Eleni (Ge’ez: እሌኒ, "Helena"; died April 1522) also known as Queen of Zeila[1] was Empress of Ethiopia by marriage to Zara Yaqob (r. 1434–1468), and served as regent between 1507 and 1516 during the minority of emperor Dawit II.

Although the Portuguese historian Baltasar Teles wrote that Eleni had no children, in some manuscripts of Francisco Álvares's The Prester John of the Indies, a male relative of Lebna Dengel who escaped from Amba Geshen is described as her son, according to the translator but not the original text[3] After Zara Yaqob's death, the next emperor, Baeda Maryam I, gave Eleni the title of Queen Mother, as his own mother Tsion Mogasa had been beaten to death during his father's reign.

[5] The Portuguese missionary Francisco Álvares was told by the Abuna Marqos, that upon Emperor Na'od's death in combat, "he and Queen Eleni made him [Lebna Dengel] King, because they had all of the great men in their hands.

Understanding the growing threat that Ethiopia faced from the expanding Ottoman influence in the region, with the counsel of Pero da Covilhã, sent Mateus (also known as Matthew the Armenian) as an ambassador to the King of Portugal and the Pope in Rome.

[8] Eleni served as chief regent for the under-age Lebna Dengel, along with his mother, the Dowager Empress Na'od Mogassa, and Ras Degelhan of Gojjam, the Emperor's senior male relative.