Malkəʾa ʾArsimā (‘Image of Hripsime’): An Ethiopic Hymn for an Armenian Saint

Abstract

Despite the growth of a cult for the Armenian martyr Hripsime in Ethiopia during the Middle Ages, no malkəʾ-hymn dedicated to her can be found in manuscripts predating the eighteenth century. There are two extant witnesses, one from the early eighteenth century and one from the nineteenth or twentieth century, to a Malkəʾa ʾArsimā containing seventeen stanzas. Evidently this hymn is the one named in a list of titles of malkəʾ-hymns extant in four manuscripts, two of which indicate that the hymn should have seventeen stanzas. While shorter than most, the hymn skilfully incorporates allusions to biblical stories, including Esther and Judith, paraphrases of and references to verses from the Old and New Testaments, and references to the flight to Egypt and Mount Koskam. While the text seemingly fell out of use, there being no later manuscript witnesses or printed editions of it, a different, longer malkəʾ-hymn was at some point composed and is now widespread in printed collections.