Emperor of Ethiopia

The Emperor of Ethiopia (Amharic ??? ????, niguse negest, "King of Kings") was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The Emperor was not only the head of state, but the ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country. As noted in a National Geographic Magazine article, Ethiopia is "nominally a constitutional monarchy; in fact a benevolent autocracy."1

References

• Nathaniel T. Kenney, "Ethiopian Adventure", National Geographic, 127 (1965), p. 555.
• Yuri M. Kobishchanov, Axum, translated by Lorraine T. Kapitanoff, and edited by Joseph W. Michels (University Park: University of Pennsylvania State Press, 1979), p. 195.
• Francisco Alvarez, The Prester John of the Indies, translated by Lord Stanley of Alderley, revised and edited with additional material by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, (Cambridge: The Hakluyt Society, 1961), p. 237ff.
• Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (1270 - 1527) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 275n.3
• Thomas Pakenham, The Mountains of Rasselas (New York: Reynal & Co., 1959), p. 84.
• Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, p. 275n.3, citing Hiob Ludolf, A New History of Ethiopia.