Sahle Dengel (Ge'ez: ሣህለ ድንግል; 1778 – 11 February 1855) wasEmperor of Ethiopia intermittently between 1832 and 11 February 1855, towards the end of theZemene Mesafint. He was largely a figurehead, with real power in the hands ofRasAli II of Yejju.

The French explorerArnaud d'Abbadie, described him thus:^[1]

Sahala Dinguil, an old man of about seventy years, had a colored complexion almost as fair as that of a European, with frizzy white hair like snow, a high and smooth forehead, a lively eye, a full and beardless face; his whole person, a bit common, was imbued with a sensual joviality. He sat serenely on an Indian wooden bed, still bearing the remains of rich ivory and mother-of-pearl marquetry, a worn and too-narrow Turkish carpet left part of the floor uncovered.

Sahle Dengel was the son ofGebre Mesay, allegedly a descendant of a younger son of EmperorFasilides.Eduard Rüppell, who visited the capital ofGondar in 1833, stated that at the time the Emperor "barely had the income of an averagely well-to-do Ethiopian, and the great princes of theTigray,Shewa andAmhara were unable to prevent continuous strife and bloodshed."^[2]

When Sahle Dengel was set on the throne byRas Ali, the clergy ofAzazo disapproved of his religious beliefs, and convincedRas Ali to remove him; Sahle Dengel was sent toZengaj.Ras Ali recalledGebre Krestos fromMitraha, an island in northeasternLake Tana, and restored him as Emperor. However, Gebre Krestos died after three months, and Sahle Dengel metRas Ali in a village named Tagur, where he convinced the Ras to make him Emperor once again (October, 1832). About that same time, oneEgwale Anbesa announced his claim to the throne; Sahle Dengel cut his head off, and set it in a tree atAdababay.^[3]

Following the death ofRasKinfu, people fought for control of his lands inGojjam. EventuallyMenen Liben Amede gained the upper hand in theBattle of Chenti Ber (October, 1839), defeating and capturing Kinfu's relativeWalda Tekle. Not long afterwards, she deposed Sahle Dengel on 29 August 1840 in favor of her husbandYohannes III.^[4] However Yohannes offended Ras Ali by favoring his rivalWube Haile Maryam, andRas Ali restored Sahle Dengel in October 1841. Sahle Dengel was still emperor in 1848, whenGoshu Zewde enteredGondar and was invested with the title ofRas.^[5] Yohannes somehow managed to get himself restored to the throne around 1850, only to be deposed again in 1851 and Sahle Dengel was once again restored. Despite this, Yohannes III persisted with his claim; different parts of the fragmented realm recognized one or the other as Emperor untilTewodros II consolidated Ethiopia under his control and declared himself Emperor. Significantly, Yohannes III accepted the accession of Tewodros II.

Although without power, Sahle Dengel wrote to officials outside Ethiopia using his title and seal. Existing letters include a packet of letters sent toSamuel Gobat in April 1848, who had by that time become theAnglican Bishop of Jerusalem, which ask for his help in restoring the ownership of theDar-es-Sultan monastery to the Ethiopian community.^[6] His name also appears as one of several signatories to a letterAntoine d'Abbadie delivered to ViscountHenry Palmerston 18 May 1839, which asked that Queen Victoria ask the ruler of Egypt,Muhammad Ali, to recall his forces which were then ravaging Ethiopia and threatening Gondar.^[7]

• 1778 births
• 1855 deaths
• 19th-century emperors of Ethiopia
• Solomonic dynasty

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata