約1000年左右，一個非基督教的公主Judith，屠殺了大部份的皇族和貴族。衹有一個嬰兒國王被一些忠誠的擁護者運到Shewa，一個其統治權仍然被承認的地方；而Judith及其後裔則統治大部份的地方。
不過Judith的後繼者在下世紀的某個時間被阿臯族人所推翻，並建立了札格維王朝，拉利貝拉的石鑿教堂大約在這個時候被建造。
1270年左右，原來的皇族復位，建立了所羅門王朝，逐出了最後一位札格維國王。
About 1000 (presumably c 960), a non-Christian princess, Yodit ("Gudit", a play on Yodit meaning evil), conspired to murder all the members of the royal family and establish herself as monarch. According to legends, during the execution of the royals, an infant heir of the Axumite monarch was carted off by some faithful adherents, and conveyed to Shewa, where his authority was acknowledged, while Yodit reigned for forty years over the rest of the kingdom, and transmitted the crown to her descendants. At one point during the next century, the last of Yodit's successors were overthrown by an Agaw lord named Mara Takla Haymanot, who founded the Zagwe dynasty and married a female descendant of the Axumite monarchs ("son-in-law") or previous ruler. One of the highlights of this dynasty was the reign of Gebre Mesqel Lalibela, in whose reign the stone churches of Lalibela were carved.
