约1000年左右，一个非基督教的公主Judith，屠杀了大部份的皇族和贵族。只有一个婴儿国王被一些忠诚的拥护者运到Shewa，一个其统治权仍然被承认的地方；而Judith及其后裔则统治大部份的地方。
不过Judith的后继者在下世纪的某个时间被阿皋族人所推翻，并建立了札格维王朝，拉利贝拉的石凿教堂大约在这个时候被建造。
1270年左右，原来的皇族复位，建立了所罗门王朝，逐出了最后一位札格维国王。
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.
