Dawit II (Ge'ez: ዳዊት; c. 1496 – 2 September 1540), also known by the macaronic name Wanag Segad (ወናግ ሰገድ, to whom the lions bow), better known by his birth name Lebna Dengel (Amharic: ልብነ ድንግል, essence of the virgin), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1508 to 1540, whose political center and palace was in Shewa.

From his knees downwards he had a rich cloth of silk and gold well spread out like a Bishop's apron, and he was sitting in majesty as they paint God the Father on the wall.

Dawit would then proceed to ravage Adal and lay waste to Sultan Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din's residence in Dakkar.

[8] Contemporaries concluded that the Muslim threat to Ethiopia was finally over, so when the diplomatic mission from Portugal arrived at last, Dawit denied that Mateus had the authority to negotiate treaties, ignoring Eleni's counsels.

"[9] According to Ethiopian chronicles, two decades into Dawit's ascension, a young man by the name Ahmed Ibrahim had rebelled against the Adal leaders and spread terror in the region.

In the 1520s, Emperor Lebna Dengel bought two swivel-guns from the Portuguese, as well as fourteen muskets acquired from Turks, he was thus ill equipped for the Ottoman backed invasion in 1527 which included thousands of Turkish and Arab flintlocks and matchlocks.

The Imam's followers were accustomed to making lightning raids on Ethiopian territory, swiftly attacking and quickly returning home; they had no experience in pitched battles, and Ahmad Gragn struggled with numerous desertions.

Imam Ahmad Gragn spent the next two years preoccupied beyond the Awash, but returned to attack Ethiopia in 1531, where he scattered the army under the general Eslamu by firing the first cannon in the Horn of Africa.

"[13] The Imam's followers poured into Bet Amhara, pillaging every church they found, including Mekane Selassie, Atronsa Maryam, Debre Nagwadgwad and Ganata Giyorgis.

During the years he lived as an outlaw in his own realm constantly hounded by Imam Ahmed's soldiers the Malassay,[16] Dawit came to see Queen Eleni's wisdom in reaching out to Europe for help, and he dispatched João Bermudes, who had arrived in Ethiopia with Dom Rodrigo de Lima, to request for military assistance.

John III also provided him with letters addressed to the Portuguese Viceroy in India, directing the immediate dispatch of ships along with four to five hundred soldiers to assist the Abyssinian king in combating the Muslims.

[18][19] When Dawit was in Dembiya, the Malassay came and captured most his soldiers, and he was force to flee with a few loyal followers to the mountain of Tchelmefra in the country of Simien.

His release was not secured until 1543, when Queen Seble Wongel exchanged him for the captured son of Bati del Wambara and Ahmed after the Battle of Wayna Daga.