Ali II of Yejju (c. 1819 – c. 1866) was Ras of Begemder and the de facto ruler of the Ethiopian Empire. He was a member of a powerful Oromo dynasty known as the Yejju, which ruled much of the Ethiopian Empire during the Zemene Mesafint. Appointment as ruler In July 1831, after the death of his cousin, Ras Dori, Ali was appointed Ruler of Begemder and Imperial Regent at the age of 12 in a meeting of the chief nobles of the Yejju Oromo at the dynastic capital of Debre Tabor. As Ali was a minor, a council of regents was appointed from these nobles. However, his mother, Menen Liben Amede, soon came to control this council and exerted much influence over political decisions for the next decade. Ras Ali was officially a Christian but some of his contemporaries doubted the sincerity of his faith and suspected that he was a secret Muslim. Some modern scholars consider him as indifferent to religion as he was to the problems of ruling his portion of Ethiopia, although Trimingham observes that he attempted to revive the cult of Ahmad Gragn by requiring pilgrimages to his tomb. In any case, the morale of the Ethiopian Church reached its lowest point in the 1840s and 1850s. For much his reign Ras Ali was constantly at war, either putting down rebellions in his core territories, or defending his territory from rival lords. In one of these continual campaigns, Ras Ali II plundered the imperial capital, Gondar, in 1838. Ras Ali made Sahle Dengel Emperor in 1832, but the clergy of Azazo disapproved of the new Emperor's religious beliefs, and convinced Ras Ali to remove him. Sahle Dengel was sent to Zengaj, and Ras Ali recalled Gebre Krestos from the island of Mitraha in Lake Tana, and restored him as Emperor. However, Gebre Krestos died after three months, and Sahle Dengel met with Ras Ali in the village of Tsagur where he convinced Ras Ali to restore him to the throne once again (October, 1832). Marriage Ras Ali married Hirut, the daughter of Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam, lord of Semien and of Tigray; when he placed her in the church of Mahdere Maryam for her safety before the Battle of Debre Tabor (6 February 1842), his opponents violated the refuge of the church and kidnapped her. Their only daughter Tewabech was married 1848 to Kassa Hailu