Did the last Emperor of Axum convert to Islam?

[James Dahl]

One thing I've been pondering for a long time is the inconsistent chronicling of the death of the Axumite Empire. Tradition states that the last emperor of Axum was killed by the queen of Damot, portrayed as a non-Christian, and that the son of the Emperor fled to Shewa, where he was recognized as Emperor.

According to the Solomonic dynasty, this fellow then went into hiding, and his descendants are the Amhara Solomonic Dynasty. However this just doesn't ring true. There are two big problems with this.

First of all, Damot at this point was Christian, and in fact it was a Christian dynasty from Damot who picked up the pieces of what was left of Axum and created the Zagwe dynasty. Pretty much immediately after Gudit supposedly murders the Emperor, the Islamic Sultanate of Shoa materializes seemingly out of nowhere, exactly where the Emperor's descendants are supposed to have fled.

There has never been an adequate explanation as to why Shoa became an Islamic sultanate centuries prior to the coast, where rationally you would think Islam would spread in from. Also, nothing adequately explains why the Christian parts of Axum fragmented more than the Muslim parts, which all quickly acknowledged the supremacy of Shoa over them, while the Christian highlands took centuries to reunify.

This would all make sense however, if it were the CHRISTIAN provinces of Axum that rebelled and split off due to religion. Tigray, Damot, east and west Amhara all split into seperate kingdoms, and yet all the Islamic sultanates recognized the supremacy of Shoa.

Another piece of this puzzle is the fact that the Solomonic Dynasty declared themselves the restored Solomonic Dynasty right after their ally, Umar Walashma, destroyed the Sultanate of Shoa and restored Christian overlordship (albeit via a Muslim ruler) over Shoa.

[Walid2005]

Not to go to detail but if the emperor of axum converted to Islam, the Christian version of Majlis Al Shurra would eat him alive.