of history to modern times, while the second covers the history of the Ethiopian church. Kropp noted that there were three different versions of the regnal list published in Selassie's works. Selassie's regnal list omits the first dynasty of Tafari's list – the so-called "Tribe of Ori or Aram" – and also the first three rulers of the second dynasty, instead beginning in 2545 BC with king Sebtah. Selassie himself stated that he used European literature as a source, including James Bruce's Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790). Manfred Kropp felt that the existence of multiple versions of the regnal list suggested that Selassie grew increasingly critical of the sources he used for the first version in 1922. Ethiopian historian Sergew Hable Selassie commented that Heruy Wolde Selassie "strove for accuracy" but the sources he used for Wazema "precluded his success".
Manfred Kropp noted one important source for the information in Wazema. Selassie himself told the reader that if they wished to learn more about Joktan, the supposed founder of the Ag'azyan dynasty, they could consult page 237 of a book by "Moraya". At first, Kropp thought this was referring to Alexandre Moret, but it was later made clear that Selassie's regnal list had been significantly inspired by a book called Histoire de l'Éthiopie by Louis J. Morié, published in 1904.
Louis J. Morié's Histoire de l'Éthiopie
Louis J. Morié was a French historian who wrote a history of Ethiopia in the early 20th century. The two-volume work, titled Histoire de l'Éthiopie (Nubie et Abyssinie), was published in 1904, with the first volume focusing on ancient Nubia (called "Ancient Ethiopia" by Morié) and the second on Abyssinia ("Modern Ethiopia"). An abridged edition was printed in 1897, but only 100 copies were made for the author's friends. Historian identified the first volume as a key source in the creation of the 1922 Ethiopian regnal list and provided evidence from Morié's text that corroborated the names and information on the list. Kropp noted that Morié's book was more imaginative than scientific in its approach to Ethiopian history and blamed Selassie's European friends and contemporaries for the influence of Morié's book on Selassie's writing of Ethiopian history. E. A. Wallis Budge mentions Morié's book in his own similarly titled two-volume work A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, but surprisingly makes no mention of the clear similarity between Morié's narrative and the 1922 Ethiopian regnal list. Charles Rey, in his book Unconquered Abyssinia, mentioned an "enthusiastic French writer" who had dated "the birth of the Abyssinian monarchy from the foundation of the Kingdom of Meroë by Cush about 5800 B.C." but Rey felt this writer could "not be taken seriously" because of his belief that the Deluge was a historical event. Rey was likely referring to Morié, who had claimed that 5800 BC was the approximate date when Cush began ruling Aethiopia, and he also treated the Biblical flood narrative as a historical fact. Like Budge, Rey apparently did not notice the striking similarities between Morié's narrative and the 1922 Ethiopian regnal list.
Writing for Asiatic Review, Frederick A. Edwards noted that Morié had "[attempted] to bring all the Kings named in the various [Ethiopian] lists into one line of succession" but warned readers that his work was an "unsafe guide" that "may well be disregarded" despite "[posing] as an authoritative precisian". Edwards observed that Morié's "identifications and his dates are quite arbitrary" and that he fails to provide authoritative sources explaining why he chose these dates. Edwards concludes his brief overview of Morié's work by stating "[Morié's] identifications of Kings in one list with those in another are often forced and unsatisfactory, and he has fallen into some obvious errors."