Wube Haile Maryam

Wube Haile Maryam, also called Wube Haile Mariam or Dejazmach Wube, (1800–1867) was a regional ruler and dejazmach in Tigrey, Simien, and other coastal territories, in an area that is now part of northern Ethiopia and central Eritrea. Wube is remembered in Eritrea for barbarous military raids. He was defeated and imprisoned in 1855 by Kassa Hailu. Some sources date Wube's defeat as the end of Ethiopia's Zemene Mesafint era.

Wube was born in 1800. He is variably reported as having become the regional chief of Simien upon the death of his father in 1826 or as having ruled from 1831. He was a persistent warlord, who leveraged his governorship of the district of Wogera into a wider rule of Simien and Tigrey. Considered one of the more powerful of numerous concurrently feuding regional warlords, Wube is recognized as having had ambitions on becoming emperor himself, and he arranged for completion of the ongoing building of Dirasge Mariam Church for his coronation. His status is underpinned by his being exempted from the usual requirement of vassals to attend the court of Ras Ali II, regent to the Emperor of Ethiopia.

In 1841, at Wube's request, the See of Alexandria sent Abuna Salama III to become the new patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. That same year, Wube defeated Ras Ali II in battle, taking Gondar, the then capital of Ethiopia. Nonetheless, Ras Ali II escaped. In February 1842, their armies clashed again in the Battle of Debre Tabor, where Wube's initial tactical superiority from imported firearms almost carried the day, until a detachment under Dejazmach Birru Aligaz, Ras Ali's uncle, broke through to Wube's encampment and captured him, thus enabling Ali to retain his title.

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