Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
Amda Seyon I other variations Amde Tsiyon, Amda-Tseyon, Amda Tsion (Ge'ez: ዐምደ ፡ ጽዮን ʿamda ṣiyōn, Amharic: āmde ṣiyōn, "Pillar of Zion"), throne name Gebre Mesqel (ገብረ መስቀል gäbrä mäsḳal) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344 and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. According to the British expert on Ethiopia, Edward Ullendorff, "Amda Seyon was one of the most outstanding Ethiopian kings of any age and a singular figure dominating the Horn of Africa in the fourteenth century." His conquests of Muslim borderlands greatly expanded Ethiopian territory and power in the region, maintained for centuries after his death. Amda Seyon asserted the strength of the newly (1270) installed Solomonic dynasty and therefore legitimized it. These expansions further provided for the spread of Christianity to frontier areas, sparking a long era of proselytization, Christianization, and integration of previously peripheral areas.