Zemene Mesafint
The Zemene Mesafint (Ge'ez: ዘመነ መሳፍንት) variously translated "Era of Judges", "Era of the Princes", "Age of Princes", etc.; taken from the biblical Book of Judges) was a period in Ethiopian history between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries when the country was de facto divided within itself into several regions with no effective central authority. It was a period in which the Emperors from the Solomonic dynasty were reduced to little more than figureheads confined to the capital city of Gondar.