When his father Wossen Asfa was murdered, Sahle Selassie's older brother Bakure was kept from marching to their father's capital at Qundi to claim the succession by Oromo rebels in Marra Biete. Although still a teenager, Sahle Selassie seized his chance at rule by rushing from the monastery at Sela Dengel where he was a student "and probably with the spport of his mother's Menzian kinsmen was proclaimed the Ras of Showa."1 Bakure belatedly arrived at Qundi only to be imprisoned in the state prison at Gonchu with his ...
Despite his many reverses against his political rivals inside Shewa and out, considered against any other period of history, Negus Sahle Selassie was a progressive and benevolent ruler. A contemporary British visitor, Charles Johnston, commented that the
contemplation of such a prince in his own land isworth the trouble and the risk of visiting it ... his character for justice and probity has spread far and wide, and the supremacy of political excellence is withojut hestitation given to the Negoos [Negus] of Shoa throughout the ...
