The Meridazmach made a diplomatic visit to the Emperor's court at Gondar in 1771, during the first decades of the chaotic Zemene Mesafint ("Era of The Princes"), where the Scots explorer James Bruce met him.
Calling him "Yasous", Bruce describes Amha Iyasus as "the son of the governor of Shoa", "a man from twenty-six to twenty-eight years of age, tall, and of a just degree of corpulence, with arms and legs finely made; he had a very beautiful face, small features, and the most affable manners.
"[3] He imported a number of firearms from the northern parts of Ethiopia, and used them to assert his primacy over his neighboring Christian states including Tegulet, Menz, Efrata and Bulga.
[4] Amha Iyasus was the creator of the policy, followed by the rulers of Shewa into the middle of the next century, of avoiding being drawn into the struggles around control of the Imperial throne.
An important part of this policy was leaving the district of Wollo between the Geshen and Samba Rivers untouched as buffer between Shewa and the territories of Ethiopia controlled from Gondar.