Fiqtor (A)

Fiqtor, Abba, was a false monk, said to be from Syria, who deposed Abunä Pétros in the first half of the tenth century by means of forged letters from the Patriarch Cosmas, in office 921-933 A.D. According to some accounts Fiqtor set his accomplice Minas as abun in Pétros’ place, and ensured that the reigning prince, sometimes identified as Del-Nä’ad, was deposed and replaced for a time by his elder brother, tentatively identified as Emperor ‘Anbässa-Wedem. Later Fiqtor quarreled with Minas, robbed his house and fled to Egypt, where he became a Muslim and spent his days in riotous living.

A. K. Irvine

Bibliography

J. Perruchon, “Notes pour l’histoire d’Ethiopie”, Revue Sémitique, Vol.II (1894), 78-93.

E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church (Cambridge, 1928), Vol. III, 667-8 (Synaxarium, 3 Mäggabit).

——–, A History of Ethiopia (London, 1928), Vol. I, 276.

This article is reproduced, with permission, from The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, Vol. 1 ‘From Early Times to the End of the Zagwé Dynasty c. 1270 A.D.,’ copyright © 1975, edited by Belaynesh Michael, S. Chojnacki and Richard Pankhurst, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. All rights reserved.