Menas of Ethiopia

Menas
Emperor of Ethiopia
Reign	1559–1563
Predecessor	Gelawdewos
Successor	Sarsa Dengel
Died	1563
House	House of Solomon
Religion	Ethiopian Christian

Menas (Ge'ez ሜናስ mēnās) or Minas, throne name Admas Sagad I (Ge'ez አድማስ ሰገድ admās sagad, Amh. ādmās seged, "to whom the horizon bows"), (? – 1 February 1563) was nəgusä nägäst (1559 - February 1, 1563) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was a brother of Gelawdewos.

According to a genealogy collected by James Bruce, Menas' father Lebna Dengel arranged Menas to be married to the daughter of Robel, governor of Bora and Selawe; upon becoming empress she took the name Adimas Moas. They had two children, Fiqtor and Theodora.

During Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi's invasion of Ethiopia, Menas had been captured but treated well as a valuable prisoner. Although the fate of prisoners of war at the time was to be castrated and enslaved, due to the intervention of Bati del Wambara, wife of Imam Ahmad Gragn, Menas escaped this mutilation, and was married to Bati del Wambara's daughter—an act Whiteway describes as "a unique act of clemency." This clemency came to an end in 1542, when the Imam, desperate for help from his fellow Muslims, included Menas in an assortment of extravagant gifts to the sultan of Yemen in return for military aid. However, Imam Ahmad's son was later captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Wayna Daga, Gelawdewos used his prisoner to recover his brother Menas; according to Pankhurst, "when the royal family was reunited there were many days of celebrations."

Menas was made emperor at Mengista Samayat, southwest of Debre Werq in Gojjam, and shortly afterwards he campaigned against the Falasha in Semien province.

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