Aethiopica

Zemenfes Tsighe, Saleh Mahmud Idris, Yonas Mesfun Asfaha, Senai Woldeab Andemariam, Rediet Kifle Taddese, Ghebrebrhan Ogubazghi, eds, International Conference on Eritrean Studies, 20–22 July 2016: Proceedings

Denis Nosnitsin — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Alexandros Tsakos, Marta Camilla Wright, eds, The Archangel Michael in Africa: History, Cult, and Persona

Sophia Dege-Müller — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Meron T. Gebreananye, Logan Williams, and Francis Watson, eds, Beyond Canon: Early Christianity and the Ethiopic Textual Tradition

Calum Samuelson — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Abraham Johannes Drewes, Recueil des inscriptions de l’Éthiopie des périodes pré-axoumite et axoumite, III: Traductions et commentaires, B: Les inscriptions sémitiques

Alessio Agostini — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Michael Lausberg, Geschichte und Kultur Äthiopiens

Siegbert Uhlig — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Marie-Laure Derat, L’énigme d’une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d’Éthiopie du XIe au XIIIe siècle

Nafisa Valieva — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Verena Krebs, Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe

Samantha Kelly — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Shiferaw Bekele, Uoldelul Chelati Dirar, Alessandro Volterra, Massimo Zaccaria, eds, The First World War from Tripoli to Addis Ababa (1911–1924)

Nicola Camilleri — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Melaku Geboye Desta, Dereje Feyissa Dori, and Mamo Esmelealem Mihretu, eds, Ethiopia in the Wake of Political Reforms

Sarah Howard — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Annegret Marx, When Images Travel to Ethiopia … Impact of the Evangelium Arabicum printed 1590 in Rome on a 17th Century Ethiopian Gospel: Documentation and Synoptic Presentation of their Images

Jacopo Gnisci — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Josef Tropper and Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee, Classical Ethiopic: A Grammar of Geˁez, Including Sample Texts and a Glossary

Maija Priess — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Derib Ado, Almaz Wasse Gelagay, Janne Bondi Johannessen, eds, Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian Languages

Maria Bulakh — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Marlene Guss-Kosicka, Die Verbalsysteme des Amharischen und Tigrinischen: Eine vergleichende Analyse

Magdalena Krżyzanowska — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Review

Academic News: Aaron Michael Butts, new Professor of Semitic Studies with a focus on Ethiopian and Eritrean studies at Universität Hamburg, with the project BeInf—Beyond Influence: The Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity

Aaron Butts — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Academic News

Table of Content

Editor — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Table of Content

Editorial

Editor — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Editorial

Critical Edition (with translation) and Textual Analysis of Gädlä Yǝmʕatta

Hagos Abrha Abay — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dissertation abstract

Das geographische Traktat in der Weltgeschichte des Wäldä ʾAmid – Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar

Carsten Hoffmann — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dissertation abstract

A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Treatise: Tārik Zamǝdra Gondar (The History of the Land of Gondar)

Sisay Sahile Beyene — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dissertation Abstract

The Transition from Traditional Cults to the Affirmation of Christian Beliefs in the City of Oxyrhynchus

Leah Mascia — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dissertation Abstract

The Diachronic Development of the Dǝggʷā: A Study of Texts and Manuscripts of Selected Ethiopic Antiphon Collections

Jonas Karlsson — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dissertation Abstract

Once Again on ʾbk wdm in Ethiopian Sabaic

Aaron Michael Butts, Simcha Gross, Michael Hensley — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In an article published in this journal in 2010, Norbert Nebes argued that ʾbk wdm is an apotropaic formula, which can be translated, for instance in the case of RIÉ 9, as ‘und Waddum ist dein (göttlicher) Vater als Schutz vor einem Widersacher’ (wʾbk wdm [b]n ʿtkm). In contrast, it is proposed here that ʾbk wdm continues the previous list of deity names, as already suggested in 1976 by Roger Schneider. Key to this argument is the distribution of the concluding prepositional phrases bn kl mrʿm, ‘from everyone who is malicious’, and bn ʿtkm, ‘from an adversary’, which only occur in inscriptions that have b-s¹qt, ‘by the protection of’. Thus, the following formula is proposed: b-s¹qt DN(s) bn X, ‘by the protection of divine name(s) from X’.

I manoscritti etiopici della Biblioteca Statale di Montevergine a Mercogliano, Avellino

Alessandro Bausi — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Biblioteca Statale di Montevergine annexed to the Monumento nazionale di Montevergine, housed in the Palazzo abbaziale di Loreto, in Mercogliano, Avellino, also includes two Ethiopic manuscripts that once belonged to the ‘Johannowsky Library’. The manuscripts date to the nineteenth (non post 1895 CE, Cod. 24, Praise of Mary and Gate of Light) and to the beginning of the twentieth century (1907/1908 CE, Ms. 3, Image of the Twenty-Four Heavenly Priests and Ethiopian Psalter). The first manuscript was apparently taken from the field tent of Rās Mangašā after the Battle of Saganayti, on 15 January 1895, and eventually donated on 27 November 1900 by Daǧāzmāč Mikāʾel to the Italian colonial officer Ilario Capomazza.

Nachträge zur Edition einer syrischen ṭaḇliṯo in Aethiopica 24 (Bausi und Desreumaux 2021)

Michael Waltisberg — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The following short note offers some comments and corrections on the first edition of a Syriac ṭaḇliṯo published in Aethiopica 24 (Bausi and Desreumaux 2021). It particularly focuses on a few issues of the reading of the text, the transcription of Syriac, and the date.

Le texte syriaque de la ṭablītō éthiopienne : une réponse aux remarques du Pr. Dr. Michael Waltisberg

Alain Desreumaux — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We thank Prof. Dr Waltisberg for his correction of vocalization and for his grammatical contribution. He confirms the unusual form of the verb in the formula and the meaning of bad as a shortcut of which he lists many examples. We take this opportunity to add three Maronite ṭablyōtō found in Lebanon.

Yoḥannǝs IV and the Patriarchate of Alexandria: Obtaining Four Coptic Bishops while Ceding Nothing on Jerusalem Issue (1876–1882)

Stéphane Ancel — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This article connects two events that occurred in 1881: the arrival of four Coptic bishops in Ethiopia and the attempt by the Copts to remodel the Dayr al-Sulṭān monastery in Jerusalem. First, connecting these two events contradicts the idea that the Copts agreed to appoint four bishops without any compensation—on the contrary they sought a compensation in Jerusalem. Second, it sheds light on Yoḥannǝs’s diplomatic policy, which enabled him to thwart the Coptic ambitions in Jerusalem and to kill two birds with one stone: he obtained four Coptic bishops, while preserving the rights of the Ethiopians in Jerusalem, and this without any compensation to be given in exchange to the Copts or anyone else. This article shows that behind a friendship demonstrated at the time by Ethiopians and Copts were hidden elements of deep discord. It therefore suggests the need, in the future, to rethink the place to be given to the 1881 agreement in the history of relations between Copts and Ethiopians and its influence on subsequent events.

Disputed Translations from The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros (2015) Reconsidered: Some Notes on Gǝʿǝz Philology

Michael Kleiner — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The present article was prompted by Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes’s ‘Colonial Rewriting of African History: Misinterpretations and Distortions in Belcher and Kleiner’s Life and Struggles of Walatta Petros’ as published in a special issue of the Journal of Afroasiatic Languages, History and Culture in the fall of 2020. Yirga’s text of more than eighty pages is a wide-ranging and often acrimonious critique of Wendy Laura Belcher’s and my scholarship in our 2015 annotated translation of the Gädlä Wälättä Ṗeṭros. This reply does not attempt to address all the philological and non-philological issues Yirga raises. Rather, it focuses on refuting Yirga’s allegations of sexualizing mistranslations on our part. As these alleged mistranslations form the virtually exclusive basis for Yirga’s more far-reaching accusations against our scholarship, refuting them also collapses his broader case.

A Handlist of Illustrated Early Solomonic Manuscripts in German Public Collections

Sophia Dege-Müller, Jacopo Gnisci, Vitagrazia Pisani — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Illustrated manuscripts in the Ethiopic language, as material objects that carry textual and visual information, are among the most valuable sources of data for art historians specializing in this area. This article provides a handlist of illustrated early Solomonic manuscripts housed in German libraries and museums. The contribution was created within the framework of the AHRC-DFG project Demarginalizing medieval Africa: Images, texts, and identity in early Solomonic Ethiopia (1270–1527) so our data reflects the project’s research focus on visual matter. This is the first time that the illuminations of the manuscripts included in the handlist are analysed comprehensively. We believe that the resulting work sheds new light on the history of book illustration in early Solomonic Ethiopia and hope that it will provide researchers with a valuable instrument to foster comparative research and a more integrative approach to the study of Ethiopian art.

The Gǝʿǝz Manuscripts Collection from the Monastery of Däbrä Ṣǝyon (Abunä Abrǝham, Tǝgray, Ethiopia)

Hagos Abrha Abay — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The monastery of Däbrä Ṣǝyon (Abunä Abrǝham), situated on a peak of the eastern chains of the Gärʿalta mountains, is one of the well-known medieval Ethiopian monasteries. It is said to have been established in the fourteenth century by St Abrǝham of Tǝgray. According to his own gädl, Abunä Abrǝham was not only the founder of the monastery, but was also known to be an active participant and director of the architectural work of the rock-hewn church. It is known that Gärʿalta is endowed with reflections of Aksumite culture, and the monastery of Däbrä Ṣǝyon also seems to have had its own share in its continuation. Many places and monasteries (in Tǝgray) are linked to this monastery in terms of shared monastic culture and land granting. Däbrä Ṣǝyon is a rock-hewn church in which many Christian historical artefacts have been preserved. Among the non-codex written artefacts, it has preserved, in particular, a ṭawos manuscript. Seventy-two Gǝʿǝz manuscripts, most of which of hagiographical and liturgical genre, are kept in the church. All were digitized, foliated, with quire number and structure sorted out in 2018, via a project carried out by the St Yared Center for Ethiopian Philology and Manuscript Studies (SYCEPMS) of Mekelle University. Material, physical, and chemical analysis of the manuscripts was not applied due to a lack of equipment and skill. The manuscripts are now in the process of being catalogued and examined for dating, and the article provides a synthetic survey of the whole collection. The ṭawos manuscript, that is, a peacock-type manuscript from the fifteenth century, is part of the collection; its format calls for consideration regarding the definition and significance of a special style of Ethiopic manuscript culture. As a result, this article aims at introducing the monastery and its manuscript collection.

New Readings and Interpretations on the Inscribed Stele from Ḥənzat (HS1)

Maria Bulakh, Yohannes Gebre Selassie — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In 1974 the renowned Ethiopianist Lanfranco Ricci inspected the site of Ḥǝnzat in central Tǝgray. Inter alia, he inspected and photographed a stele with a lengthy inscription. In 2014, Yohannes Gebre Selassie published an article on an inscription which he labelled HS1, and which he believed to be a second inscription on a stele found in Ḥǝnzat. However, close inspection reveals that HS1 is the same stele which Ricci saw and described. The contribution here presents evidence to support this claim. In addition, some new interpretations are offered as alternatives to Yohannes Gebre Selassie’s first translation.

The Confession of King Gälawdewos (r. 1540–1559): A Sixteenth-Century Ethiopian Monophysite Document against Jesuit Proselytism

Solomon Gebreyes Beyene — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Jesuit mission in Ethiopia represented one of the most serious challenges of Ethiopian Christianity during the early modern times. The mission had two phases. In the first phase, from 1555 to 1603, the missionaries undertook to convert King Gälawdewos and his court in return for military support from Portugal but had to face opposition from his successor, Minas (r.1559–1563). The second period ran from 1603 to 1632 and marked the major success of the mission. The missionaries managed to convert King Susənyos (r.1607–1632) as well as important nobles and dignitaries. In the first phase of the mission, even though the Christian kingdom had been heavily weakened by the wars with Imām Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Ġazī, called ‘Grañ’ by Christians, the political and religious leaders resolutely opposed Jesuit proselytism. Their opposition took the form of theological debates, wherein local religious leaders, including the ruler, confronted the foreigners and their alien dogmas. In this paper, I will analyse a contemporary Ethiopian religious text popularly known as the Confession of King Gälawdewos. The piece was composed in 1555 under the order of Gälawdewos to face the Jesuit challenge. The paper will show that this important literary work was instrumental in defending the indigenous Orthodox religion and local customs.

Bibliography of Ethiopian Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic Linguistics XXV: 2021

Maria Bulakh, Magdalena Krżyzanowska, Francesca Panini — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Bibliography of Ethiopian Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic Linguistics XXV: 2021

Amharic Folkloric Oral Traditions: Collections for Insiders and for Outsiders

Peter Unseth, Bitania Ze'amanuel — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The two books of Amharic proverbs and the book of Amharic riddles under review document Amharic oral traditions far beyond what others have done previously. They all build on previous scholarship. In addition, each one adds new examples to what has been published before. But it is also important to note that each book has added significant new methodological contributions to their field. They will be valued by those who use and enjoy Amharic oral traditions in their lives. They will also be valued by scholars who study these Amharic oral traditions. In addition, these books can serve as inspirations and models for speakers of other languages, in the Horn and beyond.