[1] According to Donald Levine, Asfa Wossen spent his youth in a monastery in Menz, where he became proficient at the traditional Amharic poetic genre known as qene.
One step in this process led Asfa Wossen to follow the advice of his father confessor and embrace the doctrine of the Sost Lidet in order to absorb the key state of Marra Biete.
"[4] Levine concurs in this assessment: "As a ruler he resembled many of Gondar's monarchs, preferring to spend his time in religious pursuits and the embellishment of his capital (Ankobar) than on the warpath.
Henze quotes the opinion of a contemporary chronicler, who wrote that "under Asfa Wossen a small group of five or six Amhara could travel without danger from Bulga to Debre Libanos, taking the shortest route through the Galla [Oromo] area.
[8] Donald Levine adds that Asfa Wossen "handled the situation with characteristic Shoan adroitness": on the one hand he argued that if he extended his domains it was the expense of their common enemy, the Oromo; on the other, he "heaped gifts upon the emperor and his lieutenants".