Kingdom of Damot


The Kingdom of Damot was a medieval kingdom in what is now Ethiopia, and ruled by Welayta people or Sidama. The territory was positioned below the Blue Nile. It was a powerful state that forced the Sultanate of Showa to pay tax and annihilated Zagwe dynasty armies sent to subdue the region. Damot had conquered several Muslim and Christian territories. Muslim Shewa and the new Christian state under Yekuno Amlak formed an alliance to counter influence of Damot in the region. Damot seized as an independent entity after the conquest of the region by Emperor Amda Seyon in the fourteenth century and remained under the Solomonic dynasty's influence of power thereon. Originally located south of the Abay and west of the Muger River, under the pressure of Oromo attacks the rulers were forced to resettle north of the Abay in southern Gojjam between 1574 and 1606.
The kings, who bore the title Motalami, resided in a town which, according to the hagiography of Tekle Haymanot, was called Malbarde. The kingdom was reduced to smaller size and the name became the Kingdom of Wolayta. Their territory extended east beyond the Muger as far as the Jamma.