Varia Aethiopica: In Memory of Sevir B. Chernetsov (1943–2005) 9781463216290

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Varia Aethiopica

Scrinium: Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique 1 Editorial Committee B. Lourié (Editor-in-Chief), St. Pétersbourg D. Nosnitsin (Secretary), Hamburg D. Kashtanov, Moscow S. Mikheev, Moscow A. Orlov, Milwaukee T. Senina, St. Pétersbourg D. Y. Shapira, Jérusalem S. Shoemaker, Oregon Secretariat T. Senina, St. Pétersbourg E. Bormotova, Montréal

Scrinium. Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique, established in 2005, is an international multilingual scholarly series devoted to patristics, critical hagiography, and Church history. Each volume is dedicated to a theme in early church history, with a particular emphasis on Eastern Christianity, while not excluding developments in the western church.

Varia Aethiopica

In Memory of Sevir B. Chernetsov (1943-2005)

Edited by D. Nosnitsin In Collaboration With S. Frantsouzoff L. Kogan B. Lourié

9

34 2009

Gorgias Press LLC, 180 Centennial Ave., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2009 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in 2005 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2009

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9 ISBN 978-1-60724-081-5 ISSN 1817-7530

Scrinium 1 was originally published by Byzantinorossica, St. Petersburg, 2005.

Printed in the United States of America

Ñåâèð Áîðèñîâè÷ ×åðíåöîâ âî âðåìÿ XV ìåæäóíàðîäíîé êîíôåðåíöèè ýôèîïñêèõ èññëåäîâàíèé, Ãàìáóðã, 24 èþëÿ 2003 ã. (ôîòî Èíãðèä Õàéíå)

Sevir B. Chernetsov during the 15 International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg, 24 July 2003 th

(photo courtesy of Ingrid Heine)

CONTENTS Table of contents ............................................................................................... vii Îò ðåäàêöèè ...................................................................................................... ix Editorial ............................................................................................................... x Ñåâèð Áîðèñîâè÷ ×åðíåöîâ è ðóññêàÿ ýôèîïèñòèêà .................................... xi Sevir Borisovich Chernetsov and Russian Ethiopian Studies........................... xx Áèáëèîãðàôèÿ ðàáîò Ñåâèðà Áîðèñîâè÷à ×åðíåöîâà [A Bibliography of Sevir B. Chernetsov] ............................................... xxviii Abbreviations ................................................................................................... xlii

Anthropology, History, Philology Alessandro BAUSI. Etiopico ý ellç a proposito di un’ipotesi recente .................... 3 Dirk BUSTORF. Some Notes on the Traditional Religious System of the Éndägañ Gurage ................................................................................ 12 Leonardo COHEN. Who are the «Sons of God»? A Jesuit-Ethiopian Controversy on Genesis 6:2 .......................................... 35 Gianfranco FIACCADORI. Un re di Nubia a Costantinopoli nel 1203 ................. 43 Ñåðãåé À. ÔÐÀÍÖÓÇÎÂ. Matres lectionis â ðàííåì ãåýçå [Sergei FRANTSOUZOFF. Matres lectionis in early geŸez] .............................. 50 GETATCHEW HAILE. The Mäs³h³afä Gnzät as a Historical Source Regarding the Theology of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church ...................... 58 Marilyn E. HELDMAN, Monica S. DEVENS. The Four Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar: Colophon and Note of Donation ................................................................. 77 Steven KAPLAN. Ethiopian Prisoners of Zion: the Struggle for Recognition in a Bureaucratic Setting ............................. 100 Manfred KROPP. «Antiquae restitutio legis». Zur Alimentation des Hofklerus und einer Zeugenliste als imago imperii und notitia dignitatum in einer Urkunde des Kaisers Zärýa YaŸqob im Condaghe der Hs. BM Or. 481, fol. 154 .............................................. 115 Basile LOURIÉ. S. Alypius Stylite, S. Marc de Tharmaqa et l’origine des malký éthiopiennes .......................................................... 148 Andreu MARTÍNEZ D’ALÒS-MONER. The Selling of the N guú: the «Emperor of Ethiopia» in Portuguese and Jesuit Imagination ............ 161 Ronny MEYER. Riddles as Indicator of Cultural and Linguistic Convergence in the Gurage Region ................................... 174

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

Denis NOSNITSIN. Wäwähabo qobŸ a wäý askema...: Reflections on an Episode from the History of the Ethiopian Monastic Movement ....................................................... 197 Andrei ORLOV. «The Learned Savant Who Guards the Secrets of the Great Gods»: Evolution of the Roles and Titles of the Seventh Antediluvian Hero in Mesopotamian and Enochic Traditions (Part I: Mesopotamian Traditions) ...................... 248 Richard PANKHURST. The Short-Lived Newspaper Abyssinia (1935–1936): a Memory of the League of Nations. ......................................................... 265 Siegfried PAUSEWANG. The Two-Faced Amhara Identity ................................. 273 Wolbert G. C. SMIDT. Deutsche Briefe von Äthiopiern 1855–1869 aus dem Umkreis der protestantischen Mission zur Regierungszeit von Tewodros II .......................................................... 287 Lothar STÖRK. Notizen zu Zaga Krestos .......................................................... 317

Linguistics Ìaria BULAKH. Semantic Shifts in the Lexical Field of Taste in Geez ........... 325 Olga KAPELIUK. Topicalization in Amharic and its Degrees ........................... 354 Leonid KOGAN. Common Origin of Ethiopian Semitic: the Lexical Dimension ............................................................................... 367 Nikolay OKHOTIN. Some New Epigraphic South Arabian — Ethiopian Etymologies ............................................................................... 397 Renate RICHTER. Jv cò und andere Idiome im Amharischen ....................... 402

List of Illustrations Plate I. Saý amär Dam Garamo Ordamo ............................................................ 29 Plate II. Four Gospels of Däbrä MaŸar, fol. 230v, col. B .................................. 88 Plate III. Four Gospels of Däbrä MaŸar, fol. 231r .............................................. 89 Plate IV. Hs. British Museum. Or. 481, fol. 154ra ........................................... 124 Plate V. Hs. British Museum. Or. 481, fol. 154rb ........................................... 125 Plate VI. Hs. British Museum. Or. 481, fol. 154va .......................................... 126 Plate VII. Hs. British Museum. Or. 481, fol. 154vb ......................................... 127 Plate VIII. Gobbaw Dästa, Mikaýel Arägawi, Haylu Wäsän, Éngédasät alias Wilhelm Schimper, Sämýanni Danéýel, Agaže Sahlu, Sänbätu Danéýel ................................................................... 305 Plate IX. Brief des Tewodros II. an Samuel Gobat .......................................... 313

Œ“ –≈ƒ¿ ÷»» Ïðåäëàãàåìûé ïóáëèêå íîâûé íàó÷íûé æóðíàë «Scrinium» çàäóìàí êàê «æóðíàë ïàòðîëîãèè, êðèòè÷åñêîé àãèîãðàôèè è öåðêîâíîé èñòîðèè».  ýòèõ îáëàñòÿõ èìååòñÿ î÷åâèäíûé äåôèöèò ïåðèîäè÷åñêèõ èçäàíèé, êîòîðûé ÷óâñòâóåòñÿ è â ñîâðåìåííîé Ðîññèè, è çà åå ïðåäåëàìè.  æóðíàë ïðèíèìàþòñÿ ñòàòüè, ïîñâÿùåííûå èçó÷åíèþ êàê õðèñòèàíñêîãî Âîñòîêà, òàê è õðèñòèàíñêîãî Çàïàäà. Îñíîâíàÿ èäåÿ íîâîãî æóðíàëà ñôîðìèðîâàëàñü â õîäå ðàáîòû äâóõ áëèçêîðîäñòâåííûõ ïåðèîäè÷åñêèõ èçäàíèé — æóðíàëà Ñàíêò-Ïåòåðáóðãñêîãî Îáùåñòâà âèçàíòèíî-ñëàâÿíñêèõ èññëåäîâàíèé «Âèçàíòèíîðîññèêà» è æóðíàëà Ðîññèéñêîé Àêàäåìèè Íàóê è Ãîñóäàðñòâåííîãî Ýðìèòàæà «Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê».  âûðàáîòêå ýòîé èäåè âàæíóþ ðîëü ïðèíàäëåæàëà ïîêîéíîìó î. Ìèøåëþ âàí Ýñáðóêó (1934–2003). «Scrinium» ïðåäïîëàãàåòñÿ áûòü åæåãîäíûì. Ïåðâûé òîì æóðíàëà ïîñâÿùåí ïàìÿòè Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà (1943–2005), çàìå÷àòåëüíîãî ðóññêîãî ó÷åíîãî-ýôèîïèñòà. Ìàòåðèàëû ïîñëåäóþùèõ òîìîâ áóäóò ãðóïïèðîâàòüñÿ âîêðóã êàêîé-ëèáî âàæíîé òåìû, íî íå áóäóò ýòîé òåìîé èñ÷åðïûâàòüñÿ. Ó÷èòûâàÿ áîëüøîé ÿçûêîâîé (ïÿòü ÿçûêîâ) è òåìàòè÷åñêèé ñïåêòð ñòàòåé — îò ýòíîëîãèè äî ñåìèòñêîãî ÿçûêîçíàíèÿ, îòðàæàþùèé áîãàòñòâî è ñëîæíîñòü ñîâðåìåííîé ýôèîïèñòèêè, èçäàòåëè òîìà íå ñòðåìèëèñü ê ïîëíîé còàíäàðòèçàöèè îôîðìëåíèÿ ñíîñîê è áèáëèîãðàôèè, à òàêæå ñèñòåì òðàíñêðèïöèè. ×èòàòåëåé òàêæå ïðîñÿò ïðèíÿòü âî âíèìàíèå òî, ÷òî ñòàòüÿ «Sevir Borisovich Chernetsov and Russian Ethiopian Studies» íå ÿâëÿåòñÿ òî÷íûì ïåðåâîäîì ïðåäøåñòâóþùåãî åé ïðåäèñëîâèÿ íà ðóññêîì ÿçûêå («Cåâèð Áîðèñîâè÷ ×åðíåöîâ è ðóññêàÿ ýôèîïèñòèêà»). Ïðè îôîðìëåíèè ñòàòåé äëÿ ïîñëåäóþùèõ íîìåðîâ àâòîðàì ðåêîìåíäóåòñÿ ïðèäåðæèâàòüñÿ ñòàíäàðòîâ æóðíàëà «Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê», îäíàêî, ïî ñîãëàñîâàíèþ ñ ðåäàêöèåé, äîïóñêàåòñÿ èñïîëüçîâàíèå äðóãèõ ìåæäóíàðîäíî ïðèíÿòûõ ñòàíäàðòîâ. Ïàðàëëåëüíî ñ ïóáëèêàöèåé íà áóìàãå, ïîëíîòåêñòîâàÿ ýëåêòðîííàÿ âåðñèÿ êàæäîãî èç òîìîâ áóäåò ïîìåùåíà íà ñàéòå Ñàíêò-Ïåòåðáóðãñêîãî Îáùåñòâà âèçàíòèíî-ñëàâÿíñêèõ èññëåäîâàíèé (http://byzantinorossica.org.ru/). Ãëàâíûé ðåäàêòîð Â. Ì. Ëóðüå «Scrinium» à/ÿ 110 Ñàíêò-Ïåòåðáóðã 194352 Ðîññèÿ E-mail: [email protected]

EDITORIAL The new scholarly journal «Scrinium» we are herewith presenting to the scientific audience has been conceived as a «journal of patrology, critical hagiography and church history». The obvious shortage of periodicals in these fields is noticeable both inside and outside Russia. The journal welcomes contributions dealing with both Christian Orient and Christian Occident. The main concept of the «Scrinium» crystallized in the process of publication of two related periodicals: the «Byzantinorossika», the journal of St. Petersburg Society of Byzantine and Slavic Studies, and the «Christian Orient» («Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê»), published by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the State Hermitage. Late F. Michel van Esbroek (1934–2003) played an important role in the development of the idea. The «Scrinium» is planned to appear annually. The first issue is dedicated to the memory of Sevir B. Chernetsov (1943–2005), an outstanding Russian scholar of Ethiopian studies. The materials of the subsequent issues will, in their turn, focus around (without being limited by) a certain topic. Taking into consideration the use of various languages (five in the first issue) and the large scope of themes of the contributions (ranging from anthropology to Ethio-Semitic linguistics) that reflect the richness and complexity of the contemporary Ethiopian studies, the editors did not attempt a complete standardization of footnotes, bibliographies or transcription systems used by the authors of the contributions. We would also like to point out that the English introduction «Sevir Borisovich Chernetsov and Russian Ethiopian Studies» is not a precise translation of its Russian correspondence «Cåâèð Áîðèñîâè÷ ×åðíåöîâ è ðóññêàÿ ýôèîïèñòèêà». Authors who would like to contribute to the future issues of the journal are kindly asked to use preferably the standard elaborated for the «Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê». On agreement with the editorial board, other internationally accepted standards can be accepted. Along with the printed version, a full-text electronic edition of each volume will be available from the site of St. Petersburg Society of Byzantine and Slavic Studies (http://byzantinorossica.org.ru/). Editor-in-chief B. Lourié «Scrinium» PO Box 110 St. Petersburg 194352 Russia E-mail: [email protected]

—≈¬»– ¡Œ–»—Œ¬»◊ ◊≈–Õ≈÷Œ¬ » –”—— ¿fl ›‘»Œœ»—“» ¿  îðèåíòàëèñòèêå ñóùåñòâóåò òàêîå ïîâåðüå: èññëåäîâàòåëü êàêîéëèáî âîñòî÷íîé êóëüòóðû, ïîñòåïåííî è íåçàìåòíî äëÿ ñåáÿ, ïðèîáðåòàåò íåêîòîðûå ÷åðòû õàðàêòåðà èçó÷àåìîãî íàðîäà. Òàê ÷òî, ñëåäóÿ òàêîé ëîãèêå, ðóññêèé èññëåäîâàòåëü Ýôèîïèè âñåãäà íåìíîãî «ýôèîï», õîòÿ áû òîëüêî â äóøå. Òàê ïîëó÷àåòñÿ, ÷òî îí íà÷èíàåò ïèñàòü îá Ýôèîïèè êàê î ÷åì-òî ñâîåì ñîáñòâåííîì è íè â êîåì ñëó÷àå íå êàê î ïðåäìåòå òîëüêî îòâëå÷åííîãî àêàäåìè÷åñêîãî èíòåðåñà. Îòíîøåíèÿ ñ äðóãèìè ñòðàíàìè ó ðóññêèõ èññëåäîâàòåëåé ñêëàäûâàþòñÿ ïî-ðàçíîìó, à âîò ñ Ýôèîïèåé — âñåãäà îäíî è òî æå: ñîïðèêîñíóâøèñü ñ êóëüòóðîé ýòîé ñòðàíû, òåì áîëåå ïîáûâàâ òàì, ÷åëîâåê êàê áû îñòàåòñÿ òàì íàâñåãäà, â âîîáðàæåíèè è ïîäñîçíàíèè. Òàê ïîëó÷èëîñü è â æèçíè Ñåâèðà Áîðèñîâè÷à ×åðíåöîâà (15.12.1943– 03.02.2005). Ýòîò ñáîðíèê — äàíü ãëóáîêîãî óâàæåíèÿ è ïðèçíàòåëüíîñòè ó÷åíèêîâ, äðóçåé è êîëëå㠗 ãîòîâèëñÿ êàê Festschrift ê åãî 60-ëåòèþ, íî âûõîäèò, ê íàøåìó âåëè÷àéøåìó ñîæàëåíèþ, êàê êíèãà â åãî ïàìÿòü...1 Âÿ÷åñëàâ Ìèõàéëîâè÷ Ïëàòîíîâ, áûâøèé óíèâåðñèòåòñêèé ïðåïîäàâàòåëü Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà, êîãäà-òî îòêðûâøèé åìó õðèñòèàíñêóþ êóëüòóðó Ýôèîïèè, â îäíîì äîâåðèòåëüíîì ðàçãîâîðå ñ íèì ñêàçàë òàê: «Õîðîøàÿ ñòðàíà Ýôèîïèÿ — ñîâñåì êàê Ðîññèÿ, òîëüêî â Àôðèêå». Êîíå÷íî, îãîâîðêà «òîëüêî â Àôðèêå» ÷åãî-íèáóäü äà ñòîèò è, âî âñÿêîì ñëó÷àå, ñâèäåòåëüñòâóåò î ïðèçíàíèè êàêèõ-òî ðàçëè÷èé ìåæäó Ðîññèåé è Ýôèîïèåé. Íî ñðåäè ýòèõ ðàçëè÷èé åñòü íå÷òî âàæíîå, ÷òî ñáëèæàåò Ýôèîïèþ ñ Ðîññèåé. Ýôèîïèÿ íàïîìèíàåò ðóññêîìó ÷åëîâåêó íå ñòîëüêî ñîâðåìåííóþ Ðîññèþ, òåì áîëåå íå ñîâåòñêóþ, à «Ðîññèþ, êîòîðóþ ìû ïîòåðÿëè»; ïîòåðÿëè, íà ñàìîì äåëå, åùå ðàíüøå, ÷åì ïðîèçîøëà ðåâîëþöèÿ 1917 ãîäà, à ìîæåò áûòü, è íèêîãäà íå èìåëè íà ñàìîì äåëå: òó Ðîññèþ, â êîòîðîé êóëüòóðà áûëà õðèñòèàíñêîé, îòíîøåíèÿ ìåæäó ëþäüìè — ïðîñòûìè è ÷åëîâå÷åñêèìè… Âîçìîæíî, ðàçãàäêà â çàêëþ÷àåòñÿ â òîì, ÷òî Ýôèîïèÿ â ÷åì-òî áëèæå ê èäåàëèçèðîâàííîé Ðîññèè, ÷åì Ðîññèÿ ðåàëüíàÿ. Èçäàòåëè âûðàæàþò ñâîþ ãëóáîêóþ áëàãîäàðíîñòü âñåì òåì, êòî îêàçûâàë èì ïîìîùü â ïîäãîòîâêå ñáîðíèêà, è â îñîáåííîñòè — Ò. Ñåíèíîé (èíîêèíå Ìàðôå) (Ñàíêò-Ïåòåðáóðã), ïðîäåëàâøåé îãðîìíóþ ðàáîòó ïî âåðñòêå òåêñòîâ; Ý. Ôîðäõýì (Ïàðèæ) è Ä. Ýììàíóýëü (Èåðóñàëèì), ñäåëàâøèì ïðàâêó àíãëèéñêîãî â ðÿäå ñòàòåé; Å. Ñîêîëèíñêîé (Ãàìáóðã), âûïîëíèâøåé êîìïüþòåðíóþ îáðàáîòêó èëëþñòðàöèé. Ìû áëàãîäàðíû ïðîôåññîðó Äæ. Ôèàêêàäîðè (Ìèëàí) çà åãî ïîääåðæêó è öåííûå ñîâåòû îòíîñèòåëüíî ìíîãèõ ïðîáëåì, âîçíèêàâøèõ â ïðîöåññå ðàáîòû íàä ñáîðíèêîì. 1

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Êàê áû òî íè áûëî, íàó÷íûå èíòåðåñû Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà, âñåãäà ñâÿçàííûå ñ Ýôèîïèåé, íèêîãäà íå ïîçâîëÿëè åìó îòðûâàòüñÿ îò Ðîññèè: îíè åñòåñòâåííî ïåðåõîäèëè â èçó÷åíèå áèîãðàôèé, íàó÷íûõ ðàáîò, ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèõ ìàòåðèàëîâ è ïðî÷èõ ïëîäîâ äåÿòåëüíîñòè òåõ ðóññêèõ, êîòîðûå êîãäà-ëèáî ñâÿçûâàëè ñ Ýôèîïèåé ñâîþ ñóäüáó. Ê ýòîìó ðàñïîëàãàåò è îñíîâíîå ìåñòî ðàáîòû Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà — Êóíñòêàìåðà (Ìóçåé àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Ïåòðà Âåëèêîãî — MAÝ), â êîòîðîé ñîñðåäîòî÷åíû ìàòåðèàëû ðóññêèõ äîðåâîëþöèîííûõ ýêñïåäèöèé è ìèññèé â Ýôèîïèè, äà, ïîæàëóé, è âåñü íàø ãîðîä, Ñàíêò-Ïåòåðáóðã, êîòîðûé áûë äî ðåâîëþöèè öåíòðîì âñåõ ñâÿçåé ìåæäó Ðîññèåé è Ýôèîïèåé. ×åðíåöî⠗ êàê è ìû äî ñèõ ïîð — õîäèë ïî òåì æå óëèöàì è çàõîäèë â òå æå çäàíèÿ, ÷òî è Â. Â. Áîëîòîâ, èåðîñõèìîíàõ Àíòîíèé (À. Ê. Áóëàòîâè÷), Í. C. Ãóìèëåâ, Á. À. Òóðàåâ... Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ðîäèëñÿ 15 äåêàáðÿ 1943 ã., â ñåìüå îôèöåðà Êðàñíîé Àðìèè, â Êîñòðîìå, â ýâàêóàöèè.  Ëåíèíãðàä åãî ñåìüÿ ïåðåáðàëàñü âñêîðå ïîñëå îêîí÷àíèÿ âîéíû. Óæå ñ þíîøåñêèõ ëåò Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ èíòåðåñîâàëñÿ Àôðèêîé, è ïî îêîí÷àíèè øêîëû, â 1960 ã., ïîñòóïèë íà Âîñòî÷íûé ôàêóëüòåò ËÃÓ, êàôåäðó àôðèêàíèñòèêè, îòäåëåíèå ýôèîïñêîé ôèëîëîãèè (â äàëüíåéøåì åãî ïðåïîäàâàòåëÿìè áûëè Ò. Ë. Òþòðþìîâà, Àñýôôà Ãýáðý Ìàðèàì, Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå, Â. Ì. Ïëàòîíîâ).  òî âðåìÿ ìîãëî ïîêàçàòüñÿ, ÷òî ñâÿçü ñ äîðåâîëþöèîííîé òðàäèöèåé ýôèîïñêèõ èññëåäîâàíèé ïðåðâàëàñü: íà îòäåëåíèè èçó÷àëè òîëüêî àìõàðñêèé ÿçûê è äàæå íå ïûòàëèñü äàâàòü ïîíÿòèå î ãåýçå è ñðåäíåâåêîâîé ýôèîïñêîé ëèòåðàòóðå,2 îá èñòîðèè è áîãàòåéøåé êóëüòóðå Ýôèîïèè. Âåäü óæå äàâíî óøåë â ïðîøëîå ïåðèîä èíòåíñèâíûõ ñíîøåíèé ìåæäó Ðîññèéñêîé èìïåðèåé è Ýôèîïèåé; áèòâó ïðè Àäóà (1896) çàñëîíèëè ïåðâàÿ ìèðîâàÿ âîéíà, ðåâîëþöèÿ 1917 ãîäà è ïîñëåäóþùèå ñîáûòèÿ; â ðîññèéñêîì ïîñò-ðåâîëþöèîííîì îáùåñòâåííîì ñîçíàíèè ñóùåñòâîâàíèå àôðèêàíñêîé õðèñòèàíñêîé ìîíàðõèè ñ ñàìîáûòíîé êóëüòóðíîé òðàäèöèåé áûëî ïðåäàíî ïîëíîìó çàáâåíèþ. Áîëåå òîãî, â 1960-õ ãã. ïàÃåýç (èíîãäà: ãååç, ãûýç è ò. ä.), èëè ýôèîïñêèé, èëè äðåâíåýôèîïñêèé (GéŸéz; Ethiopic, Classical Ethiopic) — ÿçûê, îòíîñÿùèéñÿ ê ñåâåðíîé ïîäãðóïïå ýôèîñåìèòñêîé ãðóïïû ñåìèòñêèõ ÿçûêîâ. Ãåýç áûë ðàçãîâîðíûì ÿçûêîì çíàìåíèòîãî àíòè÷íîãî öàðñòâà Àêñóì, íàõîäèâøåãîñÿ â ñåâåðíîé ÷àñòè ñåãîäíÿøíåé Ýôèîïèè è â Ýðèòðåe; ê XIV â. èëè äàæå ðàíüøå ãåýç ïîëíîñòüþ ïåðåñòàë áûòü ðàçãîâîðíûì, íî îñòàëñÿ ïèñüìåííûì ÿçûêîì ëèòåðàòóðû è ÿçûêîì áîãîñëóæåíèÿ Ýôèîïñêîé ïðàâîñëàâíîé öåðêâè. Àìõàðñêèé ÿçûê, ðîäñòâåííûé ãåýçó, ÿâëÿåòñÿ îäíèì èç ãëàâíûõ ðàçãîâîðíûõ ÿçûêîâ Ýôèîïèè è lingua franca ñòðàíû; èñòîðè÷åñêè îí áûë òàêæå ÿçûêîì öàðñêîãî äâîðà è äî 1991 ã. — åäèíñòâåííûì îôèöèàëüíûì ÿçûêîì Ýôèîïèè. Ñèñòåìàòè÷åñêîå èçó÷åíèå îáøèðíîé ñðåäíåâåêîâîé ýôèîïñêîé ëèòåðàòóðû íà ÿçûêå ãåýç íà÷àëîñü â XIX â. è çàëîæèëî îñíîâó ñîâðåìåííîé ýôèîïèñòèêè. 2

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ìÿòü î òåõ, êòî îëèöåòâîðÿë óíèâåðñèòåòñêóþ íàóêó î õðèñòèàíñêîì Âîñòîêå äî ðåâîëþöèè, áûëà ïîëóñòåðòîé, à èõ èäåè è íàó÷íûå èíòåðåñû áûëè è âîâñå âûòåñíåíû èç ó÷åáíîãî ïðîöåññà.3  ñîâåòñêóþ ýïîõó ïðååìñòâåííîñòü ïî îòíîøåíèþ ê äîðåâîëþöèîííîé ãóìàíèòàðíîé êóëüòóðå è íàóêå êóëüòèâèðîâàëîñü â ñðåäå íåáîëüøîé ãðóïïû íàó÷íîé èíòåëëèãåíöèè, è, òàê æå êàê â ïîýçèè èëè æèâîïèñè, â «àíäåðãðàóíäå».  îæèâëåííîé èíòåëëåêòóàëüíîé àòìîñôåðå óíèâåðñèòåòñêèõ êðóãîâ íà÷àëà 60-õ — îñîáåííî â ñðåäå ìîëîäåæè, è ïðåæäå âñåãî ñòóäåíòîâ âîñòî÷íîãî è ôèëîëîãè÷åñêîãî ôàêóëüòåòî⠗ ïåðåïëåëèñü íàóêà, ïîýçèÿ è ïîëèòèêà, çàìåòíî ìåøàÿ äðóã äðóãó. Îáùèì ó ýòèõ ìîëîäûõ ëþäåé áûëî òîëüêî òî, ÷òî èõ èíòåðåñû ìàëî ñîïðèêàñàëèñü ñ îôèöèàëüíîé ñîâåòñêîé êóëüòóðîé. Êòî-òî áûñòðî ñäåëàë âûáîð â ïîëüçó ïîýçèè (ðàçóìååòñÿ, áåç ðàñ÷åòà íà îôèöèàëüíîå ïðèçíàíèå è ïóáëèêàöèþ â ñîâåòñêèõ èçäàíèÿõ), êòî-òî, ñðàçó èëè íå ñðàçó, ñîñðåäîòî÷èë ñâîè èíòåðåñû íà íàóêå. Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ áûë îäíèì èç òåõ, êòî ñîâåðøèë ýòîò âûáîð â ïîëüçó íàóêè áåç êîëåáàíèé è ðàíüøå íåêîòîðûõ ñâîèõ äðóçåé ìîëîäîñòè. Äëÿ äðóãèõ øëî ñ òðóäîì ðàçäåëåíèå ìåæäó ïîýçèåé è ïîëèòèêîé. Ïîëèòèêà, ñëèøêîì ãóñòî çàìåøàííàÿ íà ïîýçèè, è èäåàëèçì ìîëîäûõ ëþäåé ïðèâåëè ê ñîçäàíèþ â ñðåäå íàó÷íîé ìîëîäåæè — â îñíîâíîì 3 Ïîñëå ðåâîëþöèè òåìà Ýôèîïèè — òî÷íåå ýôèîïñêèõ (ýôèîñåìèòñêèõ) ÿçûêîâ — ýïèçîäè÷åñêè âîçíèêàëà â Óíèâåðñèòåòå ñ ñåðåäèíû 1930-õ ãã., â ïåðâóþ î÷åðåäü — â ðåçóëüòàòå äåÿòåëüíîñòè Ñ. Í. Þøìàíîâà, íî î öåëåíàïðàâëåííîì è ðàçíîñòîðîííåì èçó÷åíèè ýôèîïñêîé (õðèñòèàíñêîé) êóëüòóðû ðå÷è åùå íå áûëî. Ïðåïîäàâàíèå àìõàðñêîãî ÿçûêà íà ïîñòîÿííîé îñíîâå áûëî ââåäåíî íà êàôåäðå àôðèêàíèñòèêè â 1947 ã., íî íà íîâîì îòäåëåíèè àìõàðñêîé ôèëîëîãèè ñèëüíî îùóùàëàñü íåõâàòêà êâàëèôèöèðîâàííûõ ïðåïîäîâàòåëåéýôèîïèñòîâ. Äèïëîìàòè÷åñêèå îòíîøåíèÿ ìåæäó ñòðàíàìè ïðåðâàëèñü åùå â 1919 ã.; â 1930–50-õ ãã. â ÑÑÑÐ îá Ýôèîïèè áûëî ñëûøíî äîâîëüíî ìàëî. Ýêñïåäèöèÿ áîòàíèêà Í. È. Âàâèëîâà, èìåâøàÿ ìåñòî â 1926–1927 ã., ïðèíåñëà âàæíûå íàó÷íûå ðåçóëüòàòû, íî áûëà ñêîðåå èñêëþ÷åíèåì. Êðàòêèé âñïëåñê ñèìïàòèé è âíèìàíèÿ áûë âûçâàí èòàëüÿíñêîé àãðåññèåé ïðîòèâ Ýôèîïèè â 1935 ã. (î÷åâèäíî, ïî ýòîé ïðè÷èíå è ñòàëà âîçìîæíîé ïóáëèêàöèÿ ïåðåâîäîâ Á. À. Òóðàåâà Àáèññèíñêèå õðîíèêè XIV–XVI ââ., ïîä ðåäàêöèåé È. Þ. Êðà÷êîâñêîãî [Ì.— Ë., 1936, Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ, XVIII]). Îòíîøåíèÿ áûëè âîññòàíîâëåíû â 1943 ã. è îñòàâàëèñü äî 1974 ã. ðîâíûìè è äðóæåñòâåííûìè, õîòÿ è âåñüìà ñäåðæàííûìè.  1950–60-õ ãã. Ýôèîïèÿ ê ÷èñëó ïðèîðèòåòîâ ñîâåòñêîé âíåøíåé ïîëèòèêè åùå íå îòíîñèëàñü. Òåì íå ìåíåå â 1959 ã. èìïåðàòîð Õàéëå Ñåëëàñèå I ïðèåõàë â ÑÑÑÐ ñ îôèöèàëüíûì âèçèòîì, ïîáûâàë â Ëåíèíãðàäå è äàæå ïîñåòèë Êóíñòêàìåðó, îñòàâèâ çàïèñü â êíèãå ïîñåòèòåëåé. Ðåçóëüòàòîì ýòîãî âèçèòà ñòàëà óíèêàëüíàÿ ïî òåì âðåìåíàì âîçìîæíîñòü ïîëóãîäîâîé ñòàæèðîâêè â Ýôèîïèè (â 1962–1963 ãã.), êîòîðóþ ïîëó÷èëè íåñêîëüêî ñòóäåíòîâàìõàðèñòîâ Âîñòî÷íîãî ôàêóëüòåòà.

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âûïóñêíèêîâ ËÃÓ — ïîäïîëüíîé îðãàíèçàöèè ÂÑÕÑÎÍ (Âñåðîññèéñêîãî ñîöèàë-õðèñòèàíñêîãî ñîþçà îñâîáîæäåíèÿ íàðîäà), îñíîâàííîãî â 1964 ã. âûïóñêíèêîì Âîñòî÷íîãî ôàêóëüòåòà È. Â. Îãóðöîâûì. Öåëüþ îðãàíèçàöèè áûëî ñâåðæåíèå «êîììóíèñòè÷åñêîé äèêòàòóðû» è ñîçäàíèå ñîöèàëüíîãî, ïðåäñòàâèòåëüíîãî, íàðîäíîãî ãîñóäàðñòâà, îáÿçàííîãî â ñâîåé äåÿòåëüíîñòè ðóêîâîäñòâîâàòüñÿ ðåëèãèîçíûìè ïðèíöèïàìè, îáùèìè äëÿ âñåõ õðèñòèàíñêèõ íàðîäîâ. Íåëüçÿ ñêàçàòü, ÷òî îðãàíèçàöèÿ, ñîñòîÿâøàÿ èç 28 ÷ëåíîâ è 30 êàíäèäàòîâ, ïðåäñòàâëÿëà ñìåðòåëüíóþ óãðîçó ñîâåòñêîé âëàñòè. Îäíàêî 15–17 ôåâðàëÿ 1967 ãîäà âñå åå ÷ëåíû áûëè àðåñòîâàíû, è íåêîòîðûå ïîëó÷èëè ñóðîâûå ñðîêè â êîëîíèè ñòðîãîãî ðåæèìà. ×òî êàñàåòñÿ ôîðìèðîâàíèÿ àíòèñîâåòñêîãî ïîäïîëüÿ, òî òîëüêî ïîñëå è èìåííî â ðåçóëüòàòå àðåñòà ñâîèõ ÷ëåíîâ äåëî ÂÑÕÑÎÍ ñìîãëî ïîëó÷èòü ïóñòü è ñêðîìíîå, íî ðåàëüíîå ïîëèòè÷åñêîå çíà÷åíèå. Íà æèçíü Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà ýòè ñîáûòèÿ ïîâëèÿëè êîñâåííûì îáðàçîì: ñðåäè àðåñòîâàííûõ îêàçàëñÿ Â. Ì. Ïëàòîíîâ, êîòîðîìó ïðèøëîñü ïðîâåñòè â çàêëþ÷åíèè ñåìü ëåò. Ñ àðåñòîì Ïëàòîíîâà ïðåïîäàâàíèå ãåýçà íà Âîñòî÷íîì ôàêóëüòåòå, à òàêæå âñå ïîïûòêè èçó÷åíèÿ â ËÃÓ ýôèîïñêîé èñòîðèè ïðåðâàëèñü íàäîëãî, à Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ îñòàëñÿ ïðåäîñòàâëåííûì ñàìîìó ñåáå.4 Ê ñ÷àñòüþ, Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ óæå çíàë, ÷òî äåëàòü: íàäî áûëî ïðîäîëæàòü äåëî Á. À. Òóðàåâà, íàëàäèâøåãî â ïðåäðåâîëþöèîííûå ãîäû â Óíèâåðñèòåòå èçó÷åíèå ýôèîïèñòèêè, íî â 1920 ãîäó óìåðøåãî îò íåæåëàíèÿ — èìåííî òàê, íà óðîâíå ïñèõîëîãèè — æèòü â èçìåíèâøåéñÿ äåéñòâèòåëüíîñòè. Îò äîðåâîëþöèîííûõ ó÷åíûõ â áèáëèîòåêàõ Ëåíèíãðàäà îñòàâàëîñü ïîëíîå ñîáðàíèå èõ òðóäîâ ïî ýôèîïèñòèêå, è Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ íà÷àë èõ øòóäèðîâàòü, çàîäíî äîó÷èâàÿ ãåýç è ÷èòàÿ ýôèîïñêèå òåêñòû. Âïðî÷åì, ïåðñïåêòèâû îôèöèàëüíîé íàó÷íîé ñïåöèàëèçàöèè â îáëàñòè èñòîðèè è ôèëîëîãèè õðèñòèàíñêîé Ýôèîïèè îñòàâàëèñü ïî-ïðåæíåìó òóìàííûìè. Îäíàêî âûõîä íàøåëñÿ — â ýòíîãðàôèè, êîòîðàÿ èñòîðèêó è ôèëîëîãó íå ïîìåøàåò íèêîãäà, òåì áîëåå â ñëó÷àå ñ Ýôèîïèåé.  ýòíîãðàôèè Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâó ïîâåçëî íàéòè çàìå÷àòåëüíûõ ó÷èòåëåé: îðèãèíàëüíîãî ó÷åíîãî è ìûñëèòåëÿ Â. Ì. Ìèñþãèíà (1924– 1998), àêàäåìèêà Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå (1903–1987) — îäíîãî èç âåäóùèõ ñîâåòñêèõ àôðèêàíèñòîâ òîãî âðåìåíè. Ñðàçó æå ïî îêîí÷àíèè ÓíèâåðÊ ïðåïîäàâàíèþ â Óíèâåðñèòåòå Â. Ì. Ïëàòîíîâ (íûíå — ïåíñèîíåð; â 1980–90-õ ãã. — ñîòðóäíèê Âîñòî÷íîãî îòäåëåíèÿ Ðîññèéñêîé Íàöèîíàëüíîé áèáëèîòåêè, áëèçêèé äðóã Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà) ñìîã âåðíóòüñÿ òîëüêî â 1992 ã., ïîñëå îôèöèàëüíîé ðåàáèëèòàöèè (ñì. C. Á. ×åðíåöîâ, «Ê øåñòèäåñÿòèëåòèþ Âÿ÷åñëàâà Ìèõàéëîâè÷à Ïëàòîíîâà», Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê, íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ 3 [9], 2001 [2002], 537–541). 4

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ñèòåòà â 1967 ã. Îëüäåðîããå âçÿë Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà íà ðàáîòó â Êóíñòêàìåðó, â ñåêòîð Àôðèêè (ïî òåì âðåìåíàì ïðåñòèæíîå è î÷åíü ìíîãîîáåùàþùåå íà÷àëî íàó÷íîé êàðüåðû) è íàøåë äëÿ íåãî òàêóþ òåìó äëÿ êàíäèäàòñêîé äèññåðòàöèè, êîòîðàÿ ïîçâîëÿëà óãëóáèòüñÿ â õðèñòèàíñêóþ êóëüòóðó Ýôèîïèè íà ïåðåêðåñòêå èñòîðèè, ýòíîãðàôèè è ôèëîëîãèè: «Ýôèîïñêèå ìàãè÷åñêèå ñâèòêè (îïûò ôèëîëîãî-ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêîãî èññëåäîâàíèÿ)» (äèññåðòàöèÿ ïî ñïåöèàëüíîñòè 07.00.07 «ýòíîãðàôèÿ» áûëà çàùèùåíà îñåíüþ 1974 ãîäà). Òåìà ââåëà Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà â ìèð ýôèîïñêîé ëèòåðàòóðû (ïðèìå÷àòåëüíî, ÷òî ê òîìó âðåìåíè ýôèîïñêèå òåêñòû íà ÿçûêå ãåýç íå èçäàâàëèñü â ÑÑÑÐ óæå áîëåå 50 ëåò).5  òî æå âðåìÿ íà ôîðìèðîâàíèå âîççðåíèé Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà îêàçàëî âëèÿíèå ãëóáîêîå îçíàêîìëåíèå ñ êîëëåêöèÿìè Êóíñòêàìåðû — íå òîëüêî ðóêîïèñíûìè, íî è èíòðåñíåéøèìè ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèìè ñîáðàíèÿìè êîíöà XIX – íà÷àëà XX ââ., ïðèâåçåííûìè ðóññêèìè ïóòåøåñòâåííèêàìè, ïîçâîëÿâøèìè â áóêâàëüíîì ñìûñëå óâèäåòü è «ïîòðîãàòü ðóêàìè» òî, î ÷åì íàïèñàíî â òåêñòàõ. Íà ýòîì ìàòåðèàëå ñôîðìèðîâàëèñü íàó÷íûå ìåòîäû Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà è åãî âçãëÿäû íà êóëüòóðó è èñòîðèþ Ýôèîïèè; èç òàêèõ «ïðàêòè÷åñêèõ çàíÿòèé» îí âûðàáîòàë óìåíèå ÿñíî âèäåòü êîðíè è èñòîêè ñîöèàëüíûõ ïðîöåññîâ è ïîëèòè÷åñêèõ ñîáûòèé (äà è âîîáùå ëþáîãî ÿâëåíèÿ) â êîíêðåòíîé ïðàêòè÷åñêîé äåÿòåëüíîñòè è ìàòåðèàëüíûõ ïîòðåáíîñòÿõ ëþäåé è óæå ïîòîì îáúÿñíÿòü èõ â îáùåì èñòîðè÷åñêîì êîíòåêñòå Ýôèîïñêîãî íàãîðüÿ è, øèðå, — âñåãî õðèñòèàíñêîãî Âîñòîêà. ßñíîå ïîíèìàíèå íåïðåðûâíîñòè è ïðååìñòâåííîñòè êóëüòóðíîé òðàäèöèè Ýôèîïèè îò ñðåäíåâåêîâûõ âðåìåí äî ñåãîäíÿøíåãî äíÿ (íå àáñòðàêòíîå, à âïîëíå êîíêðåòíîå ïîíèìàíèå òîãî, ÷òî æå ñîñòàâëÿåò «Biblical atmosphere», êîòîðàÿ òàê çà÷àðîâûâàëà åâðîïåéñêèõ èññëåäîâàòåëåé Ýôèîïèè6 ) ïîçâîëÿëî Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâó ðàçáèðàòüñÿ â òåìàõ ýôèîïèñòèêè, êîòîðûå, íà ïåðâûé âçãëÿä, âîâñå íå îòíîñÿòñÿ ê êîìïåòåíöèè ìåäèåâèñòà-ôèëîëîãà è ìåäèåâèñòà-èñòîðèêà. Åùå îäíèì ñòèìóëîì â ðàáîòå áûëî òî, ÷òî êàê ðàç â 1970–80-e ãã. â ÌÀÝ, è îñîáåííî â àôðèêàíñêîì ñåêòîðå, ñëîæèëàñü óíèêàëüíàÿ íàó÷íàÿ àòìîñôåðà: ó÷åíûå ðàçíîé ñïåöèàëèçàöèè — íå òîëüêî êîëëåãè, íî çà÷àñòóþ è áëèçêèå äðóçüÿ, è åäèíîìûøëåííèêè — èìåëè âîçìîæíîñòü èíòåíñèâíîãî, íåôîðìàëüíîãî, è â ðåçóëüòàòå î÷åíü ïëîäîòâîðíîãî â íàó÷íîì ïëàíå îáùåíèÿ. Ñâîåãî ðîäà «ìåæäèñöèïëèíàðíûé ïîäõîä», ê êîòîðîìó òàê ñòðåìÿòñÿ (è çà÷àñòóþ áåçóñïåøíî) â íàó÷íûõ ó÷ðåæäåíèÿõ è ïðîåêòàõ, ïîëó÷àëñÿ ñàì ñîáîé. Ñëåäóåò îòìåòèòü, ÷òî â äàííîì ñëó÷àå ìû íå èìååì öåëüþ ïîäðîáíîå îñâåùåíèå èñòîðèè ýôèîïèñòèêè â ÑÑÑÐ, êîòîðàÿ, â äåéñòâèòåëüíîñòè, íå îãðàíè÷èâàåòñÿ îäíèì òîëüêî Ëåíèíãðàäîì è åãî íàó÷íûìè ó÷ðåæäåíèÿìè. 6 E. Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible, London 1968, 3. 5

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Ðàáîòàÿ â Êóíñòêàìåðå, â 1970-å ãã. Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ îïðåäåëÿåò îñíîâíûå íàïðàâëåíèÿ ñâîåé íàó÷íîé äåÿòåëüíîñòè. Ïåðâîíà÷àëüíî, âñëåä çà Á. À. Òóðàåâûì, îí ïðåäïîëàãàë çàíèìàòüñÿ èñòîðè÷åñêèì àíàëèçîì ïðîèçâåäåíèé ýôèîïñêîé àãèîãðàôèè. Ïàìÿòíèêàìè ýòèõ íàìåðåíèé îñòàþòñÿ îïóáëèêîâàííûé èì àíîíèìíî ðóññêèé ïåðåâîä «Æèòèÿ ßôêåðàíà Ýãçèý»7 è äî ñèõ ïîð íå óâèäåâøèé ñâåòà ïåðåâîä «Æèòèÿ ìàòåðè íàøåÿ Âàëàòòà Ïåòðîñ». Îáà ïåðåâîäà áûëè âûïîëíåíû äëÿ èçäàíèÿ Ìîñêîâñêîé Ïàòðèàðõèè Áîãîñëîâñêèå òðóäû. Àíîíèìíîñòü ïóáëèêàöèè — ïëàòà çà ñàìî åå ðàçðåøåíèå: ñóùåñòâîâàë çàïðåò ÊÃÁ íà ïóáëèêàöèþ ñîâåòñêèõ ó÷åíûõ â öåðêîâíûõ èçäàíèÿõ. Îáû÷íî ýòîò çàïðåò îáõîäèëè ïðè ïîìîùè ïñåâäîíèìîâ è àíîíèìíîñòè, íî ïðè÷èíîé ïðåêðàùåíèÿ ñîòðóäíè÷åñòâà ìåæäó Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâûì è Áîãîñëîâñêèìè òðóäàìè ñòàëî íå ÊÃÁ. Ïóáëèêàöèÿ «Æèòèÿ Âàëàòòà Ïåòðîñ» áûëà îòâåðãíóòà íå ãîñóäàðñòâåííîé öåíçóðîé, à öåðêîâíîé. Î÷åâèäíî, â ïåðèîä èíòåíñèâíîãî ðàçâèòèÿ ýêóìåíè÷åñêîé äåÿòåëüíîñòè Ìîñêîâñêîé Ïàòðèàðõèè, ãëàøàòàåì êîòîðîé âûñòóïàëè Áîãîñëîâñêèå òðóäû, ñëèøêîì âûçûâàþùèì è ðåçêèì ïîêàçàëñÿ îáðàç ýôèîïñêîé ñâÿòîé XVII â., áîðîâøåéñÿ ñ êàòîëè÷åñòâîì çà÷àñòóþ äîâîëüíî æåñòêèìè ìåòîäàìè (âïëîòü äî ìîëüáû Áîãà î ñìåðòè áëèæíåãî — ÷òîáû óáåðå÷ü åãî äóøó îò ñîáëàçíà «îòïàäåíèÿ îò èñòèííîé âåðû»). Òåì íå ìåíåå â 1970–80 ãã., çàíèìàÿñü ýêçîòè÷åñêîé õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðîé Ýôèîïèè â óñëîâèÿõ ñðàâíèòåëüíî æåñòêîãî ãîñóäàðñòâåííîãî êîíòðîëÿ çà äåÿòåëüíîñòüþ àêàäåìè÷åñêèõ êðóãîâ, Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ âñåãäà ñîõðàíÿë ñâîþ èíòåëëåêòóàëüíóþ ñâîáîäó è íå ïîñòóïàëñÿ åé â óãîäó êîìó áû òî íè áûëî, âñåãäà, ïî ñâîèì ñîáñòâåííûì ñëîâàì, âûñêàçûâàÿ â ñâîèõ ïóáëèêàöèÿõ òî, ÷òî ñ÷èòàë íóæíûì, áåç ñóùåñòâåííûõ ïîñëåäñòâèé è ïðîáëåì ñî ñòîðîíû âëàñòåé. Íî èíòåëëåêòóàëüíàÿ ñâîáîäà äëÿ Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà çàêëþ÷àëàñü åùå è â äðóãîì: â ñâîèõ èññëåäîâàíèÿõ îí íèêîãäà íå áûë ïðåäâçÿòûì è íå ïîçâîëÿë ñèìïàòèÿì ê èçó÷àåìîé êóëüòóðíîé òðàäèöèè îäåðæàòü âåðõ íàä îáúåêòèâíûì àíàëèçîì èëè äàæå âëèÿòü íà íåãî. Òàê, áóäó÷è ÷åëîâåêîì èñêëþ÷èòåëüíî è ïîä÷åðêíóòî ñâåòñêèì, Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ âñåãäà ïèñàë î òåìàõ, êàñàþùèõñÿ ýôèîïñêîãî õðèñòèàíñòâà, êàê ó÷åíûé, ñîõðàíÿÿ äèñòàíöèþ è íå ñëåäóÿ ïðèìåðó òåõ, êòî ïûòàëñÿ «âæèòñÿ â òðàäèöèþ», òåì ñàìûì âûçûâàÿ èçðåäêà íåîäîáðåíèå èëè íåäîóìåíèå, íî ÷àùå æå âñåãî — ãëóáîêîå óâàæåíèå êîëëåã. Åñëè îí, êàê ðóññêèé èññëåäîâàòåëü Ýôèîïèè, è ñòàë íåìíîãî «ýôèîïîì», òî ëèøü â äóøå, à íå â íàó÷íîé äåÿòåëüíîñòè... Êîãäà îáíàðóæèëàñü çàòðóäíèòåëüíîñòü ïðîäîëæåíèÿ äåëà Òóðàåâà â îáëàñòè èçó÷åíèÿ ýôèîïñêîé àãèîãðàôèè, Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ îáðàòèëñÿ ê äðóãîìó íàïðàâëåíèþ äåÿòåëüíîñòè Òóðàåâà — ê èçó÷åíèþ ýôèîïñêîé 7

Áîãîñëîâñêèå òðóäû, Ì., ¹ 10, ñòð. 225–251.

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èñòîðèîãðàôèè. Ïîñòåïåííî îí èçäàë êîììåíòèðîâàííûå ðóññêèå ïåðåâîäû ðÿäà ýôèîïñêèõ öàðñêèõ õðîíèê,8 à òàêæå, îïÿòü æå íà îñíîâå èñòîðèîãðàôè÷åñêèõ èñòî÷íèêîâ, äâå ìîíîãðàôèè, ïîñëåäîâàòåëüíî èçëàãàþùèå ïîëèòè÷åñêóþ è, îò÷àñòè, öåðêîâíóþ è ñîöèàëüíóþ èñòîðèþ ñðåäíåâåêîâîé Ýôèîïèè. Ïåðâàÿ èç ýòèõ ðàáîò áûëà çàùèùåíà êàê äîêòîðñêàÿ äèññåðòàöèÿ (ïî ñïåöèàëüíîñòè 07.00.03 «âñåîáùàÿ èñòîðèÿ») â ÿíâàðå 1984 ãîäà.9 Îñîáåííî ïðèìå÷àòåëüíà âòîðàÿ ìîíîãðàôèÿ: Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôåîäàëüíàÿ ìîíàðõèÿ â XVII â. (Ì., 1990 ã.), íà íàø âçãëÿä, îäíî èç ñàìûõ óäà÷íûõ èññëåäîâàíèé ïî èñòîðèè Ýôèîïèè, êîòîðîå îñòàåòñÿ àêòóàëüíûì äî ñåãîäíÿøíåãî äíÿ è, õî÷åòñÿ íàäåÿòüñÿ, åùå íàéäåò ïóòü ê áîëåå øèðîêîé èçâåñòíîñòè.  ýòîé êíèãå, ïîñâÿùåííîé ñëîæíåéøåìó ïåðèîäó èñòîðèè Ýôèîïèè, òàëàíò Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà ïðîÿâèëñÿ â ïîëíóþ ñèëó: íå ñòàâÿ ïåðåä ñîáîé çàäà÷è ñêðóïóëåçíîãî îïèñàíèÿ âñåõ ñîáûòèé ýòîãî ïåðèîäà, îí ñìîã äîñòè÷ü òàêîãî ãëóáîêîãî è ñèíòåòè÷íîãî ïîíèìàíèÿ âíóòðåííèõ ïðè÷èí, äâèæóùèõ èñòîðèþ, êàêîå íå ÷àñòî âñòðå÷àåòñÿ â èñòîðè÷åñêîé íàóêå. Ïî âûðàæåíèþ íåêîòîðûõ çàïàäíûõ êîëëåã, çíàêîìèâøèõñÿ ñ åãî ðàáîòàìè, Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ âñåãäà «óìåë ñõâàòèòü ñàìóþ ñóòü» âîïðîñà èëè ïðîáëåìû: «he always hits the point».  1970–80-õ ãã., ïîìèìî ìîíîãðàôèé, Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ïóáëèêîâàë ñòàòüè ïî ÷àñòíûì âîïðîñàì, êàñàþùèìñÿ êóëüòóðû è èñòîðèè Ýôèîïèè, ïîñâÿùåííûì ðàçíîîáðàçíûì è ìíîãî÷èñëåííûì òåìàì: îò èñòîðèè ðàííåãî ýôèîïñêîãî ñðåäíåâåêîâüÿ äî èñòîðè÷åñêèõ ïðè÷èí ýôèîïñêîé ðåâîëþöèè 1974 ã.  1980-õ ãã., óæå áóäó÷è ñëîæèâøèìñÿ ó÷åíûì, Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ïðèíèìàë ó÷àñòèå â ìíîãî÷èñëåííûõ êîíôåðåíöèÿõ è ñèìïîçèóìàõ âíóòðè ÑÑÑÐ, îòíîñèòåëüíî ìàëî âûåçæàÿ çà ãðàíèöó;10 òåì íå ìåíåå îí óæå áûë èçâåñòåí è ïðèçíàí ñðåäè çàðóáåæíûõ (â òîì ÷èñëå ñðåäè ýôèîïñêèõ) êîëëåã, êîòîðûå íèêîãäà íå èäåíòèôè îáùåé ñëîæíîñòè C. Á. ×åðíåöîâ èçäàë ïåðåâîäû õðîíèê öàðåé Ñàðöà Äåíãåëÿ (1563–1597), Ñèñèííèÿ (1607–1632), Èîàííà I (1667–1682), Èÿñó I (1682– 1706), Áýêàôôû (1721–1730), Èÿñó II (1730–1755) è åãî ìàòåðè öàðèöû Áåðõàí Ìîãàñà, Èîàñà (1755–1769); êðîìå òîãî, «æèòèå» öàðÿ Èÿñó I (1682–1706), «èñòîðèè» ðàñà Ìèêàýëÿ Ñýõóëÿ, äýäæàçìà÷à Õàéëà Ìèêàýëÿ è çíàìåíèòóþ «Èñòîðèþ ãàëëà» ìîíàõà Áàõðûÿ. 9 Îïóáëèêîâàíà êàê: Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôåîäàëüíàÿ ìîíàðõèÿ â XIII–XVI ââ., Ì.: «Íàóêà», 1982. 10 Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ïðèíÿë ó÷àñòèå â ðàáîòå âîñüìîé Ìåæäóíàðîäíîé êîíôåðåíöèè ïî ýôèîïñêèì èññëåäîâàíèÿì â Àääèñ Àáeáå (1984), äåâÿòîé êîíôåðåíöèè â Ìîñêâå (1986), äåñÿòîé â Ïàðèæå (1988), îäèííàäöàòîé â Àääèñ Àáeáå (1991) è ïÿòíàäöàòîé â Ãàìáóðãå (2003). Åãî ñòàòüè òàêæå íàïå÷àòàíû â ñáîðíèêàõ ÷åòâåðòîé (Ðèì, 1972) è òðèíàäöàòîé (Êèîòî, 1997) êîíôåðåíöèé, â êîòîðûõ îí, îäíàêî æå, íå ñìîã ïðèíÿòü ëè÷íîãî ó÷àñòèÿ. 8

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öèðîâàëè Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà ñ ëþäüìè, êàêèì-ëèáî îáðàçîì âîâëå÷åííûìè â îôèöèàëüíûå ñâÿçè ÑÑÑÐ ñ «äðóæåñòâåííûì ðåæèìîì» Ìåíãèñòó Õàéëå Ìàðèàìà. Ñ ñåðåäèíû 1980-õ ãã. óñòàíîâèëèñü êîíòàêòû ìåæäó Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâûì è Ì. Êðîïïîì, îäíèì èç âåäóùèõ âîñòîêîâåäîâ Ãåðìàíèè, êîòîðûå âûëèëèñü â äîëãèå ãîäû ïëîäîòâîðíîé ñîâìåñòíîé ðàáîòû. Ñ ñåðåäèíû 1980-õ ãã. ïîëèòè÷åñêèé êëèìàò â Ðîññèè íà÷àë ìåíÿòüñÿ ê ëó÷øåìó. Íåñìîòðÿ íà òðóäíîñòè, êîòîðûå âî âðåìÿ ïåðåìåí âñòàëè ïåðåä ðîññèéñêèì âîñòîêîâåäåíèåì è àôðèêàíèñòèêîé, è â îñîáåííîñòè ïåðåä ïåòåðáóðãñêîé íàóêîé è ÌÀÝ, ìîæíî ñêàçàòü, ÷òî ïåðèîä ñ êîíöà 1980-õ ãã. áûë äëÿ Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà íàèáîëåå ïëîäîòâîðíûì.  1991 ã. â Ýôèîïèè ïðîèçîøëà ñìåíà ïîëèòè÷åñêîãî ðåæèìà, ÷òî ñîâïàëî ñ ïîëíîé óòðàòîé èíòåðåñà ê ýòîé ñòðàíå ñî ñòîðîíû ðîññèéñêèõ îôèöèàëüíûõ êðóãîâ. 11 Îäíàêî âñå ýòî ïðèâåëî ê ïîëíîé è îêîí÷àòåëüíîé «ëåãàëèçàöèè» êëàññè÷åñêîé ýôèîïèñòèêè â Ïåòåðáóðãñêîì óíèâåðñèòåòå. Ñ íà÷àëà 1990-õ ãã. Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ àêòèâíî ñîòðóäíè÷àë ñ êàôåäðîé àôðèêàíèñòèêè Âîñòî÷íîãî ôàêóëüòåòà.12  êîíöå 1990-õ ãã. áûë âîçîáíîâëåí îñíîâàííûé â 1912 ã. (çàêðûòûé â 1922 ã.) æóðíàë Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê, íûíå èçäàþùèéñÿ ñîâìåñòíî Ðîññèéñêîé Àêàäåìèåé íàóê è Ãîñóäàðñòâåííûì Ýðìèòàæåì, ïðè÷åì Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ áûë îäíèì èç òåõ, êòî ìíîãîå ñäåëàë äëÿ âîññòàíîâëåíèÿ ýòîãî èçäàíèÿ. Åãî ðàáîòà â ýòîì íàïðàâëåíèè áûëà ñèìâîëè÷íîé: ïîäîáíî ìíîãèì âûäàþùèìñÿ ýôèîïèñòàì XX â. (òàêèì, êàê Ý. ×åðóëëè), Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ðàññìàòðèâàë Ýôèîïèþ êàê ÷àñòü Àôðèêè, êîòîðàÿ èñòîðè÷åñêè áûëà ñâÿçàíà ñ êóëüòóðíîé ñðåäîé õðèñòèàíñêîãî Âîñòîêà. Òîãäà Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ïðîâåë â Ýôèîïèè áîëåå ìåñÿöà, ïðèíÿë ó÷àñòèå â îäèííàäöàòîé êîíôåðåíöèè ïî ýôèîïñêèì èññëåäîâàíèÿì (1–6 àïðåëÿ 1991 ã.) è èìåë ðåäêóþ âîçìîæíîñòü óâèäåòü èñòîðè÷åñêèé ïåðåëîì â ñóäüáå ýòîé ñòðàíû ñâîèìè ãëàçàìè. Êîíôåðåíöèÿ ïðîõîäèëà â óíèêàëüíîé îáñòàíîâêå: âñå âèäåëè è ïîíèìàëè, ÷òî äíè ðåæèìà Ìåíãèñòó Õàéëå Ìàðèàìà ñî÷òåíû (îí áåæàë èç ñòðàíû 21 ìàÿ), è ñèëû íåñêîëüêèõ îñâîáîäèòåëüíûõ äâèæåíèé òåñíèëè ðàçáåãàþùèåñÿ ïðàâèòåëüñòâåííûå âîéñêà ñî âñåõ ñòîðîí, ïîñòåïåííî ñæèìàÿ êîëüöî âîêðóã ñòîëèöû. Èç ñîîáðàæåíèé áåçîïàñíîñòè âñåì ñîâåòñêèì ãðàæäàíàì áûëî ðåêîìåíäîâàíî ñðî÷íî ïîêèíóòü Ýôèîïèþ. Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ óëåòàë èç Àääèñ Àáåáû îäíèì èç ïîñëåäíèõ (âåðíóòüñÿ òàê è íå äîâåëîñü), êîãäà ïåðåäîâûå îòðÿäû EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) óæå âñòóïèëè â ãîðîä. 12  Êóíñòêàìåðå, ãäå Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ïðîðàáîòàë âñþ æèçíü, êàê ðàç â ýòî âðåìÿ îí íåñêîëüêî ðàç çàíèìàë äîëæíîñòü çàâåäóþùåãî ñåêòîðîì Àôðèêè. Îí áûë è.î. çàâåäóþùåãî ñ 01.03.1992 ïî 31.08.1993, çàòåì ñ 01.02.2002 ïî 21.10.2002; 21.10.2002 ×åðíåöîâ áûë óòâåðæäåí â äîëæíîñòè çàâåäóþùåãî ñåêòîðîì íà ó÷åíîì ñîâåòå MAÝ. 11

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Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ áûë íå ïðîñòî îäíèì èç ñàìûõ çàñëóæåííûõ ðîññèéñêèõ ó÷åíûõ, çàíèìàâøèõñÿ èçó÷åíèåì Ýôèîïèè è Õðèñòèàíñêîãî Âîñòîêà. Îí áûë îäíèì èç òåõ ëþäåé, êîòîðûå ÿñíî âèäÿò çàäà÷è ñâîåé íàó÷íîé îáëàñòè ñåãîäíÿ è óìåþò îáúÿñíèòü èõ, ïîïóëÿðèçèðóÿ íàóêó â Ðîññèè è çà åå ïðåäåëàìè. Ýòèì çàäà÷àì Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ ïîä÷èíÿë è ñâîþ ïðåïîäàâàòåëüñêóþ äåÿòåëüíîñòü, è ïóáëèêàöèè (ñì. äàëåå, ñòð. xxviii), è ðàáîòó â íàó÷íûõ æóðíàëàõ, ýíöèêëîïåäèÿõ è ñïðàâî÷íûõ èçäàíèÿõ (Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Ïðàâîñëàâíàÿ Ýíöèêëîïåäèÿ). Âî âñåì ýòîì âàæíàÿ ðîëü ïðèíàäëåæàëà, ðàçóìååòñÿ, ÿðêîé ëè÷íîñòè ñàìîãî Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà, ïðîÿâëÿâøåéñÿ êàê â åãî ñòàòüÿõ è ìîíîãðàôèÿõ, òàê è â æèâîì îáùåíèè. Åãî ëåêöèè è äîêëàäû íèêîãäà íå áûëè ñêó÷íûìè è óòîìèòåëüíûìè; íàó÷íûå äèñêóññèè ïîäàâàëèñü èì â èñêðîìåòíîì ôîíòàíå æèòåéñêîé ìóäðîñòè, çàíèìàòåëüíûõ èñòîðèÿõ èç æèçíè ðàçíûõ ëþäåé, à òàêæå è ïðîñòî â äîñòîéíûõ ïðèìåðàõ ñâîåãî îòíîøåíèÿ ê íàó÷íîé äåÿòåëüíîñòè. C. Á. ×åðíåöîâ âèäåë è ïðåêðàñíî ïîíèìàë âñþ ñåðüåçíîñòü ïðîáëåì, ñ êîòîðûìè ýôèîïèñòèêà (êàê è âñÿ íàóêà î õðèñòèàíñêîì Âîñòîêå) ñòîëêíóëàñü íå òîëüêî â Ðîññèè, íî è íà Çàïàäå. Íå ñòàâÿ ïåðåä ñîáîé ñâåðõçàäà÷, íå èùà «çåìíîé ñëàâû», íî îäíàæäû âûáðàâ ñâîé ïóòü, îí ïðîäîëæàë çàíèìàòüñÿ íàóêîé è ðàáîòàòü áóêâàëüíî äî ïîñëåäíèõ äíåé ñâîåé æèçíè, ñëåäóÿ îäíîìó èç ñâîèõ ãëàâíûõ ïðèíöèïîâ: «Åñëè íå óäàåòñÿ çàæå÷ü áîëüøîé êîñòåð, òî íóæíî ñîõðàíèòü ñâå÷ó è ïåðåäàòü åå äðóãîìó». Ñ ïîëíîé óâåðåííîñòüþ ìîæíî ñêàçàòü, ÷òî ýòî áûëî âûïîëíåíî: Ñåâèð Áîðèñîâè÷ ñîõðàíèë ñâîþ ñâå÷ó è ïåðåäàë åå ñâîèì ó÷åíèêàì. Êîíå÷íî æå, îñòàíåòñÿ íå òîëüêî ýòî: ×åðíåöîâà ïîìíÿò åãî êîëëåãè è ìíîãî÷èñëåííûå äðóçüÿ; çà íåãî ïðîäîëæàþò ãîâîðèòü è «ðàáîòàòü» åãî òðóäû. È äåéñòâèòåëüíî: ëþáîé ðîññèéñêèé ñòóäåíò, ïûòàþùèéñÿ ïîçíàêîìèòüñÿ ñ ëèòåðàòóðîé ïî Ýôèîïèè, íàéäåò ïðåæäå âñåãî ïîíÿòíûå åìó è óâëåêàòåëüíî íàïèñàííûå êíèãè Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà. Òàê, íà÷èíàÿ ñ XIX âåêà Ýôèîïèÿ íàõîäèëà â Ðîññèè ó÷åíûõ ýíòóçèàñòîâ, óâëåêàþùèõ äðóãèõ îñîáåííîé ëþáîâüþ è èíòåðåñîì ê ýôèîïñêîé êóëüòóðå è Âîñòîêó. Êîãäà-òî òàêèìè ëþäüìè áûëè Â. Â. Áîëîòîâ è Á. À. Òóðàåâ. Äëÿ íàøåãî ïîêîëåíèÿ òàêèì ÷åëîâåêîì ñòàë Ñåâèð Áîðèñîâè÷ ×åðíåöîâ. Ä. Íîñíèöèí Â. Ëóðüå Ñ. Ôðàíöóçîâ Ë. Êîãàí

SEVIR BORISOVICH CHERNETSOV AND RUSSIAN ETHIOPIAN STUDIES The present volume is dedicated to Dr. Sevir Borisovitch Chernetsov, a distinguished Russian scholar in the field of Ethiopian Studies and Christian Orient, as a sign of great respect and affection from his pupils, friends and colleagues. Originally devised as a Festschrift for his 60th birthday, the volume is now published, to our great regret, as a book in his memory.1 Chernetsov was born 15 December 1943 in Kostroma, where his family was evacuated during World War II; his father was a Red Army officer. Soon after the end of the War, the family moved to Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg). Chernetsov became interested in Africa since his youth and, having finished secondary school in 1960, entered the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad State University, at the Department (Chair) of African Studies, section of Amharic philology. By then, the connection to the pre-Revolution Russian tradition of Ethiopian (and Christian Oriental) Studies in St. Petersburg, formerly represented by such brilliant scholars as Vladimir V. Bolotov and Boris A. Turaiev, was, for the most part, interrupted. The Oriental Faculty, closed as an institution soon after the Revolution, was only re-established in 1944, after a long period of «administrative experiments». At the Department of African Studies, Amharic was taught, yet students were not introduced to either GéŸéz or Medieval Ethiopic literature and history of Ethiopia. In addition to this, during the 1950s, the image of Ethiopia the Soviet public had was rather vague: the existence of such a unique African Christian monarchy and culture, as well as the period of active relationships between the Russian Empire and Ethiopia in the late 19th — early 20th cent. were seldom recalled. In a few generations, almost all university scholars associated with Christian Oriental Studies prior to the Revolution had disappeared from the academic scene, and their ideas and research fields were excluded from the university curriculum.2 1 The editors of the volume express their gratitude to all those who kindly assisted them in this work. Among them, in particular, Tatiana Senina (Sister Martha) (St. Petersburg) completed the volume’s lay-out; Elizabeth Fordham (Paris) and David Emmanuel (Jeruslaem) provided English proof-reading; and Evgenia Sokolinskaia (Hamburg) processed the pictures printed in the book. We are grateful to Prof. G. Fiaccadori (Milano), who provided kind assistance and gave helpful advices concerning numerous problems that arose in editing the volume. 2 From the middle of the 1930s onwards, Nikolaj V. Jushmanov dealt with the topic of Ethio-Semitic languages at Leningrad State University, and courses in Amharic were occasionally offered. The diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Soviet Russia were interrupted in 1919. Between the 1930s and 50s, the Soviet people heard

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At the Oriental Faculty, Ethiopian Studies were more or less re-established in 1963, as Vjacheslav M. Platonov, who had just graduated from the University (and was the first to receive an official diploma in «Ethiopian philology»), began post-graduate course and was granted the position of «assistant» at the Department of African Studies. For the first time, some 60 years after Turaiev, he offered courses in GéŸéz and Ethiopian historiography. However, his teaching was soon interrupted by unexpected developments. In 1964 Igor V. Ogurtsov, a graduate of the Oriental Faculty, with a small group of followers (mostly young people, graduates of the University as well) created an underground organization called «All-Russia Social-Christian Union of the People’s Liberation» (Russian abbreviation: ÂÑÕÑÎÍ). According to its program, the aim of this organisation was to change the political system of the country and create a kind of representative, social state that would be bound in its activity to follow the religious principles shared by all Christian peoples. The organization numbered some 28 active and ca. 30 would-be members. It did not, of course, present any real threat to the Soviet government. However, on 15–17 February 1967 all members were arrested by the KGB and brought to court; some of them were sentenced to severe long-term imprisonments. Platonov was among those arrested, and had to spend seven

very little about Ethiopia. The botanist Nikolaj I. Vavilov’s Ethiopian expedition in 1926–1927, yielding important scientific results, was a rare exception. The attention arouse, for a short time, and popular sympathy was rekindled when the Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1935: it was probably this occasion that made possible the publication of B. A. Turaiev’s translations of the Ethiopian royal chronicles: Àáèññèíñêèå õðîíèêè XIV–XVI ââ. («Abyssinian Chronicles of XIV–XVI centuries»), ed. by I. J. Krachkovskij, Moscow — Leningrad, 1936 (Trudy Instituta vostokovedenija, XVIII). Diplomatic relations were resumed in 1943 and remained stable and friendly, though somewhat reserved. At the Department of African Studies, Amharic was introduced as a permanent subject in 1947 and taught by Tamara L. Tjutrjumova (1905–1987) and later by Asäffa Gäbrä Maryam. In 1948–49 Ignatij J. Krachkovskij gave a series of lectures at the Oriental Faculty, which were published in 1954 as his Ââåäåíèå â ýôèîïñêóþ ôèëîëîãèþ («Introduction to Ethiopian Philology»), but the newly established section of Amharic philology (the precursor of the section of Ethiopian philology) had no proper éthiopisants in its staff. Throughout the 1950–60s Ethiopia was not among the priorities of Soviet foreign policy; however, in the late 1950s the relations intensified, and in 1959 emperor Haylä S#llase I came to the USSR on an official visit. He spent some time in Leningrad, visited Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkammer) and left his signature in the guest book. This visit was to foster the official relations between the two countries (in 1960s, the relations between the Ethiopian and Russian Orthodox Churches intensified as well); as a result, several Amharic language students from the Oriental Faculty were granted, on the initiative of the Ethiopians, a rare opportunity to study for one semester in Addis Abäba.

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years in confinement (plus one year in exile). At the University, the teaching of GéŸéz, Ethiopic literature and Ethiopian history was suspended for a long time.3 Fortunately, Chernetsov had already been introduced into the field of Ethiopian Studies and decided to advance the scholarship of Turaev, whose complete works on Ethiopian Studies were preserved in the libraries of Leningrad. Chernetsov began to study them, while improving, at the same time, his knowledge of GéŸéz, and intensively reading Ethiopic texts. Since the prospects of officially specializing in the field of Ethiopian philology were rather uncertain, he turned to another way of remaining within Ethiopian Studies — through ethnography. As he graduated from the University in 1967, Prof. Dmitrij A. Olderogge4 offered him a position in the African Department of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkammer). At that time, such a proposal meant a very promising start to a young scholar’s career. Besides supporting Chernetsov’s intention to study Ethiopian culture, Olderogge proposed a topic for his future Ph.D. that would enable him to approach Ethiopian culture more closely, at the cross-roads of history, ethnography and philology. Chernetsov submitted his Ph.D. thesis «Ethiopian magic scrolls (an experience of the philological and ethnographic study)» in the autumn of 1974, which was accepted as a research project in «Ethnography» (specialization no. 07.00.07). Chernetsov’s Ph. D. research, performed on the basis of the manuscript materials preserved in Leningrad, gave him a deep insight into Ethiopian Christian culture and literature, and was, in fact, the first Ph. D. thesis devoted to one of the «classical» topics of Ethiopian Studies presented in St. Petersburg since Turaiev’s time (until then, for more than 50 years, no GéŸéz texts had been published in the USSR).5 From 1967 onward, Chernetsov worked in the Kunstkammer (historically Russia’s first museum) for the rest of his life, and matured and grew as a scholar there. The Kunstkammer was a unique establishment that united on its premises both an ethnological muPlatonov, Chernetsov’s close friend, later worked at the Oriental Department of the Russian National Library and only returned to the University teaching in 1992, after official rehabilitation; see C. Á. ×åðíåöîâ, «Ê øåñòèäåñÿòèëåòèþ Âÿ÷åñëàâà Ìèõàéëîâè÷à Ïëàòîíîâà», Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê, new series 3 (9), 2002, pp. 537–541. 4 Olderogge (1903–1987), a corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, was then one of the leading scholars of African Studies in the USSR; in 1946–1987 he was the head of the African Studies Department at the Oriental Faculty, and also the Director of the Department («section») of African Ethnography of the Kunstkammer. 5 It should be noted that the present foreword does not obviously seek to cover the entire history of Ethiopian Studies in the Soviet Union, especially in Moscow, where the field has experienced an independent development. 3

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seum and a research institution. Here he gained access to rich first-hand Ethiopian materials: large collections of photographs, objects of material culture, manuscripts, and paintings, gathered mostly by the late 19th to early 20th-cent. Russian travellers to Ethiopia.6 The Department of Africa, headed by Olderogge, was known for its «interdisciplinary approach» and atmosphere of active and very creative scholarly communication between colleagues (most of them became well-known specialists as well), who were also close friends. This compensated for the scarcity of opportunities to participate in scholarly life abroad and to visit African countries. As time showed, the latter circumstances did not prevent, but, interestingly enough, helped Chernetsov to establish himself as a scholar. Chernetsov’s scholarly methods and views on the history and culture of Ethiopia were shaped by his practical work with manifold sources, ranging from objects of material culture to manuscripts. He gave a preference to the study of the large corpus of written sources — the most peculiar feature distinguishing Ethiopia from most other African cultures — and, consequently, recognised the need of mastering Ethiopian languages and the bases of philology. However, in the collections of the Kunstkammer he discovered an opportunity to «touch with his own hands» things described in written sources. Through his studies, he developed the capacity to look in-depth, discover and grasp the essence and driving force of any phenomenon in political or religious life, and then expose and explain them all within the historical and cultural context of the Ethiopian Highlands — or, further, of the whole (Christian) Orient. As some Western colleagues, which were familiar with his works, later said: «he always hits the point». Another admirable quality he definitely possessed was a clear understanding of the continuity of the Ethiopian cultural tradition from the ancient and medieval down to modern times (with a clear picture of the famous «Biblical atmosphere»).7 As a result, not only did he have a thorough knowledge of the Ethiopian material he was directly dealing with, but also mastered those themes that were apparently not in the competence of a historian studying the (Ethiopian) Middle Ages. In the 1970s, while working in the Kunstkammer, Chernetsov selected the main fields of his scholarly activity for the years to come. Initially, following Turaiev, he intended to study and publish Ethiopian hagiographic works. He translated into Russian two well-known Ethiopian hagiographies: «The Life of Yafqérannä Égziý» and «The Life of our mother Wälättä Petr³ os». Both translations were prepared for the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarchate’s journal Áîãîñëîâñêèå òðóäû, but only the first one was printed, as an anony6 They comprise approximately one third of the 12,000 items in the Kunstkammer’s African collection. 7 E. Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible, London 1968, 3.

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mous publication.8 Anonymity was the price he paid for the opportunity of publishing the text. Soviet scholars were not allowed to write for Church periodicals; the prohibition could only be circumvented through pseudonyms or anonymity. Chernetsov soon gave up his cooperation with Áîãîñëîâñêèå òðóäû: not indeed because of the KGB, but for the publication of the «Life of Wälättä Petr³ os» was rejected by Church censorship. During an era of ecumenical activity by the Russian Orthodox Church (heralded by the journal), the image of a 17th-cent. Ethiopian holy nun furiously struggling against Catholicism was probably deemed to be too bold and challenging. Notwithstanding this situation, in the 1970–80s, while studying an exotic Christian culture, Chernetsov was able to preserve his scholarly integrity under the state’s careful supervision of the academic circles’ activities. As he stressed later, he never had to revise or hide his views and could express them in his publications, in the words he considered appropriate, with no serious consequences. Additionally, for Chernetsov, intellectual freedom also meant an unbiased approach to the object of research. In his studies, he did not let his personal sympathy towards Ethiopian culture and the people prevail over his scholarly analysis and influence it’s results. Working on a Christian culture, he always wrote as a scholar and never followed the example of those researchers who studied the tradition by «adopting it» — the position for which he was sometimes blamed, but usually greatly respected by his colleagues. A Russian student of Ethiopia, he inevitably became a bit «Ethiopian», but only in his heart, not in his scholarly work. Later in the 1970s, Chernetsov turned to yet another topic — Ethiopian historiography, which became his major field of studies. Within ca. 15 years, he prepared and published annotated Russian translations of some ten Ethiopian historiographic works,9 and produced two monographs devoted mostly to the political, but also religious and social history of Ethiopia from the 14th to the 17th cent. The first one, Ethiopian Feudal Monarchy in XIII–XVI Centuries, was defended as his habilitation (doctoral) thesis in 1984.10 The secÁîãîñëîâñêèå òðóäû, ¹ 10, 1973, pp. 225–251. Chernetsov continued the work of Turaiev (s. above, n. 2), which ended with the Chronicle of King Minas (1559–1563), striving to bring to the Russian public the entire corpus of the Ethiopian royal chronicles published in Europe. Thus, he published chronicles of the following kings: Särsa Déngél (1563–1597), Susényos (1607– 1632), Yohannés I (1667–1682), Iyasu I (1682–1706), Bäkaffa (1721–1730), Iyasu II (1730–1755) and his mother Bérhan Mogasa, Iyoýas (1755–1769); additionally, he published the «Vita» of Iyasu I (1682–1706), the «Histories» of ras Mikaýel Séhul and däððazmaè Haylä Mikaýel Éðäte, and the «History of the Galla» written by the monk Bahréy. 10 Published as: Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôåîäàëüíàÿ ìîíàðõèÿ â XIII–XVI âåêàõ, Ìîñêâà: Íàóêà, 1982. 8 9

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ond one, Ethiopian Feudal Monarchy in the XVII Century, treats one of the most complicated and interesting periods of Ethiopian history and is one of Chernetsov’s best works.11 In this study, he did not attempt to describe all the events of that era and list all the sources. Instead, as a true historian, he introduces 17th-cent. Ethiopian history as a synthetic process, searches for its decisive internal and external factors and discusses their nature. Besides these monographs, in 1970–80s Chernetsov published a number of essays on diverse issues relating to Ethiopian culture and history, ranging from the problems of the history of the early-Solomonic Ethiopian monarchy to the social sources of the 1974 Ethiopian revolution. In the 1980s, he took part in numerous conferences, mostly in the USSR.12 He rarely went abroad, yet foreign (including Ethiopian) colleagues quickly recognized him as a serious expert in matters relating to Ethiopia, and never identified him with those people who were involved in the official Soviet policy towards the «friendly» regime of Mängéstu Haylä Maryam. In the middle of the 1980s, Chernetsov became acquainted with Manfred Kropp, one of the leading German Orientalists, this meeting being followed by many years of scholarly cooperation and friendship. In the second half of the 1980s, the political situation in Russia was marked by a quick series of deep changes. From that time onwards, Russian scholarship had to exist in a new reality, with all of its consequences. The state support to scholarly institutions and scholarships was decreasing. Russian Oriental and African Studies faced substantial difficulties, while the institutions in St. Petersburg (the Kunstkammer in particular) found themselves in a very troubled situation. All this notwithstanding, for Chernetsov the subsequent period, from the end of 1980s, was a fruitful time. The political regime in Ethiopia changed in 1991. At this time, the Russian government had neither the capacity nor the interest in any kind of active policy in the Horn of Africa,13 but precisely then classical Ethiopian Studies were finally «restor11

1990.

Published as: Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôåîäàëüíàÿ ìîíàðõèÿ â XVII âåêå, Ìîñêâà: Íàóêà,

Chernetsov took part in 8th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa (1984), the 9th in Moscow (1986), the 10th in Paris (1988), the 11th in Addis Ababa (1991) and the 15th in Hamburg (2003). His articles were also published in the proceedings of the 4th (Rome, 1972) and the 13th (Kyoto, 1997) conferences, though he didn’t attend them. 13 In 1991, Chernetsov had an opportunity to see a turning point in Ethiopian history with his own eyes. In that year, he spent about one month in Ethiopia and participated in the 11th Conference of Ethiopian Studies (1–6 April, 1991). The conference took place under unique circumstances: the participants understood that they were watching the last days of Mängéstu Haylä Maryam’s regime, who fled from Ethiopia on the 21st of May. Shortly before, while troops of several liberation movements were battering the government forces and encircling Addis Abäba, all Soviet 12

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ed» and received official recognition at St. Petersburg University. Since the beginning of 1990s, Chernetsov actively cooperated with the Department of African Studies of the Oriental Faculty teaching GéŸéz and giving lectures on different aspects of Ethiopian history and culture, and sharing his knowledge with any interested student.14 During the same period, he penned most of his publications. He was offered various opportunities to work abroad and in 1994 and 1999 taught at the Seminar für Orientkunde at Mainz University. In the late 1990s, he took an active part in resuming the publication of the journal Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê (Christian Orient), which was founded in 1912, closed in 1922, and some 75 years later re-established as a periodical of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the State Hermitage. His vivid participation in the publication of this journal was emblematic: apart from his profound knowledge and understanding of Ethiopian material, like another great 20th-century master of Ethiopian Studies, Enrico Cerulli, he viewed Ethiopia as a geographical part of Africa historically connected to the wider cultural milieu of the Christian Orient. Chernetsov was not only one of the most distinguished Russian éthiopisants and scholars of the Christian Orient, but also one of the few who had a clear vision of the aims and tasks of the studies and were also able to explain and popularise them, both in Russia and outside. He performed the latter task throughout by using every available means: his university lectures and other teaching activities, publications (for his bibliography, see pp. xxviii), participation in boards of scholarly journals and committes, collaborations with various reference books and encyclopaedias (including the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica for which he wrote some 96 articles, and The Russian Orthodox Encyclopaedia). Besides his books and articles, Chernetsov had a sympathetic and attractive personality. His lectures were never boring, and he frequently inserted into his scholarly discussions interesting stories from the lives of historical characters and his own rich experiences. Clearly understanding the complexity of the problems that Ethiopian (and Oriental) Studies had to face, both in Russia and in other countries, he kept a habit of realism and optimism at the same time. Quite modest and not at all ambitious in day-to-day life, he was absolutely uninterested in acquiring the «glory of this world». He had chosen citizens were recommended to leave urgently Ethiopia. Chernetsov was one of the last to depart when EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) troops were entering the city (since that time, he never had the opportunity to return). 14 In the Kunstkammer, where Chernetsov had worked all his life, he held several times the position of head of the African Section. He was acting head of the African Section from 1 March 1992 until 31 August 1993, and then from 1 February to 21 October 2002; on 21 October 2002 he was confirmed as the head of the African Section by the Museum’s Academic Board.

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his way of life and simply stuck to it, working till the last days of his life (he died on 3 February 2005, after a long and hard illness), according to one of his main principles: «If you can’t light a big fire, keep a candle alight and pass it to others». One can say that this has been fulfilled: he did keep «his candle alight» and pass it to his pupils. His friends and colleagues shall remember him, and any Russian student looking for literature on Ethiopia shall no doubt come across the most interesting and informative books by Chernetsov. Thus, from the beginning of the 19th cent. there have always been Russian enthusiasts who cultivated an interest in Ethiopian culture and the Orient. In the past, there were scholars like Bolotov and Turaev; our generation found such person in Sevir Borisovich Chernetsov. D. Nosnitsin B. Lourié S. Frantsouzoff L. Kogan

¡»¡À»Œ√–¿‘»fl –¿¡Œ“ —≈¬»–¿ ¡Œ–»—Œ¬»◊¿ ◊≈–Õ≈÷Œ¬¿* [A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SEVIR B. CHERNETSOV] 1972 1. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ãëàãîëüíûå àíàëèòè÷åñêèå êîíñòðóêöèè â ñîâðåìåííîì àìõàðñêîì ÿçûêå // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. IX / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. C [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1972. — Ñ. 65–68. 2. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ìàãè÷åñêàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà // Ñîâåòñêàÿ ýòíîãðàôèÿ. Ì., 1972. ¹ 6. — Ñ. 139–144.

1973 3. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. «Õðîíèêà Ãàëëà» è ðåôîðìû öàðÿ Çà-Äåíãåëÿ (èç èñòîðèè îáùåñòâåííî-ïîëèòè÷åñêîé ìûñëè ñðåäíåâåêîâîé Ýôèîïèè) // Îñíîâíûå ïðîáëåìû àôðèêàíèñòèêè. Ýòíîãðàôèÿ. Èñòîðèÿ. Ôèëîëîãèÿ. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Âñåñîþçíîå ãåîãðàôè÷åñêîå îáùåñòâî. [Ðåä. Þ. Â. Áðîìëåé è äð.] — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1973. — Ñ. 240–246. 4. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. [îïóáë. àíîíèìíî] «Æèòèå ßôêýðàíý Ýãçèý» // Áîãîñëîâñêèå òðóäû. Ì.: Èçäàòåëüñòâî Ìîñêîâñêîé ïàòðèàðõèè, 1973, ¹ 10. — C. 225–251. 5. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Èìåíà â ýôèîïñêèõ ìàãè÷åñêèõ ñâèòêàõ // Íàðîäû Àçèè è Àôðèêè. Èñòîðèÿ, ýêîíîìèêà, êóëüòóðà. Ì., 1973. ¹ 6. [ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ. Èíñòèòóò Àôðèêè] — Ñ. 124–130.

1974 6. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêèå ìàãè÷åñêèå ñâèòêè (îïûò ôèëîëîãîýòíîãðàôè÷åñêîãî èññëåäîâàíèÿ). Àâòîðåôåðàò äèññåðòàöèè íà ñîèñêàíèå ó÷åíîé ñòåïåíè êàíäèäàòà èñòîðè÷åñêèõ íàóê (07.00.07) / Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. — Ë., 1974. — 27 ñ. 7. Ñhernetsov S. B. The «History of the Gallas» and death of Za-Dengel, King of Ethiopia (1603–1604) // IV Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici *  áèáëèîãðàôèþ íå áûëè âêëþ÷åíû òåçèñû äîêëàäîâ. Äëÿ íåñêîëüêèõ ïå÷àòíûõ ðàáîò íå óäàëîñü íàéòè ïîëíûõ áèáëèîãðàôè÷åñêèõ äàííûõ; íåñêîëüêî ïå÷àòíûõ ðàáîò ìîãëè îñòàòüñÿ íåó÷òåííûìè.

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(Roma, 10–15 April 1972). Roma 1974 (Accademia dei Lincei 371, Problemi Attuali di Scienza e di Cultura, 191). Vol. I, ðp. 803–808.

1975 8. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ êàðòèíà ñîáðàíèÿ ÌÀÝ (¹ 25914-14) è ëåãåíäà î ñâ. Ñèñèííèè è Âåðçèëüå // Èç êóëüòóðíîãî íàñëåäèÿ íàðîäîâ Àìåðèêè è Àôðèêè / AÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Ñáîðíèê Ìóçåÿ àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè: ñá. ñò. Ò. XXXI. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1975. — Ñ. 200–207. 9. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà XVII âåêà // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. X. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. CIII. [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1975. — Ñ. 219–225. 10.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Îïèñàíèå ýôèîïñêèõ ðóêîïèñíûõ àìóëåòîâ («ìàãè÷åñêèõ ñâèòêîâ») èç ñîáðàíèÿ ÌÀÝ // Èç êóëüòóðíîãî íàñëåäèÿ íàðîäîâ Àìåðèêè è Àôðèêè / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Ñáîðíèê Ìóçåÿ àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè: ñá. ñò. Ò. XXXI. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1975. — Ñ. 208–226.

1977 11.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Êòî òàêèå àìõàðà? (Îïûò èñòîðè÷åñêîãî îáçîðà òåðìèíà è åãî ñîäåðæàíèÿ) // Ýòíè÷åñêàÿ èñòîðèÿ Àôðèêè. Äîêîëîíèàëüíûé ïåðèîä: ñá. ñò. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1977. — Ñ. 18– 45. 12. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Öåðêîâü è ãîñóäàðñòâî â ýòíè÷åñêîé èñòîðèè Ýôèîïèè â XIII–XIV ââ. // Ýòíè÷åñêàÿ èñòîðèÿ Àôðèêè. Äîêîëîíèàëüíûé ïåðèîä: ñá. ñò. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. ÌèêëóõîÌàêëàÿ [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1977. — Ñ. 153– 199.

1978 13.Ìèñþãèí Â. Ì., ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. «Èñòîðèÿ ãàëëà» êàê ýòíîèñòîðè÷åñêèé èñòî÷íèê // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. XI / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. ÌèêëóõîÌàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. CV. [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1978. — Ñ. 151–192. 14.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêèé çàóïîêîéíûé ñáîðíèê «Ñâèòîê Îïðàâäàíèÿ» // Ïàëåñòèíñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. 26 (89). Ôèëîëîãèÿ è èñòîðèÿ / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Ðîññèéñêîå Ïàëåñòèíñêîå îáùåñòâî [Îòâ. ðåä. Á. Á. Ïèîòðîâñêèé]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1978. — Ñ. 60–65.

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1979 15.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Íàäïèñè öàðåé Àêñóìà [C. 156–174]; ïðåäèñëîâèå è êîììåíòàðèè ê: Õðîíèêà Çàðà ßêîáà è åãî ïðååìíèêîâ (ïåðåâîä âçÿò èç: Òóðàåâ Á. À. Àáèññèíñêèå õðîíèêè XIV–XVI âåêîâ, [Ïîä ðåä. È. Þ. Êðà÷êîâñêîãî]. — ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, Òðóäû èíñòèòóòà âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ Ò. XVIII — Ì., Ë.: Èçäàòåëüñòâî ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, 1936. — 309 ñ.) [Ñ. 318–327]; Ýôèîïñêèå õðîíîãðàôû è æèòèéíàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà [Ñ. 328–333] // Èñòîðèÿ Àôðèêè. Õðåñòîìàòèÿ / Ñîñò. Ñ. ß. Áåðçèí, Ë. Å. Êóááåëü — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1979.

1980 16.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ñðåäíåâåêîâàÿ Ýôèîïèÿ è Äðåâíèé Åãèïåò (ê èñòîðèè âçàèìîñâÿçè äâóõ ðîäñòâåííûõ íèëüñêèõ êóëüòóð) // Ñòðàíû è íàðîäû Âîñòîêà. Âûï. XXI (80). Àôðèêà. Ãåîãðàôèÿ, ýòíîãðàôèÿ, èñòîðèÿ: ñá. ñò. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Ãåîãðàôè÷åñêîå îáùåñòâî ÑÑÑÐ, Âîñòî÷íàÿ êîìèññèÿ; Ïîä îáù. ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1980. — Ñ. 128–147. 17.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Íåêîòîðûå íàáëþäåíèÿ íàä îñîáåííîñòÿìè íîâîé ëåêñèêè è ðåâîëþöèîííîé ôðàçåîëîãèè â ñîâðåìåííîì àìõàðñêîì ÿçûêå è ÿçûêîâîé ñèòóàöèè â Ýôèîïèè // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. XII. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. CIX. [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1980. — Ñ. 181–194. 18.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Öåðêîâü è ãîñóäàðñòâî â Ýôèîïèè â XV â. // Íàðîäû Àçèè è Àôðèêè. Èñòîðèÿ, ýêîíîìèêà, êóëüòóðà. Ì., 1980. ¹ 5. [ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ. Èíñòèòóò Àôðèêè] — Ñ. 65–76. 19. Chernetsov S. B. Zu den Veränderungen der gesellschaftspolitischen Lexik in der modernen amharischen Sprache und der Sprachsituation im revolutionären Äthiopien // Sozialer Wandel in Afrika und die Entwicklung von Formen und Funktionen afrikanischer Sprachen. Hrsg. von D. A. Olderogge und S. Brauner (Linguistische Studien Reihe A, Arbeitspapiere, 64), Oberlungwitz: Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. 1980, Seiten 120–143.

1981 20.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Íåêîòîðûå ïðåäïîëîæåíèÿ îòíîñèòåëüíî ïðè÷èí ïðîèñõîæäåíèÿ ýôèîïñêîé âåðñèè «Ñëàâû öàðåé» // Ýôèîïñêèå èññëåäîâàíèÿ. Èñòîðèÿ êóëüòóðû / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò Àôðèêè; Ïîä ðåä. À. À. Ãðîìûêî. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1981. — Ñ. 26–31. 21.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Èç ôîëüêëîðà ýôèîïñêèõ êíèæíèêîâ (îäíî íåîïóáëèêîâàííîå äâóñòèøèå Ãîíäàðñêîãî ïåðèîäà) // Ïàëåñòèíñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. 27 (90). Èñòîðèÿ è ôèëîëîãèÿ. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Ðîññèéñêîå Ïàëåñòèíñêîå îáùåñòâî [Îòâ. ðåä. Á. Á. Ïèîòðîâñêèé]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1981. — Ñ. 106–108.

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22.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ìèô, æèâîïèñü è èñòîðèîãðàôèÿ â ñðåäíåâåêîâîé Ýôèîïèè // Ìàòåðèàëüíàÿ êóëüòóðà è ìèôîëîãèÿ. Ñáîðíèê Ìóçåÿ àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Ñáîðíèê Ìóçåÿ àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè: ñá. ñò. Ò. XXXVII, Ë.: Íàóêà, 1981. — C. 114–123.

1982 23.Ïîíîìàðåíêî À. À., ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ïàìôëåò «Ãîñóäàðü Ìåíåëèê è Ýôèîïèÿ» íýãàäpàñà Ãåáðå Õåéâîòà Áàéêåäàíÿ — îäíîãî èç ýôèîïñêèõ ïðîñâåòèòåëåé // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. XIII / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. ÌèêëóõîÌàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. CXI. [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1982. — Ñ. 127–160. 24.Ìèñþãèí Â. Ì., ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ñëåäû àðõàè÷åñêèõ íîðì ïðàâà â «Æèòèè öàðÿ Ëàëèáàëû» (Ýôèîïèÿ) // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. XIII / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. CXI. [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1982. — Ñ. 142–175. 25.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ê ïðîèñõîæäåíèþ ýôèîïñêîãî äèíàñòè÷åñêîãî òðàêòàòà «Ñëàâà öàðåé» // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. XIII / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. CXI. [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1982. — Ñ. 234–238. 26.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôåîäàëüíàÿ ìîíàðõèÿ â XIII–XVI ââ. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1982. — 309 ñ.

1983 27.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Êðåñòüÿíñêèå àññîöèàöèè â Ýôèîïèè êàê îðãàí ðåâîëþöèîííîãî ñàìîóïðàâëåíèÿ // Òðàäèöèÿ è ñîâðåìåííîñòü. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1983. — Ñ. 140–147. 28.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïèÿ: ýòíîïîëèòè÷åñêàÿ ñèòóàöèÿ (40–70-å ãîäû) // Ðàñû è íàðîäû. Âûï. 13. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1983. — Ñ. 113–137. 29.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôåîäàëüíàÿ ìîíàðõèÿ â XIII–XVI âåêàõ. Àâòîðåôåðàò äèññåðòàöèè íà ñîèñêàíèå ó÷åíîé ñòåïåíè äîêòîðà èñòîðè÷åñêèõ íàóê (07.00.03) / ËÃÓ èì. À. À. Æäàíîâà, Âîñòî÷íûé ôàêóëüòåò. — Ë., 1983. — 35 ñ.

1984 30.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Èñòîðè÷åñêèå ïðåäïîñûëêè ýôèîïñêîãî ïðîñâåòèòåëüñòâà êàê èäåéíîãî äâèæåíèÿ â îáùåñòâåííî-ïîëèòè÷åñêîé æèçíè Ýôèîïèè íà ðóáåæå XIX è ÕÕ âåêîâ // Africana. Àôðèêàíñêèé ýòíîãðà-

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ôè÷åñêèé ñáîðíèê. Âûï. XIV / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Òðóäû Èíñòèòóòà ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. Íîâàÿ ñåðèÿ. Ò. CXIII. [Ïîä ðåä. Ä. À. Îëüäåðîããå]. — Ë.: Íàóêà, 1984. — Ñ. 86–120. 31.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêèå õðîíèêè XVI–XVII âåêîâ / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ; îòâ. ðåä. Î. Ñ. Òîìàíîâñêàÿ. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1984. — 390 ñ.

1985 32. Èernetsov S. B. Historische Wurzeln der äthiopischen Revolution // Ethnographisch-Archaeologische Zeitschrift. Bd. 26, 1985, Seiten 11–21.

1986 33.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Î áèáëåéñêîé öèòàòå â «Èñòîðèè ãàëëà» — ïàìÿòíèêå ýôèîïñêîé èñòîðèîãðàôèè êîíöà XVI âåêà // Èñòîðèÿ êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àôðèêè. Ïðîáëåìû êóëüòóðíîãî è íàó÷íîãî ñòðîèòåëüñòâà â Àôðèêå íà ñîâðåìåííîì ýòàïå. ×. 2. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1986. — Ñ. 124–130.

1987 34.Ïëàòîíîâ Â. Ì., ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ðóêîïèñíàÿ êíèãà // Ðóêîïèñíàÿ êíèãà â êóëüòóðå íàðîäîâ Âîñòîêà. Î÷åðêè. Êí. ïåðâàÿ / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Îòäåëåíèå èñòîðèè. Èíñòèòóò âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ. Ñåðèÿ êóëüòóðà íàðîäîâ Âîñòîêà. Ìàòåðèàëû è èññëåäîâàíèÿ. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1987. — Ñ. 201–240. 35.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà // Èñòîðèÿ âñåìèðíîé ëèòåðàòóðû. Ò. 4. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ìèðîâîé ëèòåðàòóðû èì. À. Ì. Ãîðüêîãî; îòâ. ðåä. Þ. Á. Âèïïåð. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1987. — Ñ. 568–571.

1988 36.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêàÿ íàóêà â Ýôèîïèè // Ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêàÿ íàóêà â ñòðàíàõ Àôðèêè: ñá.ñò. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ; îòâ. ðåä. Ñ. ß. Êîçëîâ, Ë. Å. Êóááåëü. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1988. — Ñ. 138–149. 37.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà // Èñòîðèÿ âñåìèðíîé ëèòåðàòóðû. Ò. 5 / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ìèðîâîé ëèòåðàòóðû èì. À. Ì. Ãîðüêîãî; îòâ. ðåä. Ñ. Â. Òóðàåâ. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1988. — Ñ. 644–649. 38.Chernetsov S. B. Who wrote «The History of King Sarsa Dengel» — was it the Monk Bahrey? // Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, University of Addis Ababa, [26–30 November] 1984. Ed. by Taddese Beyene. Addis Ababa — Frankfurt-am-Main 1988. Vol. I, pp. 131–136. 39.Chernetsov S. B. Medieval Ethiopian Historiographers and their Methods // Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Ethiopian Stu-

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dies, Moscow, 26–29 August 1986. Ed. by A. A. Gromyko. Moscow: Nauka, 1988. Vol. V, pp. 191–200.

1989 40.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêèå õðîíèêè XVII–XVIII âåêîâ / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ; [Ââåä. è çàêëþ÷åíèå, ïåð. ñ ýôèîï. è êîììåíò. Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà; îòâ. ðåä. Þ. Ê. Ïîïëèíñêèé]. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1989. — 382 ñ. 41.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà // Èñòîðèÿ âñåìèðíîé ëèòåðàòóðû. Ò. 6 / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ìèðîâîé ëèòåðàòóðû èì. À. Ì. Ãîðüêîãî; îòâ. ðåä. È. À. Òåðòåðÿí. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1989. — Ñ. 714–717. 42.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ïðåäèñëîâèå ê: Áàõðåâñêèé Âë. À. Ñòðàíà òðèíàäöàòîãî ìåñÿöà: Ïîâåñòü [èç èñòîðèè Ýôèîïèè XIX â.: Äëÿ ñò. øê. âîçðàñòà] — Ì.: Äåò. ëèò., 1989.

1990 43.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôåîäàëüíàÿ ìîíàðõèÿ â XVII âåêå / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, Èíñòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1990. — 323 ñ.

1991 44.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêèå õðîíèêè XVIII âåêà / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, Èíñòèòóò ýòíîëîãèè è àíòðîïîëîãèè èì. Í. Í. Ìèêëóõî-Ìàêëàÿ; [Ââåä., ïåð. ñ ýôèîï., êîììåíò. è çàêëþ÷åíèå Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà; îòâ. ðåä. Í. Ì. Ãèðåíêî]. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1991. — 356 ñ. 45.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà // Èñòîðèÿ âñåìèðíîé ëèòåðàòóðû. Ò. 7. / ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èíñòèòóò ìèðîâîé ëèòåðàòóðû èì. À. Ì. Ãîðüêîãî; îòâ. ðåä. È. À. Áåðíøòåéí. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1991. — Ñ. 700–703. 46. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Íàðóøèòåëüíèöà íîðì æåíñêîãî ïîâåäåíèÿ â Ýôèîïèè XVII â. — ãåðîèíÿ «Æèòèÿ ìàòåðè íàøåé Âàëàòà Ïåòðîñ» // Ýòíè÷åñêèå ñòåðåîòèïû ìóæñêîãî è æåíñêîãî ïîâåäåíèÿ; îòâ. ðåä. A. K. Áàéáóðèí, È. Ñ. Êîí; ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ. Èícòèòóò ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Í. Í. ÌèêëóõîÌàêëàÿ. — ÑÏá.: Íàóêà, 1991. — Ñ. 39–55.

1992 47. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ïîñëåñëîâèå ê: Êàïóñöèíñêèé Ð. Èìïåðàòîð [Ïåð. ñ ïîëüñêîãî: Riszard Kapuœciñski. Cesarz. Warszawa 1978]; Ðîñ. àêàä. íàóê, Èíñòèòóò âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 1992.

1993 48.Chernetsov S. B. On the Origin of the Amhara // St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies. Vol. 1 (1993), ðp. 97–103.

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1994 49. Chernetsov S. B. Ethiopian Magic Literature // St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies. Vol. 3 (1994), ðp. 109–117. 50. Chernetsov S. B. The Crisis of Ethiopian Royal Historiography and its Consequences in the 18th Century // Ethiopian Studies at the End of the Second Millennium, Proceedings of the XIVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, November 6–11, 2000, Addis Ababa. Ed. by Baye Yimam et al. Addis Ababa 1994. Vol. I, ðp. 87–101. 51. Chernetsov S. B. The Role of Catholicism in the History of Ethiopia of the First Half of the 17th Century // Études éthiopiennes. Actes de la Xe conférence internationale des études éthiopiennes, Paris, 24–28 août 1988. Volume I. Édité par C. Lepage avec le concours de É. Delage. Paris 1994, pp. 205–212.

1995 52. Chernetsov S. B. On the Question of Royal Succession during Zague Period // St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies. Vol. 4 (1995), pp. 103–117. 53. Chernetsov S. B. Investigation in the Domain of Hagiological Sources for the History of Ethiopia after Boris Turayev // St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies. Vol. 5 (1995), pp. 114–124.

1996 54.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Èññëåäîâàíèÿ â îáëàñòè àãèîëîãè÷åñêèõ èñòî÷íèêîâ èñòîðèè Ýôèîïèè ïîñëå Á. À. Òóðàåâà // Êóíñòêàìåðà: Ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèå òåòðàäè. Âûï. X / ÐÀÍ. Ìóçåé àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Ïåòðà Âåëèêîãî (Êóíñòêàìåðà). — ÑÏá.: Ïåòåðáóðãñêîå Âîñòîêîâåäåíèå, 1996. — Ñ. 356–362. 55. Chernetsov S. B. On the Problem of Ethnogenesis of the Amhara // Der Sudan in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Sudan Past and Present). Hrsg. von R. Gundlach, M. Kropp, A. Leibundgut. (Nordostafrikanisch/Westasiatische Studien, 1), Frankfurt am Main [u.a.]: Lang. 1996, pp. 17–35.

1997 56.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ òðàäèöèîííàÿ æèâîïèñü (ïî ìàòåðèàëàì êîëëåêöèé Êóíñòêàìåðû) // Êóíñòêàìåðà: Ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèå òåòðàäè. Âûï. XI / ÐÀÍ. Ìóçåé àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Ïåòðà Âåëèêîãî (Êóíñòêàìåðà). — ÑÏá.: Ïåòåðáóðãñêîå Âîñòîêîâåäåíèå, 1997. — Ñ. 277–298. 57.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ïóòåøåñòâèå Àëåêñàíäðà Âåëèêîãî è Èåðóñàëèìà â ðàé è îáðàòíî // Æèâàÿ ñòàðèíà. Æóðíàë î ðóññêîì ôîëüêëîðå è òðàäèöèîííîé êóëüòóðå. Ì., 1997. ¹ 3 (15). — Ñ. 27–28. 58. Chernetsov S. B. Ethiopian Traditional Painting (with Special Reference to the Kunstkamera Collection of Ethiopian Painting) // Ethiopia in

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Broader Perspective. Papers of the XIIIth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Kyoto, 12–17 December 1997. Ed. by Katsuyoshi Fukui, Eisei Kurimoto, Masayoshi Shigeta. Kyoto 1997. Vol. III, pp. 3–34 + pls. 1–14. 59. Chernetsov S. B. Ethiopian painting No. 2591-1 from the Kunstkamera Collection / New Offsprings of Addis Ababa Fine Art School, Addis Ababa 1997.

1998 60.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ôîòîãðàôèÿ, íå óïîìÿíóòàÿ â ïîñîëüñêîì äîíåñåíèè 100 ëåò òîìó íàçàä // Æèâàÿ ñòàðèíà. Æóðíàë î ðóññêîì ôîëüêëîðå è òðàäèöèîííîé êóëüòóðå. Ì., 1998. ¹ 4 (20). — Ñ. 38–39. 61.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ïå÷àòè â Ýôèîïèè êàê ñèìâîë âëàñòè // Æóðíàë ñîöèîëîãèè è ñîöèàëüíîé àíòðîïîëîãèè. The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology. ÑÏá., 1998. ¹ 4. — Ñ. 75–88.

1999 62.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. «Êíèãà ïîâåñòâîâàíèÿ î âåéçàðî Áàôàíå Âîëüäå Ìèêàýëü» — ïåðâîé æåíå Ìåíåëèêà II // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 1 (7) — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 1999. — Ñ. 234–286. 63.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Æåíùèíà è âëàñòü íà ñòðàíèöàõ ýôèîïñêîé ñðåäíåâåêîâîé õðèñòèàíñêîé ëèòåðàòóðû // Àñòàðòà: Ñá. íàó÷. ñò. Âûï. 2: Æåíùèíà â ñòðóêòóðàõ âëàñòè àðõàè÷åñêèõ è òðàäèöèîííûõ îáùåñòâ / Êîë. àâò. Ñ.-Ïåòåðá. ãîñ. óí-ò. Ñîâåò ìîëîäûõ ó÷åíûõ; Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Ìóçåé àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Ïåòðà Âåëèêîãî (Êóíñòêàìåðà); Ðåä. Àëüáåäèëü Ì. Ô. — ÑÏá.: Èçäàòåëüñòâî Ñàíêò-Ïåòåðáóðãñêîãî óíèâåðñèòåòà, 1999. — Ñ. 177–203. 64.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. ×óäåñà â ýôèîïñêèõ æèòèÿõ ñâÿòûõ (ìèôîëîãèÿ è ïîâñåäíåâíîñòü) // Ìèôîëîãèÿ è ïîâñåäíåâíîñòü: ñá. ñò. Âûï. 2. Ìàòåðèàëû íàó÷íîé êîíôåðåíöèè, 24–26 ôåâðàëÿ 1999 ã. / Èíñòèòóò ðóññêîé ëèòåðàòóðû (Ïóøêèíñêèé äîì) ÐÀÍ. Îòäåëåíèå ôîëüêëîðà. Ðåä.-ñîñò. Áîãäàíîâ Ê. À. — ÑÏá., á/è, 1999. — Ñ. 281–287. 65.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ðîëü ìîíàñòûðåé â Ýôèîïèè // Ìîíàñòûðñêàÿ êóëüòóðà: Âîñòîê è Çàïàä. (Ìàòåðèàëû êîíôåðåíöèè, èþíü 1998 ã.): ñá. ñò. Ñîñò. Å. Ã. Âîäîëàçêèí / ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò ðóññêîé ëèòåðàòóðû. — ÑÏá.: Êàíóí, 1999. — Ñ. 243–247. 66.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Âëèÿíèå óðáàíèçàöèè íà ðàçâèòèå ýôèîïñêîé ñôðàãèñòèêè // Àôðèêà: îáùåñòâà, êóëüòóðà, ÿçûêè (òðàäèöèîííûé è ñîâðåìåííûé ãîðîä â Àôðèêå): Ìàòåðèàëû âûåçäíîé ñåññèè Íàó÷íîãî ñîâåòà, ñîñòîÿâøåéñÿ â Ñ.-Ïåòåðáóðãå 5–7 ìàÿ 1998 ã. / Îòâ. ðåä. È. Â. Ñëåäçåâñêèé, Ä. Ì. Áîíäàðåíêî — Ì., á/è, 1999. — Ñ. 50–54.

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67. Chernetsov S. B. The aerial Flight of Alexander the Great in Ethiopian Painting and Literature // Oriens Christianus. Vol. 83 (1999), pp. 177–186.

2000 68.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ñîáîð Ýôèîïñêîé öåðêâè 1721 ãîäà è åãî ïîñëåäñòâèÿ // Èñòîðèÿ Äðåâíåé Öåðêâè â íàó÷íûõ òðàäèöèÿõ ÕÕ âåêà: Ìàòåðèàëû íàó÷íî-öåðêîâíîé êîíôåðåíöèè, ïîñâÿùåííîé 100-ëåòèþ ñî äíÿ êîí÷èíû Â. Â. Áîëîòîâà (14 ÿíâ. 1854 — 5(18) àïð. 1900), [18–20 àïð. 2000 ã.] / Îòâ. ðåä. Êîíñòàíòèí (Ãîðÿíîâ), àðõèåï. Òèõâèíñêèé è Ìèõàèë Áîðèñîâè÷ Ïèîòðîâñêèé. — ÑÏá.: Èçäàòåëüñòâî Ãîñóäàðñòâåííîãî Ýðìèòàæà, 2000. — Ñ. 138–145. 69.Ïóãà÷ Ç. Ë., ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ðóññêèé îôèöåð íà ñëóæáå èìïåðàòîðó Ýôèîïèè: Óäèâèòåëüíàÿ æèçíü è ñóäüáà Åâãåíèÿ Âñåâîëîäîâè÷à Ñåíèãîâà // Àçèÿ è Àôðèêà ñåãîäíÿ: Åæåìåñÿ÷íûé íàó÷íûé è îáùåñòâåííî-ïîëèòè÷åñêèé æóðíàë / Èíñòèòóò âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ ÐÀÍ è Èíñòèòóò Àôðèêè ÐÀÍ. Ì.: Íàóêà, á/ã. — Ñ. 29–30. 70.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ðåäêàÿ ôîòîãðàôèÿ Ãåáðå Ñåëëàñå (1844–1912), ñåêðåòàðÿ è èñòîðèîãðàôà ýôèîïñêîãî èìïåðàòîðà Ìåíåëèêà II // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 2 (8) — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 2000 [2001]. — Ñ. 284–298. 71.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Äèññåðòàöèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ Á. À. Òóðàåâó [î äèññåðòàöèè À. Â. Øàðîâà «Òâîð÷åñêèé ïóòü è íàó÷íîå íàñëåäèå àêàäåìèêà Áîðèñà Àëåêñàíäðîâè÷à Òóðàåâà», 2000 ã.] // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 2 (8) — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 2000 [2001]. — Ñ. 386–389. 72.Chernetsov S. B. Riches and Honor of Ethiopian Kings // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 2 (8) — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 2000 [2001]. — Ñ. 35–55.

2001 73.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêèé äíåâíèê ðóññêîãî âðà÷à, 1898–1899 // Âåñòíèê Âîñòî÷íîãî Èíñòèòóòà. Acta Institutionis Orientalis ¹ 2 (10) ò. 5 — CÏá: Èçä. Âîñòî÷íîãî èíñòèòóòà, 2001, C. 4–41.

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74.×åðíåöîâ C. Á., Áàëàøîâà Ã. À. Ìàðèÿ Âåíüÿìèíîâíà Ðàéò (1 ìàðòà 1922 — 9 ìàðòà 2001) [íåêðîëîã] // Âåñòíèê Âîñòî÷íîãî Èíñòèòóòà. Acta Institutionis Orientalis ¹ 2 (10) ò. 5 — CÏá: Èçä. Âîñòî÷íîãî èíñòèòóòà, 2001. — C. 91–94. 75.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Íàöèîíàëüíûé âîïðîñ â ñîâðåìåííîé Ýôèîïèè: êòî åãî ïîñòàâèë? // Ìàíèôåñòàöèÿ ¹ 2 — CÏá.: «Åâðîïåéñêèé äîì», 2001. — C. 76–84. 76.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Î ïóòåøåñòâèÿõ ñâ. Åâñòàôèÿ, ýôèîïñêîãî ìîíàõà XIV â. â Àðìåíèþ è àðõèåïèñêîïà Îâàíýñà â Ýôèîïèþ â 1679 ã. â ñâåòå ýôèîïñêî-àðìÿíñêèõ öåðêîâíûõ îòíîøåíèé // Patma-Banasirakan Handes (Èñòîðèêî-ôèëîëîãè÷åñêèé æóðíàë), ¹ 3 (158). Åðåâàí: èçä-âî «Ãèòóòþí» ÍÀÍ ÐÀ, 2001. — C. 49–56. 77.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Î «çàïàäíûõ âîëêàõ» — ýôèîïñêîì ïðîçâèùå êàòîëèêîâ // Hyperboreus. Studia classica. In memoriam A. I. Zaicev. Petropoli: Verlag C. H. Beck München, vol. 7, fasc. 1–2, 2001, pp. 417–418. 78.. Ïëàòîíîâ Â. Ì., ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. «Êíèãà óíè÷òîæåíèÿ ëæè, âîçâåäåííîé íà ïðàâåäíîãî àáóíó Èàêîâà» Òàêëà Õàéìàíîòà Òàêëà Ýãçèý — îäíî èç ïåðâûõ ïðîèçâåäåíèé àìõàðñêîé ëèòåðàòóðû // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Èçó÷åíèå õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 3 (9). — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 2001 [2002]. — Ñ. 172–268. 79. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á., Ê øåñòèäåñÿòèëåòèþ Âÿ÷åñëàâà Ìèõàéëîâè÷à Ïëàòîíîâà (™Jy " ±¾›‡³ " ›`ï " ¨¹K`e " Ň]z " H&zc " ¾…+¾cŒ " Oª*z " ›T¼|AvŠŒ " T³Ò "") // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 3 (9). — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 2001 [2002]. — Ñ. 537–541. 80. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Òýêëý-Öàäûê Ìýêóðèÿ (ñåíòÿáðü 1915 ã. — èþëü 2000 ã.). z¡H " èÅo " Ož#]¼ (Oež[T 1908 ®.T. — cŽ 1997 ®.T.) // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 3 (9). — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 2001 [2002]. — Ñ. 542–549 [àìõàðñêèé ïåðåâîä: Ìýäõûí Òýôýðè Àéåëý: C. 549–553]. 81. Chernetsov S. B. Woman and authority on pages of Ethiopian Christian Medieval literature // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 3 (9). — ÑÏá.: Àëåòåéÿ; Ì.: Èíòåððîñ, 2001 [2002]. — Ñ. 354–373.

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2002 82. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ñóäüáû õðèñòèàíñòâà íà Àôðèêàíñêîì Ðîãå // Ðåëèãèè ìèðà. Èñòîðèÿ è ñîâðåìåííîñòü, 2002: ñá. ñò. / Koë. àâò. Íàó÷íûé ñîâåò «Ðîëü ðåëèãèé â èñòîðèè»; Ãë. ðåä. — Íàçàðåíêî À. Â. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 2002. — Ñ. 7–20. 83.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Èç èñòîðèè îòå÷åñòâåííîé ýôèîïèñòèêè (êðàòêèå áèîãðàôèè) // Ìàíèôåñòàöèÿ ¹ 2 — CÏá.: «Åâðîïåéñêèé äîì», 2002. — C. 18–35.

2003 84.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Äìèòðèé Àëåêñååâè÷ Îëüäåðîããå â ïèñüìàõ è âîñïîìèíàíèÿõ // Âîñòîê. Àôðî-àçèàòñêèå îáùåñòâà: èñòîðèÿ è ñîâðåìåííîñòü / Èíñòèòóò âîñòîêîâåäåíèÿ ÐÀÍ è Èíñòèòóò Àôðèêè ÐÀÍ. ÑÏá., 2003. ¹ 5. — Ñ. 180–184. 85.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Äìèòðèé Àëåêñååâè÷ Îëüäåðîããå êàê «ìîëîäîé àôðèêàíèñò» // Äìèòðèé Àëåêñååâè÷ Îëüäåðîããå â ïèñüìàõ è âîñïîìèíàíèÿõ / ÐÀÍ, ÌÀÝ; îòâ. ðåäàêòîð Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâ. — ÑÏá., 2003. — Ñ. 49–51. 86.Ïóãà÷ Ç. Ë., ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Åâãåíèé Âñåâîëîäîâè÷ Ñåíèãî⠗ ðóññêèé òîëñòîâåö â Ýôèîïèè è åãî êàðòèíû // Êóíñòêàìåðà: Ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèå òåòðàäè. Âûï. XIII. / ÐÀÍ. Ìóçåé àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Ïåòðà Âåëèêîãî (Êóíñòêàìåðà). — ÑÏá.: Ïåòåðáóðãñêîå Âîñòîêîâåäåíèå, 2003. — Ñ. 288–295. 87.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ìàãè÷åñêàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà // Ìàíèôåñòàöèÿ ¹ 5. — ÑÏá.: «Åâðîïåéñêèé äîì», 2003. — Ñ. 106–110. 88.×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ñëîâî î ñòàðîì òîâàðèùå: [Í. Ì. Ãèðåíêî] // Êóíñòêàìåðà: Ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèå òåòðàäè. Âûï. XIII. / ÐÀÍ. Ìóçåé àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Ïåòðà Âåëèêîãî (Êóíñòêàìåðà). — ÑÏá.: Ïåòåðáóðãñêîå Âîñòîêîâåäåíèå, 2003. — Ñ. 313–317. 89.Chernetsov S. B. «The Book of Narration of Wäyzäro Bafäna Wäldä Mika’él», the First Wife of Menilek II // Saints, Biographies and History in Africa. Ed. by B. Hirsch, M. Kropp. Frankfurt am Main 2003 (Nordostafrikanisch/Westasiatische Studien, 5). Ðð. 65–114. 90. Chernetsov S. B. A Short Story of St. Täklä Haymanot’s Ancestors and his «Heritage» (rist) in Däbra-Libanos Version of his Vita // Oriens Christianus. Vol. 87 (2003), pð. 130–139.

2004 91. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Ýôèîïèÿ â ïåðâûå øåñòíàäöàòü âåêîâ íàøåé ýðû / Ðîññèéñêàÿ Àêàäåìèÿ Íàóê, Ìóçåé àíòðîïîëîãèè è ýòíîãðàôèè èì. Ïåòðà Âåëèêîãî (Êóíñòêàìåðà); îòâ. ðåä. Å. À. Ðåçâàí. — CÏá.: ÌÀÝ ÐÀÍ, 2004 [2005]. — 218 c.

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92. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ.Á. Íà÷àëî ýôèîïñêîãî êíèãîïå÷àòàíèÿ â Åâðîïå è â Ýôèîïèè // Ðåëèãèè ìèðà. Èñòîðèÿ è ñîâðåìåííîñòü, 2004: ñá. ñò. / Koë. àâò. Íàó÷íûé ñîâåò «Ðîëü ðåëèãèé â èñòîðèè»; Ãë. ðåä. Íàçàðåíêî À. Â. — Ì.: Íàóêà, 2004. — C. 273–303. 93. ×åðíåöîâ C. Á. Ëèòåðàòóðíûå èñòî÷íèêè ãíåâà èìïåðàòðèöû Òàèòó, îáðóøèâøåãîñÿ íà Àôåâîðêà Ãåáðå Èèèñóñà â 1894 ã., è åãî ïîñëåäñòâèÿ // Scripta Yemenica. Èññëåäîâàíèÿ ïî Þæíîé Àðàâèè. Ñáîðíèê íàó÷íûõ ñòàòåé â ÷åñòü 60-ëåòèÿ Ì. Á. Ïèîòðîâñêîãî / Ñîñòàâèòåëü è îòâåòñòâåííûé ðåäàêòîð À. Â. Ñåäîâ. — Ì.: «Âîñòî÷íàÿ ëèòåðàòóðà», 2004. — Ñ. 333–340.

2005 95. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Áèîãðàôèÿ íà ñëóæáå àãèîãðàôèè: ëèòåðàòóðíàÿ ñóäüáà ýôèîïñêîãî ñâÿòîãî Åëèñåÿ, âòîðîãî íàñòîÿòåëÿ Äàáðà Àñáî, â ïîçäíåéøåé äàáðàëèáàíîññêîé æèòèéíîé òðàäèöèè // Ïèñüìåííûå ïàìÿòíèêè Âîñòîêà 1 (2), 2005. — C. 43–65 [ïîäãîòîâèë ê ïóáëèêàöèè Ñ. À. Ôðàíöóçîâ]. 96. ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á. Èñòîðèÿ ñàêðàëüíàÿ è ïðîôàííàÿ â ýôèîïñêîé ñðåäíåâåêîâîé èñòîðèîãðàôèè // AD HOMINEM. Ïàìÿòè Íèêîëàÿ Ãèðåíêî: cá. ñòàòåé. — CÏá., 2005. — C. 5–15. 97.Chernetsov S. Ethiopian Theological Responses to European Missionary Proselitizing in the 17th/19th Centuries // Ethiopia and the Missions: Historical and Anthropological Insights. Ed. by Verenà Böll, Steven Kaplan, Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner, Evgenia Sokolinskaia. Berlin: Lit-Verlag, 2005, pp. 53–62.

—Ú‡Ú¸Ë —. ¡. ◊Â̈ӂ‡, ÓÔÛ·ÎËÍÓ‚‡ÌÌ˚ ‚: œ‡‚ÓÒ·‚̇ˇ ˝ÌˆËÍÎÓÔ‰ˡ / ÷ÂÍÓ‚ÌÓ-̇ۘÌ˚È ˆÂÌÚ ´œ‡‚ÓÒ·‚̇ˇ ˝ÌˆËÍÎÓÔ‰ˡª Òîì 1 (À — Àëåêñèé Ñòóäèò), M., 2000: Ààðîí Äèâíûé; Àáàãàç; Àáàêàðàçóí; Àáäóí; Àáèý Ýãçèý; Àáðýõàì; Àáñàäè; Àáóíà (â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ À. Â. Ìóðàâüåâûì); Àääèñ-Àáåáà; Àäõàíè; Àêàëà Êðýñòîñ; Àêñóìñêèé ñîáîð Áîãîìàòåðè Ñèîíñêîé (â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ Ñ. À. Ôðàíöóçîâûì). Òîì 2 (Àëåêñèé, ÷åëîâåê Áîæèé — Àíôèì Àíõèàëüñêèé), M., 2001: Àëåô; Àìäý Ìèêàåëü; Àíàôîðà (ðàçäåë I.2: Àíàôîðà Ýôèîïñêîé Öåðêâè [àâòîðñòâî Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà íå îòìå÷åíî]); Àíîðåâîñ. Òîì 3 (Àíôèìèé — Àôàíàñèé), M., 2001: Àðêàëåäåñ; Àðêà Ñýëóñ; Àòðîíñý Ìàðúÿì.

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Òîì 4 (Àôàíàñèé — Áåññìåðòèå), M., 2002: Àôöå; Àõìàä Èáðàõèì àëü-Ãàçè; Áàýäà-Ìàðüÿì. Òîì 6 (Áîíäàðåíêî — Âàðôîëîìåé Ýäåññêèé), M., 2003: Áðþñ, Äæåéìñ; Áóðóê Àìëàê; Áýöóà Àìëàê; Âàëàòòà Ïåòðîñ; Âàëüäà Òåíñàý; Âàëüäåááà; Âàðóõ (ðàçäåë: Ýôèîïñêèé àïîêàëèïñèñ Âàðóõà [àâòîðñòâî îøèáî÷íî ïðèïèñàíî Ñ. À. Ôðàíöóçîâó]);

—Ú‡Ú¸Ë —. ¡. ◊Â̈ӂ‡, ÓÔÛ·ÎËÍÓ‚‡ÌÌ˚ ‚: Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, ed. by S. Uhlig Vol. I (A–C), Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 2003: Abägaz; Abägaz, abeto; Abugida and Hahu; Admas Mogäsa; Afä qesar; Aggafari; Anéstasyos; ŸAqasen; ŸAqqabe íéray; AíaŸéno; Asallafi; Aíärä Kréstos; Asbo; Askal; Asmat; Atnatewos; Ato [â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ Merid Wolde Aregay]; Azmaó; Azzaï; BäŸal däräba; Bäg mälkäñña; Bahér nägaš: before the 18th century; Baläge; Balämwal; Balgäda; Baróa; Bašša; Bati Dél Wämbära; Bäträ Giyorgis; BéŸélä Krestos; BéŸélä nägäít; Betä Kréstos; Bitwäddäd; Blatten geta; Bolläd; Bolotov,Vasiliy Vasilievich; Bukko; Bulatovich, Alexander Ksaverjevich; Cällänqo; Cavalry. Vol. II (D–Ha), Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 2005: Dägälhan; Dägän; Däggafi; Darägot, azmaó; Dorn, Johannes-Albrecht-Bernhard; Éleni [Admas Mogäsa]; Éleni, wäyzaro; Élféñ askälkay; Elyas; Émmäbet; Éndärta; Énfraz [â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ LaVerle Berry]; Énkoye; Énticco [â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ Wolbert Smidt]; Epistolography; ŸÉqa bet; Éskéndér; Éslam Sägäd; Éslam Sägäd (Éslamo); Fanuýel; Färis; Fasil Gärram; Féííéha Kréstos; Fiqtor; Fitawrari; Gäbrä Kréstos, monk; Gäbrä Kréstos, king; Gäbrä Maryam, bahér nägaš; Gäbrä Maryam, abbot; Gäbrä Íéllase, éccäge; Gäbre Täsfa; Gäbréýel and Mikaýel; Gan Bädél; Gan Bet; Gändäbta; Genealogy, dynastic; Goššu; Halibo; Hawarya Kréstos; Òaylä Mikaýel ɚäte; Òaylu Täwäldä Mädhén.

√ÓÚÓ‚ËÚÒˇ Í Ô˜‡ÚË: — ×åðíåöîâ Ñ. Á., Ïëàòîíîâ Â. Ì., Ôðàíöóçîâ Ñ. À. Èñòîðèÿ ýôèîïñêîé ïèñüìåííîñòè. ÑÏá, ãîòîâèòñÿ ê èçäàíèþ â 2007 ã. — Chernetsov S. B. A Transgressor of the Norms of Female Behaviour in the Seventeenth Century Ethiopia — the Heroine of the «Life of our Mother Walatta Petros» // Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Êîë. àâò. ÐÀÍ. Èíñòèòóò âñåîáùåé èñòîðèè. Öåíòð ñðàâíèòåëüíîãî èçó÷åíèÿ äðåâíèõ öèâèëèçàöèé; Êîë. àâò. Ãîñ. Ýðìèòàæ; Ãë. ðåä. — Ïèîòðîâñêèé Ì. Á. ¹ 4 (10). — ÑÏá. — Ñ. 56–72. — Chernetsov S. B. Ethiopian magic literature // Scrinium. Æóðíàë ïàòðîëîãèè, êðèòè÷åñêîé àãèîãðàôèè è öåðêîâíîé èñòîðèè [Universum Hagiographicum: Mémorial R. P. Michel van Esbroeck, s. j. (1934–2003)] / Ñàíêò-

Библиография работ Севира Борисовича Чернецова

xli

Ïåòåðáóðãñêîå Îáùåñòâî âèçàíòèíî-ñëàâÿíñêèõ èññëåäîâàíèé è Institutum Philocalicum. ¹ 2 (2006) — CÏá.: «Âèçàíòèíîðîññèêà». — Chernetsov S.B. On the Reasons of Empress Taytu’s Anger which Came down upon Afäwärq Gäbrä Iyäsus in 1894 // Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Hamburg.

—Ú‡Ú¸Ë —. ¡. ◊Â̈ӂ‡, „ÓÚÓ‚ˇ˘ËÂÒˇ Í Ô˜‡ÚË ‚ œ‡‚ÓÒ·‚ÌÓÈ ˝ÌˆËÍÎÓÔ‰ËË: Äàáðà Àñàáîò; Äàáðà Áàõðûé; Äàáðà Àááàé; Ãàáðà Èÿñóñ; Ãàáðà Ìàíôàñ Êåääóñ; Ãàáðà Ìàñèõ; Ãàáðà Ìàñêàëü; Ãàáðà Ìèêàýëü; Ãàáðà Ñåëàññå; Ãàäàðà [â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ Ñ. À. Ôðàíöóçîâûì]; Ãàëàâäåâîñ; Ãàðèìà; Ãâèäè, Èãíàöèî [â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ Ñ. À. Ôðàíöóçîâûì]; Ãåíåòå Öûãå Ãèîðãèñ; Ãåîðãèé èç Ñàãëû; Ãåîðãèé Íîâûé; Ãåýç [â ñîàâòîðñòâå ñ Ñ. À. Ôðàíöóçîâûì]; Ãèðãàñ, Â. Ô.; Ãîíäàð; Ãîýñ, Äàìèàí äå; Ãðèãîðèÿ Îòêðîâåíèå.

—Ú‡Ú¸Ë —. ¡. ◊Â̈ӂ‡, „ÓÚÓ‚ˇ˘ËÂÒˇ Í Ô˜‡ÚË ‚ Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vols. IIIñIV: Hézqéyas; Historiography, Ethiopic; Infantry; Iyasu II; Iyoýas II; Kréstodulo, abunä (d. 1735); Leontiev, N. S.; Liqä makwas; Magic scrolls; Mäläkotawit; Mäläkotawit, wäyzaro; Rinhuber, L.; Sähafe téýézaz; Script, Ethiopic: cultural and historical aspects; Sisgayo; Turaev, B. A. Ñîñòàâèòåëü — M. Áåëÿåâà.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AÉ BHG

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BHO

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BSOAS — CSCO — DEB —

EÆ

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JES LTK

— —

MRALm — OC OCA OCP OLA PG

— — — — —

PO — ROC — RRALm — RSE RSO SAe ZDMG ÕÂ

— — — — —

Annales d’Éthiopie F. HALKIN, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, vols. I–III, Bruxelles 1957 (Subsidia hagiographica, 8a) P. PEETERS, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Orientalis, Bruxelles 1910 (Subsidia hagiographica, 10) Bulletin of the School of the Oriental and African Studies Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium BELAYNESH MICHAEL — S. CHOJNACKI — R. PANKHURST (eds.), The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography. I [Early Times to c. 1270 A.D.], Addis Ababa 1975 S. UHLIG (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. I: A–C, Wiesbaden 2003; vol. II: D-Ha, Wiesbaden 2005 Journal of Ethiopian Studies Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, vols. I–XIII, völlig neue bearbeitete Auflage, Freiburg im Breslau 1993–2001 Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei — Memorie, classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche Oriens Christianus Orientalia Christiana Analecta Orientalia Christiana Periodica Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeca, accurante J.-P. MIGNE, Parisiis 1857–1866. Patrologia Orientalis Revue de l’Orient Chrétien Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei – Rendiconti, classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche Rassegna di Studi Etiopici Rivista degli Studi Orientali Scriptores Aethiopici Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft Õðèñòèàíñêèé Âîñòîê: [Cåðèÿ, ïîñâÿùåííàÿ èçó÷åíèþ õðèñòèàíñêîé êóëüòóðû íàðîäîâ Àçèè è Àôðèêè] / Khristianskij Vostok [An International Journal of Research on the Christian East]

Alessandro Bausi Universit‡´ degli Studi di Napoli ´LíOrientaleª

_ ETIOPICO ý ELLE : A PROPOSITO DI UNí IPOTESI RECENTE*

In un contributo recente si è ipotizzato che nell’elemento onomastico ý ellç, sicuramente attestato in nomi regali aksumiti, debba ravvisarsi un sostantivo ý el(l)ç;1 l’elemento non avrebbe quindi niente a che vedere con il pronome relativo plurale ý ella, né potrebbe tantomeno valere come singolare dello stesso pronome in etiopico (o in una sua varietà dialettale, o in una lingua ad esso affine).2 L’autore della nuova ipotesi prende da questa prima conclusio* Le considerazioni che seguono sono state in parte esposte in una conferenza, dedicata ad un esame d’insieme dei tratti paleografici, linguistici e filologici peculiari dell’etiopico antico (‘Gastvortrag’ «Charakteristika äthiopischer Handschriften: einige paläographische, sprachliche und philologische Daten»), tenuta al Seminar für Semitistik und Arabistik della Freie Universität Berlin nel maggio 2004, su invito del prof. Rainer Voigt, cui va il mio più sincero ringraziamento. — Abbreviazioni: DAE = ENNO LITTMANN, Deutsche Aksum-Expedition herausgegeben von der Generalverwaltung der königlichen Museen zu Berlin. Band IV. Sabaische, griechische, und altabessinische Inschriften (Berlin: Verlag von Georg Reimer, 1913); RIÉ = ÉTIENNE BERNAND, ABRAHAM JOHANNES DREWES, ROGER SCHNEIDER, Recueil des Inscriptions de l’Éthiopie des périodes pré-axoumite et axoumite, 3 voll. (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 1991–2000). 1 Cfr. GIANFRANCESCO LUSINI, «Note linguistiche per la storia dell’Etiopia antica», in VERENA BÖLL, DENIS NOSNITSIN, THOMAS RAVE, WOLBERT SMIDT, EVGENIA SOKOLINSKAIA (eds.), Studia Aethiopica. In Honour of Siegbert Uhlig on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004), pp. 67–77, spec. pp. 70 sg., da cui sono tratte, salvo diversa indicazione, le citazioni virgolettate che seguono; argomentatione identica ad verbum in ID., rec. di ALESSANDRO BAUSI, La «Vita» e i «Miracoli» di Libânos, 2 voll. (CSCO 595–596, SAe 105–106, Lovanii: In aedibus Peeters, 2003), in Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies, 7 (2004), pp. 245–250, spec. pp. 248 sgg.; la bibliografia qui di seguito indicata si limita intenzionalmente all’essenziale; in essa si troveranno dettagli ed ulteriori riferimenti; alcune delle argomentazioni qui esposte si trovano già in GIANFRANCO FIACCADORI, «Sembrouthes ‘Gran Re’ (DAE IV 3 = RIÉth 275). Per la storia del primo ellenismo aksumita», La Parola del Passato, 59/2 [335] (2004), pp. 103–157, spec. pp. 109 sg. 2 Come io stesso ho cautamente proposto, suggerendo che la trasformazione del nome regale ýella gabaz in zagabazaýaksum nella tradizione manoscritta del Gadla Libânos possa spiegarsi, più che con una vera e propria reinterpretazione, con un aggiornamento linguistico della forma del pronome relativo, cfr. BAUSI, La «Vita» e i «Miracoli», vol. trad., p. xxx, e spec. n. 27, e pp. xxx sg., n. 28, su gabaz: ipotesi che,

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ne le mosse per avventurarsi su un terreno via via più vasto ed incerto; per parte mia, mi limiterò a discutere alcuni aspetti della premessa, ed in particolare l’interpretazione di ý ellç. Il fulcro della nuova proposta è la negazione del «presupposto non dichiarato» della «coincidenza tra la forma ý ella, sistematicamente adottata nei testi medievali, e l’elemento ’L che introduce alcuni nomi regali nella documentazione epigrafica dei secc. IV–VI», giacché tale elemento, nelle epigrafi in scrittura vocalizzata, non si presenta nella forma ý ella, bensì in quella ý el(l)ç: ne sono esempi certi, nell’etiopico, ý ellç Ÿ amidâ di RIÉ nrr. 188 (= DAE nr. 10), l. 1, e 189 (= DAE nr. 11), ll. 2 e 4; nel greco, ’Elle/ amida di RIÉ nr. 271, ll. 9–10, e le varie trascrizioni in ’Ellh- o ’Ele- in testi letterari greci dell’epiteto ý l ý s³bh³ di Kâlçb, attestato in etiopico solo in scrittura consonantica (cfr. RIÉ nrr. 191, ll. 7–8, e 192, l. 7); sarebbe invece da escludere che l’elemento in discussione possa ravvisarsi nelle legende di monete generalmente attribuite ad ýElla Gabaz, ove anzi non vi sarebbero attestati né ý ella né ý ellç. Se la forma è ý ellç — si argomenta — essa, «come già beýesç, ‘uomo di’, ... non esige soltanto un’analisi morfologica, ma anche una spiegazione lessicale»: questa è individuata nella radice ý /Ÿ lw/y, col significato di «fare la guardia, proteggere», attestata in amarico ed in nord-etiopico (etiopico, tigrè e tigrino); dalla radice deriverebbe un antico sostantivo ý el(l)ç «protettore, guardiano», ben appropriato ai nomi cui compare unito: gabaz «santuario, cattedrale», Ÿamidâ «colonne, colonnato», e, con maggior cautela, un termine non indicato, ma affine all’amarico at³biya «luogo sacro». La discussione si sposta poi sul possibile rapporto fra relativo e articolo la del tigrè. Rilevato quindi il problema del rapporto tra ý ella pronome ed ý ellç elemento onomastico, ed esclusa qualsiasi relazione tra i due, si imporrebbe una diversa soluzione, che però postula l’esistenza di nomi (per l’etiopico, anche della radice ý ly con il valore richiesto) e significati non altrimenti per quel che vale, non esattamente «si basa su materiali inediti raccolti» da altri, come ha voluto intendere LUSINI, «Note linguistiche», p. 70, e che invece, come ho ritenuto di denunciare, «ha tratto alcuni elementi» da una scheda inedita di Paolo Marrassini, cfr. BAUSI, La «Vita» e i «Miracoli», vol. trad., p. xxx, n. 27: ma dichiarazioni del genere non sono di gran moda, ed i più avveduti, consci che possono crearsi equivoci, le evitano senz’altro; a proposito dei successori di Kâlçb, è probabile che l’identificazione da me riproposta tra WŸZB, Gabra Masqal ed ýElla Gabaz sia da rivedere, cfr. LUSINI, «Note linguistiche», p. 70, n. 17; resta però che il re Gabra Masqal occorre unicamente nella recensione GL3 del Gadla Libânos, e che non è affatto escluso, conformemente al carattere di questa recensione, «che nel nome e nell’azione» attribuitagli «si ritrovi eco delle concessioni del re Lâlibalâ / Gabra Masqal, con la moglie Masqal Kebrâ i più antichi benefattori di Dabra Libânos», precisazione di cui si dovrebbe tener conto, cfr. BAUSI, La «Vita» e i «Miracoli», vol. trad., pp. xxx e xxxii, n. 31.

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attestati,3 e comporta una serie di problemi:4 in questa situazione, sarebbe antiscientifico tanto giudicare inaccettabile nel merito la proposta, solo perché essa sposta globalmente i termini del problema, quanto riconoscere che essa sia sufficientemente fondata:5 resta una possibilità essenzialmente teorica. Il termine Ÿamidâ, dato per certo nel significato di «colonne, colonnato» (cfr. LUSINI, «Note linguistiche», p. 71, e n. 23), è formazione nominale assai problematica, cfr. DAE p. 30, e solo il significato della radice è chiaro; cfr. anche per il successivo FRANZ ALTHEIM und RUTH STIEL, Die Araber in der alten Welt, 5 voll. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1964–1969), vol. V/1, pp. 305–373 (cap. 5: D _ û Nuwâs), spec. pp. 330 sg.; il termine amarico at³biya sembra valere «circoscrizione parrocchiale», più che «luogo sacro», cfr. THOMAS LEIPER KANE, Amharic-English Dictionary, 2 voll. (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1990), p. 2140b, citato da LUSINI, «Note linguistiche», p. 71, n. 24, cfr. anche MERDASSA KASSAYE and DENIS NOSNITSIN, «At³biya», in SIEGBERT UHLIG (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Volume 1. A–C (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), p. 391, e la più precisa definizione in DASSET TAKLA WALD, ŸAddis yâmâreññâ mazgaba qâlât (ŸAddis Ababâ: baýArtistik mâttamiyâ bçt, 1962 Ÿa.me. [= 1969/70 d. C.]), p. 532b, ewnataññâytu bçta krestiyân batemertwâ yammetâbarâbbat agar mâlat naw, «significa il territorio su cui la vera Chiesa diffonde la luce (della fede) con il proprio magistero»; del sostantivo ýel(l)ç si sarebbe perduta completamente memoria: fatto di per sé certo non impossibile — che tra l’Etiopia antica e quella medievale vi sia una «frattura di civiltà» è indubbio, cfr. alcune considerazioni in ALESSANDRO BAUSI, «Il testo, il supporto e la funzione. Alcune osservazioni sul caso dell’Etiopia», in BÖLL et al. (eds.), Studia Aethiopica, pp. 7–22, spec. pp. 17 sg. — ma certamente non incoraggiante. 4 Quali la supposizione che il sostantivo ýellç sia stato reinterpretato nella tradizione letteraria come la «forma più familiare» del relativo plurale ýella, perché tale interpretazione ha introdotto in realtà un nesso davvero «semanticamente oscuro e poco pertinente», ciò che si addice piuttosto ad una lectio difficilior, che per un principio filologico elementare va per l’appunto postulata all’origine, e non all’epilogo della tradizione; la compatibilità tra forma e significato di ýel(l)ç sostantivo dovrebbe essere esaminata alla luce di formazioni analoghe (di schema 1e2ç < 1e2ay, cfr. per es. ferç «frutto», setç «bevanda», redç «interesse usurario» ecc.), che non veicolano affatto un valore di nomen agentis; formazioni di tipo 1e22a3 non sembrano esistere in etiopico — cfr. per es. JOSEF TROPPER, Altäthiopisch. Grammatik des GeŸez mit Übungstexten und Glossar (Elementa Linguarum Orientis 2, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2002), pp. 57 sg., § 42.14, — ed in altri tipi (per es. 1e2ay o 1e2i < 1e2ey) la terza radicale vi sarebbe evidente allo stato costrutto, oppure si sarebbe persa del tutto (per es. 1e22, 1e2, cfr. œenn, sem, dalle radici œny e smy) e non si giustificherebbe la vocale -ç; aggiungerei che per un principio di economia linguistica sembra assai improbabile che nella serie già affollata delle formazioni con radicali ý l (ýella,ýellu,ýellâ) sia stato possibile tollerare un sostantivo ýel(l)ç, probabilmente omofono di ýellç pronome relativo (su cui cfr. oltre). 5 Su alcuni altri punti (ad LUSINI, «Note linguistiche»): p. 67, e n. 3: «MHDYS» va emendato in «MH³DYS», e l’interpretazione «Matthia», che anch’io credo non condivisibile, è ampiamente argomentata in MANFRED KROPP, «Zum Königsnamen 3

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La prima parte dell’argomentazione si presta però ad un commento più puntuale: la coincidenza tra la forma ý ella e l’elemento onomastico ý ellç (il «presupposto non dichiarato») non è una trovata estemporanea, ma un’ipotesi avanzata già da Enno Littmann, che la inquadrava in un fenomeno linguistico ben noto: l’alternanza riscontrabile nell’etiopico epigrafico, in preposizioni e congiunzioni, tra forme in -a e forme in -ç (normali nello stato pronominale), ben attestata del resto anche nella documentazione manoscritta, specie più antica;6 come tale, essa non può essere ignorata, o superata d’un tratto MH³ DYS der aksumitischen Münzen», in WOLFGANG HAHN, «Eine axumitische Typenkopie als Dokument zur spätantiken Religionsgeschichte mit einem philologischen Exkurs zu den biblischen Namen axumitischer Könige von Manfred Kropp», Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte, 46 (1996), pp. 85–99, spec. pp. 95– 99; ad p. 70: più che di una spiegazione morfologica o lessicale, beýesç pone delle difficoltà semantiche, e semmai storico-culturali; ad pp. 71 sg.: l’ipotesi di una convergenza nella forma la del tigrè (articolo e pronome relativo) di due forme originariamente distinte (l’una dalla stessa base *ý l dell’etiopico ýella, ma influenzata dall’uso proclitico di *î-, e l’altra tratto arcaico del tigrè), non è economica; se la articolo del tigrè non discende da una base pronominale *ý l, non è per l’impossibilità che ne derivino al contempo sia l’articolo che il dimostrativo, dato che è esattamente quanto, da altre basi, è avvenuto in tigrino, anche per forme proclitiche, ed incluso il relativo, cfr. per es. WOLF LESLAU, Documents tigrigna (éthiopien septentrional). Grammaire et textes (Collection linguistique publiée par la Société de linguistique de Paris 48, Paris: Librairie C. Klinsieck, 1941), pp. 38 sg. e 61 sgg.; ad pp. 75 sg.: Tigretai (sic) è ripetuta svista per TigrÁtai. ì 6 Cfr. DAE pp. 30 e 81, per l’elemento onomastico ý ellç e l’osservazione sulle forme meslç (DAE nr. 10 [= RIÉ nr. 188], ll. 16 e 23, forse DAE nr. 9, l. 33 [= RIÉ nr. 187, che però legge mesla]), contro mesla (DAE nr. 9, ll. 6 e 12), e sobç (DAE nrr. 10, l. 7, e 11 [= RIÉ nr. 189], ll. 7, 9 e 13), con riferimenti a quanto si ricava dalle rispettive voci del Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae di AUGUST DILLMANN (Lipsiae: T. O. Weigel, 1865) e dall’Evangelo d’oro di Dabra Libânos, cfr. CARLO CONTI ROSSINI, «L’Evangelo d’oro di Dabra Libânos», RRALm ser. 5, 10 (1901), pp. 177–219, spec. p. 181, che riporta un passo con le «notevoli forme arcaiche» wasobç,ý emh¼âbç, ý amç, ý eskç; più laconico ENNO LITTMANN, «Äthiopische Inschriften», in Miscellanea Academica Berolinensia. Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Feier des 250jährigen Bestehens der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 3 voll. (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1950), vol. II/2, pp. 97–127, spec. p. 112; per ulteriori esempi ed attestazioni nei manoscritti basti il rinvio a AUGUST DILLMANN, Ethiopic Grammar. Second edition, enlarged and improved, edited by Carl Bezold. Translated, with additions, by James A. Crichton (London: Williams & Norgate, 1907), pp. 395, 405, 408–410, §§ 165– 167, 170, e ROCHUS ZUURMOND, Novum Testamentum Aethiopice: the Synoptic Gospels. General introduction. Edition of the Gospel of Mark (Äthiopistische Forschungen 27, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMBH, 1989), parte II, pp. 55, 57, 61, 68, 71 sg. e 303 sgg. Noto incidentalmente che l’etimologia di ýama dal termine per «giorno», cfr. riferimenti in ALESSANDRO BAUSI, «“Quando verrà...” (Mt 25,31): su un passo del Gadla Libânos», Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian and

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sulla base della semplice presa d’atto che ý ellç non è ý ella. Non è però il caso di trincerarsi dietro l’autorevolezza di Littmann, ed almeno due difficoltà debbono essere esplicitamente indicate: (1) l’alternanza ý ella / ý ellç, a differenza di quanto avviene per preposizioni e congiunzioni in -a, non è attestata nei manoscritti; (2) nei testi epigrafici le forme in ý ellç si trovano solo nell’onomastica, al di fuori della quale la forma del pronome relativo plurale è sempre ý ella.7 Una difficoltà implicita ed aggiuntiva, ma qui non impedente, è data dalla mancanza di una interpretazione univoca delle forme in -ç: si oscilla comunque tra una proposta «morfologica» largamente prevalente (-ç come estensione allo stato assoluto della forma dello stato pronominale, qualunque ne sia l’origine), ed una fonetica (minoritaria).8 Eritrean Studies, 6 (2003), pp. 168–176, spec. p. 172, nn. 8–9, può essere confortata dalla varia lectio epigrafica ý mý mrm e ý mý mr (rispettivamente RIÉ nrr. 185 I [= DAE nr. 6], l. 9, e 185 bis I, l. 11) / ý mý m (RIÉ nr. 185 bis II, l. 14; il testo parallelo RIÉ nr. 185 II [= DAE nr. 7] è perduto). 7 Cfr. ý ella in RIÉ nrr. 187, ll. 9, 10 e 23, e 189, ll. 23, 25 e 27: si tratta di una distribuzione che, considerati i numeri esigui ed ove si ammettesse che ý ellç è libera variante di ý ella, potrebbe anche essere imputata al caso, ma che in ipotesi sarà bene ritenere significativa. 8 Rimandando ad un lavoro più completo in preparazione, dedicato a questo ed altri fenomeni di arcaismo in etiopico (ove si terrà dovuto conto dei problemi di vocalismo), mi limito qui ad indicare il minimo dei riferimenti: nessuno accoglie più la tesi di una connessione tra le forme in -ç ed un elemento -ia (< -îa) dello stato costrutto, come riteneva DILLMANN, Ethiopic Grammar, p. 408, § 167, e p. 325, § 144; sullo stato costrutto etiopico cfr. ora JOSEF TROPPER, «Der altäthiopische Status constructus auf -a aus sprachvergleichender Sicht», Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 90 (2000), pp. 201–218; larga fortuna ha incontrato invece la tesi, già in L. HACKSPILL, «Die äthiopische Evangelienübersetzung (Math. I–X)», Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 11 (1896), pp. 117–196 e 367–388, spec. p. 128, e fissata poi in CARL BROCKELMANN, Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen, 2 voll. (Berlin: Verlag von Reuther & Reichard, 1908– 1913), vol. I, p. 497, § 252, b, e, Anm. 1, di una derivazione da *laŸ lç- (< *laŸ lay-), tema dello stato pronominale, poi esteso per analogia, cfr. ROBERT HETZRON, Ethiopian Semitic. Studies in classification (Journal of Semitic Studies Monograph 2, Manchester: University Press, 1972), p. 130, WERNER DIEM, «Die Verba und Nomina tertiae infirmae im Semitischen», ZDMG, 127/1 (1977), pp. 15–60, spec. pp. 49–53, § 5.6 (Das Problem der Präposition ‘auf’), e ID., «Laryngalgesetze und Vokalismus: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Altäthiopischen», ZDMG 138/2 (1988), pp. 236–262, spec. p. 238, n. 8, su meslç-, ý emennç-, e p. 260, n. 89, con il richiamo esplicito al parallelo tra ý ella / ý ellç, e soba / sobç dei testi epigrafici; CHRISTOPH CORRELL, «Noch einmal zur Rekonstruktion des altäthiopischen Vokalsystems», Linguistische Berichte, 93 (1984), pp. 51–65, spec. p. 58, ha sottolineato (sulla scorta di DIEM, «Die Verba und Nomina», pp. 49–53), il carattere puramente morfologico dell’alternanza -a / -ç, da cui deriverebbe quella soba / sobç, mentre per ý ama / ý amç ipotizza che dalla serie yeý ezç, «ora, adesso», mâý zç «quando?», gizç «tempo», Ÿ edmç «tempo stabili-

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Venendo al punto (1), la difficoltà può ora dirsi del tutto superata: testi antichi, con tutta probabilità di età aksumita, e con forti tratti arcaici, recentemente venuti alla luce, testimoniano con assoluta evidenza paleografica ed in centinaia di occorrenze la forma ý ellç per il pronome relativo plurale; le forme in -ç alternano con quelle in -a, non solo in ý ella / ý ellç, ma in un ampio spettro di preposizioni e congiunzioni (westç; h¼abç, anche h¼âbe, ý emh¼âbç, bah¼âbç; ý amç; mangalç; zaý enbalç; lalç; ý eskç; sobç; l⟠elç; meslç; tah³tç [sic], anche wabateh³tç [sic]; heyyat(t)ç < *heyyantç ecc.), e ben si inseriscono entro il fenomeno già noto; non è dato poi di intravedere una distribuzione d’impiego tra ý ella ed ý ellç determinata da contesti fonetici o sintattici: ai fini del problema in discussione si tratta quindi di due varianti assolutamente libere.9 Per quanto riguarda il punto (2), quella che appare una difficoltà, può risultare in realtà, una volta ben impostato il problema, la sua stessa soluzione. Se nei testi epigrafici la forma del relativo plurale è normalmente ý ella, ma è ý ellç nell’onomastica (ed ammettendo — ciò che non può escludersi del tutto — che tale distribuzione non sia casuale), se i manoscritti mostrano ancora tracce di oscillazione -a / -ç in epoca medievale (con finale generalizto», sia stato estratto un suffisso -ç caratterizzante le espressioni temporali; richiamando poi il fenomeno ý ella / ý ellç qui in discussione, esclude che esso possa aver svolto un ruolo nello sviluppo dell’alternanza -a / -ç, e ne mette in rilievo il carattere di «Bestandteil eines Eigennamens»; infine, RAINER VOIGT, «Über die “unregelmäßige” Form yébe im Altäthiopischen (II)», Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 3 (2000), pp. 120–131, spec. p. 120, n. 1 caratterizza la -ç come vocale di legamento davanti a suffissi, e propone una derivazione da una desinenza di stato costrutto «ai». L’ipotesi fonetica è di EDWARD ULLENDORFF, The Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. A Comparative Phonology (London: Taylor’s [Foreign] Press, 1955), p. 162, che fa derivare -ç da allungamento ä > ç, sempre però presupponendo un sistema vocalico ad opposizione di timbro e non di quantità; contra, cfr. WOLF LESLAU, «Observations on a Comparative Phonology of Semitic Ethiopic», AÉ, 2 (1957), pp. 147–166, spec. p. 159, e HETZRON, Ethiopian Semitic, p. 130. 9 Per motivi altre volte esposti, i testi in questione non possono al momento essere pubblicati, cfr. ALESSANDRO BAUSI, «The Aksumite background of the Ethiopic “Corpus canonum”», in SIEGBERT UHLIG et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, c. st.), per ulteriori notizie; la documentazione relativa è stata adeguatamente esibita in occasione della comunicazione presentata a Berlino nel maggio 2004 (cfr. sopra); è assai improbabile, per motivi che non ho modo di esporre in questa sede, che le forme rilevate siano dovute all’«idioletto» di un copista; l’unico altro esempio di ’ellç¯ a mia conoscenza finora notato, nel ms. EMML [Ethiopian manuscripts microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, St. John’s Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota] 6942, era attribuito ad intenzione pseudo-arcaizzante da ZUURMOND, Novum Testamentum Aethiopice, parte II, pp. 71 sg.; altri esempi ho recentemente individuato nel ms. EMML 2796.

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zazione delle forme in -a), e se entro questa è inquadrabile anche quella ý ella / ý ellç: allora l’alternanza si configura come la manifestazione di uno scarto linguistico, di carattere probabilmente dialettale (diatopico o diacronico o diastratico), tra, da una parte, la varietà, attestata anche dall’onomastica in ’ellç, con preferenza per l’elemento -ç (forse la più conservativa, certamente quella recessiva, visto che per quanto è finora noto, ý ellç è la forma più rara nei manoscritti, e la più precocemente normalizzata in ý ella), e dall’altra, la varietà prevalente nelle iscrizioni, che portano comunque tracce chiare dell’oscillazione -a / -ç.10 L’ipotesi che ý ellç sia una forma dialettale del pronome relativo plurale non risolve il problema dell’interpretazione dei nomi aksumiti, né è di per sé una spiegazione assoluta del fenomeno linguistico, ma intanto rende maggiormente ragione della trascrizione oscillante nelle fonti letterarie greche (’Ellh-, ’Ele-, ma anche ’Ella-) e nella documentazione numismatica.11 D’altra parte, la possibilità reale di una stratificazione dialettale dell’etiopico Il carattere dialettale dell’alternanza -a / -ç, in questa fase della ricerca, e con i dati a disposizione, non può che essere un’ipotesi; cfr. alcuni accenni importanti di MARCEL COHEN, presso SYLVAIN GRÉBAUT, «Morphologie nominale éthiopienne; remarques sur quelques formes anciennes», Comptes rendus du Groupe Linguistique d’Études Chamito-Sémitiques, 1 (1931–1934), p. 27; e SYLVAIN GRÉBAUT, «Notes de grammaire éthiopienne», Aethiopica, 2 (1934), pp. 83–85, spec. pp. 83 sg. (§ 10. Formes archaïques de quelques mots usuels); rilevo però che stando ai dati sommari riportati in ZUURMOND, Novum Testamentum Aethiopice, parte II, pp. 44 sgg., le forme in -ç non sono distribuite secondo un asse esclusivamente cronologico: non risultano più frequenti negli Evangeliari di Abbâ Garimâ (qualunque sia l’età loro attribuita, certamente i manoscritti etiopici noti più antichi), di quanto lo siano in manoscritti sempre assai antichi, ma sicuramente più tardi; per una forma «non standard», ma con altre precisazioni su cui non sento di esprimermi, anche MANFRED KROPP, «Abreha’s names and titles: CIH 541, 4–9 reconsidered», Proceedings of the seminar for arabian studies, 21 (1991), pp. 135–145, spec. p. 139, «a plural marker (not standard Ge‘ez, where it should be Öllä, but cognate with Amharic Önnä) preceding the names in order to put them in a form of special respect or dignity», proposta che è già di MAXIME RODINSON, «Éthiopien et sudarabique», École Pratique des Hautes Études. IVe section. Sciences historiques et philologiques. Annuaire, 102e année (1969– 1970 [1970]), pp. 161–183, spec. p. 174, che sottolinea come «ce préfixe ’ella des noms de rois de l’ancienne Éthiopie paraît avoir été un indice de révérence entre autres, apparenté à la forme du pluriel du relatif». 11 Le forme ALAL-, ALLA-, LLLA-, cfr. STUART MUNRO-HAY and BENT JUELJENSEN, Aksumite Coinage. A revised and enlarged edition of The Coinage of Aksum (London: Spink, 1995), p. 212, «Ella Amida», e p. 222, «Ella Gabaz», confermano l’esistenza della geminazione -ll-, come ha osservato FIACCADORI, «Sembrouthes ‘Gran Re’», p. 110 (cf. già ALTHEIM und STIEHL, Die Araber in der alten Welt, vol. V/1, p. 339), che propone anche una correlazione con ý allç (di DAE nr. 10, l. 1), lettura alternativa ad ý ellç (di RIÉ nr. 188, l. 1); a mio avviso, considerate le caratteristiche 10



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apre una moltitudine di scenari, tra i quali sottolineo qui solo quello storicoistituzionale: alcuni nomi regali, peraltro non trasparenti nel loro complesso, sarebbero marcati nella forma epigrafica da un tratto linguistico diacronicamente recessivo, e forse già residuale, almeno nella varietà epigrafica prevalente dell’etiopico coevo. È giusto fermarsi qui, rimandando ulteriori considerazioni ad altra occasione. Inutile aggiungere che le difficoltà irrisolte sono molte:12 resta la speranza, non infondata, che il sano principio enunciato da Marcel Cohen — «il ne faut raisonner sur le guèze vivant comme sur la langue littéraire figée qui est connue sous ce nom», — trovi alimento dalla scoperta di nuova documentazione veramente risolutiva.13 paleografiche delle legende e l’incertezza dell’unica attestazione epigrafica (in RIÉ nr. 189 [= DAE nr. 11], ll. 2 e 4, ý ellç è accolto unanimemente), non ci sono elementi sufficienti per porre il problema linguistico di una forma ý alla del pronome relativo plurale. 12 Né credo si possano risolvere calibrando a posteriori la documentazione sull’ipotesi: cfr. LUSINI, «Note linguistiche», p. 71: tra le diverse forme di trascrizione in greco dell’epiteto di Kâlçb ý l ý s³bh³, quella che fa difficoltà all’ipotesi di ý ellç sostantivo (e richiede perciò un supplemento di spiegazione per «semplice elisione»), è anche quella attestata dalla fonte più autorevole (’Ellatzb£aj in Cosma Indicopleuste, Topographia Christiana II, 56); ibid., p. 71, n. 21: di ý ella nelle monete con legenda greca del re «Ella Gabaz» vi sono attestazioni sicure, anche se la forma non è esclusiva, cfr. STUART C. MUNRO-HAY, Catalogue of the Aksumite coins in the British Museum (London: Published for The Trustees of The British Museum by British Museum Press, 1999), p. 42, e ID. and JUEL-JENSEN, Aksumite Coinage, p. 222, tipo nr. 124 («The BM example and V.55 have a rounded Greek e on its side as the first letter»), riferimento quest’ultimo presente in LUSINI, «Note linguistiche», p. 71, n. 21, con rinvio anche a p. 212, ove però è questione delle monete di «Allamidas, Allamiruis», nomi e legende difficilmente separabili dal problema interpretativo di ý ellç Ÿ amidâ; cfr. già FIACCADORI, «Sembrouthes ‘Gran Re’», p. 110. 13 Cfr. MARCEL COHEN, «Consonnes laryngales et voyelles en éthiopien. Conjugaison des verbes à laryngale médiane et finale», Journal Asiatique, 210 (1927), pp. 19–57, spec. pp. 27 sg.; rimandando ad altro lavoro per ulteriori elementi (cfr. sopra), mi limito a segnalare una traccia: una volta divenuta puramente fonetica (da morfologica che era), la normalizzazione delle forme in -a si sarà svolta attraverso il travaglio del mutamento del sistema vocalico dell’etiopico da quantitativo in timbrico; credo che questo fenomeno, con tutto quanto in termini di «scritture inverse» ecc. ha comportato, debba essere attentamente considerato (cfr. ovviamente ibid., pp. 22 sgg.); altra via da battere — cui, ancora, in questa sede posso solo accennare — è quella dell’evoluzione delle forme del pronome relativo, cfr. per es. OLGA KAPELIUK, «Some Remarks on the Etymology and Function of the Relative Markers in Ancient Ethiopic», in M. LIONEL BENDER, GÁBOR TAKÁCS, DAVID L. APPLEYARD (eds.), Selected Comparative-Historical Afrasian Linguistic Studies in Memory of Igor M. Diakonoff (LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 14, München: Lincom Europa, 2003), pp. 219–232.

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SUMMARY According to a recent hypothesis (Gianfrancesco Lusini, 2004), the onomastic element ý ellç found in Aksumite royal names (ý ellç Ÿ amidâ in RIÉ nos. 188, l. 1, and 189, ll. 2 and 4, ’Elle/amida in RIÉ no. 271, ll. 9–10; ’Ellh- or ’Ele- as a Greek rendering of epigraphic ý l ý s³bh³) should be interpreted as a substantive ý el(l)ç from the root ý /Ÿ lw/y, with the meaning of «protector, guardian». Yet, apart from the objective problems raised by such a proposal, the interpretation (dating back to Enno Littmann, 1913) of ý ellç as a linguistic variant of the plural relative pronoun ý ella cannot be ruled out without taking into consideration the fact that the vowel alternation -a / -ç (well-attested for conjunctions and prepositions in Aksumite epigraphic texts and in ancient Ethiopic MSS) has now also been ascertained for ý ella / ý ellç. This could hint at the existence of dialectal variants in epigraphic Ethiopic, with ý ella-forms prevailing in the «standard» language of the inscriptions and, respectively, ý ellç-forms in the royal names alone.

Dirk Bustorf University of Hamburg

SOME NOTES ON THE TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS SYSTEM â GAN + GURAGE E OF THE …NDA Introduction The Säbat Bet Gurage group of Éndägañ (or Šadgär) is mainly known to the scholarly public as a linguistic category. Relevant historical and cultural data has been published, e.g., by Shack, Leslau, Worku Nida, Prunet and Berhanu Chamora.1 I present here some of the findings of the anthropological fieldwork I carried out in 2000–2001.2 The aim of the fieldwork was to reveal the history of the deep inter-ethnic relations between the Éndägañ and the northern-most sub-group of the Hadiyya, the Leemo.3 The article does not pretend to give a full picture of the religious system of the Éndägañ. It is rather a compilation of the information I gathered as a by-product of my fieldwork. It should be seen as a tentative sketch and a small contribution to the discussion of the old Gurage religious system(s) and of comparative religion studies of southern-central Ethiopia in general.

Ethnographical notes The main settling area of the Éndägañ extends from the Southern shore of River Gombonya and the South-eastern slopes of Mount Mugo to the recent border of the Hadiyya zone,4 which is more or less identical to the all-weaSHACK 1966; LESLAU 1950, 1959, 1979abc; WORKU NIDA 1984, 1990, 1994; PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1995, 1997 [for the list of abbreviations used in this article see p. 32]. 2 I have to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and my adviser, Ulrich Braukämper, for their support. I owe my deep gratitude to my field-assistant and translator, Mr. Daniel Lemma from Giibiichcho in Sooro Hadiyya who accompanied me on the long walks through the difficult landscapes of Éndägañ country and history. Other results of this fieldwork s. BUSTORF 2001; ID., «Oral Traditions on the Inter-Ethnic Relation of the Leemo-Hadiyya and Endägäñ-Gurage», in: UHLIG et al. (forthcoming); ID., «Dämwamwit», in EÆ II, 79–80; «Éndägañ», in EÆ II, 294–296. 3 In the present article, contemporary Hadiyya orthography is used for the Hadiya terms and names; other languages are transcribed according to the commonly used system (e. g. EÆ I, II). 4 This was the situation during my field-stay in 2001. However, the borders of the Gurage and Hadiyya zones changed because of the establishment of the Sélt ³e zone. 1

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ther-road from Leera to Qose. Groups of Éndägañ are spread, beyond this line, throughout the Miišaa (formerly Kontäb) wäräda of Hadiyya zone (e. g., around the hills of Tuula and Abušurra), some can also be found in the Leemo and Sooro wärädas and even in Kambaata. In both the Hadiyya administrative centre Hossana, and in surrounding villages,5 part of the population is of Éndägañ decent. The Éndägañ also live among the different Gurage and Sélt e³ groups. Due to urban migration the Éndägañ can be encountered in nearly every part of Ethiopia and especially in Addis Abäba. Linguistically and culturally closely related neighbours to the Éndägañ are the Enär in the West, the Énnämor in the North, the Yäcäret (Geto) in the North-east, the Sélte group of Azärnät-Bärbäre in the East and South-east (Mugo and Énnäqor area) and finally the Hadiyya group of Leemo in the South. The economic backbone of the rural economy of the region is ensete (Ensete ventricosum; Éndägañ: ässät) farming, with small-scale cattle breeding forming an integral part. Additionally, different types of cereals and vegetables are cultivated. According to oral tradition the Leemo received their agricultural knowledge, especially on ensete, mainly from the Éndägañ. Interethnic marriage between the two groups was originally established as the basis of a military alliance; it became one of the main vehicles of a process which resulted in the complete transition of the Leemo economy from mobile agro-pastoralism to sedentary ensete farming.6 The socio-political order of the Éndägañ is a segmentary system based on exogamous patrilineal lineages and clans. Most decent groups are named after their (sometimes only legendary) male ancestors. The segmentary system has six levels that may be identified: segmentary level 1 (minimal lineage, umatýabarôs, ‘mother-father-children’ or bîd, ‘house’), segmentary level 2 (minor lineage, bîd, ‘house’), segmentary level 3 (major lineage, up), segmentary level 4 (clan, J³éw or bîd), segmentary level 5 (clan-federation or «tribe», J³éw or bîd) and on level 6 the Säbat Bet confederation. The traditional cognitive system starts the development of the genealogical tree of the Éndägañ with the ancestor Šadgär, the grandson of the apical ancestor Éndägañ (or Badägañ). Šadgär’s twelve sons are considered as the forefathers of twelve units of segmentary level 4: Gamio (or Gimiya), Gozo, Girme, Fasil(u), Wändémma, Zigaèo, Šorko, Agzi(a), Anbässa, Wängella, Langa and Mašto.7 One important settlement area around Hossana is Lareeba where the southern branch of the Saýamär bid (or Saýamär sab), the Saýamarmanna, have lived since they were forced to leave the hill of Wachchamo when ras Abatä founded Hossana there. Today, the younger generation of Saýamarmanna is linguistically nearly assimilated to the Hadiyya (o. i. [= oral informant] Doboó Megiso). 6 BRAUKÄMPER 1980; s. in particular DOHRMANN 2004. 7 By another informant the names Wäsära instead of Wändimma and Adrafa instead of Mašto where mentioned, but Wäsära (and Tiqisa) is a low cast group (cp. 5

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The real number of units, which are to be considered as level 4 according to their socio-political importance, is nonetheless higher then twelve. The branch of Fasilu, including the houses of Nure, Wâre and Èiraèo, is the biggest subgroup in terms of number of people. The clans of the Éndägañ are led by chiefs, some of whom are called nugs (‘king’), who are chosen according to principles of seniority, merit (also knowledge and political wisdom) and decent by the songe assemblies of the different groups. Since the incorporation into the Ethiopian empire by Ménilék II the title azmaè nearly replaced the nugs title.8 The most prestigious of the traditional chiefs is today the nugs of the Gamio clan, azmaè Kasa Mugoro; in the Wârio clan azmaè Ertiro and in the Adrafa clan azmaè Habtä are in office. The nugs/azmaè receive their titles at a merit ceremony at the former market of Šorko near the kätäma of Dénkula. The azmaè to-be sits on a chair under three intertwined holy trees and is blessed and sprinkled with honey by the chiefs and elders (baliq) of Éndägañ. When a new nugs enters his compound after the ceremony the women of his household put butter on his head to honour him. As an insignia the nugs wears, like other azmaè title-holders in Gurage, the gondär9 bangle.10

Ant o³ qot o³ ra The Éndägañ frequently claim to have been Christians «since abunä Zena Marqos converted the Gurage».11 As oral tradition reports, due to the campaigns of imâm Ahmad b. Ibrâhîm al-Ëâzî («Grañ», 1506–1543) the Éndägañ were isolated from the rest of the Christian kingdom, preserving the remembrance of their old religion by retaining the fast and venerating the Maryam tabot (the altar tablet consecrated in the name of St. Mary) of Bušurro.12 with the list of 29 clans in DÉNBÄRU ALÄMU et al. 1987:106f. and that in PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1997:562). 8 For the title azmaè cp. GABREYESUS HAILEMARIAM (1991:116). 9 SHACK (1966:152ff.) describes a similar ritual in Èaha Gurage; s. also GABREYESUS HAILEMARIAM (1991:36). 10 Beside the different clan chiefs today agäz Admasu Wärqe is the political head of the Éndägañ. He represents his people at the Yägoka assembly of the Säbat Bet Gurage. The title of agäz was originally that of a military leader who «killed a hundred enemies». Since the imperial expansion it became a title for an important clan chief (SHACK 1966:24, 132, 171). The use of the office of agäz to refer to the highest chief in Éndägañ seems to be a relatively new, «invented tradition». 11 Abunä Zena Marqos (late 13th – early 14th cent.), a venerated Saint of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was a disciple of the famous abunä Täklä Haymanot. Zena Marqos is said to have preached in Goggam, ŸAdal and Gurageland (s. BELAYNESH MICHAEL in: DEB 216). 12 WORKU NIDA (1984:16) mentiones «yä-sända Christians», i. e., «Christians of the knife» (from sända ‘knife’ in Èaha, Eža etc., s. LESLAU 1979b:350–351), who

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A syncretism, influenced by Orthodox Christianity and the religions of the Cushitic-speaking neighbours, developed as a local form of the autochtonous Gurage folk-religion. The missionary-ethnographer Burkhard Peter states that the Leemo Hadiyya, the Mäsmäs and the Éndägañ were formerly followers of a religion called «Ontoqotora».12 According to my informants, a cult or religious system with the name of anJ³oqoJ³ora only existed among the Éndägañ, Mäsmäs and Enär, while the authority of the Éndägañ high-priest Saý amär Dam (s. below) was also respected by many Leemo and the other Gurage. Peter describes «Ontoqotora» as a variant of the fandaanano (or fandaano) religion14 of the Leemo. It is true that fandaanano and anJ³oqoJ³ora had some elements in common but the same can be said of many autochtonous folk-religions of the region. AnJ³oqoJ³ora should rather be seen as the Éndägañ variant of the traditional Gurage religion and as part of a pan-Gurage network of religious and political meanings that connects the different shrines and spirit representatives. AnJ³oqoJ³ora is a largely unpopular term among the Éndägañ. For most people it carries a negative connotation and even the family of the high-priest Saý amär Dam denied any connection between the Saý amär cult and anJ³oqoJ³ora. Whilst among the Éndägañ the term is mostly rejected as the name of the traditional Éndägañ religion, among the Leemo it is the common appellation for it. Folk etymology derives anJ³oqoJ³ora from the Amharic word alawqém ‘I do not know’. It is explained that its followers are thus called because «they do not know how to fast correctly [from the viewpoint of the adherents of the fandaanano religion or Christianity]», «they do not know anything» or because «they eat everything». Obviously this etymology is not valid linguistically, but the last explanation refers to a common feature in Ethiopia: the definition of religious boundaries by food avoidance/preference regulations.15 The term anJ³oqoJ³ora probably has some relation to the Éndägañ words qoJérä, (ä)qoJ³éray, «deep spot of river where offerings to the gods are made».16 Acwere not more than nominal Christians living in different parts of Gurage; the term is related to the fact that they only accepted the meat of animals slaughtered according to Christian custom. 13 PETER 1999:130f., 132. 14 BRAUKÄMPER 2000:55–63; ID., «Fandaanano», in: EÆ II, 488–489. 15 Maybe the folk explanation of the term is based on the idea that the followers of antoqotora «do not know any order/ritual». Cp., e. g., one of the disfavouring characteristics the Highland Christians give «the pagans»: Sérýat ayyawé qum! ‘They don’t know the [proper religious and social] order!’ (suggested to the author by D. Nosnitsin). 16 LESLAU 1979a:154, 226; 1979c:510. Leslau proposes a Cushitic etymology from Hadiyya quJ³ura; s. also the qoJ³ora ceremony below.

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cording to Peter17 in Leemo sacrifices at rivers were also called qotora. In fact the Éndägañ religion, like the traditional Gurage religion in general, has a type of sacrifice where the blood of the slaughtered animal is poured into the water of a river or lake. Elders of the Éndägañ explained anJ³oqoJ³ora as the designation for the form of Christianity which the Orthodox Éndägañ developed «after Grañ burned the churches and drove away the priests». Without the guidance of the priests the Éndägañ tried to maintain their religion by respecting the fast in the month of Nähase.18 The weekly fasting days were left out. Some informants assumed that the followers of anJ³oqoJ³ora were allowed to eat the meat of animals slaughtered according to Islamic rite or even according to any kind of rite. Already Cecchi19 mentions this custom: «The Endegan, Jener and Megger do not have any scruple about eating the meat of animals slaughtered by Muslims; they have a vague idea of divine power, often murmuring an Egzier [God] but not ascribing much meaning to it». AnJ³oqoJ³ora cannot be considered a systematized religion. It is a term that indicates a syncretistic complex of different but related cults. As elements of this syncretistic complex can be identified, e. g., the cults of Awaqa (or Saý amär), the cult of Umonya and the veneration of the Maryam tabot of Bušurro. Other elements are the cults of the zara and idoota spirits and the ancestors.

Angels, spirits and mediums The Éndägañ in their folk-religion believed in God (Égzer) and they could pray to him directly and individually.20 God was seen as the father of the angels (Éndägañ: mälý ak) which he sent to serve his creation. The spiritual beings which controlled the natural powers, the weather as well as the fate of mankind, were seen as the sons and daughters of God (o. i. Ergada Ordamo). For these spiritual beings venerated by the Gurage Shack uses the term «deities» and Worku Nida uses «gods». I would prefer to use the term «spirits», for their sphere of action is clearly not the high heaven. Some of them are PETER 1999:163. LEBEL (1974:103) claims that Christianity in Enär could maintain itself without change during the isolation from Christian Muòér Gurage. My own information about the church Enär Emanuel near Qose kätäma, which was allegedly founded by abunä Zena Marqos, points to a supra-formation (Überformung) of the original Christianity of the Enär. The priests who spoke with Lebel probably told him the narrative (also common in Éndägañ) of an uninterrupted continuity of Christianity in the area. 19 CECCHI 1888:120 [translation from German edition by D. B.]. 20 According to SHACK (1980) Égzer in Gurage was a deus otiosus who was not addressed directly. The direct address of God could be a more recent development under new Orthodox Christian influence but I have some doubts that this is the case. 17 18

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only powerful in the local or regional range, and all of them by definition depend on the will of Égzer. The Éndägañ I interviewed used the term «angels» for this category of spiritual beings. Whether this term, which it is also used in other Gurage groups, is a survival of the time of the early Christianity of the Éndägañ, a later adaption, or an introduction during the re-Christianization since the late 19th cent. remains open. On a lower level of the Éndägañ syncretistic «pantheon» different types of spiritual beings were assumed. One of the most feared categories was that of the habuusa spirits, which was probably an adoption from the Hadiyya. I also collected legends about different «monsters» which were connected with diseases of man or cattle. Like the Hadiyya the Éndägañ knew protecting spirits which were passed down through the paternal line, zara, and others transmitted within the matriline, idoota. Éndägañ and Leemo shared the belief that many families possessed a magical object, known as èälle (o. i. Babore Kaýisso), resembling Muslim prayer beads which served as a source of power and protection.21 The ancestors had a prominent place in the religion of the Éndägañ. Graveyards were seen as holy places. The individual graves were marked only by trees. During the Orthodox fasting period in Nähase 1–15 at the J³éfaý at ritual, people gathered at the grave. Sheep and oxen (but not goats) were slaughtered on the graves and honey was poured onto them by the eldest sons of the deceased (o. i. Babore Kaýisso). The most powerful spirit of the Éndägañ was Awaqa (the Éndägañ Waq sky-god).22 Under the name of Saý amär he was the protecting spirit of the whole of the Éndägañ and all his followers. The legends tell that the ideal number of angels was 99. The followers of Saý amär Dam claim that Saý amär was the highest among them. Consequently he was syncretized with the Archangel Gabriel. The other angels have their shrines and priests among other Gurage as well as non-Gurage groups. Like the Waq spirits of other Gurage groups Saý amär is the spirit of the sky and of war. Unlike the other Waq spirits, however, Saý amär also embodies characteristics of Božžä, the Gurage spirit of thunder and social order.23 Saý amär was like Božžä a spirit who punished the violation of social norms by lightning and thunder. He also controlled the wind (especially the whirlwind or cyclone) and the birds but not the rain which «comes from God» BRAUKÄMPER — TILAHUN MISHAGO 1999:27; PETER 1999:163ff., 130f; o. i.: Babore Kaýisso; Ergada Ordamo. Through inter-marriage with the Hadiyya the concepts of gaaraa (zara) and idoota were also introduced in Kambaata and Mäsmäs (BRAUKÄMPER 1983:258f.; PETER 1999:136). Èälle were also known among the Sélt ³i, according to my recent research in that group. 22 Cp. also SHACK 1966; LESLAU 1950:53. 23 SHACK 1966:175ff.; BUSTORF 2003:619f. 21

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(o. i. Ergada Saý amär Dam).24 As a typical element of the Gurage religion the Éndägañ had associations of unmarried young women (Éndägañ: mçd; Èaha: mwéyät). These mçd had a similar relation to the high priest of Saý amär like as such associations had to Božžä in Èaha.25 The representative of the spirit Saý amär was the high-priest and possession medium Saý amär Dam (‘Master [or Lord] Saý amär’).26 The Saý amär Dam was respected not only by Éndägañ, but also by Leemo, Mäsmäs and the other Säbat Bet Gurage. Although the cult almost vanished in its home country, the Saý amär Dam still plays a certain ritual role in connection with the appointment of the high-priest of the Božžä cult, the G weytakwéyä.27 As the «eldest of the angels» the Saý amär Dam has to recognize the Gweytakwéyä and the Waq priests in the Šé ndar ceremony. After a damo (a priest of the traditional religion/spirit intermediary) died his ritual clothes and objects, which were also called Šé ndar,28 had to be kept by the Saý amär Dam until he could hand them over to the new ritual leader. A new Saý amär Dam had to be recognized by the Wäydämam, the representative of the all-Gurage female spirit Dämwamwit in Èaha (o. i. Ergada Ordamo).29 The ritual office of the Saý amär Dam had been handed down within the paternal line of the (originally Mäsmäs) clan of Saý amär bîd for nine generations. Usually it was inherited by the eldest son.30 The Saý amär Dam was an But cp. SHACK — HABTE MARIAM MARCOS 1974:2f. Cp. LESLAU 1950:54, 56ff.; cp. SHACK 1966:132ff., 176; WORKU NIDA 1990; o. i. Wadero Ordamo. 26 Cp. SHACK 1966:182ff. 27 PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1995:58, 64 and passim; PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1997:560; s. also WORKU NIDA 1994:365. 28 When a house was hit by lightening and the purification rite was carried out, the Saýamär Dam received part of the possessions of the affected family. The highpriest’s share was also called šéndar (o. i. Ergada Ordamo). PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA (1995:64) explain šéndar as the permission «to modify some of the rules [...] which Gweytakwéyä must obey». 29 According to PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA (1997:560) the Saýamär Dam does not need any approval by another priest. According to TERREFE WOLDESADIK (1967:4, n. 11), only the Saýamär Dam could free other spirit representatives from the ritual restrictions they had to follow. In the early 1960s, for example, he permitted the Wäydämam, the highest representatives of Dämwamwit, to enter the houses of others, to shake hands and to raise mules. 30 The only exception is the recent Saýamär Dam Garamo Ermanèèo who was the youngest son of his predecessor. He took over the office shortly after the Revolution of 1974 as his father ordered before his death. The assembly of elders did not accept the decision at first, but then a small cyclone (traditionally associated with Saýamär) emerged and wandered directly to the appointed son. This was seen to be a sign of his vocation (o. i. Ergada Ordamo). 24 25

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homme fetiche and the central sacral figure of the Éndägañ, endowed with an important integrating function.31 In political terms the Saý amär Dam, who also attended the songe meetings, had an outstanding position as an authority that surmounted ethnic sub-groups and that was even trans-ethnic. An indication of this is that he had the right to be the first to light the mäsqäl bonfire, an honour which falls traditionally in the hands of highest ranking political heads.32 Even the Leemo are said to have waited to light their fires until the smoke of the fire of the Saý amär Dam could be seen (o. i. Ayyäläè Araga).33 The Saý amär Dam was the head over a couple of other Awaqa priests (Éndägañ: awaý é, damo) in Éndägañ country. The Qosi Dam (also Qoseadam) from the clan of Gamio was one of them. The last of this extinguished line of spirit mediums lived near the church of Sasgita Maryam and the compound of the nugs. In the Šorko area the last Damo Wäyabbo34 from the clan of Girme still lives. He claims that his ritual office was introduced to Éndägañ because in a war the ancestor Šadgär kidnapped a women with the name of Sorgo who represented the spirit Wäyabbo. Her son became the first Damo Wäyabbo of Éndägañ.35 Every awaýé, including the Saý amär Dam, was assisted by a number of ritual specialists, the maga.36 They served as interpreters of the prophesies of their lords and they were responsible for the purification rites when a house was hit by lightening. If a maga was (in the ritual sense) poisoned he went to a maga specialist, the awssa from the clan of Girme, who was able to purify him by rubbing koso leaves onto his head and face. To become a maga the body of the novice had to be rubbed with koso, bisanna and duquša leaves.37 The awaý é had to keep a number of avoidance rules similar to those of other high ritual functionaries in many Southern Ethiopian cultures:38 avoi31 Still today this can be felt: although the recent office holder grew up as an Orthodox Christian his prayer and blessing is considered to be very powerful («he is blessed in order to bless the people»). Today he acts as a high dañña (‘traditional judge, leader’) and representative of Éndägañ (o. i. Ergada Ordamo; Garamo Ermanèèo). 32 SHACK 1968:458. 33 PETER 1999:141. 34 PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA (1997:559) mention the «Ewäy Abbo» cult without any further information. 35 The recent office holder says he had to stop practising when the Därg regime begun a campaign against «feudal practices». He still wears the ðað headdress as a sign of his office and follows some avoidance rules. 36 The term maga designates assistants of cult leaders in Gurage but also in Hadiyya and Kambaata (BRAUKÄMPER 1983:260, 262, 265; PETER 1999:223f.). On maga s. also PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1995:62f. 37 On the maga clans s. PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1997:562. 38 E. g., the Hawzulla in Dubamo, s. BRAUKÄMPER 1980:211f., 217; ID. 1983:263.



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dance of goat meat and goat products,39 no visits to the houses of others («an angel cannot be invited»), no eating in the presence of others, no cutting of hair and beard, no contact with women who menstruate, etc.40 The Saý amär Dam only drank milk of a cow with the colour of sowre (Éndägañ: light brown/grey), which was reserved only for him. In the past his food had to be prepared by his wife or daughters only and slaughtered by the maga. His preferred meat was that of calves and a special type of koèèo (ensete bread) was prepared for him. Umonya41 was a female angel/spirit medium from the clan of Wârio/Wâre (others said Èiraèo). She was considered as equal to the other awaý é and joined their gatherings. The last Umonya medium died at the beginning of Òaylä Íéllase I’s reign. She had already had to stop her ritual activities before, however, when Hemaèo Seqeto (of the Éndägañ clan of Nure) the balabbat of Kontäb ordered that the trees of her holy grove (däbr) on the hill of Šorko were to be cut down.42 Umoniya was called «the angel for the women». She was considered to be gentle and a good adviser. She was asked in particular to help in cases of infertility and childbirth. Umoniya did not use the haruspicium to prophesy, like the other awaý é, but she could foresee the fate of her followers by «looking into her shadow».

Origin of the Saý amaâ r Dam A comparison of the legends of origin of the different Gurage spirits, shrines and spirit medium lineages can be very fruitful, and can contribute to our understanding of the hierarchies and relations between them. The legend documented here was recounted to me by ato Ergada Saý amär Dam in his house near the grave of his father Saý amär Dam Ordamo in Barèe, Éndägañ:43 «Gumo lived at the shore of Lake Božžäbär.44 Abara came from Mäsmäs. He traded with cattle. Gumo lived in chastity. Every morning she sat at the shore of the lake in the sun. Near her were people constructing a road, and Fuga.45 When they passed her they saw her jumping into the On the avoidance of goat products s. also BRAUKÄMPER 1983:253, 260. On avoidance rules s. PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1997:561; it is stated there that the Saý amär Dam only meets people in the open air but Saýamär Dam Garamo invited me into his main house and allowed me to visit his ritual house gananna. 41 An informat explained that «Umoniya is another name for Awaqa». 42 He used the wood to build his new house and it is rumoured that this is why he died before it was finished. 43 The translation from Hadiyya into English was made by Daniel Lemma. 44 For the religious significance of Lake/River Božžäbär in ɞa Gurage s. also SHACK — HABTE MARIAM MARKOS 1974:66 and n. 8, 67; GABREYESUS HAILEMARIAM 1991:134f. 45 The Fuga are endogamous craftsmen who are traditionally marginalized by farmers and pastoralists. 39 40

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water. They reported what they saw to the elders who then went to the lake and saw her sitting there. The elders decided to order the people to catch the virgin. The people started to observe when she used to jump into the water and when she left it and when she sat at the shore of the lake. They prayed to God that they would succeed in catching her. After fifteen days, after she left the water, she sat on the back of a cow and rode on it. The people caught her and brought her to the damo who lived near this place. They asked him: ‘Please invite this woman to stay at your house as a guest who was sent to us by God’. But the damo answered: ‘I do not want her. Only if she is sent by Man is she my guest. If God sent her I will not take her. God is not my guest’. After he had spoken like this he abruptly vanished forever. This is how Gumo got her house where she lived for a long time. After several years the elders gathered and urged the virgin to marry. She answered: ‘Yet, the time hasn’t come. I am waiting for a certain man. He will come with many cattle of many different colours. I will marry him’. After five years a man came with a big number of cattle, with many bulls and calves. And they had many different colours. The name of this man was Abara. He camped near Gumo’s house. He sent somebody to ask her for water. Gumo asked: ‘Who is he?’ Then she saw him with his cattle of many different colours. He sat in the shade of a big podocarpus tree. ‘This is what I was waiting for’, she said, ‘My cattle should mingle with his cattle’. This is how they became married. They had six sons: Éntäzära, Idig, Anfia, Qadan, Habemanna and Gaka.46 One day two bulls fought against each other,47 one owned by Gumo, the other owned by Abara. Abara’s bull won. Gumo got very angry and said to her husband: ‘Kill this [your] bull’. But he answered: ‘Instead of killing my bull, kill me. Only because I am living on the land of your fathers, you want to kill my bull. That is why we should go to the land of my fathers’. But Gumo refused to go to the land of his fathers and she did not want to let her sons go. Abara went to the elders and told them what happened. The elders decided that children and cattle should be divided and one half should migrate with Abara and the other should stay with Gumo. Thus he took three chidren with him and she stayed with three children in the land of her fathers. Qadan went with his father to Mäsmäs, Habemanna went to Kambaata. Gaka, the youngest son, was determined to go with his father. But because he was still a child Abara brought him to Gémgém, the daughter of a wôge [fortune-teller], in Bušurro. ‘I will take him later’, he told her. Éntäzära, Idig, Anfia are Säbat Bet Gurage clans, Qadane is a spirit medium clan in Mäsmäs (BRAUKÄMPER 1983:55; maybe the name Qadane derives from a certain Kidanä tabot [?]), the Habemanna are a Kambaata clan. 47 A fight between bulls can eventually indicate a spiritual fight similar to that of two gaaraa mora, ‘bull of the protecting spirit’, known among the Leemo (s. PETER 1999). 46

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After his father left, the fortune-tellers gathered and observed the boy and said: ‘He shall not go to his father’s land’. Gémgém asked them: ‘When his father comes to fetch him, what shall I do?’ The answer of the fortunetellers was: ‘When the father comes to fetch him, tell him that his child died. We will show him a grave that we have prepared. The boy shall be hidden’. And they did so. When Abara came, they told him that his child died and showed him a grave. Abara started to open the grave but he only found wood. He understood that they did not want to give him his son. The boy grew quickly. Gémgém became like Saý amär Dam. Now, people started to come to Gémgém to bring her oxen, flowers and honey and they asked her for her blessing. More and more people came. One day they came already early in the morning. She had only prepared half of her hair-dress and they disturbed her. She became angry and said: ‘What day is this that people do not let me style my hair? What’s going on with the angel of this day?’48 After she spoke like this, suddenly a strong wind started and took her and threw her on the earth. She was swallowed by the earth for ever. This is how the office of Saý amär Dam came into the Gaka line».49

This account is to be correlated with two other Gurage legends of origin: 1. the legend of origin of the Waq of Èaha, Og yät, documented in two versions by Gabreyesus Hailemariam and Worku Nida and 2. the legend of origin of the G weytak wéyä ritual office which is known through the information given by Prunet and Berhanu Chamora.50 1.1) In the legend of origin of the Waq of Èaha, Og yät, the choice of the new (first) medium of Og yät is indicated by the loosening of the person’s hair-dress. The loosening of the hair-dress thus becomes a sign for the chosenness of a medium. Og yät, the legend says, asked the father of the chosen medium to give his daughter to him to become the new Wägäp³äèa dämam spirit medium. A similar background may be considered to lie behind the anecdote about Gémgém’s unfinished head-dress. 1.2) After the father agreed, the girl chosen by Og yät is said to have been taken away by the wind or cyclone. After a transition period during which she stayed in the trunk of a tree she came back fully initiated in her new office. Probably Gémgém’s vaAccording to an informant every day is protected by a special angel. The genealogy of the Saýamär bid as remembered by Ergada Saýamär Dam, starting with the recent Saýamär Dam and with names of wives in brackets: Garamo—Ermanèèo—Ordamo—Waýamîðo—Abisso—Bario—Yabo—Makièo—Naze— Gaka—Abara (wife: Gumo)—Asakwérro—Duna—Lalu—Zoma—Ïanžuwo (wife: Goma)—Täklä—azmaè Sébhat—Amdä Séyon—Agbe Téhon—Yékuno Amlak—as³e Yohannés—ate Fasil—Izanna—Ménilék [I] (wife: Zage)—Salomon (wife: Tarsis, servant of the Queen of Sheba [!]). 50 GABREYESUS HAILEMARIAM 1991:133–139; WORKU NIDA 1994:362f.; PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1995:58, 60, 64f. 48 49

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nishing originally indicated the same type of initiation. Not understanding (?) the cultural context, the teller of the story (or already the person who told it to him) put the event in a time when she already was a spirit intermediary. Something similar must have happened to the damo near Božžäbär. 1.3) On the seventh day after the return of the new Og yät medium a virgin girl brings her water from Božžäbär mixed with honey, and after this the new medium is allowed to meet her new husband, the damo of Wägäp³äèa. In the story of Gumo the elements «virgin», «Bozzäbär» and «woman entering the house of a damo» can be identified, but they have totally different narrative functions. The traditional elements survived but they seem to be somehow confused now. Unfortunately there was no chance to record the legend from any other informant for comparison or confirmation. 2.1) By correlation with the oral tradition of the Božžä priests, Gumo can be identified with Ïumwäd,51 the first, and the only female G weytak wéyä spirit medium. According to Prunet — Berhanu Chamora52 Ïumwäd is said to have come from Arabia together with the first Saý amär Dam.53 In Ethiopia the Saý amär Dam went to Éndägañ while Ïumwäd first established her sanctuary in Muòér, then in ɞa, later in Èaha and at last her present one in Énor (Énnämor). 2.2) For the conflict of Gumo and Abara over the fight of the two bulls a similar motif can be found in the legend of Ïumwäd. But while Abara is the husband and his bull kills the bull of his wife Gumo, in the G weytak wéyä legend it is a maga of Ïumwäd who kills her bull. By this incident, it is said, that Ïumwäd lost prestige and therefore decided that her successors in office should be male. 2.3) In the genealogy of the Gweytak wé yä line54 the second office holder was Wäsräräd. But he is not mentioned among the list of sons of Gumo and Abara. Prunet and Berhanu Chamora55 consider the mother of Gaka (Gako) and Ïumwäd to be the same person. Ïumwäd, the first G weytak wéyä, according to them had three sons, Wäsäräd, Anfuya (probably the Anfia of the Gaka legend) and Hundar, and one daughter, Gabratä. The mother of Gaka (Gako) and her husband Bäqästä had eight sons (Dämmala, Dasara, Ïanžuwo, Gako, Ezafiye, Amt³iye and Idig [eighth son and daughter unknown]).56 The legend The names Gumo and Ïumwäd are not much different, ð and ž are often free variants in Gurage languages (s. Leslau 1979c:62, § 9.42). Gumo can also be Ïumo, Gémêém can also be Ïémžém. 52 PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1995:63f. 53 This origin of the Saý amär Dam without any additional information was told to me by some Éndägañ informants as well. 54 PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1995:65. 55 PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1997:563. 56 Damala (Dämmala), Dasara and Ïanžuwo (cp. n. 49) sometimes appear in Éndägañ genealogies as sons of the apical ancestor Éndägañ (also Badägañ) preceding 51

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of Gaka gives a possible answer to Prunet and Berhanu Chamora’s question as to whether there were two Ïumwäds, the mother of Gaka (Gako) and the mother of Wäsräräd. There were two: Ïumwäd (Gumo) and Gémgém. Ïumwäd is the mother of the G weytak wéyä and the Saý amär Dam and she links the two cults together. Gaka must have had another father than Wäsräräd or this discrepancy shows how the legends shifted away from each other in order to serve the different needs of the clans of the G weytak wéyä and the Saý amär Dam. The legend of Gaka seems to be a recent compilation and re-interpretation of fragments of different narratives. At the beginning of the story Gumo seems to come from nowhere. The «land of her fathers» is somewhere near Lake Božžäbär but her genealogical origin is unknown to the teller of the story. It is not clear why she is caught by the order of the elders. Are there no parents to be asked? Is she chosen to marry the damo and to become through this a spirit intermediary? But why is the Damo refusing her and what is the meaning of the Damo’s odd blasphemy? He vanishes, or, to put it in other words, he is abruptly taken out of the story in order to establish Gumo as a rich unmarried woman on her own land. The elders urge her to marry but she prophesizes whom she will marry. Her marriage with the nomad pastoralist Abara ends with divorce. Behind this a fission of two associated groups can be assumed, the six clans Éntäzära, Idig, Anfia, Qadan, Habemanna and Gaka (Saýamär bîd). The intention of the narration is to show the prestigious genealogical linkages of the Saý amär Dam line. It explains how Gaka, a Mäsmäs child, came to Éndägañ and why he lived in Gémgém’s gananna in Bušurro. Gémgém is the daughter of a fortune-teller and she «became like Saý amär Dam» or is even called «the first Saý amär Dam» by other informants. From her Gaka received his role as ritual head in Bušurro. From his mother, the first G weytakwéyä, he had his own spiritual genealogy. By the legend Gaka and the lineage of Saý amär Dam is endowed with the prestige of three different spiritual lineages: one connecting it with the wider context of Gurage religion, one connecting it with a local priestly lineage, and one with a prestigious Mäsmäs ancestor.

Rites In Éndägañ religion the giving of gifts (sacrifices, tributes) had great importance. The relationship between people and higher spiritual beings (angels and even Maryam) or their intermediaries respectively resembled that of patron and client. The individual as well as the smaller or bigger social units could appeal to spiritual counterparts represented by a spirit medium or cerhis grandson Šadgär (o. i. Araga Ersido; Kasa Mugoro). Idig is a priestly clan in Énnämor (cp. n. 46; PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1997:563).

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tain natural phenomena (trees, rivers) in order to gain a victorious war, protection, wealth, fertility etc. After their wishes were fulfilled people had to give what they had promised. The qoJ³ora and dänne ceremonies were two complementary types of sacrifices. The qoJ³ora ceremonies were carried out during night-time, mainly by groups of women. Men only accompanied them to protect them from wild animals but did not take part. The names of rivers which are remembered for their ritual function are Ameka, Dogossa, Fongorra and Ambuyambo. The dänne ceremonies under the holy trees were exclusively for men.57 They were carried out in daylight and were connected with political meetings. Times of misfortune were occasions for such gatherings. When the Éndägañ were attacked by an enemy or threatened by disease and epidemics the Saý amär Dam could give instructions as to what type of sacrifice could prevent danger and where (i. e. which meeting place, tree) it should be carried out. Protection ceremonies that were remembered by informants, were those against a wild animal («a big snake») with the name of Qoro Meý awi, Habûsa gofurra («a big snake which killed people»), a big bird with the name Aý ona golûnse (Hadiyya lit.: ‘vulture, take it away’, probably a cattle disease), the war leader «Gän abagada [eventually ‘leader of the country’] from Oromiya» and «Ewidaganne» (?), an Italian. Ergada Saý amär Dam described the rite in the following words: «Every clan had to bring [as a gift for the Saý amär Dam] 15 calves and wood58 and they prayed together. After the prayer a strong wind begun and took away all evil. It was carried to the Gibe [river] where it fell down and burned. It was possible to see the fire there. Everybody at that time believed in the Saý amär Dam». At holy trees there were also made other sacrifices. In daily life women brought milk and butter to certain holy trees to smear them at the trunk or leave them there in a bowl.59 Every year Awaqa received the first grain, the first milk, and the first calf. In the case of the different awaý é the distinction between gift and tribute cannot be drawn easily. The Saý amär Dam was in control of large land and huge herds of cattle. It is said that «nobody could visit him without bringing honey». Feasts were dedicated to Saý amär and they were the occasions where every clan or sub-clan had to bring milk, butter, honey and cattle to his The Angel Saý amär dwells upon J³é d (Éndägañ for juniper) trees which also mark his sacral space. Other trees with connection to him are olola (Éndägañ for Ficus vasta) and wçra (Éndägañ/Hadiyya for Olea sylvestris) and ségba (Éndägañ for Podocarpus gracilior). 58 «Wood» refers to twigs which had to be brought as a votive offering. BRAUKÄMPER (1983:262) describes a similar custom in connection with the Hawzulla medium. 59 The trunk of the inthronisation trees on the old market of Šorko was smeared with butter when I visited the place. Unfortunately many holy trees were cut down during the (re-)Christianization period. 57

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shrine district (gananna).60 For the yearly celebration of the maðoya61 feast, a day after mäsqäl, delegations from all clans of Éndägañ and beyond came to honour him and to bring a sacrificial tribute. Maðoya was also the day when people had to pay their debts, e. g., the promised oxen in return for the good outcome of a conflict or a fertile year. When the oxen were brought to the gananna people sung «abô hçèô, abô hçèô» (‘Awaqa shall be greeted’).62 The young women, especially of the maga families, started to sing repeating «maðoya, maðoya», clapping hands and dancing. Drums were beaten. People gathered around the gananna. When the Saý amär Dam approached the gananna followed by his maga he rang his handbell63 and people had to step aside. Some of the oxen were slaughtered and the meat distributed. The Saý amär Dam (or the damo respectively) carried out a haruspecium with the abdominal fat of the sacrificed oxen. He prophesized the fate of the clan which had given the oxen. The Saý amär Dam then gave the order as to which colour and features the oxen to be brought in the next year should have in order to prevent misfortune. While doing this the high-priest sat in a tukul (round house with grass-thatched roof) in the gannana and his maga loudly exclaimed his words and prophecies. He always ended with the words: «If you follow me [my instructions] you shall be blessed».64 After the feast the unmarried women wandered from village to village singing mçd 65 songs and receiving special ensete food (buzanna) from those they visited (o. i. Ergada Ordamo; Waýadero Ordamo). The gananna was forbidden for women and members of the endogamous Fuga people who were considered to be impure. The first gananna was in Bušurro. A new one was established in Šawia two generations ago. 61 S. also PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1997:562. 62 According to BRAUKÄMPER (1983:265) the Hawzulla medium was saluted three times with «abbo heðo». 63 The insignia of a Saýamär Dam are the ambar armring which is said to have been handed down for 12 generations, the ankase ceremonial staff and the handbell donä. My informants, brothers of the last Saýamär Dam and uncles of the recent, reported of two different ceremonial dresses: 1) a black cape (kabba) and a cap patterned in the colours black, red and white; 2) red clothes («red like the colour of the tabot cloth»), once a year combined with the skin of a leopard (cp. with cloths of the Gweytakwéyä in PRUNET — BERHANU CHAMORA 1995:60f.). 64 For the clan of Saýamär bid and its branch in Hadiyya, the Saýamermanna, there was also another feast in the first half of Térr in Buðurro gannana. It was mainly a gathering dedicated to the ancestor-Saýamär Dams. With the death of the last guardian of the gannana this tradition is considered to have died out (o. i. Ergada Ordamo: Doboè Megiso). 65 The term mçd designates ritual associations of unmarried women similar to the mwéyät associations in Óaha Gurage (for more information see s. SHACK 1966, index; WORKU NIDA 1990). But LESLAU (1979a:208) explains mçd as «kind of zar-spirit». 60

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BusÖ urro Maryam and the Christianity of the EEndaâ gan+ The tabot of Bušurro (also Bušurra) Maryam is considered to be the oldest tabot of Éndägañ country. According to oral tradition it was brought to the region from the north by the followers of the Gurage founding father azmaè Sébhat. Legend tells that the Éndägañ migrated to Bušurro guided by their ancestor Šadgär. It is a general topos that they spread from there into their recent settlement area. The tabot of Maryam has a certain significance as the emblematic symbol of the ethnic identity of the Éndägañ. Maryam is called «the mother of Éndägañ» (o. i. Kasa Mugoro).66 The Maryam tabot is said to have been hidden in a cave to save it from the looting warriors of «Grañ». Since then the tabot is said to have been guarded by a big snake (o. i. Gobozo Abayye; Kasa Mugoro; Kersummo Lilato).67 Around the place a certain cult was developed in which women became the main actors. The «cave», a high-situated cleft on the slopes of Mount Mugo, became the destination of annual pilgrimages held at Térr 21, the day of Maryam or ŸÉräfta (‘Her Falling-asleep’, i. e. the day of Mary’s death). Women from all over Éndägañ climbed up the steep steps68 from the village of Bušurro in order to fulfil the promises they had made to Maryam to gain fertility or other things they had prayed for and to support their wishes for the next year. The women brought gifts like special ensete food (Éndägañ: atakana, bérabérat69 ), milk, butter, honey or even animals to be slaughtered near the «cave». On other days the «cave» was visited in less important as well as urgent cases. The cult only stopped in 199870 when the priest of the new church of Bušurro Gabréýel ordered to take away the tabot and to bring it into his church. The priest, a purist Orthodox, forbade all, in his view «pagan», activities at the «cave» and ordered all pilgrims to come to his church. But still I could observe that somebody had made an offering of incense directly at the «cave» (o. i. Gobozo Abayye; Kasa Mugoro). While the cult of Bušurro Maryam dates back to the unknown past, Ethiopian Orthodox faith in its «pure» form reached the Éndägañ again with the expansion of the Ethiopian empire under Emperor Ménilék II. It seems that 66 The significance of the place is enchanced by the fact that at the eastern side of the Buðurro hill the dwelling place and the holy grave yard of eight generations of Saýamär Dam, Buðurro gananna, are situated. 67 Doubt can be arouse as to whether there ever was a real tabot, for legends of Christian relicts hidden in caves are a wide spread motif in southern as well as northern Ethiopia. 68 A considerable number of steps are hewn directly into the rock and signs of long usage can be identified. 69 For the usage of bérabérat in the context of spirit possession s. SHACK 1971:35f., atakana is considered best quality énsät food. 70 This was one year before I visited the place at Maryam’s day.

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the Éndägañ’s consciousness of having an old Christian origin, and the Christian elements in their folk-religion, made it much easier for them to accept the religion of the new rulers. Conversation partners explained to me that for the Éndägañ it was «no problem» to adopt Orthodox faith «because of its similarities with antoqotora». The process is described by some informants as only a formal matter. That this is not fully true, is witnessed by the example of the desecrated holy grove of Umoniya (s. above). The Ethiopian administration saw the relatively unproblematic conversion of the Éndägañ as a «return» to Christianity and some chiefs quickly gained acknowledgement as officials of the Emperor. The balabbat Hemaèo Seqet³o was even appointed as the head of the whole Kontäb wäräda, which also included a large part of the Hadiyya population who had formerly dominated the Éndägañ. The indigenous chiefs actively supported the (re-)Christianization, e. g., by building churches. The following list of churches shall show the development of Orthodox Christianity in the main settlement area of the Éndägañ. After Bušurro Maryam, the second oldest church in Éndägañ is considerd to be Assar Giyorgis in the heartland of the country near the old market of Šorko. Some conversation partners said that here was a pre-Ménilék church. Others speak of a kind of fortification which allegedly stood at this place.71 The construction of Assar Giyorgis was probably taken out by the order of balabbat Hemaèo Seqeto during the reign of Ménilék II. The third church, Anfofo Mikaýel, was built in 1916 Eth. C. in the vicinity of the village of the Saý amär Dam near a healing J³äbäl (‘source’). Qäññazmaè Baèore erected in 1923 Eth.C. the church of Sasgita Maryam on the ground of a «grave yard of the pagans». In 1926 Eth.C. balabbat Wäldä Sänbät Lagisso founded the church of Wäläèo Maryam (he later also founded Kéltefat Baläwäld church). Then in 1933 Eth.C. balambaras (sangaqoro) Ergâbè founded Gidaša Kidanä Méhrät. During the reign of Òaylä Íéllase I the following churches were built: Barèe Mädhane ŸAläm, Umbolca Gabréýel and Nafaga Gabréýel (on the ground of a «pagan grave yard»). Many of these churches were built near näfJ³añña settlements (like Nafaga). More recent churches are Nafaga Uraýel, Bušurro Gabréýel (which before was already the dwelling place of a hermit), Leera Gabréýel (in today’s Sélt³e zone) and Geeða Mikaýel (in today’s Hadiyya zone). Today the majority of Éndägañ follow a relatively conservative Ethiopian Orthodox faith. Since the time of the Islamic war-leader Hasän Énðaamo, who is said to have crossed the country, and due to intermarriage with Muslim Azär71 At the steep northern side of the hill of Ðorko, reaching near to Assar Giyorgis, a stone wall of seemingly older date can be identified. In a legend azmaè Séléto³ (clan of Èiraèo) ca. 6 generations ago hid his people in a cave at Assar Giyorgis to save them from enemies. Informants told me about a fortification a little below the Assar hill dating back to a war between Alaaba (Qabeena?) and Éndägañ.

Pl. I. Saý amaâ r Dam Garamo Ordamo, wearing the traditional s¶as¶ (priestís headgear) with his mule, photo courtesy of the author.

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nät-Bärbäre, Hadiyya or Énnämor Gurage some Éndägañ follow Islam. Catholic missionaries from Éndébér, who entered the country during the Italian time, were reported to have been driven out. Protestant missionaries penetrating Éndägañ country, e. g., Baptists supported by a Korean (!) organization, have until now had very little success and are observed with great suspicion. After the (re-)Christianization under the Ethiopian emperors the old religion was weakened considerably; under the Därg regime repression additionally increased. The different religious functionaries were considered feudalists who drained wealth from the peasants, and their faith was seen as a sign of backwardness. The large lands of the awaý é were taken during the land reform and the flow of gifts and tributes weakened every year until it totally stopped. The recent Saý amär Dam, Garamo Ordamo (s. Pl. I), was introduced to his office at a very young age at the beginning of Därg rule. He has no personal experience of the old religion in full function. The Saý amär Dam is still surrounded by many taboos and secrets, and the gananna is still a holy place where trees are not allowed to be cut. The high-priest’s blessing and advice is asked for in the meetings of the songe assembly and his ritual role in the Gurage religious system remains untouched. Garamo Saý amär Dam describes himself as a «normal peasant» and an Orthodox Christian who prays «for Éndägañ, for Ethiopia and for Peace». Let me join him in this prayer.

REFERENCES Oral informants: 1) agäz Admasu Wärqe: from Sasgita, elder of the Èiraèo clan, peasant, highest representative of Éndägañ, in his paternal line are important figures like nugs, balabbat and military leaders of the imperial Ethiopian army, interview: 28 January 2000; 2) Araga Ersido: from Leera and Hossana, dañña of the Nure clan, lawyer, former member of Òaylä Íéllase I’s «parliament», grandson of balabbat Hemaèo Seqeto, interview: 1 December 1999; 3) Babore Kaýisso: from Sasgita, high-aged elder of the Ambaro clan of Enär, formerly peasant, trader, circumciser, soldier for the Italians and later Òaylä Íéllase I, interviews: 30 November 1999, 3 December 1999; 4) abagaaz Dassala Lambeebo: from Abušurra, elder of the Dagagmanna, Leemo Hadiyya, peasant, interview: 23 January 2000; 5) Doboè Megiso: from Lareeba, elder of the Saýamarmanna (branch of Saýamär bîd in Hadiyya), peasant, interview: 24 December 1999; 6) Ergada Ordamo (called Ergada Saý amär Dam): from Barèe, elder of Saýamär bîd, son of Saý amär Dam Ordamo, interviews: 18 November 1999, 25 November 1999, 3 December 1999, 31 January 2000; 7) Gobozo Abayye: from Busurro, peasant, former guardian of Bušurro Maryam Waša (lit. ‘Bušurro Maryam cave’); interview 30 Januar 2000;

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8) Saý amär Dam Garamo Ermanèèo: from Šawia, the Saý amär Dam in office today, interview: 2 December 1999; 9) daann Gaarkaaboo Fiixeebo: from Qaališaa, high aged dañña of the Wiito clan, Leemo Hadiyya, peasant, interview: 10 January 2000; 10) abagaz Gäbre Makiso: from Dénkula, high-aged elder of the Èiraèo clan, landowner in Dénkula during Òaylä Séllase I’s reign, interview: 12 March 2000; 11) Habte Tobato: from Kormine, elder of the Gamio clan, peasant, interview: 17 November 1999; 12) azmaè Kasa Mugoro: nugs of the Gamio, peasant, former carpenter, interview: 10 October 1999, 12 November 1999, 26 November 1999; 13) Damo Wäyabbo Kersummo Lilato: from Assar/Šorko, elder of the Girme clan, peasant, former priest of Awaqa; 14) Ligbite Ali: Kormine, owner of a tea house, interview: 13 January 2000; 15) qes Tamasgen Habtä Wäldä: from Šawia, priest at Anfofo Mikaýel since 1950, interview: 2 December 1999; 16) Wadero Ordamo (called Wadero Saý amär Dam): from Barèe, highaged elder of Saýamär bîd, son of Saý amär Dam Ordamo, interview: 27 January 2000.

LITERATURE: BELAYNESH MIKAEL, «Zena Marqos», in: DEB 216; BRAUKÄMPER, U. (1980), Die Geschichte der Hadiya — Von den Anfängen bis zur Revolution 1974, Wiesbaden 1980 (Studien zur Kulturkunde, 50); BRAUKÄMPER, U. (1983), Die Kambata. Geschichte und Gesellschaft eines südäthiopischen Bauernvolkes, Wiesbaden (Studien zur Kulturkunde, 65); BRAUKÄMPER, U. (2000), «Fandaano: A Vanishing Socio-Religious System of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia», Bulletin of the International Committee of Urgent Anthropological and Ethnological Research 40: 55–63; BRAUKÄMPER, U. «Fandaanano», in: EÆ II, 488–489; BRAUKÄMPER, U. — TILAHUN MISHAGO (1999), Praise and Teasing. Narrative Songs of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia, Frankfurt am Main (Sonderschriften des Frobenius-Instituts, 13); BUSTORF, D. (2001), Leemo-Hadiyya und Indagayn-Gurage: Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart ihrer interethnischen Beziehungen, M. A. thesis, GeorgAugust Universität Göttingen; BUSTORF, D., «Božžä», in: EÆ I, 619f.; BUSTORF, D., «Dämwamwit», in: EÆ II, 79–80; BUSTORF, D., «Éndägañ», in: EÆ II, 294–296; BUSTORF, D., «Oral Traditions on the Inter-Ethnic Relations of the LeemoHadiyya and Éndägäñ-Gurage», in: UHLIG, S. et al (eds.) Proceedings of the XV th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Wiesbaden, forthcoming;

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CECCHI, A. (1888), Fünf Jahre in Ost-Afrika, Leipzig; D ÉNBÄRU ALÄMU et al. (1987 E. C. [1994/95 A. D.]), ÔÔ|— ¹Ñ#^Ñ+ " x…+[cx " {]¡ " wFJ " uu (Gogot: yägurage béheräsäb tarik, bahélénna qwanqwa, ‘Gogot, the History, Culture and Language of the Gurage People’), Wälqite; DOHRMANN, A. (2004), Die Ensete-Gärten der Hadiyya in Süd-Äthiopien, Kulturelle Bedeutungen einer Nahrungspflanze (with an English summary), Münster; GABREYESUS HAILEMARIAM (1991), The Guragué and their Culture, New York — Los Angeles; LEBEL, P. (1974), «Oral Traditions and Chronicles on Guragé Immigration», JES 12/2: 95–106; LESLAU, W. (1950), Ethiopic documents: Gurage, New York (Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, 14); LESLAU, W. (1979a), Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic), vol. 1: Individual Dictionaries, Wiesbaden; LESLAU, W. (1979b), Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic), vol. 2: English-Gurage Index, Wiesbaden; LESLAU, W. (1979c), Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic), vol. 3: Etymological Section, Wiesbaden; PETER, B. (1999), Kulturelle Identität und religiöses Bekenntnis: Synkretismus bei den Hadiyya Südäthiopiens, Mainz (Perspektiven der Weltmission, 27); PRUNET, J.-F. — BERHANU CHAMORA (1995), «A History of the ThunderGod Cult in Central Ethiopia, with Text and Analysis», Langues orientales anciennes. Philologie et linguistique no. 5–6: 53-77; PRUNET, J.-F. — BERHANU CHAMORA (1997), «A Sky-God Cult of Gurage», in: Katsuyoshi Fukui — Eisei Kurimoto — Masayoshi Shigeta (eds.): Ethiopia in Broader Perspective. Papers of the XIII th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Kyoto, 12–17 December 1997, Kyoto, vol. 2: 559–564; SHACK, W. A. (1966), The Gurage. A People of the Ensete Culture, London — New York — Nairobi; SHACK, W. A. (1968), «The Mäsqal-Pole: Religious Conflict and Social Change in Gurageland», Africa 38/4: 457–468; SHACK, W. A. (1971), «Hunger, Anxiety, and Ritual: Deprivation and Spirit Possession among the Gurage of Ethiopia», Man 6/1: 30–43; SHACK, W. A. (1980), «On Deus Otiosus in Gurage Religious Traditions after the Accession of Menilik II», in: Tubiana, J. (ed.), Modern Ethiopia from the Accession of Menilek II to the Present. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies [Session A], Nice, 19–22 December 1977, Rotterdam, 491–499; SHACK, W. A. — HABTE MARIAM MARKOS (1974), Gods and Heros. Oral Traditions of the Gurage of Ethiopia, Oxford 1974;

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TERREFE WOLDESADIK (1967), «The Cult of Dämwamwit and the Mwäyat Organization», paper read at the meeting of social research fieldworkers in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, April 1967; WORKU NIDA (1984), The Revitalist Movement of Hassen Enjaamo, B.A. thesis, Department of History, Addis Ababa University; WORKU NIDA (1994), «The Waq Cult of the Gurage», in: Bahru Zewde — Richard Pankhurst — Taddese Beyene (eds.), Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, vol. 2: 359–377; WORKU NIDA (1990), «The Traditional Beliefs of the Sebat-Bet Gurage, with a Particular Emphasis on the Bozha Cult», in: Tadesse Beyene — Richard Pankhurst — Ahmed Zekaria (eds.), Proceedings of the First National Conference of Ethiopian Studies, April 11–12 1990, Addis Ababa, 109–126.

SUMMARY This article presents some of the findings of anthropological fieldwork carried out in 2000/01 among the Éndägañ. It gives a tentative sketch of the religious system of this Säbat Bet Gurage group and attempts to reveal the meaning of the term anJ³oqoJ³ora which is sometimes used to designate the Éndägañ folk-religion. AnJ³oqoJ³ora here is identified as a syncretistic complex of spirit cults within a wider network of Gurage traditional cults, composed of elements originating from neighbouring religious systems as well as from Orthodox Christianity. Constituents of anJ³oqoJ³ora are the belief in a high-god and the cults of Saý amär, the Waq (sky-god) of the Éndägañ, the cult of Umonya and the veneration of the Maryam tabot of Bušurro. Other elements are the cults of the less powerful protecting spirits and ancestors as well as malevolent spiritual beings. The article provides a description of the central features (ritual functions, feasts, avoidance rules, sacrifices etc.) of the cults of the Saý amär Dam and other high-priests in Éndägañ, like the Qosi Dam, the Damo Wäyabbo, Umoniya and their ritual assistants, the maga. Special emphasis is given to the analysis of a legend about the origin of the descendance line of the Saý amär Dam, collected by the author. It is demonstrated that the legend endows the Saý amär Dam line with the prestige of three different spiritual lineages: one connecting it with the wider context of the Gurage religion, one connecting it with a local priestly lineage, and one with a prestigious Mäsmäs ancestor. The article also describes the syncretistic cult of the Bušurro Maryam tabot and discusses the re-christianization of the Éndägañ area when it was included into the Ethiopian Empire.

Leonardo Cohen University of Haifa

WHO ARE THE ´SONS OF GODª? A JESUIT-ETHIOPIAN CONTROVERSY ON GENESIS 6:2* During the 16th and 17th cent., great efforts were made by Jesuit missionaries to persuade the emperors of Ethiopia and the dignitaries of the Ethiopian Church to convert to Catholicism and accept the authority of the pope. During this period, Jesuits and Ethiopians debated many subjects concerning theological and Christological questions, as well as ritual problems. Each Church had a different approach to ritual and theological problems, and this engendered tensions and conflicts. Although research on these topics is still insufficient, important steps have been taken over the past decades to clarify the theological positions of the Ethiopians and the Jesuits.1 The topic of biblical exegesis and its place in the clashes between Catholics and Ethiopians has received little attention from scholars.2 This is due, in part, to the scarcity of sources on this subject. When the Jesuits deal with theological and Christological questions in their tractates, they do so in a methodical and systematic way, dedicating a special chapter to every issue. In the field of biblical exegesis, on the other hand, the material is dispersed throughout their writings alongside anecdotal narrative that has no connection to any Christological question. In what follows we shall deal with a spe∗ I am grateful to Claude Stuczynski for his suggestions and to Steven Kaplan for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1 See E. CERULLI, Scritti teologici etiopici dei Secoli XVI–XVII, Studi e testi, 198, 204, (Città del Vaticano 1958–1960); S. B. CHERNETSOV, «Ethiopian Theological Response to European Missionary Proselytizing Activities in the 17th–19th centuries», in: V. BÖLL — S. KAPLAN — A. MARTÍNEZ D’ALÒS-MONER — E. SOKOLINSKAIA (eds.), Ethiopia and the Missions: Historical and Antropological Insights, (Hamburg, 2005), 53– 62; TEWELDE BEIENE, La politica cattolica di Seltan Sägäd I (1607–1632) e la missione della Compagnia di Gesù in Etiopia, Ph. D., Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, (Roma, 1983) 123–140, 362–376; See also I. GUIDI, «La chiesa abissina», Oriente Moderno 2 (1922–1923), 123–128, 186–190, 252–256. 2 Some authors deal with this topic but only in cases when it has clear Christological consequences. See Abba AGOSTINO TEDLA, «A proposito di alcuni passi oscuri negli scritti teologici etiopici dei secoli XVI–XVII pubblicati da E. Cerulli», in: R. PANKHURST — S. CHOJNACKI (eds.), Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Addis Ababa 1966, vol. II (Addis Ababa, 1970), 217–242; TEWELDE BEIENE, La Politica Cattolica.

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cific Jesuit-Ethiopian controversy over a passage in Genesis. We shall put forward the interpretations of the Jesuits and Ethiopians and analyze the way in which these represent different exegetical traditions. Pedro Paez was a Jesuit who worked in Ethiopia between 1603 and 1622.3 In one of his accounts we learn how both the Catholic and Ethiopian traditions cite ancient Judeo-Christian sources in order to explain certain Biblical passages. Such alternative exegeses of Old Testament passages did not always result in theological disputes as momentous as the one between monophysism and duophysism, but they are illustrative of their very different interpretative traditions. Paez discusses a controversy surrounding the interpretation of Gen. 6: 1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose.

Paez gives a detailed description of the controversy the interpretation of this passage of Scripture provoked when Emperor Susényos commented on the interpretation of his learned men. Paez describes these interpretations as «fables and lies». He maintains that the interpretation given to this passage in Ethiopia was that: «…the sons of God were angels who, seeing that women were beautiful, got together with them and gave birth to giant sons of such an extraordinary height that they could reach the bottom of the sea with their arms, and, rising, roasted the fish they obtained from the sea, in the region of fire, and when they had annihilated every fish in the sea, they went for the animals, and once these were finished, they started to eat the men who were not of their own kind, and when God saw this great danger, He sent the waters of the flood, with which He punished them».4

The counterpart of this interpretation, which apparently Paez quotes from an oral source, is the reply of the Jesuit father that: «the sons of God were not angels, but sons of Seth, whom He wanted to distinguish from those of the rejected generation of Cain, whose descendants were so mean that they gave themselves completely to their appetites. On the figure of father Paez, see the prologue of Elaine Sanceau in the book edition of P. PAEZ, História de Etiópia, (Porto, 1945–1946), vol. I, IX–XXIII, also S. PANKHURST, Ethiopia: A Cultural History, (London, 1959), 339–358. See in particular the recent articles of H. PENNEC, «La mission Jésuite en Éthiopie au temps de Pedro Paez (1583–1622) et ses rapports avec le pouvoir éthiopien», RSE 36 (1992 [1994]), 77–115; RSE 37 (1993 [1995]), 135–165; RSE 38 (1994 [1996]), 139–181. 4 C. BECCARI (ed.), Rerum Aethiopicarum scriptores occidentales inediti a saeculo XVI ad XIX, vol. II, Roma, 1905, 225–226. 3

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The daughters of these wretches were very beautiful, and when the sons of Seth saw them they were carried away by their great beauty and charm, and broke with the tradition of not talking to people of such a perverse origin. Then they married them and adopted their perverse customs, thus perverting the religion and the Divine cult. And the evildoings of men reached the peak of dissolution that men on Earth are capable of, so much so that not even the divine Scripture wanted to give details of such terrible crimes, only saying that in all their sins they changed the natural style and order that reason teaches».5

The identification of the «sons of God» with the angels must have had its origin in Judaism after the first exile, as a result of contact with the Iranian religion.6 This exegetical tradition dominated for three centuries. Rabbi Simeon Bar Yohai, in the middle of the 2nd cent., is the first authority to disagree with the identification of the «sons of God» with the angels, calling them, instead, «sons of judges».7 In the Christian tradition, on the other hand, this perspective survived one more century, due in part to the book of Enoch I which was accepted as Holy Scripture in certain circles.8 Nevertheless, at the beginning of the third century the identification of the «sons of God» with angels became the target of criticism by some of the Church Fathers. The first 5 C. BECCARI (ed.), Rerum Aethiopicarum scriptores occidentales inediti a saeculo XVI ad XIX, vol. II, Roma, 1905, 226. 6 G. WIDENGREN, «Iran and Israel in Parthian Times with Special Regard to the Ethiopic Book of Enoch», Temenos 2 (1966), 139–177; W. B. HENNING, «The Book of Giants», BSOAS 11 (1943), 52–74; J. T. MILIK, «Turfan et Qumran. Livre des Géants juif et manicheén», in: G. JEREMIAS — H.-W. KHUN — H. STEGEMANN (eds.) Tradition und Glaube. Das frühe Christentum in seiner Umwelt, (Göttingen, 1971), 117–127. 7 «Rabi Simeon Bar Yohai called them the sons of judges, and cursed those who called them the sons of God. Rabi Simeon Bar Yohai said: if demoralization does not proceed from the leaders, it is not real demoralization». Gen. R. 26. See MENAHEM M. KASHER, Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, vol. I: Genesis, tr. under the editorship of H. FREEDMAN (New York, 1953), 182–183. The same occurs with the interpretation of Gen. 3:5 «Ye shall be as God». According to some rabbinical interpretations, in the verse «ye shall be as Elohim» we should understand Elohim as the «Great». See Sopherim chap. 4; «Elohim is the name of God. If an error occurs in its writing in the Sefer Torah [the sacred scroll], it may not be erased, but must be cut out from the parchment and buried. Occasionally, however, the same word does not stand for the Deity but simply means great men, judges, or leaders. In that case it may be erased». See MENAHEM M. KASHER, Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, vol. I: Genesis, 121. See also P. ALEXANDER, «The Targumim and Early Exegesis of ‘Sons of God’ in Genesis 6», Journal of Jewish Studies 23 (1972), 60–71. 8 A. M. Denis provide some examples in Introduction aux Pseudépigraphes Grecs d’Ancien Testament, (Leiden, 1970), 20–24.

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of these was Julius Africanus (A.D. 160–240), who identifies the «sons of God» with «the righteous of the line of Seth».9 This interpretation also finds its origins in certain apocryphal texts such as the Testament of Adam and the Book of Adam and Eve.10 As time passed, a greater number of the Church Fathers accepted the new interpretation.11 In its general outline, the explanation Augustine offers on the same passage in De Civitate Dei XV, 17ff., became dominant in Western Christian exegesis until the modern period.12 In reference to Enoch, Augustine says: «So that the writings that are produced under his name, and which contain these fables about the giants, saying that their fathers were not men, are properly judged by prudent men to be not genuine … There is therefore no doubt that, according to the Hebrew Christian canonical Scriptures, there were many giants before the deluge, and that there were citizens of the earthly society of men, and that the sons of God, who were according to the flesh the sons of Seth, sunk into this community when they forsook righteousness».13

«Julii Africani quae supersunt ex quinque libris chronographiae, ad rem sacram et ecclesiasticam potissimum spectantia», in: PG, vol. X (Paris, 1857), 65. 10 See J. P. LEWIS, A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood in Jewish and Christian Literature, (Leiden, 1968), 18. 11 JOHN CRYSOSTOMUS, «Homil. in Gen. XXII, 2», in: PG, vol. LIII (Paris, 1862), 187–188; AUGUSTINE, The City of God, XV, 23, in: P. SCHAFF, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, vol. II (Grand Rapids, MI, 1979), 303–305. See also, L. R. WICKHAM, «The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men. Genesis VI 2 in Early Christian Exegesis», Oudtestamentische Studiën 19 (1974), 135–147. In contrast, the Peshitta manuscripts of Gen. 6 is not in line with the Sethitesexegesis. Instead, it accords with the new interpretation known from Jewish sources. See A. VAN DER KOOIJ, «Peshitta Gene-sis 6: ‘Sons of God’ — Angels or Judges?» Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 23/1 (1997), 43–51. 12 A. COLUNGA — M. GARCÍA CORDERO, Biblia Comentada, vol. I (Madrid, 1967), 125–128; F. ASENSIO et al., La Sagrada Escritura, vol. I (Madrid, 1967), 80–82; Paul Joüon, in a short study, shows the primacy in the 20th cent. of the more common view among Catholic exegetes: that the sons of God are the Sethites, and the daughters of men are descendants of Adam outside the Sethite line. See P. JOÜON, «Les Unions entre les ‘Fils de Dieu’ et les ‘Filles des Hommes’ (Genèse, 6, 1–4)», Recherches de Science Religieuse 29 (1939), 108–114. In the 16th cent. Luther challenged this explanation, suggesting that «The true meaning of the passage is that Moses designates as sons of God those people who had the promise of the blessed Seed». See J. PELIKAN (ed.), Luther’s Works, vol. II (Saint Louis, MO, 1960), 12. 13 AUGUSTINE, The City of God, XV, 23, in: P. SCHAFF (ed.), A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. II, 305. As Walter E. Stephens pointed out «Augustine was the one authority who most resolutely opposed the notion of the Giant … Augustine essentially denied that giants were anything other than large human 9

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It seems that Paez’s commentary is in accord with and based on these sources. It is evident, then, that each and every one of these interpretations has its origins in Christian and Jewish interpretative traditions going back to the first centuries of the Christian era. Doubtless, the Ethiopian version quoted by Paez is based on various passages that pertain to the Apocrypha and the Pseudoepigrapha.14 We can see how similar the version quoted by Paez, according to what «he heard from the Emperor», is to that presented by the Ethiopian book of Enoch: vi, 2. And the angels, the sons of heavens, saw and lusted after them and spoke to one another, «Come, now let us choose our wives from among the children of men and beget children». vii, 1. And they took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and they mixed with them and taught them charms and enchantments, and made them acquainted with the cutting of roots and woods. 2. And they became pregnant, and they bore great giants, whose height was three thousand ells. 3. And these consumed all the acquisitions of men till men could no longer sustain them. 4. Then, the giants turned them against mankind in order to devour them. 5. And they began to sin against birds and beasts, and reptiles and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood thereof. 6. Then, the earth complained of the unrighteous ones.15

The Book of the Jubilees,16 whose authority was accepted as canonical in Ethiopia along with Enoch I, supports the same exegetical tradition. Once beings. First, he cited examples of gigantic stature even in his own age, in order to prove that Giants had not ceased to exist in Mosaic or Davidic times. Second, he categorically maintained that the so-called ‘monstrous’ races, including those of the kind mentioned by Pliny, could not be ‘monstrous’ — inhuman — and descended from Adam. This caveat not only excluded the angels as fili Dei, but also attacked the notion of the Giant as ‘hominid,’ a somehow inferior hybrid created by miscegenation». See W. E. STEPHENS, «De historia gigantum: Theological Anthropology before Rabelais», Traditio 40 (1984), 43–89, here 62. 14 Enoch 1, 9:8–9; D. W. SUTER, Tradition and Composition in the Parables of Enoch, (Missoula, 1979), 77–102; M. A. KNIBB, «The Date of the Parables of Enoch: A Critical Review», New Testament Studies 25 (1979), 345–359; LEWIS, A Study of the Interpretation, 16–19. 15 R. H. CHARLES (ed.) The Book of Enoch, tr. from Professor Dillmann’s Ethiopic text, (Oxford, 1893), 62–65. See also SUTER, Tradition and Composition, 77–102; KNIBB, «The Date of the Parables of Enoch»; LEWIS, A Study of the Interpretation, 16–19. 16 Jubilees 5:1–2; See R. H. CHARLES, The Apocrypha and Pseudoepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, vol. II, (Oxford, 1913), 20. See also J. C. ENDRES, Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Jubilees, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monographs Series 18, (Washington D.C., 1987), 29, 36.

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this interpretation was established, it was only a matter of time before homilies based on the same motifs began to appear.17 We find later versions of the same commentaries in Ethiopic texts such as The Book of the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth: «We turn now to the history of the people of the deluge. At the time angels came down from heaven and then dressed in human flesh. The madness of sin seized them, and they were excluded from the mysteries they saw in heaven».18 A similar interpretation is found in the 16th cent. text Fékkare Mäläkot.19 We can assume therefore that such interpretations, derived from an old exegetical tradition, were quite common in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, it is possible to find another dimension in Paez’s critique of the Ethiopian explanation of the biblical text. It is true that during the 17th cent. in Europe, writings about the physically abnormal and monstrous joined the expanding body of literature on the curious, prodigious, rare and improbable.20 At the same time, a different trend had begun to develop in religious writings, one that stressed the demythologization of religious history. Bernard Fontanelle expressed this idea at the beginning of the 18th cent.: «Men see marvels in proportion to their ignorance and lack of experience».21 Paez, who refutes what he called «the fables, lies and fictions» in the writings of the Dominican Luis de Urreta about Ethiopia,22 fulfilled what he understood as his obligation to discredit the «fantastic» Ethiopian histories of angels coupling with the daughters of man and procreating giants who eat animals and men. Historically, most Christian writers viewed the antediluvian giants as giants par excellence.23 In spite of the authoritative opinion of Augustine, the notion of a «race of giants» did not die out for many hundred of years.24 Medieval European literature shows a great fascination for the 17 The Testament of Reuben 5:6–7. CHARLES, The Apocrypha and Pseudoepigrapha, vol. II, 299. 18 J. PERRUCHON (ed., tr.), Le Livre des mystères du ciel et de la terre, PO 1 (Paris, 1903), 21. 19 CERULLI, Scritti teologici etiopici, vol. I, 48 (GéŸéz), 130 (Italian). 20 See M. T. H ODGEN, Early Anthropology in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, (Philadelphia, 1964), 126–128. 21 J. S. PREUS, Explaining Religion, (Chelsea, MI, 1987), 42. 22 LUIS DE URRETA, Historia Ecclesiástica y política, natural y moral, de los grandes y remotos Reynos de la Etiopia, Monarchia del Emperador, llamado Preste Juan de las Indias, (Valencia, 1610). De Urreta presented a utopian vision of Ethiopia. This conception was based on the medieval imaginary derived from the Letter of Prester John. See J. RAMOS, «O destino etíope do Preste João. A Etiópia nas representações cosmográficas europeias», in: F. CRISTOVÃO (ed.), Condicionantes culturais da literatura de viagens, (Lisboa, 1999), 235–259. 23 See STEPHENS, «De historia gigantum», 43–89. 24 For some thinkers of the Greek Church such as Georgius Monachus (or Hamartolus, fl. ca. 840) and Eutychius of Alexandria (877–940) Seth was «the father of the Giants who existed before the flood». See STEPHENS, «De historia gigantum», 56.

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figure of the «giant», especially in Anglo-Saxon England. The influence of the Book of Enoch on Anglo-Saxon gigantology has been pointed out by several authors.25 In the Early Modern period, too, several treatises were written on the problem of giants. Jean Chassagnon at the end of the 16th cent. composed a treatise in response to the Gigantomachia, in which Goropius (1512–1578) had claimed that giants never existed.26 More than a hundred years later, Augustin Calmet (1672–1757) wrote his Dissertatio de Gigantibus. This work is a compendious review of giant-lore and its sources. Calmet aimed to prove that the giants mentioned by Scripture actually existed and he shows a great commitment to resolving the question of whether and to what extent gigantic stature was possible.27 The question of the giants was still much debated in certain European circles and Paez’s voice joined in with those who maintained that giants never existed, in harmony with the Augustinian view. What we suggest, therefore, is that Paez is equating the Ethiopian interpretation of Gen. 6:1–2 with European mythology. He never mentions old Jewish commentaries as a source of Ethiopian exegesis, something that he usually does when criticizing rites or motives in Christian Ethiopia that seems to him «Jewish». In this case, he mentions neither the «Jewish connection» nor the Book of Enoch. From his point of view he is not confronting a different exegesis deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition but «fables and lies» as Augustine called them, similar to those of the myths and legends of his own continent. The Jesuits, and among them Paez, quite often accused the Ethiopian monks of being ignorant people who were disposed to be credulous about fables and lies. What he wished to demonstrate here was the utter falsity of a story which, like ancient myth, describes celestial beings, the «sons of Gods», who, attracted by the beauty of women, came down to earth, mated with them and begot a race of supermen. It is in this context that Paez’s critique and opinion should be understood. We have noted above the existence of certain rivalries in the context of interpreting passages of the Old Testament. The extent of modern research on debates of this kind and their place in Catholic and Orthodox-Alexandrine identities in Ethiopia is still meager. There is more information available about the Christological debates between the two Churches. However, what we find here is a different field in which Catholics and Ethiopians clashed: the 25 R. E. KASKE, «Beowulf and the Book of Enoch», Speculum 46-3 (1971), 421– 431; also J. J. COHEN, Of Giants. Sex, Monsters and the Middle Ages, (Minneapolis, 1999), 9–10. 26 STEPHENS, «De historia gigantum», p. 64. 27 According to Stephens, Calmet’s conception «strikes the modern reader as conservative in its contentions, not only from our point of view, but even from that of Augustine». See STEPHENS, «De historia gigantum», 64.

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exegesis of Old Testament verses, with no necessary consequence in the Christological controversy. These debates represent an important part of the Jesuit-Ethiopian encounter of the 16th and 17th cent.

SUMMARY During the 16th and 17th cent., when the Jesuits sought to convert Ethiopian leaders and clergy to Catholicism, Jesuits and Ethiopians debated questions of theology, Christology, and ritual. The present paper deals with the question of biblical exegesis, focusing on the different interpretations that Jesuits and Ethiopians gave to Gen. 6:1–2 on account of «the sons of God» marrying «the daughters of men». While the Jesuits identified the sons of God with «the righteous of the line of Seth» in accord with the Augustinian interpretation, the Ethiopian clergy developed an interpretation based on the ancient Jewish-Christian exegesis that considered the sons of God to be angels. To the Jesuit Pedro Paez, the Ethiopian interpretation was nothing but «fables and lies» and attributed to ignorance and credulous attitudes towards myths and fables. The present paper addresses a different dimension of the clashes between the Churches: the scholarly debate over the exegesis of Old Testament verses that had no necessary consequence for the Christological controversy.

Gianfranco Fiaccadori Universit‡Ô degli Studi di Milano

UN RE DI NUBIA A COSTANTINOPOLI NEL 1203* Robert de Clari, celebre cronista francese della IV Crociata, nell’agosto 1203 incontrò alla corte di Costantinopoli «uns rois qui toute avoit le char noir, et avoit une crois en mi le front qui li avoit esté faite d’un caut fer».1 L’imperatore Alessio IV Angelo così presentava il monarca ai baroni franchi dai quali era stato appena rimesso sul trono: «ch’est li rois de Nubie, qui est venu en pelerinage en cheste vile»; poi, a mezzo d’interpreti (latimiers), l’ospite fu interrogato dai presenti sulla sua terra d’origine: «Et fist on parler latimiers a lui, et fist on lui demander ou se tere estoit, tant qu’il respondi as latimiers, en sen langage».2 Il «rois de Nubie», cui già Alessio III (avanti il 17/18 luglio di quell’anno) aveva dato in uso un monastero della città («une molt rike abeïe en le chité»), dichiarò allora d’esser partito dal suo Paese, «encore cent journees dela Jherusalem», con un séguito di sessanta uomini: a Gerusalemme ne rimanevano dieci, a Costantinopoli due solamente, coi quali egli intendeva recarsi «en pelerinage a Rome et de Rome a Saint Jake [di Compostella, in Galizia] et puis revenir s’ent ariere en Jherusalem, s’il pooit tant vivre, et puis illueques morir. Et si dist que tot chil de se tere estoient crestien, et quant li enfes estoit nes et on le baptisoit, que on li faisoit une crois en mi le front d’un caut fer ausi comme il avoit».3 A Benjamin Hendrickx si deve la più recente e singolare proposta circa l’identità dell’anonimo sovrano: si tratterebbe del néguœ Lalibäla (c. 1185–1225), «costruttore» delle celebri chiese monolitiche nella città che da lui prende nome CE = The Coptic Encyclopaedia, ed. by Aziz S. Atiya, New York, &c., Macmillan Publishing Co., &c., 1991, voll. 1–8; ODB = The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. by A. Kazhdan & al., New York — Oxford, O.U.P., 1991, voll. 1–3. 1 Robert de Clari, La Conquête de Constantinople, LIV, éd. par Ph. Lauer, Paris, E. Champion, 1924 (Les classiques françaises du Moyen Age, 40), 54.4–55.1 [= Historiens et chroniquers du Moyen Age, éd. établie et annotée par A. Pauphilet, textes nouveaux commentés par E. Pognon, Paris, Gallimard, 1952 (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 48), 13–91: 54.25–27]. Cf. M. McC(ORMICK), «Robert de Clari», in: ODB vol. 3, 1799, con bibliogr., cui ora si aggiunga P. SCHREINER, Robert de Clari und Konstantinopel, in: Novum Millennium. Studies in Byzantine history dedicated to Paul Speck 19 Dec. 1999, ed. by C. Sode — S. Takács, Aldershot, &c., Ashgate, 2001, 337–356. 2 Robert de Clari, La Conquête de Constantinople, l. cit., 55.14–18 [= Historiens et chroniquers du Moyen Age, 54.34–38]. 3 Ivi, 55.6–7 e 18–28 [= 54.27–28 e 54.36–55.3]. *

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fra i monti del Lasta, in Etiopia.4 Tale proposta, accolta nell’Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,5 non va però immune da dubbî e incertezze, priva com’è di riscontri, se non leggendarî, da parte abissina: che Lalibäla fosse miracolosamente trasportato a Gerusalemme per compiere il pellegrinaggio ai Luoghi Santi si apprende infatti dal solo suo Gädl (BHO 560), la «Vita» composta verso la metà del XV secolo.6 Del resto, Hendrickx, il cui lavoro è sfuggito alla recente sintesi di Derek A. Welsby sulla Nubia medievale, non conosce la precedente interpretatio Nubiana di Bo¿ena Rostkowska, che nell’ospite di Alessio IV ha invece scorto «a king of Makuria or one of the lesser Nubian rulers».7 B. HENDRICKX, «Un roi africain à Constantinople en 1203», Buzantina, 13, 1985, 893–898. 5 Vd. D.W. J(OHNSON) — A. K(AZHDAN), «Nubia», in: ODB vol. 3, 1500a–b. 6 Questa parte, omessa nella Vie de Lalibala, roi d’Éthiopie, &c., publiée par J. Perruchon, Paris, E. Leroux, 1892, 37.8 (t.) = 103.19 (tr.), può leggersi nei c.d. Atti di Mäsqäl Kébra, pubblicati da S. KUR, «Édition d’un manuscrit éthiopien de la Bibliothèque Vaticane: Cerulli 178», MRALm, sc. mor., ser. VIII, 16 (7), 1972, 383–425: 387.12–402.6 (t.) = 406.24–421.5 (tr.). Vd. ora la descriz. sommaria del cod. (sec. XIX) in E. CERULLI, Inventario dei manoscritti Cerulli etiopici, Introduzione, integrazioni e indici a c. di O. Raineri, Città del Vaticano, B. A. V., 2004 (Studi e testi, 420), 130 s. Cf. KINEFE-RIGB ZELLEKE, «Bibliography of the Ethiopic Hagiographical Traditions», JES 13/2, 1975, 57–102: 79 s., nr. 89; R. SAUTER, «Lalibäla», in: DEB 101 s.; e sopratutto S. TEDESCHI, «Lâlibalâ», in: Bibliotheca Sanctorum orientalium (Enciclopedia dei Santi. Le Chiese orientali), II, Roma, Città Nuova Ed., 1999, 300– 303. Per il nesso con Gerusalemme: J. PIRENNE, La légende du «Prêtre Jean», Strasbourg, Presses universitaires, 1992, 44 ss.; M. E. HELDMAN, «Architectural symbolism, sacred geography and the Ethiopian Church», Journal of Religion in Africa 22, 1992, 222–241; EAD., «Legends of Lâlibalâ. The development of an Ethiopian pilgrimage site», Res 27, 1995, 25–38. Ma vd. ora E. VAN DONZEL, «Lâlibalâ and Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century», in: East and West in the Crusader States: context — contacts — confrontations, [I]. Acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle in May 1993, ed. by K. Ciggaar & al., Leuven, Uitgev. Peeters, 1996 (OLA, 75), 73–80; ID., «Were there Ethiopians in Jerusalem at the Time of Saladin’s Conquest in 1187?», ivi, II. Acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle in May 1997, ed. by K. Ciggaar & H. Teule, Leuven, Uitgev. Peeters, 1999 (OLA, 92), 125–130; ID., «Ethiopia’s Lalibäla and the fall of Je-rusalem 1187», Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 1, 1998, 27–49. 7 Vd. risp. D. A. WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile, London, The British Museum P., 2002, 76 e n. 47 (265), e B. ROSTKOWSKA, «The visit of a Nubian king to Constantinople in A.D. 1203», in: New Discoveries in Nubia, Proceedings of the Colloquium on Nubian Studies. The Hague, 1979, ed. by P. Van Moorsel, Leiden, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1982 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, II), 113–116. Incerto fra Nubia ed Etiopia/Abissinia G. VANTINI, Il Cristianesimo nella Nubia antica, Verona, Novastampa, 1985 (Museum Combonianum, 39), 234: «...però la possibilità che si tratti proprio di un re nubiano non si può escludere a priori». 4

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Ora, benché gli Etiopi siano effettivamente associati ai Nubiani e spesso confusi con questi nelle fonti antiche e medievali,8 è da credere che li distinguesse la cancelleria bizantina; e più tardi, fra il 1252 e il 1295, l’interpolatore (un monaco di Huy, presso Liegi) della cronaca di Alberico delle Tre Fontane segnala presbiteri nubiani e, necessariamente, abissini (sudditi del Prete Gianni) officianti al Santo Sepolcro: «...Septimus ordo dicitur Nubianorum Christianorum, quorum terra maxima est et multi ex eis tributarii Sarracenorum sunt. Octavus ordo totam illam multitudinem Christianorum continet que Presbitero Ioanni subiecta est».9 Contrariamente a quanto ritiene Hendrickx,10 non sembra poi decisiva l’indicazione di Robert de Clari sulle «focature» battesimali, attributo canonico degli uni e degli altri: ad esempio, nel dipinto della Cattedrale di Faras (l’antico vescovado di Pachôras, città regia di Nobadia) la «principessa» nubiana protetta dalla Vergine col Bambino mostra precisamente «une crois en mi le front» (il pannello, dell’XI/XII secolo, è oggi al Sudan National Museum di Òartum).11 E così potrà intendersi, per Gerusalemme, la testimonianza oculare del domenicano Burcardo da Monte Sion, circa il 1280–1285: «...Nubeani & Jabeani [= Abissini] dicunt se scire, majores suos fidem suscepisse, quam hodie inviolabiliter servare contendunt, innitentes huic authoritati, Matth. III:11. Ipse vos baptizabit in Spiritu Sancto

8 Vd., p. es., G. F., Ethiopians, in: ODB vol. 2, 733a–b, con bibliogr.; ID., Teofilo Indiano, Presentazione di R. Farioli Campanati, Ravenna, Ed. del Girasole, 1992 (Biblioteca di «Felix Ravenna», 7), 12 ss., n. 33, 46 s., n. 12, con altre indicaz.; Ph. MAYERSON, «A confusion of Indias: Asian India and African India in the Byzantine sources», Journal of the American Oriental Society 113, 1993, pp. 169–174 (= ID., Monks, Martyrs, Soldiers and Saracens. Papers on the Near East in Late Antiquity, Jerusalem, The Israel Explor. Soc. in collab. with N. Y. Univ., 1994, 361– 366), di cui R. CONTINI, Quaderni di studi arabi 12, 1994 [ma 1995], 217–221: 220. 9 Chronica Albrici monachi Trium Fontium, A. 1234, ed. P. Scheffer-Boichorst, in: Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, XXIII, Hannoverae, Imp. Bibliopolii Aulici Hahniani, 1874, 631–950: 935.35–39, discusso e riprod. da E. CERULLI, Etiopi in Palestina. Storia della comunità etiopica di Gerusalemme, I, Roma, La Libreria dello Stato, 1943 (Collezione scientifica e documentaria a c. del Ministero dell’Africa Italiana, XII), 77 ss.: 79, doc. nr. 9. L’«octavus ordo» è impropriamente riferito alla Nubia in VANTINI, Il Cristianesimo, 235. Sul Prete Gianni vd. infra e n. 19. 10 «Un roi africain à Constantinople», 897 n. 14. 11 ROSTKOWSKA, «The visit of a Nubian king», 116 e n. 12, pl. II, fig. 2. Cf. E. DINKLER, «Beobachtungen zur Ikonographie des Kreuzes in der nubischen Kunst», in: Nubia. Récentes recherches, Actes du Colloque nubiologique international au Musée de Varsovie (19–22 juin 1972), sous la réd. de K. Micha³owski, Varsovie, Musée National, 1975, 22–30: 27 s. e nn. 36–37, fig. 7. Sul segno della croce, «impresso con antimonio, indelebile» per VANTINI, l. cit., vd. sopratutto E. CERULLI, «Il volo di Astolfo sull’Etiopia nell’Orlando Furioso», RRALm, sc. mor., ser. VI, 8, 1932, 19–38: 28–33, e ID., Etiopi in Palestina, I, 51 ss., 58 s.

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& igne. Nam cuum baptizantur, cum calido ferro crucem inurunt faciei & alteri corporis parti. Et hi devotiores inter Orientales habentur».12 Alla medesima altezza cronologica del testo di Burcardo, «Abasce» e «Nubie» sono chiaramente individuate e distinte nel Milione di Marco Polo, con «une bielle estoire que avint a les MCCLXXXVIII anz de l’a[n]carnasionz de Cristi»: il «roi (de la provence) de Abasce» o «d’Abasce» — dall’arabo Habašah ‘Abissinia’ — è in stato di guerra «con le soudan de Aden et con celz de Nubie»; vuol recarsi pellegrino al Santo Sepolcro («por aorer le sepolcre de Crist en Jerusalem») e manda però in vece sua un vescovo poi catturato sulla via del ritorno e circonciso dal «soudan de Aden», ossia da un capo dei Begia (Bugah) della regione nota agli itinerarî quattrocenteschi come Adam o Ad(d)an, fra il delta del Barca (Barka) e il confine eritreo (e ciò vale a restituire i fatti al tempo del néguí Yagbéýa Séyon, 1285–1294).13 Ritengo pertanto che la testimonianza di Robert de Clari debba riferirsi a un re o a un principe nubiano in transito o in cerca d’appoggi contro gli Ayyûbidi di Saladino (Salah ad-Din), l’avvento dei quali, nel 1172, avrebbe del Descr. Terrae Sanctae, [XIII 1], ed. H. Canisius, Thesaurus monumentorum ecclesiasticorum et historicorum, sive Lectiones antiquæ, &c., IV, Antverpiae, ap. R. & G. Wetsenios, 1725, 9–26: 24.15–19, discusso e riprod. da CERULLI, Etiopi in Palestina, I, 80–84: 84, doc. nr. 10. Il passo manca nelle redazioni fatte conoscere da J. C. M. LAURENT, Peregrinatores medii aevi quattuor, Lipsiae, J. C. Hinrichs bibliopola, 1864, 1–100: 89, e H. OMONT, «Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de Sir Thomas Phillips récemment acquis pour la Bibliothèque Nationale», Bibliothèque de l’École de chartes 64, 1903, 490–553: 498–503 (500). 13 Marco Polo, Il Milione, CXCIV.17–85, Prima ed. integrale a c. di L. F. Benedetto, Firenze, L. S. Olschki-Ed., 1928 (Comitato Geografico Naz. Italiano-Pubblicaz., 3), 210 s. = Milione, [189], 1–13, Vers. toscana del Trecento. Ed. critica a c. di V. Bartolucci Pizzorusso. Indice ragionato di G. R. Cardona, Milano, Adelphi, 1975 (Classici, 31), 293 s. A rettifica di C. CONTI ROSSINI, «Marco Polo e l’Etiopia», Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti 99, Parte II, 1939–1940, 1021– 1039: 1027, che pensava all’arabo ŸAdal (etiop. Adäl), la «regione musulmana ad est dello Scioa, nel bassopiano», vd. E. CERULLI, «Il Sultanato dello Scioa nel secolo XIII secondo un nuovo documento storico», RSE 1, 1941, 5–42: 19 n. 1 (= ID., L’Islam di ieri e di oggi, Roma, I.P.O., 1979 [Pubblicazioni, 64], 207–243: 222 n. 68), e ID., Etiopi in Palestina, I, 109 ss.: 109 e n. 2, ma sopratutto S. TEDESCHI, «L’Abissinia nel Libro di Marco Polo», Africa (Roma) 36, 1981, 361–389: 383–386 (viaggi del fiorentino Antonio Bartoli e del messinese Pietro Rombulo), sfuggito a S. C. MUNROHAY, Ethiopia and Alexandria. The Metropolitan Episcopacy of Ethiopia, Mit einem Vorwort v. M. Kropp, Warszawa — Wiesbaden, Zaœ Pan, 1997 (Bibliotheca Nubica & Aethiopica, 5), pp. 195, 203; nonché a E. WAGNER, «ŸAdal», in: EÆ I, 71a–72b: 72a, e D. MORIN, Dictionnaire historique afar (1288–1982), Paris, Karthala, 2004 (Collection «Hommes et Sociétés», s. n.), 32–35, s. v. «Adal»: 33, ove la «bielle estoire» di Polo è datata tout court al 1295. 12

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tutto isolato la Nubia dalle comunicazioni col Mediterraneo.14 Né può escludersi una certa solidarietà con gli ultimi Fatimidi che, rifugiatisi in territorio nubiano, da qui istigavano alla rivolta contro l’Egitto.15 E poco importa che Costantinopoli fosse allora «under the control of the Crusaders»,16 poiché interlocutori del grecofono «rois de Nubie» erano manifestamente i Bizantini, presso i quali egli già dimorava al tempo di Alessio III (ma certo un’allenza fra Nubiani e Crociati sembra profilarsi dopo il 1274, in esito al Concilio di Lione).17 La pagina del cronista dà infatti luce, fra Gerusalemme e Costantinopoli, su contatti e relazioni dai quali fu alimentato nei secoli, ben oltre l’impulso iniziale, il peculiare Graecismus dei regni cristiani di Nubia.18 Un Graecismus assai meno conservativo di quanto non si ritenga per solito; e forse non del tutto estraneo all’inserzione (naturalmente polemica) di Manuele I Comneno fra i destinatarî della famosa lettera del Prete Gianni, che l’arcive14 W. Y. ADAMS, Nubia, Corridor to Africa, Princeton, NJ, P.U.P., 1977, 456 (739); VANTINI, Il Cristianesimo, 276. Cf. S. HILLELSON — (C. E. BOSWORTH), «Nuba, 2. History», in: The Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. by C. E. Bosworth & al., VIII/1 (131), Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1993, 90a–91b: 90a–b. 15 U. MONNERET DE VILLARD, Storia della Nubia cristiana, Roma, P.I.O.S., 1938 (OCA, 118), 197 s. (cf. 225: inesatto); WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 75 ss. (265). 16 Così WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 76 s. e n. 48 (265), che rinvia a J. W. CRAWFOOT, «Christian Nubia», Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 13, 1927, 141– 150: 148 s., ma ignora CERULLI, Etiopi in Palestina, I, 140 s., 143 s. per la cappella nubiana del Golgota o di Adamo, e O. F. A. MEINARDUS, «The Christian Kingdoms of Nubia», Cahiers d’histoire égyptienne 10, 1967, 133–164: 159–164 («The Nubians in the Holy Places»), nonché, più in generale, A.-D. V. DEN BRINCKEN, Die «Nationes Christianorum Orientalium» im Verständnis der lateinische Historiographie von der Mitte der 12. bis in die zweite Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts, Köln — Wien, Böhlau Verlag, 1973 (Kölner historische Abhandlungen, 22), 243–262 (4. «Die Nubier»); cf. ROSTKOWSKA, «The visit of a Nubian king», 114 n. 5. 17 Vd. supra e n. 3. Per il cenno al Concilio di Lione, G. VANTINI, «Sur l’éventualité des rapports entre le Concile de Lyon (1274) et la Nubie», Études nubiennes, Colloque de Chantilly (2–6 juillet 1975), Le Caire, I.F.A.O., 1978 (Bibliothèque d’étude, LXXVIII), 337–345, e ID., Il Cristianesimo, 243. 18 Vd. T. HÄGG, «Greek Language in Christian Nubia», in: CE vol. 4, 1170b– 1174a, con bibliogr.; e ora ID., «Greek in Upper Nubia: An Assessment of the New Material», in: Actes de la VIIIe Conférence internationale des Études nubiennes (Lille 11–17 septembre 1994), Lille, Université Charles-De-Gaulle — Lille III, 1998 (Cahiers de recherches de l’Institut del Papyrologie et d’Egyptologie de Lille, 17), III. Etudes, 113–119: 114 ss., e WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 236 ss. (272). Inoltre, A. £AJTAR, Catalogue of the Greek Inscriptions in the Sudan National Museum at Khartoum (I. Khartoum Greek), Photographs by W. Godlewski, Preface by Hassan Hissein & W. Godlewski, Leuven — Paris — Dudley, MA, Uitgev. Peeters, 2003 (OLA, 122), XIX s. e n. 9, e già ID., «Greek Funerary Inscriptions from Old Dongola: General Note», OC 81, 1997, 107–126: 115 s.

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scovo Cristiano di Magonza avrebbe portato con sé da Costantinopoli nel 1170: ma anzi congeniale al relais «bizantino» della leggenda intorno a quel favoloso monarca, divenuto per tempo «rex et sacerdos» d’un remoto paese africano (com’è già per l’interpolatore di Alberico delle Tre Fontane).19 Determinante per l’identità etnica del «rois de Nubie» è senz’altro la circostanza che egli si esprimeva «en sen langage»: vale a dire in greco, l’antica lingua di cultura ancor viva nel suo regno, come dimostra la continuità d’uso nei papiri, pergamene ed epigrafi d’area nubiana.20 Per questo egli poté comunicare con il cronista e gli altri baroni franchi a mezzo di latimiers o ‘interpreti’: dal greco, non certo dal nubiano o dall’etiopico, la cui conoscenza stupirebbe davvero nella Bisanzio dell’epoca. Quanto alla precisa localizzazione del suo dominio, si può naturalmente pensare al regno di Macuria (Muqurrah) o Dongola (Dunqulah, dal nome della sua capitale): la «Grande Nubia», in parte corrispondente all’odierno Sudan e islamizzata solo dal 1317; il suo sovrano è «re di Nubia» per eccellenza anche presso gli autori di lingua araba.21 Ma non escluderei il regno meridionale di ŸAlwah o ŸAlwâ (l’antica Alôdia, Alôa), con capitale Soba/ Sûbah (la Soba Noba della tradizione abissina),22 fiorente «corridor to Africa» governato allora da prìncipi cristiani;23 o uno dei piccoli Stati settentrionali vassalli della «Grande Nubia», ugualmente improntati di cultura bizanti19 Testo della lettera in F. ZARNCKE, «Der Priester Johannes», I., Abhandlungen der philol.-hist. Classe der Kgl. sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften 7, 1879, 827–1039: 909–924 [= E. ULLENDORFF — C. F. BECKINGHAM, The Hebrew Letters of Prester John, Oxford, O.U.P., 1982, 184–189]; vd. ora La lettera del Prete Gianni, a c. di G. Zaganelli, Parma, Pratiche Ed., 19902 (Biblioteca medievale, 13), 52–95 = Milano — Trento, Luni Ed., 2000 (Biblioteca medievale, 73), 52–95 per la vers. latina, con ampie indicaz. e bibliogr. nell’Introduzione, 7–44 = 7–42, e nella Nota informativa, 45 s. = 43 s. Cf. E. CERULLI, «Prester John», in: DEB 133 s., e già ID., «Prete Gianni», in: Enciclopedia Italiana, XVIII, Roma, I. E. I., 1935, 216f–218a; altre indicaz. in A. PONTANI, «Paralipomeni dei Turcica: gli scritti di Giano Lascaris per la crociata contro i Turchi», Römische historische Mitteilungen 27, 1985, 213– 338: 324 ss. Inoltre, PIRENNE, La légende du «Prêtre Jean», 83–86 («La Lettre à l’Empereur de Byzance»), cui si oppone I. BEJCZY, La Lettre du Prêtre Jean, une utopie médiévale, Paris, Imago, 2001, 13–83 in partic. (non convincente), con la rec. di M.-L. DERAT, Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 5, 2002, 239– 242: 241 s., dei quali E. ULLENDORFF, ivi, 7, 2004, 288. 20 Cf. supra, n. 18: in partic., HÄGG, «Greek Language in Christian Nubia», 1172 ss. (1173 s.), e WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 238. 21 WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 92 s., 251; cf. MONNERET DE VILLARD, Storia, 172 ss. 22 C. CONTI ROSSINI, «Piccoli studi etiopici», Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 27, 1912, 358–378: 365 ss., con le indicaz. nel mio Teofilo Indiano, 17 s., n. 52. 23 Vd. MONNERET DE VILLARD, Storia, 147–157; ADAMS, Nubia, Corridor to Africa, 536–539 (753); WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 254 s. (273) in partic., con la

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na:24 forse quel misterioso Dotawo — sito nel Marîs o Nobadia (la Bassa Nubia, provincia settentrionale di Macuria) e comunque sovrapponibile a questa — che esisteva fin dal XII secolo intorno al Gabal ŸAddâ (ad-Daww dei mss. arabi medievali), c. 55 km a sud di Qasr Ibrim (la romana Primis Parva).25 È lo Stato nubiano che rimase più a lungo cristiano, in relativa autonomia dal suo «parent kingdom» e ben oltre la rovina di questo, di cui assunse anzi il ruolo dal 1365/6 in séguito all’abbandono dell’antica Dongola, spegnendosi poi lentamente verso il 1500.26 I documenti nubiani di Qasr Ibrim, che assicurano circa l’importanza del Dotawo, ne conoscono un re, Bas(i)l(ios), asceso prima del 1199 e ancora sul trono nel 1200:27 ma è prudente resistere alla tentazione di scorgere in lui, o nell’ignoto suo successore, il «rois de Nubie» incontrato a Bisanzio da Robert de Clari.

SUMMARY In A. D. 1204, a «king of Nubia» who had been a pilgrim to Jerusalem was met by the French chronicler Robert de Clari at the court of Constantinople. Here the former was questioned, through interpreters, by the Frankish barons then gathering around the newly restored Emperor Alexios IV. That king has been lastly identified with the Ethiopian néguœ Lalibäla (r. 1185–1225 ca.), whose legendary relationships with Jerusalem are well known. Such a doubtful identification has even crept into a standard reference work, the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Yet, in accordance to previous scholarship, the king in question is more likely to have been a Greek-speaker Nubian ruler of either the kingdom of Alwa (ŸAlwah) or the kingdom of Makuria (Muqurrah) — or rather of one of the latter’s vassal states, possibly Dotawo in Lower Nubia. rec. di S. DONADONI, Orientalia n.s. 73, 2004, 270–273: 273, e già E. ZYHLARZ, «I reami della Nubia prima dell’Islam: uno sguardo storico sul Sudan antico e medievale», RSE 3, 1943, 237–271: 268 ss. 24 Cf. ROSTKOWSKA, «The visit of a Nubian king», 115 e n. 9. 25 MONNERET DE VILLARD, Storia, 140 ss.; ADAMS, Nubia, Corridor to Africa, 466 s. (741), 531–536, 542 (752); ID., «Dotawo», in: CE vol. 3, 922b–923a; «Jabal ‘Addâ», ivi, vol. 4, 1315a–b; ID., «Qasr Ibrîm», ivi, vol. 7, 2036b–38a; WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 250–254 (273). 26 J. M. PLUMLEY, «The Christian Period at Qasr Ibrim. Notes on the MS finds», in: Nubia. Récentes recherches, 101–107: 105 s.; ID., «Qasr Ibrim and Islam», Etudes et travaux (Warsaw) 12, 1983, 157–170: 164 ss.; VANTINI, Il Cristianesimo, 272 ss.; WELSBY, The Medieval Kingdoms, 251 e 254, con terminus post quem agli anni ’60 del sec. XVI: «The kingdom of Dotawo seems to have vanished in the intervening period». 27 G. M. BROWNE, Old Nubian Texts from Qasr Ibrîm, III, London, Egypt Exploration Society, 1991, 14 (t.) = 54 (tr.), nr. 37.3–4 (26 feb., s.a.); 16 = 56, nr. 38.5–7 (30 dic. 1199); 18 = 58, nr. 39.5–7 (27 giu., s. a.); 20 = 59, nr. 40.3 (16 ag. 1200). Cf. J. M. PLUMLEY, «New Light on the Kingdom of Dotawo», in: Études nubiennes, 231–242: 234, 239 s.

—Â„ÂÈ ¿. ‘‡ÌˆÛÁÓ‚ —œ·‘ »¬ –¿Õ —‡ÌÍÚ-œÂÚÂ·Û„

MATRES LECTIONIS ¬ –¿ÕÕ≈à √≈›«≈ Âïëîòü äî ñåðåäèíû IV â. ðàçâèòèå ýôèîïñêîãî ïèñüìà, íåñîìíåííî ïðîèñõîäÿùåãî îò þæíîàðàâèéñêîãî, õîòÿ, ìîæåò áûòü, è íå îò ìîíóìåíòàëüíîé åãî ðàçíîâèäíîñòè,1 ïîä÷èíÿëîñü òåì æå çàêîíîìåðíîñòÿì, êîòîðûå áûëè ñâîéñòâåííû äðóãèì ñåìèòñêèì àëôàâèòíûì ïèñüìåííîñòÿì (ôèíèêèéñêîé, åâðåéñêîé «êâàäðàòíîé», ñèðèéñêîé, þæíîàðàâèéñêîé è äð.). Îíî ïîñòåïåííî óòðà÷èâàëî ÷èñòî êîíñîíàíòíûé õàðàêòåð, ñâîéñòâåííûé íà÷àëüíîìó ýòàïó èõ ýâîëþöèè, è îáçàâîäèëîñü matres lectionis, óïîòðåáëåíèå êîòîðûõ, âïðî÷åì, òàê íèêîãäà è íå áûëî óïîðÿäî÷åíî.  ñåìèòñêèõ ÿçûêàõ ñåâåðîçàïàäíîé ïîäãðóïïû, íàïðèìåð â ñèðèéñêîì, ïðîèñõîæäåíèå matres lectionis ñâÿçûâàåòñÿ ñ ïðîöåññîì ìîíîôòîíãèçàöèè äèôòîíãîâ è èñ÷åçíîâåíèåì ñëàáîãî ãîðòàííîãî âçðûâà. Ïðè ýòîì â íàïèñàíèè òàêèõ ñëîâ, êàê vOo so\f (èç *sawp), m\s ‘e\n (èç *‘ayn), @AC be\ra\ (èç *bi’ra\), áóêâû âàâ, éî\ä (éó\ä) à\ëàô (î\ëàô) óòðàòèëè çíà÷åíèå ñîãëàñíûõ è ñòàëè âîñïðèíèìàòüñÿ êàê ñèìâîëû äëÿ ïåðåäà÷è ñîîòâåòñòâóþùèõ äîëãèõ ãëàñíûõ. Ïîñòåïåííî èõ íà÷èíàþò èñïîëüçîâàòü è â òåõ ñëó÷àÿõ, ãäå èçíà÷àëüíî íè äèôòîíãà, íè ñëàáîãî ãîðòàííîãî âçðûâà íå áûëî,2 â ÷àñòíîñòè, â çàèìñòâîâàííûõ èç ãðå÷åñêîãî ñëîâàõ, âêëþ÷àÿ èìåíà ñîáñòâåííûå.  þæíîñåìèòñêèõ ÿçûêàõ ïðîáëåìà ïîÿâëåíèÿ è óïîòðåáëåíèÿ matres lectionis îñòàâàëàñü äî íåäàâíåãî âðåìåíè ãîðàçäî ìåíåå èçó÷åííîé.  ïåðèîä ñòàíîâëåíèÿ ñàáåèñòèêè âîçìîæíîñòü ïåðåäà÷è äîëãèõ ãëàñíûõ íà ïèñüìå â ýïèãðàôè÷åñêèõ ÿçûêàõ äðåâíåé Þæíîé Àðàâèè îòðèöàëàñü: þæíîàðàâèéñêàÿ ïèñüìåííîñòü îáúÿâëÿëàñü ÷èñòî êîíñîíàíòíîé.3 Ïîäîáíûé ïîäõîä íàøåë ñâîå îòðàæåíèå â òîì ÷èñëå è â òðàíñëèòåðàöèè Ñì. îá ýòîì ïîäðîáíåå: S. A. FRANTSOUZOFF, South Arabian Minuscule Writing and Early Ethiopian Script of Pre-Axumite Graffiti: Typological Resemblance or Genetic Interdependence? // S. UHLIG et al. (eds.) Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Wiesbaden, forthcoming). 2 Ñì., íàïðèìåð: C. B ROCKELMANN, Syrische Grammatik mit Paradigmen, Literatur, Chrestomathie und Glossar. 13. unveränderte Auflage (Lpz., 1981) 6. 3 «Die Schrift der asa. (altsüdarabischen. — Ñ. Ô.) Inschriften ist im großen und ganzen eine reine KONSONANTENSCHRIFT» (M. HÖFNER, Altsüdarabische Grammatik (Porta linguarum orientalium. Sammlung von Lehrbüchern für das Studium der orientalischen Sprachen hrsg. von R. Hartmann, XXIV) (Lpz., 1943) 9: § 4). Íà ýòèõ ïîçèöèÿõ äî êîíöà ñâîèõ äíåé îñòàâàëñÿ ïèîíåð îòå÷åñòâåííîé ñàáåèñòèêè À. Ã. Ëóíäèí. 1

S. Frantsouzoff

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èìåí ñîáñòâåííûõ, òàêèõ, íàïðèìåð, êàê dmr‘ly è s³bh³hmw, êîòîðûå ïðèíÿòî áûëî åùå íåäàâíî ïåðåäàâàòü êàê Çàìàð‘àëàé è Ñùàáàõ³õóìóâ (èëè Ñùàáàõ³õóìàó). Ýòî ïîëîæåíèå ïîäâåðã êðèòèêå óæå Âîëüô Ëåñëàó, ïî ìíåíèþ êîòîðîãî, ìåñòîèìåííûé ñóôôèêñ -hmw âðÿä ëè ìîã ïðîèçíîñèòüñÿ èíà÷å, ÷åì ñ äîëãèì «ó» íà êîíöå (-humu\).4 Çàòåì Àëüôðåä Áèñòîí ïðèçíàë, ÷òî íà÷èíàÿ, ïî êðàéíåé ìåðå, ñî ñðåäíåñàáåéñêîãî ïåðèîäà (I–III ââ. í. ý.), çíàê w èíîãäà ïåðåäàâàë u\ èëè o\ (íàïðèìåð, â ywm ‘äåíü’, scriptio defectiva êîòîðîãî áûëî ym), à çíàê y —  èëè e\ (íàïðèìåð, â ýòíîíèìå h³myr, ïåðåäàâàâøåìñÿ ïî-ãðå÷åñêè êàê ‘Ομηρι´ται).5 Ïðè ýòîì îí óòâåðæäàë, ÷òî àëèô èìåë èñêëþ÷èòåëüíî çíà÷åíèå ñîãëàñíîãî, è ÷òî â þæíîàðàâèéñêèõ ýïèãðàôè÷åñêèõ ÿçûêàõ îòñóòñòâîâàëè êàêèå-ëèáî ñèìâîëû äëÿ a.\6 Ñ èäååé À. Áèñòîíà, êàñàþùåéñÿ èñïîëüçîâàíèÿ y è w äëÿ ôèêñàöèè äîëãèõ ãëàñíûõ, ñîëèäàðèçîâàëèñü îòå÷åñòâåííûå ñåìèòîëîãè Ë. Å. Êîãàí è À. Â. Êîðîòàåâ, óêàçàâøèå, ÷òî â íàäïèñÿõ îäíîãî ïåðèîäà, à ÷àñòî â îäíîì è òîì æå òåêñòå ÷åðåäóþòñÿ òàêèå îðôîãðàôè÷åñêèå âàðèàíòû, êàê byn è bn «ìåæäó», twr è tr «áûê», è ñâÿçàâøèå ýòî ÿâëåíèå ñ ìîíîôòîíãèçàöèåé äèôòîíãîâ (be\n ← *bayn, to\r ← *tawr).7 Ñëåäóåò îòìåòèòü, ÷òî è ó áðèòàíñêîãî ñàáåèñòà, è ó íàøèõ ñîîòå÷åñòâåííèêîâ ðå÷ü øëà íå ñòîëüêî î ñîçíàòåëüíîì èñïîëüçîâàíèè matres lectionis, ñêîëüêî î ïðåâðàùåíèè â íèõ ïîëóãëàñíûõ, èñ÷åçàâøèõ â ïðîèçíîøåíèè, íî ñîõðàíÿâøèõñÿ íà ïèñüìå â ñèëó ïðèñóùåãî îðôîãðàôèè êîíñåðâàòèçìà. W. LESLAU, Ðåö. íà: HÖFNER, Altsüdarabische Grammatik // Journal of the American Oriental Society, 69 (1949) 98. 5 A. F. L. BEESTON, A Descriptive Grammar of Epigraphic South Arabian (L., 1962) § 2:1; ID., Sabaic Grammar (Journal of Semitic Studies Monograph No. 6) (Manchester, 1984) § 1:8. Ýôèîïñêàÿ ôîðìà äàííîãî ýòíîíèìà FHôR, âïåðâûå îòìå÷åííàÿ â íàäïèñÿõ öàðÿ Ýçàíû (E. B ERNARD, A. J. DREWES, R. SCHNEIDER , Recueil des inscriptions de l’Éthiopie des périodes pré-axoumite et axoumite. Introduction de Fr. Anfray. T. I: Les documents. T. II: Les planches (P., 1991) [äàëåå — RIE] 188/3, 189/2–[3]; â ñðåäíåâåêîâûõ òåêñòàõ — ÂHôR), ïîäòâåðæäàåò ýòî ïðåäïîëîæåíèå À. Áèñòîíà, îäíàêî åãî àðàáñêàÿ ôîðìà (õ³èìéàð) ñâèäåòåëüñòâóåò â ïîëüçó êîíñîíàíòíîãî ÷òåíèÿ ïîëóãëàñíîãî y. Åùå îäèí ãåýçñêèé âàðèàíò ýòîãî èìåíè ÑHòR, óïîòðåáëÿâøèéñÿ îäíîâðåìåííî ñ ÂHôR (ñì. C. CONTI ROSSINI, Un documento sul cristianesimo nello Iemen ai tempi del re ƒara\h³bl Yakkuf // RRALm, ser. 5a, vol. XIX, fasc. 8 (Roma, 1911) 748), ïðèøåë èç ãðå÷åñêîãî, î÷åâèäíî, ÷åðåç àðàáñêèé. 6 BEESTON, A Descriptive Grammar... § 2:2; ID., Sabaic Grammar... § 1:9. Òðàíñëèòåðàöèþ èìåíè ìåñòíîãî èóäåÿ Yhwd’ (Éå=õó\äà\, Èóäà) îí ñ÷èòàë ñîâåðøåííî íå õàðàêòåðíîé äëÿ ñàáåéñêîãî êàëüêîé ñ àðàìåéñêîé îðôîãðàôèè (ID., Sabaic Grammar... § 1:9; ñð. ñïåöèôè÷åñêè àðàìåéñêóþ ôîðìó @MDO, çàñâèäåòåëüñòâîâàííóþ íàðÿäó ñ òðàäèöèîííîé D@MDO). 7 L. E. KOGAN, A. V. KOROTAYEV, Sayhadic (Epigraphic South Arabian) // The Semitic Languages / Ed. by R. Hetzron (L. — N. Y., 1997) 223. 4

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Íåñêîëüêî èíà÷å ê äàííîé ïðîáëåìå ïîäîøåë Êðèñòèàí Ðîáåí, ïîñâÿòèâøèé ïðèëîæåíèå ê îäíîìó èç ñâîèõ î÷åðêîâ ñàáåéñêèì matres lectionis.8 Îí îòòàëêèâàëñÿ íå îò îáùåñåìèòñêèõ ôîíîëîãè÷åñêèõ çàêîíîìåðíîñòåé, à íåïîñðåäñòâåííî îò òåêñòîâ. Ñôîðìóëèðîâàííûå èì âûâîäû, êîòîðûå îêàçàëèñü ïðèìåíèìû ê áîëüøèíñòâó äîèñëàìñêèõ àðàâèéñêèõ ïèñüìåííîñòåé, ñâîäÿòñÿ ê ñëåäóþùåìó: 1. y è w íà êîíöå ñëîâ ïåðåäàâàëè  è u\ (âîçìîæíî, e\ è o\); 2. èñïîëüçîâàíèå ýòèõ ïîëóãëàñíûõ â êà÷åñòâå matres lectionis â ñåðåäèíå ñëîâ íàáëþäàåòñÿ êðàéíå ðåäêî, èñêëþ÷èòåëüíî â òåêñòàõ ìîíîòåèñòè÷åñêîãî ïåðèîäà (êîí. IV — ñåð. VI ââ.) è, êàê ïðàâèëî, â çàèìñòâîâàííûõ èìåíàõ ñîáñòâåííûõ;9 3. ãëàñíàÿ a\ â ñåðåäèíå ñëîâ íèêàê íå îáîçíà÷àëàñü íà ïèñüìå, à â êîíå÷íîé ïîçèöèè ïåðåäàâàëàñü ïðè ïîìîùè êàê w, òàê è y (ïðåèìóùåñòâåííî â òîïîíèìàõ è àíòðîïîíèìàõ; ñì. s³n‘w — Sùan‘a\’ èëè ’fs³y — Àôñ³à\), ïðè÷åì ýòîò ïðèåì, ê êîòîðîìó ïðèáåãàëè òàêæå â ñåâåðîàðàâèéñêèõ ïèñüìåííîñòÿõ (äåäàíñêîé, ñ³àôàèòñêîé), îêàçàë âëèÿíèå íà ðàííþþ àðàáñêóþ îðôîãðàôèþ (ñð. ÑÌ}¼u èëè ÒÍ}iÌN»A).10 Ïðåäñòàâëÿåòñÿ, ÷òî ïîäõîäû À. Áèñòîíà è Êð. Ðîáåíà â êîíå÷íîì ñ÷åòå âçàèìíî äîïîëíÿþò äðóã äðóãà: ïåðâûé èç íèõ îáðàòèë âíèìàíèå íà ñîõðàíåíèå â îðôîãðàôèè íåêîòîðûõ þæíîàðàâèéñêèõ ñëîâ ïîëóãëàñíûõ, êîòîðûå, âåðîÿòíåå âñåãî, ïåðåñòàëè ïðîèçíîñèòüñÿ, òîãäà êàê âòîðîé ñîñðåäîòî÷èëñÿ íà òåõ ñëó÷àÿõ, êîòîðûå ñâèäåòåëüñòâóþò î ñîçíàòåëüíîì ïðèìåíåíèè áóêâ y è w äëÿ ïåðåäà÷è äîëãèõ ãëàñíûõ, ãëàâíûì îáðàçîì, â îíîìàñòèêå. Ïî ïîíÿòíûì ïðè÷èíàì âîïðîñ î ñóùåñòâîâàíèè matres lectionis â îáåèõ ðàçíîâèäíîñòÿõ êîíñîíàòíîãî ïèñüìà, êîòîðûìè ïîëüçîâàëñÿ ðàííèé ãåýç (ñîáñòâåííî ýôèîïñêîé è þæíîàðàâèéñêîé11 ), íå ïðèâëåêàë âíèìàíèÿ èññëåäîâàòåëåé: óæå â ñåðåäèíå IV â. ïðîèçîøëà âîêàëèçàöèÿ Ïîä çàãîëîâêîì «La notation des voyelles en sabéen» îíî îïóáëèêîâàíî â CH. J. ROBIN, Les inscriptions de l’Arabie et les études arabes // Arabica, 48 (2001) 570–577. 9 Èõ ïîëíûé ñïèñîê ñì. â: ROBIN, Les inscriptions de l’Arabie et les études arabes, 572. 10 ROBIN, Les inscriptions de l’Arabie antique et les études arabes, 553–555, 573. Êðàòêî, â îáùåäîñòóïíîé ôîðìå ýòè èäåè èçëîæåíû â CH. J. ROBIN, L’écriture arabe et l’Arabie // Pour la science (édition française de Scientific American), dossier n° 33: Du signe à l’écriture. Les naissances de l’écriture. L’évolution de l’écriture. La pratique de l’écriture (octobre/janvier 2002) 63, 64, 68. 11 Ðå÷ü èäåò î ïîçäíåé ðàçíîâèäíîñòè þæíîàðàâèéñêîãî ìîíóìåíòàëüíîãî øðèôòà, êîòîðîé ñ ñåðåäèíû IV ïî ñåðåäèíó VI ââ. âûñåêàëè íåêîòîðûå íàäïèñè àêñóìñêèõ öàðåé, î÷åâèäíî, äëÿ îáîñíîâàíèÿ èõ ïðèòÿçàíèé íà âëàñòü íàä äðåâíèì Éåìåíîì è ïðîñòî â öåëÿõ ïðåñòèæà. 8

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ýôèîïñêîé ïèñüìåííîñòè, â ðåçóëüòàòå êîòîðîé èç àëôàâèòíîé îíà ïðåâðàòèëàñü â ñèëëàáè÷åñêóþ, è ïðîáëåìà íîòàöèè ãëàñíûõ áûëà ñíÿòà. Òàêèì îáðàçîì, êîëè÷åñòâî òåêñòîâ, â êîòîðûõ ìîãóò áûòü íàéäåíû ãåýçñêèå matres lectionis, îãðàíè÷åíî íåñêîëüêèìè äåñÿòêàìè, à ïðîñòðàííûõ íàäïèñåé ñðåäè íèõ íàñ÷èòûâàåòñÿ íå áîëüøå äþæèíû. Îäíàêî äëÿ èçó÷åíèÿ îáùèõ çàêîíîìåðíîñòåé ðàçâèòèÿ ïèñüìà áûëî áû èíòåðåñíî âûÿâèòü â ðàííåì ãåýçå âñå âîçìîæíûå ñïîñîáû èñïîëüçîâàíèÿ ñîãëàñíûõ äëÿ ïåðåäà÷è äîëãèõ ãëàñíûõ è ïîñìîòðåòü, åñòü ëè èì ñîîòâåòñòâèÿ â äðóãèõ ñåìèòñêèõ àëôàâèòíûõ ïèñüìåííîñòÿõ. Âûäâèãàâøèéñÿ ïðåæäå òåçèñ îá îòñóòñòâèè matres lectionis â ýôèîïñêîé ïèñüìåííîñòè12 îêàçàëñÿ îøèáî÷íûì. Èñïîëüçîâàíèå â ýòîì êà÷åñòâå áóêâû éàìàí íà íåñêîëüêèõ ïðèìåðàõ (ïðàâäà, íå î÷åíü ïîêàçàòåëüíûõ) ïðîäåìîíñòðèðîâàë Ìàíôðåä Êðîïï.13 Àíàëèç ðàííåãåýçñêèõ íàäïèñåé, ïðåæäå âñåãî öàðñêèõ, è ìîíåòíûõ ëåãåíä ïîëíîñòüþ ïîäòâåðäèë åãî âûâîä è ïîçâîëèë óñòàíîâèòü, ÷òî â ýôèîïñêîì ïèñüìå ôóíêöèè matres lectionis âûïîëíÿëè òå æå çíàêè w è y, ÷òî è â þæíîàðàâèéñêîì. Èõ óïîòðåáëåíèå ïðîñëåæèâàåòñÿ â ñëåäóþùèõ ïîçèöèÿõ:14 I. Íà êîíöå ñëîâ: 1. èìåí: ÏÜÄØ (RIE 180; ñð. êëàññ. ϕKò); 2. ÷èñëèòåëüíûõ: dz/sdttM | /ngŽt (RIE 185 bis I/8–9; ñð. RIE 185 bis II B/10–11: ÖÆÙÆÌ µ ÏÜ | ÄÌ; ñð. êëàññ. UUÌ#); 3. â ãëàãîëüíîì îêîí÷àíèè 1 sing. perf.: w-’mh³d³kM (RIE 191/38; ñð. êëàññ. ÑHFâqÒñ /áåç àññèìèëÿöèè n/15 ); ÈÌÁÒÔ (RIE 193 I/31; ñð. êëàññ. ÈÌDÒñ); ÔãÏÔÒÔ (RIE 194/9; ñð. êëàññ. ãπÒñ); II. Âíóòðè êîíå÷íûõ ôëåêñèé: 1. â ìåñòîèìåííîì ñóôôèêñå 3 m. pl. -o\mu\: 12 Ñì., íàïðèìåð: P. MATTHIAE, Le matres lectionis dell’arabo preislamico // RSO, 38 (1963) 233–234. 13 Ñì. Zum Königsnamen MHùDYS der aksumitischen Münzen (Exkurs von M. Kropp) â W. HAHN, Eine axumitische Typenkopie als Dokument zur spätantiken Religionsgeschichte // Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte, 46 (1996) 97–98. 14  ïðèâåäåííûõ íèæå ïðèìåðàõ matres lectionis íàïå÷àòàíû óâåëè÷åííûì êåãëåì è âûäåëåíû æèðíûì øðèôòîì. Þæíîàðàâèéñêèå ñèìâîëû ïåðåäàíû â ëàòèíñêîé òðàíñêðèïöèè. 15 Àññèìèëÿöèÿ ýòîé ñîãëàñíîé, õàðàêòåðíàÿ äëÿ ñàáåéñêîãî ÿçûêà, íà÷èíàÿ ñî ñðåäíåãî ïåðèîäà, äëÿ ãåýçà íå òèïè÷íà è ïðîñëåæèâàåòñÿ ëèøü â ðàííåãåýçñêèõ òåêñòàõ, âûïîëíåííûõ þæíîàðàâèéñêèì ïèñüìîì.

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à) ïðè èìåíàõ: lhmMm, bg‘Mm, (RIE 185 bis I/9, 10; ñð. RIE 185 bis II B/11, 12: ÁÀÃÃ, ÊÜÕÃ; êëàññ. CAJÃñ, ʖ„Ãñ); w-wldMm (RIE 185 bis I/25; ñð. êëàññ. €Áñ‘Ãñ); á) ïðè ãëàãîëàõ: bs³h³kMm (RIE 190 A/6; ñð. êëàññ. ÊìF{Ãñ); w-Žr‘kMm (RIE 190 A/3, 4; ñð. êëàññ. ÄRƒ{Ãñ); w-whbkMm (RIE 190 A/3; ñð. êëàññ. ÔÀa{Ãñ); ãÌÂÒÔà (RIE 193 I/30; ñð. êëàññ. ãÌF{Ãñ); ÈÌÁÒÔà (RIE 193 II/9; ñð. êëàññ. ÈÌD{Ãñ); 2. â ãëàãîëå ñ 3-ì ñëàáûì ïåðåä îêîí÷àíèåì 1 pl. perf. (?): ãÏÔÏ (RIE 185 II/4; ñð. RIE 185 I/3: fnn; â êëàññè÷åñêîì ãåýçå âîçìîæíû îáå ôîðìû: ãÏ€Ï è ãrÏ); III.  ñåðåäèíå ñëîâ (âíóòðè êîðíÿ): 1. èìåí: ‘Odn (RIE 185 bis I/1; ñð. RIE 185 bis II B/1: ÕÖÏ; ñð. RIE 188/1, 189/ 1–2: ‚Ý…p); dqOqm (RIE 185 bis I/7; ñð. RIE 185 bis II B/9: ÙÈÈÃ; ñð. êëàññ. ÙÈÚ\Ãñ); ’ksMm (RIE 185 bis I/1; ñð. RIE 185 bis II B/1: ÑÒÆÃ; ñð. RIE 188/2: ÑzÆñI); w-d-s³rOq (RIE 185 bis I/21; ñð. RIE 185 bis II C/30: ÔÖáÅÈ; ñð. êëàññ. áO[ «ìåëêàÿ ìîíåòà, ìåäíàÿ ìîíåòà»16 ); w-b-mMgs (RIE 191/2; ñð. êëàññ. JÜU); 2. ãëàãîëà JÑ ìîíåòíûõ ëåãåíä: :ÊÖ:ÃÔÑ ÊÃÆÈÁ — Hoc signo victor eris, «Ñèì ïîáåäèøè» (íà ìîíåòàõ öàðÿ MHùDYS’à);17 W. LESLAU, Comparative Dictionary of Ge‘ez (Classical Ethiopic). Ge‘ezEnglish/English-Ge‘ez with an index of the Semitic roots (Wiesbaden, 1987) 564.  àíàëîãè÷íîì êîíòåêñòå RIE 185 I/19, ïåðåâîä êîòîðîé îïóáëèêîâàí Ã. Ì. Áàóýðîì ïîä çàãëàâèåì «Î ïîõîäå ïðîòèâ áåãà», ýòîò òåðìèí èíòåðïðåòèðîâàí êàê ‘áðîíçà’ (Ã. Ì. ÁÀÓÝÐ, Íàäïèñè ðàííèõ öàðåé Àêñóìà (ââîäíàÿ ñòàòüÿ, ïåðåâîä è êîììåíòàðèé) // Èñòîðèÿ Àôðèêè â äðåâíèõ è ñðåäíåâåêîâûõ èñòî÷íèêàõ. Õðåñòîìàòèÿ / Ïîä ðåä. Î. Ê. Äðåéåðà. Ñîñò. Ñ. ß. Áåðçèíà è Ë. Å. Êóááåëü. 2-å èçä., èñïð. è äîï. (Ì., 1990) 167). 17 Ñì. HAHN, Eine axumitische Typenkopie... 87: n° 2; 88–89. Ñì. ýòîò æå «êîíñòàíòèíîâñêèé» äåâèç íà ìîíåòàõ èç ëè÷íîé êîëëåêöèè Ñòþàðòà Ìàíðî-Õýÿ, îïóáëèêîâàííûõ ïîä ñèãëàìè MH.89 MHùDYS AE.1, MH.89a MHùDYS AE.1, MH.89c MHùDYS AE.1, MH.89d MHùDYS AE.1, MH.89f MHùDYS AE.1, MH.89g MHùDYS AE.1, MH.441 MHùDYS AE.1, MH.442 MHùDYS AE.1 (S. C. H. MUNROHAY, The Munro-Hay Collection of Aksumite Coins (Supplemento n. 48 agli Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli, 46 (1986), fasc. 3) (Napoli, 1986) 38–40, 41–42, pl. XXXIX b). 16

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ÊÒÅÆÌÆ ØÃÔÑ «Õðèñòîì ïîáåäèò» (íà ìîíåòàõ öàðÿ Ãåðñåìà).18 Òàêèì îáðàçîì, êàæäàÿ èç ïîëóãëàñíûõ ìîãëà ïåðåäàâàòü ïî äâà äîëãèõ çâóêà: w — u\ è o\, y —  è e\. Çâóê a\ íà ïèñüìå íèêàê íå îáîçíà÷àëñÿ.  îòëè÷èå îò ñàáåéñêîé ýïèãðàôèêè, â òåêñòàõ íà ðàííåì ãåýçå matres lectionis íåðåäêî âñòðå÷àþòñÿ è âíóòðè ñëîâ (ïðè÷åì íå òîëüêî â èìåíàõ ñîáñòâåííûõ). Îäíàêî èõ óïîòðåáëåíèå áûëî îãðàíè÷åíî ïðåèìóùåñòâåííî íàäïèñÿìè, âûïîëíåííûìè þæíîàðàâèéñêèì øðèôòîì:19 îòñòóïëåíèÿ îò ýòîãî ïðàâèëà ðåäêè.20 Äàííàÿ çàêîíîìåðíîñòü îáúÿñíÿåòñÿ, ñêîðåå âñåãî, ñòðåìëåíèåì ñäåëàòü áîëåå äîñòóïíûì äëÿ ìåñòíîãî íàñåëåíèÿ ìàëîïîíÿòíûé òåêñò, íà÷åðòàííûé äèêîâèííîé «çàìîðñêîé» ïèñüìåííîñòüþ. Ïîñòåïåííî ýòè âñïîìîãàòåëüíûå çíàêè íà÷èíàþò ïðîíèêàòü è â íàäïèñè, ñîñòàâèòåëè êîòîðûõ ïîëüçîâàëèñü ýôèîïñêèì ïèñüìîì, ïðåæäå âñåãî â òå èç íèõ, ãäå íóæíî áûëî èñêëþ÷èòü âñÿêóþ äâóñìûñëåííîñòü, íàïðèìåð, â îôèöèàëüíûå ëåãåíäû, ÷åêàíèâøèåñÿ íà ìîíåòàõ. Îäíàêî ýòà òåíäåíöèÿ íå óñïåëà ïîëó÷èòü ðàçâèòèÿ: â ñåðåäèíå IV â. ïðîèçîøëà âîêàëèçàöèÿ ýôèîïñêîãî øðèôòà, ïðåâðàòèâøàÿ åãî èç àëôàâèòà âî âòîðè÷íóþ ñëîãîâóþ ïèñüìåííîñòü. Òåì íå ìåíåå, äî íàñ äîøëî íåñêîëüêî íàäïèñåé, âûïîëíåííûõ ñâîåîáðàçíûì «ñìåøàííûì» ïèñüìîì, â êîòîðîì êîíñîíàíòíûå çíàêè è matres lectionis óïîòðåáëÿëèñü íàðÿäó ñ ñèëëàáè÷åñêèìè ñèìâîëàìè. Íàèáîëåå êðóïíûå èç íèõ — ýòî äâà òåêñòà õ³àöà\íè (õ³àä³à\íè)21 Äàíèèëà, ïåðåèçäàííûå ïîä ñèãëàìè RIE 193 I, II. Îñòàâëÿÿ â ñòîðîíå âîïðîñ îá èõ ñîäåðæàÑì. MH.456 Gersem AE.1, MH.457 Gersem AE.1, MH.206 Gersem AE.1, MH.207 Gersem AE.1, MH.208 Gersem AE.1, MH.209 Gersem AE.1, MH.210 Gersem AE.1, MH.212 Gersem AE.1, MH.213 Gersem AE.1a, MH.214 Gersem AE.1a (MUNRO-HAY, The Munro-Hay Collection of Aksumite Coins, 80–83). Îáðàùàåò íà ñåáÿ âíèìàíèå ñõîäñòâî îáåèõ ëåãåíä, î÷åâèäíî, ñëóæèâøèõ äåâèçàìè ñîîòâåòñòâóþùèõ öàðñòâîâàíèé, ñ îôèöèàëüíûì äåâèçîì Ñîëîìîíîâîé äèíàñòèè (1270–1974), ïîÿâèâøèìñÿ, ïðàâäà, ëèøü â ïîçäíåå ñðåäíåâåêîâüå (íå ðàíåå XVIII â. — óñòíîå ñîîáùåíèå Ñ. Á. ×åðíåöîâà) ïåðâîíà÷àëüíî íà öàðñêèõ ïå÷àòÿõ: JÑ µ ÕqÊT µ ÖwIÏÜÙ µ Àñ «Ëåâ èç êîëåíà Èóäû ïîáåäèë». Íå èäåò ëè òóò ðå÷ü î ñîçíàòåëüíîì ïîäðàæàíèè? Ïðàâäà, îñòàåòñÿ íåÿñíûì, êàêèì îáðàçîì ìîãëè äîéòè äî Ñîëîìîíèäîâ äåâèçû äâóõ íå ñàìûõ èçâåñòíûõ ïðàâèòåëåé Àêñóìà: áëàãîäàðÿ óñòíîé òðàäèöèè èëè, ñêîðåå, â ðåçóëüòàòå ñëó÷àéíûõ íàõîäîê òåõ ìîíåò, íà êîòîðûõ îíè áûëè âûáèòû. 19 Íà ýòî îáðàòèë âíèìàíèå åùå Ðîæå Øíàéäåð, ÷üå ìíåíèå ïðîöèòèðîâàë Ì. Êðîïï: «Matres lectionis finden sich in den im Pseudosabäischen Alphabet geschriebenen Geez-Texten» (HAHN, Eine axumitische Typenkopie... 98). Îòìåòèì, ÷òî îïðåäåëåíèå äàííîãî øðèôòà êàê «ïñåâäîñàáåéñêîãî» íåêîððåêòíî, ò. ê. îí íè÷åì ïðèíöèïèàëüíî íå îòëè÷àåòñÿ îò ïîçäíèõ ðàçíîâèäíîñòåé þæíîàðàâèéñêîãî ïèñüìà, êîòîðûå áûëè òîãäà â õîäó â ñàìîì Éåìåíå. 20 Ñì. ïðèìåðû I/1, I/3 (äâà ñëó÷àÿ), II/1á (äâà ñëó÷àÿ), III/2 è, âîçìîæíî, II/2. 21  àêñóìñêóþ è çàãâåéñêóþ ýïîõè òèòóë ïðàâèòåëÿ, ïåðâîíà÷àëüíî, î÷åâèäíî, îçíà÷àâøèé ÷òî-òî âðîäå ðåãåíòà. 18

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

íèè è î âîçìîæíîñòè ðåêîíñòðóêöèè ýòèõ ñèëüíî ïîâðåæäåííûõ ïàìÿòíèêîâ àêñóìñêîé ýïèãðàôèêè,22 óêàæåì íà òî, ÷òî â íèõ ïðè÷óäëèâî ñî÷åòàþòñÿ òàêèå ôîðìû, êàê áÂ;Òñ (RIE 193 I/3) è ÈÌÁÒÔ (RIE 193 I/31), ÂîÏò (RIE 193 I/3-4, 6) è ÂâÏ (RIE 193 II/3). Êðîìå òîãî, â íèõ íåñêîëüêî ðàç çàñâèäåòåëüñòâîâàíî óïîòðåáëåíèå Ô â êà÷åñòâå mater lectionis â ìåñòîèìåííîì ñóôôèêñå 3 m. pl. ïðè ãëàãîëå 1 sing. perf.23 Ëîãèêà ðàçâèòèÿ ïèñüìà çàñòàâëÿåò îòíåñòè èõ êî âðåìåíè âñêîðå ïîñëå öàðÿ Ýçàíû, ò. å. ê êîíöó IV — íà÷àëó V ââ., êîãäà óïîòðåáëåíèå íåäàâíî èçîáðåòåííîãî ñèëëèáàðèÿ ìîãëî áûòü åùå ñîïðÿæåíî ñ èçâåñòíûìè òðóäíîñòÿìè è ñëó÷àëèñü «ðåöèäèâû» ïåðåäà÷è äîëãèõ ãëàñíûõ çâóêîâ ïðè ïîìîùè ïîëóãëàñíûõ. Îäíàêî, íà÷èíàÿ ñ îòêðûâøåãî è èçäàâøåãî ýòè íàäïèñè Ý. Ëèòòìàíà è âïëîòü äî íàøèõ äíåé, òåêñòû õ³àöà\íè Äàíèèëà ïðèíÿòî äàòèðîâàòü ïîçíåàêñóìñêîé ýïîõîé.24 Ïî-âèäèìîìó, ïðè ýòîì ïîäðàçóìåâàëîñü, ÷òî óïàäîê àêñóìñêîé öèâèëèçàöèè ïîâëåê çà ñîáîé è ÷àñòè÷íóþ äåãðàÝòè íàäïèñè, óæå ÷èòàâøèåñÿ äîñòàòî÷íî ïëîõî â ìîìåíò èõ îòêðûòèÿ Íåìåöêîé àêñóìñêîé ýêñïåäèöèåé (ñì. E. LITTMANN, Sabäische, Griechische und Altabessinische Inschriften (Deutsche Aksum-Expedition hrsg. von der Generalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen zu Berlin. Bd IV) (Berlin, 1913) 42–46: Nr. 12–13), îêàçàëèñü, âåðîÿòíî, ïîâðåæäåíû åùå ñèëüíåå ê ìîìåíòó èõ ïåðåèçäàíèÿ â êîíöå XX â. Îäíàêî âðÿä ëè òîëüêî ýòèì ìîãóò îáúÿñíÿòüñÿ ðàñõîæäåíèÿ â èõ èíòåðïðåòàöèè ìåæäó Ýííî Ëèòòìàíîì, ñ îäíîé ñòîðîíû, è Àâðààìîì Äðåâåñîì è Ð. Øíàéäåðîì, ñ äðóãîé (ñì. RIE, I, 279). Òðåòèé òåêñò Äàíèèëà (LITTMANN, Sabäische, Griechische und Altabessinische Inschriften, 46–48: Nr. 14) âîîáùå áûë ïðèçíàí ýòèìè äâóìÿ ó÷åíûìè íå ïîääàþùèìñÿ ïðî÷òåíèþ (RIE, I, 282). Êðîìå òîãî, íå èñêëþ÷åíî, ÷òî RIE 194 ìîæåò ïðåäñòàâëÿòü ñîáîé ïðîäîëæåíèå RIE 193 I. ×òî êàñàåòñÿ èíòåðïðåòàöèè ïåðâîé èç òðåõ ýòèõ íàäïèñåé, ïðåäëîæåííîé Þ. Ì. Êîáèùàíîâûì, òî îíà îñíîâàíà, ñêîðåå, íà áîãàòîé ôàíòàçèè àâòîðà, ÷åì íà êàêèõ-ëèáî ðåàëüíûõ ôàêòàõ (ñì. Þ. Ì. ÊÎÁÈÙÀÍÎÂ, «Ñêàçàíèå î ïîõîäå õ³àä³à\íè Äàí’ý\ëÿ» (Ýïè÷åñêàÿ íàäïèñü ïîçäíåãî Àêñóìà) // Íàðîäû Àçèè è Àôðèêè (1962, ¹ 6) 119–125). Âî âñÿêîì ñëó÷àå, íàäïèñè òîãî æå Ýçàíû äàþò êóäà áîëüøå ìàòåðèëà äëÿ ñðàâíåíèÿ ñî «Ñêàçàíèåì î ïîõîäå íåãóñà ‘Àìäà Ñèîíà», íåæåëè êðàéíå ôðàãìåíòàðíûå ýïèãðàôè÷åñêèå ïàìÿòíèêè, îñòàâëåííûå Äàíèèëîì. 23 Ñì. äâà ïîñëåäíèõ ïðèìåðà â II/1á. 24 Èõ îòíîñèëè ê VII–XII ââ. (LITTMANN, Sabäische, Griechische und Altabessinische Inschriften, 42), IX–XII ââ. (ÊÎÁÈÙÀÍÎÂ, «Ñêàçàíèå î ïîõîäå õ³àä³à\íè Äàí’ý\ëÿ»… 119), íàêîíåö, ê ñåðåäèíå VII â. (S. C. H. MUNRO-HAY, Aksum. An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh, 1991) 93, 262). IX–XII ââ. ðàññìàòðèâàþòñÿ êàê íàèáîëåå âåðîÿòíàÿ è ðàñïðîñòðàíåííàÿ äàòèðîâêà â Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (S. C. H. MUNRO-HAY, D. NOSNITSIN, «Danýel, haì ani», EÆ II 84–85). Ïðåäñòàâëåíèå î Äàíèèëå êàê î ïîçäíåàêñóìñêîì âëàñòèòåëå â òîé èëè èíîé ñòåïåíè ñâÿçàíî ñ óïîìèíàíèåì àë-Õùàä³à\íè\ ó àðàáñêîãî ãåîãðàôà X â. Èáí Õùàóê³àëà, êîòîðûé, ñêîðåå âñåãî, îøèáî÷íî ïðèíÿë ýòî ñëîâî çà òîïîíèì (ñì. Äðåâíèå è ñðåäíåâåêîâûå èñòî÷íèêè ïî ýòíîãðàôèè è èñòîðèè íàðîäîâ Àôðèêè þæíåå Ñàõàðû. Àðàáñêèå èñòî÷íèêè X–XII âåêîâ / Ïîäãîòîâêà òåêñòîâ è ïåðåâîäû 22

S. Frantsouzoff

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äàöèþ ýôèîïñêîãî ñëîãîâîãî ïèñüìà. Íî ýòî íå òàê! Çàêðåïèâøèñü â öåðêîâíîé òðàäèöèè, ýòî ïèñüìî óæå íå ìîãëî óñòóïèòü ìåñòî ñìåñè âîêàëèçîâàííûõ è êîíñîíàíòíûõ çíàêîâ. Ê òîìó æå ñóùåñòâóåò, ïî êðàéíåé ìåðå, îäèí äîâîëüíî áîëüøîé ïîçäíåàêñóìñêèé òåêñò, âûïîëíåííûé ïðåêðàñíûì ñëîãîâûì ïèñüìîì áåç ìàëåéøèõ ïðèçíàêîâ åãî ïîð÷è: íàäïèñü íà íàäãðîáèè Ãèõ³î, äî÷åðè Ìàíãàñ;à\, âòîðè÷íî èñïîëüçîâàííîì â êëàäêå îäíîé èç ñòåí öåðêâè Áîãîðîäèöû â ñåëåíèè Õàì (RIE 232). Òàêèì îáðàçîì, èçó÷åíèå ÷èñòî ëèíãâèñòè÷åñêîé, íà ïåðâûé âçãëÿä, ïðîáëåìû matres lectionis ïîçâîëèëî ñ äîñòàòî÷íî áîëüøîé ñòåïåíüþ âåðîÿòíîñòè ïåðåäàòèðîâàòü ïðàâëåíèå õ³àöà\íè Äàíèèëà ñ VII èëè äàæå ñ IX–XII ââ. íà êîíåö IV – íà÷àëî V ââ.

SUMMARY The question of the existence of matres lectionis in GeŸez has not yet drawn the attention of researchers. In the middle of the 4th cent. A.D., the Ethiopic consonant alphabet was transformed into a syllabic script; however, before this reform, some irregular attempts were undertaken to render the long vowels û and ô with the characters w and î, and ç with y. They proved to be limited mostly to the royal GeŸez inscriptions engraved in South Arabian writing (RIE 185 bis I; 191), although this phenomenon is also attested in some texts compiled in Ethiopic script (RIE 180; 193 I, II; 194), including the legends on the coins of the Aksumite kings MH³ DYS and Gersem. In contrast to the Epigraphic South Arabian languages, the use of the w or y for rendering â, even at the end of a word, is not found in GeŸez. It is interesting to note that there is a small number of partly vocalized inscriptions in which syllabic symbols are employed side by side with matres lectionis. Among them, two were compiled by a certain h³ad³âni (h³as³âni) Danýel (RIE 193 I, II), and they are usually dated from the 7th to the 12th cent. A.D. However, the transitional nature of their script testifies that the texts of Danýel, and consequently those written during his reign, date back to a more ancient period that directly followed the reform of the GeŸez writing, probably the late 4th – early 5th cent. Thus the analysis of a purely linguistic problem may result in a conclusion of considerable importance for the history of Aksum.

Â. Â. Ìàòâååâà è Ë. Å. Êóááåëÿ (Ì.—Ë., 1965) 44/16–19 (àðàá. òåêñò), 62 (ïåð.), 443 (êîììåíò.)). Îäíàêî ýòîò ñóùåñòâîâàâøèé íà ïðîòÿæåíèè ñòîëåòèé òèòóë âïîëíå ìîã ïîÿâèòüñÿ è íà çàðå èñòîðèè Àêñóìà.

Getatchew Haile Hill Museum & Manuscript Library Collegeville

THE MAâ S³H³ AFAâ GéE NZAâ T AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE REGARDING THE THEOLOGY OF THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH Introduction The funeral ritual of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is called Mäs³ha³ fä Gé nzät or ‘Book of Shrouding’ and the practice is féth³at, or ‘absolution’. There is undoubtedly an etymological and practical relationship between the GéŸéz génzät and the Arabic ganâzah ‘funeral’. However, there are noteworthy differences in the practice. Whereas the Arabic verb gannaza, from which ganâzah is derived, means ‘to conduct the funeral service’, the GéŸéz verb gänäzä means ‘to shroud the dead body in prayer’. That is, ©anâzah refers to the entire service of the ritual, while génzät refers to the individual shrouding. The difference between the two is the difference between the whole and a part of the whole. According to the directory of the Mäs³ha³ fä Génzät, shrouding or génzät is performed seven times during the féth³at. Assuming that the service is indeed an absolution for the remissions of sins, one of the several theological implications of the service is clear. Even though the ritual is called Mäs³ha³ fä Génzät, or ‘Book of Shrouding’, its ultimate purpose is to absolve, to set free, to let loose or release the dead person from the bondage of his/her sins. As such, it seems to conflict with and put into question the relevance of the practice of confession (nésséh³a), which, as laid down in the Church’s canon laws, including the Mäs³ha³ fä Fäws Mänfäsawi, conditions absolution on repentance and suffering penance. The foundation of the féth³at ritual is Mt. 16:19: «I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven».1 Through this ritual, the clergy are free to absolve those among the dead who neither repented nor confessed their sins and fulfilled the penance meted out to them. Internal evidence suggests that the present Mäs³ha³ fä Génzät is a local compilation and, as it is sometimes assumed, was not translated from Coptic Arabic, despite the obvious relationship between GéŸéz génzät and Arabic ganâ1

See also Mt. 18:18.

Getatchew Haile

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zah (which could be the residue of an earlier ritual supplanted by the present one). The history of the ritual, as narrated in its introduction, is the first piece of evidence supporting this conclusion. It is related to the story of the finding of the True Cross. One may recall that one of the versions of the latter story states that Queen Helen, who found the Cross, was instrumental in causing Judas (Yähuda), a certain Jew who helped her find the Cross, to be baptized and elevated to Bishop of Jerusalem with the name Cyriacus (Kirakos).2 The Mäs³h³afä Génzät extends this story and maintains that the queen found also the hidden or lost funeral ritual, which Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus used for shrouding Our Lord. It was hidden again after it was used for shrouding the same Joseph and Nicodemus. Thereafter, Archbishop Benjamin of Alexandria (Benjamin I, who held the office from 623 to 662?) discovered it and sent (a copy?) to Ethiopians, having attached to it his petition: ™|Pc" cx™" ™&|¿å¼" z±ž\Œ" vçH:|¡P" ¨™&|`e­#Œ" «And you, the people of Ethiopia, remember me in your prayer(s); forget me not».3 As we shall see, the text of the Mäs³h³afä Génzät contains excerpts from the Féth³a Nägäí t ‘The Law of the Kings’ and ÍérŸat zä-Abba Pakwé mis or ‘(Monastic) Rules of Pachomius’ [Regulae Pachomii], quoted almost verbatim from their respective GéŸéz versions, which points toward the ritual’s native character. The directive for the shrouding of monks and nuns and the exclusion of that for bishops when quoting from the Féth³a Nägäí t may show, moreover, that the ritual was composed in the monasteries (Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos?) which kept the country in turmoil with theological and Christological controversies from the time of Emperor Susényos’s (1607–1632) conversion to Catholicism. The most interesting evidence, however, is the insertion, in a quotation from the Féth³a Nägäít, of the sentence ¨H›O" ™Jwz*" ç#M" Jxe" ™&|w›" v+z" ¡`ez*¼"" «If she [a woman who dies during, or immediately after, childbirth] does not have a clean dress, she shall not enter church». Presumably, the authors of this sentence were referring to the poor economic conditions of their surroundings, which again points to local composition. I present here two excerpts from the Mäs³h³afä Génzät, chosen because they highlight the purpose of the ritual. The first is from the directive, which, for a reason that will become clear shortly, does not appear in all the manuscripts of Mäsh³ a³ fä Génzät. The second is a story of a sinner who benefited See ms. EMML 1763, fols. 23a–27a, see GETATCHEW HAILE and WILLIAM F. MAA Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, vol. V, Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1981, p. 218; see also IGNAZIO GUIDI, «Textes orientaux inédits du martyre de Judas Cyriaque évêque de Jérusalem», ROC 11 (1906), 337–351. 3 See ms. EMML 3402, fol. 26b; see n. 8 below. 2

COMBER,

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from the performance of the ritual on his behalf. The compilers of the Mäsh³ ³afä Génzät included it as concrete evidence of the necessity of the ritual. I note that, as a reflection of the theological and Christological controversies, the version of the book printed in Téníaýe zä-Gubaýe printing press4 (owned and operated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church) and the majority of the manuscripts do not agree with the first excerpt on some crucial points, while the printed edition has excluded the second excerpt all together. Editing the entire text, although important, may not be an easy task. In the collection of the Mäsh³ a³ fä Génzät manuscripts one clearly sees numerous variations.5 The text printed in Téníaýe zä-Gubaýe printing press is similar to none of the several manuscripts I investigated. One reason for this variation is related to a theological controversy between the adherents of the Sä³ gga and Sost Lédät on one side and the adherents of the QébŸat and Karra theological schools on the other side. The Mäsh³ a³ fä Génzät I am interested in belongs apparently to the Sä³ gga group who, as we have now learned from an unedited Acts (gädl) of Metropolitan Sälama (1841–1868), instruct to give Communion to the dead.6 My interest in the ritual lies in its contribution to the history of the Ethiopian Church. Whether or not there are churches and monasteries that, for example, give Communion to the dead today cannot be determined from the manuscripts. The Sä³ gga adherents have been considered heretics and excommunicated at the Church council of Boru Meda in 1878,7 and the ritual published by the Church does not contain this particular recommendation.

4 OéKï " ӏ±| "" çH:| " I¯H " T©{, Téníaýe zä-Gubaýe Printing Press, Addis Abäba 1944 Eth. C. [1951/52 A. D.]; for the recent German translation, s. FRIEDRICH ERICH DOBBERAHN, «Der äthiopische Ritus» in: HANSJAKOB BECKER — HERMAN ÜHLEIN (Hrsg.), Liturgie im Angesicht des Todes: Judentum und Ostkirchen, St. Ottilien 1997 (Pietas liturgica 9, 10), I, 137–316; ID., «Der äthiopische Begräbnisritus», in: ibid., I, 657–84 [text]; ID., “Der äthiopische Begräbnisritus”, in: ibid., II, 859–1036 [translation]; ID., «Weitere Formulare zum äthiopischen Begräbnisritus», in: ibid., II, 1397–1432 [translation]. 5 ERNST HAMMERSCHMIDT, Äthiopische Handschriften vom Tânâsee. 1: Reisebericht und Beschreibung der Handschriften in dem Kloster des heiligen Gabriel auf der Insel Kebrân, Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1973 (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland XX, 1), p. 129, ms. Tânâsee 20 [= Kebrân 20], fols. 2ra–99rb. 6 See DONALD CRUMMEY and GETATCHEW HAILE, «Abunä Sälama: Metropolitan of Ethiopia, 1841–1868: A New G‘z Biography», JES 37/1 (2004), pp. 5–40, here pp. 22, 36. 7 DONALD CRUMMEY, «Orthodoxy and Imperial Reconstruction in Ethiopia 18541878», Journal of Theological Studies 29 (1978), pp. 427–442, here pp. 440–441.

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The two excerpts come primarily from ms. EMML 3402 (A), and they have been collated with ms. EMML 3562 (B).8 For the quotations from the Féth³a Nägäít (FN)9 and the ÍérŸat zä-Abba Pakwémis (SP),10 which are rather extensive, I have relied almost wholly on the published versions. I limited the study to two manuscripts because the informational value to be had from using more would not have justified the effort. The punctuation, save for the quotation from the FN and SP, is that of A, but paragraphing is mine. Words in parenthesis are supplied for clarity; they are some times supported by B.

8 GETATCHEW HAILE, A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, vol. VIII, Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1985, p. 242; and vol. IX, 1987, p. 42, respectively. 9 IGNAZIO GUIDI (ed., tr.), Il «Feth³a Nagast» o «Legislazione dei Re» codice ecclesiastico e civile di Abissinia, Napoli 1897 (text), 1899 (tr.), chapter 22, pp. 142–145 (text), 205–208 (tr.). 10 AUGUST DILLMANN, Chrestomathia Aethiopica, edita et glossaria explanata, Addenda e corrigenda adiecit Enno Littmann, Lipsiae 21941 [reprint, Darmstadt 1967], p. 64.

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

Text* (A, fol. 4a, B, fol. 3a) veO" ™x" ¨¨JÅ" ¨Oïe" oÁe"  ™TI¡"" éMõ" ±z" OoÅO" ӏ±|" ±™ezÒw¯Š" ›Tc&Æe" ¨›Tõ|K" ŠÑY|" ¨v³z% " 1 OéKõ" ¾õ|K# " 2 vvY`®z% " ¨vvO|J©" ¨vvî{B3"" *mÃQ" ¾õ|K#" ë­z" Šõe" ¨R‡Hõz" 4 Šõe" ±¨é®|" ›T™&¹\dH+T" ¨z[¡v|"5 v›À" ›H+Œ" ÓY|" ¨¼xv#"6 )¨%O³P[" ê*|" 0¨5Šv&¼|"" ¨#O†J¾""7 ¨«Ãc+" R`¼T" ¨™mç" x`D" ¨¨Ñ+H" ¿Ke" ›ež" zõèSz%" *ÀÑ&Ož" Méy" vR¾" ¨™ØTp Hvŏ""8 (B, fol. 3b) ¨Ÿ¯v" Óv`"9 OemH" Hx›c&" 10 ¨Hx›c&|" HMì|" 11 ¨Hmc&e" 12 H¼p" 13 ¨HOD¾T 14" ¨H™e|" 15 ¨™ØTo¬P16 vR¹" çH:|" ›±" |xH#"17 veO" ™x" ¨¨JÅ" ¨Oïe" oÁe" ¨™&|¡J™#"18 Å`RpP" HŸF|" ›TYÒGP"" ¨›T³" ӏ³¬P19 vJxe" KÂe" *›eO" ¾|™O`" v³z%" žO" yP" Jxe" KÂe" vOÓYz" cR¼|"20 vžO" ¾v+" ä«H:e"21 Kª`¼" ¨vžO" HveŠ" ™TdH&B" HO_{ª*" žRB" Hxe" ™TdH&B" HcR¼ª*" ¨Óv\"22 H:P"23 %ӏ±z"" *¨¾|¡H#" H:P" %OemH"24 |`®c25" ¨|`Òç"26 v¹R‹"27 ¨vëÒP"28 ¨!I¯H+B"29 ¨¼‡|«"30 0¨2 R‡}z" Hmc&e" %H¼p31 ¨"HOK¾T""32 ™x`G" Ow`F|Œ" (A, fol. 4b) v›z*™GP" v›z" ™›Ta33 õJc}P" ›T®HO" éJO|"34 «ez" ®HO" x`D"" ¨›T³" ¾vH#" *M³x" ›T™H+õ" ›ež" ÒSJ""35 *¨¾õ|K#" «ez"36 v+|" vžO" Y`®z%" ›ež" zõèSz%"" ¨›T³" ¼xv#" I¯H" ì+«" ¨R¾" ¨¾³…#" v+z" ™Ó…&fP" Oçï"" ¨fv" ¼¨í¯¬" HӋ³" ›R‡À\"" ¾ë#\" eÃH+" ¨¯×Š" ¨Ow`Fz"" ¨¾Jvc#" ŸF|" Jxc" z¡F" ¨¹™…±#" R¯Ö{z"37 ¨¾|mŠº"" ¨®Â" ¾vH#" *ÃH+Ø" E " ª«" v T¯^õ" ¨¾õ|K#" žO" Y`®z" ³z%" OéKõ" ¨¼Y™#" T«z" ¨¼¯`ñ" …v" XJe" T¯^õ"" ¨¾vH#" ²¾" K+|" Ö+|" ¨¾õ|K#" žO" mÃQ" ¨Ÿ¯v" ¼Y™#" T«z"" ¨¼¯`ñ" …v" ^x¯" T¯^õ"" ¨¾vH#" ¿Å Ÿõ" ISÅ"" ¨¾õ|K#" žO" mÃQ" ¨Ÿ¯v" ¼Y™#" ¨¾cÁ" T«z" …v" KTe" T¯^õ" ¨¾vH#"38 ST" " dTž+|" ¨¾õ|K#" žO" *mÃQ" ¨¾cÁ" T«z"" …v$ T¯^õ" ¨¾vH#"39 ®+" ô" èÄ"" *¨¾õ|K#" žO" mÃQ" ¨¾K#\" …v" dx¯" ∗

A = EMML 3402; B = EMML 3562; FN = Féth³a Nägäít, SP = ÍérŸat zä-Abba Pakwémis. If a variant reading comprises more than one word, its beginning is marked by one asterisk (*) whereas the end is marked by a number referring to the apparatus. If the variant is represented by a longer passage, its beginning is marked by two asterisks (**) and the end by two asterisks and a number; in turn, a variant within such a passage is designated, at the beginning, by the asterisk (*), and by the asterisk with a number at the end. For the description of EMML 3402 and EMML 3562, see n. 8, above.

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T¯^õ" ¨¾vH#"40 põ" _e"41 d""42 ¨¼x™#" T«z"43 …v" v+z" ¡(B, fol. 4a)`ez*¼" H›O"44 ¢Š" mc&c" ¼ezdJT¬"45 {yz" *¨H›O" ¢Š" ¼pŠ" OoÀc"" ¨H›O" ¢Š" M³wª,"46 ¨™e|" *vžO" Y`®|" ±M¼ªŒGP"47 ¨¼e¡x¬P" vvO®`Ñ&GP"" **H›O" 48 ¢Š" ŸFŠ" ¼x›¬" «ez" «XÖ+" OÙI¯|"" *oÅO" TYª¯""49 *›OC" ¼p" ¨›OC" OŠ¢e" ¨OŠ¢d¾¼|" ¨M³wª*" v™õ(A, fol. 5a)™" OoÀe ±žO" Y`®z%50 ¨¾õ|K#" ®v&¹" õ|Kz""**51 *¨›TŇ[" õèS" õ|K|" 52 ¼J¡õ¬P" *›TYÒB" oÁe" ¨›TÀP" ¡v#`" 53 vvO®`Ñ&GP" žO" ¾ž#‹" ç#KŠ" voÅO" ›Ó±&™xK+`"" vžO" ¾v+" ›Ó±&›Š"54 v¨Ñ+J" ±vJ®" YÒ¹" ¨c|¹" ÀT¹" yM¾¨|" ±H®HT" *¨›TŇ[" õèS" çH:|" ¾e®U"55 *H&m" ŸF|"56 ›±" ¾cŠ™H:" *¨M³x" ›H" AH©" TeH+B" ¾e®T¬""57 *¨¾¡®«" I¯H+B"58 ox®" ±¾|" **¨¼ezdJU"59 {yz"" *¨Ÿ¯v" ¾cŬ"60 …v" Onx`" ¨¾xH#"61 {«"" *¨¼xv#" çH:z" Onx`" ¨çH:z" ¯×" ¼x›¬"" ¨¼e¡x¬" «ez" Onx`" v™Óª`" ›H" e¯ª"62 TeH+B"**63 «ez" R¯`Ñ#"" (B, fol. 3a) **¨fv" Uz|" x›c&|" v¨H&Å" ™«" vOª¯H" ‡`d"" ¾‡íxª" ¨¾Ó³ª" vŸJ›" Jxe" ±™&¨HÀ|" yz%" ¨¾çJº" I¯H+D" vv+z" ¡`ez*¼" ›eO" U|" ™éK"" ¨H›O" ™Jwz*" ç#M" Jxe" ™&|w›"64 v+z" ¡`ez*¼"" ¨†ç&v" T«|Œ"65 *›ToÅO" ¾Ó³¬"66 ÅJ«" «›z%" ¨™¢" ïÖ^" ›eO" *OéKï" ™x[¡c&e"67 ¾ŠÓ`" žO" H×v&{" [ś|" ±™Yš" ã+Øae" *›TŇ[" Uz|" †ëxª—68 ¨›Oc"69 ¢Š" ³z%" ±™&¾ÀH#" ›T™&Ñx`¬" T›O" vOª¯H" ™`ś|— ›Pz% Œ " ™&žJ›¬P" *Ÿ¯v"" ¨®Â"70 ¾ž«‹" T«{" 71 `c#KŠ" *v™W[" Àª,GP"72 ¨¾ÀH#"73 *žO" ™&¼x›¬P"74 «ez" v+z" ¡`ez*¼" *›vH" ¾‡íx¬P""75 **76 ¨¼¯`Ó" mc&e" ¯×Š" ¨¼xx" çH:z" ¯×"" (B, fol. 4a) ¨›TŇ[" zïçO" çH:z" Óx®z" O_|" ¨ž=H#" çH:z" õ|K|" ¼Té™#" ›Tªº"" ¨¼oP" oÅO" OTF\" ¹Ax"77 Téªz" HŠÃ¼" ¨HTež&"" H¯v+^|" ¨H(A, fol. 5b)›ÕH" R«{" ¨QO" Hv+z" ¡`ez*¼"" ¨¾³^¯" OTF\""78 žO" ¾ž#" eT®"79 voÅO" ›Ó±&™xK+`"" ±žO" *¨Av" Téªz"80 ›Oc"81 êP" ¨çHº"" ±›vH"82 õ|Kz" OTF\"83 ™Jy" ±¾vt¯"84 vžO" ¾v+H:" ›Ó±&›Š" Hã+Øae"" ±™W`ž" vT(B, fol. 4b)Å`" ¾ž#" ¯W#[" vcR¼|"" ¨±ï{Mž" vTÅ`"85 ¾ž#" õz%K" vcR¼|"" ¨žO³" Óv\" v¯H| ±™¯[ï"86 ¨zmx["" ¨H›O"87 z¡FH:P" *$Oª¯H" ¾õ|K#" ¨¾Óv\" t`wŠ""88 ¨H›O" ™&z¡FH:P" vXJe|" ¯H|" žO"89 |X™+B" HnJ"" *¨›T³" vdx¯|" ¯H|""90 ›eO" v%¯H|"91 |véM" Šõc#" …v" dx®¾" cR¾"92 oÅO" Ov[" exKz*B" H›Ó±&™xK+`"" ›OC" èÅo" ¨›OC" †Ø›"" ¨Ÿ¯v" v0¨ ¯H|" *¨¼xv#" v«ez" Onx]B" vO®J|" %Ñ&±+" ¨vH+H&|" %Ñ&±+"93 ›ež" 0¨ ¯H|"" *¨¼¯`Ñ# ¯×Š"94 ›±" ¾ÀÓP" çH:z" ¯×"" ¨Ÿ¯v" ¾Óv\" *v#¯H|" ¨$v¯H|"" ›eO"95 v$¯H| ®`Ñ"96 ›Ó±&›Š"97 cR¼z""98

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

vžO" ¾v+" ™w" äž=Qe" ¨H›Oy"99 ±™¯[ï" ›T™†«"100 ¾õ|M¬" HHc®z%""101 *vçH:z" ¯×—102 ¨v $¯H|"103 ¾|Òx™#" ž=H:P" oÁd" vÑ&±+" ªT" «ez" v+z" ¡`ez*¼" ¨¾|ŸïH#" 104 ŸF|" *¯×Š" ¨Â¼p|"105 ¨ž=H:P" ™v«" oÁd"106 ¨¾eÓÁ"107 H:z%" H±Uz"108 v™T׊" †¾H:P" 109 ¨›T³" 110 ¾¡­©" 111 ™x°P" I¯H" ¯×" ¨¾¯Ø‹" ›±" ¾zÓB" *ž=I" H+H&z112— ›eO" [žxž#" ±¾xJ" ¾ž«" *žO" Mì"113 ™O"114 ¾m«T" oÅO" ï×]—115 (A, fol. 6a) *¨H›HC" çHº"116 *¾ž«P" ­v&¹" ­ev""117 ¨Ÿ¯v" ¾Óv\"118 v^¯H|" ¨v*¯H|"" ¨v)¨v*¨3¯H|""119 ¨Ÿ¯v" vzõèSz"120 ®O|" ¾Óv\"121 žO"122 z³ŸaP" H™v«"" *¨¾³¡`¬" vçH:|" ¨oÃc+" ¨t`w""123 ›eO" *¾vt°" ïÅóÀ" ¨¼m`y"124 …v" ¡`e}e"" ¨žRB"125 fv" çH¹" Pc+"" v›z" av+J" ›TŇ[" U(B, fol. 5a)z" v )0¨5®O|" ™eze[¹" H:z%" …v" ›Ó±&™xK+`"" *¨žRB" ¾ÀJ¨Š" HŠ" HŸF|" ¨H¼p|"126 Óv`" H:P" ¯×Š" ¨t`wŠ"" ±¾ž«" v+²GP"127 ›eO" v+±¬" H¾eKo" v™TdH" vÓ¯"" ¨žRB"128 ¾ž«P" v+²" YÒB" oÁe" ¨ÀP" ¡v#`" *¨¾ž«P" F¹" ¨¯[õz"129 ¨H›O" ¨cž" Âv+B" *H:z%C" ¨H±UzC ¾ž«P"130 ®e­" ®v&¹"" ¨±z" ±xJ" v›z" ™Óx`z" ›Ó±&™xK+`" wMz*}P"" ¨H[c&®c"131 H›O" *¨Av# ž=H:" x¯H" ®HT""132 HŠÃ¼" ™Jy" ±¾vt°P"" ›eO" ›±" *AH©" vM¾¨}P" «›}P" çI¯¼ŒB"" ¨fv"133 ¨é™" ›T®HT" ™Jyz%"134 TM[|" ›eO" ™Jy" ™ÅJ¬" v…v+B"" ›eO" èÅo" ›Ó±&™xK+`" ¨éÅm" ™õm["" *¨HŸF" ±Uz"135 ™T™³RÂB" ™&¾z¡³" I¯H+B" žO" z[ï" ™M²x"" ¨™&¾YØØ" ™Jwc&B" ¨™&¼³Jõ"136 xŸ¹" ¨™&¾ì&" Y¯`}"" ™I" ¼›ž=}" H›Ó±&™xK+`" x±#†"" ¨¾ž#" z®ÒX+" vOž^B" žO" ™&¿x" èÅo"" *œ™|P" ŸF|" ¨md«e|" ¨Â¼p|" Oõ|«" |ç+Jº" …v" ›Ó±&™xK+`"" ¨|ž#‹" m%KŠ"137 vž=H#" Ñ&±+"" ¨fv"138 z窯¡P" *v«›z%" ¯H|"139 xJ­#" *vY`®|" ¨võ`Dz"140 ›Ó±&™(A, fol. 6b)xK+`" xJ­#" ›eO" Oõ|«" |çJº"141 I¯H" ›H" ïHc#" ›T³z%" ®HT"" (A, fol. 115a; B, fol. 8a) *±+Š¨" ›T™†«" ¨¾v+"142 ¨AH:" x›c&" w¯J" v™Kz*" AÑ`" ±™&¾ï`G" H›Ó±&™xK+`" ¨™&¾Ñx`" W¹" HŠÃ¼" ¨H™x¼z" ¡`ez*¼|"" ¨AH:" 143™+ã&e" pæe" x›c&" oÁe" ±¾ï`G" H›Ó±&™xK+`" «ez" ¾›z*" AÑ`" ¨JÁ" H›ž#¾" w¯J— ¨¢Š" ¾T¯Æ" H™v#B" ¨¾Ñ+Yê" ›±" ¾xJ" ™w" õ^F" ›Tž=ŠŽB" H›Ó±&™xK+`" z™ÑY"144 ¨[†o" ›T†Ö&™|"" ¨™v#Bc" ™&¾cT¯" ›TŽB"" ÛP" ¼ïÀõÅ" Ñv&[" ›ž¾"" ¨¾ª,e¡" †Ö&™z" vÂv" †Ö&™|" ¨†Jm"145 Oª¯H&B" v¯J¨|" ¨`ž=e" ¨›(B, fol. 8b) T³" Uz" «›z%"146 w¯J" ¨…±Š"147 «›z%" ™+ã&e" pæe" ¨¼ïoaP" H™v#B" 148 ïÅóÀ" ¨HA¨" Øm" H™v#B" ¨c™H" …v" ›Ó±&™xK+`"149 vx±#‡" êT" ¨|ÒF" žO" ¼`›¿" …v"150 ®¾" OŸ"

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AH:" ™v#B" ¨±žO" ›ö" «›z%" ¨T|"151 ¢Š" I¯H+B"" ¨¾v+" *T|" H™v#¹" Uz%""152 ¨Oé™"153 OJ™ž" ›Ó±&™xK+`" ¨™œÆ" vMJT" OŸz" À¾"" ¨™xéN" «ez" OŸ" ¨«›z%" v™TdH" Óx" ¯Po"154 Øm" ¨TH#¯" éJOz" ±zž`¹" Óv" ›d(A, fol. 115b)|" ¨z¾"" ¨¹®`Ó" ›T«ez,z%"155 Ö&e" ¨¾¨í›" ›TŽB" ì+" ‡c#T" ¨éº¯" ¨õÑ#Ó" Øm"" ¨™ž["156 ™+ã&e" pæe" ¨ze›H:" H«›z%" OJ™¡" *v›z" «›z%" OŸ" Ó\T" ¨Oõ`F" ïÅóÀ" ¨¾v+H:" OJ™¡"157 ²z*" OŸ" |cO¾" ÑDŠT"" ¨v«ez% { " ¹†Å\" ž=H:P" ™x¯J|" ›ž#¼"" *›H" ¾SF\" ¨™&¼X+º" 158 Hv&êP" ¨›H" ™‡Hñ" Oª¯H&GP" *v|¯ÓJ|" ¨v®Oì"159 ¨Uz%"160 ±›vH" eK" ¨²z*" OŸŠ" TÃv+" ±AH:" «ez,{" ™v#ž" ¨«›z%" Åñ" O|Mz" {Mz*|"161 ¨Šm*N" ›TªP" ŠY™" ž=H:" ª¹"162 ±†ÀÑ" ™v#B" ¨žïH" HŠÃ¼" ¨HTež&" êO"163 ¨çH¹" ¨Ñx[" t`wŠ" v›z*™B" vv+z" ¡`cz*¼" ›ež" $¯H|"164 ¨c™H:" H›Ó±&™xK+`" vx±#‡" Ñ®`" ¨™x¯""165 ¨Oé™" …v+B" «›z%" OJ™¡" ¨cÆ"166 vMJT" «ez"167 OŸ" ±AH:" yz%" ™v#B"168 ›T`›c#" ›ež" ¡dÁ" {Mz" «ez" À¾"" ¨Šm*N" ™+ã&epæe"169 ›TªP" ¨cž" êO" vÂv" êT" |‡`Tz"170 ¨|ÒD"" ¨Ñx["171 t`wŠ" ›ež" Oï(B, fol. 9a)m" ®O|""172 ¨Ÿ¯v" Oé™" *OJ™¡" …v+B173 ¨¨cÆ" ž&¼B" *OŸŠ" ±™`™¿" H™v#B" Šª" ¨ç&œ"174 ›TÀ¾" ›TKmðB" {Mz" «ez" À¾" vž¹"175 ¨¾v+H:" H™v#B" œ™w" ±z" ï^Fž#"176 Hž" ¨T¯Åž#ž"177 ¨™&ïmŞ" |eR¯" ›TŽ¹"178 ¨™«Y™"179 ™v#B"180 ¨¾v+H:" ™õ؏" œ¨JŹ" žO" |wJKŒ" ›Tž=ŠŽ"181 O]`"" ¨e¡"182 êO" ¨çH:z" ¨™&|‡ÅÓ" *t`wŠ" ¨Téªz"183 ›eO" v›z" çH:|ž" ¨v›z" YÒB" ¨ÀP" H¡`e}e" *Ҋ" Oï(A, fol. 116a)m" YÒ¹" ¨Oïm" Šõe¹" ›Tc&œJ" AH:""184 ¨Šm* N " 185 ™+ã&epæe" ™ïÅïÀ" êO" ¨çH:z" ¨|ÒD" vWo" ¨vKOÅ" ¨Ñx[" t`wŠ" ›ež"186 ®O|"" ¨›T³" Ÿ¯v" `›¹"187 vMJT" ¨Šª" ¨[À"188 ›Ó±&›Š" ™&¹c#e" ¡`c}e"189 «ez" «›z%" OŸ"" ¨™±´" H«›z%" OJ™¡"" ¨¾v+H: ™«í®" H²z*" Šõe" |Tè›" …v+¹""190 ¨fv" ™Té™" ¾v+"191 OK`¡ª" H¾›z*" Šõe" v›z" ìRB" ¨èMm%" H™+ã&e" pæe"" ¨v›z"192 YÒ¹" ¨ÀT¹" Míw" vR¹" M¾¨|"" ¨™x™" «ez" ъ|"193 ¨Šm*N" ›TªP"194 zïYK" ïÅóÀ"" ¨cxN" H›Ó±&™xK+`" ¨MŠŒ" e™H:" H›Ó±&™xK+`" žO" ¾TK[Š" ¨¾e[¾" HŠ" †×«™&Š""195 ¨¾[e¹Š" ÅJªŠ" HOÓYz%" vçH:{" H›Ó±&›|Š" R`¼T" zžzO" e›H{|" ¨vçH:z" ¿Ke" OØTo"196 ¢žv" KoJ" ¨ÑÃT 197 ¨vçH:z" ›eÖ&óe" H&m" ¼p|"" ¨mÃS" cR¯|" ¾›±+Œ" ¨±JïŒ" ¨H®HO" ®HT" ™S""198

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

1. B ¨›T³z%" 2. B omits. 3. B omits. 4. B mÃS" ž=H#" Ñ&±+" ë™z" Šõe" ±nH" ™|z,¬e" ¾ÅÓP" ŸF|" R‡Hõz" 5. B ›z" z[¡v|" 6. B adds I¯H+B". 7. B ¨O†J¹" cH:U" 8. B adds mÂOž" Míy" vR¾" ¨Å‡[" ÀÑ&Ož" ™ØTp" vR¹" çH:|"" ¨fvŒ" Uz|" x›c&|" v¨H&Å" ™«" vOª¯H" M`d" ¾Míxª" ¨¾Ó³ª" vŸJ›" Jxe" ±™&¨HÀ|" yz%" ¨¾çJº" I¯H+D" vv+z" ¡`ez*¼"" ›eO" U|" ™éK" ¨H›O" ™Jwz*" ç#M" Jxe" ™&|w› ™mç" v+z" ¡`ez*¼"" ¨Kç&v" T«|Œ" ›ToÅO" ¾Ó³¬" ÅJ«" «›z%" ¨™¢" ïÖ^" ›eO" OéKï" ™x^¡c&e" ¾ŠÓ`" žO" H×v&{" [ś|" ±™Y™" ã+Øae" Ň[" Uz|" Këxª" ›Oc" ¢Š" ³z%" ±™&¾ÀH#" ›T™&Ñx`¬" T›O" vOª¯H" ™`ś|" ›Pz%Œ" ™&žJ›¬P"" ¨®Â" Ÿ¯v" ¾ž«‹" T«{" `c#KŠ" v›Àª*GP" (sic) ¨™&¾ÀH#" žO" ¼x›¬P" «ez" v+z" ¡`ez*¼" ›vH" ¾Míx¬P"" ¨¼¯`Ó" mc&e" ¯×Š" ¨¼xx" çH:z" (B, fol. 3b) ¯×" ¨H›O" ¢Š" mc&e" ¾Óv\" H:z%" !R¯zv" ¨H¼p" R¯zv" ¨HM³wª*" R¯zv"; A omits at this place and places toward the end. 9. B omits. 10. B Hx›c&Œ" 11. B ¨HMì|" žRB" ¾Óv\" 12. B Hmc&eŒ" 13. B ¨H¼p" 14. B HOD¾TŒ" ¨HMì|" 15. B ¨Hx›c&|" 16. B ¼ØTo¬P" 17. B ¾xH#" 18. B ¨™&¾¡J™#" 19. B ¾Ó±#" 20. B ±OÓYz" cR¼|" 21. B omits. 22. B ¨¾Óv\" 23. A omits. 24. A ¨|¡J" OemH"" 25. A v|`®c#" 26. A ¨v|Òë#" 27. B v¹R" 28. B ¨vçÒT" 29. B ¨!I¯H+GP"" 30. A ¨™‡|©" 31. B ¨H¼p" % 32. B ¨HM³wª*" OD¾T" " 33. B omits.

Getatchew Haile



%$34. B éJO}P" 35. B ™H+õ" ›ež" ISÅ" 36. B ¾õ|K#" õ|Kz" …v" 37. A R¯Öz" 38. B vT¯^õ" 39. B Y`®z" ³z%" OéKõ" ¨›T³" ¼Y™#" T«z" ¨¼¯`ñ" …v" ŸJ›" T¯^õ" ¾vH#" 40. B žRB" žO" mÃQ" ¨Ÿ¯v" ¼Y™#" …v" XJ¯" T¯^õ" ±™mç" v+z" ¡`ez*¼"" ¨v³Œ" vJ" 41. A adds _e" 42. B ¾õ|K#" žRB"" ¨›T³" ¼Y™#" ›T!T¯^õ" 43. B omits. 44. B ¨H›O" 45. B ¼ezXJP" 46. A ›OC" ¼p" 47. A ±žO" Y`®z" M¼ªŒGP" 48. B ¨H›O" 49. A omits. 50. B ¨H›OC" M³wª* " ¨Â¼p" ¨OŠ¢e" ¨OŠ¢d¾|" vžO" X&O}P" HM³wª*Œ" ¨HM³wª*|" vžO" Y`®z%" ™õ™" v+z" OoÀe" ¼e¡x¬P" 51. **FN ¨H›O" ¢Š" Oªz*" ŸFŠ" ¾ž#" oÅO" TYª¯" ™TIŸª*"" ¨H›O" ¢Š" ›TŠ" M³x" ¾ž#" {Mz" TYª¯"" 52. A ¨›T³" 53. A YÒB" oÁc"" ¨ÀU" ¡v#[" H¡`e}e" 54. B omits. 55. This is according to the FN; A ¨Å‡[ " ¾e®U"; B ¨Å‡_B " ¾e®T" 56. FN omits. 57. FN ¨›TŇ_B" ¾e®T¬" Ñ#w™+" ›H" AH©" F¹"" ¨›TŇ[³"; B ¨¾c®T¬" ›H" AH«" F¹" 58. FN ¾¡®«" I¯H+B" H&m" ŸF|" A ¨I¯H+B" ¾¡­©" 59. B H&m" ŸF|" ¨Å‡_B" ¼ezdJT¬" 60. B Ÿ¯v" ¨¾¨eŬ" 61. B ›±" ¾xH#" 62. B ›ež" zõèSz%" ¨¾Óv\" çH:z" Onx`" ¨¾¯Ø‹" ¯×Š" ¨¼xv#" çH:z" ¯×" Ň[" ™x›¬" ¨™ežx¬" «ez" Onx`" ¡v#`" v™Óª`" ±e¯«" 63. **FN ¨¾ç+H&" v›z*™B" çH:z" ¡W#z"" ¨›TŇ[" ³z%" ¼x`¬" HYÒB" «ez" OŸ" ¡v#`" v™Óª[" YÒ" ç#M" ±e›«" TeH+B 64. B adds ™mç" 65. FN T«|" 66. A omit. 67. A OéKõ" ±™x[¡c&e""; B OéKï" ™x^¡c&e" 68. A Këxª" Ň[" Uz|"; B Ň[" Uz|" Këxª" 69. AB ›Oc"

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

70. A ¨®Â"; B Ÿ¯v" 71. A T«{Š" FN P{" 72. B v›Àª*GP" 73. AB ¨™&¾ÀH#" 74. A ¼x›¬" B žO" ¼x›¬P" 75. A ±›vH" ¾Méx¬"" 76. **B places toward the beginning. 77. A žO" ¹Av#" 78. B omits. 79. B adds OTF\" 80. B ¨Av#" H›Ó±&™xK+`" Téªz" 81. B H›O" 82. B ›vH" 83. OTF`" 84. B ±¾vt°P"" 85. B vÂv" TÅ`" 86. B ¾Óv\" H:z%" v¯Hz" ™¯[ï" 87. B H›O" 88. B $O®Jz" õ|Kz" ¨t`wz" ¾Óv\" H:z%"" 89. A ™O" 90. B ¨Å‡[" v%¯H|" 91. A omits. 92. B omits. 93. B ¼xv#" vvÑ&±+B" «ez" Onx`" vH+H&|" !Ñ&±+" ¨vO®J|" !Ñ&±+" 94. B ¨¾«Ó\" ¯×Š" ¨¾¯Ø‹" 95. B omits. 96. B omits. 97. B adds ™&¹c#e" ¡`e}e" ›eO" ®`Ñ" 98. This paragraph is a drastic rephrase of the FN. 99. A ›Oy"; B H›Oy" 100. A ›T™†«"" 101. SP HHc®z%/ HH¯Hz%"; B HH¯Hz%" 102. SP vÑ&±+ ¯×" B vçH:|" 103. B ›ež" $¯H|" v#¯H|" ¨v$¯H|" 104. SP ¨¾|žïH#" 105. AB ¨Â¼p|" ¯×Š"" 106. A omits. 107. A ¾eÓÁ" 108. AB …v" ›Ó±&™xK+`" 109. A adds F¹z,B"; AB add H±Uz" 110. A ›±" B omits. 111. AB ¾¡¯©" 112. B O®Jz" ¨H+H&z" ž=H:" Ñ&±+" 113. A MìŠ" žO" ±ŠY™"; B ±¯Hz" ŠY™"; AB plus Axz" ¨Jō" 114. B omits.

Getatchew Haile

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115. AB ›Ó(A, fol. 6a)±&™xK+`" 116. AB ¨H›H" ¾ç+Jº" 117. A ®ev"®v&¹" voÅO" ›Ó±&™xK+`""; B ®cv ¾ž«P"" 118. B omits. 119. B ¨v)^¨!¯H|" 120. B zõèSz" 121. B omits; A adds ¾Óv\" 122. B žO³" 123. B ¾Óv\" H:P" t`wŠ" ¨¾³¡`¬P" vçH:|" ¨oÃc+" ›eO" ¾vt°P" 124. B ¾vt°P" ïÅóÀ" ¨¼m`yP" 125. B žRB" 126. B MŠŒ" ¾ÀJ¨Š" žRB" zÒv&™Š" ŸF|" ¨Â¼p|" 127. A omits. 128. B žRB" 129. B M¾" ¨¯[õ|" 130. B H:z%" ¨H±Uz" ¾ž«" 131. B H[c&®c" 132. B x¯H" ž=H#" ®HT" ¨Av#" 133. B AH:" vM¾¨z%" çI®&" «›z%" ¨z®«m" ŠÑ\" žO" «›z%" çI®&B" fvŒ" 134. A ™JyP" 135. B ŸFŒ" H›O" Uz" 136. B ¨™&¾³Jõ" 137. B œŸF|" ¨Â¼p|" ›H" v›Ó±&™xK+`" ¨v›Ó±&›Š" ™&¹c#e" ¡`e}e" Oõ|«" |ž#‹" ç#KŠ" 138. AB ¨H›O" 139. AB omit. 140. This is according to FN; AB v®oT" ¨vï]D" 141. A |ç+Jº" 142. A Oõ|«" ±™v«" 143. B omits. 144. B ¨zÑDY" ›Tž=H#" ›ž#¾" 145. B ¨™FHm" ž=H:" 146. B adds x›c&" 147. B adds v›z*™B" 148. B H›H&™B" ¨H™v#B" 149. B adds v›z" ™v#B" 150. B «ez" 151. B ¨Tz" 152. B v›z" T|" Uz%" H™v#¹"" 153. B adds …v+B" 154. A TH#¯" 155. A omits. 156. A adds «›z%"

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

157. A omits. 158. B ™&¾TF\" ŠÃ¼Š" ¨›H" ™&¼Wº" 159. A vž=H#" |¯ÓJ|" ¨®Oì" ¨`ž=e" 160. B omits. 161. B adds ¨cQ°" «›z%" ™+ã&e" pæe" †±Š" ¨vž¹" O][" 162. B omits. 163. B ¨êO" 164. B $Oª¯J"" 165. B omits. 166. B ¨¨cÆ" 167. B adds «›z%" 168. B adds ¨`›¿" H™v#B" 169. B omits. 170. B ¨|TF`z" 171. B adds H:z%" 172. B ®Oz"" 173. B …v+B" «›z%" OJ™¡" vFJT" 174. B ¨`›¿" H™v#B" ¨B" ¨íœ" 175. B ¨vž¹" 176. B ±ï^Fž#" 177. A omits. 178. B omits. 179. B ›TŽD— 180. B ¨™«Yœ" 181. B ›T³z%" ž=ŠŽ" À¾" 182. B ¨¨e¡" 183. B Téªz" ¨Óv`" Téªz" ¨t`wŠ" v›z™¹" v+²"" 184. B ҏž#" Oïm" Šõe¹" ›TŠ" c&œJ" ¨™¯[Ñ#Œ" ›R¯To" ¨Oïm" Šõe¹" «ez" c&œJ" ›|ŸÿŠ" AH:ž#"" 185. B adds «›z%" 186. B adds õèS" 187. B `›¿" 188. B omits. 189. B adds ¨[À" 190. B ¼«íœ" H¾›z*" Šõe" ¨¼Téœ" …v+B"" 191. B adds ›Ó±&›" 192. B v›z" 193. B ъz" |õYM|" 194. B «›z%" ™&ã&e" pæe" 195. B adds vx³†" TM[z%" 196. A omits. 197. B ±ÑÃT" 198. B ®" ™S"

Getatchew Haile

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Translation (A, fol. 4a; B, fol. 3a) In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We write this introduction to the funeral ritual1 that we have compiled from the Sinodos and the Fé th³a Nägäí t. One shall absolve with this book, according to its directives, its sequences, and its classes. First, let them absolve (using the prayers), the departure of the soul, (by Athanasius) and the passing of the soul that came from Jerusalem and was found in the hands of Queen Helen, and read over (the dead person) the 150 psalms of David, 15 Prophets, Songs of Solomon, the Praises of Mary, the Gate of Light.2 And read3 (over the water) the Gospel of John, to the end, and bathe and baptize the corpse.4 (B, fol. 3b) Also, provide a cross for a man, a woman, children, priests, deacons, laymen and women, and baptize them with water of prayer, saying, «In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit». You shall not remove the undergarment of priests from their body. Then shroud them with new clothes, that it may signal with this that they have new clothes in the kingdom of heaven, as the Apostle Paul has said, «As we are clothed in the image of the earthly, likewise we shall be clothed in the image of the heavenly».5 Perform for (the dead) seven shroudings, setting for them seven crosses — one at the head side, one at the feet side, one at the right, one at the left, and three on them. Let them also kindle twelve lamps for a priest, seven for a deacon, and four for laypeople. Putting on lights (A, fol. 4b) for them is for the recognition of their translation from the world of darkness to the world of light. Then let the people recite (the psalm from) aleph to gimel.6 Let them perform the absolution (beginning) at home to the end, according to the directive. Then, let them read (prayers) on salt and water and sprinkle the house, removing the carpet.

I. e. the Mäs³h³afä Génzät. These are the contents of the Ethiopic Psalter. 3 In the directive, the subject interchanges frequently between «they», the clergy, and «you», obviously the priest in charge. When in general, the object is referred to as either «he» (singular masculine) or «they» (plural masculine). The soul is feminine. The verb is mostly in the imperative. 4 The beginning and the end of the instruction are not clear. It could mean, «...the Gate of Light and the Gospel of John, to the end. And having read (all these over the water), bathe and baptize the corps». 5 I Cor. 15:49. 6 These are the alphabetical marks of the subdivisions of Ps. 118/119. 1 2

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Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

When they bring out the shrouded one from his dwelling, let them carry wheat, incense, and lights. Let the clergy put on their clerical vestments, carry censers and chant. Also, let them read at the second station,7 daleth, he, (and) vau and absolve according to the directive of this book. And let them lift up the dead and rest at the third station, read zain, cheth (and) teth, and absolve as before. Again, let them lift up the dead and rest at the fourth station, read jod, caph, (and) lamed, and absolve as before. Again, let them lift up the dead, and take (him) to the fifth station, read mem, nun, (and) samech, and absolve like before. Let them take the dead to the sixth station, read ain, pe, (and) tzaddi, and absolve like before. Let them go to the seventh station, read koph, resh, (and) shin, and bring in the dead into (B, fol. 4a) the church. If he is a priest, let them make him greet the tabot; if he is a deacon, (just) the sanctuary.8 If it is a layman or a woman,9 (let it be) according to the order (they observed) when they were alive. And let them lie down according to their ranks. If it is a priest, let them bring him in, inside the curtain, before the altar. But if it a deacon, a monk, a nun or a layman, (let it be) outside (A, fol. 5a) the sanctuary, according to the directive, and absolve the grand absolution. After the completion of the absolution, let (the clergy) make (the dead person) taste from (Christ’s) holy body and his honored blood, according to their rank, so that they may be pure before God, as Our Lord has said in the Gospel, «He who ate my body and drank my blood will have eternal life».10 After the completion of the prayer, let the high priest kiss him bidding him farewell. And let the people who are with him kiss him. Let (the high priest) spill on him oil, and have him greet the tabot. And then let them take him to the tomb and read tau, say the Prayer of Burial and the Prayer of Incense. Let them bring him into the tomb and make him lie near those who are his equals to his rank. (B, fol. 3a) And when a woman dies in childbirth or during the time of her confinement in childbed,11 let them bath her and shroud her in another dress she had not used when giving birth, and pray over her (body) in church; for death has purified her. But if she does not have clean clothes, let her not enter church.12 MéŸ éraf. Mäqdäs. 9 Anést, in plural. 10 Jn. 6:54. This sentence is neither in all manuscripts nor, of course, in the FN; but in the manuscripts in which it is found, the point is made in more than one place and unequivocally, e.g. B, fol. 22a: ™xJ¯¬" ›TYÒB" H³z%" vŏ" žO" ¾èM" voÅO" ›Ó±&™xK+`" «Make the corpse eat from the body (of Christ) so that he may be purified before God». 11 Hérs. 12 This sentence is not in the FN, and appears to be at variance with the preceding sentence. 7 8

Getatchew Haile

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Bathing the dead before they shroud him is necessary; it is not an invention, for the book of Acts tells that they had bathed the disciple Tabitha, whom Peter raised after she died.13 If this was unnecessary, the faithful would not have practiced it during the time of the Disciples; and (the Disciples) did not forbid them. Moreover, the dead become filthy as a result of their sickness, and so, it is necessary that they do not let them into church without bathing them. Let the priest raise incense and read the Prayer of Incense. (B, 4a) After the Prayer of Burial and all the prayer(s) of absolution are completed, let them bring from his possession and put it before his teacher14 so that he may give alms (on his behalf), be it to the poor, the wretched, the elderly, and (A, fol. 5b) the orphans or to the church. Let the teacher dispense (it) so that he may be a witness before God that he has given alms. If (people) only fast and pray, it will not be sufficient without the absolution of the teacher, as Our Lord has said to Peter, «Whomever you bind on (B, fol.4b) earth, let him be bound in heaven, and whomever you loose on earth, let him be loosed in heaven».15 Do like this on the day (the person) rested and is buried. If it is possible for them, let them absolve and celebrate the Eucharist 40 days. If it is impossible for them, (let them do it) on the third day, as the Resurrection of the Word; then on the seventh day, for his soul reaches (on that day) the seventh heaven, before the throne of the glory of God, whether righteous or sinful. Then also on the twelfth day, let them read at the tomb seven times during the day and seven times during the night16 for twelve day.17 Let them raise incense, reciting the Prayer of Incense. Let them again perform (the ritual) on the thirtieth day and fortieth day, because Our Lord had ascended the heavens on the fortieth day. As abba Pachomius has said, «If one of the brothers dies, let them absolve him every hour/day18 with Prayer of Incense. On the fortieth day, let all the saints19 assemble in church at compline, and the priests apportion incense, and the deacons all the holy fathers perform prostration, as much as they can, before him who has died. Then, let them spill their tears on the incense and incense vigilantly all night, for I have found which says, ‘He will be like an infant when he stands before (A, fol. 6a) the Creator’. And for those who prayed it will be a great reward». Acts 9:36. I. e. confessor father. 15 Cf. Mt. 16:19. 16 B has three times during the night and three times during the day. 17 The expression, «for twelve days», is apparently added as a result of corruption of the sentence. 18 Cf. SP which also has the variants like the ritual manuscripts. 19 I. e. the monks. 13 14

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Again, let them celebrate on the sixtieth day, eightieth day, and on the one hundred eighty-third day.20 Moreover, let them celebrate at the anniversary, as the commemoration of the fathers. Let them commemorate him in prayer(s), and Mass. For the Eucharist benefits him very much, and brings him close to Christ. Similarly, when Moses prayed for Reuben (B, fol. 5a) 215 years after he died, he earned him forgiveness from God.21 Similarly, it is incumbent upon us, priests and deacons, that we celebrate for (the dead with) incense and the Eucharist that will be their redemption, for (celebration) has redeemed Isaac in the likeness of a ram. Similarly, his holy body and his honored blood will be a redemption for them; it will be for them peace and rest. If one adds (more) to it, it will be a great reward for him as well as the dead. We say this only regarding the servants of God. As for the sinners, even if they give the poor the wealth of the whole world, it will not benefit them, because when they were alive, they were haters (of almsgiving). When he leaves the world, he will have no mercy, because there is no partiality with (God). «For God is righteous, and he loves righteous deeds».22 And let not a priest, one of whose relatives dies, grieve over him like the rest of the heathens. Let him not tear his clothes nor dwell long in mourning, nor pull his hair. Rather, let him give thanks to God very much. Let him be perseverant in his trying like the righteous Job. O you, priests, and deacons, it is necessary that you pray to God and be alert23 at all times. When you are invited on that day, eat in measure and with the fear of God (A, fol. 6b), for it is necessary that you pray on those who are translated from this world. (A, fol. 115a; B, fol. 8a) One of the brothers reported thus: There was a rich man in a certain city who neither feared God nor did good to the poor or the churches. There was in that city a bishop, a holy man who feared God; he was the son of the wicked rich man. He used to preach his father and admonish him, saying, «Father, fear the judgment of God; control yourself and stay away from sin». But his father did not listen to him. Rather, he increased doing wicked things. He added sin to sin. His time was finished in lawlessness and filth. Then (B, fol. 8b) the rich man died. The bishop grieved (because) he loved his father very much. He mourned his father very much and petitioned God, with much fasting and vigilance, in order that he may show him at what place his father was, how he was, and what had happened to him. He said, «What is (the consequence of) death to my father?» B has «163 days». Deut. 33:6 (?). 22 Ps. 10/11:7. 23 The word is néquh³an, ‘alert’, ‘watchful’, ‘vigilant’. It could be a misreading of nés³uh³an ‘clean, pure’, which also B has. 20 21

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An angel of God came and had him tour, in a dream, the places of damnation. He brought him to a certain place. It was in the likeness of a very deep pit filled with darkness, a pit dug of (A, fol. 115b) fire and brimstone. Smoke came up from it, and a very bad, stinking, and reeking smell emitted from it. The bishop was astounded; he asked the angel about this awful and very much fear-inspiring place. The angel said to him, «This place is called hell.24 There dwell in it all wicked rich people who neither have mercy25 (upon the poor) nor do good to their friends and who pass their time in violence and crime, and die without repentance. This place of tribulation is where you father is. He is buried in the lowest of the low». When (the bishop) woke up from his sleep, he took all the money his father left behind and divided (it) among the poor and the wretched. He fasted, prayed, and celebrated the Eucharist in the church for him for forty days. He petitioned God with much agony and tears. The same angel came to him (and) took him, in a dream, to the place where his father was way down in damnation (below) his head up to his neck.26 When the bishop woke up from his sleep, he added fasting to fasting, abstinence, and vigilance. He celebrated the Eucharist up to half (B, fol. 9a) a year. The angel came to him again in a dream and took him to the same place where he showed him his father. Behold, (his father) had come out from damnation, (but) he was way down in damnation from his waist. He cried, and said to his father, «O father, this was what I feared for you and preached you. (But) you did not want to listen to me». His father answered, saying, «Make haste, O my son, so that you may rescue me from (this) bitter torture. Add fasting and prayer, and abandon not (the celebration of) the Eucharist and almsgiving, because of your prayer(s) and because of the body and blood of Christ (A, fol. 116a) half of my body is saved, but half of my soul is still in Hades». When the bishop woke up, he increased fasting, praying, and vigilance, being in sackcloth and ashes; celebrated the Eucharist up to a year. Then he saw, again in a dream: Behold, Our Lord Jesus Christ has come down to that place, and gave an order to the same angel: He said to him, «Bring out that soul; let her come to me». When he brought her, (the Lord) said, «I have forgiven this soul for the sake of the toil and effort of the bishop, and for the sake of my body and my blood. Bathe her with the water of life and bring her in to Paradise».

The word is gähannäm Gehenna. Lit. «they teach»; obviously for iyyéméh³é ru ‘they have no mercy’; B has iyyéméhéru. 26 Lit. «from his head to his neck». 24 25

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When (the bishop) woke up from his sleep, he rejoiced very much, and praised God. We, too, let us pray to God so that he may have mercy upon us and forgive us our sins, and make us worthy of his kingdom, by the prayer of Our Lady Mary, the ladder of petitions; and by the prayer of John the Baptist, the star of the field and wilderness; and by the prayer of Stephen, the Archdeacon and the Protomartyr;27 now and always and forever. Amen.

SUMMARY The funeral ritual of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is an important source on the history of the Church’s Christology. There are several variants of the ritual, reflecting, among others, the 17 th-century theological and Christological controversies regarding the incarnation of the Word. The ritual studied here belongs to the Sägga group.

This is arguably an indication that the ritual was composed in the monastery of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, Ambassäl, Wällo (Amhara). 37

Marilyn E. Heldman The University of Missouri-Saint Louis

Monica S. Devens St. Louis University Law School

THE FOUR GOSPELS OF DAâ BRAâ MA⠟AR: COLOPHON AND NOTE OF DONATION* The focus of this article is the dedicatory colophon and the note of donation of the Four Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar. With elaborate Canon tables, a preface of three full-page miniatures, and four evangelist portraits, the Däbrä MäŸar Gospels is a manuscript de luxe. The three miniatures showing the Crucifixion, the Holy Women at the Tomb, and the Ascended Christ are the earliest known example of what is recognized as an iconographically distinctive Gospel preface. Thus, because of the significant position of this manuscript in the history of Ethiopian manuscript illumination, the translation and discussion of the colophon and note of donation is preceded by a brief discussion of the relationship of the preface miniatures of the Four Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar to other Ethiopic illuminated manuscripts of the Four Gospels dating to the late 13th and 14th cent. Although a prefatory cycle of Christological miniatures appears in several of the earliest extant illustrated Gospel books, namely the 6th-cent. Greek Rossano Gospels and the Syriac Rabbula Gospels dated A.D. 586,1 the earliest extant Christological preface in an Ethiopic Gospel book is found in the socalled Gospels of abba Iyäsus Moýa of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos dated A.D. 1280/81.2 This is probably not the first Christological preface ever to have been produced for an Ethiopic manuscript of the Four Gospels, but, because * Dr. Monica S. Devens is responsible for the translation of the colophon and the note of donation. She also provided provisional translations of the additional notes, which require further study, and thus do not appear in their entirety in this publication. 1 See J. LOWDEN, «The Beginnings of Biblical Illustration», in: Imagining the Early Medieval Bible, ed. by J. Williams (University Park PA: the Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 9–59. 2 See W. F. MACOMBER — GETATCHEW HAILE, A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, vols. I–X (Collegeville, 1975–1993) [in the following: EMML], here V, 293–301, no. 1832. M. E. HELDMAN, «An Ethiopian Miniature of the Head of St. Mark: Egyptian Influence at the Monastery of St. Stephen, Hayq», in: Ethiopian Studies, Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the occasion of his seventy-fifth Birthday (November 14th, 1981) by friends and colleagues, ed. by S. Segert and A. J. E. Bodrogligeti (Wiesbaden, 1983), 554–568.

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this is the earliest extant prefatory cycle of Christological miniatures, writing the history of the Christological preface in Ethiopian manuscript illumination must begin with this manuscript. Most earlier Ethiopic manuscripts of the Four Gospels did not survive what Getatchew Haile has termed «a systematic destruction of the past on religious grounds», which occurred some time after the establishment of the so-called Solomonic dynasty in 1270.3 Furthermore, the late Sevir B. Chernetsov observed evidence of the destruction of historical writings during this same period.4 The fourteen-miniature Christological preface of the Gospels of abba Iyäsus Moýa begins with the Annunciation to Mary, ends with the Ascension of Christ, and includes full-page miniatures of Christ’s Infancy and Passion.5 This Christological preface cycle served as the essential model for the fourteen-miniature Christological preface in the manuscript of the Four Gospel created ca. 1320 at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos for the monastery’s abbot, Kréstos Täsfanä, although the miniatures of the latter’s Gospel book are by no means always direct copies of the former.6 This extended Christological preface inspired the creation of similar prefaces in other Ethiopic manuscripts of the Four Gospels of the late 14th and 15th cent.7 The Christological preface of the Däbrä MäŸar Gospels, preceded by a set of elaborately decorated Canon tables8 and followed by four Evangelist portraits, is limited to only three full-page miniatures — the Crucifixion, the Holy Women at the Tomb, and the Ascended Christ. In Marilyn Heldman’s

GETATCHEW HAILE, «Who is Who in Ethiopia’s Past, Part II: the Zagwe Royal Family after Zagwe», Northeast African Studies 7, no. 3 (1985), 41, 47 n. 2. 4 S. B. CHERNETSOV, «The Crisis of Ethiopian Official Royal Historiography and its Consequences in the 18th Century», in: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, ed. by Bahru Zewde, R. Pankhurst, Taddese Beyene (Addis Ababa, 1994), I, 87. The earliest extant chronicle is considered to be that of the emperor ŸAmdä Séyon I (1314–1344). 5 The miniatures of this remarkable manuscript have not been published in their entirety; for a complete list of the miniatures, EMML V, 293–301. 6 For lists of the miniatures of the Christological prefaces of these two manuscripts of the Gospels produced at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, see HELDMAN et al., African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia (New Haven & London, 1993), 176–177. 7 These include the Kébran Gospels (HELDMAN et al., African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, 178–179, with further bibliography); the Gospels of Princess Zir Ganela, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M828 (M. E. HELDMAN, The Gospels of Princess Zir Ganela, an Ethiopic Manuscript dated 1400/01 A.D., unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Washington University in St. Louis, 1972); and the Four Gospels of the Metropolitan Museum of the City of New York, No. 1998.66 (H. C. EVANS [ed.], Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261–1557), catalogue of an exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art [New York and London, 2004], catalogue no. 267). 8 Canon tables are a tabular form of Gospel concordance that demonstrate the harmony of the Four Gospels. See M. E. HELDMAN, «Canon tables», in: EÆ I, 680–681. 3

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article of 19799 and Claude Lepage’s article of 1987,10 both authors concluded that this abbreviated three-miniature frontispiece follows an iconographic scheme inspired by Late Antique works of art that celebrate major sites of pilgrimage in the Holy Land. One of the most definitive aspects of the miniature of the Crucifixion is the absence of the body of Christ upon the Cross, an iconography similar to that of late 6th-cent. souvenir ampullae produced in Jerusalem.11 Although the miniatures of the Crucifixion in the Gospels of Abbot Iyäsus Moýa and the Gospels of Kréstos Täsfanä of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos also follow this same Late Antique iconographic tradition, the other two miniatures of the Däbrä MäŸar preface — the visit of the Holy Women to the Tomb of Christ12 and the Ascended Christ with Mary and flanking Archangels Michael and Gabriel — bear no similarities to the Christological miniatures of the Gospel manuscripts of the two abbots of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, although the Gospels of Abbot Kréstos Täsfanä predates the Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar by only a decade or two. It is safe to assume that the presently unknown archetype or archetypes of the three miniatures of the Christological preface had come to Ethiopia before A.D. 600.13 Furthermore, it is quite unlikely that the illumination of Ethio9 M. E. HELDMAN, «An Early Gospel Frontispiece in Ethiopia», Konsthistorisk Tidskrift 48 (1979), 107–121. 10 C. LEPAGE, «Reconstitution d’un cycle protobyzantin à partir des miniatures de deux manuscrits éthiopiens du XIVe siècle», Cahiers archéologiques 35 (1987), 159–196. 11 The subject of this distinctive Ethiopian iconography of the Crucifixion was taken up again by E. BALICKA-WITAKOWSKA, La Crucifixion sans Crucifié dans l’art éthiopien, Bibliotheca nubica et aethiopica 4 (Warsaw, Wiesbaden 1997). 12 The miniature of the Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ follows the Gospel accounts of Matthew 28:1–10 and Mark 16:1–13. 13 The archetypes need not have been souvenirs of the Holy Places produced in Palestine. John Lowden argues that representations similar to those of pilgrimage art decorated textiles, carved ivories, painted panels, and the walls of churches throughout the Mediterranean world (LOWDEN, «The Beginning of Biblical Illustration», 54– 58). No decorated souvenir lead ampullae from Jerusalem or other such portable objects have been reported to date at Ethiopian archaeological sites or in Ethiopian church treasuries. Objects received during the Christian Aksumite period include Canon tables fragments and Evangelist portraits at the monastery of abba Gärima (Énda Abba Gärima) datable to the late 6th cent. (HELDMAN et al., African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, 129–130) and a souvenir terra cotta ampulla with a portrait of St. Menas from the great pilgrimage church of St. Menas on the west-north coast of Egypt recovered by Paribeni at Adulis (R. PARIBENI, «Ricerche nel luogo dell’antica Adulis (Colonia Eritrea)», Monumenti Antichi 18 [1907], col. 538, Fig. 54). Ampullae of St. Menas were produced between 480 and 640, see Z. KISS, «Les ampoules de St. Ménas découvertes à Kôm el-Dikka (Alexandrie) en 1969», Études et Travaux. Studia e praci. Travaux du Centre d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences 7 (1973), 138–154.

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pic manuscripts of the Four Gospels remained unchanged over a period of many centuries. The frontispiece scheme of the Däbrä MäŸar Gospels quite possibly represents a deliberate revival of Late Antique Gospel decoration. The three-miniature preface of the Däbrä MäŸar Gospels is repeated in two preface fragments and in five extant illuminated Ethiopic Gospel books of the 14th and 15th cent., two of which are known to have been at one time royal property. An Ethiopic Gospel book in Paris (Bib. Nat., éth. 32) was given by Emperor Säyfä ArŸad (r. 1344–1372) to the church of the Apostles at the monastery of Qusqam in Egypt.14 Although there is no proof that this manuscript was created for Säyfä ArŸad, the manuscript was royal property at the time of its donation by the emperor to Ethiopian members of the monastic community at Qusqam in Upper Egypt.15 Another 14th-cent. Gospel book with the three-miniature frontispiece, presently in an anonymous private collection, appeared in an exhibition of Ethiopian art in Paris organized by Jacques Mercier.16 Because the frontispiece of this manuscript is very close in style and iconography to the frontispiece of the Gospel book sent to Qusqam by Säyfä ArŸad, we may assume that the two manuscripts are of the same approximate age, i. e. the mid-14th cent. or later. According to the catalogue of this exhibition, a note in the Gospel book in the anonymous private collection states that Emperor NaŸod (r. 1494–1508) presented this manuscript to the monastery of Däbrä Libanos (Asbo) for the commemoration of the translation of the bones of Täklä Haymanot on the 12th day of Génbot (May 20).17 The note of fol. 1r, added after the manuscripts was copied, gives no date; however another note added at Däbrä Qwésqwam — Qusqam (fol. 207v) — includes a date of A.D. 1381. H. ZOTENBERG, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens (Gheez et Amharique) de la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, 1877), 24–29. See also LEPAGE, «Reconstitution d’un cycle protobyzantin à partir des miniatures de deux manuscrits éthiopiens du XIVe siècle», 159–196. For the popular pilgrimage site of Däbrä Qwésqwam or Qosqam/ Qusqam in Egypt, see L. MACCOULL, «Holy Family Pilgrimage in Late Antique Egypt: the Case of Qosqam», in: Akten des XII. Internationalen Kongresses für Christliche Archäologie, Bonn, 22.–28. September 1991, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum Ergänzungsband 20 (Münster, 1995), II, 987–992. On the associated monastery, see ABÛ SALIH, The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, ed., tr. by B. T. A. Evetts, A. J. Butler (Oxford, 1895), 224– 227; it is noteworthy that the primary compiler of this account was a 12th-cent. Coptic priest, Abû al-Makârim. See, J. DEN HEIJER, «Coptic Historiography in the Fâtimid, Ayyûbid and Early Mamlûk Periods», Medieval Encounters 2, no. 1 (1996), 77–81. 15 There is no reason to suspect that the emperor would have sent a manuscript of some antiquity as a gift to the monastery. 16 JACQUES MERCIER (ed.), L’arche éthiopienne. Art chrétien d’Éthiopie, 27 septembre 2000 — 7 janvier 2001, Paris 2000, catalogue of an exhibition at the Pavillon des Arts (Paris, 2000), 44–45. 17 MERCIER, L’arche éthiopienne, 45. The commemoration of 12 Génbot celebrates the translation of the bones of Täklä Haymanot to the monastery of Däbrä Libanos 14

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Thus, this second manuscript was royal property at the time of its donation to Däbrä Libanos (Asbo). These acts of royal donation suggest that monarchs of the early Solomonic dynasty held manuscripts of the Four Gospel decorated with the so-called Late Antique three-miniature preface in high regard.18 An undated Gospel book in the collection of the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore19 may be compared stylistically with the Gospel book in Paris (Bib. nat., éth. 32) and the Gospel book presently in a private collection.20 Two fragmentary sets of a three-page preface, presently separated from their original manuscripts of the Four Gospels, are more closely related stylistically to the miniatures of the Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar: a frontispiece fragment with a Crucifixion miniature which is presently in the collection of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa,21 and the three-miniature preface of a frag(Asbo) of Šäwa in 1410. Unfortunately, the entire note (of donation?) is not included in the catalogue entry which refers to the note as a «colophon». Evidently the manuscript was not presented to the monastery when NaŸod visited Däbrä Libanos in January 1495 (TADDESSE TAMRAT, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527 [Oxford, 1972], 292–294), because the note is said to mention the names of Märha Kréstos (†1497) and Petros (abbot 1497–1523), the ninth and tenth abbots of Däbrä Libanos (Asbo). It is also possible that the note was added when abunä Petros was abbot. A passage in the Life of Märha Kréstos refers to the emperor NaŸod «transferring» the bones of Täklä Haymanot in a golden box at the time of his visit, but this does not necessarily refer to yet another translation. On this point, see S. KUR (ed., tr.), Actes de Marh³a Krestos, CSCO 330/331, SAe 62/63 (Louvain, 1972), 90 [text], viii, 82 [tr.]. 18 It is possible that this three-miniature Gospel frontispiece was recognized as a Late Antique revival and thus was associated with the Christian Aksumite past. There is a passage in the Life of Märha Kréstos in which the emperor Éskéndér (r. 1478– 1494) likens his relationship with abunä Märha Kréstos with that of Kaleb and abba Päntälewon: see KUR, Actes de Marh³a Krestos, 97 [text], 88 [tr.]. This comparison may have been suggested by the Life of St. Päntälewon; on the other hand, it may represent a broader 14th- and 15th-cent. pattern of identification with the Christian Aksumite past. 19 D. E. HOROWITZ (ed.), Ethiopian Art, The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, 2001), catalogue no. 10, pp. 96–97. The museum purchased the manuscript from the Nancy and Robert Nooter Collection, prior to which the manuscript was in the possession of the proprietors of the Craft Caravan of New York, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Knopfelmacher. 20 The group of Gospel manuscripts illuminated with the three-miniature preface have similar measurements: Däbrä MäŸar Gospels, 28.2×18.5 cm; Paris, Bib. nat., éth. 32, 29×18 cm; private French collection, 29×18.5 cm; Baltimore, Walters MS W.836, 26.7×17 cm. Cp. also Stockholm fragment, 27.5×18.5 cm; Addis Ababa fragment, 29.5×19 cm (s. below). 21 Addis Ababa, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, inv. no. 3475a–b, two separate leaves. The Crucifixion miniature is painted on the verso side of a single parchment leaf; a tholos or tempietto with conical roof is painted on the recto side. The tholos composition routinely concludes the set of decorated Canon tables, thus indicating that the miniature of the Crucifixion was the initial miniature of a three-miniature

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mented Ethiopic manuscript of the Four Gospels in the National Museum, Stockholm,22 divided between the National Museum and a private collection.23 Luxury manuscripts of the Four Gospels decorated with the three-page preface continued to be produced in the early years of the 15th cent. Mercier reports that a Gospel book with this distinctive three-miniature frontispiece, presently the property of a church near Däbrä MäŸar, was produced during the reign of Emperor Yéshaq (r. 1414–1429).24 All of these manuscripts appear stylistically to be later in date than the miniatures of the Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar. Hence the importance of the translation of the colophon and the note of donation in the Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar in this paper offered in memory of Sevir B. Chernetsov whose work enriched our understanding of Ethiopian history. The reader will note that the spelling of the name of the monastery and that of its founder is notably inconsistent. The forms in the most recent note (fol. 76r, col. B), which was added in the 19th cent., follow the present-day spelling, i. e. Däbrä MäŸar and Gäbrä Mäsqäl. The place name, Däbrä MäŸar, appears in the colophon and additional notes in the following variations: Däbrä MaŸräya, Däbrä MaŸara, Däbrä MäŸarä, Däbrä MéŸrya.25 The name of the preface. HELDMAN, «An Early Gospel Frontispiece in Ethiopia», 107–121; C. NORDENFALK, Bokmålningar från medeltid och renässans i Nationalmusei samlingar (Stockholm, 1979), figs. 200–202; HELDMAN et al., African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, 130-31. This leaf and the leaf with a portrait of the Evangelist Matthew were detached from the manuscript of the Four Gospels in the library of the church of Maryam Séyon at Lake Zéway (S. CHOJNACKI, Major Themes in Ethiopian Painting, Aethiopistische Forschungen 10 [Wiesbaden, 1983], 490). 22 Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, B 2034. HELDMAN, «An Early Gospel Frontispiece in Ethiopia», 107–121; NORDENFALK, Bokmålningar från medeltid och renässans i Nationalmusei samlingar, 16–21; HELDMAN et al., African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, 131–132. 23 Catalogue of Sotheby & Co., Western Manuscripts and Miniatures (5 December 1994), catalogue no. 53, with photograph of the tholos miniature. For a drawing of the Crucifixion miniature of the verso, see BALICKA-WITAKOWSKA, La Crucifixion sans Crucifié dans l’art éthiopien, 121, fig. 108. 24 MERCIER, L’arche éthiopienne, 44. Nevertheless, the popularity of this threeminiature Gospel preface was displaced in the late 14th cent. by a Christological preface based in part on the preface miniatures of the Gospels of Abba Iyäsus Moýa of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos. Consisting of up to twenty full-page miniatures, some of which are framed by trilobe arch embellished with arabesque patterns, this distinctive Christological preface is found in such manuscripts as the Gospels of Princess Zir Ganela (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M828) (see n. 7 supra), and the Gospels of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of the City of New York, no. 1998.66 (see n. 7 supra). 25 Another variation in the spelling, Däbrä MäŸara, is found in a land grant of Lébnä Déngél: C. CONTI ROSSINI (ed., tr.), Documenta ad illustrandam Historiam, I.

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founder and first abbot has also undergone changes in spelling and perhaps meaning, from Kébur Mäsqäl to Gäbrä Mäsqäl.

*** Translation of the Colophon: fol. 230v, col. B (see Pl. II) In glorification of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, this book was copied at Däbrä MaŸräya in [this] holy place, for abunä Mahdäntä Kréstos, and I, Isayéyyas, the sinner,26 am the one who copied it. Furthermore, this Gospel was copied in the Year of Grace 525 [A.D. 1340/ 41] during the reign of ŸAmdä Séyon. And the Ÿaqqabe säŸat of the place Däbrä MaŸara was abunä Kébur Mäsqäl. He who copied it and he who commissioned it and he who read it and he who heard its words and believed, may God have mercy on them in the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen and amen. And this Gospel was finished on 10 Taòíaí [6 December 1340]. Note of Donation: fol. 231r, cols. A & B, 23 lines (see Pl. III) And Mahdäntä Kréstos gave it [this Gospel book] to the [Archangel] Gabriel of Däbrä MäŸarä so that God would have mercy on him in the Kingdom of Heaven with the saints and the martyrs forever and ever. Amen and amen. And it was entrusted to God and to the throne of power so that people would not sell or barter or remove it from this place. If anyone sells it or barters it or removes it from this place, let him be anathematized in heaven and on earth, by the mouths of the Twelve Apostles, by the mouths of the Fifteen Prophets, by the mouths of the Three Hundred Eighteen Orthodox Fathers,27 and by the mouths of the Seventy-Two Disciples. If anyone scratches it or effaces it, let him be anathematized forever. Amen and amen. And furthermore, this Gospel was given to [Archangel] Gabriel in the Year of Grace 525 on 13 Miyazya, on Easter Day, during the reign of ŸAmdä Séyon [21 April 1340 A.D.]. It was Mahdäntä Kréstos and Isayéyyas, his brother, who gave it to Gabriel of Däbrä MäŸarä. May God bestow the salvation of their souls and their bodies. Amen, amen, and amen.28 Liber Axumae, CSCO 54/58, SAe 24/27 (Parisiis — Lipsiae 1909–1910 [repr. Louvain, 1961–1962]), 39 [text]; G. W. B. HUNTINGFORD, The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia (Addis Ababa, 1965), 51–53. 26 For several examples, see TADDESSE TAMRAT, «The Abbots of Däbrä-Hayq 12481535», JES 8, no. 1 (1970), 90. 27 The Three Hundred and Eighteen Orthodox Fathers are the bishops who sat at the Council of Nicaea. They are commemorated on 9 Òédar: G. COLIN (ed., tr.), Le synaxaire éthiopien. Mois de H _ edar, PO 44 (Turnhout, 1988), 276–279. 28 An added note takes up the final 8 lines of column B.

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*** The colophon not only establishes the date of the production of this important manuscript, but it also provides a few essential insights into the early history of the monastery.29 The illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was formally presented to the church dedicated to Gabriel of the monastery at Däbrä MäŸar on 8 April 1341 when abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl, the monastery’s founder,30 was abbot, his title being Ÿaqqabe säŸat. It is more commonly known that the title Ÿaqqabe säŸat, literally «Keeper of the Hours», as for the hours of prayers (?), was assumed by the abbot or head of the monastery at Däbrä Hayq Ésti³ fanos, the abbot of the monastery of Sana (Tana) Qirqos at Lake Tana,31 and by the abbot of the ancient monastery of abba Mät t³ a³ Ÿ at Däbrä Libanos near Ham.32 Däbrä MäŸar is situated in a mountain landscape about 600 meters above the high Hawzen plateau in the district of GärŸalta in Tégray.33 Located far above the secular world of the plateau, abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl chose an ideal site for his monastery.34 The rock-hewn church of the monastery at Däbrä MäŸar, one of a number of rock-hewn monastic churches in GärŸalta,35 was placed by David Buxton in his category of Tégrean basilica churches datable to the late 13th or early 14th cent.36 Neither the date of birth of abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl of GärŸalta nor the date of the establishment of his monastery at Däbrä MäŸar is known, but it is safe to assume that the monastery could not have been founded much earlier than A.D. 1300 and that the monastery’s estabPriests are attached to the church at Däbrä MäŸar, but there is no longer a monastic community at the site. 30 KINEFE-RIGB ZELLEKE, «Bibliography of the Ethiopic Hagiographical Traditions», JES 13, no.1 (July 1975), 74–75. The church at Däbrä MäŸar possesses a manuscript with the Life (Gädl) of abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl; the text has not been published. 31 TADDESSE TAMRAT, «The Abbots of Däbrä-Hayq», 90 and 98, n. 57, citing the Life of Yafqérännä Égziý. Although the discussion of this title in the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica treats it as an essentially imperial office, this was not strictly the case (S. KAPLAN, «ŸAqqabe säŸat», in: EÆ I, 292–293). 32 C. CONTI ROSSINI, «L’evangelo d’oro di Dabra Libanos», RRALm, ser. V, 10 (1901), 197. 33 R. PLANT, Architecture of the Tigre, Ethiopia (Worchester, England, 1985), 44. 34 A mountain is so closely associated with a monastic setting that the GeŸez word däbr means «mountain», «region where there is a monastery», and «monastery»: W. LESLAU, Comparative Dictionary of GeŸ ez (Classical Ethiopic) (Wiesbaden, 1987), 121. 35 See the list of rock-hewn churches in GärŸalta in PLANT, Architecture of the Tigre, 30. 36 D. BUXTON, «The Rock-Hewn and Other Medieval Churches of Tigre Province, Ethiopia», Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity 103 (1971), 52–57. 29

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lishment preceded the excavation of the rock-hewn church. «Gäbréýel», to whom the original altar tablet (sélla) of the church at Däbrä MäŸar was dedicated, is the Archangel Gabriel.37 In stating that the Gospel book was given to Gabriel, rather than to the church of Archangel Gabriel, the author expressed how the altar tablet was regarded — it was quite literally the personification of the saint to whom the altar tablet was dedicated.38 According to an additional note of fol. 231v, col. B, the church building (betä kréstyan) was consecrated on 28 Säne, but unfortunately the year is not indicated. The rock-hewn church at Däbrä MäŸar is not presently known as the church of the Archangel Gabriel. Abba Tewelde Medhin Joseph reported that there are two churches at Däbrä MäŸar, one known as Énda Giyorgis, the other as Énda Maryam, i. e. dedicated to St. George and St. Mary.39 The list of rockhewn churches published by Roger Sauter, following the report of Abba Tewelde Medhin Joseph, states that the rock-hewn church at Däbrä MäŸar (the primary church) is dedicated to St. George.40 It is not uncommon to find that the name of a church, i.e. the dedication of the altar tablet, appears to have changed.41 The combination of dedications to the Virgin Mary and Saint George suggests that two additional altar tablets (séllat) were dedicated in the mid-15th cent. or later, after the cult of the Virgin had been mandated by Emperor Zärýa YaŸéqob, when portraits of the two saints were frequently placed together in devotional images.42 The 19th-cent. note on fol. 76r, col. B, which refers to a gift for the «commemoration of Giyorgis» without citing the date of the commemoration, apparently refers to the annual commemoration of St. George.43 Ruth Plant A later note on fol. 14r (col. B, line 12) refers to the archangel as «Gäbréýel Mäbässér» i. e. «bearer of good news» (Luke I: 26–28). 38 On the dedication of the altar tablet and thus the altar and the church itself, see GETATCHEW HAILE, «A History of the Tabot of Atronésä Maryam in Amhara (Ethiopia)», Paideuma 34 (1988), 18–22. 39 Abba TEWELDE MEDHIN JOSEPH, «Introduction générale aux églises monolithes du Tigrai», in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa 1966 (Addis Ababa, 1969), I, 96. 40 R. SAUTER, «Églises rupestres au Tigre», AÉ 10 (1976), 167. 41 For example, the primary altar of the dynastic church of Yékunno Amlak was dedicated to abba MättaŸ; a later dedication of another altar tablet to the Virgin gives the church its present name of Gännätä Maryam («Garden or Paradise of Mary»). 42 M. E. HELDMAN, The Marian Icons of the Painter Frç Seyon. A Study in Fifteenth-Century Ethiopian Art, Patronage, and Spirituality (Wiesbaden, 1994), 175– 178; HELDMAN et al., African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, catalogue nos. 95 and 102. See also GETATCHEW HAILE, The Mariology of Emperor Zär’a Ya‘éqob of Ethiopia, OCA, 242 (Rome, 1992). 43 The date of the primary commemoration of St. George is 23 Miyazya (May 1). It is no surprise to learn that the church owns an 18th-cent. manuscript of the Life of St. George. 37

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who first visited Däbrä MäŸar in the late 1960s reported that the rock-hewn church of Däbrä MäŸar was known as abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl and a second church, in a «primitive cave» and at that time only used for shelter, was known as abunä Abraham.44 Sauter noted that there were numerous tombs around the church.45 The dedication of the church to abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl as noted by Plant refers to the founder of the monastery of Däbrä MäŸar, Gäbrä Mäsqäl of GärŸalta, whose renown is apparently limited to the area of northern Ethiopia within the old governing unit of GärŸalta. The scribe described himself as «I, Isayéyyas, the sinner», a phrase which typically appears in monastic signatures46 and which signifies that Isayéyyas was a monk. Isayéyyas states in the colophon that the book was copied for abunä Mahdäntä Kréstos, who was also a member of the monastic «family» at Däbrä MäŸar. In the final lines of the note of donation, it is written that «Mahdäntä Kréstos and Isayéyyas, his brother», gave the book to Gabriel of Däbrä MäŸar, which suggests that the men were siblings rather than just fellow monks. An added note on fol. 14v refers to «the priest Mahdäntä Kréstos», and a second added note gives the dates of the deaths of these two members of the monastic community.47 The manuscript was commissioned by a priest-monk of the monastic community at Däbrä MäŸar and copied by a monk-scribe at Däbrä MäŸar for the monastery’s church of St. Gabriel. The four months that elapsed between the day of completion of the Gospel text (6 December) and the presentation of the Gospel book on the following Easter (8 April) were probably given over to the creation of the decorated Canon tables, the three full-page preface miniatures, and the four author portraits that introduce each of the Four Gospel texts. With the completion of the illuminations and final assembly of the quires, the quires were sewed together to wooden endboards.48 Because the scribe Isayéyyas does not expliPLANT, Architecture of the Tigre, 44–45. SAUTER, «Églises rupestres au Tigre», 167. 46 For several other examples of the use of this phrase, see TADDESSE TAMRAT, «The Abbots of Däbrä-Hayq 1248–1535», 90. For signatures of monk-painters who describe themselves as sinners, see M. E. HELDMAN, The Marian Icons of the Painter Frç Séyon. A Study in Fifteenth-Century Ethiopian Art, Patronage, and Spirituality, Orientalia biblica et christiana 6 (Wiesbaden, 1994), 24–25, 52–53. 47 Fol. 231r, col. B (the final 8 lines). 48 For a discussion of the distinctive method of sewing the endboards and the quires together, see J. A. SZIRMAI, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding (Ashgate: Aldershot, 1999), 45–50. Some of the quires with worn gutters were repaired in the early 1970s at the governor’s palace in Mäqäle, a process which required resewing the quires; the wooden endboards were replaced at this time. On the project of repairing manuscripts at Mäqäle, see R. COWLEY with fitawrari ALEM TEFERU, «The Study of Geez Manuscripts in Tégre Province», JES 9, no. 1 (1971), 21–25. 44 45

Pl. II. Four Gospels of Däbrä MaŸar, fol. 230v, col. B (photo: M. E. Heldman)

Pl. III. Four Gospels of Däbrä MaŸar, fol. 231r (photo: M. E. Heldman)

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citly state that he was the painter, we may assume that he played little or no part in producing the miniatures or decorating the Canon tables. These beautiful illuminations, which transformed the Gospel book given by abunä Mahdäntä Kréstos and Isayéyyas into a luxury manuscript, were painted by another person, a monk who had received his artistic training within a monastic setting.49 The painter of the miniatures (decorated Canon tables, three miniatures of the preface, and four Evangelist portraits) may have come from another monastery in northern Ethiopia. The iconography of the preface miniatures and the decoration of the Canon tables are the work of an accomplished painter who had access to visual models, some perhaps of considerable antiquity. The library of a recently-established monastery such as Däbrä MäŸar would not have had a large store of illuminated manuscripts that could provide visual models, but it is safe to assume that, then as now, important manuscripts could be borrowed from other monastic establishments. The Gospel manuscript from which the text was copied may have been borrowed, too, and may have been decorated with Canon tables, author portraits, and even a Gospel frontispiece that would have provided visual models. Older monasteries in the general vicinity of Däbrä MäŸar where a pre-13th cent. illuminated Gospel manuscript may have been located include the monastery of abba MättaŸ at Däbrä Libanos (Ham, Eritrea); the monastery at Däbrä Dammo, where abba Iyäsus Moýa, according to his hagiography, trained as a scribe; the monastery of St. Päntälewon (Abba Päntälewon) near Aksum; and the monastery of abba Gärima (Énda Abba Gärima) at Mädära near ŸAdwa. The addition of a colophon — an inscription giving the date of the completion of the manuscript, the name and perhaps the scriptorium of the scribe, and the name of the person for whom it was copied — and a note of donation was not standard practice among Ethiopian scribes. However, like the Four Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar, the Four Gospels of Iyäsus Moýa at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos presented by the founder of the monastery, Ÿaqqabe säŸat Iyäsus Moýa, contains a note of donation.50 The priest abunä Mahdäntä Kréstos See M. E. HELDMAN, «Creating Religious Art: the Status of Artisans in Highland Christian Ethiopia», Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 1 (1998), 131–146. 50 EMML V, pp. 293–301. The note of donation by Iyäsus Moýa is on fol. 24v. Taddesse Tamrat, in his article on the history of the abbots of Däbrä Hayq («The Abbots of Däbrä-Hayq, 1248–1535», 87–117), utilized the material in the added notes of this manuscript. ŸAqqabe säŸ at Kréstos Täsfanä of Däbrä Hayq, following the model of his successor, commissioned an illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels (Addis Ababa, National Library, MS 28) in c.1320 for the monastery. The Gospels of Kréstos Täsfanä carries neither a colophon nor formal note of donation, but Kréstos Täsfanä is named in prayers that accompany miniatures in the Gospel Book; his Gospel book also holds a number of added notes of land grants that are published 49

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apparently occupied a position of importance at Däbrä MäŸar. The date of his death on 29 Téqémt is recorded in a brief addition note on fol. 231r, col. B, so that his memorial service (täzkar) could be observed in perpetuity. The day of the death of the scribe Isayéyyas is also included in this note. Both the colophon and the note of donation are carefully structured, following the pattern of clauses observed by G. W. B. Huntingford in Ethiopian land charters. These include an invocation, the reason for the grant or gift, name of the grantor, an immunity cause, followed by the sanction.51 Although the colophon begins with an invocation, «In glorification of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit», the note of donation commences directly with the name of the donor who gave the book «so that God would have mercy on him in the Kingdom of Heaven». The immunity clause warns against removing, damaging or destroying the manuscript; the sanction guarantees that the one who disregards the immunity clause will be anathematized, in this case by the mouths of the Twelve Apostles, the Fifteen Prophets, the Three Hundred Eighteen Orthodox Fathers and the Seventy-Two Apostles — fairly typical choices, but atypically expansive in the number of powers that will pronounce anathemas.52 The scribe Isayéyyas was familiar with the procedure of composing formal charters of donation.

*** The colophon begins at fol. 230v, col. B, following the explicit of the Gospel of John on col. A, and continues on the following recto (fol. 231r) where it is followed by the note of donation. Later notes, however, were added at various points within the manuscript where blank areas of parchment were available. Nevertheless, the availability of blank parchment was not the only reason for adding important notes within the monastery’s primary manuscript of the Four Gospels. The Gospel book is the most important manuscript in by PAULOS SADUÀ, «Un manoscritto etiopico degli Evangeli», RSE 11 (1952), 9–28; for the miniatures of the Gospels of Kréstos Täsfanä, see HELDMAN et al., African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, 176–177. Additional notes in the Gospel Book of Ÿaqqäbe säŸat Iyäsus Moýa establish that Kréstos Täsfanä was an Ÿaqqabe säŸ at of Däbrä Häyq (TADDESSE TAMRAT, «The Abbots of Däbrä-Hayq», 95–98). 51 HUNTINGFORD, The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia, 4–7, 16–21. 52 HUNTINGFORD, The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia, 20. The sanction of the added note of fol. 4v, col. B (probably of the mid-15th cent.) is more unusual: «And God will oppress him who oppresses them from the Tree of Life in the heavens, and may his portion be with Judas [Yéhuda] and Fola». Judas [Yéhuda] is the «Seller of the Lord». In the Ethiopic Apocalypse of the Virgin, The Vision of Our Lady Mary, we learn that Fola was condemned because he «sold his daughters for an ox». See M. CHAÎNE (ed., tr.), Apocrypha de Beata Maria Virgine, CSCO 39/40, SAe 22/23 (Roma, 1909 [repr. Louvain, 1955]), 77 [text], 65 [tr.].) The names of Judas and Fola are also included in the added note of fol. 232r, col. A.

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the church treasury or library, indeed it is an essential possession. The text, the life of Christ as recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, is read during the church service, during which the presence of the book symbolizes the real presence of Christ among the congregation.53 In highland Christian Ethiopia, it was the custom to use the Gospel manuscript as a repository for records of dates of deaths, in order to commemorate the deceased, and for records of gifts presented to the church.54 The traditional manner of producing a manuscript of the Four Gospels guarantees a number of blank areas of parchment, which are free to receive additional notes. According to the standard practice for the production of manuscripts of the Four Gospels established during the Late Antique period in the Mediterranean world and followed assiduously by Ethiopian scribes, each Gospel text begins on the first recto of a quaternion (quire composed of eight folios).55 In Ethiopian 53 As stated in the first lines of the Gospel of John: In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 54 Often important records were entered into the primary manuscript of the Four Gospels of a church, the Gospel Book that was carried into the church for the celebration of liturgy. Several such Gospel Books are presently known as Wärq Wängel or Wängelä Wärq («Golden Gospel»); they are the Four Gospels of Däbrä Libanos near Ham (A. BAUSI, «Su alcuni manoscritti presso comunità monastiche dell’Eritrea. Parte terza», RSE, 41 [1997], 13–23) and the Gospels of Iyäsus Moýa at Däbrä Hayq (EMML V, 293–301). Gilt metal plates cover the wooden endboards of the Four Gospels of Däbrä Libanos. The wooden endboards of the Gospels of Iyäsus Moýa of Däbrä Hayq were originally decorated with gold plates (TADDESSE TAMRAT, «The Abbots of Däbrä-Hayq», 92, the text of a note on fol. 339v; bäwärq wäbäbrur, «gold and silver» were omitted in the translation). The Life of Marha Kréstos refers to the writing of a Golden Gospel [wängelä za-wärq]: KUR, Actes de Marh³a Krestos, 101 [text], 92 [tr.]. Many golden covers (and Gospel manuscripts, too) were lost during the uprising led by Ahmad bin Ibrâhim al-Ëâzi in the early 16th cent. Among the many accounts of looting in the history of his jihad is the note of «a book of gold, with a human image inside», (ŠIHÂB AD-DÎN AHMAD, Futûh³ al-Habaða: the Conquest of Abyssinia, tr. by P. L. Stenhouse [Hollywood CA, 2003], 249). It seems likely that this is a reference to an illuminated Gospel Book with golden covers, a Wärq Wängel. For the stripping of the monastery of Däbrä Hayq of its gold, but not its books, see ÐIHÂB AD-DÎN AHMAD, Futûh³ al-Habaša, 270–273. The church of the Trinity at Cäläqot in Éndärta, Tégray is said to have a Wärq Wängel. In medieval Europe, a splendidly illuminated Gospel Book was known as a Codex Aureus, such as the Codex Aureus of Canterbury (Stockholm, Royal Library, MS A.135) and the Codex Aureus for Speyer Cathedral (Escorial, Codex Vitr. 17), either because of a golden cover or the gold leaf that embellished the miniatures. 55 P. MCGURK, Latin Gospel Books from A.D. 400 to A.D. 800 (Paris/Brussels, 1961), 7–10. Reprinted as «Introduction to Latin Gospel Books from A.D. 400 to A.D. 800», in his Gospel Books and Early Latin Manuscripts, Variorum Collected Studies 606 (Aldershot, England, 1998), essay VI: 7–10. In Ethiopian manuscripts of the Four Gospels, the pattern of eight folios (four bi-folios) per quire may be altered in order to

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practice, each Gospel is introduced by a full-page miniature of the evangelistauthor painted upon the verso of the final leaf of the preceding quire. The recto of this leaf is often free of text. The additional notes, while terse, present information about the community and its supporters. In the colophon, the monastery’s founder and first abbot, Gäbrä Mäsqäl of GärŸalta,56 is identified with the distinctive title of Ÿaqqabe säŸat,57 a title that continued to be used by his successors. The added notes yield neither the year and nor the date of Gäbrä Mäsqäl’s death. The short undated note of fol. 14v, written at the order of abunä Märqoryos, states that abunä Kébur Mäsqäl gave (wähabä) arable land (gäraht) for his täzkar. The longer and difficult note of fol. 231v (also undated), written at the order of Ÿaqqabe säŸat Gäbrä Mäsqäl during his lifetime, includes lists of donors who gave fields to Gabriel, i. e. the church of St. Gabriel, as well as a list of persons with the dates of their annual commemoration. Three later additional notes include abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl among the saints within the sanction clause.58 The successor of Ÿaqqabe säŸat Gäbrä Mäsqäl, perhaps his immediate successor, was Ÿaqqabe säŸat Täníéýa Kréstos. That he was abbot after 1388 is established by the additional note of fol. 178v–179r which Ÿaqqabe säŸat Täníéýa Kréstos caused to be written. The note orders the commemoration (täzkar) of one «abunä abba Sälama p³ap³pa³ s» on the 20th of the month of Näh³ase.59 The date of this commemoration confirms that this abunä abba Sälama p³ap³pa³ s is the man who was the Metropolitan of Ethiopia from1348 until his death in1388.60 In addition, the note concerning the täzkar of abba facilitate the placement of the opening of each Gospel text upon the first recto folio of a quire, following the Late Antique scribal tradition of beginning each Gospel on a new quire. See P. MCGURK, «The Irish Pocket Gospel Book», Sacris Erudiri 8, no. 2 (1956), 249–269, reprinted in McGurk, Gospel Books and Early Latin Manuscripts. 56 Gäbrä Mäsqäl of GärŸalta is not to be confused with the better known Gäbrä Mäsqäl, the disciple and successor of abba Samuýel of Däbrä Halle Luya; see S. KAPLAN, The Monastic Holy Man and the Christianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia, Studien zur Kulturkunde 73 (Wiesbaden, 1984), 8. 57 The additional note (fol. 231v, col. A & col. B lines 1–12) was written when Gäbrä Mäsqäl was Ÿaqqabe säŸ at. In posthumous references to an abbot of Däbrä MäŸar, the title abunä replaces the title Ÿaqqabe säŸ at. 58 The phrase «by the mouth of abunä Gäbrä Mäsqäl» appears in the sanction clause of the following notes: fol. 14r, col. B; fol. 114r, cols. A & B, following the list of pericopes of the Gospel of Luke; and fol. 178r, cols. A & B, following the list of pericopes of the Gospel of John. 59 The note is written in the upper margins of the portrait of St. John and the Gospel incipit. 60 The manuscript of the Synaxary published by Budge (London, British Library, Or. 661) begins the reading for 20 Näh³ase with «On this day died abba Sälama the interpreter…», see E. A. W. BUDGE, The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church (Cambridge, 1928), IV, 1232. The Synaxary recension published by Guidi lists the com-

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Sälama commands «...and observe, all of you priests who are blessed through his hands, his täzkar on the 20th of the month of Nähase. Do not forget him». The phrase «all of you priests who are blessed through his hands» refers to those priests of Däbrä MäŸar who had been ordained by abunä abba Sälama, whose prerogative as Metropolitan Bishop of the Ethiopian Church was the ordination of all priests and all deacons as well as consecration of all new altar tablets (séllat). That Täníéýa Kréstos was Ÿaqqabe säŸat during the reign of Emperor Dawit (1382–1413) is also indicated by the additional note of fol. 76r, col. A, a record of the grant of gwé lt land to Gabriel of Däbrä MäŸar by Emperor Dawit. Abunä Täníéýa Kréstos is named posthumously in four of the additional notes. The note of fol. 4v, col. A (final 9 lines) also contains the name of Emperor Zärýa YaŸéqob (r. 1434–1468). The note on fol. 231r, col. B (final 8 lines) gives the date of death of three members of the monastic community in the following order: «Mahdäntä Kréstos on 29 Téqé mt, Isayéyyas on [date illegible] Säne, and abunä Täníéýa Kréstos on 20 Mäggabit». The order of the three names in this list, written by three different hands, suggests that abunä Täníéýa Kréstos outlived Mahdäntä Kréstos and Isayéyyas. Abunä Täníéýa Kréstos died on 20 Mäggabit, yet a line at the bottom of fol. 13v (bottom of the page) states that his täzkar was to be commemorated on 9 Säne.61 According to another posthumous note, abunä Täníéýa Kréstos gave (wähabä) arable land (gäraht) to Gabriel (fol. 13v, col. B). Both 14th-cent. abbots of Däbrä MäŸar, Ÿaqqabe säŸ at Gäbrä Mäsqäl and Ÿaqqabe säŸat Täníéýa Kréstos, gave grants of land to the monastery. Gäbrä Mäsqäl must have brought family land with him when he founded the monastery.62 Because monastic leaders frequently came from land-owning families,63 it is quite possible that Ÿaqqabe säŸ at Täníéýa Kréstos also brought family land to the monastery. The notes concerning the royal g wélt grant of memoration of abba Sälama on 21 Näh³ase; see I. GUIDI (ed., tr.), Le synaxaire éthiopien. III. Mois de Nahasê et de Pâguemên, (traduction de S. Grébaut), PO 9 (Paris, 1912 [repr. 1981]), 359. The bishop of Ethiopia was one of three metropolitan bishops appointed by the Egyptian patriarch, the other two were the bishops of Damietta and Jerusalem (EVETTS, The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, 33, n. 5). On the contribution made by abba Sälama to the Ethiopian Church, see A. VAN LANTSCHOOT, «Abbâ Salama, métropolite d’Éthiopie (1348–1388) et son rôle de traducteur», in: Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Ethiopici (Roma 2– 4 aprile 1959), Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 357 (Roma, 1960), 397–401. 61 We are unable to explain this disparity. The täzkar is to be observed upon the anniversary of a person’s death. 62 Whether the donation of land for his täzkar was a reallocation of land or an additional grant of land is unknown. For a discussion of land grants of abbots, see D. CRUMMEY, Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia from the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century (Urbana and Chicago, 2000), 42–43. 63 KAPLAN, The Monastic Holy Man, 54–59.

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Emperor Dawit during the abbacy of Täníéýa Kréstos64 suggests that the monastery and its abbot had attained a level of importance, because Emperor Dawit more than any other ruler of the 14th and 15th cent. undertook a program of strengthening ties between the court and monastic leaders by granting lands to their monasteries.65 The undated note of fol. 76r, col. A not only describes the gwélt land given by Emperor Dawit for his täzkar on 9 Téqémt,66 but also lists gwé lt lands given by Emperor Yéshaq (r. 1413–1420) for the celebration of his täzkar on 30 Téqémt. Less can be inferred about later abbots of Däbrä MäŸar. ŸAqqabe säŸat Mäksimos was abbot of Däbrä MäŸar during the reign of Zärýa YaŸéqob (1434– 1468).67 Dates of the abbacy of Ÿaqqabe säŸ at Mäqabis68 and of Ÿ aqqabe säŸat Gäbrä Maryam have yet to be established. ŸAqqabe säŸat Gäbrä Maryam gave land to the monastery of Däbrä MéŸérya [MäŸar] for the täzkar of abunä Gäbr Òer, presumably a deceased worthy of the monastery.69 A short undated note written for one abunä Märqoryos, evidently a member of the monastic community, is of interest because it refers to «his children, both male and female»,70 terminology which refers to a monastic community composed of both monks and nuns. The pattern of dual monasteries with both male and female monastics apparently had a long history in Ethiopian monasticism.71 A 15th cent. holy woman Kréstos Íämra established a Two brief notes on fol. 4v, col. A, follow the explicit of the Géss awe ÍérŸat, a synoptic preface to the Gospels. In addition, there is an incomplete note on fol. 14r, col. A, at least three lines of which appear to have been scraped away; below this note of col. A, is a block of text, 14 lines in length, that has been rendered illegible by smudging the ink; the note of col. B, a continuation of the erased block, is the partial record of what appears to have been a rancorous challenge to the leadership of the monastery. A note of fol. 76r, col. A restates the incomplete statement concerning the gwé lt land given by Dawit of note fol. 14r col. A. For a discussion of g wé lt land, see CRUMMEY, Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, 8–12. 65 KAPLAN, The Monastic Holy Man, 54–55. 66 This is the date given in the Ethiopic synaxary for the commemoration of Emperor Dawit: BUDGE, The Book of Saints of the Ethiopian Church, I, 135; G. COLIN (ed., tr.), Le synaxaire éthiopien. Mois de Teqemt, PO 44 (Turnhout, 1987), 52–53. 67 Mäksimos is named as Ÿaqqabe säŸ at in the notes of fol. 4v., one of which includes the name of Emperor Zärýa YaŸéqob. 68 He caused the note of fol. 114r, col. A to be written. 69 Note of fol. 178r, cols. A & B. The sanction clause of this land grant includes a penalty of divine punishment «by the mouth of Our Lady Mary», which is unique among the additional notes of this manuscript. However, this particular sanction clause appears in a land charters of Säyfä ArŸad (r. 1344–1372) (HUNTINGFORD, The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia, 32). 70 Note of fol. 14v, written in the upper margin of the portrait of St. Matthew. 71 The Life of abunä Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi, the traditional founder of monasticism in Ethiopia, suggests that the pattern of double monastery was introduced to Ethiopia 64

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hermitage at Lake Tana after receiving her monastic habit at the monastery of abunä Täklä Haymanot at Däbrä Asbo. When her fame as a holy woman attracted young women, she established a monastery there becoming the abbess [é mmä ménet], while Isaac, a monk, became the head of the lesser community of monks drawn to her monastery, the church of which was dedicated to the Archangel Michael.72 That the rite of monastic investiture was identical for men and women is demonstrated by the Life of Zena Maryam, an Ethiopian holy woman of the late 14th cent. The novice received from the abbot the tunic (qämis) and the belt or leather cord (qénat), while the monastic cap (qobŸ ) and the scapular (askema) were bestowed after a period of spiritual apprenticeship.73 A nun owed her allegiance to the abbot from whom she had received her monastic tunic and belt; he was her spiritual father, and she his spiritual daughter.74 This pattern of allegiance is corroborated by the Portuguese priest Francisco Alvarez who lived in Ethiopia between 1520 and 1526. He observed that «nuns are not cloistered, nor do they live together in convents, but in villages, and in the monasteries of the monks ... and the nuns give obedience where they receive their habits».75 A brief note on fol. 230v, col. A (final 8 lines) states that the commemoration of Témharännä Maryam, a woman who gave brocade to the church of St. during the Aksumite period with the institution of monasticism itself; see I. GUIDI, «Il Gadla ’Aragâwî», MRALm, ser. V, 2-1, 1894, 54–96. Whether or not this is actually so, the author(s) of the Life of abunä Zä-Mikaýel demonstrate that they considered the double monastery to be typical of Ethiopian monasticism, a pattern which abunä Zä-Mikaýel brought from Egypt. Double monasteries in Egypt go back to the time of St. Pachomius, whose sister established a monastery near his and became the «mother» of her community; see The Life of Pachomius [Vita Prima Graeca], tr. A. N. Athanassakis, (Missoula, Montana, 1975), 45–47, 176–177. This pattern was followed by St. Basil and his sister Macrina (Vita S. Macrinae Virginis, in: PG, vol. XLVI (Paris, 1863), cols. 959–1000), and by Paula who established a monastery for women at Bethlehem beside the male monastery of Jerome (ANNE E. HICKEY, Women of the Roman Aristocracy as Christian Monastics, Studies in Religion no. 1, [Ann Arbor MI, 1987], 30–31). 72 E. CERULLI (ed., tr.), Atti di Krestos Samrâ, CSCO 163/164, SAe 33/34 (Louvain, 1956), 50–52 [text], 34–36 [tr.]. 73 E. CERULLI, «Atti di Zena Maryam, monaca etiopica del secolo XIV», RSO 21 (1946), 140, 142–143. 74 Allegiance of the nun to a spiritual father was the pattern in the Egyptian Church (IRIS HABIB EL-MASRI, «A Historical Survey of the Convents for Women in Egypt up to the Present Day», Bulletin de la Societe d’Archeologie Copte 14 [1950–1957], 83–84, 86–88). A similar institution existed in the Greek Church (CATIA GALATARIOTOU, «Byzantine Women’s Monastic Communities: the Evidence of the Typika», Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 38 [1988], 287). 75 FRANCISCO ALVARES, The Prester John of the Indies: A True Relation of the Lands of the Prester John, ed. G. F. Beckingham and G. W. B. Huntingford, Hakluyt Society Publications, 2nd ser., 114 (Cambridge, 1961), I, 200–202.

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Gabriel, was to be observed on 10 Hamle, but gives no indication of her relationship with the monastery. She may have been an important member of the local ruling elite. This note mandating the commemoration of a woman may be contrasted with an additional note (fol. 114r, col. A) written by the order of Ÿaqqabe säŸat Mäqabis, regarding the commemoration of SémŸon who, with his wife, gave gérat Ÿamaqwäy (?) for his täzkar on 11 Hamle.76 Although SémŸon’s anonymous wife is identified as a donating partner in this record, her commemoration is not mandated in the additional notes. The list of persons to be commemorated in the note of fol. 231v, col. A – col. B, written by the order of Ÿaqqabe säŸ at Gäbrä Mäsqäl, includes the name of YaŸébikä Égziý on 25 Térr. The man to whom this commemoration refers may be the powerful ruler (mäkwännén) of Éntérta (Éndärta), the district in which Däbrä MäŸar is located. The note does not include any identification of this man, but a reference to the deceased ruler of Éntérta would have needed no further identification.77 YaŸébikä Égziý was destroyed by Emperor ŸAmdä Séyon after 1319 because the governor refused to recognize the sovereignty of the emperor.78 The colophon of the Kébrä Nägäí t (The Glory of the Kings) identifies YaŸébikä Égziý, the «upright and God-loving governor [mäkwännén]», as the authority who approved the production of this document in GéŸéz, the literary language of highland Christian Ethiopia.79 SémŸon could not, of course, stipulate the date of his täzkar while he was still living. This note was apparently written on or after 11 Hamle, the date of SémŸon’s death. Abunä Mäqabis evidently ordered the note to be written as a record of the donation that SémŸon and his wife had made for his täzkar prior to his death. 77 An unpublished manuscript of the Life of Gäbrä Mäsqäl preserved at Däbrä MäŸar might throw some light on this question of his connections with the monastery. 78 In a historical note in the Four Gospels of Däbrä Hayq (EMML 1832), ŸAmdä Séyon states that «God gave me into my hands the ruler of Éntérta with all his army, his people, his relatives and all his country as far as the cathedral of Aksum» (TADDESSE TAMRAT, «The Abbots of Däbrä-Hayq», 95–96). A land grant of YaŸébikä Égziý is dated 1319; see CONTI ROSSINI, «L’evangelo d’oro di Dabra Libânos», 200–201. His defeat is recorded in a grant of Lébnä Déngél (CONTI ROSSINI, Liber Axumae, 30–31 [text], 36 [tr.]). For a discussion of the conflict between local rulers in northern Ethiopia and Emperor ŸAmdä Séyon, see TADDESSE TAMRAT, Church and State in Ethiopia, 73–74, 251. 79 The colophon alleges that the Ké brä Nägäít was translated from a Coptic manuscript belonging to the Throne of Mark the Evangelist [i. e. the Egyptian Patriarch] into Arabic in the Year of Mercy 490 [A.D. 1226] in the country of Ethiopia during the reign of King Lalibäla, explaining that God neglected to have it translated into the speech of Ethiopia during the reigns of the Zagwe kings because they were not «Israelites», i. e. descendants of Ménilék, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, in other words, descendants of the Aksumite kings (C. BEZOLD, Kebra Nagast. Die Herrlichkeit der Könige, Abhandlungen der königlich Bayerischen Akamedie der Wissenschaften, Phil. Class., Bd. XIII, 1. Abteilung [Munich, 1905], 138 [tr.], 172–173 [text]; E. A. W. Budge ( tr.), The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menylek [Lon76

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A post-1530 land charter of Emperor Lébnä Déngél, recorded in a manuscript presently in Paris (Bib. nat., MS d’Abbadie 152), renewed royal grants of land to monasteries of northern Ethiopia, lands given for the support of the annual commemorations of past emperors, lands given «for the salvation of their souls».80 This charter names Abba Néftalem as the abbot of Däbrä MäŸara. However, the name of Ÿaqqabe säŸat Néftalem does not appear among the notes of the Four Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar, nor is there a record among the additional notes of this renewal of land charters. All of the additional notes, with the exception of the 19th-cent. note of fol. 76r, col. B, appear to have been written before 1530. The majority of additional notes in the Four Gospels of Däbrä MäŸar are records regarding täzkar, the annual commemoration of the dead, among which notes are records of grants of land for the provisioning of the commemorative meal, a significant element of the täzkar. These records are simple notations that do not follow the formal pattern of land grants or charters as outlined by Huntingford in his The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia. The notes that record the dates of commemoration of members of the monastic community and of those who gave gifts to the monastery for their commemoration are documents of obligation. The living members of the community received the responsibility for the memorial services and the associated commemorative meals in remembrance of the dead. The duty of commemorating the dead and preserving their memory among the living passed from generation to generation.

SUMMARY The colophon and note of donation of Däbrä MäŸar Gospels, a manuscript historically important for its illuminated Canon tables and Christological preface consisting of three full-page miniatures, not only provide a dated record of the production of the manuscript in A.D. 1340–1341, but also yield information concerning the history of the monastery and its founder. Additional notes, copied over the years into various blank spaces within the manuscript, consist primarily of records of grants of land made to the monastery of Däbrä MäŸar and records concerning the annual commemoration of deceased members of the community and of laity who gave gifts to the community for their annual commemoration. Complete translations of the additional notes are not included in this essay. don, 1922], 228–229). Sevir B. Chernetsov recognized the political message of the colophon of the Ké brä Nägäít as a literary manifestation of the legitimate claim of YaŸébikä Égziý for the throne of Ethiopia (a passage from Chernetsov’s unpublished History of Ethiopia quoted by M. KROPP, «Zur Deutung des Titels ŸKébrä nägäít’», OC 80 [1996], 108–115). 80 HUNTINGFORD, The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia, 51–53, no. 43; CONTI ROSSINI, Liber Axumae, 39–41 [text]; 46–48 [tr.].

Steven Kaplan Hebrew University of Jerusalem

ETHIOPIAN PRISONERS OF ZION: THE STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION IN A BUREAUCRATIC SETTING Introduction No Ethiopian community anywhere in the world has been as seriously and completely transformed during the past quarter century as that of the Beta Israel (Falasha).1 In 1977 only about 100 Ethiopian Jews lived in Israel. By 2004 immigration and natural growth had brought the number of Ethiopians in Israel to over 85,000. At the same time Beta Israel communal life in Ethiopia came to an end as virtually the entire community emigrated. Although the dramatic airlifts of Ethiopians to Israel in both 1984 and 1991 were celebrated in Israel as the fulfillment of the Zionist dream, their adjustment to the reality of Israeli society and its adjustment to them has not always been smooth. Conflicts and difficulties have arisen in almost every sphere of activity.2 The purpose of this paper is to explore a previously unexamined aspect of the Ethiopian migration and their status in Israel: the designation of certain immigrants as Prisoners of Zion (PZ).3 Although it concerns only a small fraction of the Ethiopians in Israel, we shall attempt to demonstrate that the issues which emerge through the examination of this topic, have implications 1 Ethiopian Jews were, until recently, most commonly designated by the term «Falasha». They also used the term (Beta) Israel «(House) of Israel», to refer to themselves. They have in recent years been the subject of a vast literature. For detailed bibliographies s. STEVEN KAPLAN — SHOSHANA BEN-DOR, Ethiopian Jewry: an Annotated Bibliography, Jerusalem, 1988; HAGAR SALAMON — STEVEN KAPLAN, Ethiopian Jews. An Annotated Bibliography 1987–1997, Jerusalem, 1998; SHALVA WEIL, Bibliography on Ethiopian Jewry (1998–2001), Paris: Society for the Study of the Ethiopian Jewry, 2001. For a concise overview s. STEVEN KAPLAN, «Betä Ésraýel», in: EÆ I, pp. 552–559. 2 For general surveys of Ethiopian life in Israel s. STEVEN KAPLAN — CHAIM ROSEN, «Ethiopian Jews in Israel», in: David Singer — Ruth R. Seldin (eds.), American Jewish Yearbook 1994, New York, 1994, pp. 59–109; STEVEN KAPLAN — HAGAR SALAMON , Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel: Experience and Prospects, London, 1998. 3 Both English and Hebrew versions of the book by BARUCH MEIRI — RACHAMIM ELAZAR, The Dream Behind Bars: the Story of the Prisoners of Zion from Ethiopa, Jerusalem, 2001, have been published. In neither version, however, is there a discussion of the designation of certain individuals as PZ or of the process by which they are chosen. 126 Ethiopian PZ are listed in this book.

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which extend far beyond the small number of individuals directly effected. Indeed, we shall argue that precisely because of the formal bureaucratic organization of the definitional process, this case allows us to see issues in a clearer light than do larger less formal determinations. As I shall attempt to demonstrate below, the process of determining who is a PZ is a microcosm of the larger problem of identity politics for Ethiopians in Israel.4 Not surprisingly therefore at the heart of the PZ process is a series of struggles over the narrative process. These include not only the question of who tells the story, but in what language and form (oral or written) it is told. Most importantly it includes the issue of what is considered a correct narrative and who makes this determination. The data for this study is based on my personal experience for almost a decade as member of the sub-committee which determines which Ethiopians are accorded the status of PZ. During this period, I have participated in over thirty meetings, during which several hundred files were discussed and a similar number of applicants and witnesses interviewed.5

Prisoners of Zion Throughout the history of the Zionist movement, Jewish activists and potential immigrants to Israel were confronted by governments who opposed their attempts to reach Palestine and later the State of Israel. While actively opposing to the existence of Zionism and the State of Israel, some states legislated against a wide range of Jewish activities including the teaching of Hebrew, religious instruction and most ritual observances; others outlawed the organization or promotion of emigration to Israel albeit tolerating most forms of religious practice. Whatever the specific legal rubric, hundreds of Jews found themselves emprisoned either because of their Jewishness or because of their attempts to promote or organize aliyah (immigration to Israel). While some of these activists such as Ida Nudel and Anatoly (today, Natan) Scharansky became the subject of international attention, most languished in anonymity. Similarly, while those emprisoned in the Soviet Union were frequently discussed in the Israeli and world media, those in other lands garnered far less attention. In response to this historical reality, in 1992 the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) passed Prisoners of Zion Act.6 Under this legislation a resident of IsraAs the footnotes below indicate, many of these issues which arise in the discussion of the PZ are relevant in other contexts as well. 5 In addition, on 7 July 2003, I conducted an hour-long interview at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption with the two Ministry staff members. 6 From 1 April 1973 to 8 June 1992, benefits were paid under agreements signed with the Treasury. 4



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el is recognized as a PZ, as a relative of an imprisoned PZ or of a martyr under the following circumstances:7 (1) Someone who was arrested, detained or deported for a period of at least six months because of Zionist activity in a country where such activity was prohibited, provided that he is an Israeli citizen according to the Law of Return8 and a resident of Israel; (2) Someone who was arrested, detained or deported for a period of at least six months because of his Jewishness in a country hostile to Israel, provided that he is an Israeli citizen according to the Law of Return and a resident of Israel; (3) Someone who was arrested, detained or deported because of the reasons listed in clauses (1) and (2) above and disappeared and six months have passed since his arrest, and he would be eligible according to the Law of Return of 1950; (4) Someone who was a resident of the Land of Israel before the establishment of the State, and because of his activities in order to establish the State, was arrested, detained or deported for at least at least six months, provided that he is an Israeli citizen according to the Law of Return and a resident of Israel. As we shall discuss below, those recognized as PZ or as their heirs are entitled not only to the honour bestowed upon them, but under certain circumstances monetary compensation through Israel Institute for Social Security.9 For the purposes of implementing the law, three committees were established under the auspices of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption to deal with cases of prisoners from (1) Arab Lands, which includes Iran (2) Eastern Europe, which includes the Soviet Union and other former Communist Countries (3) Ethiopia. At a latter date this was expanded to include, (4) pre-State Jewish underground organizations such as Etzel, Lehi, and Ha-haganah. In practice, the Ethiopian committee, while dealing with immigrants from that one country, deals with cases of those emprisoned in Ethiopia, Sudan and in a small number of cases, Kenya and Djibouti. This distinction is of considerable relevance, because despite the numerous ups and down of Isra7 The Law of Prisoners of Zion and their Families — 1992, with amendments: — http://www.nevo.co.il/Law_word/law. (My translation of the Hebrew). — http://www.btl.gov.il/English/benefit/pris/pris.htm contains an incomplete English summary of this material. 8 According to Law of Return, Jews living anywhere in the world are entitled to claim Israeli citizenship and immigrate to Israel. http://www.lectlaw.com/files/int16.htm 9 www.btl.gov.il/English Tables 13.1 and 13.2.1 for details of the payments being received. As of 2002 644 PZ from all countries were receiving benefits. This from a total of about 1,200 awarded PZ status since 1992. Over two-thirds of these had disabilities of 50% or less.

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el-Ethiopian relations, Ethiopia has never been in a state of war with Israel and hence is not defined as a hostile country.10 In contrast, the Sudan, through its membership in the Arab League (League of Arab States) has been in a state of war with Israel and thus fits the definition of a hostile country (see above).11 As a result, the criteria for recognition as Prisoners of Zion for those arrested and emprisoned in Ethiopia are more narrowly defined than for those incarcerated in the Sudan. While the former must prove that they were engaged in «Zionist activities» which led to their arrest or detention, the latter must merely demonstrate that they were singled out as Jews. As we shall see, this distinction leads to a considerable degree of confusion among the applicants and misunderstanding between them and the members of the committee.

The Committee As was indicated above, applications for recognition as PZ are reviewed by four separate committees. For most of the past decade, the committee which deals with Ethiopian applications has been comprised of three members:12 RE, the chair, a veteran Ethiopian immigrant who has been in Israel for more than 25 years; JL, who served as an Israeli government agent in the Sudan during the Ethiopian aliyah of the 1980s; myself: a scholar of Ethiopian studies. While a second Ethiopian was nominally a member of the committee for much of this period, he did not attend its deliberations, reportedly in protest over the decision to accord PZ status to several applicants against his recommendations. Attempts in recent years to expand the committee to include additional members have not been successful, as successive Ministers of Immigrant Absorption have not found the time to make new appointments.13 The 10 On the history of Israel-Ethiopian relations s. HANAN AYNOR, A Guide to Selected Documents on Israel-Ethiopian Relations, Jerusalem, 1986; MITCHEL BARD, From Tragedy to Triumph: the Politics Behind the Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, Westport, 2002; and more generally on Israel-African relations JOEL PETERS, Israel and Africa: the Problematic of Friendship, London, 1992. 11 On immigration to Israel via the Sudan s. GADI BEN-EZER, The Ethiopian Jewish Exodus: Narratives of the Migration Journey to Israel 1977–1985, London and New York, 2002; TUDOR PARFITT, Operation Moses: the Untold Story of the Secret Exodus of the Falasha Jews from Ethiopia, London, 1985; LOUIS RAPOPORT, Redemption Song: the Story of Operation Moses, New York, 1986. 12 In the interest of confidentiality I have identified the committee members by their initials only. 13 Shortly after the completion of this paper RE was suspended/resigned (the exact circumstances are disputed!) from the committee and was replaced by DBT, a retired judge. For some of the background to RE’s departure from the committee s. Kol Hazman 30 July, 2004 (Hebrew). At present there are no Ethiopian members of the committee.

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members are assisted through the preparation of files and the invitation of applicants by two workers, GS and DM, of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption both veteran Russian immigrants. The committee meets 4 or 5 times a year. Because of the large number of Ethiopian applications, the Ethiopian committee meets more often than any of the other committees. Meetings last between 5 to 6 hours and anywhere from 10 to 16 files are reviewed, with upwards of 20 applicants and witnesses interviewed. In a typical encounter, committee members are given a file containing: 1) A formal application for recording the individual’s biographical details, as well as period(s) of Zionist activity, period(s) of emprisonment, injuries or other problems as a result of emprisonment, names of witnesses; 2) A short biography usually emphasizing the elements of Zionist activity and emprisonment; 3) A form for statements from witnesses; 4) A summary in several sentences of the most important information contained in the material above; 5) Any other correspondence between the applicant and the Ministry of Absorption staff; 6) As of June 2003, many of the files contain a short form sent by the Association of Ethiopian Prisoners of Zion. Without exception all of the documents described above are in Hebrew. However, some applicants also include an original version of their biography in Amharic or Tigrinnya along with a translation. Some also include medical records, although these are not necessary or even relevant to the commitee’s deliberations, since only after the recognition of an applicant as a PZ is a determination regarding medical condition made by doctors of the Social Security Institute. In the first stage in this process applicants and witnesses involved are required to fill out a variety of forms. Even a superficial examination of the completed forms indicates that many Ethiopians have major problems understanding their purpose. Dates are often inscribed incorrectly or it is claimed that the applicant was both active and emprisoned during the same period.14 Witnesses’s forms are often identical, not only in their wording but also in the handwriting, because they are completed not as individual testimonies but as standardized documents.15 In some cases they are signed not by the witness, but by the applicant himself!16 S., for example, File number 311757454. Files 306928064, 30972551, 311757421, 15581606 all contain identical or largely similar witness statements. 16 Applicants and witnesses have todate been overwhelmingly male. My use of the male pronoun is, however, meant to be inclusive. 14 15

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Thus, the written material in the files serves in most cases as a starting point for an investigation rather as conclusive affidavits.17 Even in those cases, in which the applicant does not initially appear to meet the criteria of the law to qualify as a PZ, he is invited to present his case and bring witnesses.18 After briefly reviewing the file and determining the most important issues raised by the enclosed material, the committee members invite the applicant to enter the room and testify. Witnesses are called in to testify after the applicant. Although this is not a formal judicial procedure, applicants and witnesses are usually reminded that as in a courtroom they are expected to tell «the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth». While rules of «hear-say» are not strictly enforced, witnesses are frequently reminded to talk of those matters, which they are familiar with from first-hand sources and that information which they were told by others will be discounted. Testimonies of both the applicant and witnesses are recorded in summary form written by one of the staff members, and this material is later added to the file. Usually a decision is made regarding an application immediately following these testimonies. However, in some cases the applicant may be asked to produce further witnesses. In cases, in which an applicant claims to have worked with a particular individual known to have been an aliyah activist in either Ethiopia or the Sudan, it may be decided to contact that person for confirmation.19 In such instances, decisions may be delayed several months until the committee convenes again. Theoretically, the procedure for determining whether a person can be awarded PZ status seems straightforward, but only theoretically: written evidence is preferred to oral testimony, official rule is given more validity than customary usage, and Hebrew testimony over testimony in any other language. The principles of Zionism are also given preference over systems of international law.

In the deliberations of the other three committees, applicants and witnesses have far greater command of Hebrew and the technicalities of the forms. The forms are thus filled out with much greater accuracy and play a much greater role in the deliberations of these committees. 18 In cases where the applicant’s request in denied, he is entitled to present his case to an appeals committee headed by a judge. 19 In 2002 a consulation process was set up with the Association of Ethiopian Jewish Organization of Prisoners of Zion. Copies of files are given to the organization for comment. A similar process has existed for several years with other committees. However as of this writing (December 2003) the Ethiopian committee has not become fully involved because the answers they have written have not been sufficiently detailed. Rather they have submitted either no comment or a standard declaration that the person in question was or was not in prison as a Zionist activist. None of the files have been returned with a detailed answer. 17

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Language As was noted above, applicants and witnesses involved in the PZ process are required to deal with a variety of forms all of which are in Hebrew. For most this presents major difficulties, since they do not read or write Hebrew.20 Here as elsewhere they turn to a variety of figures (their children, social workers, neighbors, etc.) to assist them with the forms. Inevitably this leads to misunderstandings. Even in the best of circumstances, the language barrier and the use of intermediaries means that such forms are secondary documents which applicants and witnesses alike can disavow with ease. One of the striking features of the PZ process is that it starkly reveals how few adult Ethiopians are capable of functioning in Hebrew. Immigrants, many of whom have been in the country for ten years or more, routinely ask to testify through a translator. Although it is tempting to believe that in such cases the immigrants are underestimating their abilities or erring on the side of caution because of the importance of the process, it appears that most of those who ask to speak in Amharic or Tigrinnya are, in fact, unable to carry on a conversation in Hebrew.21 This language barrier is no small matter for, put in the simpliest of terms, applicants and witnesses who appear before the committee and must construct a narrative which convinces the commitee members that the applicant On the problems adult Ethiopians have had in learning Hebrew s. LISA ANTEBY, «Première approche de la situation sociolinguistique des immigrants éthiopiens en Israel et de problemes de d’alphabétisation chez les adults», Mémoire de D. E. A., vol. 5, Paris, 1991; LISA ANTEBY-YEMINI, Les juifs éthiopiens en Israël: Les paradoxes du paradis, Paris, 2004, pp. 113–132. In this context, it should be stressed that translating the forms into Amharic or Tigrinnya would do little to alter this situation, since most adult Ethiopians who have arrived in Israel do not read or write either of these languages. Indeed, it might exacerbate the problem because then the social workers and children who assist them in filling out the forms would not be able to read them. 21 For a rather idealized portrayal of the language acquisition process s. VARDA NETZER — HANA POLANI, Saga of an Aliyah, Jerusalem, 1988. On the languages of Ethiopia s. HABTE MARIAM MARCOS, «Scholarship of the Ethiopian Languages — Retrospect and Prospect», in: RICHARD PANKHURT — TADDESE BEYENE (eds.), Silver Jubilee Anniversary of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, 1990, pp. 97– 104. Amarinnya (Amharic) is the most commonly spoken language in Ethiopia and was the dominant language in the regions inhabited by most immigrants to Israel. A smaller number of immigrants, perhaps 15 % of the total todate, resided in areas where Tigrinnya was the primary language. For other cultural differences between these two groups of immigrants s. CHAIM ROSEN, «Similarities and Differences between Ethiopian Jews in Gondar and Tigre», Pe’amim vol. 33, 1987, pp. 93–108 (Hebrew). 20

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is deserving of recognition as PZ. Few of the stories heard or read by committee members over the years resemble the clear, linear and highly stylized accounts published by Meiri and Elazar in their book on Ethiopian PZ.22 Indeed, even if those testifying were capable or interested in producing such narratives (their written testimonies indicate that this is not the case), the members of the committee, because of the language barrier, would not hear them in this form. One of the curious features of the PZ process todate, is that despite this language barrier, the commitee has rarely been provided with a translator. Rather, the Ethiopian chairman served both as chair and translator in almost all cases. Needless to say, this highly anomalous situation in which he both produced the testimony through his translation and judges its reliability is most irregular. Moreover, since his translations are not word for word or even sentence for sentence versions of the original text, serious question exists as to the nature of the narrative being evaluated by the other committee members, neither of whom speak an Ethiopian language.23

Names As was noted above anywhere from 15 to 20 applicants and witnesses are invited to appear before the commitee on a single day. Despite suggestions from the committee members that some be invited for a morning session (10 am — 12 am) and others for an afternoon session (12 am — 2 pm), all are requested to appear at the same time. No individual appointments are made. Rather, applicants and witnesses sign a sheet when they arrive and are invited in to meet with the committee members on a first come, first heard basis.24 The names are read by one of the officials of the Absorption Ministry. Often there is some confusion as to the correspondence between the names written on the list and those which appear in the files. In part, at least, this is due yet again to the transition from Amharic to Hebrew. Names on both the list and MEIRI — ELAZAR, The Dream Behind Bars. Although it appears of little practical consequence, it should be noted that Hebrew is not the native language of any of the committee members or ministry staff. Rather, it functions as a common means of communication as the shared language and official language of the state. Applicants to the other three committees have a greater knowledge of Hebrew, while the committees have several members who know the relevant languages. Since the departure of RE from the committee a translator has usually been provided, but in some cases translations are provided by applicants or witnesses invited on the day. 24 This process is not unique to this committee and is common in Israel. Noncitizens wishing to have their visa renewed by the Israeli Minister of the Interior in Jerusalem commonly have to arrive at the office two hours or more before it opens (8 am) to sign their name to a list. 22 23

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the files are Hebrew transliterations of Amharic names, a form which easily leads to mis-pronunciation.25 In addition, it must be kept in mind that when Ethiopian immigrants arrived in Israel most of them had their names changed. In many cases this was part of a process of Hebraization whereby «strange» and «difficult to pronounce» Ethiopian names were replaced by Hebrew alternatives. Although this Hebraization policy was conducted following consultation with a number of veteran Ethiopian immigrants, it was strongly criticized and eventually dropped.26 More generally names were changed to meet the needs of the Israeli immigration bureaucracy. In Ethiopia, the Beta Israel, like other residents of northern Ethiopia had no family names. Both men and women were identified by a personal name and the name of their father. Women did not change their names upon marriage. Individuals were addressed by their personal names i. e. Taddesse Tasfa = Ato (Mr.) Taddesse. Thus in a simple nuclear family (the exception rather than the rule among Ethiopians) a father and mother had different names from each other and from their children. Taddesse Tasfa could be married to Nigat Biru. Their children could include Girma Taddesse and Maskaram Taddesse. In Israel, such family units were commonly identified by a single «last name», usually the second name of the father, i. e. the mother’s father-in-law and the childrens’ paternal grandfather. Thus they would become Taddesse Tasfa, Nigat Tasfa, Girma Tasfa and Maskaram Tasfa. Not surprisingly, this produced a considerable amount of confusion regarding the identification of applicants and witnesses.27 In order to resolve this confusion surrounding the names of individuals, at the outset of each interview, whether of an applicant or a witness, the person is asked to produce his/her identity card: teudat zehut. This document, produced by the Israeli government, contains the person’s Israeli name, picture, and basic details such as date of birth, marital status, etc.28 It is significant to note that in what is overwhelmingly an oral process among people with a limited knowledge of Hebrew, the opening act — the presentation of the Modern Hebrew unlike the Ethiopian Semitic languages is written in an unvocalized form without any indication of vowel sounds. 26 DANIEL BERGMAN, The Names of Ethiopian Jews and the Changes in Israel: an Examinaiton of Changes in a Symbolic System, M. A., Hebrew University, 1986. (Hebrew); ANTEBY-YEMINI, Les juifs éthiopiens, pp. 42–53. 27 In my 7 July 2003 meeting with the Ministry officials, they did not appear to have prior knowledge of this issue! 28 On the problems in collecting such «simple» data from Ethiopians in Israel s. SHALVA WEIL, «It is Futile to Trust in Man: Methodological Difficulties in Studying Non-Mainstream Populations with Reference to Ethiopian Jews in Israel», Human Organization vol. 54 no. 1, 1995, pp. 1–19. On the Ethiopians’ confrontation with the identity card and other aspects of literacy s. ANTEBY-YEMINI, Les juifs éthiopiens, pp. 38–61. 25

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identity card — is an obvious assertion of the priority of Hebrew over other languages, government documentation over any other claims, and of the written over the oral.

The Interface of the Oral and the Written The issue of names and the presentation of the identity card brings to the fore another outstanding features of the PZ process: the comparative lack of independent written material. In two exceptional cases, prisoners held in UmRequbeh, Sudan and in Djibouti, written lists of the prisoners exist. Most of the individuals named in these lists have already been granted PZ status. In the event that new claimants come forward, a simple check of the lists is all that is needed to confirm or deny their status. As in the case of the identity card, the power of the written word is clear and unchallenged. In most other cases of PZ, however, no written records exist. Prison files from Ethiopia or the Sudan, if they exist are not available. Neither are there written lists of those who were active in either the Sudan or Ethiopia. Accordingly, in determining who is entitled to PZ status, the committee deals almost exclusively with oral materials. A striking part of this process is the manner in which these oral sources are transformed into written text which then become the documents of record.29 Having recorded their recollections as written documents (the application and the biography) applicants are called upon to tell their stories yet again in front of the committee members. This oral performance and that of the witnesses are transformed yet again into written summaries which then become the documents of record. Again it is interesting to note in this context, that committee proceedings are not taped. Thus the applicants’ and witnesses’ oral Amharic narratives are preserved as written Hebrew summaries. No record of the applicants’ own words, in their language, as spoken is preserved.

Whose Truth? As was noted above, the testimony of the applicants before the committee is usually followed by the testimony of one or two witnesses. During the early years of the committee’s work, applicants often brought relatives with them as witnesses. While such testimonies were not excluded, it was explained that This represents a marked contrast to the other three committees. Not only are the applicants and witnesses far more capable of completing the forms which must be submitted to the committee, but also written documentation of the claims in the form of court records, newspaper accounts, and organizational records are far more accessible. Although aliyah activity in the Sudan was comparatively well organized, this is not the case for Ethiopia. In contrast, the other three organizations often have records from aliyah organizations which operated during the relevant periods. 29



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support produced through the words of less interested parties would be preferred. By the end of the 1990s, it was exceedingly rare for relatives to appear as witnesses. Although the problem of testimonies from family members has been resolved, it is still useful to note the (usually unspoken) assumption of the committee that evidence offered by a comparative stranger is inherently more reliable than that of a relative. As I shall discuss below, attempts to save «strangers» are also more highly valued in the determination of PZ status, than attempts to save family members. Thus, while it is doubtful if any of the committee members would state it explicitly, the committee’s decisions articulate a value system which values broader communal loyalties over specific family interests. In this context we would do well to remember a point mentioned in passing at the beginning of this article. Although in principle the status of PZ may be wholly honorary, there can be little doubt that most applicants are well aware of the potential financial benefits. It must be remembered that the Ethiopian community is among the poorest in Israel. The majority of Ethiopian adults are not employed and in many households there is no working adult. Social Security benefits of various types are thus crucial to the economic survival of many families.30 The suggestion that some applicants are more interested in the honorarium than the honor should not be ruled out.

The Zionist Imperative One particularly sensitive subject in the committee’s deliberations is the issue of «Zionist activity». In the course of time, the committee’s definition of Zionist activity has come to include such actions as checking the route out of Ethiopia, organizing a group or groups, guiding them, providing them with (illegal) travel documents or provisions.31 In and of itself, the attempt by a person to leave Ethiopia does not constitute Zionist activity. Nor does an attempt to leave with a group primarily composed of family members meet the committee’s criteria.32 On the economic circumstances of Ethiopians in Israel s. KAPLAN — SALAMON, «Ethiopian Immigrants», pp. 13–15. On the impact of the latest economic policies s. Ha-aretz July 11, 2003, p. B4 (Hebrew). Payments to PZ themselves range between 1,500 to 3,500 New Israel Shekal depending on the extent of the applicants disability. However, families of those killed are entitled to much higher benefits (7–8,000 NIS) under the conditions laid down in the Soldiers’ Families Law. ($1 = 4.4 NIS at this writing). They are also entitled to reductions in property tax, television license fees, and payments for medications. 31 What if any compensation an individual received at the time for his actions has generally been deemed to be irrelevant. 32 Here as in the exclusion of witnesses, family loyalty is not a primary value. Indeed, the underlying message is that the testimony of and attempts to save family members is less valued than the testimony of and attempts to save «strangers». 30

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One of the implications of this definition is that people who were in the same group, were arrested at the same time, and spent the same period in the same jail are not necessarily granted the same status by the committee. While the person who organized or led the group would probably be granted the title of PZ, the other members would not. This point cannot be stressed too strongly. PZ status is not a measure of a person’s courage or how much they suffered, but a recognition of the activities which preceded their emprisonment. Nevertheless, the narratives constructed by applicants often place a clear emphasis on the suffering endured and on its continued impact on the applicants’ lives. Ethiopian Jews inured to an Israeli absorption bureaucracy and social welfare system which rewards need rather than achievement, shape their testimonies to emphasize not the activities which led to their emprisonment, but their incarceration and its consequences.33 The centrality of Zionist activity to the PZ process is not limited to its role in committee members’ determinations. At the heart of the PZ phenomenon is an assumption of a globalized and somewhat timeless Israeli identity. Israeli citizens are recognized and rewarded for actions which they took prior to becoming Israeli citizens. Ethiopians and others, who acted in a similar way, but did not immigrate to Israel, receive no such recognition. Indeed, in this particular case, Israeli identity is more important than Jewish identity since an applicant need not be Jewish to be recognized as a PZ so long as he reached Israel under the provisions of the Law of Return.34 It should also be noted that the PZ status also assumes the applicants’ Israeli identity supersedes the expectation that they will obey the laws of

33 BEN-EZER, The Ethiopian Jewish Exodus. In this context it is interesting to compare the narratives heard by committee members with those collected and analyzed by Gadi Ben-Ezer in his recent book. On a superficial level, the narratives studied by Ben-Ezer are largely similar, if not identical, to many of those heard by the committee. This is particularly the case with regard to those collected regarding the experience in the Sudan. Ben-Ezer, who is primarily interested in the psychological content, notes three central themes in the narratives he analyzes: Jewish identity, suffering, bravery and inner strength. While all three of these appear in committee hearings, only the second can be said to be central to most testimonies. For a very different description of events in the Sudan s. «Heroes against the Weak», Yediot Ahronot, «Seven Days», 23 July 2004. 34 Non-Jewish relatives, particularly spouses, of Jewish immigrants are entitled to enter the country under the Law of Return. Law of Return (amendment no. 2), 5730–1970*: 4A. (a) The rights of a Jew under this Law and the rights of an oleh under the Nationality Law, 5712–1952***, as well as the rights of an oleh under any other enactment, are also vested in a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew, except for a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion.



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their native land.35 In the course of their testimony, applicants routinely admit to having broken Ethiopian or Sudanese law. Indeed, the claim to have been jailed for a violation of such laws is a standard part of their application. Often applicants, having convinced members of the committee that they were emprisoned are called upon to support the claim that they were not mere criminals, but ideological motivated prisoners. In this context, it is significant to note, that the laws in question while preventing Jews from migrating to Israel, were often applied in a similar fashion to the population at large. Thus, the police officer who sold or gave travel permits to members of the general population is considered a common criminal, while the same person preparing such documents for his fellow Jews is accorded the special status of PZ.

Feedback and Resistance Thus far in this paper, I have been concerned with the manner in which the Israeli immigration bureacracy imposes its hierarchy of values on Ethiopian immigrants in the process of determining who receives the PZ designation. While there can be little question that the committee members and staff have a decisive impact on the PZ process, it would be a grave mistake to assume that Ethiopians have no power to resist and reshape these interactions. To be sure, the PZ process has not aroused the sort of passion that has driven people out onto the streets, in a manner similar to conflicts with the Israeli religious or medical authorities.36 It has, however, produced more subtle forms of «Everyday Resistance» to the dictates of the bureaucracy.37 One of the characteristics which has shaped the PZ process over time is the develop35 The use of the term «native land» in this context is, of course, itself ideologically loaded. Ethiopian immigrants, the Israeli government, and many other Jewish organizations view the Ethiopian migration to Israel as a return from exile to their native land. Cf. STEVEN KAPLAN, «The Invention of Ethiopian Jews: Three Models», Cahiers d’études africaines vol. 33, no. 4, 1993, pp. 645–658, esp. pp. 648–651. 36 On the large protests against the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s demands that Ethiopians undergo ritual immersion s. STEVEN KAPLAN, «The Beta Israel and the Rabbinate: Law, Politics and Ritual», Social Science Information vol. 28, no. 3, 1988, pp. 357– 370; on the response when it was discovered that Israeli medical authorities were disgarding Ethiopian blood because of the fear that it was infected with the HIV virus, s. DON SEEMAN, «‘One People, One Blood’: Public Health, Political Violence, and HIV in an Ethiopian-Israeli Setting», Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry vol. 23, 1999, pp. 159–195, and SHALVA WEIL, «Religion, Blood and the Equality of Rights», International Journal of Minority and Group Rights vol. 4, 1997, pp. 397–412. 37 STEVEN KAPLAN, «Everyday Resistance and the Study of Ethiopian Jewry», in: TUDOR PARFITT, EMANUELA TREVISAN SEMI (eds.), The Beta Israel in Ethiopia and Israel: Studies on the Ethiopian Jews, London, 1998, pp. 113–127.

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ment of feedback as the process shapes the testimonies of applicants and witnesses. In some cases this has significantly streamlined the process. The aforementioned example of applicants learning not to bring relatives as witnesses is a case in point. On the other hand, as members of the community came to better understand the PZ process testimonies have also evolved to meet the criteria, raising concerns that applicants are attempting to «beat the system».38 This is clearly demonstrated with regard to the period of incarceration claimed by applicants. In the initial written presentation of his case, an applicant for PZ status is requested to place his activities and emprisonment in two different chronological contexts: 1. On the application form the applicant is requested to provide the dates of his activity and emprisonment: for example 3/6/82–3/1/83;39 2. In the biography he is requested to place these events in the chronological framework of his life story: «While I was working for the police, I began...» The first of these presents applicants with a variety of problems. Written calendars were rare in rural Ethiopia and even more so in Sudanese refugee camps. Applicants and witness thus often have only a general sense of the relevant dates.40 Moreover, in traditional Ethiopia the most common calendar differed from that used in the West in two respects: (1) it was divided into 13 months: twelve of thirty days each and an additional month, at the end of the year, containing five days only; (2) from September 11 to December 31 the Ethiopian calendar is 7 years behind the Gregorian, while for the remainder of the year the gap is 8 years. Thus, for example, fall of 1991 corresponds to 1984 in the Ethiopian calendar. Since the verification of a story often depends on determining when a particular individual was emprisoned and for how long, these different calendric systems coupled with the lack of written calendars and exact reckonings present a considerable difficulty. Despite these objective difficulties in the reckoning of dates, it is rare today for applicants to claim that they were in prison for less than 6 months. Indeed, witnesses who are uncertain regarding the months or year or even the seasons of an applicants’s arrest, are often quite confident that the period was at least six months. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that just as word has spread that the testimony of relatives is not accepted by the committee, so do the crucial importance of a six-month term of emprisonment has also become commonly understood. 38 This concern is frequently mentioned in committee deliberations as well as in my meeting with Ministry officials on 7 July 2003. 39 In Israel such dates are recorded: day/month/year. 40 Cf. ANTEBY-YEMINI, Les juifs éthiopiens, pp. 54–55.

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Finally, it should be noted that while the PZ process has been going on for over a decade, no end appears in sight. As of December 2003 there were 150 Ethiopian files waiting to be evaluated, more than the other three committees combined. As every file is reviewed and completed, a new file or two appears to take its place. Increasingly, the applicants are not recent arrivals, but those who have been in the country a decade or more. Although it may well be that some of them have only recently discovered that they may be eligible for benefits, it appears more likely that the explanation is to be found in Israelis’, and among them particularly Ethiopians’, deteriorating financial situation. Under such circumstances, the rewards available to those designated as PZ are a potential lifeline, for many immersed in or on the edge of poverty. As word spreads of the possible benefits, the committee finds itself engaged in a Sisyphian task.

Conclusion Viewed solely in terms of its technical aspects, the process of awarding PZ status is a bureaucratic determination guided by formal criteria and objective considerations. However, as I have attempted to demonstrate in this article at the heart of the PZ process lie a number of criteria which reflect clear ideological preferences and hegemonic intentions. These include the assertion of the supremacy of the written over the oral, of the official over the customary, of Hebrew over all other languages, of broader communal loyalties over family interests and of Zionism over the laws of other nations. While there can be little question that the committee members and staff have a decisive impact in shaping the PZ process, it would be a grave mistake to assume that Ethiopians’ have no power to resist and reshape these interactions. Thus the PZ process constitutes a microcosm of the encounters between Ethiopian immigrants and the Israeli absorption bureaucracy as they struggle to define the place of Ethiopian Jews in Israel.

SUMMARY The purpose of this paper is to explore a previously unexamined aspect of the Ethiopian migration to Israel: the designation of certain immigrants as Prisoners of Zion (PZ). This designation which carries with it both symbolic recognition, and in some cases monetary rewards, is reserved for those who were imprisoned or detained because of their attempt to emigrate to Israel. This paper demonstrates that the process of determining who is a PZ is a microcosm of the larger problem of identity politics for Ethiopians in Israel. At the heart of the PZ process is a series of struggles over the narrative process. These include not only the question of who tells the story, but in what language and form (oral or written) it is told. Others issues which arise concern the reckoning of dates and the status of immigrants prior to their arrival in Israel. Most importantly it raises the question of what is considered a correct narrative, and who is authorized to make this determination.

Manfred Kropp, Orient-Institut Beirut

´ANTIQUAE RESTITUTIO LEGISª. ZUR ALIMENTATION DES HOFKLERUS UND EINER ZEUGENLISTE ALS IMAGO IMPERII UND NOTITIA DIGNITATUM IN EINER URKUNDE DES KAISERS ZAâ RýA YAŸQOB IM CONDAGHE DER HS. BM OR. 481, FOL. 154 Einleitung Das im Folgenden edierte, übersetzte und leicht kommentierte Textstück1 ist in der Forschungsliteratur zur äthiopischen Geschichte kaum bekannt,2 geschweige veröffentlicht. Seine Bearbeitung erfolgt aus verschiedenen Gründen. Zunächst ist diese editio princeps im Zusammenhang mit meiner Neubearbeitung der Chronik des Zärýa-YaŸqob zu sehen, die ich seit einiger Zeit für das CSCO vorbereite.3 Sodann ist es eine Ergänzung zur ÍérŸatä Gébr («Ordnung [des Hofes und] des Banketts»), deren Niederschrift in die Zeit des Kaisers Zärýa-YaŸqob zu setzen ist, und die ich in einer editio princeps, allerdings ohne den Versuch einer durchgehenden Übersetzung, lediglich mit ersten Skizzen zu einer solchen und einem Realien- und sprachlichen Kommentar gegeben habe.4 Es bleibt zu hoffen, daß die Kumulierung gesicherter Teile der Studie wurden von mir vorgetragen: «Le chroniqueur et ses matériaux. Un document additionnel au Ser'ata gebr du temps de Zar’a Ya‘qob». Vortrag gehalten am 27. April 1998 im Rahmen des Séminaire général «L’histoire qui se construit, l’histoire qui s’oublie» am Institut de Recherches et d’Études sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman (IREMAM, Aix-en-Provence). 2 Vgl. aber TADDESSE TAMRAT (1972), Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527. Oxford, 153; auf Seiten 269ff. wertet er zwar das ÍérŸ atä Gé br (in verschiedenen Hss.) aus, führt aber seltsamerweise das ihm bekannte Dokument aus BM Or. 481 nicht an, wie er es an der anderen Stelle falsch charakterisiert («land grant attributed to him [Dawit] refers to at least two such campaigns»). 3 Vgl. PERRUCHON, JULES (1893), Les chroniques de Zar’a YâŸeqob et de Ba’eda Mâryâm, rois de'Éthiopie de 1434 à 1478. (Bibliothèque de l’École pratique des hautes études. Sciences philologiques et historiques. 93.) Paris; KROPP, MANFRED (1983–84), «La réédition des chroniques éthiopiennes: Perspectives et premiers résultats». Abbay. 12. [ersch. 1985]. 49–72. 4 Vgl. KROPP, MANFRED (1988), «The íérŸatä gébr: a mirror view of daily life at the Ethiopian Royal Court in the Middle Ages». In: Proceedings of the Eigth Internatio1

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Texte eines Tages die Möglichkeit eines eingehenden Verständnisses dieser komplizierten Verwaltungstexte aus dem mittelalterlichen Äthiopien eröffnen wird. Diese in historischer, aber auch sprachlicher Hinsicht wichtige Urkunde aus der Zeit des großen äthiopischen Kaisers und Kirchenreformers Zärýa-YaŸqob (1434–1468 n.Chr.) eröffnet mit ihrer ausführlichen Zeugenliste einen tiefen Einblick als notitia dignitatum in die Reichsstruktur, aber auch die Prosopographie der Zeit. Auch wenn die Aufhellung der zahlreichen Eigennamen und Titel noch nicht gänzlich möglich ist, so mögen doch die hier gegebenen Anmerkungen einen Beitrag zu einer solchen in der Zukunft leisten. Die Situierung und Bewertung des Textes in seinem Umfeld der materiellen Überlieferung als Marginalie einer Handschrift des Alten Testaments, genauer einer Monumentalhandschrift, die Octateuch, Evangelien, die apostolischen Kanones des Senodos und einige andere theologische Schriften umfaßt, über verschiedene Abschriften in mehreren Kodices hinweg sowie die Charakterisierung seiner Textnatur mit Hinsicht auf die Kategorie «Urkunde» bzw. «Urkundensammlung» stand bisher noch aus und führte in der Heranziehung einer erhellenden und fruchtbaren Paralelle zu den Rechtsverhältnissen einer anderen zeitgenössischen Kultur — die aber an einem wichtigen gemeinsamen Erbe, dem des byzantinischen Reiches partizipiert wie auch Äthiopien — zu Einführung einer treffenden Terminologie. Zugleich gelang es damit, dem besonderen sprachlichen Charakter des Textes, der deutlich über den rein pragmatischen Rechtsbereich hinausweist, gerecht zu werden.5 Als ich zu einem Beitrag für ein Buch zu Ehren Sevir Chernetsovs gebeten wurde, bot sich die vorliegende Arbeit an. In langen Jahren der Korrespondenz und der direkten Zusammenarbeit wurde diese Urkunde von uns beiden mehrere Male diskutiert; Sevir Chernetsov fertigte eine eigene Übersetzung ins Englische an. Von vielen seiner Kommentare habe ich profitiert, in argumentativer Auseinandersetzung damit meine eigenen Ansichten präzisieren können. Der schriftliche Ausdruck meines Dankes war verbunden mit dem Wunsch und der Hoffnung auf ein noch lange anhaltendes wissenschaftliches Gespräch mit dem Freund in der Zukunft. Der Tod hat dieser Hoffnung am 3. Februar 2005 ein Ende gesetzt. Das Gespräch mit dem Freund wird weitergehen, ohne hier auf Glauben und Hoffnung anspielen zu wollen, nal Conference of Ethiopian Studies.University of Addis Ababa [26–30 November 1984]. Ed. by Taddesse Beyene. Addis Abeba. Vol. 1. 219–232 [Auch gedruckt in Northeast African Studies. 10. 1988. 51–87]. 5 Gewisse Parallelen der Darstellung mit meinem in Druck befindlichen Aufsatz «Diözesen und Missionsauftrag: Ein Edikt Kaiser Zarýa-YaŸqobs über zwei Klostersprengel in Eriträa aus dem Condaghe der Hs. British Museum Or. 481 alias MäI³D³afä T.êfut von Amba Geshe». In: Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph. = Mélanges à la mémoire de Louis Pouzet s. j. (1928–2002) sind damit nicht zu vermeiden, erhöhen aber die eigenständige Lesbarkeit der vorliegenden Studie.

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die auch zwischen Freunden verschieden sein können. Im Gedächtnis und der vergegenwärtigenden Vorstellung geht das Gespräch weiter — auch in einer der «Erinnerung» paradox entgegengesetzten «Erinnerung in der Zukunft».

1. Die Urkunde im Originaltext Dokument BM Or. 481, fol. 154ra–154va (Zeile 15). Die vom historischen Standpunkt aus gelehrte und sichere Orthographie des Textes wurde belassen; sie ist umso erstaunlicher, da es sich mit Sicherheit um ein Reskript einer Originalurkunde aus einem anderen Kodex handelt. Die amharischen Sonderbuchstaben werden mit Ausnahme von h nicht verwendet; Palatalisierung zuweilen durch die Vokalisierung «i» angedeutet; ’ durch folgendes ýAlef oder ŸAyn der sechsten Ordnung. Desgleichen wurde die Punktation beibehalten, auch wenn sie an zwei Stellen gegen die Versabtrennung des Reimprosastücks im Abschluß verstößt. Eine sichere Buchstabenrestitution und die Ergänzung des nicht mehr in roter Tinte ausgeführten Namens der Hl. Jungfrau Maria, die auch in der Originalurkunde gefehlt haben könnten, wurden in eckigen Klammern angebracht. Der Text ist in sorgfältiger Schrift durch die drei Kolumnen durchgeschrieben (Siehe Pl. IV–VII); lediglich die sanctio des Schlusses ist als Paragraph abgesetzt, wie das ganze Dokument von den folgenden religiös-poetischen Stücken und einer weiteren Rechtsurkunde aus der Zeit des Lébnä-Déngél und des Gälawdewos durch Punktlinien und Punkthaufen getrennt ist. Da der ganze Kodex bis auf die enthaltenen Miniaturen eine genaue Replik seiner Vorlage aus Amba-Geshen ist, liegt es nahe, diese sorgfältige Textgestaltung auch schon dort anzunehmen. Der Text wurde nach der Abschrift noch einmal korrigiert, wie die Ergänzungen auf Zeile beweisen.

Fol. 154rañ154va (Zeile 15). (154ra) v™ž:z,z " ™x " ¨¨JÅ " ¨Oïe " oÁe " ³z% " Y`®| " ±W`® " Ñ#YŠ " ±`™ " ¼¯px " ±zWT¹ " se֏Ö&e " ›T™O " ŠÓW " v  ¨ # ®O| " ›TŇ[ " mzH: " HvÅI¾ " ¯J« " v " ®O| " ¨"™«^‡ " ›± " AH: " vTÅ[ " ™&w " v¨`… " Q¼³¼ " ™O " " ¨Y`®z%c " ™¢ " ±¿T " šI " ±|Ÿ| " ›T™O " ¨í™| " 鿏 " vOÓYz " ›xŠ " HKž&T " ±Šv\ " ›± " ¾vJ­# " ŸFz " Àxz^ " ±é¿ " ›ež " ™O "6 OÓYz " ê*| " Ñ#Y " `z%® " D¾R| " Oõm_ " ›Ó±&™xK+` " ›ež " ¾¨`Å " TÅ[ " ™ÀJ " ¨›T¾›[z] "7 Auf Zeile hinzugefügt. Ms. ¨›T¾›z* " Kontamination aus der präpositionalen Wendung und dem auch möglichen und häufigen einfachen Akkusativ der Zeit. 6 7

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Ñ&±+ " zç`® " ¨™&…H¾¬ " ŠÑY| " ›H " ŠÓW# " ›TŇ_B " ›ež " OÓYz " ¨JÁ " `z%®Š "8 D¾R| " Oõm_ " ›Ó±&™xK+` " Ñ#YŠ " ±`™ " ¼¯px " cž#[ " Oïe " žO " Šv&¼| " ¨®TÀ " D¾R| " žO " Kª`¼| " ±KçŠ} " ›Ó±&›|Š " [R`¼T]9 vKH&v " OéKõ " ¨fv " KHº "10 Oïe " ™ezÒxœ " ž=H: " W^ª*} " ¯À " ¨™ez " ¨zY™H:P " ±žO " Šv[ " ±^Ów "  ¨ ( çI " ›e^ " ¨# " ¨ŠÑ\ " ž=H:P " ›± " ¾xH# " ›¨ " ™R " Šv[ " ³z% " ›ež " ™O " ¨[À " ÃÓO " TÅ[ " ™ÀJ " ê*| " Ñ#Y " ¨›H " Šv\ " ›± " ¾¡FÁ " ±™&z, " v®Jz " jM " TH#¯ " ›^t " Rc^ " zeó " 鿏 " MÁÓ " ±Ów " ™T‹ " voÅO " ž=H# " W^ª*| " ›± " ¾TMH# " veO " ›Ó±&™xK+` " ™…±+ " ž=H# " TeH " ž=H:P " eºR " ±™&z, " v®Jz " jM " ¨±z " Y`®z " ®mO " Ñ#YŠ " ±`™ " ¼¯px " HŸFz " Àxz^ " ±[R`¼T]11 ±I¯H# " ¨±{Mz% " H[R`¼T]12 Àxz^ " ¨Àx[ " ŠÑ:ÅÕÅ " ›H " ¾çK# " ±^Ów "  ¨  çI "  ¨! " ›c^ " ¨H鿏 " Àxz^ " ±^Ów "  çI " ›c^ " ¨HTÅ`C " ±zW`® " Ñ>J| " v¨[Ñ&]13 ™²Ñ>K " ›TŠ³ " mÖö " ™cÓH+ " v¨[x " ¾M¾ " ¨Ó " v™Ô| " À`KÑ+ " ¨vïçÒ`C " jM " hR " vOêT¼ " ¨vOž[T¼ " jM " hR " ¨³z% " Y`®| " ™¢ " ±¿T " ™I " ±¨Av# " ®TÀ " 鿏 " Ñ#Y " He`n " ¨¾›±+c " ¨Av " Ñ#YŠ " ±`™ " ¼¯px " H«Ù " F¹z,B " TÅ[ " À^Ô " ¨J™#ŸC " ›H " z " …v " ïçÒ` " ›TŠ " Àxz^ "  ›TŠ " ¼p "  ›TŠ " v+z " Öwm* " v+z " ¡`ez*¼ "  HcHez*GP " ™xoJ| " ! mQe ! z%^ " ®v&¾ "14 ÓT¶ " ! O`¨¾ " OÀÓÀ^ " ! ¨[H]v+z "15 Óx`C " ±¹R " ¨±çÒT " ±z±ž[ " yP " ±OÓ[[ " ë` " Ãy " Á`¾ " çI " Kë¾ " ›Ó[ " vž& " ™R " Oªw "" ¨ž=H# " žO " Àxz^ " OemJ " ¨™&¹c#e " ¨zéMï " ›± " ¾TMH# " žO " ™&¾|žDÁ " eºR " ¹c&ª " çKï " IT " mH+TŠÙe " ¨›ÀÑx׏ " mHwe " v²‹ "" ¨ÅTv& " né " zž# "" ¨«ÓÁ " né " vTH# " ¨v™TL^C " ›H " ¾ÒÓ\ " ±&^Ów " O³M " U¿ " Hv| — e{ " Ó^ — ™dd " ë| " ¨vTÅ`C " žO " Sic! Das Epitheton scheint noch als auf die zuvor genannten Könige bezogen, bzw. die pluralische Rektion von daher gedacht wirkt nach; ein pluralis maiestatis müßte sich auch auf das folgende Attribut und die Rektion des Verbs auswirken. 9 Lücke für eine nicht ausgeführte Rubrizierung. 10 Konj.: ™…H¿ "? 11 Lücke für eine nicht ausgeführte Rubrizierung. 12 Lücke für eine nicht ausgeführte Rubrizierung. 13 In Hs. versehentlich als Zahl 7 (%) gelesen. 14 Konj.: z%%^v& " in Parallele zu ÍérŸatä Gébr. 15 Ms. vv+z% ". 8

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™&¾|®À« " ±z¨Ó±# " ¨OKH# " ±™ñGP " ™Ô| " Ñ&±+ "16 Ñx[ " ¡`e}e " ±¨Ñ& " nØ " vÅH# " ±¨[x " nØ " ï{¾ — ïçÒ` " vhR " ›^t " Rc^ " ™ž:z,| " ›± " ääeŠ " ™w " QŸ™+J " ¨™w " Ñx`™+J " ¨™+ã&e " pæe " ™w " ¿Le " ¨›± " ›O " Ñ#Y " ™&z, " ›Ó±&› " ¡x^ " ™&z, " ¹Ó^ " v®Jz*L| " ¶ " †¾I " ¹™&z, " ¹m› " vJz*K| " ²±+I — ™&z, " v®Jz " jM " ² " žHI — ¹m› " xM|¨ÀÀ " R`¼T "17 Ó^ " xM|¨ÀÀ " O`p`¿e — ±m› " ‡ÁÓ " ›^e " …`x " cÑÅ — ¹m› " Ñ+{ " ï[À¹ " ™x " ¹Ó^ " Ñ+{ " Ñx\ " mHwe " ®TÀ " RemJ " ¹²t| " Ñ+{ " õ_ " QŸ™+J — ¹«eØ " RÕ³| " Ñ+{ " `z%¯ " ™TI¡ — ¹Øno| " Oì+Ž " (154rb) ÅI`™Å " Ó`R " ¡`e}e " ›Pz% " J­#Ÿ " ›H " ™éKñ " voÅO " W^ª*z " Ñ#Y " ¨v«›z% " Oª¯J " ›± " pUe " |™+J " m¾c " Kë¾ " ±Ÿ`¼e " ç^Ó " Rc_z " ®TÀ " QŸ™+J — H&m " Àxz^ " ž&^¢e "" ¹Àx[ " ŠÑ:ÅÕÅ " H&m " ŸF| " Ñx[ " ™&¹c#e — ¨›± " ®nv+ " c®| " ™TK " H鿏 " ±K¾o " ¨H&m¼p| " ±AÑ[ " 鿏 " ¹OemJ " ¹Àxz^ " Ñ+{ " ¹m› " ›eÖ&óe — ¹Ó^ " ‡ÁÓ " ¯wpT " ¹™&¹c#e " ¹Àxz^ " ÿÑ+{ " ¹m› " ŠÑÁ " ‡ÁÓ " O_{ª* " ¹Ó^ " ‡ÁÓ " ±Ÿ`¼e " ¹R`¼T " Àxz^ " ÿÑ+}‚ " ¹m› " ä«H:e " …ÁÓ " Ñx[ " ™&¹c#e " ¹Ó^ " ÿÑ+{ " v…¾H " 鿏 — ‡ÁÓ " Ñ^Å " ¹m› " H&m " ³¼p| "18 vÅH# " ‡ÁÓ " õ_ " ™ÃT " ¹Ó^ " H&m " ¼p| " …xz " ™&¹c#e " ‡ÁÓ " çÒ " ±™x " ¹Ó^ " ¹²t| " ÿÑ+{ " ™¾x™e " ž™x " ‡ÁÓ " Ñx[ " Oïe " oÁe "" ¹OemJ " ¹v+| " Öwm* " ÿÑ+{ " Axz " 鿏 " ¹™&¹c#e " ¹v+| " Öwm* " ÿÑ+{ " ÑÁ " ¹R`¼T " ¹v+z " Öwm " ¡`e}e " …`¹ " ‡ÁÓ " ™v# " ›H " ›Pz% " ! v+| " TeH " Àxz^GP " ‡ÁÓ " ™«ó] " çÒ¾ " TeH " ±&\ " ¹² " vH« " ›^e " ¨WŠ¾ " TeH " ±&\ " v­H " ÂG " ›^e " z¨JÀ " Oҏ " TeH " ±&\ " v­H " ™ÃT "19 ¯^e " ¨cŽ " OeH " ±&\ "" ¹v+| " ™X " ›^e " Ñ[®Å " TeH " ±&\ " ¹v+| " K¾é " ‡ÁÓ " ›^e " ™w " |ž# " OeH " ±&\ " ‡ÁÓ " H&m " Oç+Ž " Axz% " TeH " ±&\ " ¾nm,{| " ‡ÁÓ " ™z " ™vd " TeH " ±&\ " ¹Ó^ " ‡ÁÓ " ›^m " Rc^ " ž=H# " v¡`e}e " TeH " v+z " Óx` " ¹m› " ¹v+| " ›^m% " Konj. ѱ& "? Konj. ±R`¼T "? Da es sich hier um einen einfachen Personennamen handelt, ist «Maryam» in scharzer Tinte geschrieben, keine Lücke zur späteren Rubrizierung gelassen. 18 Konj. ¼p| "? 19 Konj. ÃU "? Der Schreiber neigt dazu, Eigennamen als häufige, einfache Wörter zu verlesen. 16 17

 

Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

Rc^ " w`¼ " ѱ# " TeH " v+z " Óx` " ¹OÑY " v+| " vµ`¨Å " Axz% " ‡ÁÓ " {Ĭe " TeH " OÑY " v+| " Öwn| " ¹v[ž| " v+| " ¹²m%| " ÿÑ+{ " ±&` " v¨c " TeH " v+z " Öwn| " ¹UÑe " ™v² " ¹m¯ " ±`™ " ™x^DT " TeH " ±&\ " ¹Ó^ " UÒe " ™v² " zeó " TeH " ±&\ " ¹Ó^ " ™³R] " ›^e " Ñx^¾ " ¹m¯ " ¶ " ™³R] " zY™ " ¹m¯ " v­H " vэ " ¹À[w " P™¾ " ›^e " ±Ÿ`¼e "" ¹o› " ™T† " H鿏 "" ¹Ó^ " ›^e " R‡ëz% "" H&m " R£f " ›x " ‡ÁÑ# " ™x`DT " TeH " ±&\ "" ¹vÒR}‚ " ›^e " zž# " TeH " ±&\ " ² " zcŸQ " ‡ÁÓ " Ë " TeH " ±&\ " ¹xez " ›Ó_ "" Rc_ " ÓTw` " TeH " ±&\ "" ¹v­H " oØx " ™v² " `év# " TeH " ±&\ "" ¹™&z " ¹Ó^ " v­Jz*K| " ›^m% " Rc^ " cx[ "" ¨‡ÁÑ# " M³v " ™vd "" TeH " ÑÂe֍ " ¨™ÓaÅ " ¹™&z, " ¹m› " v™Jz*K| " ›^m% " Rc^ " Axz " ê*| " ï{¾ " TeH " ÑÂe֍ " ¨™ÓaÅ "" ¹™&z, " v­JzeM " ›^m% " Rc^ " zeó " 鿏 "" ‡ÁÓ " ±Ów " TeH " ÑÂe֍ " ¨™ÓaÅ " ¹™&z, " ¹ÑIÓJ " ѱ¾| " ›^m% " Rc^ " Ôj "" TeH " ÑÂe֍ " ¨™ÓaÅ "" ¹™&z, " ¹¨c`v| " ѱ¾| " ›^m% " Oc^ " Ñ[™Å " TeH " ÑÂe֍ " ¨™ÓaÅ " ¨eºRŠ " TÅ`Œ " ›H " Šv\ " ¹™T†^ " çKï " IT " ™x³ " TeH " ™T†^ " eºR "" ¹ÃU| " çKï " IT " ÅJvR`¼T " TeH " ±&\ "" ¹¨Hn " ŠÒX& " Ñ&¿`Ñ&e " TeH " ±&\ "" (154va) ¨›Hc " ›H " ™&zïoÁ " ™JyP " …>Js " c^ª*z " Ñ#Y " ¨±z " e`®z " ±®mO " Ñ#YŠ " ±`™ " ¼¯px " TH#™ " Jv# " ¨Øvx " võo[ " ›Ó±&›|Š " [R`¼T]20 JBx " v™¡ï " ¡J™+ " ŏÓJD " ±¾|OKç " ›TMT± " ™`ª, " eBx " ¨vÀ†] " Oª¯J " z®Y` " HKÃe " ¡xŸx "" TeH " ™Óx`z " ¨Jà " ›H " U›¬ " H›ž#¾ " ™`ª, " ¹©D " ™`Òx "" ¨Hë[ " ±&™B " ¾Àv¿P "21 «ez " c&œJ " Óx "" ¨¾ï‹ " I¯H+GP " HH " éwK# " ±¾c+é` " Ñ#Åx "" H®HO " ®HT " ™S "" ™TFH¡P " v¹R‹ " H›Ó±&™xK+` " ±™é° " HcR¾ " ¨c[^ " HTÅ` " vYÒB " oÁe " ¨vÀP " ¡v#` " ±z«‡v " He`¹z " †Ö&™| "" žO " ™&||™ÑJª " H²z* " OéKï " Y`®| " ™« " ±ÀTcd " ™« " ±m[è " ™« " ±ž+à " ¨±z®ÑI "" ™« " ±™«é™ " ›TŠ " OŸ " ›OC " ŠÑY| " ¨›OC " ŠÑY{| " ¨›OC " ääd| "" ¨›OC " Ož:| " ¨Odcõ| "" ¨›OC " ›Å " ¨™e| "" ™TFH¡P " v™TIž " ™x`DT " ¾eKo " ¨¼¯px "" v™TIž " Šv&¼| " ¨Kª`¼| "" v™TIž " èÅn " ¨cR¯{| "" H®HO " ®HT " ™S "" Lücke für nicht ausgeführte Rubrizierung. Konj. ¾À`v¿P "? Vgl. das Wort in AS; man kann an Kontamination mit amharisch À[v" denken. 20 21

M. Kropp

 

2. Uâ bersetzung mit erstem Realienkommentar in Anmerkungen (Beginnend) mit dem Lobpreis des Vaters und des Sohnes und des Heiligen Geistes! Dies ist eine Ordnung, erlassen von unserem König ZärýaYaŸqob, genannt (mit dem Thronnamen) Konstantin, im 15. Jahr seiner Herrschaft und vier Jahre und vier Monate, nachdem er den Empörer Bädlay vernichtet hatte,22 während seines Aufenthalts in der Region von Iba, (genau) am 4. (Tag) des Monats Miyazya.23 Die Ordnung ist nicht neu,24 nein, sie ist altererbt.25 Seit der Zeit, da (die Bundeslade von) Zion (Jerusalem) verließ (und nach Äthiopien kam) zur Regierungszeit des (Königs) Ébnä-Lä-Hakim,26 wurden die Priester der Zionskirche des Hofes immer alimentiert,27 bis zu den Tagen der In der Schlacht bei Gomit in Däwaro, am 25. Dezember 1445 n.Chr. = 29. Tah¼sas 1438; die muslimischen Quellen geben einen Tag später an; möglich daß der christliche Chronist das Ereignis aus dem Grund des «Weihnachtswunders des Sieges über die Ungläubigen» einen Tag vordatierte; vgl. PERRUCHON, Les chroniques de Zarýa Y⟠eqob, 63; DERAT, MARIE-LAURE (2002) «Élaboration et diffusion du récit d’une victoire militaire: la bataille de Gomit, décembre 1445». OC 86. 87–102, hier 87–90. 23 Entspricht dem 30. März 1448 n.Chr. = 4. Miyazya 1440 äth. Stils. Wie auch in anderen Urkunden rechnet der Chronist die wenigen Monate des Jahres des Regierungsantritts von Zärýa-YaŸqob als erstes Regierungsjahr; vgl. Kropp «Missionssprenge», Anm. 8. 24 Wörtl.: «von heute». 25 Wörtl.: «von alters her». Hier klingt bereits das beherrschende Rechtsthema an: Rechtssetzung und Rechtsfindung ist immer die Herstellung des «guten alten Rechts», im mittelalterlichen Europa wie im christlichen Äthiopien; Recht wird gefunden, nicht geschaffen, denn das Recht ist alt. Vgl. KERN, FRITZ (1965), Recht und Verfassung im Mittelalter. (Libelli. 3.) Darmstadt [Nachdruck aus Historische Zeitschrift. 120. 1919. 1–79]; KROPP, MANFRED (2004), «Das gute alte Recht. Schriftlichkeit und Mündlichkeit in der Praxis des äthiopischen Königsrechts». In: Blicke gen Osten. Festschrift für Friedrich Heyer zum 95. Geburtstag. Hrsg. von Martin Tamcke. (Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchgeschichte. 30.) Münster. 293–310. 26 Die durchgängige Verschränkung von rechtsläufiger GéŸéz-Syntax und linksläufiger amharischer Syntax, die den gepflegten Kanzleistil des Dokuments auszeichnet, macht die Bezüge der Satzergänzungen — hier: Zeitangaben — ambivalent, eigen tümlich gleitend. Somit ist die Abtrennung und Einordnung in einen gegebenen Satz in der Übersetzung willkürlich; der Originaltext spielt geradezu mit satzübergreifenden Doppelfunktionen der einzelnen Elemente. 27 Wörtl: «waren sie, indem sie aßen (von den Provisionen des Hofes)». Däbtära Séyon bezeichnet die Zeltkirche Maria-Zion im mobilen Hoflager des äthiopischen Königs. 22



Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

Herrschaft des rechtgläubigen und gottliebenden Königs Dawit,28 da er (auf Kriegszug) ins Land Adäl zog.29 Von jener Zeit an wurde es ausgesetzt, und die Könige, die nach ihm regierten, dachten nicht mehr daran, bis zur Regierung seines Nachkommen, des rechtgläubigen30 und gottliebenden Königs Zärýa YaŸqob, welcher trunken vom Geist wie die Propheten, eine Säule des Glaubens wie die Apostel, und den unsere Herrin Maria mit der Milch der (Heiligen) Schrift aufzog. Als der (Heilige) Geist die Idee faßte,31 versammelte er sein ganzes Heer(lager), Männer und Frauen, und befragte sie, wie es sich verhielt mit den 120 Sauermilchbroten und den 15 Krügen Bier (für den Klerus der Zionskirche). Alle (antworteten und sprachen: «Ja sicherlich, das war so bis zu der Zeit, da der König Dawit zum zweiten Male in das Land Adäl zog!» Diejenigen aber, die das die ganze Zeit über geleugnet hatten, der Voll(amtsinhaber) der Éraqw masära der (Königin) BäŸaltä ÐiD³na Täsfa-Séyon (und dessen) Vize-(Amtsinhaber) Zä-Nagba schenkten dem (endlich) Glauben und beschworen es vor dem ganzen Heer im Namen des Herrn, der alles beherrscht,32 zusammen mit allen Amtsträgern der ite «Königin» BäŸ altä ÐiD³ na. Diese Ordnung erließ unser König Zärýa-YaŸqob: Für die Priester der Marienkirche,33 (und zwar) für die obere und die untere Marienkirche und (für die Priester) von Däbrä-Nägwädgwad, welche ministrieRegierte von 1380–1412 n.Chr. Vgl. TADDESSE TAMRAT, Church and State, 153 und Anm. 2, wo, im Zirkelschluß hier, die Urkunde als Beleg für die Feldzüge angeführt wird; nach arabischen Quellen (al-Maqrizi und der WalasmaŸ-Chronik) ist der wichtigste Feldzug nach Adal und ZeilaŸ in das Jahr 1402–3 n.Chr. zu setzen; vgl. TADDESSE TAMRAT, Church and State, 149 und Anm. 3. 30 Die Hs. setzt hier den Plural, der aber an besten als Nachwirkungsfehler des vorausgehenen «Könige» erklärt, bei dem nicht das übliche Epitheton steht. 31 Der Plural des Verbs wird als Respektsplural bezogen auf den den Hl. Geist aufgefaßt. Inhaltlich näher läge die Deutung «als der Hl. Geist ihn daran erinnerte», was aber eine doppelte Emendation zu ™…H¿ bedingte. 32 Die Formel «Herr des Alls» oder ähnlich geht im christlich-orientalischen Formelschatz besonders auf syrische Vorbilder zurück; es wäre interessant, die gerade in der Zeit des Zärýa-YaŸqob markant auftauchenden Formeln auf ihre direkten Vorlagen hin zu untersuchen; vgl. WINKLER, GABRIELE (2000), «Das theologische Formelgut über den Schöpfer, das homoousios, die Inkarnation und Menschwerdung im Spiegel der christlich-orientalischen Quellen». OC 84. 117–177, hier 128–131. 33 Der Name Maria ist im Text — weil später in Rot einzufügen — ausgelassen. Mit Kirche wird im Kontext däbtära wörtl. «Zelt» übersetzt. Es handelt sich um die verschiedenen Zeltbauten des beweglichen königlichen Hoflagers. Allerdings läßt gerade Zärýa-YaŸqob in seiner späteren Lieblingsresidenz festere Holzbauten errichten, freilich nicht ohne daß dies sein Chronist als Neuerung und Ausnahme vermerkt. 28 29

Pl. IV. Hs. British Museum Or. 481, fol. 154ra

Pl. V. Hs. British Museum Or. 481, fol. 154rb

Pl. VI. Hs. British Museum Or. 481, fol. 154va

Pl. VII. Hs. British Museum Or. 481, fol. 154vb

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ren,34 (sind jeden Tag [?] zu liefern) 110 Sauermilch(brote) und 13 Krüge (Bier); für die Zionskirche aber 10 Sauermilch(brote) und 2 Krüge (Bier).35 (Was die dafür zu Lieferungen verpflichteten) Ländereien betrifft, wurden ebenso gwélt-(Lande)36 bestimmt: Im (Land) Wägi:37 Azagwéha, Émnäzén, Qätäfo (und) Ansäglen im (Land) Wäräb: Yéhéywäg im (Land) Angot: Därhage; weiterhin (als Leistungsverpflichtung) für das (Land) Fäsägar38 tausend šämma39 als Fastenzeitabgabe; als Regenzeitabgabe40 (ebenfalls) tausend šämma. (Auch) diese (letztgenannte) Verordnung ist nicht neu, sondern (die Leistung), die (seine Majestät) König ŸAmdä-Séyon der (Truppe) Nésr-Qana41 Wörtl.: «(am Tore) warten», also die Priester, die jeweils ununterbrochen in der Kirche sind und die anstehenden Gebete und Riten verrichten. 35 Was insgesamt die oben genannten 120 Brote und 15 Krüge ergibt. 36 G wélt, oft als «Lehen» übersetzt, sind Ländereien, die von allgemeiner Steuerpflicht befreit sind, dafür aber bestimmten Zwecken dienen. Entweder zur Versorgung königlicher Dienstmannen und Gefolgsleute, oder aber zur Versorgung zumeist kirchlicher Institutionen oder Einzelleistungen; das letztere ist hier der Fall. 37 So geschrieben; intendiert ist die affriziert-palatale Aussprache; die hier gewählte vereinfachende Umschrift verfährt ähnlich wie die frühe orthographische Praxis des GéŸéz zur Andeutung der im ursprünglichen Syllabar nicht vorhandenen Laute. 38 In späterer amharischer Aussprache Fät ³ägar. 39 Das Wort ðämma bezeichnet heute das äthiopische Nationalgewand, die Wickletoga aus Baumwollstoff, deren Drapierung eine eigene, genau differenzierende Sprache im Bereich der nicht-verbalen Kommunikation darstellt. Ursprünglich ein Längenmaß für Stoffe, die Länge die für eine Toga notwendig war, werden in der nicht-monetären Ökonomie des mittelalterlichen Äthiopien Abgaben und Steuern sowie andere Werte (Preise) in ðämma gerechnet. Das Wort bezeichnet dann, wie auch die Namen anderer Stoffe, oft auch die Steuer direkt, neben etwa Gewichtangaben für Edelmetalle (Unzen etc.). In diesem Sinne als Wertangabe (im Bereich der Metalle «Feingewicht») findet es sich z.B. im SérŸ atä Gébr als Mengenangabe für Gewürze. Damit wird es möglich sein, Relationen herzustellen zwischen den Mengen jeweils als Wertmaßstab angesetzter Materialien und anderer Waren; in zitierten Falle zwischen Gewürzen und Stoffen. Wichtig ist es, die Vergleichsmenge als Ersatz für einen (Geld-) preis zu sehen, und nicht etwa jeweils den betreffenden Stoff als gefordert anzusehen. 40 Wie die «Martinsgans» sind die Abgaben an den jahreszeitlichen Rhythmus der Landwirtschaft, aber mehr noch an die Bedürfnisse des Hofes gebunden. Fastenzeit und Regenzeit sind Perioden der Ortsgebundenheit des sonst mobilen königlichen Hoflagers. Dafür ist die effektive Versorgung mit den notwendigen Gütern an Lebensmitteln, aber auch z. B. an Feuerholz eine wichtige Voraussetzung. 41 Wie der Name sagt, «Adlertrompete», ein Musikkorps des königlichen Heeres. Die dem königlichen Heereszug beigegebenen verschiedenen Musikkorps waren ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Heeres, wenn man die Auffassung der Zeit bedenkt, daß eine Eroberung vollzogen ist, wenn der Heereszug «mit klingendem Spiel» eine Landschaft durchzogen. In den Chroniken wird stereotyp geschildert, daß der Heereszug, besonders aber dessen Musik eine unwiderstehliche Wirkung — «Furcht und SchreŸ ken» für den Feind, ehrfürchtige Unterwerfung bei den Untertanen — hervorzurufen in der Lage ist. 34

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gegeben hatten. Jetzt aber hat sie unser König Zärýa-YaŸqob (den genannten Priestern) gegeben, im Tausch dafür das Land Därago (an die Truppe NésrQana).42 Weiterhin (betreffend) die (Königs-)boten die nach Fäsägar entsandt sind, einer der Däbtära, einer der Diakone und einer der (Yä-)Bet Täbaqi «Hauswächter» der Kirche, für diese drei (sind zu stellen) drei Maultiere, drei qämis «Hemden», drei leichtgewebte Brokatgewänder,43 drei mädägdära(?)44 aus leichter Baumwolle.45 Weiterhin rief er (der König) in Erinnerung, daß zu Lasten (und für Lieferung aus) den betä gébr «Bankettküchen» zur Rechten und zur Linken (den genannten Boten) eine aman mäwabya «Pflichtanteil beim Bankett»46 zustehe, (und zwar) im Maße eines mägrärä @³ärr «den FeindAus welchen Gründen dieser Tausch vorteilhaft oder aus technischen Gründen erforderlich war, geht aus dem Text nicht hervor. Daß er vollzogen wurde, läßt solche Gründe als wahrscheinlich annehmen, ansonsten ließe die Gleichwertigkeit der Lieferungen aus den betreffenden Ländereien einen solchen Tausch als überflüssig erscheinen. Tausch, gar Verkauf von gwélt-Ländereien, die eigentlich eine solche «Entfremdung» ihrer Natur nach nicht erleiden sollten, ist nach Ausweis der Urkunden in der Hs. BM Or. 481 nichts Ungewöhnliches, zumindest vonseiten des Monarchen. 43 Hier nach der Konjektur und Parallele zum ÍérŸatä Gébr übersetzt (KROPP, «The íérŸatä gébr»); Hs. hat «große tura (?) aus Brokat». Zu turabi vgl. DÄSSÉTA TÄKLÄWÄLD, Addis yamaréñña mäzgäbä qalat. Addis Abäba, 1962 a. m. = 1970 n. Chr., s. v., 1268b. 44 Wie das vorangehende tura ein unklares Wort; beide bezeichnen Kleidungsstücke. Wie die Stoffbezeichnungen sind die Fachtermini für Kleidungsstücke zumeist fremden Ursprungs, in der Regel arabisch. Die Verformung der ursprünglichen Wörter durch mündliche Weitergabe und Anpassung an das Äthiopische (Amharische) ist oft sehr groß, oft willkürlich. So gelingt die Rückführung auf das ursprüngliche Wort erst, wenn die Sache selbst bekannt ist. In vorliegenden Fall kommt hinzu, daß die Originalschreibung erst durch Kollation mit der Originalhandschrift aus AmbaGeshen zu bestätigen, bzw. zu ermitteln wäre. Für den Moment bleibt nur, die beiden Termini in einem Verzeichnis unbekannter (amharischer) Wörter in mittelalterlichen Urkunden zu buchen, in der Hoffnung auf aufhellende Parallelen in anderen Texten. Befragungen von gebildeten Mönchen und Klerikern — anhand des ebenfalls in vielen Termini unklaren Sé rŸ atä Gébr — in Äthiopien (seit 1984 in unregelmäßigen Abständen) haben mir bisher nur bei wenigen Wörtern zur Aufklärung verholfen. Der zeitliche Abstand ist doch zu groß; auch werden sich die dahinterstehenden Realien stark verändert haben, durch andere ersetzt worden sein. 45 Die hier angeführten genauen Bezeichnungen der Abgaben stehen im Gegensatz zu den eher summarischen Angaben für ðämma oben. Hier handelt es sich um spezifische Lieferungen an einen genau definierten Personenkreis. 46 (Cémmér) Aman ist ein Bezirk des königlichen Hoflagers, in dem ein genau bestimmter Personenkreis Anrecht auf tägliche Speisung hat. Nach Ausweis des ÍérŸatä Gébr lautet die Form Aman mäwabya; es ist nicht zu entscheiden, ob es sich im text um eine Verderbnis oder eine Variante im Altamharischen handelt. 42

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zum-Tribut-Zwingers» (?) (Hohlmaß) Hirse-Brot (?), «Ihrer-Majestät»-Bier und égrä-bäkki «(Fuß-auf-Dich)»47 (?)-(Brot) — das Ganze entsprechend (der Ordnung für) Kirche und Klerus der Kreuzes- und der Jesus-Kirche (im Hoflager). (Diese Ordnung) wurde niedergeschrieben, wobei (folgende) Würdenträger beschworen, sie nicht anzufechten: — der säD³afä-lam von Siwa (Šäwa — Schoa) Qälementos — der qäläbas von Éndagäbtan Bäzzanu — der qaI³ von Démbi Täkku — der qaI³ von Wégdu Bä-Mélu — für Amhara weiterhin diejenigen (Bäckermeister), die das Sauermilchbrot backen — der moyo von Mänzéh Läbät — séta (?) zur Rechten asasa (?) von Dawént.48 Weiterhin (folgt die Liste derjenigen), die unter Strafe der Verfluchung mit eigenem Mund beschworen, daß sie die (oben genannten gwélt-)Lande nicht antasten würden:49 Mäwabya als nomen instrumentalis bezeichnet nach Ausweis des Sé rŸatä Gébr die besonderen Speisen — insbesondere Teile eines Schlachttieres — die jeweils bestimmten Würdenträgern o. ä. zustehen. Solches ist bis in die Zeit des Kaisers Ménilék für die Bankettordnung nachzuweisen, bzw. einen anschaulich-drastischen Humor. Bei dem ersten Ausdruck sieht man förmlich den tributpflichtigen Unterworfenen unter der Last des angeschleppten Tributs wanken, bei dem zweiten vermutet man eine Anspielen auf die Form des Brotes «nachdem man den Fuß darauf gesetzt hat». 47 Die vorausgehenden zwei Ausdrücke gehören wohl einem bestimmten — bürokratischen oder militärischen — Jargon des königlichen Hoflagers an, für den wir andere Beispiele haben. Die Existenz eines spezifischen Jargons läßt sich für Äthiopien auch für andere Berufsgruppen nachweisen. Im vorliegenden Falle handelt es sich, soweit die Metaphorik erklärbar und durchsichtig ist, um einen eher grimmigsarkastischen Ton. Das Bier «ihrer Majestät» ist eine besondere Qualität des traditionellen Bieres (J³älla), die auch sonst, neben verschiedenen Sorten des Honigweins (mes) erwähnt werden. Der Bezug auf die königliche Majestät druckt zweifellos eine hohe Qualitätsstufe aus. 48 Die genannten Titel von Würdenträgern sind z.T. gut bekannt (I³äD³afä lam etc.); moyo, séta und asasa sind hier zum ersten Mal belegt. Allen gemeinsam ist die Bindung an eine bestimmte Region bzw. Regionen. Daraus folgt nicht, daß dies sprachlich Wörter der jeweiligen Regionalsprache sind, auch wenn diese Vermutung zunächst naheliegt. Es können auch diese Regionen durch bestimmte historische Ereignisse und Vorgänge gebundene Titel sein. 49 Die erste Liste bezieht sich klar auf diejenigen, die für die Produktion und Lieferung von Brot und Bier der Ordnung im Hoflager verantwortlich sind. Die nun folgende bezieht sich auf die Würdenträger, in deren Regionen augenscheinlich die in Frage stehenden gwélt-Lande liegen.

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— gäzi «Gouverneur»50 von Angot Gäbrä-Kréstos — der qaJ³ von Wäg Bä-Délu — der qaJ³ von Wäräb Fäntay sowie für Fäsägar in Sachen (der Lieferung der genannten tausend) šämma der éraqw-masära51 Akwätet.52 53 Gegeben zu der Zeit unserer Metropoliten abba Mikaýel und abba Gäbréýel und des Bischofs abba Yohannés;54 zur Zeit der Königinmutter ite «Königin» Égziý-Kébra,55 der ite «Königin» bäŸaltihat zur Linken Ïan-Òayla, der ite «Königin» zur Rechten Zan-Zela, der ite «Königin» bäŸaltä-ðiD³ na Zan-Käläla,56 des béD³twädäd zur Rechten Der Titel ist deutbar: «der in der Hand hat, bzw. kauft». Die weibliche Form findet sich im Titel bestimmter Königinnen wieder; s. u. wäsärbät gäze(y)t. 51 Er ist eine Art Zeremonienmeister und überwacht zugleich die Küche und deren Zulieferungen. Der Versuch einer Etymologie und Übersetzung könnte sein «der ferne hält», wäre damit parallel zu dem späteren kélkéla-Dienst, d.h. der Amtsträger, der den Zugang zum König bzw. dem jeweiligen Würdenträger regelt, damit eine wichtige Machtstellung innehat, die immer wieder umstritten war. Generell sei hier auf die verschiedenen Endungen bei sonst gleichen Titeln verwiesen, die in der Regel Personalsuffixe sind, die den personalen Bezug angeben: -a als fem. sg. verweist auf die Königin, also «der Königin Zeremonienmeister». Das oft bezeugte -e «mein» zeigt den Würdenträger des Königs selbst an, wäre also raq masäre, oder etwa im Titel der Königin selbst it-e, wo der erste Bestandteil noch nicht befriedigend gedeutet ist. Häufig ist zudem ein weiteres suffigiertes Element -ge «Ort, Platz» (itege usw.), was semantische Parallelen in Titelformen etwa im Arabischen hat. 52 Die Sprache des Dokuments ist oft knapp, ja lückenhaft. Als aide-mémoire setzt sie zuweilen die Kenntnis von Text und Realien voraus. 53 Die langen Zeugenlisten haben in ihrer Ausführlichkeit die Funktion, die tatsächlichen Zeugen des Rechtsakts später benennen zu können. Für den Historiker ergeben sich zwei Fakten darüber hinaus: die Konfiguration von Ämtern und Amtsträgern zu einem gegebenen Zeitpunkt ist in dieser Fülle nur schwer zu erfinden; einmal mit anderen Quellen kontrolliert, verbürgt sie die Authentizität des Textes. Zum anderen liefert sie wertvolle Informationen zur Prosopographie und politischen Geographie der Zeit. 54 Die drei äthiopischen Bischöfe der ersten Regierungszeit des Zärýa-YaŸqob (ab 1438 n.Chr.). Er teilte den beiden ersten Amhara und Šäwa als Diözesen zu. Die drei werden in verschiedenen Dokumenten der Zeit als Zeugen genannt. Sie sind wohl alle vor 1458. n.Chr. gestorben. Der Kaiser, der in seiner nationalen Kirchenpolitik — z.B. in der Aussöhnung mit den Eusthatianern — deutlich die Unabhängigkeit der äthiopischen Kirche vom Patriarchen in Alexandrien im Auge hatte, hat sie nicht mehr ersetzt. Vgl. TADDESSE TAMRAT, Church and State, 228–230; 235–236; 245. 55 Die Mutter des Zärýa-YaŸqob, die Juniorkönigin des Königs Dawit; vgl. TADDESSE TAMRAT , Church and State, 220 und Anm. 2. 56 Die drei wichtigsten Frauen und Königinnen des äthiopischen Hofes; weitere werden unten genannt. BäŸaltä Bihat wie die ersten beiden Titel ursprünglich lauten 50

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(Zä-)?-Maryam,57 des béD³ twädäd zur Linken Märqoréyos, des Vize-ras zur Rechten Òarb-Sägäd, des geta58 zur Rechten Färädäyä-Ab, des geta zur Linken Gäbru, des qäläbas ŸAmdä-Mäsqäl, des zaqwé not-geta Fére-Mikaýel, des wésJ³-mägwazt-geta59 RétuŸ-Amlak, des J³éqaqénat mäI³ene60 Délarýad Gérma Kréstos. Dies waren die Beauftragten, die vor der königlichen Heeresversammlung (diese Ordnung) niederschreiben ließen. Zu dieser Zeit (waren im Amt) — der qomos61 Natnaýel — der qäys-D³aI³äy «Beichtvater des Königs» Zäkaryas — der I³era(n)g-masäre62 ŸAmdä-Mikaýel — der liqä däbtära Kirakos — der liqä kahnat von Däbrä-Nägwädgwad Gäbrä-Iyäsus.63 Während (im Amte waren) — der Ÿaqqabe säŸ at Amméha-Lä-Séyon von Hayq64 — der liqä diyaqonat der Stadt Séyon (= des königlichen Heerlagers), der geta zur Rechten der Kreuzeskirche Éstifanos — sein (?) Vize zur Linken ŸÉnbaqom ist die Inhaberin eines Kronguts Bihat; der zweite ist nicht direkt deutbar, aber in Parallele wird ðiD³na ebenfalls ein Krongut benennen. Die Namen sind Thronnamen (Zan/Ïan = ihre Majestät), die sich nur im zweiten Element unterscheiden, damit durch den Namen schon die Stellung angeben. Òayla = «ihre Stärke», Käläla = «hat sie gekrönt» sind deutbar; zela bleibt unerklärt; u.U. arab.: îayl «Schleier». Die Königin zur Linken z.B. trug nach Ausweis der Chronik des Zärýa-YaŸqob den Personenennamen Fére-Maryam (PERRUCHON, Les chroniques de Zar’a Y⟠eqob, 55). 57 Der Name Maryam ist sicherlich verderbt; es fehlt ein zweites Namenselement. Ein BéD³twädäd zur Linken hieß ŸAmdä-Mäsqäl (PERRUCHON, Les chroniques de Zar’a Y⟠eqob, 10), doch kann es sich dort um einen anderen Amtsträger handeln. Vgl. Chronik des Zärýa-YaŸqob, die berichtet, daß zwei Töchter des Königs zu Béhtwädäd ernannt werden, nachdem deren Ehemänner der Rebellion im Amte überführt wurden (PERRUCHON, Les chroniques de Zar’a Y⟠eqob, 10, 14, 55, 95). 58 Wohl zusammengesetzt aus ge-ta «Örtlichkeit» zu deuten; Bezeichnung allgemein für «Herrn, Vorsteher oder Aufseher». 59 Vielleicht der Führer des zentralen Trosses im königlichen Heereszug. 60 Eine Kategorie der Hofrichter. 61 Gleichbedeutend mit hegoumenos? 62 Er ist nach Ausweis des ÍérŸatä Mängéí t der Hüter des Horns mit dem königlichen Salböl. 63 Eine in der Chronik des Zärýa-YaŸqob öfters erwähnte Persönlichkeit; gehörte mit dem nachfolgenden Ÿaqqabe säŸ at zur engsten Entourage des Herrschers. 64 Der Abt des Klosters Hayq, dem traditionell die im Range dritte Würde des Reiches Ÿ aqqabe säŸ at «des Stundenwächters», der den Ablauf des königlichen Arbeitstages regelte, zustand. Amméòa-Lä-Séyon wird in vielen anderen Urkunden, darunter denen des Condaghe des Klosters Hayq erwähnt.

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— der gweta zur Rechten der Jesus-Kirche Nägädu — (sein) Vize Märetawi — (sein?) Vize zur Linken Zäkaryas — die gweta zur Rechten der Marienkirche Pawlos, (sein) Vize GäbräIyäsus, der gweta zur Linken Bä-Òaylä-Séyon, (sein) Vize Gärad, — der liqä zéyaqonat zur Rechten Bä-Délu, (sein) Vize Fére-Addam — der liqä diyaqonat65 zur Linken Òäbtä-Iyäsus, (sein) Vize Sägä-zä-Ab — der yä-zaqwé nat gweta zur Linken Aybäýas-kä-Ab, sein Vize GäbräMänfäs-Qéddus — der gweta der Hauswächter der Kreuzeskirche Habtä-Séyon — der gweta der Hauswächter der Jesus-Kirche Gäddu — der gweta der Hauswächter der Marienkirche Kréstos-Òaréyä, (sein) Vize Abu. Dies waren die (Vorsteher der) drei Kirchen mit ihrem Klerus. . (Weiterhin waren Zeugen): — Vize-awfari Sägay mit seinem Gefolge66 — der zan Bäläw ras Wäsänäy mit seinem Gefolge — der bäŸalä diho ras Täwäldä-Mädòén mit seinem Gefolge — der bäŸalä Damo ras67 Wäsäne mit seinem Gefolge. — der bet aní a ras68 GärŸad mit seinem Gefolge — der bet D³ayI³ Vize-ras Abba-Tékun mit seinem Gefolge — der Vize-liqä mäI³ene69 Habtu mit seinem Gefolge — der Vize-qaqetat Atä-Anbäsa mit seinem Gefolge — Vize-éraqu masära zur Linken Kwéllu-bä-Kréstos mit dem betä gébr éraqu masära zur Rechten Barya-Gäzu, mit dem betä gébr yä-mängéí bet bäzärwänd Habtu (und dessen) Vize Tadewos, mit dem mängéí bet J³äbaqat yä-bäräkät bet yä-zaqunat gweta70 Zir-bä-Wäsän, mit bet J³äbaqat yä-mogäs Die verschiedenen (Vulgär-?)formen für «Diakone» werden unterschiedlos gebraucht? Oder sind sie in der jeweiligen Zusammensetzung des Titels spezifisch? 66 Die Übersetzung konventionell. Das in Frage stehende Wort zir kommt als Element in verschiedenen Titeln vor und ist in der Deutung unklar. Es kann wohl «Soldat» o. ä. heißen. Auf der anderen Seite haben die hohen Würdenträger am Hofe einen Geschäftsträger, der im ÍérŸ atä Gébr und in den Chroniken mäzäkké r genannt wird; die stereotype Aufführung des zir nach dem Hauptwürdenträger, läßt auch an diese Figur bei Hofe denken. 67 Dieser und die vorangehenden Fürstennamen (ras) scheinen sich auf bestimmte ihnen zugewiesene Ländereien bzw. Regionen zu beziehen. 68 Dieser und die folgenden Fürstennamen sind durch die ihnen zugewiesenen Dienstorte im Hoflager charakterisiert. 69 Wie das nachfolgende qaqetat eine Kategorie von Hofrichtern. 70 Das hierarchisch tief gegliederte Gefüge des Hofstaats spiegelt sich in den im länger werdenden Titeln der niederen Chargen. 65

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abbäza zur Rechten Zärýa-Abréham mit seinem Gefolge, (und) dem mogäs abbäza71 zur Linken Täsfa mit seinem Gefolge der azmari ras zur Linken Gäbray, der zan azmari zur Rechten Täníéýa, der bäŸalä bägäna72 zur Rechten, der däräba muý ay ras Zäkäryas, — zur Rechten (?) Amméh³a-lä-Séyon — der ras zur Linken Maòdäntu — der liqä mäkwaso73 Ébn, (seinem) Vize Abréham mit ihrem Gefolge — der yä-bägamaè ras Täku mit seinem Gefolge — der Vize-zan täsäkami74 Danu mit seinem Gefolge — der yä-bästä égre75 masäre Gémbar mit seinem Gefolge — der yäbäŸalä qénJ³äb abbäza76 Résébu mit seinem Gefolge

— der éraqu masära der (Königin) bäŸ altihat zur Linken Säbräddin und sein Vize Hézbä-Anbäsa mit ihrem gädisJ³än77 und agrod78 — der éraqu masära der (Königin) bäŸ altiD³at zur Rechten Habtä-Dawit, sein Vize Fäntay und ihrem gädistän und agrod — der éraqu masära der (Königin) bäŸaltä séD³na Täsfa-Séyon, sein Vize Zä-Nagba mit ihrem gädisJ³än und agrod

71 Brauer des «Gnaden»-Biers (?); auch hier wieder ein Beispiel für den Jargon des Hoflagers. 72 Die verschiedenen Hofmusikkorps, durch ihre Instrumente (bägäna «Harfe») usw. charakterisiert. Azmäri ist der «Sänger, Barde». 73 Nach Ausweis der Chroniken das Double des Königs, der in der Schlacht die königlichen Gewänder anzulegen und das Schlachtroß zu reiten hatte. 74 Täsäkami und bägamaè mit dem Transport von Gerät und Vorräten beauftragte Truppen. 75 Im Íé rŸ atä Mängéí t genannte Würde; er hat die Kontrolle über bestimmte Zelte. 76 Brauer einer bestimmten (Bier-?)sorte. 77 Versuchsweise zu deuten als «ich bestehe darauf, daß du mir gibst»; vgl. GUIDI, Vocabolario, 779. Er wäre ein weiteres gutes Beispiel für den, ironisch, euphemistischen, oder hier sarkastischen Jargon des Hoflagers. Der gädistäñ ist auch in der Chronik des Zärýa-YaŸqob bezeugt und war wohl der Steuereintreiber von Prinzessinnen und Königinnen, mit entsprechend üblem Leumund; der Chronist führt des öfteren Klage darüber, wie er die Provinzen aussaugt und unterdrückt; vgl. PERRUCHON, Les chroniques de Zar’a Y⟠eqob, 96 und passim. 78 Undeutbarer Audruck; es handelt sich um ein Korps von Sängern bzw. Sängerinnen, in Parallele zu den anderen — wichtigen! — Musikkorps, die besonders für die Prozessionen und den königlichen Heereszug wichtig waren; vgl. GUIDI, IGNAZIO (1922), «Contributi alla storia lettararia di Abissinia. I. Il “Ser‘ata Mangest”». RRALm ser. V. Vol. 31. 65–89, hier 74 und Anm. 3. Die Agrod sind wichtige Akteure beim Blumenfest des Königs im September und führen die Totenklage beim Tode von Prinzessinnen.

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— der éraqu masära der ite «Königin» yä-galagél gäzäyt Goš mit ihrem gädistän und agrod — der éraqu masära der ite «Königin» yä-wäsärbat gäzäyt79 Gäräýad mit ihrem gädistän und agrod . An séyumanä médr «Provinzgouverneuren» waren anwesend: — der s.äD³afä lam80 vom Amòara Abnaz mit den Amtsträgern von Amòara — der s. äD³afä lam von Damot Dél-bä-Maryam mit seinem Gefolge81 — der nägaí i82 von Wälläqa Giyorgis mit seinem Gefolge Unzählig aber waren (die Teilnehmer an der) königlichen Heeresversammlung, die (zum Erlaß und Bestätigung der Verordnung) nicht notwendig waren.

Unser König Zärýa-YaŸqob erließ diese Verordnung erfüllt von Einsicht und Weisheit und entflammt in Liebe zu unserer Herrin Maria deren beide Flügel der Jungfräulichkeit ihn schützen vor dem Gift der infamen Schlange und die am Ende der Tage einladen wird zu einem neuen Fest

zusammen mit den Dienern ihres Sohnes, den sanften Tauben, die die böse Schlange besiegen werden, (ihres Sohnes), der seine Feinde ins Seol werfen wird, den Abgrund, und über sie jeden Morgen die Axt schicken wird, die sie vernichtet! In Ewigkeit, Amen. Ich beschwöre euch, bei der Rechten des Herrn, der der Himmel und Erde errichtet hat, bei dem heiligen und verehrungswürdigen Blut, das vergossen wurde zur Vergebung der Sünden, diese Verordnung nicht zu übertreten Titel von Königinnen, die im Bezug zu beim Bankett verwendeten Geschirr stehen. Gäzäyt «die in der Hand hat, verfügt über» ist als zweites Titelelement spezifiziert durch eine nach amharischer Weise vorgestellte Bezeichnung: gälagél «Dienstgeschirr» (?) und wäsärbät. Bei letzterem handelt es sich um ein Gefäß aus Gold oder Silber gearbeitet oder damit verziert für Honigwein. Das Wort kommt aus dem Arabischen. Dort ist es als maðraba, miðraba belegt in der Bedeutung «kleiner Krug in Becherform»; vgl. DOZY, REINHART P. A. (1881), Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes. Vol. 1.2. Leiden, 741b; der Wechsel von b/w im Anlaut ist des öfteren belegt. 80 Wörtl.: «Rinderschreiber», wohl als Funktionsbezeichnung gedacht; er führte ursprünglich das Register der als Steuerrealie wichtigen Rinder. Traditioneller Titel für die Gouverneure mehrerer Provinzen. 81 Da hier zir parallel zu sé yuman gesetzt ist, liegt nahe, es als Gefolge zu deuten. 82 Der alte Paralleltitel zu néguí «König», der nach der aksumitischen Zeit nur in der Bedeutung «Gouverneur» bestimmter Provinzen gebraucht wird. 79

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Doch verdammt sei der, der sie aufhebt, abkürzt oder übertritt, ihre Statuten verletzt oder der ihre Ukrunde von ihrem Platz nimmt, sei es König oder Königin, sei es Metropolit, sei es Fürst oder Gouverneur, sei es Man oder Frau! Ich beschwöre euch bei dem Gott Ahbrahms, Isaaks und Jakobs, beim Gott der Propheten, beim Gott der Gerechten und der Märtyrer. In Ewigkeit, Amen.

3. Materieller Kontext der Urkunde und Uâ berlieferungsweg Der in vieler Hinsicht bemerkenswerte Text über die Ermittelung und Neueinsetzung alter Rechtsbestimmungen am Hofe des Kaisers Zärýa-YaŸqob ist sicherlich zeitgleich mit dem Geschehen von einem Hofkleriker, wahrscheinlich dem s.ähafe téý zaz dem Kanzler verfaßt und niedergeschrieben worden. Sicherlich nicht nur einmal in dem «goldenen Buch» der Kirche Däbrä-Égziýabéher-Ab von Amba-Geschen, sondern in verschiedenen weiteren Handschriften ähnlicher Funktion der genannten Zeugen und vor allem aber der beiden begünstigten Klöster. Die Bibliotheken der Klöster DäbräMaryam und Däbrä-Bizän (Eriträa) sind bisher nicht näher erforscht worden; es sollte aber nicht verwundern, wenn in Archivkodices dieser Institutionen («goldene Evangeliare» oder ähnlich) weitere Abschriften dieser Urkunde auftauchten. Der Text steht im Anschluß an den als Haupttext durch Randverzierungen etc. gekennzeichneten Octateuch und die Evangelien, genauer auf einem Blatt zwischen dem Ende des Johannesevangeliums und dem Senodos, den «Kanones der Apostel». Direkt im freien Teil der letzten Kolumne des Haupttextes steht eine Schenkungsurkunde von Kaiser Iyasu I. an das Kloster Qwésqwam; dadurch und durch die amharische Sprache des Textes als spätere Beischrift gekennzeichnet. Auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite finden sich, in der gleichen Hand wie der Haupttext des Senodos geschrieben, eine Sammlung von Urkunden, jeweils säuberlich durch horizontale Linien getrennt, von ŸAmdä-Séyon bis Zärýa-YaŸqob und Éskéndér. Sie alle haben mit der Kirche Däbrä-Égziýabéher-Ab in Amba-Geshen zu tun; die jüngsten Stücke — in der gleichen Handschrift und säuberlich im Anhang des Haupttextes geschrieben, also deutlich nicht später Ergänzung, stammen aus der Zeit des Kaisers Fasilädäs, geben damit einen terminus post quem für die Entstehung des Kodex. Die äthiopische Handschrift im Britischen Museum unter der Nummer Orient 481 (Nummer II in Wright’s Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscripts in the British Museum) entstand zu Beginn des 17. Jhdts. in Gondär, sehr wahrscheinlich zur Zeit des Kaisers Fasilädäs (1632–1667 n.Chr.). Der Haupttext des großformatigen Kodex (ca. 30×40 cm) umfaßt den Octateuch, die vier Evangelien, die Apostelkanones und einige weitere Schriften zur Kirchen-

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ordnung. Darüber hinaus aber diente die Handschrift als Archiv: freie Seiten und Kolumnen sind von späterer und unterschiedlicher Hand mit Rechtsurkunden vielfältiger Art beschrieben. Genaugenommen wurden aber schon Teile von solchen Glossenarchiven bei der Abschrift des Haupttextes aus den Vorlagehandschriften übernommen und an den betreffenden Stellen von der gleichen Kopistenhand in den Haupttext, freilich ohne Randverzierungen, eingetragen. Aus dem Inhalt der Urkunden dieses Archivteils können wir entnehmen, daß die Vorlagekodizes Bibelhandschriften, das alte Testament und Evangeliare aus zwei Kirchen des berühmten Klosterbergs Amba-Geschen waren: Däbrä-Égziýabéher-Ab und Däbrä-Maryam. Dieser Berg diente als Relegationsort für die königlichen Prinzen bis zur Zeit der muslimischen Invasion des Ahmad b. Ibrahim, genannt Grañ, der «Linkshänder». Folgerichtig befassen sich viele der Urkunden mit Erbbesitz und Lehensgütern von Mitgliedern der königlichen Familie. Dies mag auch der Grund gewesen sein, daß man sie in Gondär mit abschrieb: manche der Besitztitel hatten weiter Gültigkeit und wurden daher im Text in Kodizes von Kirchen verwahrt, zu denen die köngliche Familie eine besondere Beziehung hatte.83 Einmal erstellt diente die Handschrift nun auch weiterhin zur Aufnahme neuer Urkunden, also als Archiv. Aus den ältesten dieser zusätzlich eingeschriebenen Dokumente, erkenntlich an der anderen Hand in der Schrift und der eher zufällig gewählten Eintragungsstelle, können wir entnehmen, daß sich der Kodex später in der Kirche Däbrä-Bérhan-Íéllase in Gondär befand, deren Gründungsgeschichte auch z.T. erzählt wird, und deren Landbesitz aus Schenkungen und Lehen in einzelnen Urkunden verzeichnet ist. Ja die Handschrift BM Or. 481 selbst, die früher entstanden ist, war ein Teil dieser Schenkungen. Nach äthiopischem Rechtsbrauch werden in Institutionsarchive nicht nur die Dokumente eingeschrieben, die die betreffende Institution (Kirche, KloAndere Urkunden dieses Archivs wurden behandelt in KROPP, MANFRED (1989– 1990), «‘Dann senke das Haupt und gib ihr nicht im Zorn’: Eine testamentarische Verfügung des Kaisers 'Amdä-Seyon aus dem Archiv der Hs. BM. Or. 481». Orientalia Suecana. 38–39. [Festskrift till Gösta Vitestam, edited by T. Kronholm, Uppsala]. 92–104; ID. (2004), «Four Gwelt documents of 'Amdä-Seyon from the Archive of the Church of Däbrä-Egzi'abeher-Ab on Amba-Geshe». Afrique et Histoire. 2. 213-234. Diese Einzelarbeiten sind Teil einer umfassenden Studie über den Komplex des MäI³D³afä Tefut und das darin enthaltene Archiv als Beitrag zur äthiopischen Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Mittelalters. In der Synopse mit analogen Handschriften und Archiven, etwa des Klosters Hayq, besonders in der Hs. EMML 1832, das «goldene Evangeliar von Hayq» ist eine Darstellung mit Bezug auf Realien und Sprache in Gemeinsamkeit, aber auch regionaler und chronologischer Verschiedenheit und Entwicklung für Kernregionen des äthiopischen Reiches in der Zeit seiner Blüte vom 14. bis zum 16. Jhdt. möglich. 83

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ster etc.) direkt betreffen. Es gibt auch Zeugenurkunden, die Schenkungen, Verleihungen etc. an andere Institutionen bezeugen. Diese Urkunden sind Kopien (Mehrschriften), die auf Anordnung des Veranlassers des Rechtsaktes angefertigt und verteilt wurden. So konnte man die Rechtssicherheit erhöhen; bei späteren Unklarheiten oder Streitigkeiten konnte man die Mehrfertigungen vergleichen, evtl. Abänderungen und Fälschungen erkennen. Die beschriebene Struktur äthiopischer Archive erklärt, daß in der Archivhandschrift der Kirche Däbrä-Bérhan-Íéllase eine Zeugenurkunde über die Landausstattung der neugegründeten Kirche in Däräsge zu finden ist. Der Klerus der Kirche war Zeuge für die besagte Schenkung und schrieb darüber folgerichtig eine Urkunde ins Archiv ein.84 Über das weitere Schicksal der Handschrift ist nur zu vermerken, daß sie zu den vielen Büchern gehörte, die Kaiser Tewodros II. bei der Plünderung von Gondar in seine Festung und Residenz Magdala schaffen ließ, wo sie in die Bibliothek der Erlöserkirche kam. Dort wurde sie Teil der Kriegsbeute, die das englische Expeditionskorps nach dem Fall der Festung nach England brachte. Die zusammengeraubte Bibliothek des Kaisers Tewodros II. bildete eine reiche Vergrößerung der Sammlung äthiopischer Handschriften im British Museum. Die besprochene Urkunde des Zärýa-YaŸqob gehört also zum ReskriptBereich, d.h. Urkunden, die sich bereits in dem bzw. den abgeschriebenen Kodices aus Amba-Geshen fanden. Dies führt auf eine weitere Frage: Welche Beziehung herrscht zwischen diesen Vorlagen und dem berühmten Geschichts- und Urkundenbuch von Amba-Geshen, dem MäI³D³afä Tefut? Nach einer gründlichen Durchsicht der Texte in der Hs. BM Or. 481 kam ich zu einem Vergleich mit der Inhaltsangabe der Texte des MäI³D³afä Tefut, wie sie André Caquot gegeben hat.85 Das Ergebis war einfach: die nachzuweisenden Texte stimmten überein. Damit war vom inhaltlichen Standpunkt aus die Identität der Vorlage der Hs. BM Or. 481, zumindest in den wichtigsten Teilen, mit dem MäI³D³afä Tefut gesichert. Freilich konnte diese Erkenntnis nicht durch Autopsie oder photographische Dokumente gesichert werden. Wie mir B. Hirsch mitteilt,86 besitzen Roger Schneider (†) und Jacques Mercier Mikrofilme von zumindest Teilen des Werks; bisher haben sie keine Studien darüber vorgelegt. Nun wurde von anderer Seite, aufgrund der Miniaturen und der Textzusammenstellung — Octateuch, Evangelien, Kanonessammlung — die inhaltliche und formale Intentität der Kodices BM Or. 481 und des MäI³D³afä Tefut 84 Bisher provisorisch veröffentlicht auf der Web-Seite des Thesausrus Linguae Aethiopicae; URL: http://www.uni-mainz.de/Organisationen/TLA/texte/deresge.html. 85 CAQUOT, ANDRÉ (1955), «Aperçu préliminaire sur le MaI³D³afa T.çfut de Gechen Amba». AE 1. 89–115. 86 In einem Brief vom 12. 10. 1998.

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festgestellt. Es handelt sich für den Octateuch und dessen Miniaturen um die Nachahmung eines berühmten byzantinischen Vorbilds.87 Dieser Kodex ist erhalten, war es damit auch zur Zeit der Abschrift des Haupttextes in Form der Handschrift BM Or. 481 zusammen mit den darin enthaltenen Urkunden. Der Grund für diese Abschrift war nun einmal, einen wichtigen theologischen Text für eine der unter königlichem Schutz und Förderung stehenden Kirchen in der neu gewählten und energisch ausgebauten Residenz Gondär zur Zeit des Königs Fasilädäs zu haben. Sicherlich waren die in der Hauptsache die königliche Familie bzw. Institutionen in ihrem Bereich betreffenden Urkunden in der neuen Residenz genauso wichtig. Bleibt noch anzumerken, daß ähnliche Kodices (als Octateuch mit Anhängen) und den charakteristischen Miniaturen in den Bibliotheken der Klöster Däbrä-Maryam und Däbrä-Bizän nachgewiesen sind, wie auch für ein Kloster in Sahart, aus dessen Bestand die Hs. Martini etiop. 5, heute in der Biblioteca Forteguerriana in Pistoia stammt.88 Alles diese Kodices zusammengesehen belegen eine systematische Kirchenpolitik des Kaisers ZärýaYaŸqob, die sich in Schenkungen von reich ausgestatteten Bibelhandschriften an die wichtigsten Klöster seines Reiches manifestiert. Für die oben angesprochene zusammenfassende Studie über die Urkunden aus dem Condaghe des MäI³D³afä Tefut, wie wir nun abschließend die Sammlung benennen können, wird freilich die Kollation der Texte in der Vorlage aus Amba-Geshen entscheidend sein. Trotz der großen Sorgfalt der Abschrift in BM Or. 481 ergeben sich doch Zweifelsfälle, die u.U. auch auf die nichtliterarische, stark vom Amharischen der Zeit beeinflußte Natur der Texte zurückzuführen sind, mit der der Kopist in oder aus Gondär nicht immmer zurechtkam. Unter diesem Vorbehalt der Überprüfung des Wortlauts der Vorlage stehen somit die bisherigen und auch die vorliegende Arbeit. Dies ist in sich wiederum eine Aussage über die gegenwärtigen Verhältnisse im geliebten aber leidgeprüften Äthiopien und über die Zugänglichkeit seines historischen Erbes.

Vgl. FIACCADORI, GIANFRANCO (1995), «Prototipi miniati dell’Ottateuco etiopico». Bollettino del Museo Bodoniano di Parma. 8. 71–102, und African Zion. The Sacred Art of Ethiopia. (1993) Catalogue by Marilyn Heldman with Stuart MunroHay. Edited by Roderick Grierson. New Haven (usw.), 177f. 88 Vgl. FIACCADORI, «Prototipi miniati», 73, 79; FIACCADORI, GIANFRANCO (1993), «Bisanzio e il regno di ’Aksum. Sul manoscritto Martini etiop. 5 della Biblioteca Forteguerriana di Pistoia». Bollettino del Museo Bodoniano di Parma 7. (Quaecumque recepit Apollo. Scritti in onore di Angelo Ciavarella. Pubblicati per cura di Andrea Gatti). 161–199, hier 170–171. 87

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4. Die Textgattung Condaghe; Parallelen zu sardischen Texten und aâ thiopische Eigenart Der Begriff Condaghe ist im Vorstehenden schon öfters verwendet worden. Da er weder in der historischen orientalistischen Forschung allgemein noch in der äthiopistischen im besonderen — mit einer Ausnahme89 — eingeführt ist, sollen hier einige Erörterungen über seine Bedeutung als terminus technicus im Ursprungsbereich, den sardischen Judicati des Mittelalters als organische Nachfolger der byzantinischen Verwaltungsstruktur, die weder gewaltsam noch formal je beendet wurde, folgen. In verschiedenen Kirchen und Klöstern der Insel sind Urkundenbücher erhalten, die sich dadurch auszeichnen, daß sie unterschiedliche Rechtsakte, die aber alle in irgendeiner Form die jeweilige Institution betreffen einfach chronologisch geordnet aufzeichnet, zugleich aber auch sprachlich gestaltet, und dies in der Volkssprache Sardisch, die damit zu einer der frühest verschrifteten romanischen Sprachen zählen kann. Zu Ursprung und Begriffentwicklung des Wortes Condaghe — so übrigens ins italianisierender logudoresischer Form eines Standard- oder Honoratiorensardisch des 17./18. Jhdts.; die streng sardische Form wäre Kondake — hier eine Auswahl von Definitionen aus der entsprechenden Forschungsliteratur: — «Raccolta di atti riguardanti negozi giuridici»; «registro in cui sono raccolte e annotate le memorie inventariali, gli atti giuridici (acquisti, donazioni, vendite, permute ecc.) e le decisioni giudiziarie relative al patrimonio di un chiesa, di un monasterio»; o «Atto con cui si constituisce un lascito, una donazione a favore di chiese o monasteri (Bonazzi)».90 Die Herkunft aus dem byzantinischen Griechisch ist klar: kontákion «Stäbchen», auf das eine Papyrus- oder Pergamentrolle aufgerollt wird. Daraus dann spezifisch «liturgische Rolle», weil Mess- und Gebettexte in dieser Form angefertigt wurden; nebenschwingende Mitbedeutung «kurzer Text». Es müssen wohl auch bald juristische Dokumente in dieser Art verwahrt worden sein. Das sardische Wort weist Angleichung und damit Kontamination mit der altsardischen Endung -aghe auf.91 89 Vgl. KROPP, MANFRED (2003), «Die dritte Würde oder ein Drittel des Reiches? Die verschiedenen Versionen der Biographie des Hl. Iyäsus-Mo’a als Ausdruck sich wandelnder Funktionen des Textes». In: Saints, Biographies and History in Africa. Saints, biographies et histoire en Afrique. Heilige, Biographien und Geschichte in Afrika. Hrsg. von Bertrand Hirsch und Manfred Kropp. (Nordostafrikanisch / Westasiatische Studien. 5.) Frankfurt am Main. 191–205, hier 200, Anm. 15. 90 Vgl. Il Condaghe di San Nicola di Trullas. (2001), A cura di Paolo Merci. (Biblioteca Sarda. 62.) Nuoro, 7–43. 91 Vgl. Il Condaghe di Santa Maria di Bonarcado. (2002). A cura di Maurizio Virdis. (Centro di Studi Filologici Sardi. Testi e Documenti.). Cagliari, XI–XIII.

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— «Testo scritto che vale a comprovare il compimento di un’azione giuridica (ossia un atto volontario destinato a creare o a confermare o a estendere o a modificare diritti e obbligazioni) ovvero l’esistenza di un fatto giuridico (ossia di un avvenimento o di uno stato di fatto che producono conseguenze giuridiche): ma per raggiungere la prova è necessario che il documento obbidisca sia nelle procedure del suo farsi, sia nelle caratteristiche esteriori, sia nella forma del dettato a regole determinate, in grado appunto di conferirgli tale capacità certificante».92 Sei nun die Natur der Urkunde öffentlich oder halböffentlich: auch wenn nicht vom Souverän direkt ausgehend, sondern von untergeordneten Autoritäten, Äbten, Bischöfen etc., die Feierlichkeit von Text von Niederschrift in irgendeiner Form ist entscheidend und trifft damit die allgemeine Definition von Urkunde im Sinne historischer Quellenkritik als «Schriftstück angefertigt unter Wahrung bestimmter Formen über Vorgänge rechtlicher Art». Wichtig zu sehen ist die ursprüngliche private Natur und als reine Zeugenurkunde, die nicht in sich Rechtskraft hat, sondern wiedern von den Zeugen beschworen und erneuert werden muß, speziell im Falle eines Rechtsstreits. Im Übergang zu größeren, auch einen längeren Zeitraum, der natürlicherweise die Lebenszeit der genannten Zeugen übersteigt, umfassend, gewinnen die Condaghi als Urkundenbuch — ich habe zuweilen an eine deutsche Übersetzung als Urbar gedacht — einen juristischen Wert in sich als Beweisurkunde; ja in manchen Fällen ist der Charakter einer Dispositivurkunde zu erkennen. Im äthiopischen Falle der materiellen Verbindung mit einem heiligen, ewig gültigen Text ist dies deutlich angelegt und beabsichtigt: schon die privaten Urkundensammlungen der Zeugen wurden mit Vorzug in einem Psalter eingetragen; in den betreffenden Institutionen finden die Condaghi als Marginalia und Beischriften Eingang zumeist in Evangelientexte, aber auch andere Bibelhandschriften, und partizipieren damit am sakralen Wahrheitscharakter des Haupttextes. Dies wird dadurch deutlich, daß sie ihren Urkundenwert durch Transskript in eine andere (Evangelien)handschrift, wie in vorliegenden Falle der Hs. BM Or. 481 nicht verlieren; ja sie sind auch ortsunabhängig (Transfer von Amba-Geshen nach Gondär). Diese eigene Rechtskraft als Text ist gegeben materiell in der Vereinigung mit Bibeltexten; inhaltlich und textlich wird sie bekräftigt z. B. durch die feierlichen Zitate des Herrscherwortes des Zärýa-YaŸqob und abschließende Fürbitt- oder Poenformeln, die zudem in feierlichem, liturgischem Tone gehalten sind. Wichtig ist zu sehen, daß dieses liturgische Herrscherwort nicht eigentlich der Schwur- und Verfluchungsformen bedarf, die sonst solche Verfügungen auszeichnen. 92 Vgl. Il Condaghe di San Pietro di Silki, 9–11; zitiert die Definition von F. Pratesi: «Nolo aliud instrumentum» in: Francesco d’Assisi. Documenti e Archivi. Codici e Biblioteche. Milano, 1982. S. II–IV.

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Im Falle des Sardischen waren die Condaghes eng mit der Verschriftung der Volkssprache Sardisch verbunden; im Falle des Äthiopischen beschränkt sich der Einfluß der gesprochenen Sprache (Wiedergabe des Herrscherwortes etc.) auf die Syntax, die Terminologie; erst sehr viel später im 18. Jhdt. kommen durchgängig amharische Formeln vor. Aber für beide gilt die zusammenfassende und prägnante Charakterisierung von Ignazio Delogu, die vor allem auch der Textnatur, der impliziten narrativen Kraft und dem ästhetischen und literarischen Wert dieser Texte gerecht wird: — «Siamo di fronte a materiali verbali organizzati, nella maggior parte dei casi, come veri e propri nuclei narrativi, sia per finalità pratiche e probatorie, sia per una intenzionalità narrativa della quale credo di aver indicato la ragione intrinseca nel bisogno di risarcimento che ogni attività espressiva ha in sè, indipendentemente dal fatto che essa coincida o meno con una consapevole intenzionalità estetica».93 In der Tat, wie ich schon in der Bearbeitung einer Urkunde des Kaiser ŸAmdä-Séyon zunächst erstaunt, dann immer mehr ergriffen, angemerkt habe, atmen diese Texte des Geist des lebendigen Wortes, im Sinne Nietzsches, «weil das Wort lebendig Wort war, da es ein gesprochen Wort war» und sind damit von großer rhetorischer Kraft. Man kann sich vorstellen, wie sie in der Beweisführung eines Prozesses vorgetragen, überwältigend gewirkt haben müssen. Dies gilt auch für die zunächst trocken und langatmig erscheinenden Aufzählungen und Listen.94

5. Historische Aussagen der Urkunde Als Primärquelle, d.h. nicht als Produkt der erzählenden Tradition, kommt allen Angaben des Textes eine besondere Bedeutung zu. Sollten sie sich mit denen der erzählenden Quellen widersprechen, wäre ihnen im quellenkritischen Verfahren der Vorzug zu geben. Zärýa-YaŸqob hat dieses Dekret in Iba, im Süden Schoas erlassen. Iba wird genannt in der Chronik des Zärýa-YaŸqob unter der Provinzen des Südens, in der sich der Kaiser mehrere Male aufhält.95 Mit diesen genauen Daten der Urkunde ist es möglich ein Mosaiksteinchen zu dem zu schreibenden Königsitinerar des Zärýa-YaŸqob zu liefern. 93 Vgl. Il Condaghe di San Pietro di Silki. (1997), Testo Logudorese inedito dei secoli XI–XIII pubblicato dal Giuliano Bonazzi. (Cagliari, 1900). Traduzione, introduzione, note e glossario a cura di Ignazio Delogu. Sassari, 42. 94 Vgl. dazu eine Bemerkung von STIER, FRIDOLIN (1981), Vielleicht ist irgendwo Tag. Heidelberg, 269f.: «Was kann der Text dafür, daß die Leute das Lesen, Vortragen verlernten. Längst keine Analphabeten mehr, sind sie Aphoneten geworden… Ich mache mich anheischig, den Stammbaum Jesu … so zu lesen, daß die Hörer aufhorchen». 95 PERRUCHON, Les chroniques de Zarýa Y⟠eqob, s. v.; vgl. HUNTINGFORD, GEORGE WYNN BRERETON (1989), The Historical Geography of Ethiopia, from the First Century AD to 1704. By the late G. W. B. Huntingford, edited by Richard Pankhurst

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Dann erhalten wir einen vorzüglichen Einblick in die Rechtspraxis des königlichen Hofes, genauer, wenn auch etwas spekulativ gesagt, in den Alltag von Streit und Intrigen um materielle Vorteile oder Verpflichtungen, der sich hier als zwischen den Gefolgsleuten der verschiedenen Königinnen und Teilen des Hofklerus ahnen läßt. Nach gezielten Indiskretionen und Klagen über einen gegenwärtigen Zustand, der nicht dem «guten alten Recht» gemäß sei, wird eine Heeresversammlung einberufen, die mit dem Herrscher zusammen die rechtsfindende und rechtsprechende Körperschaft ist, wobei, im Text ausdrücklich gesagt, für den betreffenden Fall nur eine bezeichnete Gruppe zuständig ist, der Rest der Versammlung für den Rechtsakt eigentlich nicht gebraucht wird. Auf eine eindringliche Befragung folgt das Eingeständnis der beklagten Seite und die feierliche Wiederherstellung des «alten Rechts» für ewige Zeiten,96 in der Textfassung unterstützt durch ein abschließendes Stück religiöser Reimprosa, das den Schutz der Hl. Jungfrau auf den Herrscher herabruft. Die ausführlichen Listen der beteiligten Personen, sei es als Kläger, Beklagte oder Zeugen haben großen Quellenwert in verschiedener Hinsicht. Nicht alle angeführten Personennamen sind schon im bisher bekannten Onomastikum belegt; in ihrer spezifischen Form geben sie wertvolle Aufschlüsse für die sprachliche Entwicklung in der Region und der Zeit, wie sprachlich gesehen, auch das in den Titeln, geographischen Namen und Realienbezeichnungen enthaltene Gut sehr interessant ist. Es zeigt im Vergleich z. B. mit den fast zeitgleichen Urkunden aus dem Condaghe des goldenen Evangeliums des Klosters Hayq deutlich eine regionale Variante des alten Amharischen, das hinter der leicht geezisierten Form des Textes hindurchschimmert. In Verbindung mit den zahlreichen, oft hierarchisch über mehrere Ebenen gegliederten Titel und Ämter gibt uns die Urkunde wertvolle Aufschlüsse zur Prosopographie des äthiopischen Reiches in der Mitte der Regierungszeit des Kaisers Zärýa-YaŸqob. Die Authentizität der Angaben wird teilweise durch Übereinstimmung mit den anderen Urkunden aus dem Condaghe abgestützt; daher kann auch den hier erst- und einmalig belegten Angaben Glauben geschenkt werden. Die Struktur der zumeist sprechenden Titel erlaubt Aussagen über die Struktur und Gliederung von Hof und Reich. Dabei ist klar zwischen verschiede(Union académique internationale. Fontes Historiae Africanae. Series Varia. 4.) Oxford, 80, 103. Es ist durch den Fluß Wärari von Kälýat getrennt, wo sich nach Ausweis der Urkunden des Condaghe der Hs. BM Or. 481 der Herrscher öfters aufgehalten und Verordnungen erlassen hat. 96 Es handelt sich dabei um Topoi, die gerade durch ihre häufige Verwendung in der äthiopischen Historiographie deutlich darauf hinweisen, daß die Realität oft das ganze Gegenteil war; vgl. zu einer Sequenz der Wiederherstellung von verschiedenen, sich widersprechenden «guten alten Rechten», KROPP, «Das gute alte Recht».

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nen Kategorien der Zuordnung von Amt und Amtsträger zu unterscheiden. Hier ist zuerst die persönliche Zuordnung zu den Großen des Reiches zu nennen: die auf den Herrscher selbst, dessen Königinnen, zur Rechten und zur Linken, und die weiteren höchsten geistlichen und weltlichen Würdenträger bezogenen Ämter. Diese, zumeist symmetrisch verdoppelt in rechts und links — damit den Aufbau des Hoflagers anzeigend — gegliederten Titel erhalten ihre hierarchische Feingliederung zunächst durch Angaben des jeweiligen Dienstorts (betä hays, Marienkirche oder ähnlich), dann durch eine Funktionsangabe (Sauermilchbrotbäcker, Hirsebierbrauer etc.). Entsteht so durch die geordnete Titelwelt ein Bild des Mikrokosmos des Hofes, so wird dieses ergänzt durch die auf Regionen und Provinzen des Reiches bezogenen Titel, die in ihrer Summierung eine imago imperii, ein Bild des Reiches ergeben. Dabei darf man freilich nicht direkt von den Titeln auf die geographische Wirklichkeit des Reiches schließen. Nur allzu oft sind solche Titel historisches Erbe, verkörpern eher Anspruch auf früher Gewesenes denn die aktuelle Situation. Hier ist in jedem Einzelfall anhand weiterer Indizien zu prüfen, inwieweit etwa ein «Königsbote von Fäsägar» tatsächlich seinen Amtbereich hatte, ihn verwaltete und — das gehörte sich — ausbeutete. Für mögliche Ämterhäufung in der Hand einer Person gibt der Text Beispiele. Die Fülle der Titel und Ämter wird weiter vergrößert durch die mögliche Kombination zweier oder mehr der genannten Zuordnungs-, eigentlich Amtslegitimationskriterien. Diese ermöglicht es, daß sich der Mikrokosmos des Hofes in den verschiedenen Provinzen des Reiches jeweils wiederspiegelt, wie umgekehrt die geographischhistorische Struktur des Reiches ihren treuen Reflex in der Ämterstruktur des Hofes findet. Dabei ist nicht nur die Doppelung von rechts und links zu beachten, sondern auch die mögliche, freilich nicht konsequent durchgeführte Spiegelung in der weltlichen und kirchlichen Sphäre. Hier hat sich bei allem Bemühen eines Kaisers Zärýa-YaŸqob doch die Sonderstellung der kirchlichen Sphäre auch gegenüber dem expansiven Gestalten des Herrschers, der sich vor allem auch als Führer und Reformer seiner Kirche verstand, behaupten können. Wichtiges Indiz dafür ist gerade das Scheitern und die weitgehende Rücknahme seiner Verwaltungsreformen schon unter seinem Sohn Bä-ÉdäMaryam, die sich im Verschwinden vieler (neuer!) Titel und den Rückgriff auf die altgewohnte Reichsstruktur ausdrückt. Somit sind Urkunden aus der Zeit des Zärýa-YaŸqob durch ihr titularisches und protokollarisches Sondergut klar erkenntlich und z.T. auch zu datieren. Zu den Realien des täglichen Lebens, hier den beiden für die Steuer- oder Fronleistung wichtigen Produkten Brot und Bier in der Vielfalt beider Sorten ist anzumerken, daß neben dem Wert der Grundsubstanz Korn auch die aufwendige Arbeitsleistung für die Herstellung des Endprodukts eine große Rolle spielt. Die genannten Bäcker und Brauer sind wohl eher als Aufseher der jeweiligen Arbeitsprozesse anzusehen; die eigentliche Arbeit war in der Regel Frauen überlassen.

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In allen genannten Dingen ist die vorliegende Urkunde eine wichtige und inhaltsschwere Ergänzung zu den bisher bekannten historisch-erzählenden und Urkundentexten zu Kaiser Zärýa-YaŸqob.

6. Der Autor Die Frage nach einem Autor des Textes zu stellen, erscheint modern, anachronistisch, sind doch fast alle pragmatischen Texte des Mittelalters, nicht nur des äthiopischen, der Natur nach anonym. Nun zeichnen sich aber gerade die Texte der Urkunden und der Tradition aus der Zeit des Kaisers ZärýaYaŸqob durch bestimmte Besonderheiten aus, die die Frage nach dem Urheber angemessen erscheinen lassen. In allen diesen Texten ist zu beobachten, daß die Verhältnisse des Alltagslebens am Hofe, speziell der praktischen Verwaltung, noch spezieller der Hofordnung des Banketts und der übrigen Alimentation bestimmter Personengruppen am Hof eine große Rolle spielen. Schon in der sogenannten Chronik des Herrschers sind beachtliche Textteile solcher Hofordnungen aufgenommen. In der bekannten und zu Recht berühmten Chronikensammlung der Hs. Oxford No. 29 finden sich daneben weitere Texte aus der Verwaltungssphäre, die durch ihr altamharisches Vokabular größte Schwierigkeiten der Deutung verursachen. Es ist sehr ungewöhnlich, daß Texte dieser Sphäre verschriftlicht werden, zumindest für das Äthiopien des 15. Jhdts. So liegt der Schluß nahe, daß ein Verwaltungs- und Hofbeamter, in dessen Aufgabenbereich die in diesen Texten geschilderten Vorgänge und Regelungen fielen, diese in eigener Initiative schriftlich niedergelegt hat; nicht nur, um damit ihre korrekte Übermittlung an weitere Generationen zu sichern, sondern auch um einem für die Zeit ungewöhnlichen, wenn nicht einzigartigen literarischen Gestaltungsdrang nachzugeben. Die sogenannte Chronik des Zärýa-YaŸqob atmet gänzlich diesen Geist der retrospektiven Würdigung der Tätigkeit eines großen Herrschers aus der Sicht eines Verwaltungsbeamten. Als Amt und Titel eines solchen Historikers, der ausnahmsweise, und mit Hinsicht auf die Persönlichkeit Zärýa-YaŸqobs paradox-ironischer Weise kein Kleriker war, läßt sich der raq masäre ausmachen, der Zeremonienmeister, aber auch Küchenchef, in dessen Amtsbereich alle die in den genannten Texten beschriebenen Tätigkeiten fielen. Sicherlich, der Zeremonienmeister ihrer Majestät, nicht einer der Königinnen oder anderen Amtsträger, die in den Texten genannt werden. Er wird bei der Abfassung der vorliegenden Urkunde mitgewirkt haben; und seinem Drang zur Verschriftlichung des sonst nur mündlich weitergetragenen Amts- und Berufswissens ist es zu verdanken, daß wir heute über diese ungewöhnlichen Dokumente zur äthiopischen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des 15. Jhdts. verfügen.

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7. Sprach- und Stilfragen Der Text der Urkunde wäre auch ohne die direkte Zuschreibung in die Zeit des Zärýa-YaŸqob nach stilistischen Merkmalen klar zuzuweisen. Dafür ist die Reimprosa am Schluß der Urkunde anzuführen, die sich in praktisch allen anderen Urkunden des Kaiser finden; z.B. die Verordnung über Diözesen und Missionssprengel in der gleichen Hs. BM Or. 481, fol. 208r.97 Die sorgfältige sprachliche Gestaltung und Sprachkraft, wenn nicht Sprachgewalt des Textes ist bereits oben in der Erörterung des Fachbegriffs Condaghe herausgestellt. Das Zentrum des Textes liegt in der lebendigen, fast theatralisch zunennenden Schilderung des Prozeßhergangs und den rhetorisch wirksamen, auf den Wortkaskaden von Titeln und Namen aufbauenden Listen, die im Textzusammenhang den Charakter nüchterner bürokratischer Aufzählung ganz verlieren. Diese im Ganzen pompöse Gestaltung der Urkunde wird freilich optisch nicht umgesetzt, materialisiert; es handelt sich eben nicht um eine Pergamenturkunde mit goldenen Intitialen, prächtiger Kanzleischrift, Siegeln und Bullen. Eine Materialisierung des ästhetischen Gehalts ist in der historischen Wirklichkeit nur phonetisch in der feierlichen Rezitation anzunehmen.

SUMMARY Emperor Zärýa YaŸqob (1434–1468 A.D.) was not only a zealous religious reformer in his country; he also showed himself an energetic reformer of the internal structure of the Ethiopian Christian kingdom. Thus his Chronicle appears to be written by a member of his chancery and has a good deal of pure administrative texts to offer, besides the personal memoirs of this highly ranked clerk. In the appendix to this Chronicle, and not by chance, very significant texts are found: besides the «Imperial songs» in Old Amharic a collection of juridical and administrative documents, including the ÍérŸ atä Gé br, the regulations of the royal banquet. Being an important addition to the ÍérŸ atä Gébr, the text (from MS British Museum, Or. 481) presented here can be regarded as belonging to the same category. Furthermore the text is transmitted as an original document issued together with the respective proclamation, which enhances its documentary value. From the general and comparative point of view it is interesting to observe that the law — represented here in the details of the alimentation of the clergy at the Royal court — is not the product of the autonomous decision of the souvereign, but has to be retreived from the ever-existing body of laws handed down from the past. The extensive list of testimonies — court officials, clerics and high-ranked nobility — is a most welcome addition to our prosopographical knowledge of medieval Ethiopia in the mid of the 15th cent. 97

Vgl. KROPP, «Diözesen und Missionsauftrag» (im Druck).

Basil Lourie; St. Pe;tersbourg

S. ALYPIUS STYLITE, S. MARC DE THARMAQA E E T: HIOPIENNES* ET LíORIGINE DES MALKTý Les pièces poétiques appelées malký («effigie»)1 appartiennent à un genre extrêmement populaire en Éthiopie; elles étaient une composante sine qua non des cultes des saints, de la Vierge ou même du Christ et de la Trinité.2 On y bénit chaque partie du corps humain d’un saint (ou bien du «corps» symbolique d’un être incorporel) par une louange spécifique à cette partie. L’origine de ce genre de l’hymnographie hagiographique n’apparaît pas avoir été l’objet de quelque recherche que ce soit. Les éthiopisants étaient toujours inclinés à le considérer comme une invention propre à la tradition éthiopienne, sauf l’unique exception récente de Kirsten Pedersen qui a indiqué un parallèle dans l’hymnographie latine catholique tardive (Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae, éditées à Anvers en 16113 ), ce qui pourrait être l’indice d’une origine latine des malký . Pourtant, on ne saurait adhérer avec enthousiasme à cette hypothèse: on aurait préféré, en tant que possible source étrangère des malký , une tradition hymnographique bien établie dans son milieu d’origine, en aucun cas une tradition marginale comme c’est le cas des Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae dans l’hymnographie catholique. D’ailleurs, le second genre très populaire de l’hymnographie hagiographique éthiopienne, les salâm, qui va toujours de pair avec les malký , trouve ses origines dans un genre hymnographique byzantin très respectable, celui de chairetismoi (d’où proviennent, dès le VIe siècle, les célèbres kondakia). A priori, on serait en droit d’espérer une origine de même ordre d’importance pour les malký ... Cet article est basé sur une conférence donnée à Hamburg en 2003, dans le cadre de la 15th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, où nous avons participé avec le regretté Sevir Chernetsov, mon maître et ami. Ce voyage en Allemagne est devenu pour lui le dernier. 1 V. A. DILLMANN, Lexicon linguae Aethiopicae, Lipsiae 1865 [repr. New York 1955], col. 51a; W. LESLAU, Comparative Dictionary of Geez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden 1991, 313; KIDANÄ WÄLD KÉFLE, OéKï " cªe« " ¨ÓY " ¨O³Ñv " nI| " KÂe, Addis Abäba 1948 Ÿamätä méhrät [1955/56 A.D.], 266. 2 M. CHAÎNE, «Répertoire des salam et malke’e contenues dans les manuscrits éthiopiens des bibliothèques d’Europe», ROC 18 (1913), 183–203, 337–357. 3 K. STOFFREGEN-PEDERSEN, «The Malkeý: An Ethiopian Prayer Form with Latin Origin?», dans: Taddese Beyene (ed.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Con*

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1. Les ´proto-malký ª dans líe;loge byzantin de S. Alypius Stylite Nous avons effectivement une sorte des «malký » byzantines dans un dossier hagiographique du VIe siècle, représentant un culte très important pour la société byzantine de l’époque. C’est une Vie de S. Alypius Stylite par Antoine de Sainte-Sophie, un officier de la Cathédrale de Constantinople (BHG 66d).4 Après avoir mentionné les pieds du stylite (naturellement, des membres les plus principaux pour la personne dont le devoir est de demeurer debout), l’auteur adresse des louanges éloquentes aux mains du saint, puis à ses yeux, pour conclure par la sentence suivante: «Je pense donc si quelqu’un représente par la parole les membres humains, c’est-à-dire tête ou mains ou pieds, dont chacun membre agit exactement d’une manière propre... selon la règle de la piété... il verrait, lorsqu’il voudra voir la totalité du corps muni de l’âme, personne que le grand Alypius...».5 Malgré une rareté évidente des pareilles pièces dans les œuvres hagiographiques byzantines subsistantes, nous sommes en présence d’un style quasi officiel de la capitale du VIe siècle — donc, de l’époque des contacts les plus intensifs entre Constantinople et Aksoum. En ce qui concerne la rareté de ces «proto-malký » byzantines, elle peut fort bien s’expliquer par la rareté générale des éloges aux saints du VIe siècle qui sont parvenues jusqu’à nous. Quoiqu’il en soit, il ne s’agit nullement d’une tradition marginale (contrairement aux Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae au-dedans de la tradition catholique) et, fait encore plus important, c’est à cette époque qu’on modela la vie religieuse d’Aksoum d’après les cultes de Constantinople.6 Cela suffit pour une hypothèse de travail, à savoir, celle de l’origine constantinopolitaine des malký éthiopiennes, apparues, selon nous, à l’époque des liens étroits entre les cultes officiels des deux capitales, Constantinople et Aksoum. Désormais, il ne reste que de trouver des sources communes à l’hagiographie byzantine et à l’hagiographie éthiopienne, contenant des pièces qu’on peut définir comme des «proto-malký ».

ference of Ethiopian Studies. University of Addis Ababa [26–30 November 1984]. Vol. 2 (Addis Ababa, 1989), 547–560. 4 F. HALKIN, «Éloge historique de saint Alypius par Antoine de Sainte-Sophie (BHG3 66d)», dans: IDEM, Inédits byzantins d’Ochrida, Candie et Moscou (Bruxelles, 1963) (Subsidia hagiographica, 38), 167–210. 5 HALKIN, «Éloge historique», 201–202. 6 Cf. Â. Ë ÓÐÜÅ, «Èç Èåðóñàëèìà â Àêñóì ÷åðåç Õðàì Ñîëîìîíà: àðõàè÷íûå ïðåäàíèÿ î Ñèîíå è Êîâ÷åãå Çàâåòà â ñîñòàâå Êåáðà Íåãåñò è èõ òðàíñëÿöèÿ ÷åðåç Êîíñòàíòèíîïîëü», Õ 2 (8) (2000), 137–207.

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Il se trouve qu’une telle source existe. C’est un dossier hagiographique de S. Marc de Tharmaqa, ou, d’après son nom grec, «de Thrace», personnage aussi important qu’énigmatique de l’histoire du monachisme éthiopien. Nous y voyons les mêmes «proto-malký »: une louange angélique s’y adresse, consécutivement, à l’âme, au corps, aux yeux, à l’oreille (sic! au singulier, pour des raisons inconnues), aux mains, aux narines, aux pieds. Ce n’est pas tout: ce Marc habite une montagne située, d’après le texte de sa Vie, précisément en Éthiopie. Il existe cependant quelques difficultés non négligeables: la Vie de ce S. Marc (ci-dessous VMT) est très peu connue maintenant en Éthiopie et ses date et milieu d’origine restent encore à établir. Dans les paragraphes qui suivent, nous essayerons de retracer le sort de la Vie éthiopienne de S. Marc et de placer l’origine de sa légende hagiographique dans le milieu commun des relations religieuses entre Constantinople et Aksoum.

2. Le dossier hagiographique de S. Marc de Tharmaqa La Vie complète de S. Marc de Tharmaqa était un sujet d’attention des orientalistes depuis longtemps, vu sa représentation massive dans les traditions en langues syriaque7 et arabe. Les versions (ou peut-être la version) arabes, quoique pas encore étudiées — en fait, pas même éditées, — semblent toutes avoir été traduites du syriaque.8 D’ailleurs, il existe une traduction française de la version arabe, faite à partir d’un manuscrit égyptien.9 Il n’y a aucune trace de ce S. Marc dans l’hagiographie en langue copte.10 On ne trouve pas de notice au sujet de S. Marc dans le Synaxaire copte en arabe, malgré le fait que la Vie arabe se réclame de 21 Barmûdah (16 avril). Editio princeps: V. SCHEIL, «La Mort de Mar Marcos, ou Dernière Entrevue de Mar Marcos et de Mar Sérapion», Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 12 (1897), 162–170; édition critique, avec une traduction anglaise et une étude de A. E. LOOK, The History of Abba Marcus of Mount Tharmaka. A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University, in Candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Oxford, 1929) (une brochure de xxvii + 23 pages, relativement difficile à trouver). 8 Sur le dossier arabe, on ne pourra consulter que G. GRAF, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, Bd. I (Vatikan, 1944) (Studi e testi, 118), 536; Bd. II (Vatikan, 1947) (Studi e testi, 133), 505. Le R. P. M. van Esbroeck m’a dit que la Vie arabe est beaucoup plus répandue dans les manuscrits. 9 É. AMÉLINEAU, Contes et romans de l’Égypte chrétienne, T. II (Paris, 1888), 55– 73: «Histoire de Marc le Solitaire». Le nom de la montagne dans le manuscrit est corrompu en «Barmak», une faute habituelle dans la graphie arabe, bien saisie par le traducteur (p. 57, n. 1). 10 Comme l’a noté Mgr Sauget dans sa revue du dossier de S. Marc que nous essayons de compléter ici: J.-M. SAUGET, «Marco di Atene, eremita sul monte Tarmaqa, santo», dans: Bibliotheca Sanctorum, T. VIII (Roma, 1967), col. 701–703, spéc. 702. 7

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Du coté grec, nous avons la même Vie complète de S. Marc (BHG 1039– 1041)11 ainsi que sa version slavonne.12 L’édition critique de la Vie grecque est préfacée par une courte étude, malheureusement entreprise sans connaissance quelconque de la partie orientale du dossier. L’auteur est loin de poser la question d’une possible correspondance entre les toponymes de «Thrace» et de «Tharmaqa» ou celle du syriaque comme une possible langue de l’original (l’opinion jamais prouvée, mais plusieurs fois proposée par les orientalistes). Au lieu de tout cela, l’auteur nous propose de ranger la légende de S. Marc parmi les légendes hagiographiques engendrées par la lutte des orthodoxes contre les iconoclastes au VIIIe siècle — sans avoir indiqué, dans notre légende, un seul trait spécifique aux légendes allégoriques de cette période.13 On verra plus loin que le culte byzantin de S. Marc ait été bien établi vers la fin du VIIIe siècle, ce qui suffit à exclure une date aussi basse pour la composition de sa Vie grecque. Aux côtés des Vies, nous avons des mentions de S. Marc dans les calendriers des traditions grecque14 et syrienne occidentale (monophysite).15 Et, enfin, il y a une notice dans le Synaxaire éthiopien qui n’a pas été puisée dans son modèle copto-arabe. Cette notice-là fera bientôt l’objet de notre attention spéciale. 11 Editio princeps de la recension BHG 1039 par le Père Daniel Papebroch dans les Acta Sanctorum Martii III (Anvers, 1668), 40*–43* (sous le 5 mars); 3me éd. (Paris, 1865) *33–*35; aujourd’hui accessible dans l’édition critique de Christine Angélidi (×. Ã. ÁÃÃÅËÉÄÇ, «Ï Âßïò ôïõ ÌÜñêïõ ôïõ Áèçíáßïõ (*0/1039–1041)», Óýììåéêôá 8 [1989], 33–59). Je remercie M. Cyrille Khroustalev pour m’aider d’obtenir la publication d’Angélidi. 12 «Â òîé æå äåíü Æèòèå âî ñâÿòûõ è æèçíü ïðåïîäîáíàãî îòöà íàøåãî ïóñòûííàãî Ìàðêà, æèâøàãî â ãîðå Òðà÷üñòåé, ñóùèè îá îí ïîë Åôèîïèà, ïðÿìî ÿçûêó Õåòüòåéñêó», dans: Âåëèêèå Ìèíåè ×åòèè. Äåêàáðü. Äíè 25–31 (Ìoscou, 1912), cols. 2484–2496; l’édition de la version slavonne, dont le sens est parfois obscur, s’est toujours appuyée sur l’original grec publié par D. Papebroch. On devrait en outre se questionner à propos d’une version géorgienne. 13 ÁÃÃÅËÉÄÇ, «Ï Âßïò», p. 39. Les légendes hagiographiques symboliques et allégoriques existaient à toutes les époques. C’est pourquoi Ch. Angélidi, après la lecture d’un article unique d’Ihor Ševèenko «Hagiography of the Iconoclast Period» ne saurait que profiter de celle du livre du P. Hippolyte DELEHAYE, Les passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires. Deuxième édition, revue et corrigée (Bruxelles, 1966) (Subsidia hagiographica, 13 B). 14 Dans le Synaxaire de Constantinople sous la date du 5 mars, ce qui garantit l’acceptation du culte au niveau officiel vers le IXe ou Xe siècle. H. DELEHAYE, Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Bruxelles, 1902) (Propylaeum ad Acta Sanctorum mensis Novembris), 509*–510*. 15 Sous la date du 20 ayyar (mai): P. PEETERS, «Le Martyrologe de Rabban Sliba», Analecta Bollandiana 27 (1908), 129–200, p. 153.20: A\~g‡ nO}‚gN «et Marc Trmqy’». Ce martyrologe jacobite subsiste dans un manuscrit du XIVe siècle.

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Il y a, en outre, une autre pièce encore, qui n’existe que dans le dossier syriaque, qui nous permit de mieux saisir l’importance du culte de S. Marc chez les monophysites syriens. C’est une «Révélation de Abba Marc de la Montagne de Tarmaqâ que Dieu lui montra au sujet des âmes des hommes» subsistante dans un unique manuscrit du XIVe siècle où elle fait suite au récit classique de Macaire (le Grand ou d’Alexandrie) de contenu similaire, très répandu dans les recensions grecques et orientales.16 Nous n’avons aucun indice permettant d’attribuer cette Révélation de S. Marc à une tradition égyptienne (contrairement à l’opinion d’A. van Lantschoot, exposée sans preuves basées sur les traditions manuscrite ou hagiographique17 ). Ce qui est certain, c’est qu’elle est un témoin en soi de la vénération dont jouissait S. Marc chez les monophysites syriens d’autrefois: placé au même niveau que S. Macaire, au même titre que les Pères fondateurs du monachisme.18 Ce dossier, duquel nous avons provisoirement exclu sa partie éthiopienne, nous fait voir le culte de S. Marc répandu seulement chez les Byzantins et les Syriens monophysites, sans aucune trace d’une tradition égyptienne copte. Les manuscrits copto-arabes, en absence des témoins en copte, ne prouvent que le fait d’acceptation du culte par l’Église copte tardive, alignée sur la tradition syrienne jacobite (avec certitude, dès le XIIIe siècle,19 à partir de l’époque de composition du Synaxaire copte en arabe, celui qui ne fait pas mention de S. Marc de Tharmaqa). Cela nous fait penser à l’époque du VIIe siècle (l’union monothélite entre l’Église de Constantinople et une partie des monophysites modérés, les jacobites, tout d’abord de la Syrie Occidentale, lorsque des liens vivants entre les traditions hagiographiques byzantine et syro-occidentale encore existaient) comme à un terminus ante quem pour la naissance du culte de S. Marc. Mais ce terminus demeure à être précisé davantage.

3. Vie de Gre;goire díAgrigente par Le;once de Rome: une œuvre poste;rieure dans le me[me sillage L’hagiographie byzantine nous fournit une source qui nous aidera de préciser le milieu d’origine de VMT. Il s’agit d’un roman hagiographique portant sur un personnage de la fin du VIe siècle, S. Grégoire, l’évêque d’Agrigente A. VAN LANTSCHOOT, «Révélations de Macaire et de Marc de Tarmaqâ sur le sort de l’âme après la mort», Le Muséon 63 (1950) 159–189. 17 VAN LANTSCHOOT, «Révélations», 161. 18 On notera que l’hypothèse de Baumstark sur l’attribution à notre Marc des mçmrç d’un autre Marc, l’auteur ascétique du Ve siècle, est maintenant intenable. Cf.: A. BAUMSTARK, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluß der christlichpalästinensischen Texte (Bonn, 1922), 348, Anm. 16 (pour la p. 91). 19 C’est-à-dire après le déclin de l’influence arménienne. 16

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en Sicile. Sa Vie, écrite en grec par un Léonce, presbytère de Rome, est datable de 750 environ à 820.20 La Vie par Léonce est à peu près un roman hagiographique, un similaire aux «Passions épiques» d’après la classification du P. Delehaye. Parmi les nombreux épisodes légendaires, on retrouve notamment le pélerinage du héros en compagnie des moines, le plus âgé répondant au nom de Marc et un des ses disciples portant celui de Sérapion. Comme on a bien saisi, la paire Marc et Sérapion a son origine dans notre VMT (où Sérapion est le nom du narrateur qui rencontre S. Marc).21 Cela indique que VMT est devenue une œuvre classique vers la période entre 750 et 830, ce qui nous amène au début du VIIIe siècle (plus probablement, au VIIe siècle) comme au terminus ante quem pour la composition de VMT elle-même. La figure de S. Grégoire d’Agrigente est encore plus étroitement liée à l’Éthiopie. Sa Vie — et plus particulièrement son titre («d’Agrigente») — ont contribué à l’image de S. Grigéntios des Omérites, héros d’un autre roman hagiographique sur un personnage (plus ou moins historique) du VIe siècle. Son étrange nom Grigéntios dériverait d’«Agrigente».22 Ce Grigéntios se réclame d’un évêque-missionaire à H.imyar immédiatement après la guerre entre Éthiopie et l’état juif de Du-Nuwas en 520s. VMT est donc utilisée dans une Vie qu’on lisait dans le contexte de l’hagiographie connexe aux martyrs de Nagran. En soi, cela ne prouve rien, mais pourrait néanmoins être de valeur dans une argumentation cumulative visant à replacer VMT parmi les traditions hagiographiques byzantines du VIe siècle, époque où les relations entre Byzance et Aksoum étaient encore étroites.

4. Le Synaxaire e;thiopien et le culte syrien Tournons-nous à présent vers le Synaxaire éthiopien, en date du 29 sané (23 juin).23 Il est important de distinguer entre les deux pièces que nous y rencontrons, le salâm (une pièce poétique de quelques lignes) et la Vie courte (notice synaxairienne elle-même). 20 D’après une étude récente, «...jeder Zeit zwischen etwa 750 und kurz vor 830»; A. BERGER, Leontios Presbyteros von Rom, Das Leben des Heiligen Gregorios von Agrigent. Kritische Ausgabe, Übersetzung und Kommentar (Berlin, 1995) (Berliner byzantinistische Arbeiten, 60), 48. 21 Cf. BERGER, Leontios Presbyteros von Rom, Das Leben des Heiligen Gregorios von Agrigent, les commentaires, pp. 351–352 (et pp. 158–159 pour le texte). 22 BERGER, Leontios Presbyteros von Rom, Das Leben des Heiligen Gregorios von Agrigent, 73–75, et maintenant A. BERGER, «Das Dossier des heiligen Gregentios, ein Werk der Makedonenzeit», ÂõæáíôéíÜ 22 (2001), 53–65. 23 I. GUIDI, Le Synaxaire éthiopien. Le mois de Sanê, Hamlê et Nahasê, I: Mois de Sanê (Paris, 1906) (PO 1, fasc. 5), 696–697.

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Le salâm se lit, en paraphrasant des épisodes remarquables de VMT: «Salut à Marc! Lorsque son temps fut terminé, alors que Sérapion24 était à Dabra Tormâq (ÙaÅ µ hRH[ µ), annonçant le saint évangile de Matthieu quand la langue de l’ange du ciel dit: ‘Debout, écoutez’, son corps s’éleva de 20 coudées». Cette pièce d’origine éthiopienne est précieuse parce qu’elle est un témoin de la connaissance de VMT en Éthiopie, donc, de la connaissance de sa version éthiopienne. D’après la Vie courte, Marc est un «roi de Rome» qui, après 5 ans du règne, est devenu forcé de se marier. N’ayant aucune envie de laisser sa vie d’ascète, il «se tint devant l’image de Notre Dame… Puis il alla, traversant sans bateau la mer de Jéricho et arriva au Dabra Tormâq dans un lieu aride; il passa dans la vie d’ascète… 60 ans. À sa mort, les anges l’ensevelirent avec gloire…». La fin de cette Vie provient de notre VMT, mais le début, un récit d’un roi de Rome très pieux qui a préféré la gloire dans les cieux à la gloire terrestre, provient d’une autre source. Le vrai nom de ce roi est Maurice (582–602). Les légendes de Maurice sont connues dans un «extraordinary number of transformations»25 dans la Byzance du VIIe siècle. Le texte le plus proche du nôtre ne subsiste qu’en syriaque,26 dans une recension jacobite,27 mais traduite du grec28 . Notre «roi Marc» est situé devant le choix entre la sainteté et la vie d’un homme ordinaire, comme Maurice dans le texte syriaque, mais pas comme Maurice dans le reste des légendes byzantines (où il est un pécheur repenti qui doit choisir entre l’enfer et le royaume de ciel). D’ailleurs, comme Maurice dans une partie des traditions byzantines connues depuis la moitié du VIIe siècle,29 le roi Marc prit sa décision après la prière devant une 24 Un signe d’interrogation posé ici par Guidi (qui n’a pas connu VMT) doit être supprimé. 25 J. WORTLEY, «The Legend of the Emperor Maurice», dans: Actes du XVe Congrès international d’études Byzantines, vol. 4 (Athènes, 1980), 382–391, spec. 382; voir, pour la filiation des légendes, l’article tout entier. 26 F. NAU, Les legendes syriaques d’Aaron de Saroug, de Maxime et Domèce, d’Abraham, maître de Barsoma et de l’Empereur Maurice. Texte syriaque édité et traduit (Paris, 1910) (PO 5, fasc. 2), 773–778. 27 Chez WORTLEY, par erreur, «possibly Nestorian» («The Legend of the Emperor Maurice», 387). En fait, NAU était perplexe, pourquoi les jacobites vénèrent un empereur chalcédonien («Les legendes syriaques», 773). Mais il faut tenir compte de l’union monothélite existante dans le VIIe siècle. 28 P. SCHREINER, «Der brennende Kaiser. Zur Schaffung eines positiven und eines negativen Kaiserbildes in den Legenden um Maurikios», dans: Byzance et ses voisins. Mélanges à la mémoire de Gyula Moravcsik à l’occasion du centième anniversaire de sa naissance. Rédigé par Th. Olajos (Szeged, 1994) (Acta Universitatis de Attila József nominate. Opuscula byzantina, IX), 25–31. 29 WORTLEY, «The Legend of the Emperor Maurice», 384.

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icône (celle de Notre Dame, au lieu de celle du Sauveur de Chalki dans les récites byzantins), tandis que Maurice de la recension syriaque reçut deux visites d’un ange. Enfin, dans un récit grec de Sinaï, on a dit de l’unique fils survivant de Maurice (personnage connu par des autres légendes byzantines) qu’il est devenu le moine à Sinaï.30 Dans notre texte éthiopien, ce n’est pas un fils, mais l’empereur lui-même qui est devenu le moine. Nous sommes en présence d’un culte de Maurice, né à Byzance mais mieux préservé chez les jacobites syriens. Notre notice éthiopienne n’est qu’un amalgame de deux légendes, celle de Maurice et celle de Marc de Tharmaqa. Un amalgame de la sorte ne serait point possible en dehors d’un milieu arabophone, où les noms de Marc (o³iÌ¿ Mûrqus) et Maurice (oγiÌ¿ Mawriqyus) ne diffèrent guère graphiquement. On a naturellement à postuler un original arabe pour notre Vie courte éthiopienne provenant d’un milieu syrojacobite où le culte correspondant de Maurice a subsisté plus longtemps qu’à Byzance. D’ailleurs, notre notice appartient aux matériaux qu’on a placés dans le Synaxare éthiopien vers le fin du XVIe siècle, l’époque de la prédominance des Syriens arabophones dans la culture ecclésiastique des jacobites de l’Égipte. Nous avons à tirer de cette discussion un nouvel indice de l’importance du culte de S. Marc chez les Syriens jacobites.

5. VMT en e;thiopien et le culte en E;thiopie L’unique manuscrit de la version éthiopienne de VMT a été trouvé tout récemment par Alessandro Bausi. C’est le manuscrit éthiopien EMML 7602, XIVe siècle, fols. 2ra–6vc, non décrit dans le catalogue de la EMML qui s’arrête après le numéro 5000.31 Sans trancher tout le corpus de l’hagiographie éthiopienne, nous fournirons quelques références à S. Marc. Dans une prière incluse dans la Vie de S. Aaron, on voit S. Marc entre les Pères monastiques byzantins, égyptiens et éthiopiens: HR\U µ ÖhRH[ µ «Marc deTormâq».32 30 L’édition du texte grec est en préparation par B. Flusin et A. Bingelli. Trad. française: F. NAU, Les récits inédits du Moine Anastase (Paris, 1902) (extrait du Revue de l’Institut Catholique de Paris [1902], nos. 1–2), 30–31. 31 Alessandro Bausi m’a surprit par une nouvelle de l’existence de ce manuscrit lors de ma communication à la 15th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Hamburg, 21–25 July 2003) dans laquelle j’essayais de prouver l’existence, au moyen âge, d’une version éthiopienne de VMT, que je tenais pour perdue. Je le remercie de tout mon cœur. 32 B. TURAIEV, Vitae Sanctorum indigenarum. II. Acta S. Aaronis et Philippi. (Louvain 1961 [repr. de l’éd. de 1908]) (CSCO 30–31 / SAe 13–14), 157 (texte), 141 (tr. latine).

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Il y a encore une mention de notre Marc dans la Vie de Yâfqerana ý Egziý . Après un épisode de la visite auprès du saint de Gabra Qirqos de l’île Kobrâ qui servit la messe chez lui, son hagiographe ajoute: «Et cela est pareil à ce qu’on rapporte de l’Abbas Marc de Dabra Tormâq (Ñ` µHR\U µÖÙaÅ µ hRH[).33 Enfin, dans la Vie de Libânos (§§ 116 et 524), parmi les louanges adressées au héros de la Vie, on le compare avec d’autres saints, y compris S. Marc «de Dabra Tormâq».34 Dans le § 524 de cette Vie notre Marc est mentionné à titre d’un «veramente ripudiatore del regno» (tr. de Bausi), c’est qui fait référence à la Vie de S. Marc dans la recension courte du Synaxaire. On voit donc que notre toponyme énigmatique avait sa tradition de la vocalisation bien établie.

6. Syriaque ou grecque, Tharmaqa ou Thrace? Dans le contexte de l’histoire du culte, déjà quelque peu établie, il sera plus commode de discuter des problèmes philologiques, tout d’abord celui de langue de l’original. «Tharmaqa» (syriaque transposé aux recensions arabes et éthiopiennes), comme une lectio difficilior, semble a priori plus convenable que «Thrace» pour être originale. Mais personne ne sait où est-elle située, cette «Montagne de Tharmaqa». Heureusement, la situation de «Thrace» n’est pas beaucoup mieux: d’après VMT dans toutes les versions, la montagne en question, soitelle de Tharmaqa ou de Thrace, se trouve en «Éthiopie». Tous les auteurs modernes étaient convaincus que la localité de la montagne de S. Marc est un lieu mythique.35 Cette montagne de S. Marc, est-elle vraiment aussi imaginaire qu’on le pense? I. WAJNBERG, Das Leben des Hl. Jâfqerana ýEgzîý . Äthiopischer Text, hrsg. und übersetzt (Rome, 1936) (OCA 106) 24. 34 A. BAUSI, La «Vita» e i «Miracoli» di Libânos (Louvain, 2003) (CSCO 595– 596 / SAe 105–106) 48 et 200 (texte), 29 et 115 (tr. italienne). La référence est indiquée par A. Bausi. La localité Dabra Tormâq n’est mentionnée que dans le § 116. Je remercie A. Bausi pour me faire connaître ces références. 35 Cf. LOOK, «The History of Abba Marcus», vii, xiv. D’après Paperbroch, son nom èñÜêç est un nom corrompu de âÜñêç (une montagne et un désert en Libye), d’après Look, c’est une corruption d’une translittération grecque èáñìáêç du A~g‡ syriaque (d’ailleurs attestée nulle part dans les textes grecs quelconques!). Enfin, d’après Angélidi, la Thrace est bien Thrace, mais, cette fois, c’est une localité réelle en Libye connue par l’unique mention en latin dans le Martyrologe de Jérôme comme l’endroit du martyre d’Eugène et Macaire sous Julien («in Tracia civitate Gildoba»). Toutefois, la Passion grecque de ces mêmes martyrs mentionne à cette place une autre ville, Äéíäüíá ôyò Ìáõñéôáíßáò. L’unique mention dans une source 33

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Le toponyme syriaque Tharmaqa est connu d’ailleurs, quoique dans une forme indirecte d’un ethnonyme Tharmeqâyç (A°\~g‡), dans le Roman syrien d’Alexandre36 composé comme une œuvre de l’idéologie officielle dans les dernières années d’Héraclius (630s),37 simultanément avec la proclamation de l’union monothélite. Ici, il replace l’ethnonyme «thraciens» d’une manière on ne peut plus évidente. Rapportons à la traduction de Budge: «Then Alexander… said to Macedonians, “To you I speak, ye inhabitants of the ò g ñ ‡ð Tharmeqâyç), Greeks, Thessaloland, Macedonians, Thracians (A°\~ nians, and peoples of every race…”».38 Pour l’auteur syrien du roman le toponyme Tharmaqa était un équivalent familier de «Thrace». Il connaissait mieux — ou dans la réalité ou dans la tradition littéraire, cela est sans importance — Tharmaqa que cette Thrace près de Constantinople. En outre, il savait que sa Tharmaqa portait le nom de «Thrace» en grec. Il s’agit donc d’un cas particulier de l’application du nom «Thrace» à une localité en dehors de la Thessalie, distincte de «Tracia» latine en Libye et de «Thrace» dans les montagnes de Caucase, mentionnée dans certaines sources coptes des VIe et VIIe siècles.39 Nous allons nous préoccuper de la localisation de notre Thrace-Tharmaqa, mais, pour le moment, notons qu’à l’époque, le nom de Thrace pouvait être appliqué à une localité éloignée et sémilégendaire. En grec, cette «Thrace» en Ethiopie est un hapax legomenon. En syriaque, cette Tharmaqa est connue, du moins, d’une source contemporaine à VMT où elle est un équivalent à la «Thrace» grecque. Cela nous fait opter latine du Ve siècle d’une localité connue en grec sous un autre nom ne saurait point être suffisante pour faire ce nom «Tracia» attractif pour, ou, du moins, connu à l’hagiographe grec ou syrien qui travaillait 200 ou 300 années plus tard. Angélidi se réfère ici («Ï Âßïò ôïõ ÌÜñêïõ ôïõ Áèçíáßïõ», 37–38), en outre, à une considération géographique: la montagne doit être située près d’une mer et précédée d’un très long chemin d’Alexandrie à travers un désert. Mais il est clair (cf. ci-dessous), même pour Angélidi, que la mer dans VMT est la Mer Rouge. Donc, aucun lien actuel entre le Martyre d’Eugène et Macaire et VMT n’a été démontré. 36 E. A. W. BUDGE, The History of Alexander the Great being the Syriac Version, edited from five manuscripts, of the Pseudo-Callisthenes with an English translation… (Cambridge, 1889) [repr.: Amsterdam, 1976], 60 (texte), 33 (tr.). 37 G. J. REININK, «Die Entstehung der syrischen Alexanderlegende als politischreligiöse Propagandaschrift für Herakleios’ Kirchenpolitik», dans: C. Laga, J. A. Munitiz, L. van Rompay (eds.) After Chalcedon. Studies in Theology and Church History (Leuven, 1985) (OLA 18), 263–281. 38 BUDGE, The History of Alexander the Great, 33 et note 1. 39 Sur la littérature copte qui fait mention d’une «Thrace» de Caucase, v., par exemple, P. DEVOS, «De nouveau sur “Chrysostome et Chalkèdôn”», Analecta Bollandiana 113 (1995), 107–114. À vrai dire, l’histoire du toponyme «Thrace» dans l’antiquité et le moyen âge vaudrait une monographie spéciale.

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pour «Tharmaqa» comme le toponyme original et pour le syriaque comme la langue de l’original de VMT. Les traductions du syriaque au grec au VIIe siècle (ou au début du VIIIe) sont parfaitement possibles: le cas le plus célèbre est celui de la Révélation de pseudo-Méthode d’Olympe (composée en syriaque en 790s, traduite en grec quelques décennies plus tard).

7. Ge;ographie de VMT La montagne Tharmaqa est située au bord de la «mer de Chéttites» (A[ˆ\Ð_K, A\ЈSK,40 ô§í ×åôôáßùí; S. Marc buvait de l’eau de mer. Il s’agit de la Mer Rouge, comme l’a bien observé Angélidi, tout en indiquant qu’à l’époque du christianisme antique, on nommait des «Chéttites» les habitants de la péninsule Arabique, c’est-à-dire, des H.imyarites.41 On y accède en traversant un grand désert, ce qui correspond à la géographie de l’Égypte et de Soudan, bien qu’on puisse, comme l’a dit un marchand interrogé par le moine Sérapion, y parvenir assez vite par eau. Cela indique à un point à la côte montagneuse de la Mer Rouge au sud de Soudan, donc, en Érythrée contemporaine. En effet, cela correspond à la localisation «après (mg esc, dðÝêåéíá42) la mer des Chéttites» dans VMT. Il y a encore un indice précieux qui ajoute de la véracité à la description géographique toute entière. Après un long chemin dans le désert, Sérapion se revigore d’«un légume qui s’appelle acacia (zOh}, en grec «racine de l’acacia de désert» ñßæá êüììåùò eñçìéêï™)». Il s’agit de l’Acacia vera ou Acacia arabica, «gomme arabique», dont l’effet d’un médecine universel et d’un nutriment est connu depuis l’antiquité, spécialement dans la région aride aux deux cotés de la Mer Rouge.43 La durée du trajet permettrait de préciser davantage, mais Angélidi considère avec raison que celui — de quarante jours — rapporté dans la version grecque n’a qu’une valeur symbolique, sans rapport avec la réalité. Il est en tout autrement avec le texte syriaque. Le chemin d’Alexandrie à Tharmaqa se divise aux parts suivantes: Alexandrie — arrêt au désert à cause de l’épuisement après 40 jours de route (épisode avec l’acacia; dans le texte grec, après 20 jours); encore 7 journées de route dans le désert jusqu’à la montagne (idem dans le grec); 3 jours de l’ascension à la montagne (en grec le temps n’est pas spécifié; on a l’impression qu’elle Dans un des mss: A\ЄO}J «des Éthiopiens». Á ÃÃÅËÉÄÇ, «Ï Âßïò», 38–39. 42 Corrompu dans le grec: dðÝêåéíá ôï™ hèíïõò ô§í ×åôôáßùí dans le titre, mais åkò ôN ìÝñç Ákèéïðßáò dí ô† ìåãÜëw èáëÜóów ôï™ hèíïõò ô§í ×åôôáßùí dans le lieu correspondant (p. 46, lignes 32–33). 43 Cf., par exemple, un article «Acacia Flowers and Gum» dans la Herb & Supplement Encyclopedia: http://www.florahealth.com/flora/home/USA/HealthInformation/encyclopedias/AcaciaFlowers.asp. 40 41

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s’est accomplie dans une journée); 7 journées de route sur le col de la montagne jusqu’à l’endroit où demeurait S. Marc, au bord de la mer (idem dans le grec; avec 4 journées (en syriaque, 12) du chemin à l’Alexandrie, on arrive à un total de 39 jours, ce qui suppose la rencontre avec S. Marc au 40e (en syriaque, au 70e). Cosmas Indicopleustès nous informe, au début du VIe siècle, que la route de l’Alexandrie à l’Aksoum occupe 60 journées.44 On doit donc localiser notre montagne, éloignée de l’Alexandrie de 57 journées, sur la latitude d’Aksoum, plus ou moins, mais au bord de la mer. On aurait raison de nommer une pareille place, comme le fait VMT, «en entrée de l’Éthiopie» (ƒO_J AldshC45 ).

8. Conclusions La Vie d’un saint qui le présente comme le contemporain (pour ne pas dire, l’avatar), de S. Paul de Thèbes46 , reste toutefois une source historique de grande valeur. Elle reflète très bien des détails de la colonisation monastique de l’Empire d’Aksoum aux VIe et VIIe siècles, y compris aussi importants que l’origine byzantine des certains moines (S. Marc «diplômé», d’après la légende, de l’école philosophique d’Athènes) et leurs connexions syriennes. Tout cela s’accorde très bien à l’époque des liens étroits entre Constantinople et Aksoum (dès le début du VIe siècle jusqu’au début du VIIe siècle), souvent avec une médiation syrienne, et des «Pères syriens» qui ont été les fondateurs du monachisme éthiopien. Enfin, les «proto-malký » dans VMT, plus élaborées que dans la Vie plus ancienne de S. Alypius Stylite, représentent des spécimens d’un style poétique disparu assez rapidement chez les Grecs et les Syriens, mais qui a apporté le fructum multum (Jn 15:5) sur le terrain éthiopien.47

Addenda 1. Sur le ms éthiopien contenant une copie unique de VMT, voir maintenant (sans toutefois une mention de VMT): G. FIACCADORI, «Aethiopica minima», Quaderni Utinensi VII (13/14) (1989) [publ. 1993] (Percorsi filosofici. Immagini e documenti. Biblioteconomia e bibliografia. Res orientales) W. WOLSKA-CONUS, Cosmas Indicopleustès, Topographie chrétienne. Introduction, traduction et notes. T. I (Paris, 1968) (Sources chrétiennes, 141) 356/357 (grec / français). 45 Le grec étant moins précis: «dans les limites de l’Éthiopie» (v. citation dans la note 42). 46 P. P[EETERS], [revue de] B. Turaev, Êîïòî-ýôèîïñêîå ñêàçàíèå î ïðåïîäîáíîì Êèðå, Analecta Bollandiana 26 (1907), 125–126, spéc. 126. 47 Je remercie Mlle Hélène Bormotova (Montréal) pour ses efforts de corriger mon français. 44

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145–165, spéc. 150, 161–163 (IV. EMML 7602: il «Libro dei Santi» di Tullu Guddo).48 2. Sur le problème d’origine des malký , on a publié une étude de GEZAHEGN GETATCHEW, «Is Latin the Origin of the Mälkï’?», dans: Baye Yimam et al. (eds.), Ethiopian Studies at the End of the Second Millennium. Proceedings of the XIVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. November 6–11, 2000, Addis Ababa. Vol. 3 (Addis Ababa, 2003), 1936–1962, contenant une critique, un peu trop détaillée, de l’article de Kirsten StoffregenPedersen (voir n. 3 ci-dessus), mais dédiée surtout à l’opinion propre de l’auteur sur la provenance des malke’e directement d’un livre biblique, le Cantique des Cantiques. Il est à noter qu’ici, il y a une faute méthodique. Au niveau littéraire, le Cantique n’est qu’un texte érotique où l’attention aux diverses parties du corps de l’objet d’une adoration sexuelle s’explique naturellement. Au niveau symbolique, où l’amante du Cantique se présente, par exemple, l’Église, les parties de son corps sont privées du sens physique. En deux cas, aucun lien avec les malký , dont l’idée centrale n’est qu’une explication symbolique des parties du corps physiques (ou, s’il s’agit des êtres incorporels, des parties de leurs corps symboliques, mais considérés par analogie avec les corps physiques). C’est une attitude spécifique au culte des saints (et, plus précisément, au culte des reliques) et, donc, à l’hagiographie, dont les racines sont à chercher dans une tradition hagiographique. La nouvelle étude de Gezahegn Getatchew n’est en fait qu’une répétition légèrement modifiée d’une thèse ancienne sur l’origine indigène des malký .

SUMMARY The article focuses on possibly the earliest prototypes of the Ethiopian malký , which are to be looked for in some Byzantine hagiographical works of the 6th and 7th cent. In this respect, the most important source is the Vita of St. Mark of Tharmaqa, whose popularity was extremely high within both the Chalcedonian and Syro-Jacobite camps. Within the article, five aspects of the Vita are investigated: 1) date, 7th cent.; 2) original language, Syriac; 3) St. Mark’s itinerary, from Alexandria through the desert and the mountain ridge up to a location on the Read Sea coast near the latitude of Aksum; 4) the make-up of the Ethiopian «hagiographic dossier»: 4.1) Mark’s Ethiopic Vita is known from the unique copy, but it might have been widespread in the Middle Ages; 4.2) the reading in the Ethiopic Synaxary (29 Säne) is an amalgam of two short hagiographies, those of Mark and of the Byzantine Emperor Mauricius, conflated somewhere within the Arabic-speaking Syrian Jacobite milieu; 5) historical background of the Vita, «monastic colonization» of the Aksumite kingdom in the 6th and 7th cent. by the Byzantine monks, including those of Syrian origin. Grâce à l’amabilité du M. Dénis Nosnitsin j’ai obtenu une possibilité de procurer quelques références davantage. 48

í í Andreu Martinez díAlos-Moner University of Hamburg

THE SELLING OF THE NéE GUSí : THE ´EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIAª IN PORTUGUESE AND JESUIT IMAGINATION «… pera a reputação tanto val o que he como o que se imagina e o mundo se governa pello que lhe fazem crer».1 «Os padres o sairão a receber ao caminho mais de mea legoa, e decendose lhe forão beijar a mão, como he costume, vindo elle na mulla com seus quatro cavallos a destra, vestido de veludo cramesim, coroa de ouro na cabeça e outras duas muito maiores e mais pezadas diante levadas por duos pagens de cavallo; soavão diante as trombetas que não são mal entoadas e oito ataballes em cima de quatro mullas. O que tudo com muita gente de pe e de cavallo, que vinha iunta, fazia hum acompanhamento assas grandioso e realengo».2

European imagination once saw the political leader of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, the néguí (néguíä nägäít), as the true embodiment of the Prester John. Such an identification gained special intensity during the century-long period when Portugal and Christian Ethiopia were in close contact. The Portuguese sailors, colonial officers and the countless clerics that prowled in the Indian Ocean commonly referred to Christian Ethiopia and to its Letter of Lourenço Pires de Tavora to el-Rei [D. Sebastião], 19 July 1561, in: JOSÉ DA SILVA MENDES LEAL (ed.), Corpo Diplomático Português [E-c.], IX. Relações com a Curia Romana, reinado de el-rei O. Sebastião (continuação), Lisboa, Typographia da Academia Real das Sciencias, 1886, 300–303, here 303 [«… for one’s honour, what is believed matters as much as what actually is, and the world is governed through what we are made to believe».] 2 P. Emmanuel de Almeida ad Praepositum Generalem So. Iesu, Gorgorra, 16 Iun. 1628, in: CAMILLO BECCARI (ed.), Rerum Aethiopicarum scriptores occidentales inediti a saeculo XVI ad XIX, vols. I–XV, Roma 1903–1917 [in the following: RASO], here XII, 247–289, esp. 269 [«The fathers went to encounter him more than half a legua away, and as he stepped down they kissed him, as was the habit, on the hand; he was riding a mule, with four other horses on his right, and dressed in velvet crimson, with a golden crown on his head, and another two crowns, much larger and heavier, carried by two pawns on horses; in the front, trumpets were being played, together with eight atabals on top of four mules. Altogether, along with the train accompaning them by foot and on horses, it made a grandiose and royalish impression».] 1

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ruler as the «Preste». They believed him to be a powerful monarch, lord over dozens of kingdoms and, what was more important for a society still animated by the Crusader spirit, a decisive ally in the war against Islam.3 Such a «love story» between the medieval eschatological myth and the Portuguese explorers was, however, a short lived one. The different Portuguese embassies that visited Ethiopia between 1520 and 1541, and the Jesuit mission that ran between 1556 and 1632, provided Europe with a tamed — and more realistic — image of its ruler. It turned out that the Preste cum néguí was a weak ruler, constantly harassed by both Muslim armies and by internal revolts (local rulers, Fälaða, Galla), and of dubious Christian faith. In short, the Ethiopian Preste proved to be an illusion, the result of a misunderstanding,4 of ignorance, or of both. By the time of the Jesuit mission the image of the Ethiopian ruler had completely changed. The Spaniard Pedro Paez put things with crystal clarity when he suggested to his friend and compatriot Tomás de Ituren, right before embarking upon what was to be a successful career in Ethiopia, that the Preste was to be found in «Catayo» rather than in the Ethiopian highlands.5 With the Jesuits the Preste was, thus, displaced from Christian Ethiopia: relegated to other lands or to the status of an outdated myth. This process went hand in hand with an increase in the factual information produced by Europeans on the land and on the institution of the négusä nägäí t. Alvares’s narrative of 1540 and, to a large extent, the dense annual letters of the Jesuits written mostly between 1603 and 1632, produced profuse ethnographic descriptions of this institution, descriptions which still today represent invaluable sources for the historian. Likewise, the most ambitious Jesuit narratives, written by Paez, Almeida and Mendes, with their quotations of royal chronicles and of works such as the Fé th³a nägäí t, hinted for the first time at the rich indigenous literary tradition that upheld the legitimacy, and the government of the Christian state.6 See LUIS FILIPE THOMAZ, «L’idée impériale manueline», in: JEAN AUBIN et al. (eds.), La découverte, le Portugal et l’Europe. Actes du colloque. Paris les 26, 27 et 28 mai 1988, Paris 1990, 35–103. 4 A common contemporary interpretation claimed that the name «John» derived from gan, a word appearing in such composita as, e. g., gan hoy! (commonly translated as ‘Your Majesty!’) — the form of address to the Ethiopian monarch. 5 By «Catayo» Paez was probably meaning the Tibet of the Dhalai Lama, that his companion Antonio de Montserrat had recently visited; Diu, letter of 4 December 1602, in: RASO XI, 32–35, here 35. 6 Manoel de Almeida, for instance, translated a chapter from the chronicle of Minas in his Historia de Ethiopia a alta; see FRANCISCO MARIA ESTEVES PEREIRA (ed., tr.), ±+ : Qe ; Historia de Minás Además Sagad, Rei de Ethiopia, Lisboa 1888 [Extrahido do Boletim dá Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa: n.° 12, 7.a serie — 1887], 7. 3

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But besides transforming the European perception of Royal Ethiopia, the writings and deeds of the Latin missionaries present many questions still unanswered by historians. One of the most prominent regards the figure who turned out to be such a deceptive embodiement of the Prester John. The Christian ruler of Ethiopia was identified with the highest and the most powerful category that European political ideology could offer at the time. Accordingly, Zä-YaŸéqob and especially Susényos were repeatedly presented to the wider Portuguese and European public as true «Emperors» over a truly Ethiopian «Empire». With very few exceptions, this was to be the standard way of presenting the Solomonic monarchy in Jesuit texts up to the times of the expulsion.7 Now, if we assume, as historical evidence seems to suggest, that categories such as those of Emperor and Empire were misnomers in the Ethiopian reality, the transformation of the Preste into the Emperor of Ethiopia demans a more critical analysis that it normally receives: how did the figure of an Ethiopian Emperor emerge? what role did the Jesuit mission have? and above all, why was the term «emperor» chosen instead of «king», which was widely used in naming the diversity of rulers the Portuguese — Jesuits and non-Jesuits — were encountering in the East?

The Indigenous Evidence Before attempting to answer to these questions let us first look at the indigenous evidence and at the way local terms have been translated in modern academic European editions. What do these texts tell us about the «real» name of the «Emperor of Ethiopia»? The well-known title néguí and its derivative négusä nägäí t, both steming from the root nägía, were used by the Aksumite kings at least since the time of 4th-cent. ŸEzana, and, later, by the rulers of the Solomonic dynasty up to the 20th cent.8 This title is overwhelIt is useless to list the references to the use of «Emperor» and «Empire» in the Jesuit correspondence. Perhaps more interesting is to report those rare occasions when «king» and «kingdom» were used. This was, for instance, the case of an Italian version of an annual letter from 1613 (Archivium Romanum Societatis Iesu, Goa 39 I bis, Annua 1613, fol. 103–110v). Another version in Latin of the same letter goes back to the typical «Imperatoris» and «Imperio» (in: RASO XI, 293–312). Ignoring which of the two comes first — though it was probably the Latin, which was after Portuguese a commonly used language in the missions — the Italian version shows that the title «Emperor of Ethiopia», though preminent, was not unique, and that at least on some occasions there were doubts within the Jesuit order as to its propiety. 8 «To become king, ruler; to rule», see WOLF LESLAU, Comparative Dictionary of GeŸ ez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden 1987, 392f.; on the title, its historical background and possible origin see, e. g., WERNER VYCICHL, «Le titre de “Roi des Rois” Ñ#W " ŠÑY|. Étude historique et comparative sur la monarchie en Éthiopie», AÉ 2, 1957, 193–203; ANDRÉ CAQUOT, «La royauté sacrale en Éthiopie», AÉ 2, 1957, 205– 218. 7

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mingly present in three seminal works of the Solomonic monarchy: the Kébrä Nägäí t, from ca. 1321 («The Glory of the Kings»),9 where the Queen of Sheba bears the name of négéí tä azeb; the Féth³a Nägäí t («The Justice of the Kings»), from the 15th/16th cent.;10 and the ÍérŸ atä Mängéí t («The Regulation of the Kingdom»), from the time of Íärsä Déngél, yet based probably on the earlier original from the time of ŸAmdä Séyon I (r. 1314–1344).11 For the sake of this enquiry, however, the royal chronicles are more helpful in answering this question, as they portray the rulers in the context of their lifes and, hence, unveil more practical uses of the royal titles. If we focus on the period around the Jesuit mission, one of the most prolific in royal chronicles, the pattern is repeated. The Chronicle of King Lébnä Déngél (r. 1508–1540), written probably around 1592–1605,12 uses, e. g., such expressions néguí s³adéq, négéí t É leni and mängéí t, which Conti Rossini translated as «Re giusto», «regina Eleni» and «regno».13 In the chronicles of his successors, produced between 1563 and 1605, his sons Gälawdewos and Minas are identified both with the typical title of néguí and by that of mar.14 A bor-rowed term, mar (or mari) was not a proper royal title — as it did not add any «power» or status to that of néguí, — but was meant to stress the bearer’s saintly status and religious piety.15 In translating the first term here again, philological accuracy oblige, the editors opted for the European equivalent of king, whilst mar remained untranslated. The same term of néguí appears in the Chronicle of Lébnä Déngél’s grandson, Íärsä Déngél,16 alSee CARL BEZOLD (ed., tr.), Kebra Nagast. Die Herrlichkeit der Könige, München 1905; recently, ROBER BEYLOT, «Du Kebra Nagast», Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies 7, 2004, 74–83. 10 See IGNAZIO GUIDI, Il «Fetha Negest» o «Legislatione die Re» codice ecclesiastico e civile di Abissinia, Napoli 1897 (text), 1899 (tr.); PAULOS TZADUA (tr.) — PETER L. STRAUSS (ed.), The Fé tha Nägäst. The Law of the Kings, Addis Ababa 1968. 11 JOSEPH VARENBERGH, «Studien zur abessinischen Reichsordnung (ÐerŸ ata Mangešt)», Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 30, 1915, 1–45, here 1; see also IGNAZIO GUIDI, Storia della letteratura etiopica, Roma 1932, 48, 92. 12 CARLO CONTI ROSSINI (ed., tr.), Storia di Lebna Dengel, re d’Etiopia, sino alle prime lotte contro Ahmad ben Ibrahim, Roma 1894, 24 [RRALm ser. V, 5, 3, 1894, 617–640]. 13 CONTI ROSSINI, Storia di Lebna Dengel, 5, 6 [text], 14, 15 [tr.]. 14 On Gälawdewos, see WILLIAM EL. CONZELMAN (ed., tr.), Chronique de Galâwdêwôs (Claudius) roi d’Éthiopie, Paris 1895, 12, 17, 35, 62 [text], 127, 130, 142, 158, [tr.]; and IV for the date of production. On Minas, see ESTEVES PEREIRA, Historia de Minás, Además Sagad, rei de Ethiopia, 17 [text], 37, [tr.]; and 6 for the date of production. 15 LESLAU, Comparative Dictionary of GeŸ ez, 356. 16 CARLO CONTI ROSSINI (ed., tr.), Historia Regis Sarsa Dengel (Malak Sagad). Accedit Historia gentis Galla, curante [et interprete] I. Guidi, Parisiis — Lipsiae 1907 (CSCO 20, 21 [SAe 3, 4]), 3 [text], 5 [tr.]. 9

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though here the much rarer term of h³as³e/as³e — untranslated in the Italian text — is also employed.17 In its turn, the Chronicle of Susényos, the «Catholic Emperor», written probably during the reign of his son Fasilädäs, refers indistinctly to néguíä nägäí t and to néguí, which Esteves Pereira agrees with Conti Rossini in translating into Portuguese as «rei dos reis» and «rei».18 Two elements are also worth mentioning in Susényos’s Chronicle. First, after his famous coronation in Aksum, which took place in 1609, Susényos did not change his title to a more grandiose one. As a matter of fact, this act, contrary to what the Jesuits would repeatedly sustain, did not add anything to the status of the néguí, even though the coronation in Aksum, rare in the history of the Christian kingship as it was only celebrated on three other occasions,19 was the honorable restitution of an old tradition and the sacred «law of the Kingdom» rather than a necessary step towards any superior form of kingship.20 Second, the term «néguí» is also used in the Chronicle (as, in fact, also in earlier Ethiopian documents) to name neighbouring rulers who did not belong to the Solomonic breed, and were neither Christians no vassals of Ethiopian Christian Kings. This is the case, on several occasions, of Rubât ³ b. Bâdî, king of the Muslim state of Sinnâr,21 with whom Susényos had important commercial ties. This could indicate, on the one hand, that 17 CONTI ROSSINI, Historia Regis Sars³a Dengel, 21 [text], 25 [tr.]; on the meaning of this term see VARENBERGH, «Studien», 3; and DENIS NOSNITSIN, «Ase», in: EÆ I, 364f.; For more evidence on the preeminence of the title of néguú during the later period, see MANFRED KROPP (ed., tr.), Die Geschichte des Lebna-Dengel, Claudius und Minâs, Lovanii 1988 (CSCO 503, 504 [SAe 83, 84]), 1, 3 [text], 1, 3 [tr.], and the so-called Short Chronicle (second half of the 18th cent.) where the title of néguú shares the space with that of h³as³e, see, e. g., FRANCESCO BÉGUINOT (ed., tr.), La cronaca abbreviata d’Abissinia, Roma 1901. 18 FRANCISCO MARIA ESTEVES PEREIRA (ed., tr.), Chronica de Susenyos, rei de Ethiopia, vols. I–II, Lisboa 1892–1900, I, 2, 5 [text], II, 2, 4 [tr.]. 19 See EIKE HABERLAND, Untersuchungen zum Äthiopischen Königtum, Wiesbaden 1965 (Studien zur Kulturkunde 18), 94; cp. also a review of the coronation reports in: STUART MUNRO-HAY, «The ‘Coronation’ of the Emperors of Ethiopia at Aksum», in: VERENA BÖLL — DENIS NOSNITSIN — THOMAS RAVE — EVGENIA SOKOLINSKAIA (eds.), Studia Aethiopica. In Honour of Siegbert Uhlig on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Wiesbaden 2004, 177–201. 20 As his Chronicle reports, Susényos nägúä bähéyä bäkämä nägúu nägäút qädamawéyyan éllä émqé dmehu zänägúu, which Esteves Pereira translates as «e alli foi feito rei, assim como foram feitos reis os reis antigos, que reinaram antes d’elle», ESTEVES PEREIRA, Chronica de Susenyos, I, 123 [text], II, 95 [tr.] (ch. 37); for the coronation ritual, s. VARENBERGH, «Studien zur abessinischen Reichsordnung», 15f. [text], 30ff. [tr.] (III.1.–2.). 21 Néguúä Sénnar Ÿ Urbat³ ‘Urbat, rei de Sennar’; ESTEVES PEREIRA, Chronica de Susenyos, 161 [text], 124 [tr.] (ch. 46); cp. VYCICHL, «Le titre de ‘Roi des Rois’», 199–201.

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néguú was not a transcendental category, exclusive of the «Imperial» Ethiopian dynasty, but rather a title that could also be used by regional rulers; on the other, it may show that the Solomonic monarchy saw a relative degree of affinity and eveness between its own institutions and those of the neighbouring kingdoms, with which it was culturally much closer related than its claims of foreign descent asserted. To sum up, by the 16th-cent. Ethiopian Christian tradition, having developed a deep-rooted imperial ideology, did not elaborate on a particular connotation for the term «néguú». Similarly, faithful to the philological and cultural context, modern scholars editing and translating contemporary chronicles avoided the use of the concept of Emperor to render néguú, mar and h³as³e, preferring either the original GéŸéz terms or the much humbler «king». Scholars agreed at least on what the néguú was not. From where then did the Jesuits take the idea of an «Ethiopian Emperor», an idea that contradicted both indigenous traditions and the empirical accuracy of which their order was so proud?

The Portuguese narratives 16th-cent. Portuguese narratives on Ethiopia contain a number of interesting details for understanding the «Imperial» ideology of the Jesuit missionaries. A remark is in order here. The Portuguese did not fully renew European imagination on the Prester John. They were the heirs of a tradition started at the dawn of the Renaissance, when mainly Italian merchants and friars first unveiled the kingdom of Ethiopia to an Europe opening to the wider world. From Italy the Portuguese not only received the investors and traders that helped to make possible the Lusitan expansion, but also Italian cosmographical knowledge, including intelligence on «Ethiopia».22 One of the Renaissance topos that reached the Portuguese imagination was that of Prester John, which gained vigour throughout the 15th cent.; but next to it, there were also the perception of the néguú as an «Emperor», ruler over several — the number changes in every account — kingdoms or simply as a «king».23 But the Portuguese also renewed the European understanding on Ethiopia in a number of ways. First, at the same time as enforcing the idea of an Ethiopian Prester John, they also excited scepticism towards it. Thus, rather than a See LUÍS DE ALBUQUERQUE, «Diálogo luso-italiano nos séculos XV e XVI (algumas notas)», Mare Liberum 2, 1991, 97–105; LUISA D’ARIENZO, «L’influenza culturale italiana alla corte portoghese nell’età delle scoperte», Mare Liberum 2, 1991, 107–120. 23 On Renaissance accounts of Ethiopia see RENATO LEFEVRE, «Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del Medioevo e del Rinascimento. Seconda Parte», Annali Lateranensi 9, 1945, 331–444. 22

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%$monochromatic imagination, a careful reading of Portuguese narratives, including the «administrative» correspondence (letters, briefs, political summaries), reveals a plurality of perceptions on Ethiopia, of which at least two diverging images of the Prester John can be clearly distinguished: one seeing it as a misunderstanding, the other assuming the néguú was the true embodiment of the myth. The first perception was represented largely in the ruling and learned elite: from the admiral Albuquerque to the «intellectuals» Goes and Couto,24 Portuguese intelligentsia was rarely enthusiastic about the idea of an Ethiopian Preste, something they considered a belief of the plebs. Consequently, in their writings they enforced the use of two classical European political concepts that the Italian Renaissance had already used: «emperor» and, in a minor measure, «king».25 Such a praxis, it is to be noted, agreed with that followed by the papal chancellery in the numerous letters exchanged with Portugal and Ethiopia during the same period.26 The second perception, which pervaded up to the second half of the century, was shared by the «lower» class and unlearned priests and adventurers, groups to which, to a certain extent, Alvares, Bermudes, Castanhoso and Correia belonged. 27 In it the Preste was the most common term designating both Ethiopia and the néguú.28 24 On Albuquerque see Letter from 4 December 1513, in: R. A. DE BULHAO PATO (ed.), Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque seguidas de documentos que as elucidam, vol. 1, Lisboa 1884, Carta XLI, 230; on Gois, see his Fides, religio, moresque sub imperio Pretiosi Ioannis (quem vulgo Presbyterum Ioannem vocant) degentium, una cum enarratione confoederationis ac amicitiem inter ipsos a Aethiopum Imperatores, & Reges Lusitaniae initae, Lovanii 1540; on Couto, see Da Asia-Decada VII [1612] Lisboa 1777, ibid., Decada VII [1616], 1782. 25 Such a «class» divide has to be taken with caution, though, as members of the learned «classes» also reported marvelous descriptions of Ethiopia, similar to those associated with Prester John. See for instance Paolo Giovio’s phantasies on Ethiopia as reported in: RENATO LEFEVRE, «Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del Medioevo e del Rinascimento (Parte Prima)», Annali Lateranensi 8, 1944, 9–89, here 71f. 26 Most of the Papal letters were published by LEVY MARIA JORDÃO (ed.), Documenta historiam ecclesiae habessinorum … [LEVY MARIA JORDÃO, Bullarium Patronatus Portugalliae Regum], Appendix — Tomus I, Olissipone 1872; JOÃO AUGUSTO DA GRAÇA BARRETO (ed.), Documenta historiam ecclesiae habessinorum… (ibid.), Appendix — Tomus III, Olissipone 1879; some appear also in RASO X. 27 On Alvares and Correia’s lack of education see MICHAEL KLEINER, «Alvares, Francisco», in: EÆ I, 213ff.; ID., «Correa, Gaspar», in: EÆ I, 804f. As for Castanhoso, he was a simple lay soldier and veteran of Christovão da Gama’s expedition. 28 FRANCISCO ÁLVARES, Verdadera informação das terras do Preste João das Índias [1540], ed. by NEVES ÁGUAS, Mem-Martins: Portugal 1989; MIGUEL DE CASTANHOSO, Dos Feitos de D. Christovam da Gama em Ethiopia [1565], ed. by FRANCISCO MARIA ESTEVES PEREIRA, Lisboa 1898; GASPAR CORREIA, Crónicas de D. Manuel e de D. Joao III (até 1533), ed. by JOSÉ PEREIRA DA COSTA, Lisboa 1992; ID., Lendas da India [ca. 1550], Lenden 1976, vols. II, IV.

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A second characteristic of the Portuguese texts was the shaping of narratives with great ethnographic insight but yet with an underlying eurocentrism. Lusitan narratives on Ethiopia proved much more detailed than any European account had been before. They fostered accurate knowledge on the political structure of Christian Ethiopia and, with ethnographic sensibility, referred to particularities such as local lords (bah³ér nägað, ras), royal practices (imprisonment at Amba Guishen), provincial and ethnic composition (Šäwa, Tégre, Amhara), etc. In parallel, however, the sheer ignorance in the texts of some key features of Ethiopia betray an underlying political agenda: this is well epitomized by their use of the title of néguú. To be sure, they did not ignore this title: for instance, in the closing chapter to the widely-read Verdadera Relaçam, Alvares argued that «the Prester John is called ‘acegue’, which means ‘emperor’, and is also called negus, which means ‘king’».29 However, neither he nor the numerous writers who used his text thought it necessary to use the indigenous concept, preferring rather to handle a confusing kaleidoscope of terms, which included Preste, Pretiosi Ioannis, Señor, Rey, Imperador, Rey Emperador and David, sometimes overlapping in one and the same text30 . A rare exception was the French political writer Jean Bodin, a reader of Alvares, who in his work La République repeatedly referred to «le Grand Negus d’Ethiopie».31 Thus, the century of the Portuguese-Ethiopian embassies, of the intense diplomatic exchanges, offered a paradox: the Ethiopian néguú, despite progressively unveiling its mysteries to Europe, was still a prisoner of an age-old European imagination. It appeared that the néguúwas to be defined externally, namely by way of what the Europeans believed him to be; but at the same time, without the Europeans being able to tell exactly who he was. «O Preste João se chama ‘acague’, que quer dizer ‘imperador’, e se chama ‘negus’, que quer dizer ‘rei’»; ALVARES, Verdadera informação, Part II, ch. IX, p. 291. 30 As an example of the Portuguese muddled use of language stands Alvares, who in reference to Lébnä Déngél coined such a term as «rei David Preste João»; ALVARES, Verdadera informação, Part I, ch. LX, p. 123; ch. LXII, p. 126. The Portuguese vagueness in naming the néguí was related to the synonymous and alternate use they made of «Preste», «Abassia» and «Ethiopia», as geographic loci of the Christian kingdom. António Vasconcelos de Saldanha, in an interesting article on the role of ideology and law in the Portuguese expansion, shows that Portuguese tradition was as precise and coherent as any other in the use of titles, although some chroniclers could give free hand to imperial exaltations; See ANTÓNIO VASCONCELOS DE SALDANHA, «Conceito de espaço e poder e seus reflexos na titulação regia portuguesa da epoca da expansão», in: JEAN AUBIN, La découverte, le Portugal et l’Europe, 105–129, here 117ff. Saldanha’s study is perhaps a hint that the «problem» with Ethiopia lay less in a lack of ideas in Portugal than in the absence of a clear purpose: what the Portuguese wanted in Ethiopia — a diplomatic exchange, a «colony», a mission, a partnership… — they did not really know. 31 JEAN BODIN, Les six livres de la République [1576], Paris 1986, 38, 43, 55, 126. 29

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The Birth of a Jesuit Imperial Narrative The Jesuit mission was a direct heir of this state of affairs. The project of a mission of conversion to Ethiopia was the outcome of a multiple imagination, with mythical, geopolitical and missionary layers; the fascination with the Preste, the pursuit of a powerful Emperor, and the response to a call from a pious king were intermingled in one unique project. It comes then as no surprise that during the early years of the mission, the Jesuits and non-Jesuits — colonial personnel, high clergy — engaged in such a project used topoi inherited from previous generations. From the Jesuit general Ignatius of Loyola to the visitor Valignano and the Patriarch Oviedo, from King João III to Pope Julius III and Viceroy Pedro Mascarenhas, the néguú received the whole assortment of titles mentioned above — except that of the néguú.32 With the unfolding of the mission, however, an interesting evolution takes place. The Jesuits living in Ethiopia and those in direct contact with them at Goa, initially happy with the term «Preste» — much cherished by Loyola himself33 — progressively came to adopt the term «king». The missionaries remained faithful to this term during the first three decades of the first mission, and also used the term «Sua Alteza» ‘His Highness’, which was the form of address for kings in the 16th-cent. Iberian Peninsula.34 It could be argued that by then the missionaries, well informed of the Ethiopian reality, had realised that the limited power held by the néguú — at the time Minas and later his son Íärsä Déngél — as well as his meagre territorial dominions, were best expressed by the more modest topoi the Portuguese had hitherto been using. Be this as it may, such a praxis was an important step in bringing some form of coherence to the muddled European imagination on the Christian Ethiopian ruler. The consistent use of the term «king» and the peerage «Sua Alteza» meant that the once mythical Preste was fully and with no equivoc incorporated into the secular symbolism of Western political categories. Henceforth the néguú would be treated by the missionaries as an European-like king that they could serve and try to reform, in the same way their peers were so successfully doing in a number of European courts. 32 To gather evidence I generally limited the search to RASO X–XII; both for practical reasons, since this collection allows a handy and quick use of a large amount of data, and because the documents published there are largely representative of Portuguese and Jesuit ideas on Ethiopia. 33 «Recuerdos que podrán ayudar para la reducción de los reinos del Preste Juan…», in: S. IGNACIO DE LOYOLA, Obras, ed. by CANDIDO DE DALMASES — MANUEL RUIZ JURADO — IGNACIO I PARRAGUIRRE , Madrid 1997, 1042–1050. 34 Father Manoel Fernandes in: RASO X, 148f., 211, 307, 330; father Antonio Fernandes, ibid., 347f. Loyola himself addressed to Gälawdewos as «V. A.»; letter of 22 February 1555, Roma, in: LOYOLA, Obras, 1035–1042.

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At the same time, although the term «Preste» survived well into the 17th cent., especially in the discourse of the Spanish and Portuguese royal chancelleries, the incorporation of the néguú into a secular political imagination — «king», «Sua Alteza» — paved the way for further experiments in political labeling. These further «experiments» came just before the fall of the first mission. In a letter sent in 1587, the Jesuit missionary Antonio Fernandes, who was to die in Ethiopia in 1593, explained to Pope Sixtus V the state of affairs in the mission: i. e., an abandoned flock of Catholics, a well disposed but hesitating king, etc. But he also pushed forth an idea the missionaries had for some years been maturing: the envoy to the Ethiopian highlands of a Portuguese naval expedition, which by stopping Oromo internal incursions, would strengthen the kingdom and convince the king and his subjects of the benefits of conversion. The interesting point was that, in Fernandes’ own words, the success of this project would finally render Íärsä Déngél «a true Emperor and permanent lord both over his own and over other neighbouring peoples he had never ruled upon»; or, as he would also say, «the biggest king and Emperor ever seen in Ethiopia».35 Significantly, after this letter the Imperial topoi, slowly but solidly, gained terrain and the use of the term «king» was progressively abandoned. The missionary that was to replace Antonio Fernandes, Pedro Paez, is perhaps the one most clearly epitomizing the evolution in the forms of address. Paez, who due to a seven year-long imprisonment in Yemen could only reach the Ethiopian highlands in 1603, adopted since the beginning of his successful career an Imperial discourse. In the letters he sent to Europe and India, he repeatedly refered to both Zä-Déngél and Susényos as Emperors and coherently swaped the peerage, from Sua Alteza to Sua Majestad.36 Although the peerage Sua Majestad, originally first used by Charles V and later adopted by all the European monarchies, was not exclusive to Emperors, its use by Paez tells of the elevated and well established status the Ethiopian kingship had in European eyes: not more but not less respectful than its European counterparts. Paez was later followed by other Jesuits in adopting this imperial discourse. With them the Imperial topoi took hold. If up to their arrival the imperial terms had been reduced to those of Emperor and Empire, with the second round of missionaries the whole Christian kingdom acquired an imperial aura. As early as 1605 Paez refered to the wäyzäro as the Empress, something that «…Com eles a de ser verdadeiro Emperador e fixo senhor dos seus e doutros muitos vezinos, que nunca forão seu»; «o maior rei e Emperador que nunca ouve em Ethiopia…»; Letter of Antonio Fernandes to Sixtus V, 12 July 1587, in: RASO X, 339–354, here 343, 348. 36 For instance, Letter to the Jesuit Provincial in Goa, 29 July 1605, Fremona, in: RASO XI, 63–74. 35

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later became normal practice.37 Similarly, the important position of bah³é r nägað was for the first time identified, not as a simple governor, but as Viceroy of the coastal province, an expression, needless to say, which was brand new in the European discourses on Ethiopia and was also opposed to any indigenous tradition. Likewise, the governors of other provinces (Gog-gam, Dämbéya) were also to be called viceroys and the provinces themselves turned into internal «reinos», or kingdoms. The empire, albeit yet only in a rhetorical way, was taking shape. Although here and then the terms «king» and «Preste» appeared — especially in letters from the civil administration, — the imperial discourse was defintely consolidated by the first decade of the 17th cent.38 From then up to the time of the expulsion, this will be the dominant form of representing the néguú and his kingdom in Portuguese India and in Europe.

Rhetoric and Power What lay the origins of the Jesuit imperial discourse? Although a proper answer to this question would demand a larger and more detailed study than that given here, the evidence presented above does enable the drafting of a hypothesis. The imperial derive, rather than a pure feature of missionary rhetoric, has to be seen as a sign of something of a concrete reality. It was one aspect of a global political project that emerged within the missionary enterprise and that would only blossom by the third decade of functioning of this mission, as the figures of the late Antonio Fernandes and the early Pedro Paez seem to prove. This project, by no way present in the instructions written by Saint Ignatius or even during the troubled years of Oviedo’s «monastic» patriarchate in Féremona, had as its central element the political empowerment of the néguú. The Jesuits of the second generation, who initially aimed at a simple mission of conversion (be it through a «top to bottom» strategy), seem to have perceived not only the difficulties of a «religious» approach amidst a well rooted and extremely conservative clergy, but also the possibilities that the ambitious but weak Christian Ethiopian rulers opened up to their skills in statesmanship. It is also important to emphasize that the birth of an «Ethiopian Empire» was linked to a more global phenomena. This came at a time when in Europe, after the failed attempt of Charles V, the old notion of a single universal Empire was being replaced by national «Empires», which, in a scattered form, sponsored the old quest for universal order under one single religion.39 Abroad, See, e. g., RASO XI, 71ff. Of which the most pronounced attestation is the famous description of Ethiopian Empire by Manoel d’Almeida (RASO V, 9), and, even more, in the map of Ethiopia which accompanies his work: ibid., Tab. I after p. LXIV. 37 38

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a number of states encountered by the Europeans began also to be perceived under the same light: Japan and China, for instance, where the Jesuit narratives suffered at the turn of the 17th cent. a similar evolution as that seen with Ethiopia.40 Christian Ethiopia, then, began to play a role in western geopolitics. The Jesuits tried there to fulfil a modern western wish: that of having an Oriental Emperor as a truthful, friendly ally, perhaps a mirror of the Spanish Philips who, the offspring of a true Emperor, pursued westwards similar dreams where faith and political dominion were equally intermingled. One shall also see in the Jesuit project the intention of importing to the Ethiopian highlands a formula that was guiding the centralising dynamics within the European monarchies: the «rex imperator in regno suo».41 The néguú was a full Christian ally, who, some errors in faith appart, was well entitled, under the guidance of the Jesuits, to become a true Emperor. It still remains to be seen, however, how such an imperial project was put into practice. A further task, thus, would be a historical ethnography of the most intense years of the mission, those guided by intelligent personalities such as Paez, Almeida, Acevedo and Antonio Fernandes junior. A study of some key Jesuit biographies, the fascinating life in the residence of Gorgora, or the transformation endured, under the sway of the group of new «courtisans», by the figure of the néguú — in its symbolic (attire, discourse) and pragmatic dimensions (political decisions) — would provide interesting material to understand how political action and missionary praxis interacted with missionary narratives. Furthermore, the role played by the Ethiopian ruling class in the making of an Ethiopian Empire needs to be analysed: did the two pro-Jesuit néguú, Zä-Déngél and Susényos, know they were «Emperors» in European eyes? What role did this idea play in their sudden welcoming of the Jesuits priests? 42 The purpose of this paper was to draw the attention to the shaping during the times of Portuguese engagement in Ethiopia of as pervasive a term as that FRANCIS A. YATES, «Charles Quint et l’idée d’Empire», in: JEAN JACQUOT (ed.), Les fêtes de la Renaissance, II: Fêtes et cérémonies au temps de Charles Quint, Paris 1960, 57–97, here 87, 96. 40 Evidence can be easily gathered in the Jesuit annual letters from these Asiatic missions. 41 See HANS-JOACHIM KÖNIG, Monarchia Mundi und Res Publica christiana. Die Bedeutung des mittelalterlichen Imperium Romanum für die politische Ideenwelt Kaiser Karls V. und seiner Zeit, Hamburg 1969, 14ff. 42 In developing further these questions, the late Sevir B. Chernetsov’s incisive contributions to the study of Susényos’s reign are still extremely valuable and stimulating; see, e. g., SEVIR CHERNETSOV, «The Role of Catholicism in the History of Ethiopia the First Half of the 17th Century», in: CLAUDE LEPAGE — ÉTIENNE DELAGE (eds.), Études Éthiopiennes. Actes de la Xe conférence internationale des études éthiopiennes, Paris, 24–28 août 1988, vol. 1, Paris 1994, 205–212. 39

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of Emperor of Ethiopia. The Jesuits did not invent the term «Emperor of Ethiopia». This title had been applied to the néguú since the early years of the Renaissance. As happened with the terms «king», «Prester John», etc., the missionaries inherited a whole set of diverging imaginations. Their importance lay in the fact that they reduced them into a single notion, consolidating the idea first of an Ethiopian king and, later, of an Ethiopian Emperor. By way of their systematic and coherent use they rendered such a political fiction tenable and persisting: the néguú actually «became» the Emperor of Ethiopia, at least within the European imagination. After them, and the divulgation of their ideas by the «father of Ethiopian studies», Hiob Ludolph, that topos would reach much wider and distant fields; one, not unimportant, was that of historiographical discourse, where the image of an emperor proved too appealing to conform to philological accuracy.

SUMMARY This paper explores the changing perception of the Ethiopian royal institution and of its head in Portuguese and Jesuit narratives during the 16th and 17th cent. It focuses in particular on representations of the «emperor» through a reading of well-known narratives — Alvares, Castanhoso, Paez, Almeida, Tellez — as well as of missionary correspondence, it reconstructs the different representations of the Ethiopian monarch: from the mythical status of the «Prester John», enjoyed in the first half of the 16th cent., the néguú came to gain the secular grandeur of «Emperor of Ethiopia», half a century later. The dynamics of such a process, and its political implications, are here examined.

Ronny Meyer Mainz University

RIDDLES AS INDICATOR OF CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC CONVERGENCE IN THE GURAGE REGION* Ethiopia as a language and culture area More than 70 languages belonging to four different language groups are spoken in Ethiopia.1 Most of these languages have only a few thousand speakers, who are usually bi- or multilingual.2 Also among speakers of major languages bi- and multilingualism is a very widespread phenomenon. The majority of Ethiopian languages are not taught at schools. Speakers gain their proficiency in second languages from face-to-face contacts. This multilingualism is not a recent development but has prevailed for several centuries, as Ethiopian languages have converged in parts of their lexicon, grammar and syntax. The investigation of the Ethiopian language convergence area has been a major topic both in Ethiopian studies3 and in general linguistics for a long time.4

I am grateful to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; HSP III) and the SFB 295 Kulturelle und sprachliche Kontakte (Cultural and language contacts) at Mainz University financed by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) who both have supported my several field stays in Ethiopia from 1998 through 2004. Furthermore, I thank the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) at Addis Ababa University for its cooperation. 1 The analysis and description of Ethiopian cultures and languages was one main topic in the work of the late Sevir B. Chernetsov, who, being interested in a number of topics ranging from the early medieval Ethiopian history to Ethiopian folklore painting, also focused soberly, but often with humor, on the connection between social, political and environmental circumstances, on the one hand, and cultural and languages developments, on the other hand. The present article has been inspired by CHERNETSOV (1980) [for the list of abbreviations used in this paper see p. 186–188], in which he investigates the creation of a socialist nomenclature for Amharic. He clearly outlines the historical roots of cognitive concepts and their influence on the respective choice of new terms among Amharic speakers. 2 Cf. MEYER — RICHTER 2003:79ff. 3 Cf. FERGUSSON 1976; HAYWARD 2000; LESLAU 1945; 1952. 4 Cf. THOMASON — KAUFMANN 1988:133ff. and THOMASON 2001:86. Recently, TOSCO 2000 has raised doubts about the linguistic hypotheses used to postulate the Ethiopian language convergence area and denies its existence. *

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The Ethiopian culture or cultures have also drawn the attention of anthropologists and historians. Classical works most often suppose a common culture for all Ethiopian peoples. These works are biased in favor of the Christian highlanders, i.e. the ancestors of today’s Amhara and Tigrinya speaking communities.5 For such authors convergence means unilateral assimilation of ethnic groups towards the favored «Amhara culture». The focus, therefore, is on a kind of imaginary cultural unity within Ethiopia. Levine even goes further and proposes an «Ethiopian culture area» characterized by several social and socio-economic features.6 Another kind of description of ethnic groups in Ethiopia and their respective cultures and histories deals mainly with single communities and pays little attention to the interrelationship between different neighboring groups and/or conquerors.7 Such descriptions concentrate on features which are characteristic for the particular ethnic group in a locally bounded context. Only a few works try to unite both aspects, i. e. to describe the specific features of an ethnic group in relation to a general Ethiopian context.8 In the following I will demonstrate how language and cultural contacts between neighboring communities can influence each other within a small area. I will deal with the Gurage languages Muher, Zay and Wolane. Gurage languages are spoken in an area whose boundaries extend roughly to the River Awash in the north, Lake Zway in the east and the River Gibe in the west and southwest. There are approximately twelve Gurage languages, which belong to two different sub-branches: East Gurage and Gunnän-Gurage.9 While Wolane and Zay belong to separate branches within East Gurage, Muher is a representative of Gunnän-Gurage. Beside Gurage languages, Amharic and Oromo are also of importance as linguae francae. While Oromo is restricted to the northern and eastern parts of the Gurage region, Amharic is the language of administration and education throughout Ethiopia. Most Gurage speakers are multilingual. Beside Amharic and/or Oromo they often speak further Gurage languages. Historically, the Gurage region became a permanent part of the Ethiopian empire only at the end of the 19th cent. Since then Amharic has grown continuously into its function as national lingua franca. Due to the changed sociopolitical circumstances a Gurage-«diaspora» emerged in Addis Ababa, which had an important function as intermediator between the government and the local people.10 However, long before Amharic started to influence Gurage Cf. among others HAMMERSCHMIDT 1967; PANKHURST 1955 and ULLENDORFF 1960. LEVINE 1974:46. 7 Cf. HABERLAND 1963; HUNTINGFORD 1955; SHACK 1966. 8 See for instance BRAUKÄMPER 1980; MARKAKIS 1998. 9 Cf. HETZRON 1977. 10 Cf. MARKAKIS 1998. 5 6

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languages heavily, there were undoubtedly many permanent contacts with Oromo, especially for East Gurage and Kistane communities. These contacts started with the Jihad of Mohammed al-Ghazi (Graññ) in the 16th cent. and continued with the Oromo migration from the southern parts of today’s Ethiopia to the north. Socio-economically, the Gurage have been said to belong to a common culture area characterized by the cultivation of Ensete edulis or false banana.11 At the borders of the Gurage area and in elevated places, however, cattle breeding and the cultivation of crops instead of Ensete edulis can also be found. In regard to religion Gurage are both Muslims and Christians. Local religious practices, too, such as Boþ- and Dämwawit-cults, are still present. This diversity suggests that Gurage cultures in fact represent a network of several close and weak ties which are able to integrate or to react to innovations and contact-induced changes.12 The term «culture» is interpreted as communicative processes that result in social constructions of reality and their objectivations.13 Obviously, culture is not a static system but has the ability to change in the course of time.

The riddle as research topic in verbal art Riddles, which are an important part of oral art, represent a special type of social phenomenon.14 Language is used to transfer social constructions or concepts between individuals. When in a region different communities have intense, long-lasting contacts without dominating each other — as is the case in the Gurage area — their languages and cultures may converge over time. But before giving a detailed description of the convergence processes in Muher, Wolane and Zay, I will deal with the genre of riddle from a general point of view. The collection and description of riddles was already a major topic in verbal art research at the end of the 19th cent.15 Although several riddle corpora from all parts of the world exist, there is no single generally accepted definition of the genre of riddle. An often-quoted and modified definition goes back to R. Petsch at the end of the 19th cent. It involves a structural description of riddles encompassing not only the plain riddle per se but also introductory and concluding frames.16 The framing of a riddle is said to be of special importance only for African languages, while in most other riddle Cf. SHACK 1966. Cf. MARKAKIS 1998. 13 I refer to a working definition of culture which is currently used in the SFB 295. 14 HARRIES 1971:377. 15 For an overview see EVANS 1976:166ff or HAMNETT 1967:379ff. 16 For a critical summary of Petsch’s work see GEORGES — DUNDES 1963:111. 11

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corpora (e. g., English or Finnish) it either does not exist or is only an optional stylistic device.17 Thus, the plain riddle has been the main focus of attention. Consequently, definitions of riddles concentrated only on ambiguities originating out of metaphors or the presence of contradictory expressions.18 Later, however, riddles without contradicting expressions came into consideration, yielding the following definition: «…[T]he riddle has been defined as a traditional verbal expression which contains one or more descriptive elements, a pair of which may be in opposition; the referent of the elements is to be guessed. Two general categories of riddles are (1) nonoppositional, in which there is no contradiction to be found […], and (2) oppositional, in which at least one pair of descriptive elements is in contradiction. The nonoppositional riddles may be literal or metaphorical […] Oppositional riddles are almost always metaphorical or a combination of metaphorical and literal descriptions».19 The metaphor is, thus, the main point of interest in non-literary riddles, which are also called true riddles. According to Maranda metaphors are semantic interpretations of certain concepts based on a set of cultural (or better cognitive) rules, which may differ considerably among several communities.20 Lieber modifies Maranda’s approach in the direction of a semantic analysis and states: «…the true riddle is a semantic game that manipulates the properties of objects, categories, and classes. The game is played at the level of signification of the semantic system of the language».21 Lieber distinguishes three different semantic levels: signification, denotation and connotation. The level of signification involves the defining properties for items or classes in the real and social world. When several properties are tied together they may represent natural or social constructions which get a linguistic realization as word or phrase on the level of denotation. A denotatum may have connotations of certain qualities. A true riddle, thus, consists of a denotatum, in the form of a metaphor, with additional descriptive properties from the signification level. Significantly, the denotatum and the additional properties seem to contradict each other. This contradiction emerges because the additional properties are not inherent to the class described by the denotatum. The riddle solver, therefore, has to rearrange certain properties of the denotatum in order to get the answer of the riddle.22 GEORGE — DUNDES 1963:113; HARRIES 1971:380, 383; MARANDA 1976:133. Cf. GEORGE — DUNDES 1963:111; HARRIES 1976:325. 19 GEORGES — DUNDES 1963:116. 20 MARANDA 1976:130. 21 LIEBER 1976:261. 22 LIEBER 1976:259f. 17 18

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Green and Pepicello (1984) make a new distinction regarding the source of ambiguity in a riddle. They distinguish metaphorically and grammatically based riddles. While metaphorically based riddles use ambiguities arising from cultural categories or constructions, grammatically based riddles represent ambiguities in the phonology, morphology, and/or syntax of the language system.23 This is a very important distinction because it implicates that language and culture have to be treated separately. There are cases where one culture may contain several languages and vice versa. It is also common sense that the social environment is tightly connected to the content of riddles.24 People not belonging to a given culture, therefore, may not understand the meaning of its riddles without an explanation.25 When a culture or society changes due to social and socio-economic circumstances, the content and the function of riddles will change, too. Maranda states, for instance, that the riddle in Finnish has lost its popularity and its social function due to modernization processes like increasing literacy and spread of mass media.26 Many scholars also believe that riddles are more productive and have a wider range of functions in non-literate societies.27 Probably the different status of riddles in literate and non-literate societies affects the process of learning or creating riddles. Maranda, who deals with Finnish riddles, describes riddling as a process in which the riddle poser uses his cognitive abilities to create new riddles or to react to a new environment.28 Other authors,29 however, describe riddling not as an active cognitive procedure but as memorization, arguing that very often only one traditionally or culturally sanctioned answer is accepted as the solution of a riddle even if other alternative answers also fit. Green and Perpicello combine both approaches. According to them children first learn culturally sanctioned riddles and reproduce them. Only when the corpus of traditional riddles is exhausted are new riddles invented.30 The invention of new riddles, according to Lieber, combines known structures of riddling with new concepts: «[A riddle] serves to structure change by incorporating new categories and new properties into the existing set, and by relating new categories and new properties to old ones in its usual process of teasing apart and recombining properties».31 GREEN — PEPICELLO 1984:201. GREEN — PEPICELLO 1984:191; HAMNETT 1967:379; LIEBER 1976:262; MARANDA 1976:128. 25 HARRIES 1976:324. 26 MARANDA 1976:128. 27 Cf. HARRIES 1971:378; MARANDA 1976:128. 28 MARANDA 1976:131. 29 Cf. HAMNETT 1967:385; HARRIES 1976:320. 30 GREEN — PERPICELLO 1984:192. 31 LIEBER 1976:263. 23 24

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The incorporation of new categories and properties into existing structures may trigger a change of these structures and the loss of old metaphors. However, reanalysis of old constructions towards a new denotatum will in turn produce new metaphors. A characteristic feature of this changing process is the existence of more than one correct answer to a riddle within the cultural and social background of the riddlers. The study of the riddle in Ethiopian languages started32 with Mittwoch, to the best of my knowledge. Mittwoch’s article provides 10 riddles in Amharic with a translation into German with additional remarks on linguistic phenomena.33 Later Leslau presents a very impressive collection of riddles in several Gurage languages. The riddles are translated into English with annotations regarding grammatical forms and, less often, cultural phenomena. The main focus is on the linguistic, not on the cultural, interpretation of the riddles.34 A thorough study of riddles in Oromo has been done by Tamene Bitima. He lists more than eighty riddles in Oromo with an English translation and gives additional information on the riddling process, i. e. the cultural background of riddling.35

Riddles in Muher, Wolane and Zay In the following section I will concentrate mainly on my own riddle collections in Muher, Wolane and Zay,36 i. e. Ethiosemitic languages for which no riddle corpus has been published so far.

Formal observations Among the Muher, Wolane and Zay, riddles are used for entertainment and also for educational purposes among youngsters. Older men and women know riddles but usually do not pose them freely. To the best of my knowledge, there are no riddle sessions lasting for an hour or so as described by Evans.37 The main occasions for riddling are the early evening hours when day’s work has been done, during coffee ceremonies or other informal meetings or while breeding cattle. 32 I consider here only bilingual works with English or German as metalanguage for explaining/translating the riddle corpora. Beside these works there are many monolingual riddle collections in the respective languages and bilingual riddle collections with Amharic as metalanguage (cf. among others ZÄRIHUN ASFAW 1992:38ff. and 69f.), which are not easily accessible. 33 MITTWOCH 1907:209ff. 34 LESLAU 1965; 1967/68; 1982. 35 TAMENE BITIMA 2004. 36 The riddles were collected during my linguistic field researches on Gurage languages from 1998 through 2004. 37 EVANS 1976:171ff.

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In all three languages — Muher, Wolane and Zay — the riddle is a special text genre with a similar structure consisting of three parts: i. introductory frame; ii. plain riddle; iii. concluding frame. In the introductory frame one of the riddlers signals by a formal phrase that he intends to pose a riddle. When another riddler is ready to solve the riddle he will agree, again using a strict formula (cf. Appendix I). These formulas are repeated with every new riddle. After the introductory frame the plain riddle follows. When the riddle-solver knows the right answer the concluding frame is quite short. The riddle poser acknowledges that the riddle is solved using the formula «You know it!» The riddle solver or another person can now take his turn and pose a new riddle. In the case the riddle was not solved another common routine for giving the solution exists. The riddle poser first asks for a place name (village or town). Then the riddle solver starts to enumerate several places. Normally the riddle poser will not accept the first place and asks for more prestigious places. A place can be given only once during a riddle session. When the riddle poser has chosen a place of his convenience, which can take a certain amount of time, he recounts all the activities he intends to do at this place. In a joking manner he also may use these activities in order to insult the riddle solver (see examples in Appendix I). Finally, the riddle poser names the solution and the session continues with a new introductory frame. Every riddle is thus enclosed within a formal structure.

Semantic and Cognitive Observations Riddles can be classified according to the semantic field described by the answer,38 as has been done in Appendix II. The following semantic groupings were found: house and household utensils, working tools and places (outside the house), food, body parts, animals and plants, nature and others. Although the collected riddle corpora are very small and differ in number, the majority of riddles deal with items from the house and household utensils, followed by riddles dealing with nature, animals and rarely plants. Body parts are quite an unusual topic. According to Georges and Dundes, there are two basic semantic differences in the content of the riddle: A riddle can either be oppositional or nonoppositional. Among nonoppositional riddles there are literal or metaphorical riddles. Literal riddles consist simply of a wh-word question, with the wh-word itself refering to the answer of the riddle.39 Almost all riddles in Muher, Wolane and Zay are based on metaphor; only one literal riddle was found in the Wolane example (56). Although there exist nonoppositional riddles they are relatively few. Good examples for nonoppo38 39

Cf. MARANDA 1976:135. GEORGES — DUNDES 1963:113ff.

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sitional riddles are examples (7), (9), (10), (14), (20) for Muher; (33), (40), (43), (45), (50), (55), (56), (60) for Wolane and (68) for Zay. The majority of the riddles, however, involve metaphorical expressions with an opposition. Most of them contain a proposition followed by a further comment or modification which seems to be contradictory to the proposition, i. e. (2), (4), (15) for Muher; (23), (36), (57) for Wolane and (64), (66), (69) for Zay. Riddles consisting of a proposition followed by more than one modification are rare. They appear only in Wolane (33), (42), (53) and all involve nonoppositional metaphors. Thus, the main vehicle for posing a riddle in Muher, Wolane and Zay is the metaphor. There are no grammatically based riddles which appeal to ambiguities of the language system. Although the corpora are very limited there are cases where the riddle-answer in different languages coincides. Some riddles use the same metaphors although they belong to different languages. Almost identical are the Muher and Wolane metaphors for coffee pot and coffee cups which are the central utensils of the coffee ceremony in every Gurage house. The coffee pot is always black and made of clay; the coffee cups are mostly white. The respective metaphors, riddles (6) and (26), refer to the coffee pot as mother and to the cups as children. A contradiction arises due to the naming of the respective colors. A similar metaphor of mother and child is used when referring to the traditional mill in Wolane and Zay, as can be seen from riddles (25) and (65). This mill consists of a large, fixed stone at the bottom — the mother — and a small, movable stone — the child — for grinding the crops. The mother is also a metaphor in riddles (13) for Muher and (51) for Wolane, here referring to the earth. A traditional woman’s garment consists of a dress which is tied by binding a long narrow belt made from cotton several times around the hips. This belt is the metaphor for the term way, which also has no apparent starting and ending point. Very similar are the metaphors for an obstacle in Muher (12) and Wolane (55). Both languages indicate that an obstacle may damage the skin of a foot like the skin of onions when peeled or like crops in a mill when crashed. The idea that something is thrown away in the morning and taken up in the evening is used to refer to a rope for tying cattle inside the house. In the morning, cattle are taken away and the rope with which they have been tied is thrown onto the ground. In the evening, when they return, the rope is taken up again for tying them up. Different metaphors for the same denotatum may appear across several languages, as well as within a single language. Thus, we find different metaphors for fire of a fireplace in Muher (3) against Wolane (21), for door of a house in Wolane (31) and (32) against Zay (67), and for butter in Wolane (39) and (40) against Zay (67). Wolane speaker very often can use different metaphors to refer to a single denotatum, e. g., riddles (22) and (23), which both refer to the small hole of a fire place inside the house, riddles (31) and (32),

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referring to a door, riddles (39) and (40), referring to butter and riddles (43) and (44) referring to an ant. The reverse case, where one metaphor refers to two denotata, also appears as in Muher riddle (3) or in Wolane (58). Although the riddle corpora in Muher, Wolane and Zay are quite limited, they show that these languages use an identical mechanism for posing riddles. Surprisingly, there are also numerous cases of identical metaphors used by speakers of two separate languages to refer to the same denotatum.

Linguistic observations While Muher énqwit and Wolane wunqwit are used to express the concept «riddle», we find the term hibbô in Zay. The term *(w)énq( w)it appears, furthermore, in all Gurage languages except Zay. Leslau proposes a Cushitic origin for this term and compares it with Kabeena unqwîta and Alaba yûnqiti.40 He also mentions the possibility that there might exist a connection to Amharic énqoqélléð and Tigrinya hénqéhénqéllitäy, both meaning «riddle».41 The Zay lexeme hibbô seems to be of Cushitic origin connected with Sidaama hibbó and with Oromo hibbo.42 Kabeena and Alaba are closely related Highland East Cushitic languages which are spoken in areas adjacent to the Gurage. Based on oral traditions from the Gurage region and the reconstruction of the sociolinguistic environment and mechanism in the language contact situation between Kabeena and Wolane,43 it appears highly improbable that the majority of the Gurage languages borrowed the lexeme *(w)énq( w)it from either Kabeena or Alaba. The main reason for this conclusion is that Kabeena and Alaba people may speak Gurage languages but Gurage people usually do not know Kabeena or Alaba. Highland East Cushitic languages are of very low prestige among Gurage speakers. Furthermore, the Kabeena migrated towards their present living place relatively late, in the 19th cent., so that it is quite unlikely that they had such an impact on the Gurage languages. This is also indicated by the fact that other Highland and Lowland East Cushitic languages use the term hibbo. I would propose, therefore, a different etymology for the term *(w)énq( w)it. GéŸéz roots beginning with a glottal or pharyngeal consonant (stop or fricative) often have cognates in East Gurage languages beginning only with a glottal stop. In addition they possess an inserted nasal n just in front of the second radical.44 The Gurage term *(w)énq( w)it may, thus, represent a reconstructed root consisting of a glottal stop emerging from a pharynLESLAU 1979a:512; 1979b:72. LESLAU 1979b:72. 42 LESLAU 1979b:231. 43 For the oral traditions see among others CRASS — MEYER 2001:176. A language contact situation in between Kabeena and Wolane is described in CRASS — MEYER 2005. 44 Cf. HETZRON 1969; 1972:42. 40 41

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geal fricative, a labial element and the ejective plosive q. Such a root in fact exists in GéŸéz: Ÿ oqa~Ÿ wq «know, understand».45 The final -t of *(w)énq( w)it as well as the vocalization pattern may represent a Semitic template for nominals. In the verbal domain of Gurage languages, too, we find a root *Ýn-q which also may be connected to *(Ÿ / w)nq > *nq «to know, to understand». Words built from the root *Ýn-q survive only as special imperatives néý é (masc.) / néq j (fem.) «what shall I know for you (masc./fem.)» in Muher and nuý (masc.) / nuý i (fem.) in Wolane. These imperatives are restricted to the introductory frame of riddles; they do not appear in other contexts or paradigms. This means that different nominal and verbal forms of a lexeme referring to the semantic concept of knowing or understanding appear in the introductory frame. The semantic interpretation of the root *Ýn-q would fit into the Amharic riddle frame, where productive imperatives of the verb awwäqä «to know» still exist. There is, however, one problem with this reconstruction. The imperatives behave like biradical verbs. The nasal element n, therefore, must be considered a true radical assuming its own position in the root, and is thus not an adjunct to the second radical as was proposed above. This may suggest either that the nasal element was reanalyzed from a kind of epenthetic consonant to become a true radical, or that the root is, after all, not cognate with GéŸéz Ÿ oqa~Ÿ wq «know, understand». In the latter case there is a further possible candidate for the origin of the root *Ýn-q or even *(w)énq( w)it. It may be represented by the GéŸéz interjection Ÿ énqw⟠«aha!, bravo! well now, hurrah! hail!»46 In East Gurage languages the glottal stop and the pharyngeal fricative would disappear diachronically. What remains then is a root *Ýn-q-a, the pharyngeal fricative having left its trace in a vocalic radical. Semantically a kind of imperative would fit better into the introductory frame of Muher and Wolane because the riddle solver’s utterance is more an exclamation than a true question. To refer to the verbal expression «to riddle», a compound consisting of the noun for riddle and the verb for «to tell» is used in most of the Gurage languages.47 This may indicate that the lexeme *(w)énq( w)it should be considered a loan or at least an archaic form in the Gurage languages. It is not an indigenous or productive root from which verbal forms may be built according to the common root and vowel pattern. Leslau proposes a Cushitic origin for the root *ݟoqa~Ÿ wq and provides examples from Agaw and Somali.48 Whatever the origin of the term *(w)énq( w)it and its derivations, it is clear that it has taken on a very specific meaning in the Gurage languages, surviving only in the introductory frame in riddles and nowhere else. LESLAU 1991:78. LESLAU 1991:31. 47 LESLAU 1979a:512. 48 LESLAU 1991:79. 45 46

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The productive verb for «to know/to experience», going back to a root *khl,49 is used in the concluding frame of riddles in all Gurage languages including Zay. This verb appears uniformly in the perfective aspect in all languages. If the riddle solver does not know the solution to the riddle, complex sentences with converbs are used quite frequently for mocking. Regarding the grammatical form of the verbs involved in riddles, it seems that perfective and imperfective verbs appear quite often but the perfect and jussive are rarely used. In the corpus the perfect appears only in the Wolane example (51), and the jussive in examples (25) and (58) for Wolane and (65) for Zay. Furthermore, one gets the impression that there is a tendency to prefer imperfective verb forms. Although both perfective and imperfective verbs appear with equal frequency in Muher, in the few Wolane and Zay riddles the imperfective seems to be the preferred verb form. Very often the riddles in Muher and Wolane but not in Zay are represented by an elliptic sentence, with the main clause missing (cf. Muher (1), (6), (8), (9), (15), (16) and Wolane (21), (22), (26), (28), (29), (31), (32), (33), (34), (35), (41), (43), (45), (46), (47), (48), (49), (59). In these sentences a whphrase meaning «… — What is it?» could have been added, as is the case in (20) for Muher or (53) for Wolane. Specific concepts expressed by ideophones, which appear more or less frequently in everyday speech, are quite rare, as in Muher (1), (15), (19), (20) and Wolane (22), (23), (33), (58). Furthermore, grammatically based riddles seem not to exist in Muher, Wolane and Zay. This result is very surprising because grammatically based metaphors are a very common literary device in Amharic called sämé nna wärq «wax and gold».50 It seems that a main factor for grammatically based metaphors is the existence of a script and a writing tradition. While Amharic has been written for several centuries, Muher, Wolane and Zay are only used for oral communication until today. The above discussion shows that linguistically riddles employ a quite simple grammar, and focus mainly on the semantic content of a metaphor. Redundant information, even a verb, may be omitted. Most divergent among the three Gurage languages is Zay. It uses different terms in the introductory frame, and there are a number of Zay riddles which either consist of a mixture of Zay and Oromo, e. g. riddle (68), or are purely Oromo, like riddles (67) and (70). A very strong tendency to use either the Oromo or Amharic language for oral art can be observed in Zay.

49 50

LESLAU 1991:277. Cf. RICHTER 1993; 2002.

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Conclusion In this article I have dealt with riddles from three different Gurage languages — Muher, Wolane and Zay — which have many features in common. In all three languages and even in the contact languages Amharic and Oromo the plain riddle is embedded in a strict frame which has the same structure in all the languages. The introductory frames in Muher and Wolane even use the same lexical expressions, which may also be cognate with Amharic. Furthermore, Muher, Wolane and Zay use only metaphors as a riddling device. These metaphors are expressed through a minimal set of grammatical forms and refer most often to objects of the house(hold), food, and nature, i. e. items that are important for everyday life. Riddles based on language ambiguities or on specific language expressions like ideophones either do not exist or are very rare. This situation seems to fit a multilingual community where the speakers are familiar with several languages. Here two phenomena can be observed. On the one hand, speakers of different languages use the same cognitive constructions (i. e. metaphors) and grammatical realizations to refer to a denotatum but express it in their respective languages. On the other hand, different cognitive constructions for a single denotatum coexist in the same language. Social constructions (culture) and languages have begun to converge. It remains open, however, when and from which particular language or culture these processes originated. It is only possible to state that riddle frames and the riddling mechanisms are quite similar among the Gurage languages in question, and also in Amharic and Oromo. Common features among different languages without information about their origin is in fact one main feature of a language convergence area.51 Riddles in Zay are of special interest in this case. Although Zay and Wolane are closely related genetically, they use different linguistic realizations in the introductory frame. While Wolane makes use of the same language material that appears in other Gurage languages, Zay shows a clear Oromo influence. Not only the introductory frame is borrowed from Oromo, even the riddles themselves are posed fully or partly in Oromo instead of Zay. This may indicate that riddles are not the result of an active cognitive procedure of the speaker but a memorization process of social norms and their linguistic realization. When in a geographic area like the Gurage region several communities have intensive contact over a long time, they may develop a kind of a common culture of contact, i. e. contact-induced communicative processes that result in similar social constructions of reality and even in similar cultural expressions. The end and the starting point of these processes remains, however, a riddle. 51

Cf. THOMASON 2001:89.

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Bibliography BRAUKÄMPER, U. 1980. Geschichte der Hadiya Süd-Äthiopiens. (Studien zur Kulturkunde, 50), Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. CHERNETSOV, S. B. 1980. «Zu den Veränderungen der gesellschaftspolitischen Lexik in der mordernen amharischen Sprache und der Sprachsituation im revolutionären Äthiopien». In: Olderogge D. A. — Brauner, S. (eds.) Sozialer Wandel in Afrika und die Entwicklung von Formen und Funktionen afrikanischer Sprachen. (Linguistische Studien Reihe A, Arbeitsberichte, 64), Oberlungwitz: Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR, 120–143. CRASS, J. — MEYER, R. 2001. «The Qabena and the Wolane: Two peoples of the Gurage region and their respective history according to their own oral traditions». AÉ 17:175–182. CRASS, J. — MEYER, R. (2005). «Die Komplexität sprachlicher und kultureller Kontakte anhand der Nomenklatur zur Ensete-Pflanze». In: Bisang, W. — Bierschenk, T. — Kreikenbom, D. — Verhoeven, U. (eds.) Kulturelle und sprachliche Kontakte. Prozesse des Wandels in historischen Spannungsfeldern Nordostafrikas/ Westasiens. Akten zum 2. Symposium des SFB 295 der Johannes GutenbergUniversität Mainz, 15.–17.10.2001. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 411–427. EVANS, D. 1976. «Riddling and the structure of context». The Journal of American Folklore 89 [352]: 166–188. FERGUSSON, Ch. A. 1976. «The Ethiopian language area». In: BENDER, M. L. et al. (eds.) Language in Ethiopia. London: Oxford University Press, 63–76. GEORGES, R. A. — DUNDES, A. 1963. «Toward a structural definition of the riddle». The Journal of American Folklore 76 [300]: 111–118. GREEN, Th. A. — PEPICELLO, W. J. 1984. «The riddle process». The Journal of American Folklore 97 [384]: 189–203. HABERLAND, E. 1963. Galla Süd-Äthiopiens. (Völker Süd-Äthiopiens. Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expeditionen 1950–1952, 1954–1956, Band II) Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer. HAMMERSCHMIDT, E. 1967. Äthiopien. Christliches Reich zwischen Gestern und Morgen. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. HAMNETT, I. 1967. «Ambiguity, classification and change: The function of riddles». Man (New Series) 2, 3: 379–392. HARRIES, L. 1971. «The riddle in Africa». The Journal of American Folklore 84 [334]: 377–393. HARRIES, L. 1976. «Semantic fit in riddles». The Journal of American Folklore 89 [352]: 319–325. HAYWARD, R. J. 2000. «Is there a metric for convergence?» In: Renfrew, C. — McMahon, A. — Trask, L. (eds.) Time depth in historical linguistics, vol. 1, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 621–640. HETZRON, R. 1969. «Two notes on Semitic laryngeals in East Gurage». Phonetica 19: 69–81. HETZRON, R. 1972. Ethiopian Semitic. Studies in classification. (Journal of Semitic Studies Monograph No. 2) Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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HETZRON, R. 1977. The Gunnän-Gurage languages. (Richerche. Studi di Semitistica e del Vicino Oriente Antico, 12) Napoli: Istituto Orientale di Napoli. HUNTINGFORD, G. W. B. 1955. The Galla of Ethiopia. The kingdoms of Kafa and Janjero. (Ethnological Survey of North-East Africa, 2) London: International African Institute. LESLAU, W. 1945. «The influence of Cushitic on the Semitic languages of Ethiopia. A problem of substratum». Word 1, 1: 59–82. LESLAU, W. 1952. «The influence of Sidamo on the Ethiopic languages of Gurage». Language 28, 1: 63–81. LESLAU, W. 1965. «Chaha riddles». RSE 21: 27–93. LESLAU, W. 1967/68. «Eþha riddles». RSE 23: 43–78. LESLAU, W. 1979a. Etymological dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic). Vol. II: English-Gurage Index. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. LESLAU, W. 1979b. Etymological dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic). Vol. III: Etymological Section. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. LESLAU, W. 1982. Gurage folklore: Ethiopian folktales, proverbs, beliefs, and riddles. (Studen zur Kulturkunde, 63), Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. LESLAU, W. 1991 [repr. of 1987 edition]. Comparative dictionary of GeŸez (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. LEVINE, D. N. 1974. Greater Ethiopia. The evolution of a multiethnic society. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. LIEBER, M. D. 1976. «Riddles, cultural categories, and world view». The Journal of American Folklore 89 [352]: 255–265. MARANDA, E. K. 1976. «Riddles and riddling: An introduction». The Journal of American Folklore 89 [352]: 127–137. MARKAKIS, J. 1998. «The politics of identity. The case of the Gurage in Ethiopia». In: Mohamed Salih — Markakis, J. (eds.), Ethnicity and the state in East Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 127–146. MEYER, R. — RICHTER, R. 2003. Language use in Ethiopia from a network perspective. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag. MITTWOCH, E. 1907. «Proben aus amharischem Volksmunde». Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen an der Königlichen Friedrich-WilhelmsUniversität zu Berlin, 10: 185–241. PANKHURST, S. 1955. Ethiopia. A cultural history. Essex: Lalibela House. RICHTER, R. 1993. «Wachs und Gold in der äthiopischen Dichtung». In: Möhlig, W. J. G. — Brauner, S. — Jungraithmayr, H. (eds.), IX. Afrikanistentag — Beiträge zur afrikanischen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft, Leipzig, 24.– 26. September 1992. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 277-284. RICHTER, R. 2002. «Wenn das Wachs schmilzt…» In: Arnold, W. — Bobzin, H. (eds.) «Sprich doch mit deinen Knechten aramäisch, wir verstehen es!» 60 Beiträge zur Semitistik. Festschrift für Otto Jastrow zum 60. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 569–582. SHACK, W. A. 1966. The Gurage. A people of the Ensete culture. London et al.: Oxford University Press.

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TAMENE BITIMA. 2004. «Oromo riddles». In: Griefenow-Mewis, C. — Tamene Bitima (eds.) Oromo oral poetry — seen from within. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 81–91. THOMASON, S. G. 2001. Language contact. An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. THOMASON, S. G. — KAUFMAN, T. 1988. Language, contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley et al.: University of California Press. TOSCO, M. 2000. «Is there an “Ethiopian language area”?» Anthropological Linguistics 42, 3: 329–365. ULLENDORFF, E. 1960. The Ethiopians. An introduction to country and people. London: Oxford University Press. ZÄRIHUN ASFAW. 1992 Eth.Cal. Yäsénäs³é huf mäsärätawéyyan. Addis Abäba: Néggéd Mattämiya Déréððét [Amharic].

Appendix I: Riddle frames In the appendices I have tried to keep close to the original languages with the English translation. However, in many examples the translation represents only a rough idea of the concept expressed in the source language. The language examples are transcribed according to the respective utterances without indicating morpheme breaks or assimilations.52 Riddles were recorded, transcribed and translated together with TEMESGEN Wolde Medhin (1998/99; Zway) for Zay, with SHAMIL SAYYID (2000/01, Wolkite) for Wolane and with ABUBAKR SHERIFO (2004; Wolkite) for Muher. The riddle structure for Amharic were discussed with SAMIRA AMSALU (2003; Wolkite) and for Oromo with SAMUEL Adola and DABALA GOSHU (2003; Jimma and Addis Ababa). I am also indepted to AMAN KEDIR KAMSARE (Tromsø, 2003), who provided me with an Oromo riddle from the Zway area.

Amharic Introductory Frame. A: énqoqqéléð!53 Riddle! B: mén awqélléh (masc. A)! / What shall I know for you! mén awqélléð (fem. A)! Concluding Frame. When B knows the solution of the riddle: A: awwäqkäw! You know it! When B does not know the solution of the riddle: A: alawwäqkäwm! agär sét³äññ! You (mas) do not know it! Give me a place! B: ambo. Ambo. The following abbreviations are used: A = riddle poser, B = riddle solver. Amharic either uses énqoqqéléð for both males and females, or has énqoqqéléh for male and énqoqqélé ð for female riddle solver. 52 53

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A: alfällé gémm. B: gondär. …

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I do not like it! Gondar.

Muher Introductory Frame. A: yähé nqwit!54 Take a riddle! B: néýé (masc. A)! / (What shall I know for you!) néq j (fem. A)! Concluding Frame. When B knows the solution of the riddle: A: hehänném! You know it! When B does not know the solution of the riddle: B: annéçin. I don’t know it. A: gäññé name! Give me a country/place! B: wälqit³e. Wolkite. A: bännahuwäm! I ate at this place! B: jimma. Jimma. A: yähun, jimma né biyawä, nést³ewä! All right, I shall eat and drink in bäfur täméq jméq jä tangaèèa yäè³ ani Jimma! May one load your stuff yädähä. bawroplan tämäkina at a mouse, a skunk and a cat! May yäè³ ani yädi! nôthä? one load my stuff at an airplane and a car! Shall I tell you? B: oy! Yes! A: [solution] …

Wolane Introductory Frame. A: nä (masc.) / ney (fem.) wunqwit! Come a riddle! B:nuý (masc.)! / What shall I know for you! nuý i (fem.)! When B does not know the solution of the riddle: A: gäbiyä wâbeñ! Give me a market! B: ðimmä gäbiyä wusäd! Take Jimma market! A: ðimmä gäbiyä yçnzçtey yäräzästey All things that can be found at Jimma hullém géððä lihç! ihç dâbbô täðây market are for me! While I am eating tilbäl — ý atä yäbuèô quzân blä! bread with tea — eat the shit of a dog! ihç bayär tilhçd –ýatä bimwâr While I am traveling by air — travel at täsäý älä hid! mälsi …! the back of a donkey! The answer … This phrase consists of the irregular imperative yähä «here, take it (mas.)» and the noun énqwit «riddle». 54

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Zay Introductory Frame. A: hibbô! Riddle! B: hibib! What shall I know for you! Concluding Frame. When B knows the solution of the riddle: A: èâlhänu! You know (it)! When B does not know the solution of the riddle: A: alèalého — däbér âbeñ You do not know it — give me a country! B: aburân néqäl! Take Abura! A: hîd, alfâcu abûrân! Hey, I don’t like Abura! B: adâmân néqäl Take Adama! A: nâzrçt yégäbâm bäfôqi yénäbérém After I entered Nazreth55 I will live kätämây säffînu. yé zâbé rém bäbisklçt in a skyscraper and the town is big. yéhîdém ðâyi yésäèém miðît miðît gârây I will go for a walk and ride a bike, yégäbâm tçp yûhébém bämusiqây I will drink tea, enter my house yé ffîqärém — bänâzrçt yéggûbâx every evening, buy a tape, dance to bûyténu. lçdâx mälsey? the music — that means that I am living (lit. sitting) in Nazreth. Shall I tell you the answer?

Oromo Introductory Frame. A: Hibbo! Riddle! B: Hib/Hibbak(a)/Hibiriq/Hibibi! Ask! TAMENE BITIMA (2004:81) contains many examples for Oromo riddles. What is important here is the answer hibibi, which seems to be a special variant found only around Lake Zway (personal communication AMAN KEDIR in 2003). This form was most probably transferred into Zay as hibib.

Appendix II: Riddle Corpora Muher Riddles House and household utensils (1) bäsäèèa buqq, bäbar démbuqq?56 Outside very big, in a river (sinking sound)? 55 Adama and Nazreth are the respective Oromo and Amharic namings denoting the same town. 56 The words buqq «big thing» and démbuqq «sound referring to big object that sink into the water» are ideophones.

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wäðän. (2) banè³ äññäwä téka bäzzawäm? wäggén. (3) arräè³im ärärräè³ im bägbé ttéhut wärq arräè³im? ésat wem fem. (4) t ³ébä addägum yôrar yénäðett? yénnam wädärän. (5) yôrar yadgwitt. t³ébä yénäðett? gébbän. (6) adotwe t ³éý ur, deng jawe gwad gwad? gäbänam sinémmén. Working tools and places (7) bäduwä çbälo bêäm yé t ä³ ro? weysä. (8) émmet yät w,annämabbwä mädär — mult ?³ t i³ ýot yät w,annawä mädärén.

Food (9) bäf we gwad amora? näý äba. (10) hwettwe gäbäya lahuyämum, attwe bet téýé re? bet téýéräwä angubaya. gäbäya yélähwuyämwe qé bé m näý äbamn,mw.

Water container made from clay. Although not giving birth he has a lot of children? Small wooden supports around the central pillar. One cut it and cut it into little pieces and cut gold in the middle? Fire or embers. One threw it in the morning and picked it up in the late afternoon? Rope for tying up a cow. One throws it in the late afternoon. One picks it up in the morning? Mat made of fiber used for sleeping. The mother black, the children white? Coffee pot and cups. He calls one from over there? Axe. The place at which the lady of the house is sitting — bald-headed? The place at which the scratched parts of Ensete edulis is kept for a certain time. On top a white large bird? Cheese. One sent two to the market, the other one watches the house? The one who watches the house is whey. Those that were sent to the market are butter and cheese.

Nature (11) t ³ébä aþþähunném. I saw it in the morning. When I returned té nnéþþäbbé r qäbbäthunné m? I missed it? awä. Dew. (12) énéssiyä gäräd bäzäba t w,annatté m A small female child makes flour wäfiè³è³ ä téfäè³i? with a mill, sitting on the way?

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énqurfit. (13) yadoddi azgald bénnétaggäd bé nnétaggäd annäý bêem? zäban. (14) béððä énnaméddi g warra g warra yéþarrégu? émbwä jän.

Obstacle. Although I tie the belt of my mother again and again it did not finish? It is the way. My red cow goes from garden to garden? It is a torrent.

Animals and Plants (15) gunnän gafgaff wät, ägér sibilléwät? A head very big, a leg very thin? ambin. It is cabbage. w w (16) bäè³ è³ äf e samb a? On top of a pillar/tree a lung? è³é man. Tapeworm. (17) bira t³ärä ý bäqqêäm? Dry grew out of raw? yénnam qärrén. It is the horn of a cow. (18) éné ssiyä gäräd yäè³äkkêätté n ambi A cabbage prepared by a small yé è³ ämu? female child is tasty? néb — wiyä. Bee and honey. w (19) énéssiyä gäräd bädbér b ý nnattém A small female child makes kwaðð tébiw? a rustling noise after she entered the wood? qéme! Louse. Other (20) ézz bêäm — énzézz, aa bêäm — gamba;57 méýen? qäbrén.

It says zzz — a beetle, It says aa — a clay container; what is it? It is a grave.

Wolane Riddles House and household utensils (21) buðä burdô bälägädô? ðirä. (22) ðéqqém ýélél, t³éqqém ýélél? ðäbräkô. (23) môý çtä môýçtä ðékkýatélât. ðäbräkô. (24) ðçðt ýabôgôðâðô ýaddé miðt yét³owruwân? 57

Red chopped meat in a hole? Fire. It does not come near and does not go away? Fire place in a house. She feels hotter and hotter but does not move? Fire place in a house. Three friends are carrying one wife?

The phrase aa bêäm means «to open the mouth».

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gâwziyyç.58 The three fire stones for cooking. (25) ýéndät lämbär lämbär, gäräd The mother (says) let’s stay, let’s stay, läbrär läbrär? the female child (says) let’s go let’s go? wofè³ çwä mäðç. Big and small mill stone. (26) ýéndättç t³çm woldéðä gumärä? The mother is black and her children are white? ðäbänäwä sin. Coffee pot and cups. (27) gäräd lindäððä téwoý ât? A female child hits her mother? mäqät³wä ýé nt³. Mortar and pestle. (28) t³çm bârä bämâgär? A black ox at the wall? t³âbât. A black clay plate. (29) mwâlt mwâlt bädäèèç, ýarôt At daytime on the ground, at ýarôt bägôtäèèç? nighttime on the shoulder? yiri wodärô. Rope for tying a cow. (30) suý ulém ýaywôè³ân, däè³ è³ çm It does not climb the top and does not ý aywordân. go down to the earth? qôt³. Sleeping platform on four poles inside the house or outside under the eaves. (31) bädähänô méskät t³âfôt? A small piece of rug at the backside of a buffalo? wozgäb. A door. (32) mwâlt mwâlt rçsä, ý arôt ýarôt At daytime like a corpse, at nighttime qärçzä? like a youngster? wozgäb. A door. Working tools (33) ý addi bäsâr där zäff, ý addi bämey zäff, ý addi bäbâhér zâf där zäff? zärzärä, dôè³ è³ ôwä gänþämô. (34) läddär yémäè³ wân gäräððä hullém séntérâmèä? þâgbä. (35) mél t³ zâftä gô gäbât? märfçwä fätél. (36) qäll kältä gô fäðç? mälâè³.

One sits on the grass, one sits in the water, and one sits in the eucalyptus tree? Sickle, water container and axe. All female children who come from the top have a small space between their teeth? Instrument for crushing the tube of the Ensete edulis. It pulls a tapeworm and goes to the wood? Needle and thread. A small axe finished the wood? Razor blade.

There are always three supports made from clay arranged around a fire hole on which the cooking pot or plate rests. 58

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(37) bät³owäruy rçsân, bänäè³ uy wurbân? brät. Food (38) yansuwä qärçzä gâr wônt³iyä däräsä? ðâmit. (39) bibbimazär woý i babbimazär woý i môfän atwçläý i? ésçèèç. (40) lâbäðä agättä gäbiyä wot³ât? qçssä.60 Body Parts (41) bibbimazär t³é bbuè³ç qät³ät³ô bâbbimazär t³é bbuè³ è³ç qät³ät³ô? qérb. (42) hôyt rähäbu, ý assér näý älu, sâsä täý çbälu? yin, ý ént³âbitwä ýésén. Animals and plants (43) t³çm bârä gwârä gwârä? gôndä. (44) hçdä hçdä mey ý aywodân? gôndä. (45) buðä bârä gwârä gwârä? wonät. (46) mwâlt mwâlt bärt ý arôt ý arôt midç? yälâm t³ub. (47) hubd lâm bämâgär där? tôhân. (48) bät³çm gô t³çm lâm? yädumi qumâl.

When one carries it, is a corpse, when one takes it into the hands it is a lion? Spear. The youngsters from the däga-region59 close the door and dance? Thick local beer. After one beats it from this side and after one beats it from that side and brings out a young cow? Butter. She ties her backside and goes to the market? Butter. At this side one handful of fire wood, at that side one handful of fire wood? Eyelash. Two found it, ten took it, thirty welcomed it? Eye, hand and teeth. A black ox in every garden? Ant. It goes and goes but does not cross the water? Ant. Red ox in every garden? Termite. At daytime it is like a stick and at nighttime like a river? Udder of a cow. A pregnant cow on top of the wall? Bug. In a black wood a black cow? Hair louse.

59 The region is somewhat elevated and therefore cooler. In such a place the main crop is barley, which is used for preparing the thick beer. 60 Butter and cheese, too, are wrapped in leafs from Ensete edulis which is then tied together at one side only.

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R. Meyer

(49) tét³qçlléb yindätkô, té t³qunä t³é r yabôt miðtékô? énþât. (50) hulläm gén tärçrçt tiyânþ yalfân? yäfçýé gôññä. Nature (51) yaddçddi ý itô bélamârdey bélamârdey ý éllétfäð bâleññân? ungwân. (52) hçdyä hçdyä ý ayt³qôè³ ân? wungä. (53) wânzây fätti, t³âmây qunä, t³âyèây bé þþi — mén gézén? sämây, woriwä kälbäþô. (54) tilânþey yanþeññân, tillihey yambeññân? è³ âl. (55) bingwä tägôltä ðé nkurt télçt³t â³ t? énqérfit. (56) énnä gâr mén yémçleyân? è³é lmä. (57) énney anney tihçd aytérân? néfâs. (58) bämey wust³é m gäbä èälbä aybäl, gôm gäbä kôðð aybäl? dâbänä / gunðç. (59) bäsämây yant³ärä, bädäèèç yägädärä? qôtô. (60) binðiyä ýaytçnzân, bin ý aytrân? hâwä. Others (61) binðiyä bçtänkuy barämätiyä läý ämkuy? kutb. (62) yägäräd lubâm bäzélâmwä bayr téhçdât? zânt³älä.

When she feeds she does it like a mother, when she pinches she does it like a step-mother? Bee. When it goes it always looks back? Tail of a goat. Even if I tie the belt of my mother again and again it does not get finished? Way. It goes and goes and it never ends? Way. The tree is big, the child is alone and the sheep are plenty — what is it? Heaven, moon and stars. When I look at him he looks at me, when I send him away he refuses? Shadow. She sits on the way and peels onions? Obstacle. What fills this house? Darkness. It goes to and fro but is not seen? Wind. It falls into water and makes no noise, it goes into the woods and does not rustle? Cloud / fog. Smaller than heaven, bigger than earth? Mountain. What is not taken with the hand and not seen with the eye? Air. I distributed it with my hand and collected it with my tongue? Written documents. The skilled female child goes during rain and sunshine? Umbrella.

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(63) bäý äbäruy aybäýélân? gänâys.

It does not grow after it was planted? Corpse.

Zay Riddles House and household utensils (64) t³ît gäräd gâr tâhîdât? kurrâzi [Zay]. (65) âyîy läggob läggob tébélât, gärädi lähéd lähéd tébélât? wofè³ iwâ mäði [Zay). (66) bâdmä yébälénâ läm tékäsâx? qärði (67) sîlâlä mâf hinkutinîf? bälbälä [Oromo].

A small female child keeps the house going? Kerosene lamp. The mother says let’s stay let’s stay, the daughter says let’s go let’s go? Big and small mill stones. We eat together, why are you getting thin? Spoon. He looks at you, why don't you cut so mething for him? Door.

Food (68) sânni adi lägä dâkä [Oromo]? A white cow swims on a river? iðîèi [Zay]. Butter. Working tools (69) lâqôti lâmôti yâytésäbér? qûnânûnu [Zay]. (70) h⦠ôn nama lâlti ilmôn namä ñâti? qäwwç [Oromo].

One throws it to and fro but it does not break? Spindle. The mother looks at the person, the child eats the person? Gun.

SUMMARY The topic of this article is the result of long-lasting interactions among different communities in Central Ethiopia and the development and change of the respective culture(s) and languages. These contact-induced cultural and languages changes are exemplified through a cross-language description of riddles among the Muher, Wolane and Zay communities. The language and cultural situation in Ethiopia, in general, and in the Gurage region, in particular, is presented with a concise survey of the relevant literature. The riddle is dealt with as research topic in verbal art from a typological viewpoint, and an overview of research on riddles in Ethiopia is presented. The genre of riddle in the Gurage languages Muher, Wolane and Zay is discussed in formal, semantic and linguistic terms. Finally, the results are summarized in a conclusion. The riddles of the respective languages are listed in two appendices. Appendix I contains introductory and concluding frames, and Appendix II enumerates the riddles.

Denis Nosnitsin Hamburg University

WAâ WAâ HABO QOBŸA WAâýASKEMA...: REFLECTIONS ON AN EPISODE FROM THE HISTORY OF THE ETHIOPIAN MONASTIC MOVEMENT Among the traditions transmitted in Ethiopian hagiographic works, those referring to the encounters between Täklä Haymanot1 and Iyäsus Moýa2 — two late 13th-/early 14th-cent. monastic leaders and great Ethiopian saints — 1 There is no need to quote all existing scholarly literature on Täklä Haymanot’s activities, hagiography and cult, or all works on the history of his monastic foundation, Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa. These topics have been discussed in a number of publications, ranging from brief entries in reference-books to chapters in monographs [for the list of abbreviations used in this article see p. 239]: s., e. g., BHO 247–248, nos. 1128–1134; CERULLI 1943:228–232; TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:160–169; DEB 157–158; KRZ 92–93, no. 151; KRISS — KRISS HEINRICH 1975:30–41; among the recent publications, s., e. g., BÖLL in: LTK IX, 1244–1245; TEDESCHI in: EnSanti II, 1132–1138; DERAT 2003, passim. On the hagiographic legend of Täklä Haymanot, s. DERAT 1998, NOSNITZYN 2003 (concerning the hagiographic reports on the Saint’s translatio), NOSNITSIN 2006, forthcoming (on the Synaxarion commemorative note about the Saint). Let us only recall that, according to the more or less commonly accepted chronology, Täklä Haymanot is thought to have lived in ca. 1214/15–1313; the Saint’s major annual feasts are celebrated on 24 Näh³ase (obitus) and 12 Génbot (translatio). 2 As is commonly known, abba Iyäsus Moýa was one of the most prominent representatives of Däbrä Hayq Ést ³ifanos, which, like Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa, is today one of the most venerated monasteries of Ethiopia. However, Iyäsus Moýa appears to have been somewhat less popular than a number of other holy monks. The rather local character of his cult becomes evident when compared to the countrywide veneration of Täklä Haymanot, Gäbrä Mänfäs Qéddus, Samuýel of Waldébba, Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi, as well as of several other Oriental saints. Iyäsus Moýa’s commemoration is recorded in the Synaxarion, but only in a short notice (26 Òé dar), not in a hagiobiographic account. His popularity could have been increased by hagiographies of other saints, where he is mentioned as a prominent monastic leader; yet, the considerable difference between the respective cults of Täklä Haymanot and Iyäsus Moýa is demonstrated, e. g., by the number of manuscripts containing their hagiographies. Whereas Täklä Haymanot’s hagiographic tradition, represented by a substantial number of works, is attested by many dozens of manuscripts, the same cannot be said about the tradition of Iyäsus Moýa (s, e. g., DEB 92; TADDESSE TAMRAT 1970:88– 91; KRZ 78–79, no. 86; MARRASSINI 1986; TEDESCHI in: EnSanti II, 267–271; BAUM in: BKK XX, 804–806).

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are considered central for the reconstruction of medieval Ethiopian church history. This is reflected in the well-known evaluation given by Taddesse Tamrat of one such episode: «His [sc. Täklä Haymanot’s] encounter with Îyäsus-Mo’a on this second occasion is shrouded with uncertainties in the traditions, and has become one of the most controversial points in Ethiopian ecclesiastical history. The controversy basically evolves around the mutual claims of seniority later advanced by Däbrä Hayq and Däbrä Lîbanos».3 This «controversy» has been the subject of a number of studies; yet, the progress made in the understanding of Ethiopian history and the growing number of accessible sources offers an opportunity to assess the problem one more time, at the cross-roads of historical and philological studies. Today, a deeper analysis of the relevant hagiographies is possible, with the aim not only of coming closer to the reconstruction of the late 13th-cent. events, but also of tracing the development of the traditions within their original context, their sources and interrelations — thus correctly assessing their value. The present essay is an attempt at such analysis.4

I Before embarking on the analysis, interpretation and evaluation of the accounts I would like to summarize the most important points and acting characters of the story, according to its «classical» version as transmitted by the early-16th-cent. Vita of Täklä Haymanot in the recension of Däbrä Libanos.5 Obeying the Lord’s command,6 Täklä Haymanot, who had converted large numbers of pagans in the south of the Ethiopian kingdom and worked miracles, sought to take on the monastic habit and learn the «monastic rules». ÒÀDDESSE TAMRAT 1972:164. The essay is drawn from my Ph.D. thesis, «The Vita of Täklä Haymanot as a monument of Ethiopian medieval literature», completed under the supervision of the late Sevir B. Chernetsov and defended at the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg State University on 20 December 2002. 5 From here on, the text of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot in the Däbrä Libanos recension is quoted after the editio princeps, BUDGE 1906; however, one should note that this text represents not the original but a slightly reworked variant of that recension (a problem I have addressed on several occasions: e. g., Nosnitsin 2006, forthcoming, cp. also n. 34, below). The translation provided in BUDGE 1906 is often erroneous; when referring to it, I will attempt, therefore, to rectify it (and simplify the transcription of proper names). 6 The summary follows BUDGE 1906, chs. 68–88 (particularly relevant are chs. 68–75, 77–81, 85–88). In the Däbrä Libanos recension of his Vita, Täklä Haymanot’s monastic career does not appear as detailed and lengthy as one would expect considering the time (more than 30 years) Täklä Haymanot spent in different monasteries (s. the synopsis in BUDGE 1906, ch. 113; 10 years in the community of Bäsälotä 3 4

D. Nosnitsin

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In order to fulfil his predestination — the foundation of the monastery of Däbrä Asbo/Libanos — Täklä Haymanot was deemed to become a monk. Since there are no monasteries in Šäwa, he travelled to the north of Ethiopia, seeking to assume the monastic habit there. The first place where he made a halt is that of abba Bäsälotä Mikaýel «of G隚e», the head of a (unidentified) monastery in Amhara.7 Täklä Haymanot spent ten years there; Mikaýel [Amhara], 10 years at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, 12 years at Däbrä Dammo, 1 year wandering in Tégre and Jerusalem, 29 years in Däbrä Asbo; in manuscripts, there are some differences concerning the last period). 7 While the historical context of the episode is more or less clear (cp. TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:112–117, 177–178), the chronology and historical identity of abba Bäsälotä Mikaýel is difficult to ascertain. According to the Synaxarion recension of Täklä Haymanot’s Vita — which is probably one of the most ancient hagiographic sources on the Saint (s. Nosnitsin 2006, forthcoming) — Bäsälotä Mikaýel was the only spiritual teacher of Täklä Haymanot and it was he, one could presume, who imposed the «monkish yoke» upon Täklä Haymanot (s. GUIDI 1912:381). However, the Waldébba recension of Täklä Haymanot’s Vita does not mention Bäsälotä Mikaýel at all, while in the Hayq and Däbrä Libanos recensions Bäsälotä Mikaýel is styled as Bäsälotä Mikaý el zä-hagärä Gésse (e. g., in MS Paris, Bibliothèque national de France, éth. 342 = Griaule 38 [s. below], fol. 89vb; however, he is «Bäsälotä Mikaýel of Amhara» on fols. 85va, 87ra) and Bäs³älotä Mikaý el zä-Géððä (BUDGE 1906, ch. 68) respectively. It is difficult to identify him as «Bäsälotä Mikaýel of Däbrä Gol» whose hagiography was edited by C. CONTI ROSSINI (1905), and who was the spiritual father of Aron of Däbrä Daret (cp. Turaiev 1908:125; EÆ I, 350f.). Däbrä Gwäl of Amhara — a historical monastery identical, according to the Vita of Bäsälotä Mikaýel, to Däbrä Sémmona, where Bäsälotä Mikaýel assumed the monastic habit from Anorewos and lived (Conti Rossini 1905:14; there he lays the monastic habit upon Aron) — can hardly be identified with the well-known monastery of Däbrä Bahréy (in Gassécca, domain of abba Giyorgis of Gassécca/Sägla), the contemporary site of Bäsälotä Mikaýel’s cult, where his relics were transferred from G[w]élo Mäkäda (northeastern Tégray; s. CONTI ROSSINI 1905:50–53; SAUTER 1963:275). The identification of G隚e (the region where the important church of Mäkanä Íéllase was situated) with Gassécca is also problematic, though it is favoured by the local tradition (this identification, recorded in the Acts of Bäsälotä Mikaýel preserved in Däbrä Bahréy of Gassécca [s. DERAT 2003:116–117], may in fact originate from the Acts of Täklä Haymanot; however, the monastic library of Däbrä Bahréy needs further investigation). In any case, Däbrä Gwäl is traditionally said to have been destroyed during the 16th-cent. Muslim war and never rebuilt; its precise location remains unknown. In his hagiography, Bäsälotä Mikaýel appears as the contemporary of Metropolitan abunä YaŸéqob and King ŸAmdä Séyon I (1314–1334), as a strenuous opponent of the latter and reformer of the Church and monastic life (s. EÆ I, 493f.). Thus, there seems to exist more reasons to distinguish between «the early» Bäsälotä Mikaýel of G隚e (mentioned in the hagiographic legend of Täklä Haymanot) and «the later» Bäsälotä Mikaýel of Däbrä Gwäl (as proposed by TURAIEV 1902:53; s. also Getatchew Haile’s commentary to MS EMML 1834, fol. 93b). The Vita of Iyäsus Moýa seems to conflate «earlier» and «later» personages, while stating that Iyäsus Moýa was the spiritual father of Bä-



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thereafter he proceeded to abba Iyäsus Moýa, the abbot of the famous community of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos. Iyäsus Moýa accepted Täklä Haymanot and vested the new disciple with the «monkish garb», becoming his «spiritual father».8 After ten years at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, an angel appeared to Täklä Haymanot with a message from God: he should visit other monastic communities and learn the monastic rules; besides, he should go to the monastery of Däbrä Dammo (the place where Iyäsus Moýa had taken his monastic habit) and receive from its head, abba Yohanni,9 the monastic cap (qobŸ) and scapular (askema), and obtain therewith «the complete monk’s habit». When taking his farewell from Täklä Haymanot, Iyäsus Moýa asked Täklä Haymanot to bring the monastic cap and scapular also for him, since he had left Däbrä Dammo without receiving these parts of the monastic garb from abba Yohanni. Iyäsus Moýa was aware of the circumstance that, in case his request was fulfilled, his «spiritual son» would formally become his «spiritual father».10 Täklä Haymanot reached then sälotä Mikaýel «who preached in the entire (country of) Amhara being in the land of Gol [TÅ[ " ÔJ]», and ascribes to Iyäsus Moýa the spiritual fathership of «écce ŸAron of Däbrä Därit» (KUR 1965:34–35 [text]). 8 BUDGE 1906, ch. 75; Iyäsus Moýa receives from an angel the command to vest Täklä Haymanot with monastic habit (ibid., 69 [text] vW¾ " z¨¡ö " ›eO " oÁe " «›z% " ¨™xa " ³¹ — ¨™Jvf " Jxc " Tž=e…). When Täklä Haymanot is introduced to him, Iyäsus Moýa mentions that he has been directed by the angel, yet Täklä Haymanot should stay and wait a little bit. Soon, the Abbot vested him with the monastic garb «which is the likeness of angel» (ibid., [text] ¨™Jvf " ™Jwc " Tž=e " ±«›z% " ™`™¼ " OI›¡|). 9 TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:158–159, 163, 165–166; DEB 189; TEDESCHI in: EnSanti II, 1362–1363. Historiographical notes attached to the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi (GUIDI 1895:34, 42; s. below) appear to be the primary source on Yohanni, where he is the seventh after Zä-Mikaýel, the founder of Däbrä Dammo (this being «chronologically impossible», s. TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:158, n. 4), but only the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa presents an extended hagiographic account of abba Yohanni’s life. Apart from this, he seems to be less known and should not be confused with abba Yohanni of Däbrä Sina of Sänhit (Kärän, Eritrea), or abba Yohanni from Däbrä ŸAsa (Tégray). Considering the name «Yohanni» and its similarity to Coptic names (Marrassini 1990:37), one should notice that «Yohanni» can also be explained from the point of view of Ethiopian onomastics, as a contracted form of the Ethiopic name Yäwhanni («[the Lord] has been merciful to me», this variant having been recorded on wall paintings in the ancient Gännätä Maryam church, s. BALICKA-WITAKOWSKA 1998– 1999:189, n. 56). 10 BUDGE 1905, ch. 77, with «oil» and «(monastic) garb» standing for qobŸ and askema respectively. The passage reads: «[And Iyäsus Moýa said to Täklä Haymanot:] Why are you leaving me? I have not seen you like a son, for I have seen you like a honourable father. Nevertheless your words about going to my mountain have pleased me, and when you arrive there [you] will receive the (monastic) cap and scapular; and afterwards you yourself will give (them) to me, and you will become me a father».

D. Nosnitsin



Däbrä Dammo and told abba Yohanni that he received his monastic garb from Iyäsus Moýa. Stating that Täklä Haymanot is «the (spiritual) son of his son», Yohanni bestowed upon him the qobŸ and askema.11 After visits to other monastic communities of northern Ethiopia and three miraculous travels to Jerusalem, Täklä Haymanot, following God’s command, returned to Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos and handed the monastic cap and scapular over to Iyäsus Moýa, in accordance with the latter’s will.12

At the end of the account, there is a fragment containing Täklä Haymanot’s monastic pedigree beginning with Anthony the Great, in which the «spiritual kinship» between the three holy monks — Iyäsus Moýa, Yohanni and Täklä Haymanot — is explained once again; however, referring to Täklä Haymanot, the hagiographer or deliberately leaves out or forgets to mention, from whom the Saint received the parts of the monastic habit of the first grade («monastic clothes» — from Iyäsus Moýa). However significant this contradiction might be, we can not say that this pedigree «reverses» the preceeding account.13 It seems that this version of the story first became widely known because of the popularity of the Däbrä Libanos recension of Täklä Haymanot’s Vita. 11 BUDGE 1905, ch. 78. Before vesting Täklä Haymanot with the monastic cap and garb, abba Yohanni questions him; after that, he performs the consecration rite: «And he [abba Yohanni] said: What is your name, and who vested you with the monastic garb (Jxc " Tž=e)? And he said: My name is Täklä Haymanot, and abba Iyäsus Moýa who dwells on an island of the lake, endowed me with the garb of the monk. And abba Yohanni said: Verily you are son of my son, for I begot him by the Holy Ghost. And abba Yohanni prayed over the cap and scapular according to the law (¨çH¹ " ™w " ¿KŒ " I¯H " px® " ™ež+R " [v]žO " MÓ...), and he gave them to our father holy man Täklä Haymanot». 12 BUDGE 1905, ch. 87, 188–189 [tr.]: «And on the morrow he rose up and departed, and he came to the place on the sea-shore, and he walked upon the water, even as a man walketh on the dry land; and he came unto Iyasus Moýa. And when the Abbot saw him, he rejoiced exceedingly, and said unto him, “Where didst thou receive the [monastic cap and the scapular] (px® " ¨™ež+R) [with thy] holy hands?” And Täklä Haymanot said unto him, “In Mount Damo, at the hand of Abba Yohanni”. And [he] said unto him, “From this time onward I will cease from the toil of the road; I will be thy son, and thou shalt be [my] father; give me the [monastic cap and the scapular] which are in thy holy hands”. And [Abba Täklä Haymanot] gave [him] the cowl [the monastic cap] and the cloak, for the angel said unto him, “Hearken unto what he sayeth unto thee”». 13 Cp. DERAT 2003:106–107; s. BUDGE 1906, ch. 88, with the somewhat vague title «How the garb of the monk and the rule of ascetic life descended from Anthony to Takla Hâymânôt» (ibid., 189–190 [tr.]): «…and Abba Mäsqäl Moýa begot Abba Yohanni, and Abba Yohanni begot Abba Iyäsus Moýa and Täklä Haymanot, [Iyäsus Moýa] by the cassock and girdle (vmQe " ¨vo|), and [Täklä Haymanot] by the [monastic cap and the scapular]; and Abba [Täklä Haymanot gave Iyäsus Moýa the monastic cap and the scapular], even as we have said before».



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Yet, this story — in particular its conclusion, which makes Täklä Haymanot the «spiritual father» of Iyäsus Moýa, the latter having had no monastic cap or scapular before — was emotionally refuted in another hagiography, the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa. This work is considered to reflect the point of view of the monastic community of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos; it summarizes Täklä Haymanot’s biography, seeking to prove that the case was only that Täklä Haymanot gave Iyäsus Moýa the scapular. The same story is repeated, with some variants, in other hagiographic texts (the Waldébba and Hayq recensions of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi), and mentioned in many other sources. As the most important of these texts were edited, the episode in question attracted considerable scholarly attention, mainly to the aim of reconstructing the sequence of developments and ascertaining which of the two holy monks, Täklä Haymanot or Iyäsus Moýa, held superiority concerning the parts of the monastic habit. Different interpretations of the story resulted in varying understandings of the roles Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa and Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos played in Ethiopian medieval church history. The question became even more delicate from the beginning of the 20th cent., when Täklä Haymanot, Iyäsus Moýa and Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi were raised to symbols of Ethiopian Christianity by the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahédo Church. Summarizing the main points of the studies, one should note that, whereas the encounters of Täklä Haymanot, Iyäsus Moýa and Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi — the prominent 13th–14th-cent. monastic leaders — are generally thought to have been historical events, there is a commonly accepted view that hagiographical accounts must be approached critically and evaluated as both historical events and fictional products.14 The prevailing tendency today is to refrain from the positivistic enquiry into the episode as described in the hagiographies (including the monastic investiture performed by the «spiritual son» Täklä Haymanot upon his «spiritual father» Iyäsus Moýa), and attempts to find out who precisely conferred particular parts of the monastic habit upon S. KAPLAN 1986; cp. E. Cerulli’s remark in the preface to the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa (KUR 1965:V–VI [tr.]): «Un cliché commun dans l’hagiographie éthiopienne sont les rencontres du saint dont on écrit la Vie, avec d’autres saints personnages de l’Église qui sont de la même époque ou plutôt qu’on peut vraisemblement attribuer à la même époque» (cp., however, on the possible historical background of such episodes, CERULLI 1958:271). The establishment of the identities of the characters interacting with the protagonist of a Vita is thus a common subject of hagiographical. While pursuing this task, scholars define possible chronological and historical frames of the narrated events and establish the historical value of hagiographic accounts. In many cases, reports about encounters of holy monks can be counter-checked against other hagiographic traditions. The results, however, are different depending on the type of individual hagiographic work in question. Cp. the typology of such accounts in MARRASSINI 1981: XCIII–C («incontri con personaggi del passato», «incontri con personaggi ‘contemporanei’»). 14

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whom, when and where.15 One would rather prefer to consider this story as a reflection of a particular historical process, namely the rivalry between Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa and Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos that started presumably some time after the death of both saints and left traces in their hagiographies, the episode in question being one of the main pieces of evidence. As a result, the accounts with that story have been carefully investigated in order to find the idea of (spiritual) superiority expressed therein that was thought to have been functional to earning and consolidating religious and political influence.16 For the later period, the alleged rivalry is fitting with the political and religious context of the Gondärine kingdom, with the inner struggle of the «houses» of Täklä Haymanot and Ewostatewos.17 The idea of the superiority of TADDESSE TAMRAT (1972:165 and n. 5) thinks that the story of Täklä Haymanot handing over the monastic cap and scapular to Iyäsus Moýa is the result of an inconsistent usage of terminology and should not be given historical credibility. Monastic canons render it impossible that a disciple could perform the monastic investiture upon his spiritual father. In Taddesse’s opinion, the system of the grades of monastic habit was introduced in Ethiopia at a later point: «It appears, however, that these rules of gradual investiture were of a relatively recent date»; in the 13th–14th cent. the novice was supposed to assume the «monastic yoke» only once. Taddesse, pointing to the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi as the central source, considers the episode in question to be partly a result of some sort of «confusion» and partly a kind of «literary invention» of the hagiographer, which was subsequently introduced into other hagiographic works: «This Däbrä Damo tradition seems to be the original source of all the controversy, and was apparently invented by an over-zealous scribe of the monastery to stress the historical fact that both Îyäsus-Mo’a and Täklä-Haymanot derived their monastic origin from the house of Abunä Arägawî» (TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:166). It is remarkable that in his important study on the abbots of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, Taddesse does not discuss the episode, only characterizing the relevant passage of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa as a «highly polemical» one (TADDESSE TAMRAT 1970:89, n. 13). 16 As early as 1898, Vasilij Bolotov, the Russian historian of the Early Church, suggested that versions of the story concerning the spiritual relationship between Iyäsus Moýa and Täklä Haymanot and their taking parts of the monastic habit reflect the historical changes in the position of the offices of Ÿaqqabe säŸat and éccäge respectively (BOLOTOV 1898:195, n. 12). Ñð. DERAT 2003:105: «La substitution progressive de Täklä Haymanot à Iyäsus Mo’a, dès le début du XVIe siècle, est le signe que les communautés de ces deux saints étaient concurrentes… Il s’agit d’un affrontement entre les deux communautés monastiques, par texte interposé, à la fin du XVe et au début du XVIe siècle». Perhaps, the same view stands behind the statement in SIX 1975:27–31, esp. 29 and n. 50, where it is said that the head of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos was invested with the title and office of éccäge already under the King ŸAmdä Séyon I (1314–1344), which was transferred to the head of Däbrä Libanos during the reign of Zärýa YaŸéqob after 1445. 17 M.-L. Derat came to the conclusion that different variants of the story in question reflect the early stage of the «rivalry» between Däbrä Libanos and Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, the later being reflected in the BéŸélä Nägäút, the narrative about the reestab15

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«the spiritual father» over his «son» can therefore be interpreted in terms of the actual — religious and administrative — submission of one monastic community to another. If applied to the case of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos and Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa, this concept provides, a priori, a well-structured picture for a long period of the Ethiopian church history.18 It is clear, however, that the acceptance of one all-embracing model does not remove either the task of a comparative evaluation of all the pieces of evidence or the need to reveal and explain, as far as possible, all the contradictions and discrepancies between them.19 A closer look at Ethiopian hagiography reveals that monastic initiation is often featured in the biographical accounts of Ethiopian saints. However, in most cases hagiographers record the mere fact of the assumption of the monastic habit. While describing how the protagonist enters monastic life, they mention sometimes the monkish «tunic» or robe (qämis), more frequently girdle (qé nat), «monastic cap» (qobŸ ) and scapular (askema), or simply unlishment of the Solomonic dynasty (in which the role that originally belonged to abba Iyäsus Moýa is taken over by Täklä Haymanot: «one third of the kingdom», thought to have been previously promised to Däbrä Hayq, is promised to Däbrä Libanos), and is thus to be dated to the late 17th or early 18th cent. (DERAT 2003:97–98). A passage of the «monastic chronicle» of Däbrä Libanos (Zena Däbrä Libanos) is considered to be important in this connection, since it may present the core of the story to be later developed in the BéŸé lä Nägäút (the account of Täklä Haymanot’s intervention in the political struggle and his intercession on behalf of Yékunno Amlak), and contain allusions to the «testaments» in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa (ibid. 102– 103). Regarding the episode under enquiry, M.-L. Derat encounters a difficulty since she accepts the dating suggested by E. Cerulli: «En effet, les actes du Iyäsus Mo’a datant de la fin du XVe siècle apparaissent comme une réponse des auteurs des Hayq à ceux de Täklä Haymanot rédigés au début du XVIe siècle. Soit la réponse des auteurs de Hayq est postérieure à la rédaction de la Vie de Iyäsus Mo’a, et représente un remaniement de ce texte après le début du XVe siècle. Soit, du côté de Däbrä Asbo/ Libanos, la vie de Täklä Haymanot a connu des version intermédiaires entre le début du XVe siècle et le début du XVIe siècle, dans lesquelles le rattachement de Däbrä Asbo/Libanos à Däbrä Hayq fut d’abord affirmé, puis nuancé par l’épisode du qob et de l’askéma» (DERAT 2003:109; s. below). 18 This interpretation of the episode with Täklä Haymanot and Iyäsus Moýa, with the subsequent conclusions concerning the relations between Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos and Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa, would fit into the picture of the development of Ethiopian monastic movement as presented by E. CERULLI 1958:270–273. 19 E. g., Turaev pointed out that the suggestion of Bolotov concerning the «rivalry» between the offices of éccäge and Ÿ aqqabe säŸat (s. above, n. 16) can not be fully supported by the evidence from the hagiographic tradition of Täklä Haymanot: the early Waldébba version of Täklä Haymanot’s Vita has the «controversial episode», whereas it is missing in the more recent Synaxarion note on Täklä Haymanot, 24 Näh³ase (ÒURAIEV 1902:96).

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specified monastic garb or clothes (lé bsä/albasä/mälbäsä mé nkwé sé nna or arŸ utä [lit. «yoke»] mé nkwé sé nna).20 Yet, the exact listing of all the insignia received by a saint in the course of his monastic career or the precise recording of respective bestowing rituals were not considered obligatory; in a few cases, the mention of the monastic initiation is missing altogether.21 Hagiographers apparently wanted to attract more attention to the religious and ethical value of the monastic vow and ensue moral responsibilities and obligations. Consequently, most of the relevant episodes appear in the form of brief, loosely formalized hagiographic «common places», which only occasionally include more details.22 According to traditional sources, these are parts of the monastic habit and, at the same time, insignia designating the grades of the monastic profession, up to the askema, for the «perfect monk». The qämis is the traditional long shirt (or «tunic»), usually made of undyed material (cp. GUIDI 1901:248; ñð. also KBT 359). The qé nat is a rough leather (or fibre) belt but frequently nothing else but a simple rope (GUIDI 1901:283; cð. KBT 387). The qobŸ (Amharic: qob) is a round, flat-topped cap without brims, made of white or black material (GUIDI 1901:274; KBT 437; cp. an Amharic idiom yäqob sé m «monastic name»). The àskema consists of two leather strips hanging over the shoulders and crossed on the back and breast, with 12 small crosses hanging from it (GUIDI 1901:446; cð. KBT 729, s. «Askema»; «Clothing: Ecclesiastic» in: EÆ I, 373, 761–763). The term derives from Greek scÁma «habitus, species» (s. LESLAU 1987:43; ñð. DILLMANN 1865:752), this clarifying the meaning of such term as askema zämälaýékt — ¢ggelikÕn scÁma — «appearence [likeness] of angel». The askema-scapular symbolises the third, highest grade of the monastic profession, at which the monk reaches the highest degree of purity and obtains the «angelic nature» (cp. KAPLAN 1984:81–83; cp. HAMMERSCHMIDT 1962:221). All parts of the Ethiopian monkish apparel have parallels in other (Oriental) Christian traditions (cp. the similar composition of the monastic habit in the Byzantine typika, THOMAS — CONSTANTINIDES HERO 2000, vol. 1, XXII). 21 For the typology of this motive as presented in Ethiopian hagiography, s. Appendix, with examples from some 22 hagiographies. 22 The terminology used there is, indeed, not quite consequent, yet the accounts are clear and transparent. There is seemingly no difference in the use of the term lébs and its plural albas, which mean all the parts of the monastic habit together, with the exception of the scapular. The term askema (monkish, holy, angelic — zämänäkwésat, qéddé st, zämälaýé kt) may appear as a potential source of uncertainty, referring to both the monastic life in general (as equivalent for arŸ utä ménkwésénna) and the scapular as the highest («angelic») grade of the monastic profession in particular. In fact, the askema symbolizes the monastic profession and monastic life; «to take on the askema» may simply mean «to enter monastic life», but also «to assume the scapular [the angelic habit]». Yet in the sources the term askema is only ambiguous in a few cases (s. Appendix: Gäbrä Mänfäs Qéddus, Yéshaq/Gärima, Libanos/MättaŸ, Nine Saints in the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi). For a similar problem in Byzantine monastic documents s. THOMAS — CONSTANTINIDES HERO 2000, vol. 1, 155, n. 1; cp. also the Coptic monastic rite, EVETTS 1906:64. 20

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The attempts at regarding the hagiographic accounts of monastic consecration as reflections of a real practice lead to conclusions concerning the organization of the Ethiopian monastic institutions. The hierarchical order of monastic communities based on the three grades of the monastic profession does not appear to have been commonly accepted across Ethiopian monastic communities, because of the decentralised character of Ethiopian monasticism and the absence of a strong Church organization.23 However, it can be assumed that the idea of the monastic investiture and the corresponding rituals could have been known in Ethiopia even before the re-establishment of the Solomonic line (ca. 1270).24 From the 14th cent. onwards the gradual monastic investiture (this being nothing but the formal expression of the basic principle of the progressing spiritual contendings, shared by all monastic traditions) possibly gained wider circulation. The assumption of the girdle, tunic and «monastic cap» at one time and the scapular at another time would thus correspond to the custom of distinguishing between the «little habit» and the «great habit». However, a few hagiographies (among them those reTADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:165. The tradition of the book of monastic consecration rites known as ÚérŸatä Ménk wésénna («Rule[s] of the Monasticism») or Mäs³h³afä Ménk wésénna («Book of the Monasticism»), preserved in many manuscripts, may well go back to the 14th cent. (cp. MSS EMML 2093, 2168, 2272, 2459; HAMMERSCHMIDT — SIX 1983:197–198, no. 103; Six 1989:73, no. 42; cp. a probably 15th cent. MS of the SérŸatä Ménk wésé nna from Däbrä Dammo, STRELCYN 1976:323–323, no. 131; cp. also for the same work MS Paris, Bibliothèque national de France, éth. 80, ZOTENBERG 1877:85, no. 79). The book could have also been composed at an earlier time (RICCI 1969a: 816–817). GRÉBAUT (1940) edited and translated the monastic rite after the 14th- / early 15th-cent. MS éth. 80 (ZOTENBERG 1877:85, no. 79; s. UHLIG 1988:287); though this ÚérŸatä Ménk wésénna is not complete, there are chapters devoted to the ritual of cutting the hairs of the novice (GRÉBAUT 1940:227) and the prayer over the monastic garb (OJve, ibid. 229–230), and to putting on the garb and girdle (¨{Jxf " Ÿ¯v " OJvc " ¨{m} " ¨|xJ…, ibid. 231) or the girdle alone (ibid. 234); any ritual for the askema is unfortunately missing. The ÚérŸatä ménk wé sénna in MS EMML 1950 (17th/ 18th cent., Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos) is much more developed and contains not only the rites but also the regulations concerning monastic life: e. g., on fol. 1ra-rb it is stated that anyone who wants to become monk (¨›Oy " ±ïmÀ " ¾Jve " ™ež+R " ±«›z% " Jxc " Tž=e...) should spend a year of probation in the monastery, with the monks, his conduct and qualities being carefully studied and checked by the community. The probationer himself must consider the seriousness of his intention concerning the assumption of «the holy askema» (™ež+R " oÅe|) — the monastic habit. There is a description of the monastic initiation ritual: when the probationer is found worthy of becoming a monk (after the time of probation is over, and only if he has reached the age of 40 years!), the monastic rules are read to him (fol. 1vb). Then, at night, he is taken to the altar, here the ritual of the assumption of the «vestment of askema» (Jxc " ™ež+R) being performed over the novice ([ś) by his «spiritual father». 23 24

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lated to the tradition of Däbrä Libanos) clearly speak of the separate assumption of the scapular, whereas the majority of the sources do not, proving to be indifferent to the question. On the whole, the sources produce no substantial evidence on the introduction of the strict «twofold» monastic consecration as a result of «reforms»,25 though it is known that active attempts to reorganize some spheres of monastic life did take place. At the same time, hagiographies reflect a range of different attitudes to the «monastic career» in general.26 With regards to the Ethiopian monastic tradition as reflected by hagiography, one can not say that the current monastic practice basically disagrees with the information originating from the sources.27 At the same time there are same obvious discrepancies which are not easy to explain. For instance, it has been repeatedly reported that, especially in the countryside, the mode of clothing of clergy and monks hardly differs from that of laymen; a distinctive feature of the monk or priest, besides the cap (qob), may be the turban (mat³ta³ mt³amiya), and for monks, of course, the cloak or «mantle» made of crude dry sheepskin (GéŸéz: h³amelat or melot³o, Amharic: däbälo), the last two items excluded from the monastic ritual and rarely appearing in hagiographies.28 However, at least in contemporary Ethiopian monastic practice, Repetition of the ritual would raise concern about its «desacralisation». In Byzantine monastic tradition, e. g., there was a controversy about the «duplication» of the assumption of the monastic habit, which some monastic leaders considered unacceptable like the repetition of Baptism; consequently, they rejected the distinction in the monastic dress: s. THOMAS — CONSTANTINIDES HERO 2000, vol. 1, 78; 155, n. 1, 2; vol. 2, 1203. 26 They were not always only positive. In fact, in many hagiographic accounts hermits appear as «spiritual athletes» (like abba Gäbrä Mänfäs Qéddus) who supersede cenobitical monks in asceticism, miraculous power and sanctity. Hermits did not always seek complete separation from the cenobitical communities but frequently kept up relations with them; the hermitic way has been fully recognized as an honourable way of ascetic life, more difficult than the that in the community. E.g., in Waldébba, a monk could become a hermit and be separated from the community only if the abbot decided that he was experienced enough and ready to continue the ascetic life alone. In order to become a hermit, a monk would not need to assume the scapular (on the contrary, hermits were supposed to reject a formal recognition of their spiritual merits). Having settled in a deserted place, a hermit would stay in complete isolation and seldom appear in the community. Some hermits never leave their abodes; however, they are sometimes helped by younger monks (GIRMA ELYAS 1977:110– 113). In Ethiopia, hermitic life has always exercised an immense attraction, its followers being revered by both laymen and ecclesiastics (yet, they were sometimes at odds with representatives of the official Church hierarchy). 27 Cp., e. g., RICCI 1969–1970:144–145; VAN DE WEYER 1973. 28 On h³amelat/melot³o, which is considered to be the traditional clothing of both the monks and wandering students seeking for the education in church and monastic schools, s. DILLMANN 1865:71, KWK 449. Ñð. EÆ I, 761–763: those monks who re25

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the assumption of the scapular (the highest grade of the monastic profession) though formally quite important, is implemented only in rare cases29 — in spite of the fact that the service books provide a full set of relevant rituals, well known to, and much revered by, Ethiopian monks. It is possible that the early assumption of the scapular as described in many hagiographic works should be understood as a sign of the extraordinariness and sanctity of the vitas’ protagonists (and be ascribed, thus, to the «imaginary world» of the hagiography): a saint need neither many years of ascetic exercises to reach the «angelic nature», nor should he wait many years for the scapular to be conferred upon him;30 even the period of probation and noviciate appears very short or even non-existent. As in the past, the institution of the «spiritual fatherhood» is also vivid today: the senior monk who initiates a novice into monastic life remains his «spiritual father» and actively participates in the «spiritual upbringing» of his «son» (while the latter maintains warm attitude to the former for many years), yet his advising concerns matters of spiritual life and is not binding, especially when his pupil matures and moves to another place. ceived the sacerdotal consecration can carry hand-crosses, as priests do. In the sources one can find references to the lack of acknowleged standarts in monastic clothing, cp. the most valuable notes by Almeida, in: Historia Aethiopiae, ed. by Ñ. Beccari, Roma 1907, book II, ch. XVIII, 195–200. There are also mentions of the yellow robes or cloaks worn by some monks (s. BECKINGHAM — HUNTINGFORD 1961:126, 424), a custom preserved, e. g., in Waldébba monasteries, and currently followed also by monks of Däbrä Libanos (Šäwa) and some other communities. In the 20th cent., there were some attempts at standardizing (and «modernizing») of the clothing of the ecclesiastics and monks. 29 S., e. g., RICCI 1969–1970:144–145, CHAILLOT 2002:154–157. 30 Quite the opposite to the living monastic tradition. According to the rules of Däbrä Abräntant, one of the monasteries of Waldébba, a candidate for the scapular should be elected among old monks of the community. He must be renown for his piety, virtue, knowledge and other merits. He had to spend a long time living as a monk and being an example of perfect ascetisim (in particular, abstaining from meat and sleeping in a bed). Due to his age and way of life, he was expected to stay most of the time within his community; he could offer spiritual teaching, but he had to abstain from participation in any other active work, especially in administrative matters (BÄRIHUN KÄBBÄDÄ 1971:108–115). As local tradition reports, during the entire history of Waldébba Abräntant only four monks have assumed the scapular (though honourable monks were numerous). The first was 14th-cent. Samuýel of Waldébba, who is considered to be the founder of Abräntant (the scapular was reportedly conferred upon him by Mädòaninä Égziý in Däbrä Bänkwal; the Vita of Samuýel, however, relates that he assumed from Mädòaninä Égziý the clothes [albas], the girdle [qénat] and the monastic cap [qobŸ ], s. TURAIEV 1902a:2), while the others were three prominent superiors of the community. Abba Gäbrä Égziýabéher Täsämma was the last one to receive the scapular at Däbrä Dammo, in the late 1960s (BÄRIHUN KÄBBÄDÄ 1971:109).

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Historically, the issues of strict distinction between the grades of monastic profession, the standartization of everyday monastic vestments and their distinction from the clothes of laymen, were certainly not a crucial point in Ethiopian monastic discourse; it is, however, quite natural that, regarding the question of garments, local Ethiopian tradition put emphasis on some other specific points.31 As to the hierarchy within the monasteries, this certainly existed in any Ethiopian cenobitical community, though its formalization (also by means of the parts of the monastic habit) may have happened only in a few cases — when it was required, e. g., by the growth of the monastery and by the need of organizing the religious and economical activities of a great number of monks. Ethiopia was famous for its numerous monasteries, but most of them, including the well-established and influential ones, had comparatively small communities.32 Däbrä Libanos of Ðäwa, being among the few excepWhile the Bible and extensive monastic literature (Mäs³ah³é ftä Mänäkosat) provided the religious, ascetic and ritual foundation for Ethiopian monasticism, the local tradition had a specific appearance. It is from this point of view that one should consider the notable remark by J. Simon concerning the so-called Ethiopic Regulae Pachomii (DILLMANN 1866:57–69 [HAMMERSCHMIDT 1988]): «On ne peut citer aucun monastère éthiopien qui ait été organisé selon la “Règle de S. Pachôme”» (SIMON 1941 [HAMMERSCHMIDT 1988]:301). While two of the three parts of these «Regulations», where a lot is said on the role of the monastic garb, were translated during the Axumite period (LUSINI 1997:54–55, n. 16–20), and the «Regulations» certainly exercised influence on the life in Ethiopian monasteries, attested collections of genuine Ethiopian monastic regulations are deeply rooted in the local reality and focus on quite different points (ibid. 55). Cp., e. g., the regulations (from the 15th/16th-cent. manuscript, compiled at an unknown monastery) containing a paragraph about the vestments expressing concerns different from the Regulae Pachomii (ibid. 57–60; «Ancora, il §2 contempla soltanto la pelle di capra come elemento specifico del vestito monastico, probabilmente per sottolineare come quello più degli altri sia l’autentico segno di riconoscimento del monaco», ibid., 58–59); cp. also concerns expressed in the «rules» of abba Nabyud (BEYLOT 1974:1, 16–17). Concerns of leaders of local communities should have focused on the simplicity of clothes, or avoidance of outspoken inequality among monks in this respect (e. g., as a repercussion of their different social background), or the amassing property by individuals, etc. Certainly, a substantial degree of disagreement between what is written/prescribed in the books and what is implemented in the real life is characteristic of the Ethiopian monastic tradition, as of any other (e. g., the Coptic monastic rite includes rituals for both the «little» and «great habits», but cp. EVETTS 1906:65: «Aujourd’hui les moines égyptiens ne portent que des tuniques noires et turban de même couleur sur une calotte, comme les prêtres séculiers»). 32 It seems that the population of most monastic communities did not exceed a few dozens of brothers (like those noted by Alvares, s. BECKINGHAM — HUNTINGFORD 1961:175, 185). Ethiopian sources hold witness to a few larger monastic communities; cp., a valuable description of the Ewostatean monastic organization in Zärýa YaŸéqob’s Mäs³h³afä Bérhan, which reports that in three nunneries affiliated to Däbrä 31



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tions, is reported to have had a population of no less than one hundred monks or many more over a long period of time. For the early 16th cent. — shortly before the monastery was destroyed by Ahmad Grañ — there are some pieces of evidence that the community was hierarchically organised according to the monastic grades, and the bestowing rites for the parts of the monastic habit were established and duly performed.33

II There is no doubt that the value of the story’s versions as presented in the hagiographic texts mentioned above is different for each of them. It is usually assumed that the hagiographers, more or less consciously, used their works for expressing their ideology and asserting the claims of their respective communities. However, one should not forget that this was just one — and possibly not even predominant — of the many functions at work in hagiographic texts. When compiling a new Vita, the hagiographer hardly distinguished those passages in the text which would serve as his monastic community’s «credo» or «proclamation»; however, he maintained the same «literary devices» throughout the work. In addition to the passages he penned himself, the hagiographer used elements he borrowed, directly or indirectly, from both oral and written sources, which he could re-interpret and/or revise. Bizän there were 1146 nuns (CONTI ROSSINI — RICCI 1965:150). This information, however, refers to the peak of the Ewostatean movement; the number of monks decreased in the early 16th cent. (cp. BECKINGHAM — HUNTINGFORD 1961:88–90); currently there is no trace of a large monastic settlement there. There are some other reports on monastic settlements with hundreds and even thousands of monks (ñð. GIRMA ELYAS 1977:101; BECKINGHAM — HUNTINGFORD 1961:201). Even if these reports are trustworthy, big communities could not persist for long, since they would quickly exhaust the ecological resources of the region and would be vulnerable to epidemics and military conflicts (for the population in Byzantine monasteries, and approximate statistics comparable to the Ethiopian situation [notwithstanding the important cultural, social and economical differences!], s. THOMAS — CONSTANTINIDES HERO 2000, vol. 1, XVI–XVII). 33 Àlmeida, in: Historia Aethiopiae, ed. by Ñ. Beccari, Roma 1907, book II, ch. XVIII, 196–200. Almeida mentions those who assumed «the great habit» — the scapular; he also reports of an exceptionally lengthy probation period (7 years). A monk could assume the scapular only after he had assumed other parts of the habit (some assumed only the tunic first, and the monastic cap later), only if he reached the age of 30 years and fulfilled another period of probation. It seems that the community of Däbrä Libanos retains, to the great extent, the old organisation: it consists of probationers (ardaýé t, sg. rädéý ) who are waiting for being accepted into the monastery, junior monks (néý usan, sg. néý us), senior monks (aŸé rug), and «perfect monks» (lit. «saints», qéddusan, sg. qéddus; s. ACDic IV, 142–156; for the term, s. also RICCI 1966:77 and 93, n. 174; RICCI 1969–70:145).

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Thus, understanding the message of a hagiographic account would mean, to a great extent, disentangling the process of its emergence, the task being distinct from, though parallel to, establishing the work’s textual history within the framework of a critical edition.34 Let us therefore discuss each of the most important traditions that relate the story in question, in chronological order. Even though I have already expressed my view concerning the hagiographic tradition of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot on several occasions, I would like to summarize here the most crucial points. It is generally accepted that the hagiographic tradition of the Vita consits of four recensions. 1) The Synaxarion note on 24 Näh³ase, the day of Täklä Haymanot’s death, is represented by at least two text-types: the old one (GUIDI 1912:377–383, the text from the MS «P»), and the more recent one (ibid. 1912:474– 476, «Appendice»; cp. BUDGE 1928:1241–46). 2) The Waldébba recension, only preserved in two copies (one of them, MS éth. 136, from Bibliothèque nationale de France, dates possibly into the 15th cent.) has the reign of Yéshaq (1414–1429) as its terminus post quem. It can not fully be excluded that this work does not date from an even earlier period, since King Yéshaq is not mentioned in the main body of the text, but in the «Miracles», which could be attached to the Vita somewhat later. 3) The best-known recension of the Vita is the Däbrä Libanos version (BUDGE 1906), compiled around 1515 by the initiative of éccäge Petros. This recension is represented by two text-types: the original one and its slightly reworked and much more recent variant (the first half of the 18th cent.?; cp. NOSNITZYN 2000). 4) There is a number of definitively interrelated texts — their archetype remains to be reconstructed — which preceed the recension of Däbrä Libanos and were incorporated into it. The so-called Hayq recension (the critical edition of which I am currently preparing) owes its name to MS EMML 1834, a 16th-cent. Gädlä Qéddusan from Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, the hagiographic collection with the Acts of Täklä Haymanot differing from both the Waldébba and Däbrä Libanos recensions (see Getatchew Haile’s description of EMML 1834, 2134). MS EMML 8742, from Tana Qirqos (not catalogued, accessible only in the National Archives and Library of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa), contains a text of the same type as EMML 1834, though with substantial differences. EMML 1834 seems to represent an abridged version (typical for a work included into a collection of texts), with a few new passages (in some cases the influence of the Däbrä Libanos recension can not be exluded) of the same text as in MS Paris, Bibliothèque national de France, Éth. 342 = Griaule 38 (late 15th cent., s. GRÉBAUT 1941:18–20), to which 16th-cent. or older MS Tânâsee 162 = Dâgâ Estifanos 51 (SIX 1999:202–206) is identical. A suggestion concerning the dating of this text, designated as «the 1st Däbrä Libanos recension», ca. 1425–1426, was made on the basis of Éth. 697, another text related to Éth. 342 (s. DERAT 1998:77; for the internal evidence pointing to a slightly more recent time, i. e. to the early reign of Zärýa YaŸéqob, s. NOSNITSIN 2003:149, n. 40). The brief version of the Synaxarion recension of the Vita appears to be one of the oldest hagiographic documents about Täklä Haymanot and most probably antedates both the Hayq and the Däbrä Libanos recensions; this text was the basic source for the compiler of the Hayq recension (s. NOSNITSIN 2006, forthcoming). After the Däbrä Libanos recension was composed, but before 1532, the Homilies on the annu34



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In Waldébba recension of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, the account of the Saint’s visit to (Däbrä) Hayq is included in the sequence of events which took place when the saint was wandering in northern Ethiopia. According to this recension, Täklä Haymanot decided to adopt the «monkish yoke» (™`­#z " Tž=e) after he was consecrated priest and distinguished himself while converting the people into Christianity. Thus, Täklä Haymanot went to Angot and reached Lake Hayq (K¾m " wM`), where he received the monastic habit (indiscriminately denoted here as «monastic clothes»: ™Jwf " ™Jwc " Tž=e) from Iyäsus Moýa. After nine years, having received blessing from Iyäsus Moýa, he moved (ïHc) to Tégray and received the monastic cap and scapular at Däbrä Dammo (the name of the superior is not mentioned). The account states that in Tégray Täklä Haymanot introduced many people into monastic life (™Ož:c " x±#†Š) and built/ founded many monasteries. On his way back to Sewa (Šäwa), Täklä Haymanot visited Hayq where the notorious conversation with Iyäsus Moýa took place. The superior asked his pupil what he had on his head; having learnt that this is the «perfect order» of the monastic habit (õç#T " Y`®z " Tž=e), he asked Täklä Haymanot to give him both the monastic cap and the scapular, and the latter fulfilled his teacher’s request.35 The perception of the Waldébba recension as the early stage in the development of the hagiographic legend of Täklä Haymanot (which may have been «only» 120–140 years apart from the events it described) is important for understanding the episode. The hagiographer did not try to adapt the account to any literary model,36 being perhaps not skilled or knowledgeable al holidays of the Saint and three respective collections of the Miracles were attached to the Vita. «The Book of the Translation of the Body of Täklä Haymanot», which is usually found in the MSS with the Däbrä Libanos recension of the Vita, represents a still separate tradition (s. NOSNITSIN 2003). 35 CONTI ROSSINI 1896:107–108 (text), 133–134 (tr.), from: ¨KH¹ " Ÿ¯v " žO " ¾X› " ™`­#z " Tž=e... till the well-known passage: ¨¾v+H: " ™v#Š " z¡H " D¾R| " ›ö " ›¡J " ™Š " «Eyzž " ›± " ™v#¹ " ™z " œ™w "" ¨¾v+H: " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ›± " ™z " ¨JŹ " v³c " ž#ŠŒ " ™v "" ¨fv " ™Ñva " ¨Ay " ™w " z¡H " D¾R| " H™v#B " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " px­ " ¨™ež+R " ¨zc™© " vv¾z*GP " çH:}P " ¹AH# " TeH+Š " ™S "" Remarking another «episodio di grandissima importanza», Conti Rossini (ibid., 133, n. 1) gives in the footnote, as elsewhere, the contents of the corresponding passage from Manuel de Almeida’s resumé of the Däbrä Libanos recension of the Vita; for this purpose Conti Rossini used a copy of the work received through M. Esteves Pereira (ibid., 102; originating, most probably, from an MS of the National Library, Lisbon, cp. ESTEVES PEREIRA 1899:6, n. 6). 36 It can not be excluded, however, that the author «reversed» 1 Par. 17:12 (the words God addressed to King David through the Prophet Natan) «I will be his father, and he shall be my son (and I will not take my mercy away from him...)», according to the standard Ethiopic Bible: ¨™Š " ›ž« " ™v¨ " «›z%Œ " ¾ž«ŠŒ " ¨JŹ (ñð. also 1 Par. 22:10).

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enough to put the narrative into a more elaborate literary shape, or simply having no intention to do so. Thus, in the Waldébba recension the account has neither literary decorative elements nor, seemingly, ideological implications, and may have a direct link to the oral legend, as attested by the frank and somewhat naïve expression of astonishment and admiration in the words Iyäsus Moýa directed to his own pupil: «Oh my son! What is it on your head, and what is on your neck?!», and the following: «Give me the (thing) that is similar to what I see on your neck, for it is nice!»37 The Synaxarion commemoration of Täklä Haymanot on 24 Nähase (in its «short version») differs from the Waldébba recension of the Vita of the Saint. While reporting that Täklä Haymanot had only one spiritual teacher — Bäsälotä Mikaýel of Amhara (s. above, n. 7), it does not mention whether Täklä Haymanot received from him any separate part of the monastic habit.38 This story was incorporated into the hagiographic legend of Täklä Haymanot as a stable element and appears in other recensions of the Vita, its variations being developed from the common narrative core: Täklä Haymanot stayed in the monastic community of Bäsälotä Mikaýel for a long time (the Synaxarion: x±#† " Oª¯H) and was introduced into the monastic life; yet neither version says that he received there either monkish robe, or monastic cap and scapular.39 The Hayq (/«1st Dabrä Libanos») recension as transmitted in MS Éth. 342 = Griaule 38 and a few other manuscripts40 presents the story of Täklä HayOne may get an impression of a somewhat «anecdotal» character of the account, which in this sense appears to be unique and differs from both hagiographic accounts and reality: it is hardly possible that monastic cap and scapular could be adopted in such a simplified way and without appropriate rituals (still another feature of an oral account?). Curiously, the account implicates that Täklä Haymanot was «deprived», in fact, of his monastic cap and scapular, which he had to give to his spiritual teacher. Most probably, in this case we should assume that, to a certain extent, this passage of the Waldébba recension remains a mystery — we still have no proper understanding of the message conveyed in the episode. So far I have found no similar stories in other hagiographic sources that could facilitate the analysis. 38 At the same time, the Synaxarion reports that, in Wägda, Täklä Haymanot «gave the monastic garb» (¨™JvfP " ™Jwc " Tž=e) to his first 17 disciples (GUIDI 1912:382). 39 On the one hand, the reliability of this account is difficult to assess against what is said in the Waldébba recension of the Vita (it looks a little unusual that a novice could spend a considerable number of years in the monastic community while receiving no part of the monastic habit; in fact, we can only speculate why in one case it is Iyäsus Moýa, in another Bäsälotä Mikaýel); on the other hand, this «lacuna» inspired other hagiographers to «fill» it with different personalities — spiritual teachers — who overshadowed Bäsälotä Mikaýel (s. NOSNITSIN 2006, forthcoming). 40 Apart from MS Éth. 342 = Griaule 38, I was able to check MS Tânâsee 162 = Dâgâ Estifanos 51; futhermore, MS Éth. 697 (s. French translation in DUCHESNEFOURNET 1908, vol. 1, 338–440), though recent (18th/19th cent.?) and copied with omissions and mistakes, contains the same variant of the story. 37

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manot’s stay at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos as a lengthy and detailed account containing much more information than the Waldébba recension (the latter was obviously unknown to the author). Apparently following the Synaxarion note, the text reports that Täklä Haymanot entered the community of Bäsälotä Mikaýel (neither its name nor its location are designated), asking Bäsälotä Mikaýel to educate him in the «monastic custom(s)» (Óx[ " Tž=e). Yet neither here nor further on does the text mention any separate part of the habit as symbols of the grades of monastic profession, though it does touch upon some topics related to regulations of monastic life.41 After a long stay with Bäsälotä Mikaýel, Täklä Haymanot proceeds to Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos and remains there for 10 years, before returning to his native Säwa (Šäwa). In general, the text in MS Éth. 342 = Griaule 38 does not add anything special to the episode in question.42 The account is enriched with hagiographic «common places» on the endurance of the Saint in fasting and praying, his miraculous walking on the water, etc. The account about Täklä Haymanot’s life in the monastery of Bäsälotä Mikaýel is lengthy (MS Éth. 342, fol. 89vb–97ra), very dynamic and full of developments. In the scene of the first conversation between Bäsälotä Mikaýel and Täklä Haymanot, the hagiographer raises an important topic concerning the monastic discipline, namely, the move from one monastic community to another. Bäsälotä Mikaýel states that a monk should ask his superior (mamhé r) for permission if he wants to leave his community and move to another one; otherwise the head of any other community may not accept him, under the threat of «excommunication» (Ó±|; MS Éth. 342, fol. 89vb–90rb). This statement certainly reflects the constant intention of the monastic elite to prevent the uncontrolled wandering of monks (cp. KAPLAN 1984:49); however, the request of Bäsälotä Mikaýel as presented in the Hayq recension — to hear the words of Täklä Haymanot’s mamhér confirm what Täklä Haymanot said — appears to be a literary device «repairing» the inconsistency of the legend concerning Täklä Haymanot’s initial receiving of the monastic garb. Bäsälotä Mikaýel accepted Täklä Haymanot as «a monk from the country of Sewa» (the monk with whom Täklä Haymanot travelled was also convinced that he was a monk), though the latter has virtually not entered the monastic profession yet. However, Täklä Haymanot tells that it was his mämhér who sent him to Bäsälotä Mikaýel to learn the monastic life, while the Holy Spirit confirms his words. Though the language of the passage is somewhat ambiguous, it is clear that Täklä Haymanot virtually had no spiritual teacher; so the Holy Spirit orders Bäsälotä Mikaýel to «make him a monk» (…™O¢f " ¨OAa " Óx[ " Tž=e), whereas the question of the assumption of the monastic habit remains without clear answer. 42 It only reports that Iyäsus Moýa received Täklä Haymanot well and offered him a «dwelling» (¨¨Ay " R‡À[, MS Éth. 342, fol. 98ra); the account about Täklä Haymanot’s stay at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos is very brief (fol. 97rb–100va), its major portion being of a didactic treatise inspired by Mt. 25 (fol. 98ra–vb). Occasionally, the text refers to the monastic habit (Jxc " Tž=e) that Täklä Haymanot took upon his nephew Marqos, «his brother, the son of his father’s brother in the flesh» (fol. 100va: ›…#B" ¨JÀ " ›‡¨ " ™v#B " vYÒ) in Wägda (s. NOSNITSIN 2006, forth41

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The text preserved in the 15th-cent. MS EMML 8742 from Tana Qirqos represents a source of particular value, unfolding a version of the story as possibly related and perceived in the 15th cent. by the monks of Tana communities. According to MS EMML 8742, too, Täklä Haymanot spent a number of years at the place of Bäsälotä Mikaýel, without the formal assumption of the monastic habit.43 Thereafter, the angel told him to go to Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, where Iyäsus Moýa was supposed to vest him with «the monastic yoke» (™`­#z " Tž=e). Täklä Haymanot went to Hayq, did not find a boat, and stood praying untill Archangel Michael appeared, walking on the surface of the water (fol. 35rb), and urging Täklä Haymanot to follow.44 Here, at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, Iyäsus Moýa vested Täklä Haymanot with the monastic garb, obviously completing the ritual of the monastic consecration.45 After some time, Täklä Haymanot decided to visit other monasteries,46 and, coming). The absence of certain details concerning the «monastic career» of the Saint might have been later considered as an inconsistency, leading to attempts at «correcting» the legend: e.g., in recent MS Éth. 627, fol. 137, Täklä Haymanot is reported to have acquired the scapular from Bäsälotä Mikaýel. 43 Täklä Haymanot is called by God «to adopt the monastic habit of the fathers» (zç«® " ›T…v " ›Ó±&™xK+` " žO " ¾X› " Tž=e " ±™v« " oÁd, fol. 31va), the name of the place he is supposed to go to is not indicated. When he comes to a monastery, he is accommodated by a monk. The following day, the abä ménet of the place, abba Bäsälotä Mikaýel, is informed about the new-comer and asks him to come (fol. 31rv: x›c& " ›Óà " ¾ïoÅ " ¾X› " v[žzž). When Täklä Haymanot enters, Bäsälotä Mikaýel stands up, greets him and kisses his head (fol. 32ra ... W¾ " Té™|ž " …v+¹ " œoÁe " H›Ó±&™xK+` " vžO " ŠÑ[Œ " Oïe " oÁe " v[fol. 32rb]²z* " c®|); Bäsälotä Mikaýel questions Täklä Haymanot, since «this is the custom of the wise» (fol. 32rb... ›eO " JRÆP " HÖv&w " žRB " «›z%...). Bäsälotä Mikaýel allows Täklä Haymanot to stay with him, yet nothing is said about the assumption of a monastic habit. Täklä Haymanot serves in the community doing every kind of work (32vb: ¨™…± " ¾|H™¡ " «ez " Óx[ " R‡[é " ¨¾mÅM " R¹...), here the narration being interrupted by biblical quotations (Mt. 20:28; Phil. 2:3–9). Then the contendings of Täklä Haymanot are described (fol. 33rb-va), including him healing a man possessed by a demon (x›c& " ±ÒŽ; fol. 33va–34rb). Finally, Täklä Haymanot is displeased by fame (fol. 34va). 44 Täklä Haymanot and Archangel Michael reach the church of the monastery; there follows a complex account on how Iyäsus Moýa learnt about Täklä Haymanot’s arrival, how the key-keeper (®ìª*) informed him about the coming of a guest (›ÓÃ) and let Täklä Haymanot enter (fol. 35va–36ra, s. below). 45 Fol. 36ra: ¨›T³ " c™H: " oÁe " z¡H " D¾R| " H™x " Oïdª, " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ›± " ¾xJ " ™JxcŒ " ™(fol. 36rb)`™¼ " Tž=e " x`Dª*z " ¨çH¹ " I¯H " Jxc " ¨™Jxf " Jxc " Tž=e "" ¨Šv[ " F¹ " vèR " ¨vşT... This passage is followed by the description of Täklä Haymanot’s ascetic life at Däbrä Hayq and his celestial travel to Paradise (ъ|), where he saw the «mysteries» (fol. 36va–37ra). 46 Fol. 37rb: ™Åw[ " oÁdz " ¨M`Rz " Tž=[e] " OJ›¡{ª*|.

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having crossed Lake Hayq by walking on the water once again, he went further and reached Däbrä Dammo. Here, at «the place of Arägawi», he took on the monastic cap and scapular,47 the name of the superior — Täklä Haymanot’s spiritual father — not being mentioned.48 After the description of Täklä Haymanot’s contendings at Däbrä Dammo and an extensive praise of him, there follows a note on Täklä Haymanot’s travelling around Däbrä Dammo and back to Sewa (Šäwa), via Däbrä Hayq,49 and — the most important matter — the note concerning the parts of the monastic habit received by Iyäsus Moýa from his spiritual son Täklä Haymanot, with a striking statement: «…And many of our elders told that our father Iyäsus Moýa took the (monastic) cap and scapular from his (spiritual) son Täklä Haymanot».50 The passage on fol. 39va recalls the Waldébba recension of the Vita;51 and it is remarkable that the hagiographer refers to an oral tradition (¨±+Š«Š " ™¯\Ó " x±#†...) — not to the «old writings» — as to his source. The most remarkable thing is that the same version of the story is found in a copy of the work produced at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos — late 15th/early 16th-cent. MS EMML 1834 — the text that gave name for the entire recension52 . This text repeats the entire passage narrating the «monastic career» of Täklä Hamynanot as it appears in MS EMML 8742 (including what the «elders told» of Iyäsus Moýa’s assumption of the monastic cap and scapular). There are some differences which probably reveal the virtual considerations of the hagiographer: e. g., in EMML 1834 the phrase zç«® " ›T…v " ›Ó±&™xK+` " žO " ¾X› " Y`®z " Tž=e " ±™v« " oÁd... (s. above, n. 43) appears before the account of Täklä Haymanot’s stay at Hayq, in order to show that his «monastic career» developed in the proper way: according to the legend, indeed, Täklä Haymanot was formally initiated into monastic life at Däbrä Hayq,53 not in the community of Bäsälotä Mikaýel. 47 This note comes after the praise of Arägawi and the Nine Saints (›H# " ›Pz% " žª¡xz " x\D " ±™ªžº " ž=H: " ™Å¼Rz " ™&|¿å¼..., fol. 37vb–38ra). 48 Fol. 38ra: ¨™v#Šc " z¡H " D¾R| " xë#®¾ " vF¹ " ŠY™ " px® " ¨™ež+R " …v " OŸŠ " ™[Òª* " ±±ž`Š " mÃQ "" 49 Fol. 39va: ¨xë#¯c " ™v#Š " z¡H " D¾R| " œÀ " ™Å¼Rz " ž=H# " |Ó^¾ " ¨TŽ{| " ¨Ñ:À¹ " vF¹ " ›± " ¾Ñx` " z™T^z " ¨O¡^z " vžO " JRÁ " ¨¨HÀ " Àm*m " ±Oïe " vTFa " ¨vTž=e " ¨vF¹ " Šv[ " vx(39vb)M{ª, "" ¨™&¼Ø[º " Àm*m% " TŽ{z " ¨›ež " ¾›±+ " ¾cOº " veP "" 50 Fol. 40ra: (¨v›z³ " Óx` " zO¾Ö " «ez " K¾o " …v " ™v#B " Oïdª* " ™&¹c#e " U™ "") ¨±+Š«Š " ™¯\Ó " x±#† " žO " ŠY™ " ™v#Š " ™&¹c#e " U™ " px® " ¨™ež+R " ›T¨JÁ " z¡H " D¾R| " ™v#Š " ™O " zO¾Ö " ›TÃU "" ¨›T(fol. 40rb)Ň[ " Ñ:À¹ "  " xK+[ " c+ª... 51 CONTI ROSSINI 1896:107–108 (text), 133–134 (tr.). 52 S. EMML 1834, fol. 93rb–100rb; here fol. 100va. 53 S. EMML 1834, fol. 99rb.

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Like EMML 8742, EMML 1834 refers to two spiritual fathers of the saint (™v#B " Oïdª*): an unknown monk of Däbrä Dammo and Iyäsus Moýa of Däbrä Hayq.54 The question of how the hagiographic tradition explains the strange story of Täklä Haymanot giving the monastic cap and scapular to his spiritual father makes it necessary to examine the traditions of Däbrä Dammo. The Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi appears to be the most important source.55 The passage which is usually referred to in connection with the analyzed episode is not included in the description of the life of Zä-Mikaýel. It is found in a brief history of the community of Däbrä Dammo — attached to the biography of the Saint. In turn, this history is not a homogeneous text: it encompasses several different (predominantly historiographic) pieces, mostly following the sequence of the abbots of Däbrä Dammo — from Matyas to Zä-Iyäsus. The narration concerning the tenure of abba Yohanni — the seventh after Zä-Mikaýel — is composed of two notes. The first reports the construction of a church; the second refers to two prominent monastic leaders visiting Däbrä Hayq — Iyäsus Moýa and Täklä Haymanot.56 The account obviously follows the chronology of events: Iyäsus Moýa came first, received the «scapular of S. EMML 8742, fol. 40ra; EMML 1834, fol. 100va. S. DEB 209–210 («Zä-Mika’èl ’Arägawi»); RAINERI in: EnSanti II, 1382; the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi is supposed to have been written in the second half of the 15th cent. (GUIDI 1932:60; RICCI 1969:825). 56 After the description of the death of the Saint in the time of king Gäbrä Mäsqäl there is no concluding formula, only the blessing: çH:z% " ¨v[žz% … ¨¾|RMç늊 " ¨¾I¨Š " H®HO " ®HT (s. GUIDI 1895:31). It is followed by the accounts about: the tenure of Matyas, who is credited with having commissioned the writing of the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel and — along with Yosef — to have been the main informant about the life of Zä-Mikaýel (ibid. 31–32); the commemoration of the Saint, established by Matyas, with the miracle the multiplication of foods (¨z³Ÿ\ " Y`®z " ±W`­ " H:P…, ibid. 32); stories of the Saint’s (posthumous) miracles related by the witnesses — his spiritual sons (¨¾v+ " ›TÀm*m%…). These stories reached king Gäbrä Mäsqäl, who bestowed upon the community the rich land possessions enumerated in the text (¨fv " cT® " Ñ#Y " Ñx[ " OemJ…, ibid. 32–33); the tenure of Matyas and the internal order of the community (¨oÁec " R|¼e " 班…, ibid. 33–34). After Matyas’s death, the account proceeds with brief mentions of Yosef and Mädòaninä Égziý, the subsequent two abbots, and with an extensive story of the tenure of abba Yohanni (ibid. 34: ¨›TŇ[ " Ñ>Á¾ " Oª¯J " v±O‹ " H™w " ¿KŒ …). The first tells of the construction of a church in a cave, intended as a burial place for monks; the second, more lengthy, relates the story in question. Thereafter, there is only a mention of abba Zä-Iyäsus who succeeded Yohanni, and a long and elaborate concluding formula (ibid. 35–36). I have checked quite a number of manuscripts containing the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi, and in all of them the portion of the text described above reveals no substantial differences (apart from the usual variant readings). 54 55

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the monks» from abba Yohanni and went to Hayq. Shortly after, Täklä Haymanot arrived from the place of Iyäsus Moýa (sic!) and asked for the monastic cap and scapular. However, as he told of his intention to go to Jerusalem, Yohanni persuaded him to give up this idea. Täklä Haymanot received the monastic cap and scapular and, after several years at Däbrä Dammo (in Guidi’s edition: 12 years), returned to Iyäsus Moýa. The account ends with the laudation of both Täklä Haymanot and Iyäsus Moýa. The hagiographer seems to be generally unbiased, and, at a first glance, has no other aim than preserving the memory of the two prominent monks in the annals of his monastery.57 Here is the English translation of the Ethiopic passage (GUIDI 1895:34–35; the editor did not translate the passage into Italian, and limited the renarration to only a brief remark [ibid. 42]: «Abbâ Yohanî riveste dell’abito monacale Abbâ Iyasus Mo’a»...): «And thereafter abba Iyäsus Moýa came and said to abba Yohanni: ‘Oh abba, vest me with the scapular of monks [the monastic habit? ™JxcŒ " ™w " ™ež+R " ±OŠ¢d|]’. And then he vested him, and he stayed for a long time obeying his teacher. And he learned the writing and became the one who loved solitude and prayer (¨¢Š " Oõ¢_ " éP " ¨çH:|). And he was alone among the rocks, and he wrote the (book of) Gospels there, which exists untill now. And he went and returned to a country whose name was Hayq, and he became the father of many monks there. And after a short time abba Täklä Haymanot came, having taken on the soldier’s clothes (?; Jxc " K^) from abba Iyäsus Moýa, and wished to go to Jerusalem. And he reached the holy Däbrä Dammo where abba Yohanni resided. As he saw him, he liked him and kissed him; and he told him about (the cause of) his coming, and he said to him: ‘I came so that you would vest me with the monastic cap and scapular; I wish to go to the Sepulchre of our Lord’. And abba Yohanni said to him: ‘I do not think (that you should) go (Kª*[c " ™&¾OeHŒ); but you will be (AH¨ž " |ž#) father of many (monks) here. But let us tell (this) together (Ñ` " ‡v#[) to God, in order that he will show us the good way’. And he gave him the scapular and monastic cap, and they stayed together, devoting themselves to praying. Our father Täklä Haymanot worked signs and miracles, and he was with abba Yohanni for 12 years. He returned to Iyäsus Moýa having taken the scapular and monastic cap, for he had gone out of a desire of righteousness, loving the solitude and seclusion. They — Iyäsus Moýa and abba Täklä Haymanot — are wide in (their) branches, and they generated bright stars, as numerous as the sea sand, and they filled the land of the south (TÅ[ " ™±+x)». The words Jxc " K^ were not translated by Guidi, but were interpreted in TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:165 (followed by KAPLAN 1986:54) as: «dressed like a soldier». Indeed, h³arra in GéŸéz means «army, troops»; yet the hagiographer did not mean «soldier» in the proper (military) sense, but was probably referring to the Saint as «a soldier of Christ» (h³arawi zä-Kréstos). However, as an alternative explanation one may suggest that the word h³arra might be connected with Arabic word h³arîr or Amharic harr ‘silk’ (s. LESLAU 1987:243), hence lé bsä h³arra may originally have the meaning «silk garb», i. e., «white cloth» referring to the monastic garb; about the Arabic loanwords in the Vita s. GUIDI 1895:54). The Vita simply mentions that Täklä Haymanot came to Yohanni from Iyäsus Moýa, having received the monastic garb, but not yet the monastic cap and scapular. 57

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Surprisingly, the comparison of additional manuscripts of the Vita of ZäMikaýel Arägawi demonstrates that one of the most important passages is uncertain to such a degree that one should ask, who — Täklä Haymanot or Iyäsus Moýa — «left without receiving the cap and scapular»?58 UnderstandCp. Guidi’s edition: [... ¨¨Ay " ™ež+R " ¨px­ " ... ™v#Šc " ™w " z¡H " D¾R| " ¾Ñx` " zšT[ " ¨O¡[ "] ¨Šv[ " TeH+B " H™v#Š " ¿KŒ " O֊ " ¨ " ®O| "" ¨Ñx™ " …v " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ŠX&œ " ™ež+R " ¨px­ " ›eO " ›vH " ¾X› " ™ež+R " ¨px­ " ¨í™ " ›v¾Š " èFm " éÅo " ™õm*a " éP " ¨xM{ª, "" «›}Pc " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R| " eñLŠ " ™¯ë#Ó " ¨¨HÁ " žª¡xz " x\DŠ " ¨x±#†Š " žO " ˆì " wM`... (GUIDI 1895:34). — Ñð. a copy of the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi from the monastic library of Däbrä Hayq, MS EMML 1953 (18th cent.; cp. SERGEW HABLE-SELASSIE 1992]): (fol. 38va-39ra) [...¨¨Ay " ™ež+R " ¨px® "" ... ¨™v#Š " z¡H " D¾R| " ¾Ñx` " z™T[ " ¨O¡[ "] ¨Šv[ " TeH+B " H™w " ¿KŒ " O֊ " % " ®O| " ¨Ñx™ " …v " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ŠX&œ " ™ež+R " ¨px® "" ›eO " ±¾ŠY› " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ¨é™ " ›v¾[Š] " èMo " éÅm " ™õm*a " éP " ¨xM|« " «›z% " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ "" ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R| " ¢Š (sic!) " eñK " ™¯ë#o " ¨¨HÀ " žª¡xz " x\D "" ¨x±#D " žO " ˆì " wM`...; — Ñð. MS EMML 1440 (17th cent., Gubalafto, Yäggu, Wällo): (fol. 57ra) [... ¨¨Ay " ™ež+R " ¨px® "" ... ¨™v#Š " z¡H " D¾R| " ¾Ñx` " z™T[ " ¨O¡[ ""] ¨Šv[ " TeH+B " H™w " ¿KŒ " O֊ " % " ®O| " ¨Ñx® " …v " ™&¹c#e " U[™]" ŠX&œ " px® " ¨™ež+R " ›eO " ±›vH " ¾Y› " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ¨í™ " ›vH " ìMo " èÅm " ™õm*a " éP " ¨wM{ª* " «›z% " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R| " eñF " ™›ç#o " ¨¨HÀ " x\DŠ " ¨x±#DŠ " žO " ˆì " wM`...; — Cð. MS EMML 2795, 17th–18th cent., from the collection of Täsfa Haylu, obviously a member of the community of Däbrä Hayq (the manuscript is not registered in SERGEW HABLE-SELASSIE 1992): (fol. 53ra–vb) [... ¨¨Ay " ™ež+R " ¨px® ... ¨™v#Šc " z¡H " D¾R| " ¾Ñx` " z™T[ " ¨O¡[ ""] ¨Šv[ " TeH+B " H™w " ¿KŒ " O֊ " % " ®O| " ¨Ñx™ " …v " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ŠX&œ " ™ež+R " ¨px® – ¨í™ " ›v¾Š " èMo " éÅm " ™õm*a " éP — ¨xM|« – «›z% " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ "" ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R(fol. 53vb)| " ¢Š " eñK " ™¯ë#o – ¨¨HÀ " žª¡xz " x\D " ¨x±#D " žO " ˆì " wM`...; — Ñð. MS EMML 2504 (late 17th cent., Mitaq Amanuýel, Tägulät-Bulga, Šäwa): (fol. 40ra) [... ¨¨Ay " ™ež+R " ¨px® ... ¨™v#Šc " z¡H " D¾R| " ¾Ñx` " z™T[ " ¨Ož[ "] ¨Šv[ " TeH+B " ™w " ¿KŒ " O֊ " ! ®O| " ¨Ñx™ " …v " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ›eO " ±›vH " ¾X› " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ¨í™ " ›v¾Š " ìMm " éÅo " ™õm*a " éP " ¨xM|ª* " «›z% " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R| " ¢Š " eñK " ™¯ë#o " ¨¨HÀ " žª¡xz " x\D " ¨x±#† " žO " ˆì " wM` " ¨OJ›ª " HTÅ[ " ™±+x; — Cp. MS Tanasee 164 = Daga Estifanos 53 (18th cent., s. SIX 1999:207–211; s. below): (fol. 94va) [... ¨¨Ay " ™ež+R " ¨px® (94vb) ... ¨™v#Š " z¡H " D¾R| " ¾Ñx` " z™T[ " ¨Ož[ ""] ¨Šv[ " TeH+ " ™w " ¿KŒ " O֊ " % ®O| " ¨›TŇ[³ " Ñx™ " …v " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ŠX&œ" ™ež+R " ¨px® " ›T…v " ™w " 58



Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

ing that the text of the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi should be established in a new critical edition, I assume nevertheless that the short eulogy concluding the account originally contained the name of abba Täklä Haymanot only; therefore, the phrase «...for, not having received the cap and scapular, he left seeking righteousness, desiring silence and solitude...» originally referred to Täklä Haymanot, whereas the name of Iyäsus Moýa was added at a later point.59 In other words, the (hypothetical) archetype could have read: ¨Ñx™ " …v " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ŠX&œ " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ›eO " ±›vH " ¾X› " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ¨í™ " ›v¾Š " èMm " éÅo " ™õm*a " éP " ¨xM{ª, "" «›z% " ™w " z¡H " D¾R| " ¢Š " eñK " ™¯ë#o " ¨¨HÀ " žª¡xz " x\D " ¨x±#† " žO " ˆì " wM` " ¨OJ›ª " HTÅ[ " ™±+x.60 The inclusion of the name of Iyäsus Moýa into this passage could have led to its gradual re-interpretation with harmonisation of the grammatical forms up to the thorough usage of the plural ones (as in the text presented by I. Guidi): ¿KŒ "" ›eO " ±›vH " ¾X› " " ¨í™ " ›v¾Š " èMm " éÅo " ™õm*a " éP " ¨xM|ª* " «›z% " ™&¹c#e " U™ "" ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R| " ¢Š " eñK " ™¯ë#o " ¨¨HÀ " žª¡xz " x\D " ¨x±#† " žO " ˆì " wM` " ¨OJ›ª " HTÅ[ " ™±+x. In the introduction to the edition I. Guidi states that the text of the Vita has been established on the basis of three manuscripts: 1) British Museum Add. 16,228 (DILLMANN 1847:50, no. 46, not dated) = L1; 2) Orient. 709 (WRIGHT 1877:188, no. 285, «first half of the XVIII cent».) = L2; 3) Museo Borgiano L. V, 12 (missing for many years, s. GREBAUT — TISSERANT 1935:828) = R1. Additionally, the fourth one — 4) Museo Borgiano, L. V, 13 ( ibid. 826–828, no. 22) = R2, dated to 1559 ã. — presents special variants not shared by the first three copies. R2 reads: ... (›v¾Š " èMo " éÅo) " «›z% " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R| " ¢Š " eñK " ™¯ë#Ó " ¨¨HÀ " žª¡xz " x\DŠ " ¨OJ›ª " HTÅ[ " ™±+x "" In the relevant passage, I. Guidi (GUIDI 1895:35, s. above) probably followed mauscript L. V, 12 = R1 (today missing!) which gives grammatically correct text, whereas the variants in the remaining three manuscripts are similar to those indicated above: they have, e.g., «›z% , not «›}P; ¢Š (missing in the main text); ¨¨HÀ, not ¨¨HÁ. In most manuscripts the period of Täklä Haymanot’s stay at Däbrä Dammo is reported to have been 7 years, but in all the copies used by Guidi — 12 years (as in the Däbrä Libanos recension of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, s. n. 6, above). 59 If the original sentence had two subjects connected by a particle, all the forms would preferably have taken the plural (cp. DILLMANN 1907:501–502); there would have been no reason for divergent readings. 60 «He returned to Iyäsus Moýa having taken the scapular and monastic cap (™ež+R " ¨px¯), for he had gone because of desire of righteousness, loving the solitude and seclusion. He, abba Täklä Haymanot, became wide in (his) branches, and he generated bright stars as numerous as the sea sand, and they filled the land of the south». In the Waldébba recension of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, the metaphor «wide in (his) branches» refers to Täklä Haymanot, while médrä azeb (lit. ‘the land of the south’, cp. négéí tä azeb from Ìt. 12:42) may refer to the historical southern part of Ethiopia, i. e. Šäwa, the region thought to have been the place of Täklä Haymanot’s major activities.

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¨Ñx™ " …v " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ŠX&œ " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ›eO " ›vH " ¾X› " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ¨í™ " ›v¾Š " èMm " éÅo " ™õm*a " éP " ¨xM{ª, "" «›}Pc " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨™w " z¡H " D¾R| " eñLŠ " ™¯ë#Ó " ¨¨HÁ " žª¡xz " x\D " ¨x±#† " žO " ˆì " wM` " ¨OJ›ª " HTÅ[ " ™±+x. The sentence ... ›eO " ›vH " ¾X› " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ¨í™... later came to be occasionally perceived as referring to Iyäsus Moýa. However, there is another account found in the manuscripts of the Vita of ZäMikaýel only a page before this one, relating, in clear terms (and in keeping with the hypothetical reading), that Iyäsus Moýa received the scapular from abba Yohanni, and disrupting the entire construal of Täklä Haymanot giving the monastic cap and scapular to his spiritual father.61 The manuscript tradition of the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel currently counts more than 15 testimonia, but it is difficult to answer such questions as: 1) whether the historiographic notes were composed together with the Vita or added some time thereafter;62 2) at what time the contradictory reading emerged. In any case, it is clear that, in the 16th cent., anyone reading the Vita could have had two interpretations of the episode in question. From what has been said, it is not difficult to presume that in the Däbrä Libanos recension of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot the corresponding account — about Täklä Haymanot acquiring the grades of the monastic profession — emerged as a synthesis of several earlier hagiographic traditions. The origin of the different elements, however, can not be always established, since by the beginning of the 16th cent. they must have been included in «common version(s)» of the legend of Täklä Haymanot — the famous Saint, — circulating along with the written traditions of his Vita. Yet, it is certain that the author of the Däbrä Libanos recension shaped his narrative following, more or less, the structure of the account according to the Hayq recension and used extensively its text(s), while extracting less voluminous but important details from another — Waldébba — recension of the Vita. The narrative structure of the account about the Saint’s wanderings63 is symmetrical: Täklä Haymanot departs from and returns to Däbrä Hayq Ésti61 Ñì. GUIDI 1895:34 ¨›TŇ[³ " Oé™ " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨¾v+H: " H™w " ¿KŒ " ™JxcŒ " ™w " ™ež+R " ±OŠ¢d| " ¨fv+D " ™Jvf; s. MSS ÅÌÌL 1953 fol. 38ra–rb; 1440 fol. 56va–vb; 2795 fol. 51vb; 2504 fol. 40rb–va. In fact, TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:165 and n. 4 refers to this contradiction as well, though his remark on the «uncertainty of language» does not fully expose the problem of the passage. 62 I think, it was most probably the case, though we have no single manuscript with the Vita alone (the information about an old manuscript of the Vita dated before 1425, which is preserved in Däbrä Dammo [MATTHEWS — MORDINI 1949:49], can not be confirmed). A similar example can be found, e. g., in the Vita of Täklä Haymanot in the Waldébba recension, where the Vita and the attached notes differently describe one and the same event — the funeral of Täklä Haymanot. 63 BUDGE 1906, chs. 76–87.

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fanos; before returning to Däbrä Hayq he goes to Däbrä Dammo, departs from there and returns there.64 Täklä Haymanot leaves Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos seeking to receive the monastic cap and scapular, having been requested by Iyäsus Moýa to also bring the cap and scapular to him.65 In Däbrä Dammo he receives the cap and scapular from abba Yohanni66 then he proceeds to other monasteries receiving blessings from other monks, and after three pilgrimages to Jerusalem he returns to Däbrä Dammo again.67 The sequence of the episodes is concluded with Täklä Haymanot’s second coming to Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos and his handing over of the monastic cap and scapular to Iyäsus Moýa. In the Däbrä Libanos recension, when asking Täklä Haymanot to give him the monastic cap and scapular, Iyäsus Moýa expresses the essence of his request by means of the sentence found, in the same function, in the Waldébba recension (the sentence was incorporated in the corresponding passage of the Däbrä Libanos recension!): ¨vdŒ{ " zY™ " ¨véK " OŸŠ " K¾o "" ¨N[ " Âv " wM` " žO " ±¹K«` " v¹xe "" ¨y™ " …v " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨fv " `›¿ " zïYK " ïÅóÀ " ¨¾v+H: " v™¾z, " ŠX›ž " px® " ¨™ež+R "[v›TÀª*ž] " oÁd| "" ¨¾v+H: " vÀx[ " ÃU " v›À " ™w " ¿KŒ "" ¨¾v+H: " ›T¾›±+c " ™¯[õž# " ™c " ›TìR " õ| " ›± " ¨JŹ " ™z " ž#ŠŒ " ™v " AvŒ " ¨™ež+R " v›TÀª*ž " oÁd| "" ¨¨Ay " ™w " z¡H " D¾R| " px® " ¨™ež+R "" ›eO " ¾v+H: " OJ™¡ " eT° " ±¾v+Hž.68 The episode in its entirety appears neither in the short version of the Täklä Haymanot’s commemorative reading in the Synaxarion nor in the Hayq recension-related texts of the Saint’s Vita. A remarkable chronological element, not attested in the earlier versions of the story, is the inclusion of abba Yohanni, during whose tenure Täklä Haymanot, then, came to Däbrä Dammo — certainly a result of the influence of the hagiographical tradition of Zä-Mikaýel [Šäwa] — Däbrä Hayq — Däbrä Dammo — pilgrimages — Däbrä Dammo — Däbrä Hayq — [Šäwa]. 65 BUDGE 1906, ch. 77: indeed, here the hagiographer anticipates the kind of relationship that will come to existence if Iyäsus Moýa receives the parts of monastic habit — the monastic cap and askema — from his spiritual son, consequently, the essential passage from the Waldébba recension (s. below) is echoed here: ¨cQ° " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " nH: " H™v#Š " oÁe " vž¹ " x±#† " ›± " ¾xJ " HO‹ " z…Åь " ™c " ™&¾_›¹ž " v™TdH " ¨JÅ " ™I " Šv`ž# " ›± " ›_›¹ž " žO " ™x " ¡v#` " ¨wMz% " nJžc " ™ÀOŒ " HKª*` " «ez " Àx`¹ " ¨vç&Kž " F¹ " ¾X› [ŠX›ž] " px® " ¨™ež+R " ¨Å‡[ " ™z " |BvŒ " H&z " ¨|ž«ŠŒ " ™v (for the translation, s. n. 10, above; it was E. Cerulli who signalled that the phrase ›± " ™z " ¨JŹ is found in both the Waldébba and Däbrä Libanos recensions of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, KUR 1965:VIII–IX, n. 29). 66 BUDGE 1906, ch. 78 (s. n. 11, above). 67 BUDGE 1906, ch. 86. 68 BUDGE 1906, ch. 87 (s. also n. 12, above). 64

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Arägawi.69 It is noticeble that the author of the Däbrä Libanos recension chose (from the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi?) one particular version of the story, yet it is not certain that the episode of that recension was supposed to demonstrate in any way Täklä Haymanot’s superiority over Iyäsus Moýa. This interpretation can not be excluded, but the primary goal of the hagiographer was most probably the «historical reconstruction» of the episode on the basis of (all) the pieces, scattered in different traditions, included into a coherent and complete account of the Saint’s wandering; this account tells the story which, in fact, is not quite different from the one in MS EMML 1834. One should not assume that the primary aim of the author was to refer to the contemporary situation of his monastery and its relations with Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, or to express any kind of ideological program or claims. In addition, in order to understand the limitations of any direct interpretation in this case, one should consider other episodes from the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, as well as accounts from other hagiographies; despite the turbulent religious history of Ethiopia, and the very intensive production of hagiographic works, the topos of the assumption of the parts of the monastic habit (as well as that of spiritual fathership) does not seem to have been overexploited. The hagiographic tradition known as the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa — the document which has attracted much attention in recent years — raises even more complicated questions.70 Some time ago the so-called «Homily [in honour] 69 This relationship should be emphasized (cp. already TADDESSE TAMRAT 1972:166). There are some narrative elements shared by both texts. 1) As in the Vita of ZäMikaýel Arägawi, the Däbrä Libanos recension reports that Täklä Haymanot spent 12 years at Däbrä Dammo. 2) the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi might have also been the source for the account of Täklä Haymanot’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Even though the former reports that abba Yohanni persuaded Täklä Haymanot to leave the idea of the pilgrimage to the Holy City, the Däbrä Libanos recension transformed the topic into a «positive account» and reports of the Saint’s three visits to the holy city (beside the fact that the pilgrimage to Jerusalem is one of the most common motifs of Ethiopian hagiography). 3) The Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi might account for the unusual situation: how it happened that Iyäsus Moýa, though having stayed at Däbrä Dammo, did not receive the scapular (according to the Däbrä Libanos recension, he did not receive either the monastic cap or scapular) and, afterwards, had to ask his disciple Täklä Haymanot to bring him these parts of the monastic habit. 70 In fact, among the sources discussed in this article, the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa was the latest to have been studied and published (s. E. Cerulli, in KUR 1965, also for the sources of the work, the rivalry between the monasteries and its possible historical context; for the substitution of Iyäsus Moýa through Täklä Haymanot in the legend about the re-establishment of the Solomonic dynasty, and the aforementioned polemical passage in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa). This was compensated by the fact, that the hagiography of Iyäsus Moýa has attracted considerable attention in recent years: s. MARRASSINI 1986; TEDESCHI 1994; ID. in: EnSanti II, 267–271; KROPP 1998, 2003; HIRSCH 2003.

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of Iyäsus Moýa» came to light, in which the biography and contending of this Saint are depicted in a different way from the Vita71 . The dating of the composition of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa to the period between the second half of the 15th cent. and the beginning of the 16th cent.72 seems to have been abandoned. Currently, the Homily, not the Vita, has been largely seen as the earlier stage in the development of the hagiographic tradition of Iyäsus Moýa, both works having different literary features and functions.73 The Vita ap71 The value of this text has been fully recognized only in the recent years: s. TEDESCHI 1994, with a fine analysis of the Vita but with the Homily largely discarded; the same in SERGEW HABLE-SELASSIE 1992; cp. also TEDESCHI in: EnSanti II, 267– 271; BAUM, in: BBK XX, 804–806. In the latter publication the Homily is mentioned, yet the biography of the Saint is presented without differentiation of the sources or references to the origin of the details; ñð., e. g., one «common place»: «Als Junge wanderte er nach Tigre und trat in das Kloster Debre Damo ein, wo er unter Abba Yohannis zum Kalligraphen und Theologen ausgebildet wurde». At the same time, the author states: «Das Gadl des Heiligen (EMML 1940) wurde nach 1601 aus älteren Quellen wie z.B. einer Homilie auf den Heiligen (dersan) und Motiven aus den Erzählkreisen über die Anfänge der Salomoniden zusammengestellt». 72 E. Cerulli points to the second half of the 15th cent. (CERULLI 1961:95). In the preface to the translation of the text, he considers the Vita «la rédaction composite» and states: «les Actes de Iyasus Mo’a ici édités ont été rédigés dans leur forme actuelle dans la deuxième moitié du XVe siècle» (KUR 1965:XIV–XV). Yet some arguments supposed to foster this hypothesis (ibid. IV–V, XV) appear today less convincing: e. g., «style ‘fleuri’ des introductions» is not a feature of 15th-cent. literary works alone; in the case of Dérsanä Uraýel one should remember that the recension which is referred to was composed in the 19th cent. (in the library of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos there are both the brief and the lengthy recension of this text, s. MS EMML 1942) etc. Cerulli stresses: «la question … des rapports entre Iyasus Mo’a et Takla Haymanot qui ne s’expliqueraient qu’en se référant à la période où l’hégémonie sur le clergé régulier éthiopien était à peine passée ou sur le point de passer du monastère de St Étienne de Hayq à celui de Dabra Libanos…» (KUR 1965:XV). 73 Against the cautious point of view expressed by MARRASSINI 1986:177, critisizing the proposal of Getatchew Haile in his comments to MS EMML 1960. The problem of the relationship between the Vita and the Homily was mostly dealt with by Ì. Kropp, who came to the conclusion that the terminus post quem for the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa should be «Ende des 15./Anfang des 16. Jhdts» (KROPP 1998:306); in his more recent publication, Kropp concludes, regarding in particular MS EMML 1960, that «der Textzeuge des dersan älter ist (Anfang 15. Jhdt.?), und der Text selbst aus noch früherer Zeit stammen kann» (KROPP 2003:194); the question of the time of the composition of the Vita remains without a clear answer (yet it is supposed to have been an instrument acting as a response to the spreading legend of Täklä Haymanot; ibid., 195). Recently, M.-L. Derat has summarized existing views, yet she cautiously accepted the old chronology and considers the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa to have been created prior to that of Täklä Haymanot in the Däbrä Libanos recension («la fin du XVe siècle»: DERAT 2003:88–90, 107, 109, 118 and elsewhere).

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pears to have been composed on the basis of the Homily by means of the revision and insertion of new pieces, including the well-known «testaments» between Iyäsus Moýa and king Yékunno Amlak.74 Consequently, the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa can be characterized, at first glance, as a hagiographic compilation — belonging to the same type of hagiographic composition as the Vita of Täklä Haymanot in the Däbrä Libanos recension. As to the origin and structure of the passages concerning the relationship between Täklä Haymanot and Iyäsus Moýa, the Vita of the latter has the topic developed in three separate and complicated accounts: 1) Two parts of different origin can be distinguished in the first account. The first is clearly based on a fragment taken almost verbatim from the Homily with the only difference being that in the Homily Iyäsus Moýa receives from abba Yohanni both the scapular and the girdle, whereas in the Vita — the monastic garb (clothes) and girdle.75 The theme of the parts of the monastic habit is only further developed in the Vita; the second part of the account, in which, following his «monastic carrier», Iyäsus Moýa receives the scapular and monastic cap, is based on a rather faithful borrowing from the Acts of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi.76 Thus, the Homily has been extended by numerous decorative literary elements and the «second narrative circle» (s. KROPP 1998:306–308). 75 In the Homily, the account of Iyäsus Moýa’s assumption of the monastic habit from abba Yohanni appears after the following episodes, which, in fact, do not differ much from what is recounted in the Vita: Iyäsus Moýa leaves the worldly life, together with pious Yémsaý Méhrät, following the order of Archangel Gabriýel (MS EMML 1960, fol. 31va–33va; KUR 1965, 8–9:25); he comes to abbot Yohanni and is introduced into the community (fol. 33va–rb; KUR 1965, 9:25–10:10); as Iyäsus Moýa was dispatched to a travelling, he met robbers were nearly to kill him (fol. 33rb–34rb, KUR 1965, 10:10–10:25); Iyäsus Moýa punishes a rich man who has refused to let the Saint sleep in his house (fol. 34rb–35vb; KUR 1965, 10:25–13:2); Iyäsus Moýa stays (at Däbrä Dammo) for seven year humbly completing his pious works (fol. 35vb– 36ra; KUR 1965, 13:2–14:5). After he carries out one extremely difficult task received from Yohanni, the latter brings him into the church, reads a prayer and, according to the Homily, ¨™Jvf " ›z " ¾›z* " ™ež+R " ¡`e}e " ¨®oŠ} " «ez " K«ÿm,B – oz " ±™ÂT " ¨oz%c " ™`™¼ " ŏÓJ " ¨éM " «›z% " ¨ŠY™ " v#^ž+ " ›T…v " OTF\... (fol. 36vb–37ra) «...he vested him with that which is the scapular of Christ [/the habit of Christ], and he girded his loins with the nice girdle, and this girdle is the likeness of the chastity and purity; and he [Iyäsus Moýa] received the blessing from his teacher»; the Vita has a slight, yet important change: instead of «the scapular», it has «monastic clothes/habit»: ™Jvf " ™Jwc " Tž#e " ¨™mŠ} " «ez " K«ÿm,B " oz " ±™ÂT " ¨oz%c " ™`™¼ " ŏÓJ " ¨éM " «›z% (KUR 1965, 15:2–4). 76 After the accounts of miracles that happen to Iyäsus Moýa while in Däbrä Dammo (fol. 37ra–38rb; cð. KUR 1965, 15:4–17:24), there follows — in the Vita only — the story of the foundation of Däbrä Hayq, the legend of the dragon (KUR 1965, 74

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2) In the second account, which is missing in the Homily, there appears abba Täklä Haymanot. The account begins with a short traditional history of the Ethiopian monastic movement, exposed, apparently, from the point of view of the community of Däbrä Dammo, with the list of regions where Iyäsus Moýa’s spiritual children preached and founded monasteries.77 After a mention of the «testament» between Iyäsus Moýa and king Yékunno Amlak, in accordance with which the title of Ÿ àqqabe säŸ at was given to the abbot of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, the hagiographer describes the pious life that Iyäsus Moýa lead in his monastery78 and then proceeds with a lengthy account concerning abba Täklä Haymanot which appears to be comprised of three parts: I. Täklä Haymanot arrives at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, he assumes the monastic yoke and takes on the tunic, girdle and monastic cap from Iyäsus Moýa. He stays at Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos for 10 years — 7 years before and 3 years after the assumption of the monastic habit, the numbers, most probably, brought in accordance with the Däbrä Libanos recension of the Acts of Täklä Haymanot;79 II. This lengthy part relating how Täklä Haymanot received the scapular is composed of several episodes.80 The Vita of Iyäsus Moýa narrates Täklä Haymanot’s departure to Däbrä Dammo and his stay with abba Yohanni (following, in general, the outline of Täklä Haymanot’s legend). The Vita reports that Täklä Haymanot wanted to go to his country (AH¹ " vJv# " ¨¾v+ " ™K«` " xK+`¹), yet, when Iyäsus Moýa said good-bye to him, Täklä Haymanot headed in the opposite direction, to the north — to abba 17:25–19), the story of abba Yohanni (ibid. 20), a notice on Gäbrä Séyon, Iyäsus Moýa’s brother who has entered «another monastery» and dies on the 25th of Yäkkatit (ibid. 20:21–21:6). The next account (about the construction of a church «in the entrance of [Yohanni’s] cave», ibid. 21:6–21:13) is the same — with the exception of some slight changes — as in the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi (G UIDI 1895:34, ¨›TŇ[ " Ñ>Á¾ " Oª¯J ... ¹Kº " ›TÀª,B ""), the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa undoubtedly being the recipient text; the same is also valid for KUR 1965, 21:13–19 ¨›TŇ[³ " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " H™w " ¿KŒ " ™JxcŒ " ™ež+R " ±OŠ¢d| " ¨fv+D " ™Jvf " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ±OI›¡|…, cp. ¨›TŇ[³ " Oé™ " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ¨¾v+H: " H™w " ¿KŒ " ™JxcŒ " ™ež+R " ±OŠ¢d|… ¨Ñx™ " AÑ[ " ›z " eR " K¾o "" (GUIDI 1895:34). The account in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa is enlarged by details describing how Iyäsus Moýa went to Hayq following a directive from Archangel Gabriel (KUR 1965, 21:20–22:7). 77 KUR 1965, 34:22–35:11. 78 KUR 1965, 35:12–36:17. 79 S. n. 7, above. KUR 1965, 36:10–36:18, from: ... Oé™ " …v+B " x›c& " …+` " ¨v#\¡ " ›TxK+[ " hª " ±¾xJ¬ " z¡H " D¾R|... to the most relevant sentence: ¨fv+D " ™Jvf " ™J[w]c " Tž#e " oz " ¨mQc " ¨px® " ŠY™ " ›TŽB "" ¨™va " …v+B " O֊ " %®O| " Šv[ " oÅO " ¾Ož#e "" ¨›TŇ[ "" Ož:c " !®Oz... 80 KUR 1965, 36:18–38:8.

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Yohanni.81 While telling Täklä Haymanot to receive the scapular at Däbrä Dammo, Iyäsus Moýa himself confirms that he went from Däbrä Dammo without the scapular: vH: " H™v#Š " ¿KŒ " O蛞# " ›T…v+ž "" ›eO " ±›vH " ›X› " ™ež+R " ›T…v+ž " ™õm*`¹ "[sic] éP " ¨xM{ª,. The sentence is related to the corresponding passage from the Vita of ZäMikaýel Arägawi and closely follows it, though with one correction.82 Further on, Iyäsus Moýa explains why he went without receiving the scapular: he was involved in a political struggle on the side of Yékunno Amlak and could not return.83 On the following pages, the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa narrates how Täklä Haymanot came to Däbrä Dammo and met Yohanni (extensively drawing upon the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi, with the difference that it refers to the scapular only) and indicates that Täklä Haymanot received the scapular from Yohanni and spent 7 years at Däbrä Dammo.84 III. This part relates how Täklä Haymanot, being on the way from Däbrä Dammo to his native region, met Iyäsus Moýa for the second time.85 He brought the scapular and delivered it to his spiritual father, not only fulfilling the latter’s order, but also obeying the request of abba Yohanni. The hagiographer agrees that Iyäsus Moýa accepted the scapular from Täklä Haymanot (but the scapular only: ™ež+R " wMz*{), considering it credible from the point of view of both the history and monastic canon, and, 81 They crossed the lake walking on its water: ¹K«\ " Âv " wM` " v›Ó` " žO " ›z " ¹xe (KUR 1965, 36:22–37:3). 82 KUR 1965, 37:2–3, cp. the translation: «Je suis jadis de chez toi sans prendre chez toi le scapulaire, ayant aimé le silence at la solitude» (ibid. 30 [tr.]). Also above, nn. 60, 61; GUIDI 1895:35 (in particular manuscript A): (¨Ñx™ " …v " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ŠX&œ " ™ež+R " ¨px® ") ›eO " ±›vH " ¾X› " ™ež+R " ¨px® " ¨í™ " ›T…v+ž " ›v¾Š " èFm " éÅo " ™õm*a " éP " ¨xM{ª,. The passage from the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi was transformed into direct speech; the scribe probably took out, by mistake, the word ¨í™ together with px®. 83 In a difficult phrase, clearly influenced by Amharic speech, Iyäsus Moýa asks Täklä Haymanot to transmit his request to Yohanni and bring him the scapular from Däbrä Dammo: ¨B " ï‹ " H&z " xCHž " Ña (KUR 1965, 37:10–11) «Now, having said to him: send (it) for me, tell him (all this)!» (the French translation in ibid. 30 [tr.] is not quite exact). 84 Cp. GUIDI 1895:34: ¨v‡ÃØ " Oª¯J " Oé™ " ™v#Š " z¡H " D¾R| " Hv&f " Jxc " K^ till ibid. 35: …¨OJ›ª " HTÅ[ " ™±+x — the passage we have already referred to. Cp. KUR 1965, 37:20–38:8. As in other cases, it is impossible to ascertain which text of the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel was used; yet the relation between the traditions is transparent, apart from the similar structure of the episode in the both works, cp., in particular, in the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel: ¨¾v+H: " ™w " ¿KŒ " Kª*[c " ™¾OeHŒ " ™I " AH¨ž " |ž# " ™w " x±#† " v³¹…, cp. ibid., 38:2–3. In many manuscripts of the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi it is said that Täklä Haymanot spent 7 years at Däbrä Dammo (see n. 58, also n. 6, above); the number 12 does not seem to be the prevailing reading. 85 Ñð. KUR 1965, 38:8–23, from ¨›T³ " Ñx™ " …v " ™w " ™&¹c#e " U™...

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probably, seeing a comparable situation in the Bible, as indicated by the quotation of Jn. 3:27.86 By means of the quotation, the hagiographer transposes the story of Iyäsus Moýa receiving the scapular with the biblical account of the Baptism of Jesus Christ: the interpretation of the story remains, thus, «open», since each of the Saints — both the spiritual father and son, senior and junior — can be considered as the one with «greater grace».87 Even though Iyäsus Moýa humbly accepts the formal initiation from Täklä Haymanot, the one who is junior, the latter fulfils the request of a senior monk and his spiritual teacher; in any case, the consecration of the scapular for Iyäsus Moýa had been completed by abba Yohanni and the rest is a purely technical operation. The hagiographer refuses to believe only one thing, which, according to his understanding, is untrue and contradicts both the canons and common sense about monastic life: that up to that time Iyäsus Moýa had had neither monastic cap nor scapular (asserting, thus, that he had the former).88 Unfortunately, we are not able to reconstruct the entire process of the Vita’s composition, so we will never learn why its author — being well acquainted with the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi and perhaps even directly using it for his own work — oversaw or neglected the passage (as the hagiographer from Däbrä Libanos did) which would have removed the doubts: the passage reporting that Iyäsus Moýa duly accepted both the monastic cap and scapular from his spiritual father abba Yohanni. KUR 1965, 38:15–17. This topic is attested, though rarely, in Ethiopian hagiographies: ñð. the Vita of Täklä Hawaryat, in which Täklä Hawaryat and a certain Zärýa Séyon, probably his disciple, «imitate» the baptismal ritual in a lake, recalling, thus, the Baptism of Jesus: first Zärýa Séyon, the junior, «baptizes» the saint, and then Täklä Hawaryat, the senior, baptizes Zärýa Séyon (CONTI ROSSINI 1910:127). Ñð. also the Vita of Yohannés Méíraqawi (ýenzä yebel: waldeya kunanni ýaba, MARRASSINI 1981:196–197, esp. n. 2). Besides, one has to remember that in Ethiopia John the Baptist was a popular saint, and the stories about him — or the account on Jesus Christ’s Baptism in which God’s Son is baptized by a man — used to attract the attention of traditional Ethiopian scholars. Among the Ethiopic writings ascribed to John Chrysostom, there is a Homily on John the Baptist and the Baptism of Christ. A passage of this work, popular and preserved in quite a number of manuscripts, helps to understand the traditional view of this biblical episode: as Christ was baptised by John, the «insane» Jews (™xÏ), who were observing this, immediately concluded that the latter was «greater». In order to refute this erroneous view, God sent the sign — the dove (ESTEVES PEREIRA 1911:6; Portugese translation ibid., 10–11). 88 This would mean that he was introducing others into monastic life before he himself «was born in the monastic habit». Therefore, the author of the Vita considers this version of events not only as a lie, but also as an offence (which, because of its obvious absurdity, can not be proposed by a reasonable person; hence the reference to «stupid» or «insane», ™xÏ, cp. n. 87) and an attempt to dishonour «his» Saint, s. KUR 1965, 38:19–39:3. 86 87

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3) The third account, like the second, is missing in the Homily. It relates once again how Iyäsus Moýa and Täklä Haymanot assumed the monastic habit.89 This time, the author of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa retells the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, following the Hayq or, most probably, Däbrä Libanos recension — as it may be proved, among others signs, by the mention of Täklä Haymanot’s encounter with a monk from Amhara before the Saint’s arrival at the monastery of Bäsälotä Mikaýel.90 Though the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa briefly summarises the story,91 the sequence of the episodes and the entire structure of the narrative remain the same. The account ends with Iyäsus Moýa imposing the monastic yoke upon Täklä Haymanot and vesting him with the «monastic garb» (Jxc " Tž#e). In the conclusion, the hagiographer poses the same question once again: how Iyäsus Moýa could fulfil this without having reached the proper grade of the monastic profession (i.e., everything except the scapular)?92 The arguments used here do not go beyond those presented in the previous account: the hagiographer postulates that Iyäsus Moýa «was born in the monastic life» long before Täklä Haymanot’s coming; the receiving of the scapular from the hands of Täklä Haymanot, his spiritual pupil, is accepted in the sense indicated above: as the ritual fulfilled according to the spiritual father’s request, which does not essentially change the relationship of the «spiritual» fathership.93 We can conclude that the author of the ÊUR 1965, 39:4–40:4. As it has already been noted by E. Cerulli (s. KUR 1965:X [tr.]; ibid., 39:4–9); in fact, neither the Hayq nor the Däbrä Libanos version of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot says that the monk whom Täklä Haymanot met on his way to Amhara was «a novice» ([ř#) of Bäsälotä Mikaýel; in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa this is an anticipation typical of a renarration, indicating that the hagiographer had known the text or story in advance. 91 Cp., in particular, in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa (KUR 1965, 39:9–15), such phrases as: ¨›T³ " ›± " ¾O`N " OJ™ž " ›Ó±&™xK+` " véK " …v " éï " wM` " fv " ™&[žv " KO[ " ™ez^›¿ " ›± " ¹K«` " Âv " wM` (ibid. 39:11–13), which seems to be a corruption of a passage from the Vita of Täklä Haymanot in the Däbrä Libanos recension (BUDGE 1906:69 [ch. 67]): ¨vç&N " «ez " K¾m " wM` " ™&[žv " KO[ " v±¹­Á " wz* " ¨çH¹ " Šª*† "" ¨™ez`™¿ " oÁe " QŸ™+J " H&m " OI›¡| " ÑDÀ " ›± " ¾ž¾Å " wM[ "" ¨¾v+H:…: (due to this the translation in KUR 1965, 31:33–35 [tr.] is somewhat uncertain) the original form ™ez`›¿ or ™ez`™¿ referred to the angel; further on, in the Däbrä Libanos recension, Täklä Haymanot, accompanied by the angel, entered the church, whereas in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa he stayed at the entrance of the church (pO " …v " ™mç " v+z " ¡`ez*¼ — humble behaviour to be expected from a new-comer). Cp. also, respectively, x›c+ " ›Ó±&™xK+` — x›c+ " ï^E " ›Ó±&™xK+`; ®ìª* — renarrated as ›T™`Ù&B etc. 92 KUR 1965, 39:26–40:4. 93 The Vita strongly prohibits monks to receive the girdle, monastic tunic, cap and scapular from other spiritual teachers; this prohibition appears in the dispositio of one of the «testaments» between Yékunno Amlak and abba Iyäsus Moýa. How89 90

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Vita of Iyäsus Moýa collected and scrutinised all the hagiographic documents relating to how Iyäsus Moýa and Täklä Haymanot assumed the monastic habit (though, in fact, he failed to find the necessary evidence!); in order to denounce the versions of the story that he considered untrue, he created a new tradition which — curiously enough — was supposed to be a proof in itself. The introduction of such a polemic against another monastic leader, which apparently was not caused by any theological controversy or other serious contradiction concerning matters of faith, was pretty unusual for Ethiopian hagiography. It must have had quite a peculiar historical background; in this respect, the question of the dating of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa — and the time when the story in question took its final shape — becomes the primary issue. One more — previously little known — testimony appears to be of considerable importance: a possibly 18th-cent. manuscript from the monastery of Däbrä Daga Éstifanos (already quoted above), recently described (Tanasee 164 = Daga Estifanos 53)94 and containing, among other texts, the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa, but in a version different from both the Homily and the Vita known from Kur’s edition. A closer investigation demonstrates that this is most probably the «intermediary recension», the document which should be placed between the Homily and the Vita.95 This text contains an account of Iyäsus ever, this passage — certainly intended gainst particular practices in monastic life — was written later, since it is missing in the original document, MS EMML 1832, fol. 269r (s. KROPP 1998:309–310). 94 SIX 1999:207–211. 95 SIX 1999:209 pointed out to the differences between the Vita and the text preserved in Tanasee 164; yet the latter is obviously not the shortened text of the Vita, but rather the extended Homily (for the collation below, MS EMML 1960 and MARRASSINI 1986 are used): 1) The Homily’s short introduction (Å`d " ±`z%™Š " D¾R| " ±À[c…till: Oõ|« " HŠ… fol. 29ra) is extended in Tanasee 164 by an extensive addition which begins with the rhymed passage: veO " ›Ó±&™xK+` " ™x " HéJRz " Ñ+Ò¾ " ±¾cÅÆ "" veO " ›Ó±&™xK+` " ¨JÅ " ±WT[ " ›TŏÓJ " z¨JÆ …(fol. 1ra– 3ra, then we find: Oõ|« " HŠ…); the Vita drops the introduction of the Homily, accommodates the introduction from Tanasee 164 (KUR 1965, 3:18–5:10) and extends the introduction by one more piece (ibid., 1:3–3:17); 2) The next piece of the Vita (ibid., 5:11–20, Oõ|« " HŠ…) coincides with Tanasee 164 (fol. 3rb); 3) The texte in Tanasee 164 from fol. 4ra: ¨±z " ™`­#z " ŠX&œP… till ¨c™J¬ " žO " ¹AyP " «H#À…(fol. 6rb) coincides with the Vita KUR 1965, 5:22–7:9, yet the latter has some small additions; thereafter it adds the passage 7:9–8:2. For ibid. 8:2– 8:12, Tanasee 164 has only: ¨JFm% " ›Pz% " vW¾ " JFm| " ›± " Oïe " oÁe " ¹®oyP " vž>H# " *GP (KUR 1965, 8:2–3); 4) The Homily relates Iyäsus Moýa’s escape from worldly life: ¨™…z " ¯Hz " ›± " ¾Š«P " ™±RÂB…(fol. 31rb) up untill the story of his «wandering» (ÓÅ, fol. 33rb); the piece from Tanasee 164 fol. 6ra–8ra is the basis for the Vita, s. KUR

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1965, 8:14–10:10; the Vita adds 8:14–18; 9:10–11 (¨õç#O " vçÒ " ¨éÅo " ¨›z%c…) and other small pieces elsewhere; 5) The saint’s wandering: the texte in Tânâsee 164 fol. 8ra–10rb is mostly the same as in the Vita 11:14–13:25 till ¨v±žO³ " Óx` " Šv[%®Oz…where the Vita makes here and there small additions; the Vita makes a substantial addition, continuing: ›± " ¹K«` " «ez " ÓŅ (13:14–13:24); 6) In the story about Iyäsus Moýa’s monastic consecration Tânâsee 164 (fol. 11ra) omits the name of the saint’s mamhér, as does the Homily (fol. 36rb); cp. the Vita, KUR 1965, 14:6. In the sentence describing how Yohanni vested Iyäsus Moýa with parts of the monastic habit, already Tânâsee 164 reads albasä ménk wésénna (fol. 12rb), instead of askema, as in the Homily (s. above; cp. MARRASSINI 1986:179); 7) The story about the accident that happened while the saint was splitting wood with an axe coincides with Tânâsee 164 (fol. 13ra–14rb) and the Vita (KUR 1965, 15:24–17:7), as does the story about salvation of the jar (respectively, fol. 14rb–15ra; KUR 1965, 17:8–20); 8) The history of Däbrä Hayq (in the Vita s. KUR 1965, 17:21–19:27) is missing in Tânâsee 164: ›eO " …¾H " ›Ó±&™xK+` " ¾¨í› " ›TŽB " ¨¼M¾¬P [cp. KUR 1965, 17:19–20] " ¨™w " ¿KŒ " OTF\ " Hxë#¯ " ™v#Š " ™&¹c#e " U­… The account continues with the story of the life of abba Yoh. anni (ibid. 20:1–20); cp. the Vita: ¨véK " «ez " OŸ " ±|cO¾ " Àx[ " ÃU… Tânâsee 164: ¨véK " OŸ " ±|cO¾ " ÃU. Notes on Gäbrä Séyon’s life and death follow (ibid. 20:21–21:3; Tânâsee 164, fol. 16rb); and then in Tânâsee 164 the story of Iyäsus Moýa’s migration to Hayq, simplified and without the angel (fol. 17ra: ¨™v#Šc " ™&¹c#e " U™ " fv " `›¹ " žO " ™›[ï " ›…#B " ¨OTF\ " N[ " `…#m " õz " ¨véK " OŸ " ±zKí[ " vwM` " ¨Šv[ " F¹ " ¨™ïÅïÀ…, the Vita providing here more literary details, while its narrative develops somewhat differently (KUR 1965, 21:13–22:8). Lengthy pieces of the Vita are missing in Tânâsee 164, which coincides with the Vita only in the concluding part, ibid. 35:17 ([¨›T³ " zO¾Ö " «ez " Àx\] " ¨Šv[ " F¹ " ¨™ïÅïÀ…); 9) The description of Iyäsus Moýa’s pious life on Hayq in his Vita (KUR 1965, 35:17–36:8, from ¨Šv[ " F¹ " ¨™ïÅïÀ…) is extended as compared with Tanasee 164, fol. 17ra (the extension begins, in the Vita, from: ¨¾ž« " x±#† " ™x¯…; the texts converge at the quotation from Ps. 83:11; s. KUR 1965, 36:7–9); 10) The story about Täklä Haymanot KUR 1965, 36:10–36:18 appears in Tânâsee 164 (fol. 17ra); 11) Tânâsee 164 does not contain other stories about Täklä Haymanot, and continues with the episode of Iyäsus Moýa’s chair (fol. 18ra: ¨AH¬ " H™v#Š " ™&¹c#e " U™…; KUR 1965, 40:5–13); 12) There is a passage of the Vita (KUR 1965, 40:14–41:4) containing some pieces of the Homily which do not appear in the corresponding portion of Tânâsee 164 (fol. 18ab); The rest of the text in Tânâsee 164 corresponds to the Homily and to the Vita (cp. also MARRASSINI 1986:180–182), yet the collation demonstrates that it is closer to the Homily and was the basis for the further elaboration in the Vita (mostly revision of style and «decorative» additions); the text in Tânâsee 164 ends at KUR 1965, 54:11. The colophon is, thus, different from that in the Homily (it does not mention Sofonyas; s. MARRASSINI 1986:182).

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Moýa’s assumption of the monastic habit identical to the account 1) of the Vita; therefore, the change of «the scapular of Christ» into «the monastic garb» was made first in the account in Tanasee 164, possibly for purely stylistic, not ideological, considerations (both terms meaning «monastic habit»); the latter variant was taken over into the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa.96 There is only one narrative on Täklä Haymanot’s assumption of the monastic habit that corresponds to the (rather neutral) account 2)-II. of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa.97 As the first possibility, we should assume that this text is a genuine document that originated in the community of Däbrä Hayq and reflects its position concerning the spiritual relationships between Täklä Haymanot and Iyäsus Moýa. The relevant traditions — different recensions of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi — were certainly well-known at the time of the creation of this «short» Vita of Iyäsus Moýa; however, those who composed the text simply did not consider the episode as «contradictory» and were not keen on «rectifying» the history. On the basis of the material that we presently have, the time of the composition of the «lengthy» Vita of Iyäsus Moýa should be therefore dated to a later period — during the 19th cent. — since it is hardly possibly that Iyäsus Moýa’s biography would have been revised twice within such a short period of time. Consequently, the polemical passages found in the «lengthy» Vita should reflect the contemporary (19th cent.?) views of the community. My hypothesis concerning the recent character of the «contradiction» is corroborated by its ideological and literary context. The preliminary search for traces, which the controversy must have left in the written tradition of both monasteries, brought rather disappointing results. Documents from Däbrä Hayq which deal with the «monastic carrier» of Iyäsus Moýa appear to be of recent origin; none of them pays much attention to the question of how Thus, the Homily: ¨™Jvf " ›z " ¾›z* " ™ež+R " ¡`e}e " ¨®oŠ} " «ez " K«ÿm,B – oz " ±™ÂT " ¨oz%c " ™`™¼ " ŏÓJ... (fol. 36vb–37ra); cp. Tanasee 164: ™Jvf " ™Jwc " Tž#e " ¨™mŠ} " «ez " K«ÿm,B " oz " ±™ÂT "" ¨o|c " ™`™¼ " ŏÓJ " ¨éM " ¨éM " «›z%, cp. the Vita: KUR 1965, 15:2–4 (s. above, n. 75, also n. 95); after all, it is unprobable that the author of the Vita would have omitted the mention of the scapular. 97 Tanasee 164 (fol. 17ra): ¨›± " ¾Šx` " ›Oª¯J " Oé™ " …v+B " ›TxK+[" c+ª " x›c& " …+` " ±eP " z¡H " D¾R| "" ¨¾v+H: " ™w " ™JxcŒ " Jxc " Tž=e…the style is slightly revised in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa (KUR 1965, 36:10– 36:18): ¨›± " ¾Šx` " žO³ " Tx±#‡ " ›Oª¯J " Oé™ " …v+B " x›c& " …+` " ¨v#\¡ " ›TxK+[ " c+ª " ±¾xJ¬ " z¡H " D¾R| " z¡J " KÂe… ¨¾v+H: " œ™w " ™v#¹ " ™&¹c#e " U™ " ™JxcŒ " Jxc " Tž=e… The collation of the texts (Tanasee 164, fol. 17b; KUR 1965, 36:10–36:18) demonstrates that from the words žO " ›z " ¹xe… (ibid., 36:24; where the narrative has an unexpected development concerning the travelling direction of Täklä Haymanot) the Vita adds new passages the origin of which is discussed above. 96

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exactly Iyäsus Moýa assumed the monastic habit, and none contains polemical passages comparable to those found in the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa.98 However, some of them describe the monastic carrier of Iyäsus Moýa in a peculiar way; of particular interest is the lengthy «History of the Churches and Monasteries of Ethiopia»99 in MS EMML 1942, linked to the cycle of Homilies in honour of Archangel Uriel, obviously of Ménilék II’s period (and of Šäwan origin). According to the colophon of this work (which deserves, in fact, a closer look), it was composed by a certain Ÿaqqabe säŸat Yohannés, the contemporary of King Lébnä Déngél (1508-40). The History is certainly a pseudoepigraphic work of a much later period, and was probably not composed at Däbrä Hayq; the ideological background of its author is not quite clear, and the work should not prematurely be described «pro-Šäwan».100 In any case, it speaks more about Täklä Haymanot than about Iyäsus Moýa; the account concerning Täklä Haymanot follows his Vita in the Däbrä Libanos recension, and the author of the History shows no interest in taking up the occasion to raise the discussion and revise the story about Iyäsus Moýa’s assumption of the monastic habit, unless the absence of the author’s clear position should be considered an attempt to hide details of Iyäsus Moýa’s life.101 Otherwise, While working on his well-known essay (TADDESSE TAMRAT 1970), Taddesse Tamrat managed to gain access to and consult the unique sources preserved in Däbrä Hayq; however, he apparently did not find any material which would have lead him to discuss the problem in his article and/or start its closer investigation. 99 MS EMML 1942, fol. 67b–85a. 100 Cp. also Getatchew Haile’s comments, EMML V, 440. 101 Here is the relevant passage according to MS EMML 1942. It is related that Täklä Haymanot was born in the seventh year of the reign of Näýakkwéto Lä-Ab at the age of 22 years he left his parents, quitting the worldly life. Thereafter, the Saint had preached and built churches in Kätata, Damot, Énnarya etc. Thereafter, «(72vb) saint Uriel ordered him to learn the monastic law from Bäsälotä Mikael of the country of Amhara, in order to become the father of all holy monks of the land of Ethiopia [±xK+[ " ™&|¿å¼]. He went and stayed (there) 10 years, learning the monastic law and making signs while healing the sick. And thereafter Saint Uriel ordered him to go to Lake Hayq and stay with Iyäsus Ìîýà. And he stayed with him 10 years. And after this, he departed from abba Iyäsus Ìîýà and ascended (73ra) Däbrä Dammo, to abba Yohanni; and he stayed with him 12 years». Täklä Haymanot travelled to Jerusalem three times, till the Patriarch Michael ordered him to stay in Ethiopia to promote monasticism. «(73rb) And after this (73va) he returned from the Patriarch abba Michael and ascended Däbrä Dammo, to abba Yohanni. And he told him what the Patriarch said, all his words. And thereafter abba Yohanni responded to him and said: ‘I heard [it] from the mouth of all holy monks, the beloved of Our Lady Mary, and they told me that you would be the father of holy monks of the monasteries of all [the country of] Šäwa (™Åw^z " ž=H# " hª), which Archangel Uriel consecrated with the blood of Christ… Go there and stay there… (73vb)’ And after this he left Däbrä Dammo and went to Däbrä Libanos, after he [reached the age of] 70 years after he had been 98

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at first glance there are no Däbrä Hayq documents concerning the biography of Iyäsus Moýa, except for his Vita, which would deal with the episode in a very different way, speaking from an articulated and consequently ideological position.102 An additional last group of documents worth noting is represented by monastic spiritual genealogies and other texts of this kind. These sources have not yet been a subject of comprehensive research; yet many of them mention both Täklä Haymanot’s and Iyäsus Moýa’s assumption of the monastic habit, thus recording the relationship between the two saints. The spiritual pedigree of Täklä Haymanot, which follows the Däbrä Libanos recension of his Vita, was compiled simultaneously with or, most probably, somewhat later than the latter, and spread throughout Ethiopia in numerous copies.103 Taking into account the fact that the genealogies show numerous variations born... And in the second year after his entering Däbrä Libanos, the Orthodox King Yékunno Amlak reigned through the prayer of this father [who] anointed him by his [own] hand with the pure anointment of the kingdom. And it was fulfilled what was called «the miracle of his name» in the Homily of Urael…» The King went to Roha, visited Lalibäla and built another one church — Gännätä Maryam, which Täklä Haymanot consecrated. «(74rb) And after this Yékunno Amlak went to the island of Lake Hayq and built a church for Iyäsus Moýa and called it Däbrä Nägwädgwad…(74rb) And he appointed abba Iyäsus Moýa Archpriest (H&m " ŸF|) and Ÿaqqabe säŸat for the entire country of Ethiopia, and he said to Täklä Haymanot: «Bring all your [spiritual] sons that you generated through the Holy Spirit, so that they will construct and build church[es] in the name of our Lady Mary, the Mother of God (74va), on all the mountains that Saint Uriel blessed with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Täklä Haymanot chose from his [spiritual] sons 33 who took the monastic cap and scapular from his hands…» 102 Ñð. also the Miracles of Iyäsus Moýa (EMML 1940, 19th cent., from Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos; the Miracles seem to post-date the bulk of Iyäsus Moýa’s hagiography, and sometimes draw upon his Vita) which begin with the account of how Iyäsus Moýa left his family at the age of 40 and went to Däbrä Dammo where he spent 7 years with abba Yohanni. The author of the Miracles does not provide details on Iyäsus Moýa’s assumption of the monastic habit — tunic, monastic cap and scapular (fol. 69–70, s. also MARRASSINI 1986:183; unless the reference to Iyäsus Moýa as a «perfect monk», OŠ¢e " õç#T on fol. 78vb [cp. MARRASSINI 1986:188] is a hint to his complete monastic profession). 103 The earliest edition of such a text, from MS Paris, Bibliothèque national de France, Éth. 160 is in BASSET 1896:15–16. Some time in the late 17th or 18th cent. this genealogy was combined with a short description of Täklä Haymanot’s life deriving from the Däbrä Libanos recension of his Vita and became known as the «Genealogy of our fathers, the monks». The account renarrates the life of Täklä Haymanot, taking its start from his spiritual genealogy (this spiritual genealogy is missing in BUDGE 1906, which has only its «short» variant in ch. 88; in manuscripts with the original Däbrä Libanos recension of the Vita this genealogy usually stands before the Homily

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which reveal that their creators could easily «reinterpret» different points of the Ethiopian monastic history, we can not escape the impression that the episode in question failed to attract particular attention, and did not generate resentment or polemic in monastic circles (at least untill a certain moment). The episode is sometimes found in the spiritual genealogies of those monks whose communities were distant from both Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa and «the house of Täklä Haymanot» in Azäzo near Gondär, with the variant of the story rejected by the hagiographer of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos apparently dominating, but sometimes difused and/or incorporated into other traditions.104 Some of the genealogies omit central details of the story or mutilate it, or depart from its main framework, probably making reference to different traditions.105 On the whole, though the topic of spiritual fathership appears important, the genealogies do not focuse on the monastic habit and do not create on its basis any claim for superiority. on the day of his translatio, following the Vita and the family genealogy of the Saint). It tells that Yohanni «begat» Iyäsus Moýa with qämis and qénat, and Iyäsus Moýa, in turn, «begat» Täklä Haymanot with qämis and qénat; Täklä Haymanot received qobŸ and askema at Däbrä Dammo, from Yohanni; as he came back, he gave qobŸ and askema to his spiritual father, following the request of the latter (GETATCHEW HAILE 1982–1983:9–10, 23–24 and n. 12). 104 Ñð. the spiritual genealogy of Mädòaninä Égziý, the founder of Däbrä Bankwal in Šére, Tégray (ÑÎNTI ROSSINI 1943:337): «Yohanni generò Iyasus-Mo’a e TaklaHâymânot: generò Iyasus-Mo’a col camice e col cingolo e Takla-Hâymânot col cappuccio e con la scapolare. Takla-Hâymânot generò Madòanina-’Egzi’ di Bankual»... Ñð. the genealogy from the monastery of Gundä Gunde: «Mädòaninä Égziý generated Mäsqäl Mäwaýi, and Mäsqäl Mäwaýi generated Yohanni, and Yohanni generated Iyäsus Moýa, and Iyäsus Moýa generated our father Täklä Haymanot with the tunic and girdle and the garb [®éõ], whereas he took the scapular and [monastic] cap from abba Yohanni of Dammo, who is the father of his father in spirit ... And our farther Täklä Haymanot generated abba Mädòaninä Égziý of Bonkäl…» (MORDINI 1952:56, 58). 105 In MS EMML 1440, a brief monastic genealogy from Anthony the Great until a certain Läbbawi Kréstos states that Iyäsus Moýa was the spiritual son of Yohanni, but neither mentions Täklä Haymanot nor contains any further details about Iyäsus Moýa (fol. 58ra–vb). Ñð. also the genealogy of the disciples of Iyäsus Moýa from EMML 1960, fol. 28vb, in which nothing is said about Iyäsus Moýa’s spiritual father, whereas a certain Täklä Haymanot is mentioned only after some generations, as the spiritual son of Gäbrä Éndréyas. Besides, cp. the genealogy of Däbrä Libanos monks (from Anthony the Great to the early 17th-cent. abbot Abréham) from the manuscript of the Catholic mission in Kärän (CONTI ROSSINI 1904:238–240): here Iyäsus Moýa comes to Däbrä Dammo and receives from Yohanni the monastic cap and scapular; then Täklä Haymanot comes (Hv&f " Jxc " K^, s. above) and also receives the monastic cap and scapular; then Täklä Haymanot comes to Iyäsus Moýa, and, following the request of the latter, hands the monastic cap and scapular over to his

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III We have been tracing the episode which constitutes the «controversial point» of Ethiopian Church history through a number of sources. Indeed, this episode is also recorded, among others, in old traditions — a fact which speaks for its historicity. However, having studied it from different points of view, we are less certain than before as to what degree the episode reflected in the relevant texts is «controversial». Between the earliest attestation of the story and the time it could have taken place there remains a gap of more than 100 years. As the story took the form of a written account, it started to change its shape, but, apparently, very little of actual «ideological revision» can be found in any of its alterations. By the time of the creation of the Waldébba recension of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, it was already a remembrance of the honourable past of Ethiopian monasticism shaped as a hagiographic account — shared by all sides involved — Däbrä Libanos, Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, Däbrä Dammo; this is supported by the story of monastic career of Täklä Haymanot as presented in EMML 1834 of the Däbrä Hayq and EMML 8742 of the Tana Qirqos. The tradition of Däbrä Dammo contributed an important element to the hagiographic representation of the episode some time in the late 15th/early 16th cent.; the fact that the author of the Däbrä Libanos recension took from the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi one particular interpretation of the story, is possibly an example of the biased approach of hagiographers. As to the rest, the pieces of evidence, which are extracted from sources prior to the creation of the lengthy recension of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa, can hardly be interpreted as reflecting the rivalry between Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa and Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, especially if they are looked at in a broader literary (hagiographical)106 and hispiritual father. Finally, cp. a brief account about Täklä Haymanot’s wanderings in the Vita of Tadewos, the founder of Däbrä Maryam on Tana lake (in fact, this work narrates the deeds of Tadewos in southern Ethiopia; SIX 1975:136–139). Cp. a very peculiar genealogy from MS EMML 5117: «Yosef begat Mäsqäl Bezanä, and Mäsqäl Bezanä (begat) Mädòaninä Égziý, and Mädòaninä Égziý (begat) Mäsqäl Mäwaýi, and Mäsqäl Mäwaýi (begat) Yohanni of the Desert [¿KŒ " ±ÑÃT]. And Yohanni begat Iyyäsus Moýa, the Leaf of Sabbath; Arsesayus, the Grass of Sabbath [¨HÆP " H™&¹c#e " U™ " séH " cv| " ¨™+`c+d¿e " X¯[ " cv|]; Täklä Haymanot, the Father of Kings; and Danéýel, the Rock of Sabbath — in habit and belt [›OÑH " mQe " ¨o®|]...» (GETATCHEW HAILE 1992:235–236). 106 Within the scale of the present study it is difficult to assess how far hagiographers could or wanted to go in depicting or alluding to conflicts or controversies with other communities, which certainly could have taken place. An answer may to be looked for in defining the general aesthetic principles of Ethiopian hagiography as a literary genre (this being linked to a larger problem, particularly important for Ethiopian studies: elaborating reasonable criteria for critical approach to hagiographic

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storical context,107 including considerations as to the role and position of the monastic investiture in traditional monastic culture. sources) and in a careful study of each single case. It is, indeed, striking that the 17th/ 18th-cent. controversies between the Täwah³é do and Qébat religious fractions, in which many monasteries took an active part, left relatively few direct traces in the hagiographies known so far. At the same time, most remarkable in this respect is the Vita of Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi, which ascribes to the Saint such a central role in Kaleb’s campaign as is played, in fact, by his «twin» abba Päntälewon — according to the latter’s Vita. We can only speculate how this alternative description of Kaleb’s campaign to Yemen was perceived by representatives of Betä Päntälewon (the political decline of which was also accompanied by the transfer of economic benefits to Däbrä Dammo). These transformations may find typological correspondences in some other cases (one can remember, e. g., that the leading role in the confrontation of monks with King ŸAmdä Séyon I is also contested by several hagiographic traditions), yet the accounts of the monastic initiations of the saints seem hardly ever to have been exploited in this respect. The most peculiar «deviation» from the common patterns that could have caused concerns may be the motive of receiving of the monastic habit or its part from God, but it appears in only a very few hagiographies, though in those of the most venerated monks (Gäbrä Mänfäs Qéddus, Zärýa Buruk, Filéppos of Däbrä Bizän, and also Täklä Haymanot), and remains «closed» — the hagiographers did not pick this element for promoting any claims. 107 The idea of the controversy between Däbrä Libanos and Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, and the mutual attempts at limiting the respective influence by means of reversing the spiritual filiation (DERAT 2003:108) should be attenuated. It is not the place here to discuss in details the history of either Däbrä Libanos or Däbrä Hayq; but it is difficult indeed to find direct references to any serious controversy of an economic, political or religious nature (e. g., transfer of land possessions and titles; different positions in theological controversies etc.) between Däbrä Hayq and Däbrä Libanos. The rise of Däbrä Libanos happened long after Däbrä Hayq became an established royal sanctuary. In the 15th cent., in particular during the reign of Zärýa YaŸéqob, both monasteries passed through periods of royal favour and disfavour, which had immediate impact, first of all, on the situation of their abbots, Ÿ aqqabe säŸ at and éccäge respectively, who spent much time at the court (with the consequence of weakening direct links to their communities). From the beginning of the 16th cent. at least, the éccäge was nominated the head of all Ethiopian monks; however, the Ÿ aqqabe säŸ at undoubtedly enjoyed high prestige and influence as well (in fact, differences could occasionally appear between them). In the 15th/early 16th cent., the economic situation of Däbrä Hayq was improving thanks to donations (s. TADDESSE TAMRAT 1970). The spheres of direct influence of both monasteries hardly overlapped due simply to the considerable distance separating them. Däbrä Libanos’s religious and administrative presence was substantial in particular in the southern regions of the Kingdom, where it administered missionary activities and ecclesiastic matters. Possibly, these constraints contrasted with the meditative asceticism of Däbrä Hayq (the ideal reflected in the Homily of Iyäsus Moýa, Acts of BäggéŸ and elsewhere). In fact, the reconstruction of the «monastic network» of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos — the ecclesiastic organization thought to be a rival of Däbrä Libanos — is mostly based on the in-

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The «lengthy» recension of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa, containing numerous «testaments» between the Saint and King Yékunno Amlak, is a unique piece of evidence. Certainly, it may have been a response to the late 17th/early 18th-cent. «Riches of the Kings» of the «house of Täklä Haymanot» and the claims of Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa. But, in view of its complex textual history and its possible historical context, the work appears to be of a more recent origin than has been suggested before: it was created after the «intermediary recension» of the Vita (or «the short Vita») attested in MS Tanasee 164 = Daga Estifanos 53 which was the continuation of the textual tradition of the Homily. The fact that the «lengthy» recension of the Vita of the Saint is hitherto known only from two 19th-cent. manuscripts betrays the rather late and local character of the «controversy». Thus, the latter’s possible causes should be looked for in the recent history of Däbrä Hayq,108 in particular, in the age of Yohannes IV and Ménilék II, when the gradual movement towards a centralized state began to take shape. By then, the ancient sanctuary of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos attracted the attention of the Ethiopian lords. At some point during this period, intending to use the opportunity and resume its high position in the national Church hierarchy, the community of Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos may have compiled and presented a new complete version of the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa, the most prominent monk of the community, producing new evidence about the valuable services he rendered to the Solomonic rulers, ascertaining his fame, and denouncing old rumours which could have cast doubts upon his fame. formation from the Vita of Iyäsus Moýa; yet the claims made in this Vita usually find no confirmation in local monastic traditions; it is unknown how such a «monastic network» could have been organized (DERAT 2003:110–119). 108 This is not an easy task, for the history of the monastery during the late 17th/ 19th cent. — the time it kept out from big events — remains less well known. In the 16th cent., Däbrä Hayq did not suffer a complete devastation like Däbrä Libanos. In the second half of the 16th cent., Däbrä Libanos revived and occupied the leading role in the kingdom, but already in the early 17th cent. a major part of its community moved to the region of lake Tana, to settle later in Azäzo, whereas the original Däbrä Libanos remained in decline until the beginning of the 19th cent. Both the Ÿ aqqabe säŸ at and the éccäge resided in Gondär, and were separated from their communities and involved in theological controversies and political intrigues. In the 18th cent., the titles were sometimes bestowed upon the representatives of other monasteries (under Bäkaffa, re. 1721–1730, the title of Ÿ aqqabe säŸ at was given to the head of Däbrä Métmaq). Since at least the 18th cent., while «the house of Täklä Haymanot» retained importance, Däbrä Hayq was constantly endangered by Oromo Marawwa and Wällo, and later by Wällo’s Islamic rulers. The Christian population remained only in the vicinities of the monastery. Only from the time of Yohannés IV (1872–1889) did the monastery gain support again, and favour by the kings and nobles (as appears from land charters registered in MS EMML 1940).

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RAINERI, O. (1990 ), Atti di Habta Mâryâm (†1497) e di Iyâsu (†1508), Santi monaci etiopici, Roma (OCA, 235); RICCI, L. (1959)–(1969–70), «Le vite di ‘Ìnbâqom e di Yohannìs, abbati di Dabra Libânos di Scioa», RSE 13 (1954 [1955]), 91–122; RSE 14 (1955–1958 [1959]), 69–107; RSE 22 (1966), 75–102; RSE 23 (1967–1968 [1971]), 79–219; RSE 24 (1969–1970 [1971]), 134–232; RICCI, L. (1969), Letterature dell’Etiopia, Milano 1969, in: Storia delle letterature d’oriente, diretta da Oscar Botto, Milano, 811–911; RICCI, L. (1979), Miracoli di Zar’a Buruk. Traduzione e commento storico, Louvain (CSCO 409; SAe 72); SAUTER, R., «Où en est notre connaissance des églises rupestres d’Ethiopie?», AÉ 5 (1963), 235–292; SIMON, J. (1941), «Notes sur les textes de la “Chrestomatia Aethiopica”», Orientalia NS, 10: 285–311; SIX, V. (1975), Die Vita des Abuna Tâdewos von Dabra Mâriâm im Tânâsee, Wiesbaden (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Supplementband 18); SIX, V. (1989), Äthiopische Handschriften. 2: Die Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, Wiesbaden (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland XX, 5); SIX, V. (1999), Äthiopische Handschriften vom Tânôsee. 3: Nebst einem Nachtrag zum Katalog der äthiopischen Handschriften deutscher Bibliotheken und Museen, Wiesbaden (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland XX, 3); SERGEW HABLE-SELASSIE (1992), «The Monastic Library of Däbrä Hayq», in: Scholz, P. — Pankhurst, R. — Witakowski, W. (eds.), Orbis Aethiopicus. Studia in honorem Stanislaus Chojnacki natali septuagesimo quinto dicata..., Albstadt (Bibliotheca nubica, 3), 243–258; SCHNEIDER, M. (1972), Actes de Za-Yoh³annes de Kebrân, Louvain (CSCO 332, 333; SAe 65, 66); SCHNEIDER, R. (1978), «Notes sur Filpos de Dabra Bizan et ses successeurs», AE 11: 135–139; STRELCYN, S. (1976), Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de l’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Fonds Conti Rossini et Fonds Caetani 209, 375, 376, 377, 378, Roma; TADDESSE TAMRAT (1970), «The Abbots of Däbrä Hayq 1248–1535», JES 8-1: 87–117; TADDESSE TAMRAT (1972), Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-152, Oxford; TEDESCHI, S. (1994), «La vita del monaco etiope Iyasus Mo’a (sec. XIII): agiografia e storiografia», OCP 60: 503–518; THOMAS, J. — CONSTANTINIDES HERO, A. (eds.) (2000), Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, Washington, D. C. (Dumbartom Oaks Studies, XXXV), 5 vols.; TURAIEV, B. [ÒÓÐÀÅÂÚ, Á. À.] (1902), Èçñëåäîâàíiÿ âú îáëàñòè àãiîëîãè÷åñêèõ èñòî÷íèêîâú èñòîðiè Ýôiîïiè, Ñ.-Ïåòåðáóðãú;

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ÒURAIEV, B. (1902[a]), Vita Samuelis Valdebani, Petropoli (Monumenta Aethiopiae Hagiologica, 2); TURAIEV, B. (1905), Vita et miracula Eustathii, Petropoli (Monumenta Aethiopiae Hagiologica, 3); TURAIEV, B. (1908), Vitae sanctorum indigenarum. II. Acta s. Aronis et s. Philippi, Louvain (CSCO 30, 31; SAe 13, 14); VAN DE WEYER, ROBERT (1973), «The Monastic Community in Ethiopia», Ethiopia Observer 16-1: 8–14; WRIGHT, W. (1877), Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the Year 1847, London; UHLIG, S. (1988), Äthiopische Paläographie, Stuttgart (Aethiopistische Forschungen, 22); ZOTENBERG, H. (1877), Catalogue des manuscrits Éthiopiens (Gheez et Amharique) de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

Appendix 1) The famous Gäbrä Mänfäs Qéddus was 12 years old when abba Zämädä Bérhan «gave him the holy scapular, like Anthony, and girded his loins with «hair sackcloth» (çÑ>[ " Wo) as «one girdes with the girdle» (±žO " ¾mz% " oz, MARRASSINI 2003:12–13[text]; cp. also XL–XLII), whereas in the lengthy Synaxarion note on Gäbrä Mänfäs Qéddus any indication of the assumption of the monastic habit is missing (30 Mäggabit, COLIN 1994:440–467, BUDGE 1928:755–772). 2) Ewostatewos was clad with the monastic habit by abba Danéýel (¨™Jvf " ™Jwc " Tž=e...), on which occasion he also obtained his monastic name (TURAIEV 1902:303; TURAIEV 1905:22–23). 3) Having reached the monastic community of abba Päntälewon, Yéshaq/ Gärima immediately asks for the scapular: ™w " ™JxcŒ " ™ež+R " ±OŠ¢d|. After Päntälewon’s question as to whether he is ready for the scapular — i. e. the monastic life (|¡J‹ " œ¨JŹ " ™ež+R " OŠ¢d|) — and Gärima’s convincing response, Päntälewon confers the scapular upon him: ...ŠYœ " ™ež+R " OŠ¢d| " ¨™Jxf " ¨w[¢ " I¯H+B... What follows seems to be an excerpt from the ritual of the monastic consecration (CONTI ROSSINI 1897:152). 4) Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi assumed the monastic habit at the age of 19, from the hands of Pachomius the Great, after a short interrogation to prove the seriousness of his intention (|¡J‹ " žª*Š " OŠ¢e...). After some time Pachomius clad him with the monastic clothes (™Jvf " ™Jwc " Tž=e) and proclaimed the formula: «May God bless your scapular as He blessed abba Anthony and abba Macarius, my fathers» and conferred upon him the new name — Zä-Mikaýel Arägawi (GUIDI 1895:6–7). The same procedure is carried out when Liqanos, YémŸata, Séhma, Guba, Afse and Päntälewon (ñð. DEB 209–210) come to him, with slight deviations in wording (e.g., ™JxcŠ " ™ež+R " ±OŠ¢d|...; |¡J‹ " çª*[ " ™`­#z " Tž=e;...¨fv+D " ™JvfP " ™Jwc " OŠ¢d|, s. GUIDI 1895:7–8). 5) The Vita of Libanos/MättaŸ reports that he accepted the scapular from Pachomius before leaving for Ethiopia (BAUSI 2003, §26; cp. also ibid. [tr.], 9, n. 35;

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the Vita most probably repeats what the ancient Homily [in honour of] MättaŸ tells, s. GETATCHEW HAILE 1990:36–37: «There, he took the monastic habit [ŠY™" ™ež+R] from the man of God»). 6) According to the Vita of Samuýel of Däbrä Halleluya, when Näýakwéto LäAb (Samuýel’s worldly name) came to the community of abba Éntonés, he asked for monastic cap and scapular (O蛞# " …v+ž " žO " zAvŒ " px® " ¨™ež+R), but was first interrogated by Éntonés (¾|žDHž‹ " œ¨JŹ " žO " |ç#` " ™`­#z " Tž=e). As the Vita states, the ritual of conferrance of the monastic habit was performed according to the Mäs³h³afä Ménk wésénna: the monastic cap and scapular were placed in front of the tabot, and the prayer was recited over them; the novice was blessed by all the «saints» (qéddusan), a prayer was performed over him, and he received the monastic cap and scapular and his new monastic name — Samuýel (COLIN 1990:8). 7) Yonas took on the monastic habit from abba Démyanos of Däbrä Sina, in Särawe; Démyanos clad the novice with the monastic clothes (™Jvf " ™Jwc " Tž=e) and gave him a new name (Yonas’s worldly name was Habtä Égziý); as the Vita mentions, those who accepted the monastic cap, scapular and «sheepskin» (KSI|, s. n. 27) from abba Yonas will be saved (CONTI ROSSINI 1903:13– 14). 8) Zä-Yohannés of Kébran assumed the monastic cap and scapular in Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa, from abba Hézqéyas, who also clad him with the «clothes of the angels» after seven years of probation (SCHNEIDER 1972:9). 9) The Vita of Filéppos of Däbrä Bizan recounts in detail how Filéppos was called to take a monastic vow and to take on the monastic clothes and «the holy scapular» (™Jwc " Tž=e " ¨™ež+R " oÅe|) by the Holy Spirit, who told him to go to Bäkimos of Däbrä Särabi. The Holy Spirit also informed Bäkimos about the one coming to him. Having performed the ritual according to the Mäs³h³afä Ménk wésénna, Bäkimos lay upon Filéppos the monastic habit, speaking of «the garb of our Lady Mary», «the girdle of John [the Baptist]» and «the garment of angels» (®íï " ±OI›¡|, s. CONTI ROSSINI 1900:77–78). Thereafter, the Vita relates, somewhat vaguely, how Filéppos went into the desert and received the monastic cap and scapular «from the hands of Jesus Christ, while the Saviour spoke to and conversed with him in the likeness of abba Ewostatewos» (ibid. 79). The Synaxarion of Däbrä Wärq, an Ewostatean monastery in Goggam, repeats the story, yet in this document Filéppos received the cap and scapular in Betä Päntälewon (near Aksum?), and Christ spoke to him in the likeness of Päntälewon (SCHNEIDER 1978)! 10) Abunä Zärýa Buruk received the «angelic habit» (here meaning: the scapular) from God; he received the «spiritual [monastic] cap» the girdle from God as well, but through the hands of abunä Täklä Haymanot and Gäbrä Mänfäs Qéddus respectively; in addition, he assumed «the cloth of the chest» (Jxc " ›ÓÅ®) from Ewostatewos (JAEGER 1912:168–169; RICCI 1979:108); 11) Anorewos received the monastic habit from Täklä Haymanot, who invested him with monastic garb and girdle (¨›TŇ[ " ‡ÃØ " Oª¯J " ™Jvf " ¨™mŠ} " ™v#Š " z¡H " D¾R| " H™v#Š " ™_¬e, CONTI ROSSINI 1905:

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69); further on, it is related that Anorewos wore «the rope belt» (zäh³abl qénat; ibid., 77). 12) Bäsälotä Mikaýel received monastic garb (™Jwc " Tž=e) from abba Anorewos, at Däbrä Gwäl (CONTI ROSSINI 1905:14). 13) The Vita of Hédan Moýa reports that this holy monk received «the monkish clothes» (™Jwc " Tž=e) from the head of the community of Däbrä BäggéŸ (MS EMML 2353, fol. 6ra–va). 14) The Vita of BäggéŸ, a monk from Däbrä Hayq Éstifanos, does not relate how he assumed the monastic habit; after the report about Bägg韒s entering the community, the author concentrates on the strictest abstinence of BäggéŸ (he did not drink water for many years; MS EMML 1960, fol. 61va). 15) According to his Vita, Yohannés Mésraqawi left his family at the age of 22 and spent many years in «the house of Isidor» (in Egypt) serving as rädý and mäggabi, but received the full monastic habit including the scapular (›To| " ±™ÂT " ›ež " ™ež+R " OI›¡| " ±›Ùe) in Ethiopia, from abunä Täklä Haymanot (MARRASSINI 1984:180–183). Another piece of the tradition, separate from the Vita, mentions his assumption of the habit (™Jwc " Tž=e) again, this time without details; here the hagiographer claims that, Yohannés has a privileged position as compared to the other 12 pupils of Täklä Haymanot, since he was the first to received the monastic habit from the latter (ibid., 342–345; cp. also ibid., LXVII –LXX, C–CI) There are some examples from the traditions related to Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa: 16) According to the Waldébba recension of the Vita of Täklä Haymanot, the Saint accepted in his community Abel «a son of Zeb Däòar» and, after an interrogation (›ö " |¡J " žO " |ç#` " ™`­#z " Tz "[sic! ›z? — D. N.] Tž=e...) and a period of noviciate, consecrated him monk (¨›TŇ[ " ‡ÃØ " Oª¯H " [c¿ " OŠ¢c…). When he assumed the scapular his ascetic conduct became so rigid that Täklä Haymanot had to restrain him, but soon he allowed Abel to live «in the desert». It is reported that as soon as he took on the «scapular of the angels» (™ež+R " ±OI›¡|) he stopped eating bread (CONTI ROSSINI 1895:118). 17) Märha Kréstos was vested with the «monastic garb» (Jxc " Tž#e) by abunä Yohannés Käma, being of a young age, and after a certain time he received the monastic cap and scapular (KUR 1972:24–25). 18) Täklä Hawaryat received the «monastic garb» (Jxc " Tž#e) from Yohannés Käma, in Däbrä Libanos (CONTI ROSSINI 1910:71). 19) Éccäge ŸÉnbaqom received the «clothes of the holyness» from éccäge Petros («Egli disse: figlio mio, da questo momento sii monaco e indossa le vesti della santità [™Jwc " oÅe] dei padri nostri Antonio e Macario e degli altri Santi...»), after a period of noviciate and religious education (RICCI 1955–1958:81). 20) Éccäge Yohannés assumed the monastic habit from ŸÉnbaqom («e quindi gli vestì l’abito monastico e fece discendere su di lui le benedizione del Signore», RICCI 1969–1970:176), later on the Vita reports that ŸÉnbaqom was also his father in respect of the scapular («gli era padre nei riguardi dello scapolare [askiçmâ]», ibid., 191).

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21) Habtä Maryam, another representative of the community of Däbrä Libanos, assumed the monastic habit (™`­#z " Tž=e) not in Däbrä Libanos (RAINERI 1990:37). 22) Samuýel, the founder of Däbrä Wägäg, assumed the monastic habit (™`­#z " Tž=e) from Täklä Haymanot, who also taught him «the monastic rules» (Y`®z " Tž=e; KUR 1968:7).

SUMMARY The study deals with an episode from the history of the Ethiopian Church that relates to Iyäsus Moýa and his pupil Täklä Haymanot, both famous saints and 13th–14th-cent. abbots of Dabra Hayq Éstifanos and Däbrä Libanos of Šäwa respectively. Known mostly from the hagiographic documents and considered crucial for Ethiopian history, the episode centres on Iyäsus Moýa’s and Täklä Haymanot’s assumption of the monastic habit, namely on the sequence in which they bestowed on each other the articles of the monastic attire. The episode has been analysed and interpreted by scholars in different ways, and has been thought to be important for the reconstruction of the history of the relationship between Dabra Hayq and Däbra Libanos — the most important centres of the Ethiopian monasticism. The present article continues this discussion and attempts to reach a better understanding of the sources and, consequently, the events they describe. The paper examines the episode in light of what we know about real Ethiopian monastic practices. Thereafter, it attempts to reconstruct the development of the event’s representation in the hagiographic sources and its traditional perception, by clarifying the textual history of the most crucial hagiographic documents containing the episode (including, e. g., the discussion on the «short Vita of Iyäsus Moýa» from MS. Tânâsee 164 = Dâgâ Estifanos 53), and by inquirying the references to this episode found in other sources.

Andrei Orlov Marquette University Milwaukee

´THE LEARNED SAVANT WHO GUARDS THE SECRETS OF THE GREAT GODSª: EVOLUTION OF THE ROLES AND TITLES OF THE SEVENTH ANTEDILUVIAN HERO IN MESOPOTAMIAN AND ENOCHIC TRADITIONS (Part I: Mesopotamian Traditions)* «… They gave him the tablet of the gods … a secret of heaven and [underworld], They put in his hand the cedar[-rod], beloved of the great gods … ... the learned savant who guards the secrets of the great gods». Tablet from Nineveh

Introduction Recent history, especially after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, has witnessed to a renewed interest in the intertestamental Jewish literature and a recognition of its importance for the understanding of early Christian texts and traditions. These Jewish materials, not included in the canon of the Old Testament, and known to scholars as the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (a collective term for anonymous Jewish literary remains written between 4th cent. B.C. and 2nd cent. A.D. in response to the biblical materials and later preserved by the Christian communities), are viewed by scholars as significant sources for understanding the traditions of the exalted patriarchs and prophets such as Enoch, Abraham, Melchizedek, Jacob, Moses, and others that played a significant role in patristic and rabbinic theological arguments. This article deals with one of such cluster of pseudepigraphic traditions associated with the name of the seventh antediluvian patriarch Enoch which had its roots in the Mesopotamian lore.

* To be continued in: Scrinium II. Universum Hagiographicum (forthcoming).

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King Enmeduranki Even a brief look at early Enochic booklets such as the Book of the Watchers and the Astronomical Book demonstrates that already in these early Enochic writings the seventh antediluvian patriarch appears to have a set of highly developed roles: a sage, a visionary, a diviner, and a scribe. One can see these descriptions of the main character as a product of a substantial and long-lasting conceptual development. However, for anyone familiar with the early biblical traditions about the patriarch Enoch found in Genesis, the surprising wealth of information about the seventh antediluvian patriarch that is found in the earliest booklets of 1 Enoch might be puzzling; for the biblical account associated with the priestly source of Genesis does not provide a great deal of material about the aforementioned Enochic roles. Gen 5:21–24 informs us that «when Enoch had lived sixty-five years he became the father of Methuselah. He walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him».1 While the passage from Genesis shows Enoch in his important family role, almost nothing is said about his other prominent celestial roles, although the priestly author exhibits familiarity with Enoch’s status as a translated figure by mentioning his removal from the earth. In view of the scarcity of information in the Genesis account about the heavenly roles and titles of the seventh antediluvian patriarch and the complexity of these roles and titles in the early Enochic writings, scholars have been searching for other possible factors contributing to this evolution.2 They draw attention to some Mesopotamian traditions which, in their opinion, might have helped to enhance or even shape the profile of the seventh antediluvian hero. In the 20th cent. the influence of the Mesopotamian traditions on the Enochic materials has been the subject of several major publications, including the studies of Heinrich Zimmern, H. Ludin Jansen, Pierre Grelot, Otto Neugebauer, James VanderKam, and Helge S. Kvanvig.3 The most important for this All biblical citations will be taken from New Revised Standard Version. M. Stone highlights that «what is significant is the fact that outside the Bible this figure [Enoch] first comes into the light of history full-grown. Enoch appears in all his complexity in the two Enochic writings which are the oldest (the Book of the Watchers and the Book of the Luminaries). It is to this developed Enoch figure that the angel Uriel shows the secrets of heavenly bodies and their movements». M. E. STONE, «Enoch, Aramaic Levi and Sectarian Origins», Journal for the Study of Judaism 19/2 (1988), 159–170, esp. 163. 3 H. ZIMMERN, «Urkönige und Uroffenbarung», in: E. SCHRADER (ed.), Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, Berlin 1902–1903, vol. 2, 530–543; H. LUDIN JANSEN, Die Henochgestalt: Eine vergleichende religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung, Oslo 1 2

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investigation are the books of VanderKam and Kvanvig since these are based on the recent publications of the cuneiform sources from Mesopotamia. Before proceeding to the Mesopotamian evidence, one should note that it is impossible within the limited scope of this present work to investigate all the Mesopotamian influences which have contributed to the formation of the Enochic roles and titles. This work, therefore, will mainly concentrate on one of these formative influences, the tradition about the seventh antediluvian king Enmeduranki.4 In my judgment, the Enmeduranki tradition provides a sharp illustration of the fact that the celestial roles of this Mesopotamian hero served as a decisive pattern for the future heavenly roles of his Jewish counterpart, the patriarch Enoch. Another reason that the choice is limited to investigating this Mesopotamian character is that in all recent studies on the Mesopotamian prototypes of Enoch, the Enmeduranki tradition has remained in the center of scholarly debate.5 Salient witnesses to the Enmeduranki tradition include the various versions of the so-called Sumerian antediluvian King List, in recensions dated from 1500 B.C. to 165 B.C.6 The List demonstrates a number of similarities 1939 (Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo II. Hist.-Filos. Klasse, 1); P. GRELOT, «La légende d’Hénoch dans les apocryphes et dans la Bible: Origine et signification», Recherches de science religieuse 46 (1958), 5–26, 181–210; O. NEUGEBAUER, «The ‘Astronomical’ Chapters of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch (72 to 82)», in: M. Black, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch, Leiden: Brill 1985 (Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha, 7), 386–412; J. C. VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, Washington, DC, 1984 (The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series, 16); H. S. KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic: the Mesopotamian Background of the Enoch Figure and of the Son of Man, Neukirchen—Vluyn 1988 (Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, 61). 4 Zimmern’s research was the first in-depth scholarly attempt to trace the connection between Enoch and Enmeduranki. See ZIMMERN, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, vol. 2, 540. 5 VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, 33ff.; KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 184ff.; J. J. C OLLINS, «Sage in the Apocalyptic and Pseudepigraphic Literature», in: J. G. GAMMIE — L. G. PERDUE (eds.), The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East, Winona Lake, IN, 1990, 343–354, esp. 344–347; ID., Seers, Sybils and Sages in Hellenistic-Roman Judaism, Brill 2001 (Supplements to the Journal of the Study of Judaism, 54), 44ff. 6 On the Sumerian King List, see S. LANGDON, «The Chaldean Kings before the Flood», Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britan and Ireland 42 (1923), 251–259; ID., Oxford Edition of Cuneiform Texts, vol. 2, Oxford: Clarendon, 1923; T. JACOBSEN, The Sumerian King List, Chicago, IL, 1939 (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Assyrological Studies, 11); F. R. KRAUS, «Zur Liste der älteren Könige von Babylonien», Zeitschrift für Assyriologie NF 16 [50] (1952), 29–60; J. J. FINKELSTEIN, «The Antediluvian Kings: A University of California Tablet», Journal of Cuneiform Studies 17 (1963), 39–51.

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with the genealogy of Gen 5. One of the significant details found in the List is that Mesopotamian kings, similar to the patriarchs from the Genesis account, had extraordinarily long reigns, ranging from 3,600 to 72,000 years. Another important feature is that the two versions of the List account for ten kings, the last of whom is designated as the hero of the flood. This fact recalls the role of Noah who occupies the tenth place in the list of Gen 5. J. VanderKam notes that «in the literature on Genesis 5 there is a well-established tradition which holds that P modeled his pre-flood genealogy on a Mesopotamian list of antediluvian kings, the so-called Sumerian King List».7 An intriguing character in the Sumerian King List is Enmeduranki (Enmeduranna), the king of Sippar, the city of the sun-god Shamash.8 In three copies of the List, he occupies the seventh place, which in the Genesis genealogy belongs to Enoch. Moreover, in other Mesopotamian sources Enmeduranki appears in many roles and situations which demonstrate remarkable similarities with Enoch’s story. VanderKam’s research shows that the priestly author responsible for the biblical portrayal of Enoch in Gen 5:21–24 was aware of these broader Mesopotamian traditions which served as a prototype for Enoch’s figure, whose symbolical age of 365 years reflects the link between the patriarch and the solar cult of Shamash. Scholars have convincingly demonstrated that Enmeduranki’s story was an important source for the biblical portrait of Enoch and for his portrayals in the earliest Enochic pseudepigrapha.9 VanderKam’s research demonstrated that the two texts, namely Gen 5:21–24 and the Astronomical Book, possibly the most ancient extant sources related to Enoch, have a strong connection with the Mesopotamian lore. He also remarks that later Enochic booklets became increasingly influenced by biblical and Hellenistic settings, and, therefore, primeval features of the Mesopotamian lore took there a new form.10 The Enmeduranki tradition was preserved in a number of texts, the most important of which is a tablet from Nineveh published by Wilfred Lambert which could be dated before 1100 B. C.11 The material is crucial for the current study. The text, taken from Lambert’s edition, reads as follows: VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, 26. GRELOT, «La légende d’Hénoch dans les apocryphes et dans la Bible: Origine et signification», 187. 9 VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition; K VANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic; J. Collins observes that «to a great extent he [Enoch] is modeled on the mythological figure of Enmeduranki, founder of the bârû guild of diviners and omen interpreters. The correspondences are already in evidence in Genesis». COLLINS, «The Sage in Apocalyptic and Pseudepigraphic Literature», 345. 10 VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, 189. 11 KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 190. 7 8

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1. Šamaš in Ebabbara [appointed] 2. Enmeduranki [king of Sippar], 3. the beloved of Anu, Enlil [and Ea]. 4. Šamaš and Adad [brought him in] to their assembly, 5. Šamaš and Adad [honored him], 6. Šamaš and Adad [set him] on a large throne of gold, 7. They showed him how to observe oil on water, a mystery of Anu, [Enlil and Ea], 8. They gave him the tablet of the gods, the liver, a secret of heaven and [underworld], 9. They put in his hand the cedar[-rod], beloved of the great gods. 10. Then he, in accordance with their [word(?)] brought 11. the men of Nippur, Sippar and Babylon into his presence, 12. and he honored them. He set them on thrones before [him], 13. he showed them how to observe oil on water, a mystery of Anu, Enlil and Ea, 14. He gave them the tablet of the gods, the liver, a secret of heaven and underworld, 15. He put in their hand the cedar[-rod], beloved of the great gods. 16. {The tablet of the gods, the liver, a mystery of heaven and underworld; 17. how to observe oil on water, a secret of Anu, Enlil and Ea; 18. «that with commentary», When Anu, Enlil; and how to make mathematical calculations.} 19. The learned savant, who guards the secrets of the great gods, 20. will bind his son whom he loves with an oath 21. before Šamaš and Adad by tablet and stylus and 22. will instruct him. When a diviner, 23. an expert in oil, of abiding descent, offspring of Enmeduranki, king of Sippar, 24. who set up the pure bowl and held the cedar[-rod], 25. a benediction priest of the king, a long-haired priest of Šamaš 26. as fashioned by Ninhursagga, 27. begotten by a niðakku-priest of pure descent: 28. if he is without blemish in body and limbs 29. he may approach the presence of Šamaš and Adad where liver inspection and oracle (take place).12 W. G. LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», Journal of Cuneiform Studies 21 (1967), 126–138, esp. 132. Another bit of evidence related to the Enmeduranki tradition is the first-person statement of Nebuchadnezzar I. The text can be dated to his reign between 1125 B. C. and 1104 B. C. The material demonstrates a number of parallels to the text from Nineveh. It reads as follows: «…king of Babylon who supervises all the cult-centers and confirms the regular offerings, am I, distant scion of kingship, seed preserved from before the flood, offspring of [Enmeduranki], king of Sippar, who set up the pure bowl and held the cedar-wood (rod), who sat in the presence of Shamash and Adad, the divine adjudicators, foremost son, [...], king of justice, reliable shepherd, who keeps the land’s foundations secure». LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 130. 12

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This text carries great weight in the investigation of the roles and titles of the seventh antediluvian hero for two reasons. First, it provides a valuable sketch of the roles of its main hero, the seventh antediluvian king Enmeduranki, roles this character has acquired during his interactions with human and divine beings in the terrestrial and celestial realms. Later analysis will show that Enmeduranki’s roles appear to be very similar to Enoch’s functions and duties as they are presented in the early Enochic traditions. Second, the tablet from Nineveh also reveals the seventh antediluvian hero’s earthly and celestial titles, attesting him as a «learned savant», a «diviner», a «priest», and a «guardian of secrets». Some of these appellations represent the earliest counterparts of the later titles of Enoch and Metatron in Jewish traditions. The analysis now proceeds to a close investigation of Enmeduranki’s roles and titles as they are attested in the tablet from Nineveh.

Enmeduranki as the Diviner Leo Oppenheim argues that the importance of divination in Mesopotamian culture(s) can be shown by the large number of the preserved omen collections; these collections range in time from the late Babylonian period up to the time of the Seleucid kings.13 Mesopotamian divination, in Oppenhem’s opinion, can be understood as «a technique of communication with the supernatural forces that are supposed to shape the history of the individual as well as that of the group».14 Divination presupposed the belief that these forces are able and sometimes willing to communicate their intentions since they are interested in the well-being of the individual or the group.15 The art of divination in the Mesopotamian religious environment was practiced by several groups of highly trained professionals. One of the most prominent and frequently mentioned groups is the bârû guild, a group of oracle-priests.16 James VanderKam suggests that the title of this enigmatic L. OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1964, 206. 14 OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 207. 15 Ibid. 16 On the bârû guild, see H. ZIMMERN, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion. Die Beschwörungstafeln šurpu. Ritualtafeln für den Wahrsager, Beschwörer, und Sänger, Leipzig 1896–1901 (Assyriologische Bibliothek, 12), 86–87; A. HALDAR, Associations of Cult Prophets Among the Ancient Semites, Uppsala: Almkwist & Wiksell, 1945, 1ff.; J. RENGER, «Untersuchungen zum Priestertum in der altbabylonischen Zeit», Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 59 (1969), 203–204; OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 212ff.; VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, 56; M. S. MOORE, The Balaam Traditions: Their Character and Development, Atlanta, GA, 1990 (Society of Biblical Literature / Dissertation Series, 113), 41–46. 13

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group derives from the Akkadian verb barû, which means «to see, to observe».17 Among the divination techniques used by the bârû practitioners are the observation of omens connected with the interpretations of configurations of oil in water, the patterns of rising smoke, the conditions of internal organs of sacrificial animals, and mantic dreams. The text from Nineveh refers to som e of these procedures often used in Mesopotamian divination such as lecanomancy, an observation of oil in water, and hepatoscopy, an inspection of the liver of the sacrificial animal. It also mentions another, apparently even more enigmatic technique involving the use of a cedar[-rod].18 References to these divinatory rites are repeated many times in the text, first as a special knowledge (a divine secret, «a mystery of Anu, Enlil and Ea») which was passed to Enmeduranki (or, literally, «shown [ušabrû] to him») by the deities Shamash and Adad,19 and then as the mysteries transmitted by Enmeduranki to some humans, including his son20 and then practiced routinely by diviners.21 The full meanings of these divinatory procedures as means of communication with the upper realm are shrouded in mystery. Mesopotamian sources, VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, 56. See also HALDAR, Associations of Cult Prophets, 1. Alfred Haldar observes that bârû is «usually interpreted “seer”, “visionary” in general, without reference to any special mode of divination». 18 Wilfred Lambert observes that it represents «an oftmentioned ritual appurtenance, the function of which is no longer understood». LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 127. For the possible meanings of this ritual, see E. J. WILSON, «A Note on the Use of erinnu in bârû-Rituals», Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 23 (1995), 95–98. See also ZIMMERN, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 533, n. 5. 19 vv. 7–8 «…They [Šamaš and Adad] showed him how to observe oil on water, a mystery of Anu, [Enlil and Ea], they gave him the tablet of the gods, the liver, a secret of heaven and [underworld]…». LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 132. 20 vv. 13–17 «…he showed them how to observe oil on water, a mystery of Anu, Enlil and Ea, he gave them the tablet of the gods, the liver, a secret of heaven and underworld, he put in their hand the cedar[-rod], beloved of the great gods. The tablet of the gods, the liver, a mystery of heaven and underworld; how to observe oil on water, a secret of Anu, Enlil and Ea…». LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 132. 21 vv. 22–29 «…When a diviner, an expert in oil, of abiding descent, offspring of Enmeduranki, king of Sippar, who set up the pure bowl and held the cedar[-rod], a benediction priest of the king, a long-haired priest of Shamash as fashioned by Ninhursagga, begotten by a niðakku-priest of pure descent if he is without blemish in body and limbs he may approach the presence of Shamash and Adad where liver inspection and oracle (take place)». LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 132. 17

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however, give at least some hints about how the external side of these procedures was carried out. During the lecanomancy procedure, a diviner, a bârû practitioner, normally poured oil in a bowl of water held on his lap.22 The movements of oil in water, in its relation to the surface of the bowl and its rim, and the formation and the color of oil were then interpreted23 in relation to the appropriate political, military or personal situations.24 Hepatoscopy was an attempt to communicate with the deity through the medium of the body of an animal slaughtered for this purpose.25 Usually the hepatoscopy ritual was a part of a more complex rite of extispicy in which several animal organs, including the windpipe, the lungs, the liver (considered the seat of the soul),26 and the gall bladder were explored. The bârû practitioner normally began the ritual by petitioning the oracle gods, Shamash and Adad, asking them to inscribe their message upon the entrails of the animal. Then, through the exploration of the inner parts of the animal, the diviner made predictions «based on atrophy, hypertrophy, displacement, special markings, and other abnormal features of the organs».27 Leo Oppenheim observes that early Mesopotamian hepatoscopy apparently was a technique of a binary, yes-or-no level. Numerous models of the liver made of clay found on various Mesopotamian sites point to the popularity of this technique in the cultures of this region.28 Michael Moore observes that generally the ritual of extispicy was so expensive that only royal persons and nobles could afford it. It was also regarded as the most reliable divinatory technique and was often employed as a check on all others.29 OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 212. One of the Mesopotamian texts cited by Michael Moore provides an example of such interpretation: «If the oil divides into two; for a campaign, the two camps will advance against each other; for treating a sick man, he will die. If the flour, in the east, takes the shape of a lion’s face, the man is in the grip of a ghost of one who lies in the open country; the sun will consign it (the host) to the wind and he will get well». Moore, The Balaam Traditions: Their Character and Development, 43. 24 OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 212; ID., The Interpretation of the Dreams in the Ancient Near East, with a Translation of an Assyrian Dream-Book (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 46.3; Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1956), 242. 25 OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 212. 26 HALDAR, Associations of Cult Prophets, 6; G. CONTENAU, La divination chez les Assyriens et les Babyloniens, Paris: Payot, 1940, 235ff. 27 OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 212. 28 MOORE, The Balaam Traditions: Their Character and Development, 42. 29 MOORE, The Balaam Traditions: Their Character and Development, 42. See also J. NOUGAYROL, «La divination babylonienne», in: A. CAQUOT — M. LEIBOVICI (eds.), La Divination, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1968, 25–81, esp. 38. 22 23

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A significant feature of the tablet from Nineveh is that Enmeduranki acquired his expertise in the divinatory arts directly from Shamash and Adad. Both of these deities are traditionally associated with knowledge of divination and are sometimes called «lords of oracles». More commonly, Shamash is referred to as the «lord of decisions» and Adad as the «lord of the oracle/ omen».30

Enmeduranki as the Expert in Secrets In the previous section it was pointed out that the text from Nineveh refers to particular knowledge about the divinatory procedures transmitted to Enmeduranki in the course of his visitation of the divine assembly. It is intriguing that when the tablet from Nineveh refers to this divinatory knowledge, it uses vocabulary that specifically stresses the esoteric character of the information which the seventh antediluvian king received during his initiations in the celestial realm. Before proceeding to a close analysis of this distinct terminology, I must make general comments about Enmeduranki’s initiation into celestial knowledge. First, some attention must be paid to the level of initiation. The text stresses that Enmeduranki enjoys special relationships with three chief gods — Anu, Enlil and Ea. He is defined as their «beloved» (narâmu), an important title which signals the particular type of relationship between the initiate and the deities.31 It is noteworthy that he was brought (ðûrubu) to the inner circle of the celestial community (the divine assembly) by gods themselves, namely the deities responsible for natural phenomena — the solar deity Shamash and deity of weather Adad. The reference to the deities of luminaries and weather anticipates here the later Enochic legends in which the seventh antediluvian hero is initiated by the angel Uriel into astronomical and meteorological lore.32 A second significant detail of Enmeduranki’s initiation is that the hero is described as the one who has a seat («a large throne of gold») in heaven, which indicates his elevated status and possibly a newly acquired celestial

VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, 58. Later rabbinic materials often apply this title to Enoch. Thus Peshikta de Rav Kahana defines Enoch as «beloved». In Midrash Ha-Gadol Enoch is defined as the «Beloved Seventh». 32 James VanderKam traces another similarity with the Enochic tradition. He observes that Enoch’s entry into God’s throne room in chapter 14 of the Book of the Watchers «is reminiscent of Enmeduranki’s admission to the presence of Shamash and Adad, but, while the ancient king there learned divinatory techniques, Enoch is told in a forthright way (though in a dream — a common mantic medium) what will befall the angels who had sinned». VANDERKAM, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, 131. 30 31

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rank of the initiate. Kvanvig observes in relation to this detail that the fact that Enmeduranki «is seated on a golden throne among the gods … must mean that he was included in their assembly».33 A third significant feature is that the knowledge Enmeduranki received in the assembly of the gods is explicitly labeled as esoteric: the text refers to the «secrets» and «mysteries» acquired by the seventh antediluvian king. This terminology is applied to the knowledge about the divinatory procedures, the rituals of lecanomancy and hepatoscopy.34 In the text the phrase «how to observe oil on water» is followed by the expression «a mystery (nis³irtu)35 of Anu, Enlil and Ea» and the phrase «the tablet of the gods, the liver» (which possibly refers to a tablet of liver omens36 ) is followed by the expression «a secret (pirištu)37 of heaven and earth». Both clauses are repeated later in verses 13–14 and 16–17. In verses 16–17 the words «mystery» and «secrets» have changed places: «a mystery of heaven and underworld» and «a secret of Anu, Enlil and Ea», indicating that both terms are used interchangeably by the authors (or editors) of the text.38 Several words should be said about the tablet (t³uppu) first identified as «a secret of heaven and underworld» (vv. 8 and 14) and later as «a mystery of heaven and underworld» (v. 16). Helge Kvanvig observes that the language of the tablet emphasizes the esoteric character of the divine wisdom revealed to Enmeduranki, reinforced by such terms as nis³irtu (mystery) and purištu (secret).39 The esoteric character of the knowledge received by Enmeduranki and then transmitted to the bârû guild is also underscored in the text by a reference to the oath which precedes the king’s instructions to his son. Another important detail of the tradition about the tablet that might point to the content of this esoteric knowledge is the juxtaposition of the terms «secrets» and «mysteries» with the phrases «heaven and underworld» or «heaven and earth». Kvanvig points out that both phrases possibly have cosmological meaning.40 Intended to describe the totality of creation, this terminoloKVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 187. Alfred Haldar observes that «the secret of divination is thus to be regarded as a secret knowledge confined to the priesthood and in which the uninitiated could have no share». HALDAR, Associations of Cult Prophets, 4. 35 Helge Kvanvig clarifies that this term means literally «that which is protected». KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 188. 36 KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 187. 37 Literally this term means «that which is separated». KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 188. 38 KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 188. 39 Ibid. 40 Kvanvig points out that the phrase rendered in the Lambert’s translation as a «secret of heaven and underworld» can also be translated as a «secret of heaven and earth». KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 188. 33 34

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gy can also be related to cosmogonic and creational concepts. The identification of the secrets with cosmological knowledge recalls 2 Enoch, where the notion of secrets is applied solely to the mysteries of God’s creation. The reference to the tablet which crosses the boundaries between heaven and earth in the Nineveh text anticipates later traditions about the celestial tablets found in various Enochic materials. Pierre Grelot points to the terminological similarities between Enoch’s heavenly tablets and Enmeduranki’s tablets representing the mystery of «heaven and earth» and argues that «Enmeduranki knows “the secret of Anu, of Bel and of Ea” only because Shamash and Adad have delivered unto him “the tablet of the gods, the tablet of the mystery of heaven and earth”; and here one easily recognizes the prototype of the “heavenly tablets” communicated to Enoch».41 Finally, a remark must be made about Enmeduranki’s titles that the text brings up in conjunction with his expertise in esoteric knowledge. The text from Nineveh defines him as «the learned savant, who guards the secrets of the great gods». Kvanvig observes that this phrase reveals the seventh antediluvian king in at least two roles which appear to be closely interconnected. Enmeduranki is described first as a «learned savant» (ummânu mûdu) and second as the «guardian (lit. «guarding») of the secrets (nâsir pirišti) of the great gods».42 The latter title is especially important for this investigation since it establishes a definite background for the future patriarch’s role as an expert in secrets in the Enochic tradition and his designation as Myzr (dwy (Knower of Secrets) in the Metatron lore.43 The dissemination of esoteric information will remain one of the major functions of the seventh patriarch in various Enochic traditions which depict him sharing astronomical, meteorological, calendarical, and eschatological knowledge with his sons and other people during his short visit to earth. Knowledge of secrets will also play a significant part in Metatron’s duties in the Merkabah tradition where he will be responsible for transmitting the highest secrets to the Princes under him, as well as to humankind.

Enmeduranki as the Mediator On closer examination of the structure of the text from Nineveh, a significant characteristic of this narrative stands out: the tablet emphasizes not only what happened to Enmeduranki in the celestial realm but also what he 41 GRELOT, «La légende d’Hénoch dans les apocryphes et dans la Bible: Origine et signification», 15. 42 KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 188. 43 John Collins notes that «Enoch’s role as revealer is … illuminated by the parallel with Enmeduranki. The Sumerian king was admitted into the divine assembly and shown mysteries that included the tablets of heaven and the techniques of divination». COLLINS, Seers, Sybils and Sages in Hellenistic-Roman Judaism, 45.

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did upon his return to earth. The multiple references to his earthly instructions to the people and to his son stress this concern of the authors or editors of the account. The text therefore makes explicit that one of the most important functions of the initiated Enmeduranki is transmission of the knowledge that he received from the deities to inhabitants of the terrestrial realm. This account of the mediation of knowledge is similar to later Enochic traditions. Just like Enmeduranki, who transmitted knowledge to the people of Nippur, Sippar and Babylon and to his son, Enoch later would share the esoteric lore that he received from Uriel and God with humans and with his son Methuselah. Both traditions stress the pattern of mediation (Deity/angels — Enmeduranki/Enoch — people/son) in which Enmeduranki/Enoch occupies the pivotal role of a middleman. In the text from Nineveh, the instructions given to Enmeduranki by the deities have a literary content and form identical to the revelations dispatched by Enmeduranki later to the people of Nippur, Sippar and Babylon: vv. 7–9 …They [deities] showed him [Enmeduranki] how to observe oil on water, a mystery of Anu, [Enlil and Ea], they gave him the tablet of the gods, the liver, a secret of heaven and [underworld], they put in his hand the cedar[-rod], beloved of the great gods… vv. 13–15 …he [Enmeduranki] showed them [people of Nippur, Sippar and Babylon] how to observe oil on water, a mystery of Anu, Enlil and Ea, he gave them the tablet of the gods, the liver, a secret of heaven and underworld, he put in their hand the cedar[-rod], beloved of the great gods…44 Helge Kvanvig observes that these two sections are deliberately set in parallel in order to emphasize the authority of the divinatory knowledge that was received from the gods in the heavenly assembly.45 The exact parallelism also stresses that the content of the knowledge transmitted to the bârû guild is precisely the same as the knowledge into which Enmeduranki was initiated by the gods. The text shows that Enmeduranki’s mediation is multifaceted and executed not only through a set of oral and written communication, but also through the establishment of distinct social and religious structures. It is noteworthy that Enmeduranki’s instructions in the divinatory rituals to the people were preceded by the establishment of social settings («He set them on thrones before [him]») that mirror the social structure of the divine assembly. This detail was probably intended to stress the fact that the dispatching of esoteric information necessarily involves fixed hierarchical settings. The text also highlights the importance of the initiatory oath preceding the earthly initiation, since Enmeduranki «will bind his son whom he loves with an oath», and only after that he «will instruct him». 44 45

LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 132. KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 186.

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Finally, for this section, a comment should be made on the references to the tablet(s) found in the Nineveh text and their mediating role in the process of the transmission of the knowledge. The text mentions the tablet several times, treating it as an object given to Enmeduranki by the deities in the celestial realm and then dispatched by the seventh antediluvian hero to the bârû guild and to his son. This tablet is a medium that has the capacity to cross the boundaries between the upper and lower realms, as well as the boundaries of the generations. This two-fold function of the tablet as the instrument able to bridge the vertical (heavenly and celestial) and horizontal (antediluvian and postdiluvian) gaps makes it possible for it to remain a pivotal symbol of mediation prominent in the Mesopotamian and Enochic traditions. Kvanvig, after meticulously examining the similarities between the imagery of the heavenly tablet(s) in the Nineveh text and in early Enochic materials (1 Enoch 81 and the Epistle of Enoch), demonstrated that despite the different provenance of these traditions, their concepts of the tablet(s) exhibit striking parallels not only in general ideas but also in technical terminology.46

Enmeduranki as the Scribe The references to the tablets in the text from Nineveh mentioned above help us clarify another role of the seventh antediluvian hero that occupies a prominent place in the early Enochic traditions. This is the role of a scribe whose writings are predestined to cross the boundaries between the celestial and the earthly realms. Although the text from Nineveh does not explicitly label Enmeduranki as a scribe, several details of the king’s description in this narrative seem to point to his connection to the scribal profession. The first hint comes from the references to the celestial tablets that Enmeduranki receives in the assembly of gods. Pierre Grelot, in the section of his study dedicated to Enoch’s scribal duties, observes that the «tablet of the gods, a secret of heaven and earth» recalls the celestial tablets given later to the patriarch Enoch.47 The imagery of the celestial and terrestrial tablets looms large in early Enochic materials and in some of them is directly linked with Enoch’s scribal duties. Thus, 4Q203 8 refers to a «copy of the seco[n]d tablet of [the] le[tter...] by the hand of Enoch, the distinguished scribe…».48 The imagery of the tablet is combined here with the patriarch’s title «distinguished scribe» ()#rp rpI). The passage, however, is very fragmentary and proKVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 76–79, 240–241. GRELOT, «La légende d’Hénoch dans les apocryphes et dans la Bible: Origine et signification», 15. 48 F. GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ — E. J. C. TIGCHELAAR (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, Leiden — New York — Köln 1997, vol. 1, 411. 46 47

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vides little information about the tablet. More extended evidence is preserved in 1 Enoch 81:1–6, where the motif of the celestial tablets coincides with two other themes: the patriarch’s instructions to his son and Enoch’s scribal activities. In this passage the patriarch, after reading the tablets in the upper realm, is brought by angels to the earth to instruct his son Methuselah and copy for him the content of the celestial tablets: And he said to me: «O Enoch, look at the book of the tablets of heaven, and read what is written upon them, and note every individual fact». And I looked at everything in the tablets of heaven, and I read everything which was written, and I noted everything… And these three holy ones brought me, and set me on the earth before the door of my house, and said to me: «Tell everything to your son Methuselah… For one year we will leave you with your children, until you have regained your strength, that you may teach your children, and write (these things) down for them, and testify to all your children».49 The passage deals with three significant motifs: the celestial tablets, the instruction of Methuselah on earth, and Enoch’s duties as the scribe who writes down the content of the tablets. An almost identical cluster of motifs is discernable in the pericope found in the text from Nineveh. Verses 19–22 describe Enmeduranki instructing his son in the divine secrets and then transferring to him a tablet and a stylus, the tools of the scribal profession: «the learned savant, who guards the secrets of the great gods, will bind his son whom he loves with an oath before Shamash and Adad by tablet and stylus and will instruct him».50 In these two strikingly similar accounts that deal with the initiation of the visionary’s son, one detail should be noted: in both accounts the visionaries appear to be associated with the scribal profession. In the Enochic text it is made obvious by the explicit reference to the patriarch's writing activities, and in the Mesopotamian text by the implicit reference to a stylus, a scribal tool.51 This is supported further by the fact that in the Babylonian text the stylus is also tied to the role of the main character as the transmitter of esoteric knowledge to humans and particularly to his son. As will be shown later, in the Enochic writings three prominent roles of the patriarch as the scribe, the expert in secrets, and the mediator between the human and the divine realms also often appear together. The same cluster seems also observable in the tablet from Nineveh.

KNIBB, The Ethiopic Book of Enoch, 186f. LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 132. 51 The reference to the stylus in this context might not only point to the scribal duties of the seventh antediluvian king but also show him in the role of initiating his son in the scribal activities. 49 50

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Enmeduranki as the Priest As in the case with Enmeduranki’s scribal role, only implicitly hinted at in the tablet from Nineveh, the discernment of his association with priestly duties also requires a certain exegetical effort. Before I engage in such an effort, however, I must briefly remark on the sacerdotal affiliations of the bârû practitioners. Alfred Haldar observes that «according to well-known King Enmeduranki tradition, the bârû priesthood originated in Sippar … where the primeval King Enmeduranki … received from Shamash and Adad the tablet of the Gods… Afterwards he caused the priests to enter [into the divination chamber?] and gave them the tablet…».52 The bârû guild was a priestly group that attached great importance to ritualistic purity. In connection with the bârû, Haldar notes that «in order to approach the deity the priest had to be pure, ellu (i. e. holy); and this qualification was not acquired once and for all by initiation, but had to be renewed every time the priest was to officiate».53 The priestly affiliation of the group is also hinted at in the requirement that the bârû practitioner had to be free from certain blemishes. Mesopotamian texts warn that one «with defective eyes, or with a maimed finger shall not draw near to the place for deciding via bârûtu».54 These disqualifications bear some similarities to the priestly regulations found in Leviticus. One can see, however, that the bârû priesthood was different from the later Israelite priestly models attested in the biblical texts. Since the primary function of the bârû priests was to foretell the future, i. e., discern by various means the will of the gods, they can be also viewed, using Oppenheim’s terminology, as oracle-priests.55 The purpose of this excursus into the priestly features of the bârû group was to show that this guild was viewed as a sacerdotal organization bound by distinctive rules of purity. Their rituals involving sacrificial animals during the extispicy rites also might point to their priestly affiliation.56 Keeping in mind the priestly function of the bârû, this investigation must now return to the tablet from Nineveh. As mentioned earlier, this text starts HALDAR, Associations of Cult Prophets, 1. HALDAR, Associations of Cult Prophets, 2. 54 MOORE, The Balaam Traditions, 42. 55 OPPENHEIM, The Interpretation of the Dreams in the Ancient Near East, 221. The divinatory angle of bârû priesthood is also stressed by Pierre Grelot who remarks that «the hereditary priesthood founded at Sippar is envisaged, therefore, essentially from the divinatory viewpoint, that of knowing the secrets of the gods, transmitted to humans by way of the oracles». GRELOT, «La légende d’Hénoch dans les apocryphes et dans la Bible: Origine et signification», 8. 56 H. W. F. SAGGS, The Greatness That Was Babylon: A Sketch of the Ancient Civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1962, 347f. 52 53

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with the statement that explicitly identifies the seventh antediluvian king of Sippar with the cult of the solar deity Shamash and his prominent ancient temple Ebabbara situated in Sippar. The tablet states that Enmeduranki was appointed by the solar deity Shamash in his temple Ebabbarra (the house of the rising sun). It does not, however, directly refer to Enmeduranki’s priestly duties in the temple or name him as a priest of Shamash. The motif of Shamash’s priesthood nevertheless appears in the last section of the text (vv. 22–29). Here the «offspring of Enmeduranki» is defined as a «long-haired priest» who «may approach the presence of Shamash and Adad»: When a diviner, an expert in oil, of abiding descent, offspring of Enmeduranki, king of Sippar, who set up the pure bowl and held the cedar[-rod], a benediction priest of the king, a long-haired priest of Šamaš as fashioned by Ninhursagga, begotten by a nišakku-priest of pure descent: if he is without blemish in body and limbs he may approach the presence of Šamaš and Adad where liver inspection and oracle (take place).57 Helge Kvanvig observes that in this section of the text the ancestry and the legitimacy of the priesthood are traced to the seventh antediluvian king since the tablet indicates that «the process of transmission will continue in the line of priestly descendants from Enmeduranki58 until the priesthood at the time of the author».59 The idea that Enmeduranki’s initiation into the assembly of the gods might mark the beginning of the priestly line is significant for a possible association of the king with the priestly office. In this context one important detail must be mentioned. Line 29 of the tablet from Nineveh depicts a priest without «blemish in body and limbs» approaching the presence (maòar) of Shamash and Adad. The reference to the «presence» (maòar) is intriguing since it recalls the exact terminology used earlier in the text in describing Enmeduranki’s approach to the presence of both deities in the celestial realm. Similarly in the text cited above, Enmeduranki is depicted as the one «who sat in the presence (maòar) of Shamash and Adad, the divine adjudicators».60 In view of these parallels it is possible that Enmeduranki might have been considered by the authors of the tablet as a celestial model for the earthly priesthood who, in the distant past, entered for the first time the presence of LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 132. Pierre Grelot stresses the «liturgical» character of the teaching of the seventh antediluvian hero which he transmits to his sons: «… ainsi initié aux fonctions divinatoires du sacerdoce, il y consacre ses fils à leur tour et leur enseigne les formules liturgiques». GRELOT, «La légende d'Hénoch dans les apocryphes et dans la Bible: Origine et signification», 8. 59 KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 188. 60 LAMBERT, «Enmeduranki and Related Matters», 128 and 130. 57 58

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Shamash and Adad in the celestial realm. In this context the terrestrial priesthood can be seen as the counterpart of this celestial prototype. This possibility is supported by several scholarly suggestions that the text from Nineveh claims that the present priests are physical descendants of the primeval king Enmeduranki.61 This concept of the sacerdotal pedigree parallels the later Enochic traditions attested in 2 Enoch,62 which construe the earthly priestly line as physical descendants of the seventh antediluvian patriarch.

SUMMARY In view of the importance of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch for a number of fields of Oriental Studies, and as a contribution to the ongoing discussion about the reasons for the preservation of this book in the Ethiopian tradition, the article focuses on a possible prototype of Enoch’s figure reflected in the Mesopotamian lore about the mythical King Enmenduranki, depicted there as a diviner, an expert in secrets, a mediator between gods and humans, a scribe, and a priest. The story of Enmenduranki and his functions are investigated on the basis of a tablet from Nineveh, one of the most important documents of the Enmeduranki’s tradition, dated prior to 1100 B.C. The article discusses the cultural context of Mesopotamia during the second millennium B.C., where the Enmeduranki’s tradition was originated.

KVANVIG, Roots of Apocalyptic, 186. It is intriguing that 2 Enoch 59 depicts the patriarch as the one who instructs his sons in the sacrificial halakot pertaining to the priestly rituals. 61 62

Richard Pankhurst Addis Ababa

THE SHORT-LIVED NEWSPAPER ABYSSINIA (1935ñ1936): A MEMORY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, on 3 October 1935, was important not only for the two protagonists, but also for the wider international community. Insight into the impact of the conflict on the League of Nations, and on public opinion in its principal member state, Great Britain, can be seen in the pages of a today little-known newspaper entitled Abyssinia.1 This publication, which ran for a little short of four months, but achieved a circulation of no less than 90,000 copies a week, was one of the first to be devoted — even though tangentially — to Ethiopia, and deserves a place in the history of political literature on the country. The newspaper was issued by the principal — and very prestigious — British non-governmental internationalist association: the League of Nations Union, which had been founded after World War I to rally support for the then new League of Nations. The Union, since 1920, had published a monthly promotional newspaper entitled Headway, which bore the self explicatory sub-title «The Journal of the League of Nations Union». Faced with the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia at the beginning of October 1935, which was to test the League of Nations to breaking point, the Union on 23 October issued a special 4-page supplement to Headway. Entitled Enforcing Peace, it was enFor the background to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia see ANGELO DEL BOCA, The Ethiopian War 1935–1941, Chicago and London 1965; and ANTHONY MOCKLER, Haile Selassie’s War, London 1984. On British public opinion towards the war see GAETANO SALVEMINI, Prelude to World War II, London 1953; FRANK HARDIE, The Abyssinian Crisis, London 1974; DANIEL WALEY, British Opinion and the Abyssinian War 1935–1936, London 1975; RICHARD PANKHURST, Sylvia Pankhurst: Counsel for Ethiopia a Biographical Essay on Ethiopian, Anti-Fascist and Anti-Colonial History 1934–1960, Hollywood, California, 2003; and INALCO (ed.), La guerre d’Ethiopie et l’opinion mondiale 1934–1941, Paris 1986. On the history of the Ethiopian and related press see RICHARD PANKHURST, «The History of Education, Printing, Newspapers, Book Production, Libraries and Literacy in Ethiopia», Ethiopia Observer 6 (1962), 321–389; and RICHARD PANKHURST, «“Correspondance d’Ethiopie”: The History of a Pro-Ethiopian Newspaper (1926–1933)», in: VERENA BÖLL — DENIS NOSNITSIN — THOMAS RAVE — WOLBERT SMIDT — EVGENIA SOKOLINSKAIA (eds.), Studia Aethiopica. In Honour of Siegbert Uhlig on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Wiesbaden 2004, 203–219. 1

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visaged as a weekly newspaper, but only one issue in fact appeared, for it was replaced, on 20 November, by a supplement with the entirely different name Abyssinia. This latter publication, with which we are here concerned, appeared weekly, and, like its short-lived predecessor, ran to four pages. Produced in the flush of popular British anti-war enthusiasm it was given what was to turn out the over-optimistic sub-title A Weekly Newspaper of the League of Nations in Action [sic]. It was from the bibliographical point of view somewhat bizarrely referred to as «No. 2» (being in effect treated as a sequel to the earlier one-issue supplement Enforcing Peace). Efforts were made to give the new publication a large and influential readership. An advertisement in the paper stated that copies would be posted free-of charge to anyone so requesting. The newspaper Abyssinia, despite its title, published virtually no information about the history, economy, politics or culture of that country, and nothing on the Fascist military operations therein. The paper, as perhaps befitted an organ of the League of Nations Union, confined itself to defending the League’s action (or inaction) in relation to the invasion — and devoted much of its attention to the question of League of Nations Sanctions against the aggressor, Italy. Sanctions were then of major international interest, the more so as they had up to that time had never been applied. Defence of the League also led the paper on occasion into discussions on the question of Ethiopian slavery, which the Italian Government used as a justification, or excuse, for its invasion. Curiously, in view of the publication’s pro-Ethiopian stance, no mention was made of the invader’s use of mustard gas, though this had by then been widely reported in the British and international press. The scope and character of the paper was laid down in its first issue, for 20 November, which carried a front-page article entitled «Peace and the Parties», by the Union’s President, Viscount Cecil, in which he declared that the «Abyssinian crisis» was «far from over». Writing in the aftermath of a British General Election, which had returned a large Conservative majority, he warned that pledges issued at such times were «not always kept», and argued that there was therefore «no time to rest», for «the price of peace, no less than liberty», was «eternal vigilance». A further article on «Sanctions in Force» argued that 15 November of that year (1935) was «a crucial date» in the history of the League, for it was «the first time» that member states were «required to fulfil their obligations» by taking «drastic action against a Great Power [i. e. Italy] guilty of aggression». The article went on to assert that no fewer than 53 states had agreed to impose Sanctions. Another article, entitled «The Right Answer» (which was continued in the next issue) addressed itself to various points which «puzzle[d] the man in the street». The article thus sought to dispel such doubts as whether Sanctions against Italy would lead to a European war, or prove a greater burden on Britain than on Italy. A final article in that first issue, headed «The Fascist Considers Life as Battle», quo-

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%$ted from several of Mussolini’s more reactionary and belligerent speeches: one proclaimed that the entire history of man was the history of the «progressive limitation of liberty», while another declared that «all the world must recognise the will and spirit of fascist Italy». The second issue of Abyssinia, which was dated 27 November, further developed the League case for Sanctions. The paper thus reproduced the text of a speech which Anthony Eden, the British Minister for League of Nations Affairs, had delivered to the League of Nations Union. In it he argued that «for the first time in history fifty nations have undertaken collective action» — through Sanctions; and had thus committed themselves to «a new peace system for the world». Abyssinia, as a propaganda organ of the League of Nations Union, never expressly criticised the limited, and, as many would argue, ineffective, character of the League’s Sanctions, but urged, in a more positive and constructive vein, that they should be extended of to include petrol. This was emphatically urged in the ensuing article which bore telling title «No War Without Oil. Embargo Would Stop the Italian Advance». The case for Sanctions was driven home by W. Arnold Foster, a prominent supporter of the Union, who declared that Sanctions were «a Necessary Part of the Price of Peace». Support for the League, and for the principle of Collective Security against Aggression, was voiced in the issue of 4 December, which carried a frontpage article by the Archbishop of York, William Temple. Declaring it God’s will that the nations of the world should collaborate together in the cause of peace, he argued that the choice before mankind was one, as the title of his article put it, between «Fear and Uncertainty or Safety and Enterprise?» Advocacy of the League led the periodical Abyssinia into a vigorous rebuttal of Italian propaganda, which was then widely distributed in Britain and other Western countries. A two-page article, entitled «What Italy Says — and the Answer», which also appeared on 4 December, drew attention to the fact that such propaganda was «busy in Great Britain», and that it was «not always evident» who inspired or paid for many accounts of Ethiopian «barbarism», and of Italy’s supposed «civilising» efforts in Africa. Reverting to the League policy a more speculative article by the French intellectual Andre Maurois asked readers to «suppose» the League had existed at the time of the beginning of World War I in 1914, and concluded that «though not certain ... it was at least probable that war might have been averted». A further article in the same issue enthusiastically reported that the British Government had decided, on 2 December, that an «Oil Ban Will be Enforced». By the second week of December 1935 it was becoming apparent that Sanctions were failing, that the Italians had retained the military initiative, and that the British and French Governments were beginning to consider a «compromise peace» — which would probably in fact constitute a surrender to Italy. To forestall any such move Professor Gilbert Murray, the League of Union’s chairman, wrote a front page article in Abyssinia on 11 December entitled, «The authority of the

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League Must be Vindicated». He urged that Italy, as «a great Power» must not be allowed to «destroy the League system». Other potentially aggressor powers were «watching», he declared, with a view to emulating Mussolini’s policy of aggression, and «if Italy defeated the League» the damage might be «practicably irreparable». The paper also ran a news item entitled «Britain Leads the World: Country Supports Government in Full League Policy». In support of this optimistic statement the article quoted a then famous statement by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, to the effect that his country’s support for the League was «no variable and unreliable sentiment but a principle of international conduct» to which his government held with «firm, enduring and universal persistence». A final article in the same issue rebutted further Italian propaganda on the Ethiopian war, by quoting from some of Mussolini’s more bellicose speeches. The League of Nations Union, and its newspaper Abyssinia, was deeply shocked, like British public opinion in general, by the Hoare-Laval Plan for a «compromise peace», which was leaked to the European press on 9 and 10 December 1935. The paper at once responded, on 18 December, by publishing a long article by one of the plan’s most bitter critics, Vyvyan Adams MP, who announced his intention to move a motion in the British House of Commons to the effect that «this House will not assent to any settlement of the Italo-Ethiopian dispute which ignores our International Obligations under the Covenant of the League of Nations by granting the aggressor State greater concessions after its unprovoked aggression than could have been obtained by peaceful negotiations». An accompanying map showed that the plan would have in one way or another given Italy virtually half of Ethiopia. Publicity was also given, in the same issue, to a leading article in The Times, which put the main blame for the pact on the French Government. The article further declared that opposition to the plan was «accurately reflected» throughout the British press, for it reached newspaper offices «by letter and telegram», was «heard in the lobbies of Parliament, in the constituencies, in the City, and indeed wherever men meet». It was the Government’s duty to establish, The Times insisted, that «aggression does not pay». Sir Samuel Hoare, as result of the great surge of public indignation described in the paper, was obliged to resign, on 19 December 1935. Support for the extension of Sanctions to include oil meanwhile continued to be voiced in Abyssinia with increasing urgency. The issue for 8 January 1936, thus bore the banner heading, «Oil Must Be Banned. A Challenge the League Dare Not Evade», and declared, «The world must face the oil challenge ... Italy ... needs oil in vast quantities to move much of her sea transport, and all her supply lorries, her armoured cars, her tanks, her aeroplanes...» As the paper nevertheless noted, Sir Samuel Hoare in his resignation speech mentioned that Mussolini had said that «Italy would regard the oil embargo as a military sanction or an act involving war against them». This

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contention was rejected in an accompanying article which claimed that the fears of Hoare and Laval were «groundless», for Britain would not «stand alone ... should Italy decide to attack her for daring to apply economic sanctions decided upon by the League». International tensions were growing. The issue of Abyssinia for 15 January 1936 thus bore an opening article entitled «The League defends the Victim», which sought to justify the precautionary despatch by the British of warships, planes and men to the Mediterranean. No less important was an article on «The Meaning of American Neutrality», which once again reiterated the importance of applying Sanctions to oil, and concluded: «the objects of the United States and the objects of the League are not opposed [to each other]. The President is being given powers which will enable him to restrict American shipments of oil to Italy to normal peace-time quantities. He will use those powers». A final article in the same issue was almost the first to consider the character of the Italo-Ethiopian war as such. Entitled «A Long War is a Cruel War», the paper declared that «Every week men are mutilated and killed ... Every week the struggle grows more desperate». Elaborating on this argument the article — whose author was either badly informed or giving way to wishful thinking — claimed that «hints» were «being heard» that the Italian aggression had «definitely failed», and that Italian power was «visibly crumpling up». The time had therefore come, the article argued, for the Oil Sanction, which would not only «save the people of Abyssinia», but «avert the imposition of misery» on that of Italy. The issue of Abyssinia for 22 January carried an important speech to his constituents by Anthony Eden, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in which he emphasised two «essential» points for the League. The first was, that «aggression should not be allowed to succeed». The second was, that League members, acting together, should bring it home to any would-be aggressor, that «peaceful negotiation and not aggression» was «not the best, but the only successful means of removing discontents». A further article, entitled «World Power Must Assume World Leadership», declared that although the League was «a true democracy of nations», more was in fact expected from Britain as its strongest member. Similar views were expounded in the newspaper’s issue for 29 January, which commemorated the accession of the new King, Edward VIII, who, it declared, «Faces a Great Task and a Great Opportunity», and whose country faced the need «to adjust herself to her place in a new world order so that she may play there a part worthy of herself». Turning to real issues the paper appealed in a two-page article for «No More Delays», for «All League Members», it claimed, were «Agreed: Italy’s Oil Shipments Must Be Stopped». Evidence that the views of the League of Nations Union were not universally accepted, even in Britain, was provided in the same issue, which published an article asking the question «Is Italy Right?» — to which two very different replies were, sur-

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prisingly, afforded. The first, by the radical but on this issue quirky, playwright George Bernard Shaw, argued that the struggle was between Italy, «a modern civilised State», and «the barbarism of the Danakil». The second reply, by the pacifist author Sir Norman Angell, argued for the settlement of disputes, not by force of arms, but by the arbitration of third parties. Advocacy of the League as the sole means of preserving peace was likewise expounded in the paper’s issue for 5 February. It reproduced the text of an important speech by the South African premier General Jan Christian Smuts, in which he declared that «War Talk», by the Italians, was «Mainly Bluff», and called on his compatriots to «Be Strong and Stand Fast», for «The Only Security in the World [lay] In the League». Defending the League’s support for Ethiopia as the victim of aggression, the paper also published a forceful article which with the title «Italy says: she fighting against slavery. The facts tell a different story». The article argued that Italy had «not attacked Abyssinia because Abyssinia is a slave-trading society». This conclusion was reinforced in a further article entitled «The Fight against the Red Sea Slave Trade», which quoted eye-witness observers, who reported the export of slaves, as well as brutal floggings, in nearby Italian colony of Eritrea. A final article in the same issue happily reported that the Legaue had «decided in principle» that Sanctions should include oil. The importance of an Oil Embargo was once more reiterated by Abyssinia in its issue for 12 February, which bore the dramatic heading «League Should Ban Oil Now», and for the first time published an official statement from the League of Nations Union’s Excessive Committee. It declared that the Committee had: «never altered its opinion that States members of the League ought to withhold from the Covenant-breaking State [i. e. Italy] all supplies of petroleum and its derivatives...». «That the population of a member State should be bombed by aeroplanes supplied with oil fuel purchased from other States members of the League is itself a breach of Article Sixteen [of the League Covenant] and constitutes a deplorable travesty of the Covenant». A further article in the same issue reiterated that Italy had «not attacked Abyssinia because Abyssinia is a slave-owning and slave-trading country», but because «Italy was for conquest». The question of Oils Sanctions received even greater attention in the issue of 19 February 1936, which explained that Italy was then purchasing 4,000,000 tons of oil a year, the greater part of it from Rumania and the USSR, followed by the Netherlands, Iran and the USA. An Oil Embargo by League members and the USA, it was argued, «would end the war in four months». This thesis was reinforced by the reproduction in the paper of comments from the Indian press. One, in the Hindu, of Madras, was interesting in that it made reference to a feature of the war which Abyssinia itself had never mentioned, i. e. Italian «air raids on women and children... and repeated bombings of the Red Cross and Red Crescent units». Abyssinia’s support for the League was expounded yet again in its issue for 26 Feb-

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ruary 1936, which bore the hopeful slogan: «The League Will Work — If We Do Our Part». An accompanying article proclaimed the need for «a strong League policy», which had been expressed in a House of Commons debate only two days earlier. In it Foreign Secretary Eden, had claimed that the British Government had not «departed neither from their original decision of principle regarding the oil sanction..., nor from their resolve to take their full part with others in such collective action as the League may decide on». Not dissimilar statements were uttered by Liberal and Labour MPs. One of the former, Sir Archibald Sinclair had most forcefully declared the war between Italy and Abyssinia «a vital test of the efficacy of the League and of the loyalty of its members to the Covenant». The next issue of Abyssinia did not appear as expected early in March, 1936. Publication was in fact delayed, apparently for lack of funds, until 11 March, when it was announced that it would be published «once a fortnight until further notice» — but no further issue was in fact ever published. The issue of 11 March was thus in fact the last to appear. It carried an emphatic article by Professor Gilbert Murray, entitled «Resist War-Maker: Protect Peace-Keeper». In it he declared that «every war-maker in Europe is watching the contest between the arch-warmaker Mussolini and the League, which is trying to control him», and prophesied, «If Mussolini wins the world will have been made safe for war». This last issue published three further articles, which were imbued, as so often, with wishful thinking. The first announced that Ethiopia and Italy had both expressed willingness to negotiate peace; the second reiterated that President Franklin Roosevelt too was opposed the increased sales of oil to Italy; the third declared that «all nations» would be «Beneficiaries of Peace». With those words the enthusiastic, but short-lived newspaper Abyssinia ceased publication. Despite its earlier hope that the Italian invasion was «visibly crumpling up», and that League Sanctions would be extended to include oil, the Emperor’s army was decisively beaten at May Chew on 31 March 1936, the Italian army entered Addis Ababa little over a month later, on 5 May, and the League Assembly voted for the total ending of Sanctions on 4 July. Events in the next three or four years were, however, to show that the world had become «safe for war», as Gilbert Murray had prophesied — and there were no «Beneficiaries of Peace».

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SUMMARY The Italian Fascist invasion of Ethiopia, on 3 October 1935, led to considerable excitement — and condemnation — throughout the world. In Britain, the League of Nations Union, an entirely non-Governmental organisation, founded a weekly pro-Ethiopian newspaper entitled Abyssinia. Somewhat optimistaically sub-titled «The League of Nations in Action», it first appeared on 20 November 1935, and advocated League of Nations Sanctions against the aggressor, as well as support for the League in general. The paper, which thus appeared at a critical period, published articles by prominent British advocates of Collective Security against aggression, and, immediately achieved an influential circulation. The abandonment of Sanctions brought an end to the publication. The last issue appeared on 11 March 1936 — after only four months of publication. Though thus shortlived, the paper constitutes a valuable historical source for our understanding of a significant period of Ethiopian history, and that of the League.

Siegfried Pausewang Chr. Michelsen Institute Bergen

THE TWO-FACED AMHARA IDENTITY In the St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies, the late Sevir B. Chernetsov published in 1993 a remarkable article which, even more remarkably, was not noticed by the majority of scholars on Ethiopia. To my knowledge, not a single serious academic comment underscored its main thesis or its important historical and political significance. And no later publication on relevant issues I know of has quoted the article or indeed given S. Chernetsov credit for his contribution through referencing it. Even Tronvoll and Vaughan, who in their Culture of Power1 describe in some detail the difference between urban Amhara identity and rural ethnic Amhara culture, do not mention Chernetsov in their reference list. The article by S. Chernetsov, entitled «On the Origins of the Amhara»,2 described Amhara culture as a culture of assimilation. The language and the culture of the Imperial Court was Amharic since the reign of Yekunno Amlak and, through him, the «Solomonic line» of kings emanating from the historical Amhara province. S. Chernetsov observes that today the Amhara are counted as the second largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, much more populous than what the tiny province of Amhara could be expected to procreate. This is because whoever wanted to advance in the court, the administration or in the military of the Emperors had to speak Amharic reasonably well and usually also had to adopt the Orthodox Christian religion. The court retained an Amhara culture, but attracted ambitious and bright individuals from other ethnic groups, provided they volunteered to adopt the language, the religion and the customs at the court. The culture of the court thus became an ethnic melting pot, a culture of assimilation. But it was also a culture conscious of its of superiority.

Ethiopian history created two different groups of Amhara In some way this may appear almost self-evident. Yet, this historical explanation was sensational because it enables us to better understand some of the hotly debated issues and differences among ethnic groups and «nationalities» in Ethiopia today. It appears strange that nobody among the Ethiopianist 1 VAUGHAN, SARAH — TRONVOLL, KJETIL, The Culture of Power in Contemporary Ethiopian Political Life, Stockholm: SIDA, 2003. 2 See CHERNETSOV, SEVIR, «On the Origin of the Amhara», St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies 1 (1993), 97–103.

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scholars reacted to the article, though it explicitly refers to an ongoing debate on the nature of the Amharic ethnicity at that time (1992–1993). Some participants maintained that the Amhara did not exist as an ethnic group, while others insisted that the Amhara, as any other ethnic group, had to identify themselves as a nationality. But Chernetsov’s challenge was not followed up, and even when he in 1995 published an enlarged version of the same article, with the title «On the problem of ethnogenesis of the Amhara»,3 the issue was not reflected in academic debate. It is difficult to tell if this silence is due to the fact that the St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies, which appeared from 1993 to 1996, unfortunately never achieved a wide distribution and may have escaped the attention of many scholars. The enlarged article was hidden in a volume entitled Der Sudan in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart 4 — not exactly a place where one would search for a crucial contribution to Ethiopian ethnic debates. Another possible explanation might be that there are large groups and interests within Ethiopia who do not want to recognise any distinction in the ethnogenesis between the Amhara and other Ethiopian ethnic groups, nor between two different groups of Amhara. Whatever the reason, the article deserves much more attention than it has so far received, and here may be the place to draw attention to its academic importance. For it directs our attention to a difficult issue in Ethiopian social and political life today. Chernetsov should maybe have given his article the title «Who are the Amhara?» For at the bottom of his analysis is the observation that two types of Amhara cultural self-consciousness developed in parallel though certainly not without mutual influence on each other. There are today two different and quite distinct groups and identities attached to this name. Amhara peasants understood — and still understand — Amhara as their (local) culture, their way of life and their identity, just like Oromo or Gurage or Sidama peasants are conscious of theirs. Quite distinct from this is the identity of the urban, generally well educated, ethnically mixed, assimilated cultural Amhara, who understand themselves as Ethiopians with an Amhara language. It must be noted here that the «rural Amhara» — or indeed the peasant groups today identifying as Amhara — were also strongly influenced by Amhara court culture. Indeed, areas like Manz, and (rural) Shoa Amhara in general, as well as large parts of Gojam, for example, only became Amhara through a military expansion, in particular, through the cultural influence of the military and of the Amhara administration on their rural surroundings. As In 1997 it was also published in a Catalan translation: «Entorn al problema de l’ethnogenesi dels Amhara», Studia Africana (Barcelona) 8, 1997. 4 See CHERNETSOV, SEVIR, «On the Problem of Ethnogenesis of the Amhara», in: GUNDLACH, ROLF — MANFRED KROPP — ANNALIS LEIBUNDGUT (eds.), Der Sudan in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Sudan Past and Present), Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1996 (Nordostafrikanisch/Westasiatische Studien,1), 17–35. 3

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Taddesse Tamrat shows,5 the population of Gojam is in fact by itself a mixture of many waves of ethnic immigration, unified in an Amharic culture and identity. Equally, the Shoa Amhara are a mixture of different ethnicities, united in the culture of a ruler who, by himself of ethnically mixed stock, identified with the Amharic Solomonic Dynasty.6 It appears that the borders between the rural Amhara and the court Amhara were never clear, nor strict, nor impermeable. Individuals who returned into the rural community after some years experience in the military or the court, would carry parts of the court culture and personality into their rural surroundings. In terms of «Amhara» interests and identities today, however, there appear to be good reasons to separate the two groups. In the debate of 1992–1993, which S. Chernetsov reviews in his articles, the contestants give two different descriptions of «the Amhara», which essentially fit one or the other of the two mentioned groups. But none of them identifies «his» interpretation of the term as referring to a distinct group within the «Amhara». One side (Meles Zenawi, Endreas Eshete) claims that the Amhara are a nation with their territory and their culture as any other ethnicity in Ethiopia, and should take their proper place — which is true for the «ethnic» (rural) Amhara in some regions in Ethiopia. The other side (Mesfin Wolde Mariam, Getachew Haile) describes the characteristics of the urban assimilated cultural Amhara, and claims that they are the beginning of a truly Ethiopian nation and must have the right to live anywhere in Ethiopia. Refusing to recognise that both descriptions are correct, but refer to different sections of people with different characteristics, confuses the understanding and blurs political conceptions and activities. The debate of 1993 could easily have been resolved, had one just agreed to distinguish the two groups. In the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in Michigan 1994, Takkele Taddese presented a paper entitled «Do the Amhara exist as a distinct ethnic group?»7 He came very close to distinguishing the two groups, giving a description of the history of the Amhara language and consciousness. But his conclusion describes the Amhara as «being a fused stock, a supra ethnically See TADDESSE TAMRAT, «Ethiopia in Miniature. The Peopling of Gojam», in: MARCUS, HAROLD GOLDEN (ed.), New Trends in Ethiopian Studies. Papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Michigan State University, 5–10 September 1994, Lawrenceville, NJ: The Red Sea Press, 1994, vol. 1, 951–962. 6 See CLAPHAM, CHRISTOPHER, Haile-Selassie’s Government, with a foreword by Dame Margery Perhame, London: Longmans, 1969; ID., «From Haile Selassie to Meles: Government, People and the Nationalities Question in Ethiopia», paper presented at a conference on «Conflict Resolution in the Horn of Africa», in September 2004 in Bergen, Norway (to be published). 7 See TAKKELE TADDESE, «Do the Amhara Exist as a Distinct Ethnic Group?», in: MARCUS, New Trends in Ethiopian Studies. Papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, vol. 2, 168–187. 5

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conscious ethnic Ethiopian serving as the pot in which all the other ethnic groups are supposed to melt. The language, Amharic, serves as the center for this melting process in spite of the fact that it is difficult to conceive of the existence of a language without the existence of a corresponding distinct ethnic group speaking it as a mother tongue». The Amhara, he argues, think and feel as Ethiopians. They do not distinguish between different ethnicities but try to integrate all into Ethiopia. Thus, he concludes, insisting on the Amhara being a distinct ethnic group amounts to breaking apart the Ethiopian nation. In that sense, the «urban Amhara» group assumed without much reflection the role of speaking for all Amhara. They identified their cultural and political views as the Amhara position, thus effectively absorbing and dominating the rural Amhara. Pressurised to identify as ethnicity, they adopted in early 1992 the name «All Amhara People’s Organisation» (AAPO) for the newly founded political organisation under Prof. Asrat Woldeyes. On the other side of the political spectrum, the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) repeated the same assumption. Organised by the TPLF-dominated Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in the years before the overthrow of the military government, from among Amhara prisoners of war, ANDM became the official party representing the Amhara as one group. In effect, the Amhara peasants were — and are — the last ethnic group without any political organisation and representation, as both AAPO and ANDM represent urban Amhara views, but claim to speak for all Amhara. AAPO, moreover, sometimes assumed to speak for all nationalistic Ethiopians. Consequently it has recently re-organised itself into the «All Ethiopian Unity Party» — without abandoning its claim to represent the Amhara — both urban and rural. And the peasants fell into the trap without realising that they were being duped. They were swayed by nationalist appeals to come to the rescue of Amhara who were attacked by other ethnic groups — by an Oromo mob in Arsi and by other groups in the South. Little did they realise that these «Amhara» were in fact the descendants of Menilek’s soldiers conquering these areas in the late 19th cent., who were given administrative offices, land titles and privileges in the conquered areas of other ethnic groups. Often these «Amhara» were ethnic Oromo or Gurage themselves, assimilated into Menilek’s army and administration. But as landlords and administrators, as Näft³äñña («gunmen» or «gens d’armes»), and as Orthodox Christians, they were identified as «Amhara» by the local peasants.

Ethnicity is identity, not race Ethnicity has in fact always been, and still is defined not by blood or race, but by cultural identity — a subjective rather than a biological category. Religion was often a stronger factor in determining identity than blood relations

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or language, and not only in Ethiopia. The history of the Jews may be the best known example to demonstrate this trend. The Jews survived as an «ethnicity», as a «nation», in the Diaspora for several hundred years, not because of their ethnic, cultural or biological heritage, but rather in spite of it, facing the hatred of the host societies because of these characteristics. Many groups even lost their language, Hebrew only remaining as religious language. The Jews in Poland spoke «Jiddish», which was a dialect derived from German. Their religious identity alone made them preserve a distinct culture. They never even tried to maintain their «blood». Cross-cultural marriages were never a problem for them. As long as the partner from outside their group was willing to adopt the Jewish religion, anyone was accepted and assimilated into the Jewish cultural community. Those who abandoned their faith, lost their Jewish identity. Before racial laws were invented, they were — at least after one or two generations — no Jews any more. The Amhara assimilation culture, too, had a religious identity as one of its components determining identity. The term «Amhara» changed its meaning depending on local conditions. In many contexts, it just signified a Christian. The practice of conversion to Christianity involved taking a new, Christian (baptismal) name, usually a biblical Ge’ez or Amhara name. Thus, assimilated people could no longer be identified as Gurage or Sidama or Wolaita by their names. It is one of the ironies of the dynamics of cultural development, that many students during the revolution of 1974–1975 changed back to their original (ethnic) names, only to turn a few years later back again to their Christian (Amharic) names. In the border areas between Wollo and North Shoa, along the escarpment where Amhara people had been exposed to Moslem influence for a prolonged period, the term «Amhara» signifies today a Christian, while a Moslem of the same ethnic, cultural and language background would not be considered an Amhara. In Sidamo as well, during Haile Selassie’s time, the term «Amhara» could variably signify a Christian or a Näft³äñña. The same change of meaning also occurs in other ethnic words: in Borana, for example, I was told, in Haile Selassie’s time, an Oromo would insist on being called a Galla, not an Oromo. Generally, Oromo people strongly resent the term «Galla», as a pejorative Amharic term which implies contempt for the Oromo, almost equal to a slave. But these Borana Oromo saw the term «Oromo» to mean a pagan, while «Galla» implied that they had adopted Christianity (here usually in the protestant version), or indeed Islam. Again, one should add that historically, most peasants in Amhara areas held more strongly to their local identities: peasants in Gondar felt as Gondare, in Gojjam as Gojjame, if they did not identify themselves even more locally as the people of Achefer or Dangilla or Dega Damot. In the same way, most Oromo would identify as Arsi or Borana — a common Oromo identity is, in fact, an invention of the 1960s.

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Assimilation had different connotations Certainly the Amhara were not the only ethnic group inviting assimilation. All ethnic groups have more or less been open to the integration of outsiders. Cross-ethnic marriages have occurred wherever ethnicities overlapped or bordered one another. They did not cause any problem as long as the wife moved to the husband’s community and integrated into his culture. However, at the same time, professional minorities are in the peasant societies in Ethiopia often despised and identified as different ethnicities. For an Oromo and Amhara alike, marriage with a «fuga» is considered improper. Often there is no other distinction except that these groups are segregated by their profession, suggesting that their ethnic identity was a result of professional segregation rather than being its cause. We have one interesting experience in recent times: in the elections of 2000, a professional minority in Sidama, the Hadicho, formed their own separate political party and ran as an opposition, identifying themselves ethnically as Sidama-Hadicho,8 in order to gain the status of a Special Woreda for the one area where they had a majority to rely on. Once they succeeded in winning the (repeated) election, they joined EPRDF as a separate ethnicity. In a similar process, the Silte eventually succeeded in separating themselves from the Gurage and becoming recognised as a distinct ethnicity. The Oromo, too, are renowned for freely assimilating outsiders from different ethnic backgrounds. They are said to have freely integrated those who lived among them and joined into their culture, identity and common interests. Also slaves could be adopted or allowed to establish themselves as peasants and assimilate. Assimilation is and always was a fact of life. A general trend of smaller groups being absorbed into larger ones probably took place all over Africa. Assimilation is a motor of change, development, adaptation, progress. There was one difference in the pattern of assimilation: becoming an Amhara was tantamount to becoming eligible for an office in the government, and belonging to the dominating and superior people.9 As such, becoming Amhara meant shifting from an inferior culture over into the superior Ethiopian culture. Becoming an Oromo, on the other hand, was a purely local affair, adjusting to local conditions but giving away any chance of joining the elite of the Ethiopian state. The Amhara court culture, in contrast, developed differently from Amhara peasant culture in several ways. Amhara court culture became a culture of domination, superiority — a culture of rulers. The legend of the Solomonic descent of the Ethiopian kings was expanded to give the Amharic court cul8 See SOLBERG, KJELL, «Political Apathy and Class/Caste Conflict», in: AALEN — PAUSEWANG — TRONVOLL, Ethiopia since the Derg, 141–155, here 144, 150. 9 See CHERNETSOV, «On the Origin of the Amhara», 25, 27.

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ture the myth of legitimacy as rulers, the chosen people, the «true Israel», as expressed in the Kébrä Nägäœt in the 14th cent. This myth gave not only the kings, but the general Amharic court culture, a flair of legitimacy as rulers and leaders. To some degree, this aspect of culture has been diffused into Amhara peasant culture, for example as described by Alan Hoben in Gojjam. S. Chernetsov quotes this example in his article,10 and I do not need to repeat the quotes. It may seem, though, that Gojjam peasant culture itself was amharised by the rulers and their settlement of soldiers in the vicinity, partly replacing, partly assimilating the local dialects and cultures. In the same way, Shoa Amhara culture is, no doubt, a result of the expansionist policies of the Shoan aristocracy, rather than a genuine development of an ethnic culture. The land holding patterns in Ankober and Manz, for example, mirror a history of conquests and retreats, hardly allowing an uninterrupted ethnic development. And the victories and the settlement policies of the kings, more than peasant interactions and dispositions, made Northern Shoa develop an Amharic peasant culture. The borders between Amhara peasants and Amhara court culture are thus never clear. Peasants could be absorbed into the court, and soldiers could become peasants or Näftäñña, spreading their culture in the rural peoples. Nevertheless, the result is the development of two distinct versions of Amhara culture. In the 20th cent. the court culture developed into a culture of education.11 In order to staff the modernising administration, education was essential, and the Amhara elite had preferred access to education. Again, ambitious and gifted individuals were admitted from other ethnic groups, but for their majority there was little room in the education system. When the Oromo General Tadese Birru in 1961 wanted to create better chances for Oromo youths to advance through education, he was discretely but firmly advised to scrap his ideas.12 One did not want to create the opportunity for too many Oromo to enter the elites: the Oromo majority was destined to remain in the lower social classes. In frustration, Tadesse Birru founded the «Mecha-Tulama Association», and with it started the growth of an Oromo nationalism among those members of the amharised elites who remembered their Oromoness and became proud of being Oromo. From these circles grew, in the early 1970es, the founders of OLF (Oromo Liberation Front). The administrational and military Amhara elite grew into an urban and educated elite, a group of potential administrators, civil servants, military officers and top leaders. They were raised to become leaders, and they came See CHERNETSOV, «On the Problem of Ethnogenesis of the Amhara», 25. See CHERNETSOV, «On the Problem of Ethnogenesis of the Amhara», 31. 12 See LEENCO LATA, The Horn of Africa as Common Homeland. State and selfdetermination in the era of hightened globalisation, Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2004. 10 11

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to feel as such. Urban «New Amhara» culture became elitist, to some degree condescending, and arrogant.13 However much individuals developed a taste for socialist ideas of equality or for democratic values, their culture retained the characteristics of a ruling class.

´All-Amharaª becomes Ethiopian nationalism The urban, educated, ethnically mixed Amhara understand themselves to be the progressive elites, the people destined to be the leaders in Ethiopia. After 1975, and especially after 1991, they developed a strong tendency towards identifying themselves as Ethiopians, in opposition to centrifugal tendencies in the political sphere and to an increasing ethnic consciousness. In 1975, this was probably in reaction to the early Derg period, when the military regime opened up free expression to all ethnic cultures and promised the equality of ethnic groups. When the Derg changed its policy to a pan-Ethiopian sentiment of «Andénnät», unity, it was too late to quell the revived ethnic movements, which reorganised as ethnically based resistance movements. Irony of incidences, the «Red Terror» in 1976–1977 fed into their recruitment, when it tried to suppress the resistance of the educated youth (see below). The strengthened ethnic resistance movements were one of the reasons why EPRDF decided in 1991 to reorganise the country along ethnic lines. They had hardly any choice: In 1991, no-one could expect to win legitimacy without offering the re-vitalised ethnic groups an acceptable solution, that is, at least a reasonable degree of self-determination. But the urban elites also changed their political world view after 1975. Many young idealists joined the regime in the hope of gradually reforming it into a strong national movement, and helping to form a national Ethiopian state as a strong power in the region. Their aspirations were also soon frustrated, but their nationalism brought them over into the ranks of the after-1992 «All-Amhara» thought and movement. Provoked by pressure to identify as an Amhara «nationality», the urban Amhara escaped again into Pan-Ethiopian nationalism. The term «All Amhara People’s Organisation», was adopted as a compromise formula to identify this group within an ethnically structured federation. It is in fact not the identity of all Amhara — but of all «assimilated urban elites» speaking Amaréñña, regardless of their ethnic origin. They cherish an all-Ethiopian nationalism which at times comes dangerously close to chauvinism. They try to replace ethnic identities with a pan-Ethiopian national identity, and attempt to suppress or reform any sub-national ethnicity, integrating all Ethiopians into one nationality, irrespective of their origin. For them, reorganising Ethiopia as a

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See CHERNETSOV, «On the Problem of Ethnogenesis of the Amhara», 32.

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federation of ethnically self-determined regions or states was a travesty of Ethiopian unity. Hence they accused the new government after 1991 of a policy of «divide and rule». They strongly opposed Eritrean independence, as they opposed the Tigrean claim to leadership. Symptomatic of this trend may be the argument forwarded in 1994 by Getachew Haile (in a debate at the Ethiopian Studies Conference in Michigan) that Eritrean independence was illegitimate, as was the Referendum of 1993, because it did not give the entire Ethiopian population a vote: You can not amputate my arm and call it voluntarily, he said, if you ask only the arm… In the period after 1991, such nationalistic views were most aggressively expressed by Ethiopian nationalists in the diaspora, those who had become refugees after the overthrow of the military government or before. But they were also very strong among urban elites in Addis Ababa. Even if these were more reluctant to speak out in public, in personal meetings one encountered such attitudes as an expression of frustration with the course of events. Of course there are also other views represented among the urban Amhara; and the attitudes towards Eritrean independence have changed markedly since 1995. Yet, as a group, the pan-Ethiopian nationalist position of the urban Amhara has been remarkably consistent.14 The political position of this particular group is so dominant in the urban public debate that large parts of the foreign community take it uncritically as «the public opinion» in Ethiopia. The newest political demand originating from this developing pan-Ethiopian nationalist ideology is the claim that Ethiopia needs a harbour. This demand surfaced in 1999, in the course of the Ethiopian-Eritrean war. The newspapers in Addis Ababa eagerly took up this issue, and there raged a protracted debate in 1999–2000. It fell very much in line with the government adopting a nationalist «pan-Ethiopianism», while accusing Eritreans living in Ethiopia of treason. The harbour issue brought the urban Amhara opposition for some time considerably closer to the government. It is a popular claim, which stimulated populist attempts to incite a nationalistic wave of patriotism. It was useful for the government to draw the Amhara peasants, as well as peasants from other ethnic groups, as cannon fodder into a war, riding on a wave of idealistic national euphoria. It proved also attractive to elites of other ethnic groups. Even Beyene Petros, the leader of the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Coalition and the Coalition of Alternative Forces for Peace and Development in Ethiopia, fell into this trap and joined the demand for access to a harbour. The only harbour Ethiopia could possibly claim is Assab. But Assab belongs to Eritrea, a sovereign state which gained its independence in 1991, MERERA GUDINA , Ethiopia: Competing Ethnic Nationalisms and the Quest for Democracy, 1960–2000, Addis Ababa: Shaker Publishing, 2003. 14

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after a UN-observed referendum and with Ethiopian acclaim. Assab is not to be had without a new war. The demand is political nonsense. Especially in the times of internet and international air traffic, no nation needs a harbour. Switzerland, Austria, Czechia have been leading economic and political powers in Europe without harbours. Ethiopia needs good relations with its neighbours, not a harbour. A red, yellow and green flag over Assab would not bring the harbour a single kilometre closer to Addis Ababa. The harbour issue serves only to rally uncritical support for the nationalist rhetoric of the political parties of the urban Amhara. Should Ethiopia really not have stopped the offensive in 2000 before taking at least Assab, or even Asmara, to have a token for negotiations? The border issue and the war, seemingly about Badme, strengthened the nationalistic trend of the urban elites and offered them a chance to draw large groups from other ethnicities into a euphoria of all-Ethiopian nationalism. The war, indeed, pulled a number of members of the former regional elites and of the opposition into the Pan-Ethiopian nationalistic fold, and hence into the orbit of All-Amhara identity. This is a process which can be observed in different areas and ethnic groups, and with different motivations. It even includes Tigreans who are posted in Addis Ababa and who have gradually lost interest in the ethnic federation, or who realise that it does not fulfil their expectations. It also includes regional elites from most ethnic groups who are disappointed with the development of the federation for it has not solved many of the old problems and has created a number of new ones. They begin again to see a better future in a national state of Ethiopia.

Modern nationalism originating in the French Revolution In Africa, nationalism in its modern form is a European implant. When the colonial powers understood that they could no more hold on to their colonies, they handed over power to those elites with whom they had cooperated earlier and whom they had educated to run an administration. As they had never cared for ethnic differences in drawing their boundaries, all colonies contained fractions of many ethnicities. Nation building became the magic word of the first generation of independent African leaders. Instead of giving ethnic groups their self-determination, the Organisation of African Unity adopted the doctrine of not tampering with the colonial borders. Once ethnicity is recognised as the basis of border revisions and the creation of new states, it will not end until all African states fall apart — that was the argument. The doctrine was realistic in that point. But it did not recognise that African identities are much more closely tied to language and to cultural peers than to loyalty to a state. And least of all the colonial state, which Africans experienced as a means of suppression and exploitation, was attractive as a

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new focus of identification. Nation building was bound to fail, at least in the short and middle term.15 But nationalism was indeed invented in a situation not too different from that of Ethiopia today. It was Napoleon, who after the French Revolution seized power in France and had the difficult task of defending the revolutionary state against an alliance of revengeful European monarchs. Before Napoleon, rulers like Louis XIV and even Louis XVI could not care less whether the people in Alsace spoke German, whether people in the Camargue felt like Occitans rather than French, so long as they were the obedient subjects of their sovereign. Just as Frederik the Great, king of Prussia, did not mind whether his subjects spoke Polish, Czech, Danish or German, were Catholics or Protestants, so long as they remained subjects to his absolutist reign. But Napoleon demanded more of his subjects. Only by creating a nationalistic wave of euphoria for «La Grande Nation», the Great Nation of France, could he recruit massive armies of drafted soldiers, many of them in fact volunteers. A nationalistic wave embracing all corners of France was the secret weapon that allowed him to crown himself Emperor and to engulf the whole of Europe into a series of nationalistic wars. Other nations followed suit. The new French ideas spread into Germany, where the former Empire was divided into thirty-six mini-states of dukes and princes who claimed sovereignty and watched each other jealously to protect their prerogatives. German nationalism thus developed as a movement of the urban elites uniting all Germans from East to West and North to South against the princes and for one German republic. The German tragedy was that their enthusiasm was perverted by the leading regional princes. The Prussian king eventually prevailed in assuming the crown of the new Empire, converting nationalism from a revolutionary to a conservative device for coercing the people into unity. And when the German Emperors (of the Prussian dynasty) lost the First World War, Hitler succeeded in rallying this perverted patriotic nationalism into a fascist ideology of a «Herrenvolk» destined to cleanse itself and lead Europe. This historical parallel should not be misused to suggest that Ethiopia, or indeed Amharic Pan-Ethiopianism, is on the way to fascism. History does not repeat itself so crudely. But it is reasonable to conclude that there are inherent dangers in populist mass mobilisation being misused for antidemocratic and anti-humanist political risings. And nationalism taken to the extreme has also proven its destructive force in Ethiopian history, and shows its ugly face today in Eritrea, where the rulers attempt to force an entire population into a permanent state of nationalist euphoria, in the name of national sovereignty and autonomy. 15 DAVIDSON, BASIL, The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State, London: James Currey, 1992; CHABAL, PATRICK — JEAN-PASCAL DALOZ, Africa Works: Disorder as a Political Instrument, Oxford: James Currey, 1999.

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All Amhara nationalism has political consequences Understanding the difference between ethnic identity and the urban Amhara identity is essential to understanding some aspects of the particular character of Amhara all-Ethiopian nationalism. In the Ethiopian Constitution of 1995, there are two articles that were contested at the period of its drafting and continue to be so. They concern the rights of ethnicities and the regulation on land tenure. Article 39 gives every «nation, nationality and people» the right to selfdetermination «including secession». This constitutional guarantee is often criticised as a device of disunity, an expression of «divide and rule». However, this argument totally overlooks the situation of 1991, when the victorious liberation movements, all ethnically defined, had to invite all other movements and nationalities and political forces into a coalition. After the «Red Terror», there was no other alternative open. In the «Red Terror» campaign, the Derg had targeted anyone who was young and educated as a potential enemy. Those who could escape ended as refugees in the diaspora or hid away in their rural home areas. There, if they wanted to continue any political activity at all, they had only one choice — to join the ethnically defined resistance movements. Thus the «Red Terror» inadvertently fed into the recruitment of the ethnic liberation fronts. In 1975, no government could hope to win legitimacy without solving the land question. In 1991, no one could win legitimacy without accommodating the demand of the different ethnic groups for freedom from domination. Yet, the urban elites were favouring a united Ethiopian state and resented ethnic nationalism. Their political agenda became the common denominator of a political «public opinion», only because the rural majority lacks the information, is less vocal and has no access to media. Even more controversial is the issue of land tenure. Article 40 of the Constitution declares all land the property of «the State and the peoples of Ethiopia». This is squarely rejected by the urban opposition, who claim that state land prevents economic liberalisation. To be developed, land needs investment, they maintain, and people will only invest if they own it. The EPRDF, in response, argues that as long as a large majority of people feed themselves in the rural areas, they can take care of themselves. If they are forced to sell their land and move to towns, they would demand jobs and investments on a scale no government could provide. Second, the EPRDF can claim that «common property» defends the traditional land holding rights of rural people, and guards their culture and their economic adaptations. The most important problem in this controversy is the practice of local authorities today. State agents misuse state ownership of land to hold peasants ransom: — if you don’t support us, you may ask land from your party, not from us… They assume that as local agents of the state, they can dispose

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of the state land freely. In addition, a growth close to 3 percent makes the population double within one generation. Land scarcity is growing worse over time. Yet, to reduce the number of peasants is no solution, as long as there is no alternative livelihood available for those forced to leave. But the voices of peasant farmers are not heard in the public debate. Public opinion in Addis Ababa does not show any consideration for their interests. Even scholars carring out research in rural areas often claim to understand the interests of peasant farmers without really enquiring. Public debate and public opinion just exclude the overwhelming majority of the Ethiopian people who live in rural areas, most of them illiterate and uninformed about what is debated in the capital. The interests of the urban elites are simply assumed to be the common interest.16 Maybe the reason why the article by S. Chernetsov was not taken note of, is precisely this. Understanding his argument, might have forced scholars and politicians to see the arrogance of an elite deciding for the majority without any mandate to do so. Without realising its imposition, this urban elite forcefully adopts the position of speaking for «the» Amhara, and in some contexts even for the population at large, assuming to know best what people need. By the strength of their educational achievement, their vocal advantage, their superior access to communication, and their political influence, they present their nationalistic views and their interests as those of all Amhara. They seduce the Amhara peasants into adopting their rhetoric, into following their political views, into demanding access to a harbour — hardly knowing what this means. The name «Amhara» with its language and cultural associations allows them to uncritically mix the group identities of the Amhara peasants with their own urban group identity. Despite their name, they represent not all Amhara, but the «assimilated» urban elites feeling Amhara regardless of their ethnic origin. If the Amhara peasants had their own political organisation, they would probably have expressed much more concern for peace, for more conducive conditions for agriculture and more control for the peasant himself over his conditions of cultivation and marketing, than for a war or a border town or «national sovereignty». As this representation does not exist, hardly anybody knows what, really, Amhara peasants think and demand. The rural-urban split of interests is of course more universal. In Ethiopia it is particularly associated with a lack of access to representation for the rural views. The Oromo or Wolaita or Sidamo peasants also have very little voice and influence in Ethiopia these days. But the claim of the Amhara to be a supra-ethnic group with a national outlook and no territorial affiliation is only true for a small but vocal fraction of the Amhara speakers — but it 16 PAUSEWANG, SIEGFRIED, Local Democracy and Human Security in Ethiopia: Structural Reasons for the Failure of Democratisation, Johannesburg 2004: SAIIA (South African Institute of International Affairs), 28, 32.

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imposes their views as those of «the» Amhara. And they are up to now allowed to do so without any protest or reaction. Anti-Amhara feelings also often confuse these two identities. Eating in an Ethiopian restaurant with a group of Oromo people in Europe, we heard that some guests had asked the owner not to talk in Amaréñña to them. If he could not speak their language, they would prefer English to the language of «their colonisers». Just think if Nelson Mandela had refused to talk English or Ben Bella French — history might have taken a different course. One can well be proud of being both Amhara and Ethiopian, as others can be Oromo, Wolaita or Sidamo and Ethiopians. Ethnicity is identity, not race or belief or culture. A nation consists of those who feel to be, who identify themselves as one. Nationalism becomes dangerous when it is used to engage others for a suggested common ground, hiding differences of interest for the sake of creating unity for an undefined and obscure agenda.

SUMMARY The term Amhara relates in contemporary Ethiopia to two different and distinct social groups. The ethnic group of the Amhara, mostly a peasant population, is different from a mixed group of urban people coming from different ethnic background, who have adopted Amharic as a common language and identify themselves as Ethiopians. Sevir B. Chernetsov explained in 1993 their difference as a result of a historical process of assimilation. Though the difference has significant consequences in contemporary political life, it appears little reflected, maybe even consciously veiled, in the interest of a pan-Ethiopian nationalist elite claiming to represent all Amhara.

Wolbert G. C. Smidt Universitaâ t Hamburg

DEUTSCHE BRIEFE VON Aâ THIOPIERN 1855ñ1869 AUS DEM UMKREIS DER PROTESTANTISCHEN MISSION ZUR REGIERUNGSZEIT VON TEWODROS II Zur Einfuâ hrung: Der historische Hintergrund Die Machtergreifung des Königs der Könige Tewodros II. in Äthiopien 1855 wird zu Recht als Wendepunkt in der Entwicklung des modernen Äthiopien angesehen. Seine Herrschaft ist durch zahlreiche Reformversuche — und teilweise regelrechte Umstürze — geprägt, die sowohl politische als auch theologische Traditionen des christlichen Reiches in Frage stellten. Das Reich erlebte eine seit langem ungekannte Zentralisierung weltlicher Macht und die Unterwerfung oder Integration bisher unabhängiger bzw. weitgehend autonomer lokaler Herrscher und Gouverneure. Von Anfang an war diese Politik auch von Europäern begleitet worden, als Beratern, Helfern und Kritikern. Der, vor allem indirekte, Einfluss dieser Europäer auf Tewodros II.’ Politik ist nicht zu unterschätzen. Signifikant ist seine Bemerkung zu den kurz nach seiner Inthronisierung in das Land gekommenen protestantischen Missionaren aus der Schweiz,1 er sei nicht wie die Leute seines Volkes, sondern vielmehr wie ein Europäer.2 Auch in diesem Sinne beginnt mit seiner Herrschaft die Moderne in Äthiopien: Zwar haben zahlreiche Fürsten und Herrscher schon in den Jahrhunderten zuvor, seit dem europäischen Hochmittelalter, Vgl. STREBEL, BARBARA, «...den blinden Abessyniern die Augen aufzuthun», Chrischona-Pilgermissionare in Äthiopien (1856–1868), Geschichte eines gescheiterten Missionsprojektes, ms., Lizentiatsarbeit, Universität Zürich 1999; EAD., «Leben auf dem Missionsfeld. Crischona — Pilgermissionare in Äthiopien (1856–1868)», Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 4, 2001, 121–157. — Zu dieser Mission siehe auch: FLAD, JOHANN MARTIN, 60 Jahre in der Mission unter den Falaschas in Abessinien, Gießen — Basel 1922; ARÉN, GUSTAV, Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia, Origins of the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, Uppsala — Addis Abeba 1978 (Studia Missionalia Upsaliensis, 32); CRUMMEY, DONALD, Priests and Politicians: Protestant and Catholic Missions in Orthodox Ethiopia, 1830–1868, Oxford 1972. 2 «Do not believe I am an Abyssinian at heart; no, I am as one of you». Tewodros II. in einem Gespräch mit Kienzlen und Bender und anderen Missionaren, gemäß dem auf Englisch nachgedruckten Brief von J. J. Gottleib Kienzlen an Bischof Gobat (Einzelbogen), Gondar, May 4, 1859: Staatsarchiv Basel, PA 653, D3, Mappe 2.) No. 5 (G. Kienzler [Kienzlen!], Magdala 1858–1859). 1

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die Dienste einzelner Europäer in Anspruch genommen, doch seit der Vertreibung der Jesuiten 1632 hatte es keine permanente Europäer-Kolonie mehr gegeben, und keine so ausgeprägten Bemühungen von Europäern, Einfluss auf Kirche und Staat zu bekommen. Die Herrschaft von Tewodros II. war geprägt vom Versuch, konsequent europäisches Wissen und Konzeptionen — angefangen von Handwerk bis hin zu theologischen Neuerungen — einzuführen und feste Beziehungen mit europäischen Staaten zu knüpfen. In seine Zeit fallen auch die Gründung erster Missionsschulen und schließlich auch der Beginn der Ausbildung von Äthiopiern in ausländischen Schulen. 1855 reiste eine Delegation der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission aus Basel nach Äthiopien, die aus dem Missionar Johann Ludwig Krapf aus Kornthal, dem Handwerker-Missionar Johann Martin Flad aus Undingen und dem AmharischLehrer und Übersetzer Mahdärä Qal bestand, und wurde von Tewodros II. freundlich empfangen. 1856 etablierte sich die Abessinien-Mission der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission dauerhaft in Gafat bei Däbrä Tabor und bei den «Falascha», insbesondere in Ðända (beide in Bägemdér). Nur für die von Krapf ebenfalls erhoffte Oromo-Mission gab der König der Könige keine Erlaubnis, so dass diese erst 1867 beginnen konnte (sich aber nach einem ersten Misserfolg in Beni-Schangul und Gubbe im westäthiopischen Grenzgebiet erst 1871 im Königreich Šäwa etablierte).3 Die Präsenz dieser Mission in Äthiopien führte zur Herausbildung einer Gruppe junger europäisch gebildeter Äthiopier, von denen mehrere später als Missionare und politische Beamte im Äthiopien des Yohannés IV. und Ménilék II. eine zum Teil bedeutende Rolle spielten. Die Mission regte unter ihren lokalen Anhängern auch Versuche an, mit den externen Leitern der Mission in Europa und Jerusalem Kontakt aufzunehmen. Wir besitzen daher aus dieser Zeit Briefe der bedeutendsten äthiopischen Förderer der Mission: von dem Sekretär des äthiopischen Herrschers, aläqa Zännäb, ebenso wie von dem konvertierten Gelehrten der Betä Ésraýel, Bérru Wébe. Nach 1865, bis zum Sturz Tewodros II.’, sind keine Briefe von Äthiopiern mehr überliefert — außer von Tewodros II. selbst, — da in jenem Jahr die Abessinien-Mission de facto zusammenbrach. Die ersten Europäer wurden vom König der Könige gefangengesetzt, die Missionare zu Zwangsarbeiten verpflichtet und schließlich ebenfalls in Ketten gelegt. Dies führte zu der bekannten Intervention britisch-indischer Truppen aus Bombay und London im Jahre 1867/68 unter dem Kommando von Sir Robert Napier und dem Sturz und Selbstmord des Herrschers — und zur Landesverweisung aller Europäer, denen einige ihrer äthiopischen Missionsschüler nach Jerusalem (und später 3 Zur Geschichte dieser ersten protestantischen Mission bei den Oromo siehe SMIDT, WOLBERT G. C., «The Role of the Former Oromo Slave Pauline Fathme in the Foundation of the Protestant Oromo Mission», in: BÖLL, VERENA — MARTÍNEZ D’ALÒSMONER, ANDREU — KAPLAN, STEVEN — SOKOLINSKAIA, EVGENIA (eds.), Ethiopia and the Missions. Historical and Anthropological Insights, Münster 2005, 77–98.

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Basel) folgten.4 Allerdings nahm die Mission bei der ersten sich bietenden Gelegenheit 1869 ihre Arbeit wieder auf — und zwar im de facto unabhängigen Tégray im wieder zerfallenen äthiopischen Königreich. Ein Willkommensbrief für die ersten aus Jerusalem zurückkehrenden Missionare hat sich erhalten. Mit ihm endet diese Zusammenstellung, da er ein neues historisches Kapitel eröffnet, aber auch noch an der seit 1856 etablierten Mission anknüpft.

Zur Bedeutung der aâ thiopischen Missions-Briefe Die erhalten gebliebenen äthiopischen Korrespondenzen dieser Zeit, die in Missionsrundschreiben vervielfältigt wurden, zum Teil in Archivsammlungen überliefert wurden, sind insbesondere wegen ihrer Seltenheit einzigartige historische Dokumente, Zeugnisse dieser ersten äthiopischen Moderne, die den historischen Wandel Äthiopiens an Einzelbeispielen illustrieren. Es ist dabei sicherlich etwas kurios, aber signifikant, dass einer oder gar mehrere der Briefe im Original auf Deutsch abgefasst wurden. Die Verbindung der Missionare mit ihren wenigen Schülern war so eng, dass einige der jungen Äthiopier bereits in Äthiopien Deutsch lernten.5 Dies eröffnete einigen von ihnen später die Möglichkeit, im Ausland ihre Ausbildung fortzusetzen — womit sie zu den ersten Afrikanern gehörten, die aus eigenem Antrieb zur Ausbildung nach Europa gingen. Die Dokumentation und Erforschung äthiopischer Korrespondenzen sind, das ist spätestens seit den Acta Aethiopica von Sven Rubenson deutlich, von entscheidender Bedeutung zum Verständnis der politischen Geschichte und der Geistesgeschichte Äthiopiens. Die klassischen theologischen und historischen Werke Äthiopiens werden als zentrales Thema der Äthiopistik seit langem erforscht. Weniger im Zentrum des geistesgeschichtlichen Interesses standen bisher scheinbar marginale Quellen wie diese. In der Geschichtsforschung wird aber zu Recht seit einiger Zeit Wert auch auf originale Zeugnisse einzelner Individuen gelegt, die mehr Teilnehmer als Akteure der «großen» geschichtlichen Ereignisse sind. An ihnen ist Mentalitätswandel, der Wandel von Paradigmen, von Topoi, der vitalen Interessen dieser Teilnehmer des geschichtlichen Prozesses ablesbar — aber auch die Kontinuität alter Muster und Vorstellungen. Vgl. dazu SMIDT, WOLBERT G. C., «“Schwarze Missionare” im Deutschland des 19. Jahrhunderts», in: BECHHAUS-GERST, MARIANNE — KLEIN-ARENDT, REINHARDT (Hrsg.), AfrikanerInnen in Deutschland und schwarze Deutsche — Geschichte und Gegenwart, Münster — Hamburg 2004 (Encounters / Begegnungen, 3), 41–56; SMIDT, WOLBERT G. C., «Les Africains de Bâle du 19ème siècle», in: DAVID, THOMAS et al. (eds.), De la traite des Noirs à la fin du régime de l’Apartheid: trois siècles de relations entre la Suisse et l’Afrique (XVIIIe–XXIe siècles), Münster: Lit-Verlag (im Erscheinen). 5 Vgl. u. a. FLAD, FRIEDRICH, Michael Argawi. Ein mutiger Bekenner und Zeuge unter den Falascha in Abessinien, bearbeitet von WERNER SIDLER, Basel 1952, 9. 4

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Der leider verstorbene Sewir B. Chernetsow hat auf der 15. internationalen Konferenz der äthiopistischen Studien im Juli 2003 in Hamburg in mehreren persönlichen Gesprächen (darunter auch mit dem Autor) angeregt, dass éthiopisants verschiedener Länder (insbesondere Deutschland bzw. Schweiz, Frankreich, Schweden, Italien) nach solchen Korrespondenzen fahnden — und zwar aus dem Umkreis der Mission.6 Der Beitrag der Mission zur Modernisierung und Reform Äthiopiens war im 19. und frühen 20. Jhdt. von großer Wichtigkeit. Die sicherlich häufig noch unentdeckten Briefe in Missionsarchiven würden, einmal zusammengestellt, so seine Meinung, einen wichtigen Beitrag zur äthiopischen Geistesgeschichte bieten. Eine solche Sammlung stünde nicht in Konkurrenz zu den Acta Aethiopica, die Sven Rubenson in jahrzehntelanger Sammelarbeit zusammengestellt hat (und auf deren 4. Band man hoffnungsvoll wartet), da jene sich auf Briefe in äthiopischen Sprachen konzentrieren und (wohl wegen des Schwerpunktes auf politische Geschichte) die zahlreichen Briefe der äthiopischen Missions-Zöglinge oder Helfer kaum aufgenommen haben. Chernetsows Vorschlag bezieht sich seinerseits nur auf Briefe von Äthiopiern aus dem Umkreis der Mission, zielt also auf eine thematische Konzentration. Als ersten Schritt, auch zur Anregung anderer éthiopisants, möchte ich anlässlich seiner Festschrift hier das erste Ergebnis meiner eigenen Recherchen in den Archiven der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission in St. Chrischona/Bettingen und im Staatsarchiv Basel, wo zahlreiche Dokumente der deutschen und schweizerischen Missionare in Äthiopien zur Zeit des Königs der Könige Tewodros II. aufbewahrt werden, vorstellen. Welche Themen stehen im Zentrum dieser Briefe? Etwas enttäuschend mag es für den Historiker sein, aber gleichzeitig für den Geistesgeschichtler eine bemerkenswerte Tatsache, dass die Briefe (sogar die aus den für das Ende der Mission so entscheidenden Jahren von 1864/65) die politische Situation praktisch nicht widerspiegeln. Im Zentrum stehen christliche Formeln und knappe theologische Überlegungen. Diese stehen für neue Entwicklungen in Äthiopien, die die Mission teilweise angestoßen hatte. Interne Auseinandersetzungen um theologische Fragen hatten durch die Präsenz der Mission eine internationale Dimension bekommen (dieser Aspekt klingt auch in dem warnenden Brief des abunä Sälama an). Ein typisches Beispiel für diese neuen Entwicklungen, das auch für die moderne äthiopisch-orthodoxe Kirche Folgen hatte, ist z.B. die Frage des Gebrauches des amharischen Sprache: Durch Tewodros II. gefördert, kamen in Bruch mit der Tradition amharische Bibeln in Gebrauch; die ersten amharischen Texte der Moderne — wie die Chronik der Regierungszeit Tewodros II. des aläqa Zännäb,7 eines Anhängers der Mission — entstanden. In den Briefen taucht das Topos der Bosheit Vgl. dazu auch CHERNETSOV, SEVIR, «Epistolography», in: EÆ II, 340–342. Däbtära ZÄNNÄB, The Chronicle of King Theodore of Abyssinia, ed. by ENNO LITTMANN, Princeton, NJ 1902; Übersetzung: MORENO, MARTINO MARIO, «La Cronaca 6 7

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oder der Finsternis, von der die Briefschreiber von den Missionaren befreit worden waren, mehrfach auf — Europa wird indirekt als die Quelle des Lichts angesehen. Eindrucksvoll ist, wie insbesondere der traditionelle Gelehrte däbtära Bérru einen Großteil seines Briefes aus Bibelzitaten aufbaut, woraus er ein eindringliches Bekenntnis komponiert. Die meisten Briefe haben sich im Original nicht erhalten, sondern häufig nur in Form von Abschriften oder gar nur lückenhaften Auszügen und Übersetzungen, in Handschrift oder gedruckt in kleinen Rundschreiben der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission (nach Aufbau und Zielsetzung sind diese gewissermaßen vergleichbar mit den Spendenbriefen heutiger NGOs8 — und darum auch in keiner Bibliothek außer in der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission erhalten geblieben). Das erste Dokument ist ein von Tewodros II. nicht lange nach seiner Krönung geschriebener, bisher nicht in seiner deutschen Version9 veröffentlichter Brief. Dieser enthält eine Einladung an die protestantischen Handwerker-Missionare,10 nach der Vertreibung der katholischen Misdi Re Teodoro attributa al Dabtara “Zaneb”», RSE 2–2, 1942, 143–180. Die Zuschreibung an Zännäb scheint mir unzweifelhaft, da der Missionar Flad, der ihn aus Mäqdäla kannte und dieses Manuskript selbst nach Europa mitbrachte, ihn als Autor nannte. Siehe FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission. 8 Die Jahresrundschreiben und die häufiger im Jahr (zuletzt sechs Mal) erscheinenden Mittheilungen aus der Correspondenz der Pilgermission, zunächst für deren auswärtige Brüder bestimmt wurden in Kreisen der Missionare und Missionsfreunde versandt und erfüllten zwei Aufgaben: Erstens wurden diese so über die Entwicklung der fortlaufenden Missionsprojekte informiert und zweitens somit auch zu weiteren Spenden angeregt. Die Mission litt immer an erheblicher Geldknappheit; insbesondere in England fanden sich immer wieder großzügige Spender, weshalb mehrere der in den Mittheilungen veröffentlichten Briefe auch in englischer Sprache versandt wurden. Die Funktion der äthiopischen Briefe in diesem Zusammenhang ist evident: Sie dokumentieren den Erfolg der Mission. 9 D. Appleyard und R. Pankhurst haben das Original in englischen Archiven gefunden, siehe APPLEYARD, DAVID L. — PANKHURST, RICHARD, Letters from Ethiopian Rulers (Early and Mid-Nineteenth Century), Oxford 1985 (Oriental documents, IX), 135–142, und Rubenson hat es erneut in Acta Aethiopica II als no. 5 veröffentlicht: RUBENSON, SVEN (ed.), Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 1855–1868, Addis Ababa — Lund 1994 (Acta Aethiopica II), 11. Da der Brief die Mission gewissermaßen einleitet, ist die deutsche Übersetzung auch von Interesse, weshalb sie hier wiedergegeben wird. 10 Der Kontext des Briefes, in dem Tewodros II. die Bitte um «Arbeiter» mit Vorschriften über deren Verhalten in Fragen der Mission verbindet, zeigt, dass ihm der missionarische Kontext des Angebots der Entsendung von Handwerkern durch Bischof Gobat in Jerusalem bewusst war. Seine Vorbedingung, dass sie keine Priester sein dürften, führte dazu, dass die entsandten Handwerker-Missionare nicht geweiht wurden, sondern Laien blieben. Sämtliche Konvertiten der «Falascha» wurden daher von äthiopischen Priestern getauft und so formal in die äthiopisch-orthodoxe Kirche aufgenommen. Der spätere Brief von abunä Sälama von 1862 bezieht sich auch auf diese Tatsache. Das Ziel der Mission war nicht die Gründung einer eigenen

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sion in das Land zu kommen. Historisch vielleicht noch interessanter ist der einige Jahre später geschriebene bisher unbekannte Brief des Metropoliten Äthiopiens, abunä Sälama. Dieser enthält eine Entscheidung, nach der die Missionare theoretisch die Möglichkeit eingeräumt bekamen, ihre Lehre frei von den Vorschriften der äthiopisch-orthodoxen Kirche außerhalb ihrer Gebiete zu unterrichten — was später in den Oromo-Regionen tatsächlich begonnen wurde und in letzter Konsequenz zur Gründung einer eigenen protestantischen äthiopischen Kirche führte. Es ist allerdings dabei nicht zu vergessen, dass die meisten Gebiete und Länder der Oromo sich damals noch außerhalb des äthiopischen Reiches befanden. Der Brief enthält aber auch die schon zu Beginn der Mission von Tewodros deutlich ausgesprochene Warnung, dass im Kerngebiet Abessiniens keinesfalls eine eigenständige Kirche entstehen dürfe. Die übrigen Briefe sind meist von Missionszöglingen und Freunden der Mission geschrieben, darunter von Persönlichkeiten wie dem oben bereits genannten aläqa Zännäb, einer zentralen Figur der modernen Literaturgeschichte Äthiopiens, und von dem noch sehr jungen Missionsschüler Arägawi, bekannt als Mikaýel Arägawi, der später der bedeutendste protestantische äthiopische Missionar werden sollte.11 Weitere Missionsschüler, die später ihre Ausbildung in Europa erhielten, tauchen in diesen Dokumenten erstmals auf. Die Originalsprache der Briefe wird nirgendwo direkt angesprochen, doch waren sie meist sicherlich in Amharisch abgefasst. Eine Ausnahme ist der Brief des Arägawi, der um Nachsicht für seine Fehler im Deutschen bittet; sein Brief scheint also bereits im Original auf Deutsch abgefasst worden zu sein. Die Briefe sind hier in Wortlaut, Rechtschreibung und Punktuation genauso wiedergegeben, wie sie vorgefunden wurden. Die Übersetzer sind nur im Falle des ersten und des letzten Briefes dieser Sammlung bekannt. Beim ersten Brief war dies Johann Ludwig Krapf, der früher bereits als Missionar in Tégray und Šäwa gewirkt hatte, beim letzten der Handwerkermissionar Johannes Mayer. In den anderen Fällen ist wohl häufig Krapf (bei Nr. 5 Flad?) erneut der Übersetzer gewesen; in seinen im Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt vorhandenen Korrespondenzen erwähnt er gelegentlich, dass er amharische Briefe erhielt. Wie der Vergleich der ersten Briefübersetzung mit dem überlieferten amharischen Original zeigt, ist die Übersetzung in diesem Fall recht wortgetreu. Allerdings interpretierte sie auch leicht, wo es das Verständnis erforderte (das Wort für «Rad» wird dem Zusammenhang entsprechend als «Schraube» wiedergegeben). Dieses Beispiel aber zeigt, dass insgesamt von großer Nähe zum Originaltext ausgegangen werden kann. Bibelzitate dürften einer dem Übersetzer vorliegenden deutschen Bibelfassung angelehnt worden sein. äthiopischen protestantischen Kirche, sondern die Anregung innerkirchlicher Reformen in Äthiopien. 11 Vgl. seine Biographie: FLAD, Michael Argawi. Ein mutiger Bekenner.

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Die Briefe: 1. Négusä nägäst Tewodros II. an Bischof Samuel Gobat in Jerusalem 185512 Möge dieses Schreiben (Sendung)13 welches gesendet wird von Theoderos, dem von Gott eingesetzten König der Könige gelangen an den englischen Bischof Gobat in Jerusalem. Bist du sehr wohl? — Der Brief den du mir durch Krapf u. Martin Flad gesandt hast, hat mich erreicht. Es freute mich, daß du nach mir fragst. Wenn nun diese bleiben so behalte sie mir. Und wenn die Leute von denen du mir sagtest, sagen, wir gehen (nach Habesch) so werde ich sie in Liebe aufnehmen, u. in Liebe senden.14 Daß du sagst, ich will dir Arbeiter senden, freute mich, sende sie mir. Aber du kennst die Verhältnisse unseres Landes in dem du gewesen bist.15 Es war früher in 3 Theile getheilt,16 aber durch Gottes Kraft habe ich Einheit gestiftet. Priester welche den Glauben vertreiben (verDie Übersetzung des Briefes ist enthalten in dem Schreiben des Sattlergesellen und Laienmissionars Martin Flad aus Alexandrien vom 15.8.1855, das dieser auf der Rückkehr von seiner ersten Reise nach Abessinien an den Missionsgründer Spittler in Basel sandte. Der Missionar Krapf, mit dem er diese Reise unternahm, hat den Brief ins Deutsche übersetzt; zu Beginn dieses Dokumentes hat Flad notiert: «Schreiben des Königs von Abessynien an Bischof Gobat in Jerusalem! (Ziemlich wortgetreue Uebersetzung.)» — Das amharische Original des Briefes ist abgedruckt in: RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 10f., no. 5, und auch in: APPLEYARD — PANKHURST, Letters from Ethiopian Rulers, 135–142, no. XXVI. Eine gesiegelte Kopie dieses Briefes, die nicht verwendet wurde, war im Besitz von Johann Ludwig Krapf und später von Martin Flad; sie ist im Besitz von Nachkommen des Letzteren und wird hiermit erstmals publiziert (siehe Pl. IX, Annex). 13 Klammern sind offenbar erklärende Einfügungen des Übersetzers. 14 Diesen Abschnitt hat der Übersetzer Krapf mißverstanden, wie das in: RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 10f. veröffentlichte Original zeigt; insbesondere «Wenn nun diese bleiben so behalte sie mir» ist hier ganz unverständlich — Tewodros zitiert damit Gobat. Rubenson hat folgende Übersetzung: «But when these people of whom you said to me, “If they stay, protect them for me; if they come [back], send them to me under protection”, told me that they [Flad und Krapf] would leave, [as] I had received them with love, I sent them away with love». 15 Tewodros kannte Gobat aus seiner Kindheit, als Gobat als Missionar in Nordäthiopien tätig war; der heilkundige Gobat hatte däððazmaè Kinfu, Haylu, den älteren Halbbruder von Tewodros, der ihn aufzog, wegen einer Neurose behandelt (vgl. GOBAT, SAMUEL, Samuel Gobat, evangelischer Bischof in Jerusalem. sein Leben und Wirken meist nach seinen eigenen Aufzeichnungen, bearbeitet von SPITTLER, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH , Basel 1884). 16 Im Original ist dieser Satz länger, aber der Sinn ändert sich nicht; RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 11, hat: «It had been divided, one against another, even into three». 12

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stören) sollen nicht zu mir kommen,17 daß unsere Liebe nicht nachlasse. Früher hat der sogenannte Vater Jakob18 die Taufe aufgehoben, u. hat Diacone u. Priester gemacht u. hat viele Dörfer zum Abfall bewogen. Durch Gottes Gnade habe ich ihn vertrieben u. weggesandt. Wenn aber ein anderer kommt, so will ich ihn in Liebe aufnehmen, u. in Liebe entlaßen, — u. wenn er bleiben will, will ich mit Freuden bleiben lassen (im Lande.).19 Ich höre, daß es etwas giebt, das mit einer Feuerschraube20 pflügt. — Einer von den Arbeitern soll mit dieser Schraube kommen. — Und du frage nach mir — ich werde auch nach dir fragen. Zum Preise Gottes habe ich seit 2 Jahren durch den Herold (öffentlich) den Sklavenhandel verboten. Enthalten im Schreiben von Martin Flad aus Alexandrien vom 15.8.1855, Staatsarchiv des Kantons Basel-Stadt, Privatarchiv Spittler / PA 653, Signatur «V, Joh. Martin Flad». 17 Mir scheint, dass Rubenson diese Stelle deutlich zu sehr zuspitzt, wenn er sagt (RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 11, Fußnote): «The above letter is primary evidence that Tewodros made it abundantly clear from the outset that the missionaries would be welcome as useful craftsmen but not as missionaries». Die ganz formale Bedeutung des Wortes «Priester», um die es hier geht, ist offenbar wichtig: Aus dem späteren guten Verhältnis der entsandten Handwerkermissionare zum Herrscher (bis zur Zuspitzung des Misstrauens Tewodros’ England gegenüber und zum Teil aber sogar darüber hinaus andauernd), deren Gesprächen über Religion, Tewodros’ Versuchen, auf Anregen der Missionare das Amharische in der Kirche zu fördern, Tewodros’ Unterstützung der Missionsschulen etc. wird deutlich, dass er deren religiösen Tätigkeit in der ersten Hälfte seiner Regierungszeit positiv gegenüberstand — abgesehen davon, dass Flad und Krapf schon bei ihrem Besuch 1855 nicht verhehlten, dass die Handwerker auch religiös tätig werden sollten. Gobat hatte dann, Tewodros’ Anordnung folgend, keine ordinierten Priester gesandt, sondern als Laienmissionare tätige Handwerker. Auch spätere Äußerungen äthiopischer Herrscher zeigen die zentrale Bedeutung dieses Beschlusses — wenn Missionare kamen, so sollten sie es «wie Flad» machen, d.h. Konversionen sollten zum Eintritt der Konvertiten in die äthiopisch-orthodoxe Kirche führen. Rubenson übersieht somit den auch formalistischen Charakter von Tewodros’ Bedingung. (Zur Forderung, es «wie Flad» zu machen, siehe Manuskript von HEINTZE-FLAD, WILFRED, Martin Flad, Villars-Tiercelin 2000). 18 Der katholische Missionar Giustino de Jacobis, von der katholischen Bevölkerung noch heute abunä Yaqob oder qéddus Yaqob (seltenere Variante «Yaýéqob») genannt. 19 RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 11: «Whoever stays, I shall make happy and provide for». 20 Eigentlich «Feuerrad» im Amharischen (vgl. RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 11, der dies aber nicht erklärt); die Beschreibung zeigt, dass nur ein maschinell angetriebener Pflug gemeint sein kann. Der Überlieferung in der Familie Flad nach, handelt es sich um einen (frühen) «Traktor», d.h. einen dampfbetriebenen Pflug; Tewodros «wanted even Gobat to send him a tractor and a tractor driver», s. Manuskript von HEINTZE-FLAD, Martin Flad, 8.

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2. Däbtära Zännäb21 [«Debtera Saneb»] und däbtära Mäsqäl22 [«Maskal»] an Samuel Gobat, anglikanischer Bischof von Jerusalem [Mäqdäla]23 Oktober/November 186124 Dieser Brief, gesandt von Debtera Saneb und Debtera Maskal, gelange an Samuel Gobat. Im Namen unseres Herrn Jesu Christi — wie befinden Sie sich? Wir sind, dem Herrn sei Dank, wohl. — Die Brüder, die Sie zu uns gesandt, haben das Licht Jesu Christi25 in unseren Herzen verbreitet. Wenn Sie vielleicht sagen: Den Müden gebe ich Ruhe, und die Starken stelle ich an den Streit, bitten wir daß Sie nicht müde werden. Wir sind der Sünden Sklaven, bitten wir Sie aber um unsers Herrn Jesu Christi willen, in Gemeinschaft mit Ihren Brüdern für uns zu beten, daß das Geheimnis seines Reiches in unserm ganzen Lande möge verbreitet werden. Zwar wissen wir, daß Sie für uns beten; aber wir wünschen, daß Sie in Ihrer Fürbitte für uns noch mehr erstarken mögen. Gedruckt in: Mittheilungen, Nr. 1, Juni 1862, 2. [Langtitel siehe Fußnote 8] 3. Däbtära Zännäb und däbtära Mäsqäl an die Bibel-Gesellschaft in London [Mäqdäla] Oktober/November 186126 Dieser Brief, gesandt von Debtera Saneb und Debtera Maskal, möge gelangen an die Bibelgesellschaft in London. Zännäb war als Sekretär von Tewodros II. auch dessen Chronist. In der Biographie des Missionars Flad heißt es über seine Verbindung zu den Missionaren: «Ein gelehrter Mönch, der Schreiber des König Theodorus, der im Jahre vorher [1857] schon durch die Missionare Kienzlen und Meier die amharische Bibel kennengelernt hatte, wurde der erste Evangelist aus der äthiopischen Bevölkerung». (FLAD, JULIUS, Johann Martin Flad. Ein Leben für Äthiopien, Gießen — Basel: Brunnen-Verlag 1968, 32; so erzählt es auch Martin Flad selbst, siehe FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 105). 22 Bruder von däbtära Zännäb (vgl. STREBEL, «Leben auf dem Missionsfeld», 138). 23 Zännäb war nach den Briefen der Missionare in Mäqdäla stationiert; er gab dreimal wöchentlich den Soldaten auf der Bergfeste Bibelstunden und einmal wöchentlich eine Gebetsstunde. Bei Flad lernte er Englisch, um seine amharische Bibel mit der englischen vergleichen zu können (FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 105). 24 Am 4. Dezember 1861 schickt Martin Flad Abschriften der Briefe, die er «kürzlich» erhalten hat, an C. F. Spittler in Basel, siehe Mittheilungen, Nr. 1, Juni 1862, 1. 25 Anspielung auf Joh 8:12: «Ich bin das Licht der Welt; wer mir nachfolgt, der wird nicht wandeln in der Finsternis, sondern wird das Licht des Lebens haben». 26 Wie Fußnote 24: am 4. Dezember 1861 schickt Martin Flad Abschriften der kürzlich erhaltenen Briefe an C. F. Spittler in Basel, siehe Mittheilungen, Nr. 1, Juni 1862, 1. Flad notiert am Ende dieses Briefes, Seite 3: «Diesem Brief ist noch ein Formular beigelegt mit einem Bittschreiben, amharische Bibeln in Taschen-Format drucken zu lassen». 21

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Im Namen unseres Herrn Jesu Christi — wie befinden Sie sich? Die Brüder, welche durch S. Gobat27 zu uns gesandt sind, haben die Liebe Christi in unseren Herzen wohnend gemacht. Zuvor saßen wir in großer Finsterniß, und nun freuen wir uns im Lichte des Evangeliums.28 Zwar sind wir noch böse, bitten aber unserer deßhalb nicht müde zu werden, sondern für uns den Vater Jesu Christi zu bitten, daß die Sache Christi, die zu uns kam, möge bei uns so geehrt werden, wie sie bei Ihnen geehrt wird. Daß Sie für uns beten, wissen wir; schreiben aber diese Zeilen, daß Sie noch mehr für uns beten mögen. Gedruckt in: Mittheilungen, Nr. 1, Juni 1862, 2f. 4. Abunä Sälama [«Abuna Salama»] an Friedrich Brandeis29 und Wilhelm Staiger30 in Gafat Mäqdäla, Oktober/November31 1862 Abuna Salama, Bischof von Abessinien, an W. Staiger und F. Brandeis. Grüße zuvor. Den Brief, welchen ihr mir zugeschickt habt, habe ich erhalten. Die Laienmissionare wurden in der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission ausgebildet und entsandt, die Leitung lag aber in den Händen des anglikanischen Bischofs Samuel Gobat in Jerusalem; Gobat war 1832–1834 als einer der ersten protestantischen Missionare in Äthiopien, gefolgt von Johann Ludwig Krapf, der nun als Mitglied des Komitees der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission ebenfalls bedeutenden Einfluss auf die Mission ausübte. Gobats Instruktionen an die Missionare vom 7. Dezember 1855 sind abgedruckt in WALDMEIER, THEOPHILUS, The Autobiography of Theophilus Waldmeier: Being an Account of Ten Years’ Life in Abyssinia; and Sixteen Years in Syria, London — Leominster o.J. [1886/87], 46–58. 28 Bezug auf Matth 4:16: «Das Volk, das in Finsternis saß, hat ein großes Licht gesehen, und denen, die im Land und Schatten des Todes saßen, ist Licht aufgegangen» (Angelehnt an Jes 9:1). 29 Früher Eleazar Brandeis, dann vom Judentum zum Protestantismus konvertiert und schließlich Missionsschüler auf St. Chrischona; dies prädestinierte ihn zu der im 19. Jhdt. besonders aktiv betriebenen «Judenmission», als deren Teil die Mission unter den «Falascha» verstanden wurde. Zu seiner Biographie siehe STREBEL, BARBARA, «Brandeis, Friedrich Wilhelm», in: EÆ I, 621, und zu seiner Rolle in der Mission siehe STREBEL, «Leben auf dem Missionsfeld». 30 Brandeis und Staiger, die mit Flad 1856 aus St. Chrischona gekommen waren, waren damals in den Dienst einer schottischen Missionsgesellschaft getreten und hatten eine weitere Missionsstation der «Falascha-Mission» gegründet (vgl. FLAD, Johann Martin Flad. Ein Leben für Äthiopien, 35). 31 Am Tag nach Erhalt des Briefes ging Staiger in Begleitung von Kienzlen zum König nach Däbrä Tabor, der die Erlaubnis zur Abreise nach Dämbéya gab (unter Zeugenschaft eines abessinischen Priesters und Kienzlens), damit sie dort den Unterricht unter den «Juden» beginnen könnten. Sie reisten daraufhin am 27. November 1862 in Begleitung eines Mannes des Königs ab (vgl. Mittheilungen, Nr. 2, Juni 1863, 14). 27

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Wenn es sich ergibt, daß ich mit dem Könige zusammen komme,32 will ich Alles berathen. Vorderhand aber, wenn ihr das Evangelium unsers Herrn und Heilandes Jesu Christi unter den Nationen verkündigen wollt, bin ich nicht dagegen. Jedoch liebe ich nicht in Abessinien zwei Kirchenpartheien und zwei Glaubensbekenntnisse. Wenn ihr aber lehrt wie Herr Flad, und die etiopischen Priester eure Proselyten taufen laßt, so mögt ihr immerhin unterrichten; allein daß ihr nicht gegen das Evangelium Sachen lehrt, welche uns in der Liebe entzweien. Wenn ihr aber in ein anderes Land gehen wollt, z.B. zu den Gallas, in ein Land, in welchem das Christenthum noch nicht ist, und in welchem noch keine Priester sind, mögt ihr immerhin thun, wie euch der König erlaubt33 . Gedruckt in: Mittheilungen, Nr. 2, Juni 1863, 13 5. Die «bekehrten Falascha» [Däbtära Bérru Wébe und andere34] an die London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews [«unsere Gesellschaft»] Gända, nach 21. Juli 186235 [vor 1863] Im Namen Gottes des Vaters, des Sohnes und des hl. Geistes, Ein Gott. Amen.36 Möge dieser Brief gelangen an die Gesellschaft in England, die 32 Tewodros war in der Zeit mit seiner Armee bei Däbrä Tabor, vgl. Mittheilungen, Nr. 1, Juni 1863, 13. 33 Diese Bemerkung ist historisch von einiger Wichtigkeit. Offenbar da zu jenem Zeitpunkt zahlreiche Oromo-Gebiete und -Länder noch nicht oder kaum unterworfen waren, beansprucht der abun keine Priorität der äthiopisch-orthodoxen Kirche, sondern überlässt die Entscheidung über die eventuelle Selbständigkeit der protestantischen Mission ganz dem König. Diese Entscheidung kann als erster Schritt zur Legitimierung einer zukünftigen unabhängigen protestantischen Kirche unter den Oromo angesehen werden. Noch war ein solcher Schritt allerdings in weiter Ferne, zumal die Oromo-Gebiete unzugänglich blieben; erst mit der ab 1871 unter négus Ménilék in Šäwa etablierten protestantischen Mission wurden die ersten Oromo-Gebiete erreicht. 34 Dieser gelehrt abgefasste Brief ähnelt dem Nachfolgenden des däbtära Bérru sehr, weshalb vermutet werden kann, dass dieser Brief ebenfalls von ihm abgefasst worden ist. 35 «Ein Brief der bekehrten Falascha...», ohne weitere Angabe. Nach FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 117 ist der 21. Juli 1862 das Taufdatum von däbtära Bérru und 21 weiteren Konvertiten (der erste große Erfolg der Mission in Êända); am 4. August 1862 wurden 19 weitere getauft und später noch weitere 24. Die Reihenfolge in Flads Bericht und der Briefinhalt zeigen, dass er nicht in großem zeitlichen Abstand (danach) geschrieben worden ist. Es ist also nicht Rubenson (RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 179 [Fußnote]) zu folgen, der den Brief etwas früher datiert. 36 Im Gegensatz zu den anderen hier abgedruckten Briefen beginnt dieser Brief mit der klassischen Anfangsformel von christlichen äthiopische Briefen; er ist somit eindeutig eine Übersetzung. Diese Übersetzung durch Flad unterscheidet sich nur in

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Lehrer und Bibeln sandte zu den zerstreuten Kindern Israels37 in Abessinien. Er ist gesandt von den Falascha in Dschenda, welche an Jesum Christum glauben. Teure Väter,38 wie befinden Sie sich?39 Wir waren ohne Erkenntnis, in großer Finsternis; aber jetzt, seitdem Sie uns Lehrer sandten, sind wir, obgleich wir viel mit ihnen disputierten, doch an der Wahrheit gelangt,40 wie Jesaias sagt: «Das Volk, das im Finstern wandelt, hat ein großes Licht gesehen, und die da saßen am Ort und Schatten des Todes, denen ist ein Licht aufgegangen».41 Und nun, teure Väter, nehmet uns in Eure Sorge und betet für uns, damit wir empfangen die Gnade des Herrn und darin befestigt werden, denn wir sind gleich zarten Pflanzen, die noch nicht tiefe Wurzel haben. Sie haben uns Gutes getan, wie David sagt: «Ich will Übertreter deine Wege lehren und Sünder zu dir bekehren».42 Und wie Jesaias sagt: «Er soll aufwachsen vor ihm als eine zarte Pflanze, als eine Wurzel aus einem trockenen Erdreich».43 Diese Worte wenden wir auf uns selbst an, denn wir waren, ohne Ihn zu kennen, seine Feinde! Dieses schreiben wir Ihnen, damit Sie für uns vor dem Herrn ringen mögen. Ehre sei dem Vater, dem Sohn und dem heiligen Geist. Amen.44 Gedruckt in: FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 118. Englische Version in: Jewish Intelligence, and Monthly Account of the Proceedings of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews 29, March 1863, 68f. (Siehe auch Acta Aethiopica II, no. 103: RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 179).

wenigen Details von der englischen Übersetzung, die aber insgesamt näher am Original sein dürfte. Jedoch ergeben sich durch die Unterschiede keine anderen Interpretationsmöglichkeiten. 37 In dieser Formulierung verbirgt sich eine Selbstbezeichnung der «Falascha»: Däqqä Ésraýel, oder vielleicht sogar «Betä Ésraýel» (heute als Ethnonym verwendet). Interessant ist, dass die Schreiber sich in diesem Brief selbst als «Falascha» bezeichnen, was eigentlich Fremdbezeichnung ist. Sie wird hier ohne Einspruch aus dem Amharischen übernommen (von der Wurzel fälläsä, bedeutend etwa «die Vertriebenen», siehe KAPLAN, STEVEN, «Betä Ésraýel», in: EÆ I, 552–559). 38 In der englischen Fassung steht: «Oh! our dear fathers!» 39 In der englischen Fassung folgt hier noch die typisch äthiopische Wiederholung «Very much how are you?», die Flad hier offenbar weggelassen hat. 40 Dieser Satz interpretiert mehr als die englische Übersetzung, die näher am Original zu bleiben scheint: «but now since you sent us teachers, we have disputed very much; but we arrived at the truth». 41 Jes 9:1 (wie Matth 4:16). 42 Psalm 51:13. 43 Jes 53:2. 44 Auch hier variiert die englische Fassung leicht, wohl dem amharischen Original folgend: «Glory be to the Father, glory be to the Son, glory be to the Holy Ghost, Amen».

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6. Däbtära Bérru Wébe [«Debtera Berru»45] an Johann Ludwig Krapf in Kornthal [Gafat],46 [November/Dezember] 1864 Im Namen des Vaters, des Sohnes und des heiligen Geistes, ein Gott. Dieser Brief des Debtera Berru, der Wolda Paulus47 heißt, gelange an Herrn Krapf, der unter den Heiden im östlichen Afrika Missionar gewesen ist. Wie geht es Ihnen? Ich bin wohl durch Gottes Güte. Ich kannte Sie früher nicht, aber nun hat mir Herr Flad Ihre Geschichte mitgetheilt. Daher frage ich nach Ihnen, nach der Liebe, welche zwischen Christen besteht. Früher, als ich noch Jude war, saß ich in der Finsterniß, nun aber bin ich durch die Liebe Gottes und Christi Gnade zum wahrhaftigen Glauben gelangt.48 Der heilige Paulus «...eines bekehrten Juden», ebenda. Zu seiner Biographie siehe QUIRIN, JAMES, «Bérru Wébe», in: EÆ I, 545. 46 Flad schreibt im Dezember 1864 (Mittheilungen, Nr. 3, September 1865, 20), die Proselyten seien ihm nach Gafat gefolgt. Es ist anzunehmen, dass däbtära Bérru den Brief etwa gleichzeitig wie Flad verfasst hat; er nimmt indirekt auf Flad Bezug. 47 Dies ist die Angabe des Taufnamens von Bérru; nach traditionell abessinischer Sitte ist der Taufname verschieden vom in der Öffentlichkeit getragenen Namen. Er wird oft sogar keinem außer dem Täufling und seiner engsten Familie bekannt (dazu siehe das Buch von lij ASFA-WOSSEN ASSERATE: Die Geschichte von Ðawâ (Äthiopien) 1700–1865 nach dem Târika Nagaút des Belâttçn Gçtâ Òeruy Walda Œellâsç, Wiesbaden 1980 [Studien zur Kulturkunde, 53], 3, Fußnote 10). Der Taufname enthält hier die Anspielung auf Paulus, der seinen Namen bei seiner Konversion ebenfalls geändert hatte (ähnlich wie später der Oromo-Missionszögling Ruufoo, der ebenfalls «Paulus» als einen seiner Namen erhielt, oder die Oromo-Konvertitin «Pauline» Fathme, vgl. SMIDT, WOLBERT, «Quellenübersicht zur Biographie des ehemaligen Sklaven und ersten Oromo-Bibelübersetzers Christian Rufo», Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 67, 2001, 181–198. 48 Er war bereits zu einem frühen Zeitpunkt konvertiert (1862, vgl. Bemerkung zu vorigem Brief): «Dieser war der erste bedeutende Bekehrte aus den Falaschas und hatte in all den schweren Jahren der Gefangenschaft sich als treuer Jünger Christi bewiesen». (FLAD, Michael Argawi. Ein mutiger Bekenner, 19). Über seinen Übertritt zum Christentum heißt es in der Biographie Flads: «Einer der angesehensten und gelehrtesten Falaschas, der Schriftgelehrte Debtera Beru (...), trat an einem Samstag in dem jüdischen Bethaus der Falaschas öffentlich auf und bekannte seinen neuen Glauben an Christus als Gottes Sohn und Erlöser der Welt [1862]. Er begründete danach seinen Glauben mit Stellen aus dem Alten Testament. Einundzwanzig andere Falaschas schlossen sich bald an und bekannten vor ihren ehemaligen Glaubensgenossen und ihren Vätern und Brüdern ihren Glauben an Jesus Christus. Dadurch entstand eine gewaltige Aufregung und Bewegung unter den Falaschas. Die Betreffenden wurden nicht nur von den Mönchen mit dem gefürchteten Bannfluch belegt, sondern auch von den nächsten Angehörigen verflucht». (FLAD, Johann Martin Flad. Ein Leben für Äthiopien, 35; ähnlich in FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 117). — 1874 wurde er Mitarbeiter der neugegründeten Falascha-Mission in der Missionsstation 45

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sagt: Gaben und Beruf mögen Gott nicht gereuen;49 aber er sagt auch: wie sollen sie glauben, was sie nicht gehört haben, oder wie sollen sie hören ohne Lehrer, denn der Glaube kommt durch’s Hören, und das Hören kommt von Gott.50 Durch’s Hören bin ich glaubig geworden.51 Dem Herrn sei Dank dafür, daß ER an uns gedacht hat nach seiner Güte, aber beten Sie für uns, daß, nachdem Gott uns vergeben und durch Christi Blut uns von Sünden gereinigt hat, wir nicht durch die vielen Versuchungen der Welt in das weltliche Wesen zurückgehen. Gott wolle seinen Heiligen Geist in unsern Herzen walten lassen, daß wir seinem Willen gehorsam seien und in der Wahrheit fest und zuverlässig werden; denn der heilige Johannes sagt: Welche an seinen Namen glauben, sind nicht von dem Geblüt, noch von dem Willen des Fleisches.52 Jedoch werden wir nicht gerecht durch unser eigenes Verdienst,53 sondern durch Christi Gnade und Barmherzigkeit; denn der Prophet Daniel spricht: O Herr, wir bitten Dich nicht wegen unsrer Gerechtigkeit, sondern wegen Deines großen Erbarmens.54 Unser Herr Jesus sagt: Das ist’s, was ich euch gebiete, daß ihr euch unter einander liebet;55 deßhalb vergessen Sie uns nicht im Gebet, denn Paulus sagt: Sorget nichts, alles euer Anliegen mit Gebet und Flehen und Danksagen lasset kund werden vor Gott, so wird der allen Verstand übersteigende Friede Gottes mit euch sein.56 Die Gnade unsers Herrn Ðända, wo die in St. Chrischona ausgebildeten Evangelisten Arägawi und Sänbätu Danéýel die Mission wiederaufnahmen; «er bedeutete für die jungen Brüder geistlichen Rückhalt und Unterstützung». (FLAD, Michael Argawi. Ein mutiger Bekenner, 19). Weitere Details zu seiner Biographie siehe FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 387– 404. 49 Vgl. 1. Korinther 12:4–5: «Es sind mancherlei Gaben; aber es ist ein Geist. Und es sind mancherlei Ämter; aber es ist ein Herr». 1. Korinther 12:4:7: «In einem jeglichen erzeigen sich die Gaben des Geistes zum gemeinen Nutzen». 50 Leicht abgewandelte Bibelzitate, Römer 10:14: «Wie sollen sie aber an den glauben, von dem sie nichts gehört haben? Wie sollen sie aber hören ohne Lehrer?» Römer 10:17: «Der Glaube kommt durch’s Hören, das Hören aber kommt durch Gottes Wort». 51 Ist das eine versteckte Bitte um das Entsenden von mehr Lehrern? 52 Joh 1:12–13: «Wie viele ihn aber aufnahmen, denen gab er Macht, Gottes Kinder zu werden, die an seinen Namen glauben; welche nicht von dem Geblüt noch von dem Willen des Fleisches noch von dem Willen eines Mannes, sondern von Gott geboren sind». 53 Ein echt protestantisches Bekenntnis! 54 Dan 9:18: «...nicht im Vertrauen auf unsere gerechten Taten legen wir dir unsere Bitten vor, sondern im Vertrauen auf deine große Barmherzigkeit». 55 Joh 15:17: «Das gebiete ich euch, daß ihr euch untereinander liebet». (Wie Joh 15:12; Joh 13:34). 56 Philipper 4:6–7: «Sorget nichts! sondern in allen Dingen lasst eure Bitten im Gebet und Flehen mit Danksagung vor Gott kund werden. Und der Friede Gottes, welcher höher ist denn alle Vernunft, bewahre eure Herzen und Sinne in Christo Jesu!»

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Jesu Christi, die Liebe Gottes und die Gemeinschaft des heiligen Geistes sei mit Ihnen. Amen. Gedruckt in Mittheilungen, Nr. 3, September 1865, 20f. 7. Arägawi57 [«Aragau»] [vielleicht an Johann Ludwig Krapf, Kornthal] Gafat, 20. Januar 1865 Im vergangenen Jahr wurde mein lieber B. Paulus, nachdem er sehr schwer krank gewesen, vom Herrn abgerufen, aber trauern Sie deßhalb nicht, denn unser Herr Jesus Christus spricht: Ich bin die Auferstehung und das Leben, wer an mich glaubt, der wird leben, ob er gleich stürbe.58 Ja, sein Erlöser lebt und Er wird ihn hernach aus der Erde auferwecken. Er wird mit seiner Haut umgeben. Gott hat’s genommen, der Name des Herrn sei gelobt! Wir waren Alle traurig, aber wir haben eine Verheißung, nemlich daß unser Herr Christus die Auferstehung und das Leben ist.

Dieser Missionszögling stammte nach seiner Biographie, siehe FLAD, Michael Argawi. Ein mutiger Bekenner, aus einer Falascha-Familie, jedoch war schon sein Vater Christ. Später vielfach genannt als «Mikaýel Arägawi» (deutsch «Michael Argawi», oder «Michael Aragau»), was oft für Vor- und Vatersname gehalten wurde. Jedoch war Mikaýel sein Taufname, der in der abessinischen Tradition meist verborgen bleibt; Arägawi ist sein eigentlicher Name. Vgl. dazu der Brief von Flad aus Messina, 4. Juli 1866, der kurz nach seiner Ankunft auf seiner diplomatischen Mission zur Königin von England geschrieben worden war; er hat Arägawi mitgebracht (Mittheilungen, Nr. 2, September 1866, 10). Arägawi soll nach seinem eigenen Wunsch in St. Chrischona ausgebildet werden. Von diesem Wunsch hatte Flad bereits im Dezember 1864 in einem Brief berichtet (Mittheilungen, Nr. 3, September 1865, 20). Arägawi begleitete 1866 seinen Pflegevater Martin Flad, als dieser von Tewodros II. als Emissär zu Königin Viktoria gesandt wurde, bis Marseille; während Flad nach London weiterreiste, kam Arägawi von dort aus zum Missionsbegründer Friedrich Christian Spittler nach Basel und dann als Schüler in die Waisenanstalt in Weinheim bei Heidelberg; ab 1869 wurde er in der Pilgermission St. Chrischona bei Basel zum Missionar ausgebildet (siehe Pl. VIII). Mit drei weiteren konvertierten «Falascha», früheren Schülern von Flads Missionsschule in Ðända und nun ebenfalls auf St. Chrischona, wurde Arägawi 1873 als Missionar mit Martin Flad nach Ðända entsandt, um dort die Mission fortzuführen. Nachdem er lange als «Feldleiter» der Mission fungierte, wurde er 1894 als Nachfolger Flads zum Leiter der gesamten Falascha-Mission ernannt und erst 1925 nach 52 Dienstjahren von Willy Heintze, Ehemann von Flads Enkelin Eleonora Flad, in Ðända abgelöst (dazu siehe insbesondere Arägawis Biographie, FLAD, Michael Argawi. Ein mutiger Bekenner). 58 Bibelzitat, Joh 11:25: «Ich bin die Auferstehung und das Leben. Wer an mich glaubet, der wird leben, ob er gleich stürbe». 57

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Als ich geboren wurde, verließ mich mein Vater und gieng nach Jerusalem, wo er sieben Jahre blieb. Nachher kam er mit Herrn Flad und den übrigen Europäern hieher59 und ich auch zu ihnen. Damals dachte ich, weil ich vorher nie weiße Leute gesehen, sie werden mich fressen,60 und fürchtete mich sehr; aber sie thaten mir anstatt Böses Gutes, sie lehrten mich den Weg des Lebens,61 welches mich sehr freute. Dieses Vertrauen und diese Liebe zu den Europäern wurde noch mehr gefördert durch Ihren l[ieben] Brief, welcher mich sehr freute, sowie auch Ihr l[iebes] Bild,62 welches Sie schickten. Ich danke Ihnen vielmal dafür, sowie für alle die übrigen Sachen, die Sie für uns schickten. Beten Sie für mich, denn ich wohne unter einem bösen Volk, und mein Herz ist so böse, damit Gott mich zu einem neuen Menschen und Kind Gottes macht. Ich lerne jetzt deutsch schreiben,63 und ich hoffe Ihnen recht viele Briefe zu schreiben in Zukunft; unterdessen verzeihen Sie die Fehler, die ich mache.64 Grüßen Sie alle Ihre Freunde, die uns schwarze Abessinier lieb

59 Diese kamen 1856 aus Jerusalem in Abessinien an, offenbar in Begleitung des (namentlich nirgendwo genannten) Vaters; daraus ergibt sich das exakte Geburtsjahr von Arägawi, das bisher unsicher war: 1849, da der Vater sieben Jahre nach der Geburt in Jerusalem lebte. Zur Zeit dieses Briefes ist er also fast 16 Jahre alt. 60 Das Motiv des Kannibalismus ist bei zahlreichen afrikanischen Völkern weit verbreitet, wenn diese Angehörige fremder Völker beschreiben. 61 Bezug auf Joh 14:6: «Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben; niemand kommt zum Vater denn durch mich». Vgl. auch Sprüche 15:24: «Der Weg des Lebens geht überwärts für die Klugen, auf daß er meide die Hölle unterwärts». 62 Die erste Erwähnung von Fotografie in Briefen aus Äthiopien. 63 Er arbeitete in dieser Zeit auch bereits als Hilfsübersetzer bei den Missionaren; die Missionare «beschäftigen sich mit allerlei schriftstellerischen Arbeiten ... In ihren Uebersetzungen unterstützt sie besonders der Christ Jakob Aragau, welcher später auf St. Chrischona aufgenommen zu werden wünscht». (CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH SPITTLER, Siebzehntes Rundschreiben an die Freunde der Pilgermission, Basel, Dezember 1865, 18). Der Name «Jakob» taucht sonst nirgendwo auf, vermutlich handelt es sich daher hier um einen Fehler oder um den ansonsten unbekannten Vatersnamen (siehe Fußnote 59). 64 Diese Passage zeigt, dass dieser Brief auch im Original auf Deutsch verfasst ist; die Fehler jedoch sind korrigiert (und zwar in Basel; «ich danke Ihnen vielmal» ist eine typisch schweizerische Formel, auf Hochdeutsch wäre es «vielmals»). Auch der Stil des Briefes weicht ganz von dem üblichen äthiopischen Briefstil ab; er zeigt den deutschen Einfluss sehr deutlich. Arägawi wuchs seit seinem achten Lebensjahr bei den Europäern auf und wurde Flads Pflegesohn in Ðénda, bis dieser 1864 von dort vertrieben wurde und mit seiner Familie nach Gafat kam. Wegen enttäuschter

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haben und uns Gutes thun, und sagen Sie ihnen, daß ich mich sehr freuen werde, sie alle im Himmel einmal zu sehen und für ihre Liebe ihnen danken zu dürfen. — Die Gnade unseres Herrn Jesu sei mit Ihnen und Ihrem dankbaren Aragau. Gedruckt in Mittheilungen, Nr. 1, Juni 1866, 1f.

Erwartungen an die englische Regierung hatte Tewodros II. zunächst im November 1863 die neuangekommenen englischen Judenmissionare Stern und Rosenthal in Gondär gefangengenommen; die übrigen Missionare, denen nun Beschimpfung des Königs (z. B. in ihrer Korrespondenz) vorgeworfen wurde, wurden seither auch als Gefangene betrachtet, konnten sich aber zunächst noch frei bewegen. Im Januar 1864 wurden der englische Konsul Cameron und sechs der Missionare, unter ihnen Flad, ebenfalls in Ketten gelegt und dann auch ihre Familien gefangengenommen. Im Februar wurden diese sechs nach Gafat entlassen, zwar bewacht, wo sie aber ihre Arbeit wiederaufnehmen konnten (die Missionsstation Ðénda blieb aber seither verwaist); Staiger und Brandeis setzten auch den Unterricht wieder fort. Trotz ihrer Bewachung gelang es, mehrere Briefe nach Massawa und in die Grenzstadt Mätämma zu schmuggeln, wodurch die Nachricht von ihrer Gefangennahme nach Europa drang. Seither verschlechterte sich die Situation der Missionare graduell immer mehr, bis sie schließlich 1867 alle in auf der Bergfeste Mäqdäla in Ketten gefangengelegt wurden. Die Intervention der britisch-indischen Armee führte zu Ostern 1868 zur Befreiung aller Gefangenen (vgl. FLAD, Johann Martin Flad. Ein Leben für Äthiopien, 36ff.).

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8. Moritz Hall [«M. Hall»]65 an Bischof Samuel Gobat66 in Jerusalem [Gafat], 2. Januar 1866 «Ich bin ein Israelit, von Polen gebürtig.67 Nach vielen Irrfahrten kam ich endlich nach Abyssinien, wo ich Ihre Missionare, die Herren Bender, Meyer, Waldmeyer, Kienzlen und Saalmüller kennengelernt habe, und von ihnen gelehrt worden bin, daß Jesus der Messias, der Heiland der Sünder und mein Heiland ist. Durch diesen Glauben habe ich Frieden für meine Seele und die Vergebung meiner Sünden gefunden. Die lieben Brüder haben mich in ihre

Kanonengießer von Tewodros II., Ehemann einer Äthiopierin und Begründer einer bedeutenden deutsch-äthiopischen Familie, von der mehrere Mitglieder nach langem Aufenthalt in Palästina (nach 1868) seit etwa 1903 in Äthiopien z. T. wichtige Positionen an den Höfen der Kaiser Ménilék II. und Haylä Séllase I. sowie von léýul ras Asratä Maryam Kasa, Gouverneur von Eritrea, einnahmen. Wegen der engen Verbindung dieser Familie mit der äthiopischen Geschichte wurde auch dieser Brief eines Nicht-Äthiopiers, der den Anfangspunkt dieser Geschichte darstellt, aufgenommen. — Kürzlich ist eine kurze, dreisprachige Biographie von ihm erschienen (Deutsch, Englisch, Hebräisch): HOLTZ, AVRAHAM — HOLTZ, TOBY BERGER, Moritz Hall: Der alte Mann von Jaffa. The Old Man of Jaffa, Haifa 2003 (Abhandlungen des Gottlieb-Schumacher-Instituts / Publications of the Gottlieb Schumacher Institute, 3). Darin werden die bisher bekannten Dokumente und Berichte zu seinem Leben ausgewertet, ausgehend von einer kurzen farbigen Schilderung des «alten Mannes von Jaffa» (Moritz Hall) in einem Roman des Nobelpreisträgers Agnon. — In Äthiopien heiratete Hall die junge Wälättä Iyäsus «Housepian», deren christlicher Taufname Cathérine bzw. Katharina lautete (katholisch getauft durch den oben bereits genannten Missionar Justin de Jacobis), Tochter eines deutschen Einwanderers und einer früheren äthiopischen Hofdame und ihrerseits später eine einflussreiche Hofdame am Hof von Kaiserin Taytu (zu deren Herkunft u. a. SMIDT, WOLBERT, «Verbindungen der Familie Ustinov nach Äthiopien», Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean 5JK@EAI &, #, !–"'). Moritz Hall war Äthiopiern offenbar nur unter seinem Vornamen bekannt (vgl. der unten genannte Brief von Tewodros II.), was sich auch an europäischen Berichten zeigt, die ihn «Herrn Moritz» nennen (vgl. u. a. HOLTZ — HOLTZ, Moritz Hall: Der alte Mann von Jaffa, S. 34, Fußnote 39; EVGENIA SOKOLINSKAIA, «From Qwara to Mäqdäla. Index of Proper Names from the Three Chronicles of Emperor Tewodros II’s Reign», in: BÖLL, VERENA — NOSNITSIN, DENIS — RAVE, T HOMAS — SMIDT , WOLBERT — SOKOLINSKAIA, E VGENIA (eds.), Studia Aethiopica. In Honour of Siegbert Uhlig on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Wiesbaden 2004, 269–290, hier 280, 284). 66 Bischof der Anglikanischen Kirche in Jerusalem und Leiter der Mission in Äthiopien. 67 Geboren am 14. März 1838 in Krakau (gem. Dokumenten im Besitz von Jochen Bertsch in Stuttgart, dem ich an dieser Stelle für seine Großzügigkeit danke, mit der er mir Zugang zu Familienpapieren Hall verschafft hat). 65

Pl. VIII. Mikaýel Arägawi (sitzend vorne links) um 1871 als Schüler in St. Chrischona, zusammen mit den anderen später angekommenen äthiopischen Schülern, von links nach rechts: Gobbaw Dästa (später bekannt als Gäbru Dästa), Haylu Wäsän, Éngédasät alias Wilhelm Schimper, Sämýanni Danéýel, Agaže Sahlu, Sänbätu Danéýel, aus Privatbesitz Frau Johanson-Flad

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Gemeinschaft aufgenommen,68 und ich darf an ihren Gottesdiensten und an-

68 Die Frage, wann genau Moritz Hall in die Gemeinschaft aufgenommen wurde, war bisher nicht endgültig geklärt (HOLTZ — HOLTZ, Moritz Hall: Der alte Mann von Jaffa, 30f.). Die Abschrift seiner Hochzeitsbescheinigung von C. F. W. Flad, «Direktor der Fladschen Mission in Abessinien» in St. Légier bei Vevey am Genfer See, vom 6. Oktober 1937 (im Besitz von Jochen Bertsch, Stuttgart), besagt, dass er am 17. Mai 1863 in Gondär «Evangelisch getraut worden ist von dem von der Pilgermission St. Chrischona bei Basel entsandten Missionar Saalmüller». Das zeigt, dass er bereits zu diesem Zeitpunkt den Missionaren nahestand (seine junge Frau war Missionszögling). Ein undatierter Brief von Tewodros II. an die europäische Gemeinde von Gafat, verfasst nach Januar 1862, aber offenbar vor dem August 1862 (den WALDMEIER, The Autobiography of Theophilus Waldmeier, 21–24, veröffentlichte, vgl. RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 189), richtet sich an die Herren «Kienzlen, Waldmeier, Saalmüller, Moritz [sic!], Bender und Bourgaud». Aus dem Kontext von Waldmeiers Bericht, in den der Brief eingebettet ist, geht hervor, dass die Europäer bereits begonnen hatten, Kanonen zu gießen. Aus verschiedenen Erwähnungen von Moritz Hall ist bekannt, dass dieser als ehemaliger Soldat der russischen Armee das Gießerhandwerk gelernt hatte (H OLTZ — HOLTZ, Moritz Hall: Der alte Mann von Jaffa, 12f., 30), somit als einziger Europäer für Tewodros’ Auftrag praktische Erfahrungen aufweisen konnte und dann an der Fabrikation von Kanonen und zwei größen Mörsern mitwirkte (ein Dokument von Missionar Saalmüller, also aus erster Hand, bestätigt und präzisiert die bisher bekannten Berichte über seine Rolle als Kanonengießer des Herrschers: Auf der Rückseite einer Originalzeichnung des Anfang 1868 hergestellten Mörsers «Sebastopol» befindet sich folgende Widmung an einen der Söhne Halls: «Au cher Frédéric Hall en souvenir du mortier fabriqué par Messieurs Waldmeier, Saalmüller et Hall 1868. M. Saalmüller»). — Er ist also jedenfalls vor Mitte 1862 in die Gemeinschaft der Missionare aufgenommen worden. In einem weiteren Dokument von C. F. W. Flad, ebenfalls vom 6. Oktober 1937, wird das Jahr 1862 als Aufnahmejahr ausdrücklich genannt: «Es wird hiermit beglaubigt, dass Herr Moritz Hall während seines Aufenthaltes in Abessinien in den Jahren 1862–1868 mit den Missionaren der Basler St. Chrischona Mission zusammengelebt und gewirkt hat zur Zufriedenheit des damaligen Königs Theodros, der ihn auch mehrfach ausgezeichnet hat». (Beide Dokumente im Besitz von Jochen Bertsch, Stuttgart). Das Jahr 1862 muss allerdings nicht das Jahr seiner Konversion sein; wir wissen, dass die Pilgermissionare großen Wert auf eine echte «innere» Bekehrung legten und Taufwilligen zunächst längeren Unterricht erteilten (wie z.B. bei afrikanischen Zöglingen belegt, vgl. SMIDT, «Quellenübersicht zur Biographie des ehemaligen Sklaven»). — Hall dürfte aber spätestens zum Zeitpunkt seiner christlichen Hochzeit 1863 Christ geworden sein. In der Familie des Hall-Sohnes David in Addis Abeba hieß es dagegen, Moritz Hall sei «wohl» 1865 konvertiert; eine Hall-Tochter berichtete außerdem, er habe sich erst in Gefangenschaft in Mäqdäla taufen lassen (H OLTZ — HOLTZ, Moritz Hall: Der alte Mann von Jaffa, 29), was aber schon der hier abgedruckte Brief widerlegt, da die Gefangenschaft in Mäqdäla erst 1867 begann.

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dern religiösen Übungen Theil nehmen,69 was meiner Seele zur Stärkung und zum Segen gereicht. Der Gott aller Gnade wolle Sie tausendfältig segnen für das Werk der Mission, das Sie in Abyssinien gegründet haben, ein Werk, das schon viele bekannte und unbekannte Früchte getragen hat. Gedenken Sie unser in Ihren Gebeten, wie wir es hier auch täglich für Sie thun. M. Hall.» Gedruckt in «Bischof Samuel Gobats Sendschreiben an die Brüder in der Heimath (Schluß)», Christlicher Volksbote 2, 9. Januar 1867, 9–12, hier 9.70

69 Diese Briefstelle zeigt deutlich, dass Hall nicht selbst als Missionar tätig war, wie es eigentlich in der Überlieferung der Nachfahren hieß (z.B. bei den Halls in Äthiopien, siehe CRUMMEY, Priests and Politicians, 132, sowie bei der deutschenglischen Familie von Ustinov — vgl. Sir Peter Ustinov, der über den Vater seiner Großmutter sagt, dass er «... als Missionar in Äthiopien wirkte. Als Schweizer [der er nicht war, aber er arbeitete ja mit einer Schweizer Mission] war er offenbar kein unbegabter Ingenieur und baute — neben seinen anderweitigen religiösen Pflichten — für den verrückten Kaiser Theodor eine Kanone, woraufhin ihn dieser an seine eigene Erfindung ketten ließ, damit er sich nicht aus dem Staub machen und jedem anderen ebenfalls eine Kanone bauen konnte...», USTINOV, PETER, Ich und Ich. Erinnerungen, Düsseldorf — Wien — New York 1992, [3. Aufl.], 17). Als Mitglied der Handwerkerkolonie Gafat war Hall aber tatsächlich Missionsmitarbeiter, und blieb dies auch in späteren Jahren als prominentes Mitglied der Deutschen Kolonie in Jaffa, Palästina, was die Familienüberlieferung erklärt. Acton schreibt: «...they were joined in time by others who were not missionaries, such as Moritz, a Polish deserter from the Russian army, Bourgaud, a French gunsmith...» etc. (ACTON, ROGER, The Abyssinian Expedition and The Life And Reign of King Theodore With One Hundred Illustrations ... of the Illustrated London News, London 1868, 18f.). 70 Ich verdanke Dr. Toby Berger Holtz den Hinweis auf diesen Brief und danke ihr an dieser Stelle sehr herzlich für ihre große Hilfsbereitschaft und Interesse (vgl. HOLTZ — HOLTZ, Moritz Hall: Der alte Mann von Jaffa, 31, Fußnote 29).

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9. AI³e Tewodros II. [«Theodoros»] an Martin Flad in Massawa71 13. Januar 1867 [per Boten gesandt am 14. Januar 186772 ] Im Namen des Vaters, des Sohnes und des heiligen Geistes, Ein Gott. Dieser Brief, der gesandt ist von dem König der Könige, Theodoros, gelange an Herrn Flad. Wie befindest Du Dich? Ich bin gottlob wohl. Am 29. Dez. sind Deine drei Boten bei mir angekommen. Sage jenen Leuten, die mit Dir kamen und welche Leute meiner Freundin, der Königin von England, sind, und Colonel Merewether,73 wie befindet Ihr Euch? Herr Rassam, Herr Cameron74 samt den übrigen sind durch Gottes Kraft wohl.

71 Flad war 1866 von Tewodros II. auf Gesandtschaft zu Königin Victoria gesandt worden (wobei seine Frau und Kinder als Geiseln zurückblieben), um von ihr die Entsendung von Handwerkern nach Äthiopien zu erwirken — als Bedingung für die Freilassung der von ihm festgehaltenen, teilweise in englischen Diensten stehenden Europäer. Am 8. Oktober 1866 verließ Flad nach einer Audienz bei Victoria mit einem eigenhändigen Brief der Königin London und war bereits am 29. Oktober in Massawa (FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 190, dort auch Zusammenfassung des Briefes). Die Geschenke für Tewodros sowie die Handwerker kamen etwas später nach; Flad übersetzte in dieser Zeit den Brief ins Amharische und sandte ihn durch Boten an den König der Könige nach Däbrä Tabor. Am 13. Januar 1867 fand dort eine «große Beratung» (so ein Brief von Staiger in Gafat an Flad in Massawa, siehe FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 193) statt, deren Ergebnis der oben zitierte Brief von Tewodros ist: «Der König ließ in großer Aufregung einen Brief an Dich schreiben. Die Freundschaft mit England ist zu Ende. Er will weder Arbeiter noch Waren. Alles was du bringst, sei ihm angenehm, sei es Krieg oder Frieden, nur sollst Du bald kommen. Morgen gehen die Boten an Dich ab. ... Der König ist entschieden, nicht nachzugeben, sondern im Gegenteil Trotz zu bieten, und zwar erstens, weil er glaubt, im Recht zu sein, und zweitens, weil er sehr zweifelt, daß England Gewalt gegen ihn brauchen kann und brauchen wird». (ibid., 193f.) 72 So die Nachricht von Staiger an Flad (FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 193); Flad erhielt Mitte Februar 1867 in Massawa die Nachricht von seiner Frau, Pauline Flad, Tewodros habe einen Brief über Mätämma an ihn gesandt, worauf er am 6. März 1867 über Bogos und Kassala Richtung Mätämma abreiste; den Brief erhielt er, als er bei «Zaga» im Barka-Land die königlichen Boten traf (ibid., 198). 73 General Merewether kam im Dezember 1866 mit den von Tewodros II. für Äthiopien geforderten englischen Handwerkern und Geschenken für den Herrscher in Massawa an. Königin Victoria von England hatte an deren Weitersendung an Tewodros die Bedingung geknüpft, dass er zuvor Konsul Cameron, den Gesandten Rassam und die Missionare freilasse (FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 197). 74 Hormuzd Rassam, eigentlich ein britisch-armenischer Archäologe, nun First Assistant des Britisch-Indischen Gouverneurs von Aden, war der britische Gesandte, der 1864 zu Verhandlungen über die Freilassung Konsul Camerons und der gefangenen Missionare zu Tewodros II. entsandt worden war. Er reiste nach 15monatigem Briefwechsel im Oktober 1865 zu Tewodros, wurde aber nach baldiger Freilassung

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Herr Rassam sendet durch seinen Diener75 einen Brief. Wir warten auf Euer aller Ankunft. Ich, ein armer Mann, warte auf den Willen meiner Freundin, der großen Königin von England und Irland,76 welche eine Freundin des Glaubens und der Freundschaft ist. Aus diesem Grunde behalte ich Herrn Rassam hier.77 Wenn ihre Majestät mir ein Freundschaftszeichen sendet, so bringe mirs, und wenn ich es gesealler Europäer kurz darauf selbst mit allen anderen gefangengesetzt (1866). Cameron war seit 1861 der britische Gesandte in Abessinien (zu dessen Titel siehe ACTON, The Abyssinian Expedition, S. 19), den Tewodros Anfang 1865 in Ketten gelegt hatte. Als Repräsentanten ihrer Regierung, mit der Tewodros in Konflikt liegt, werden sie hier an erster Stelle genannt. 75 Worum es sich dabei handelt, ist unklar; der «Diener» ist wahrscheinlich der von Tewodros Rassam persönlich als baldäräba zugeteilte Samuýel Giyorgis, ein in seiner Jugend durch die Missionare Kruse und Isenberg getaufter Saho und nun Hofmann und Arabisch-Dolmetscher von Tewodros; seit 1866 ist es durch Briefe belegt, dass Samuýel die Briefe zwischen Tewodros und Rassam als Bote besorgte (RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, passim; zur Biographie von Samuýel vgl. SMIDT, WOLBERT, «Before Eritrea, Before the Diaspora: Habesha in Exile and on Missions Abroad in the 19th Century», Eritrean Studies Review 4-2, 2005, 1–36 (= CONRAD, BETTINA – R EDEKER H EPNER, TRICIA [eds.], Eritrea Abroad: Critical Perspectives on the Global Diaspora). 76 In allen seinen Briefen lässt Tewodros den Titel der «Kaiserin von Indien» weg, eine nicht uninteressante Tatsache, die bisher in der Litaratur nie diskutiert wurde. Möglicherweise ein antikoloniales Moment? 77 Tewodros ging also auf die Bedingung der englischen Regierung nicht ein, die Gefangen zuvor freizulassen. Die englischen Handwerker, die bis jetzt in Imkullu bei Massawa gewartet hatten, wurden deshalb von Merewether wieder nach England zurückgesandt, nachdem der geschäftsführende englische Vize-Konsul Munzinger diesen Brief zu ihm gebracht hatte; Munzinger hatte mit seiner Frau (die bis Keren mitkam) von Massawa bis ins Barka-Land Flad auf dessen Reise nach Mätämma begleitet (FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission, 199). Es scheint aber hier eine gefährliche Zuspitzung in der Interpretation dieses Briefes — durch Flad, Munzinger und Merewether — stattgefunden zu haben: Diese Briefstelle kann nur in Zusammenhang mit Staigers oben zitiertem Brief als echte Ablehnung verstanden werden; es wäre aber offenbar richtiger, von Verzögerungstaktik auszugehen. Tatsächlich handelt es sich hier zwar um die Ablehnung von Bedingungen, aber nicht um einen Entschluss zum Krieg — Tewodros, wenn man die Formulierung in diesem Brief ernst nimmt, scheint «Freundschaft» zu erwarten und eine Beilegung des Konflikts; ein wichtiges kulturell geprägtes Verhandlungsmuster spielt hier eine Rolle: Das Stellen von Bedingungen (hier durch Victoria) wird eher als die Eröffnung von Verhandlungen verstanden, nicht als deren Schlusspunkt, als der sie hier von den Engländern gemeint waren. Die sofortige Rücksendung der Handwerker zeigt, wie unfähig die beteiligten Europäer waren, dieses Verhalten richtig zu werten bzw. bereit waren, darauf in irgendeiner Form einzugehen. — Gleich darauf begannen die Vorbereitungen der Invasion der britisch-indischen Armee unter Kommando des Generals Napier aus Bombay.

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hen habe, so will ich Herrn Rassam auf eine freundliche und ehrenvolle Weise senden. Gedruckt in JOHANN MARTIN FLAD, 60 Jahre in der Mission unter den Falaschas in Abessinien, Gießen — Basel 1922, 199. Englische Version78 in Acta Aethiopica II, no. 208: RUBENSON, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 316. 10. Mälakä gännät79 Afä Wärq, aläqa Wäldä Mäsqäl, wäyzero Täwabäèè an Friedrich Bender,80 Johannes Mayer und ihre Familien [in ŸAdwa81] Lager in «Seraul», März/April 186982 Dieser Brief, gesandt von Malaka Ganet Afa Work, von Alaka Wolda Maskal, von Frau Jawabatsch83 möge an die Herren Bender, Mayer und ihre Familien kommen. Wir fragen erstlich: Wie geht es Euch? Hat Euch das Land (oder die Stadt84 ) aufgenommen? Der Vater Jesu Christi behüte Euch und beschütze Euch! Wie Gott den heil. Aposteln Petrus und Paulus ihr Apostelamt gelingen ließ, so wolle Er auch Euch den Auftrag, den Er Euch gegeben hat, ausführen und gelingen lassen! Wenn Gott sich dieses Volkes erbarmt, wird Er Euch Eures Herzens Wunsch erfüllen und geben, daß Ihr unsern in der Finsterniß sitzenden Brüdern zum Licht des Evangeliums85 verhelfen werdet. Amen. Gedruckt in Mittheilungen, Nr. 6, Dezember 1869, 23.

78 Da das Original bisher nicht auffindbar war, dürfte die deutsche Fassung von Interesse sein. 79 Mälakä (mälýakä) gännät ist ein geistlicher Titel. 80 STREBEL, BARBARA, «Bender, Christian Friedrich», in: EÆ I, 527. 81 Bender und Mayer sind am 1. März 1869 in ŸAdwa, der Hauptstadt des Herrschers von Tégray, Kasa, angekommen und begannen sofort mit dem auch nun hier lebenden aläqa Zännäb mit öffentlichen Bibelstunden, vgl. KRAPF, JOHANN LUDWIG, Chrischona-Blättchen, Nr. 3, September 1869 (Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt, Privatarchiv 653, D 1 — Organisation, 7.: Chrischona Blättchen 1869). 82 Mayer und Bender erhielten diesen Brief von «Freunden» aus der Zeit in Mäqdälä in ŸAdwa am 8. April 1869 nach Mayers Tagebucheintrag, Mittheilungen, Nr. 6, Dezember 1869, 23. 83 «Jawabatsch» ist wahrscheinlich verschrieben aus Tawabatsch (= Täwabäèè). 84 Einfügung des Briefübersetzers Mayer. 85 Bezug auf Matth 4:16.

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Annex. Brief des Tewodros II. an Samuel Gobat Dieser Brief, gesiegelt von Tewodros II., scheint eine Abschrift jenes Briefes gewesen zu sein, welcher von Appleyard — Pankhurst, Letters from Ethiopian Rulers, 135–142 [no. XXVI], und Rubenson, Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 10f. [no. 5] veröffentlicht wurde. Wie die sehr saubere Ausfertigung und das Siegel zeigen, wurde diese Kopie möglicherweise gleich nach dem Schreiben des Originalbriefes von der gleichen Hand erstellt. Dass es eine Kopie ist, zeigt auch die Tatsache, dass das Siegel nicht wie bei Herrscherbriefen üblich über dem Brief, sondern unter dem Brief angebracht ist86 (man kann hier also gewissermaßen von einer im äthiopischen Kontext durchaus ungewöhnlichen «beglaubigten Kopie» sprechen). Nachdem die Abschrift von Tewodros gesiegelt wurde, versah Johann Ludwig Krapf ihn mit einer englischen Bemerkung und der an eine ungenannte Person gerichteten Bitte um Überprüfung des Inhalts. Der von Appleyard und Rubenson veröffentlichte Brief ist mit einiger Sicherheit derjenige, auf den sich unsere oben abgedruckte alte deutsche Übersetzung bezieht, und der als offizielle Anfrage Tewodros II. an Bischof Samuel Gobat gesandt wurde. Krapfs Abschrift blieb jedoch bisher völlig unbekannt und war immer in Privatbesitz. Die Bemerkung Krapfs zwischen Brief und Siegel lautet: «This is a copy of the accompanying letter for Bishop Gobat which we send you to see, that you may judge whether it is properly written JLK». Darunter folgt eine deutschsprachige Notiz in der selben Handschrift, allerdings rund sechs Jahre später angebracht: «Diesen amharischen Brief brachte ich im Jahr 1855 aus Abessinien — von König Theodoros Kornthal 1 August 1861 L Krapf». — Krapf scheint also 1861 den Brief an jemanden weitergegeben zu haben, vermutlich an ein Mitglied der St. Chrischona-Pilgermission bei Basel; nach Martin Flads Rückkehr aus Äthiopien 1868 kam der Brief in dessen Besitz. Die englische Notiz Krapfs zeigt, dass Krapf vor der endgültigen Annahme des Briefes sichergehen wollte, dass die Interessen seines Missionsprojektes gewahrt bleiben; dies jedenfalls würde seine Bitte um Überprüfung des Inhalts erklären. Diese Überprüfung konnte allerdings nicht ohne persönliche Einwilligung von Tewodros II. durchgeführt werden. Die Verwendung der englischen Sprache deutet darauf hin, dass Krapfs Bitte an einen Engländer am Hof gerichtet war. Dies kann nur der enge Vertraute des Tewodros, John Bell, gewesen sein, der als Anglikaner selbst ein gewisses Interesse am Erfolg der protestantischen Mission gehabt haben mag.

86 Der äthiopischer Historiker Märséýe Hazän Wäldä Qirkos erwähnt die Tatsache, dass das Anbringen von Siegeln oben nuir bei Königsbriefen üblich war (Merc’é Haren Wolde Qirqos, Of what I Saw and Heard: the Last Years of Emperor Menelik II & the Brief Rule of Iyassu, introduction by G. Prunier, tr., annot. by Hailu Habtu, Addis Ababa 2004 (Ethiopian Studies 1), 91).

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oflh-'('A\' , hRt. ‘manly, couragious’ is not improbable. See further LGz. 360 (Gez., Arb., Mhr., Hbr., Arm., Syr., Mnd., Akk., Tna., Tgr., Amh., Arg., Har., Gur.), LS 251 (Soq., Arb., Mhr.), LGur. 423 (Gur., Arb., Hbr., Gez., Tna., Tgr., Amh., Arg., Har.). Note also PS *mi/ar(r)-at-, *mirâr-at- ‘gall, gall-bladder’ (SED No. 188). While the authors of the dictionary tend to regard the two terms as belonging to homonymous roots, later connected through contamination, such a coincidence in semantics seems highly improbable; a derivation of one from another may be safely reconstructed on the Proto-Semitic level (presumably, from the taste term ‘bitter’ a name for its prototype, ‘gall-bladder’, was derived). Some of the reflexes of the noun ‘gall, gall-bladder’ have meaning

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‘poison’ (Hbr.pB, Off., Warka, Dem., Syr., Mnd., see SED No. 188); this semantic development is based on the conception of bitter taste as a token of poisonous qualities (one can probably regard the bitter taste as a prototypical taste of poison). 7. mt³uk³ ‘sweet’, mt³k³at ‘sweetness’ (LGz. 373, LLA 221). This root is poorly attested in Geez. Dillmann quotes one passage where the adjective m#t³uk³ is used in a figurative meaning as a qualifier of light (m#t³uk³ b#rhân ‘sweet light’), and one usage of the noun m#t³k³at in Jud. 9:11, where it corresponds to Gr. glukùtés (LLA 221). In Ethiosemitic languages, the root is widely attested, although with considerable semantic deviations: Tna. mät³äk³ ä° ‘to bake the bread used in brewing beer; to dry, dry up, go dry (spring)’, mät³äk³ °a, mät³äk³k³a ‘unleavened bread baked for use in making beer; scraps of #ngçra which are dried and used in making beer’ (KT 521f.). Tgr. maè³è³ak³a ‘to eat up, to end; to revile strongly’ (LH 144). Amh. mät³tä³ k³ä ‘to be or become very thin, water-like (dough, bread); to rise (dabbo-bread), to bake an unleavened cake’ (K 355). Har. miè³iq âða ‘squeeze something so that it squirts’ (LHar. 103). Gur. Wol. (a)mè³aè³äk³ä, Sel. amè³âè³äk³ä ‘milk a cow without leaving some milk for the calf; pull out completely’ (LGur. 389). The cognates in other Semitic languages demonstrate both the meaning ‘to be sweet, of pleasant taste’ and ‘to taste, try (food, drink), to suck’. Thus, a PS root *mtk³ ‘to taste, to suck; to be sweet, of pleasant taste’ can be reconstructed. A phonetic alternation t > t³ is unproblematic and can be explained through the influence of emphatic k³ :7 Hbr. mtk³ ‘süss sein, werden’ (HALAT 619), mâtôk³ ‘süss = angenehm’ (ibid. 618). Note that the root was applied to water that became drinkable: ... w#lô yâk_# lû liðtôt mayim mimmârâ kî mârîm hçm (Ex. 15:23) ‘and they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter’; ... wayyaðlçk „el-hammayim wa-yyimt#k³û hammâyim (Ex. 15:25) ‘and he threw it into water and it became sweet’. PB mâtak³ ‘to be sweet, palatable’, pi. ‘to sweeten, season’ (Ja. 864), mâtôk³ ‘sweet, pleasant’ (ibid. 860), m#tîk³â ‘sweet taste; seasoning, relish; sweetmeats, delicacies; sweet drinks’ (ibid. 862). Jud. m#tak³ ‘to be sweet, palatable’, pa. ‘to taste, suck’ (Ja. 864), m#tîk³ ‘sweet’ (ibid. 862). Syr. m#tak³ ‘suxit; sorpsit; inhalavit’ (Brock. 410). JPA mtk· ‘to suck’ (Sokoloff 338). Sam. mtk³ ‘sweetness’, hmtyk· ‘to make sweet’ (Tal 493). 7

A well-known example of such change is root *k·tl ‘to kill’ (Arb. k·tl vs. Hbr. k·t·l).

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Akk. matâk³u ‘to become sweet’ SB, NA (CAD MI 405), ‘süß werden, sein’ (AHw. 632), matk³u ‘sweet’ from OAkk., OB on (CAD MI 413), ‘süß’ (AHw. 633). The root is well attested in Akkadian, its meaning can be illustrated by such passages as kî ša dišpu ma-ti-k³u-u-ni damu ša SAL.MEŠ-ku-nu... ina pî-kunu li-im-ti-iq ‘just as (this) honey is sweet, so may the blood of your wives (and children) become sweet-tasting in your mouth’ (CAD MI 405). The adjective matk³u is used to describe such objects as pomegranates, dates, almonds, melons, honey, milk, apples, bread (ibid. 413). Arb. tamat³ta³ k³a ‘goûter, essayer le goût de...; savourer quelque chose’ (BK II 1123). Mhr. mat³k³ ‘sweet’, m#t³áwk³ ‘to taste’ (JM 273). Hrs. mat³k³ ‘sweet’ (JH 91). Jib. mútt³#k³ / y#mtét³ék³# n / y#mtét³D± k³ ‘to have st. sweet in your mouth to chew; to try, taste st. before swallowing it’, mit³áyk³ ‘sweet’ (JJ 176). Soq. mét³ok³ ‘sucré’ (LS 242). The semantic deviations of this root in Ethiosemitic languages remain to be explained. The range of meanings attested in this language group comprise such as ‘to be sweet’ (Gez.), ‘to be dry’ (Tna.), ‘to be non-fermented, unleavened’ (Amh., Tna.), ‘to squeeze’ (Har.), ‘to eat up’ (Tgr.), ‘to milk a cow without leaving milk for a calf’ (Gur.). One can suggest various ways of semantic evolution; naturally, the evidence from other Semitic languages should be taken in consideration. Thus, in view of the meaning ‘to suck’, attested for the root in Judaic Aramaic, Syriac and Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, one should reconstruct the meaning ‘to suck’ as early as in the ProtoSemitic. This semantics would be hardly related to the concept of sweetness, had it not been for the verbs ‘to taste’, attested in Arabic, Mehri and Jibbali: the semantic shift ‘to taste’ > ‘to be of pleasant taste, to be sweet’ is well attested (see II.2), whereas the meaning change ‘to suck’ > ‘to taste’ (or vice versa) can also be easily imagined (the specific semantic developments in Tigre and Gurage go back in all probability to the meaning ‘to suck’ as well). Other meanings attested for the reflexes of *mtk³ in Ethiosemitic languages (‘to be dry’, ‘to be unleavened (bread)’, ‘to squeeze’) should be grouped together, since they correspond exactly to the semantics of reflexes of another PS verb ‘to suck’, namely, *ms³s³ (see I.4). Therefore, we are justified in supposing that these meanings are related to each other and can be organized into a chain of semantic evolution. The meanings ‘to suck’, ‘to squeeze’ and ‘to dry up’ are connected through the common component ‘to remove liquid’ (obviously, Gurage ‘to milk a cow without leaving milk for a calf’ also belongs here, being derived from any of these meanings). The designation of unleavened dough through the root ‘to squeeze, to dry, to suck’ can have different explanations. One can argue, for instance, that the

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unleavened dough was perceived as hard and dry, being opposed to the soft leavened dough. However, it should be noted that in Judaic Aramaic the root mtk³ is used to denote the unfermented drinks, opposed to the fermented ones: hnydr mn htyrwš „swr bkl myny mtyk³h ‘he who vows abstinence from tirosh, is forbidden all kinds of sweet (unfermented) drinks’ (Ja. 862). Either this is a generalization of the meaning ‘unleavened (bread)’ > ‘unfermented (bread, beverage)’ (which should suggest that the meaning ‘unleavened’ was already present on Proto-Semitic level), or both applications to unleavened bread and unfermented beverage should be explained in the context of another semantic development, namely, ‘sweet, of pleasant taste’ > ‘unfermented’. Such usage of the term ‘sweet’ is provoked by its opposition to ‘sour’, the process of fermentation being normally associated with the sour taste (see I.2). See further Brock. 410 (Syr., Jud., Hbr., Arb., Gez., Akk.). 8. k³asama, k³assama, k³aœœama ‘season, make tasty’, k³ ssum ‘well seasoned, tasty, that has savor’, k³asm ‘seasoning’ (LGz. 446, LLA 432). The root conveys the idea of good taste, being contextually opposed to the root lsh³ (see I.2) and marked by positive connotations. One should note that in almost all passages quoted by Dillmann the precise taste designated by the root is salty, and the verb is complemented by the prepositional phrase ba-s³ew ‘with the salt’: wa-y#rass#yani k³# œœuma ba-d³ewa malakot wa-yâbr#h w#sta l#bb#ya mâwtota t³#bab (Grohmann 1919: 168) ‘let him make me salted with the salt of divinity and let him light in my heart the torch of wisdom’. The meaning ‘salty’ is probably a secondary development, explained by the fact that the taste of salt was considered the best representative of the good, pleasant taste, cf. a figurative usage of the root k³sm, where a comparison with salt is employed to stress its positive connotations: tagúâs³ t³# …um wa-zenâ k³# ssum kama s³ew ‘the sweet chastisement and the announcement which is good-tasted as salt’ (LLA 432). In the rest of the contexts its meaning is nonspecified, as in k³# ssum mâ„#dd ‘the spicy food’, la-k³asima l#sân#ya ‘to sweeten (lit. ‘to add taste to’) my tongue’ (ibid.). The doubtlessly related verb in Amharic, k³ässämä (‘to season, render savory (with salt or spices); to compound, mix or blend together’, K 751f.; cf. also k³# s#m ‘force; pleasing, dignified presence or appearance; taste, flavor of wood, food, dew which may be bitter or sweet depending on the climate and soil’, ibid. 752) may be a borrowing from Geez. Cf. also Amh. k³assämä ‘to smell, to sniff s.th.’ (K 752), presenting a synesthetic change from taste to smell. We find a more reliable cognate in Arabic, where the meaning ‘to eat, to choose best pieces of food’ is attested: k³ašama ‘manger; manger beaucoup; choisir les meilleurs morceaux, et le manger en laissant les autres’ (BK II 744). At the same time, in view of the Arabic meaning, a comparison to Tna. k³äsämä, demonstrating a rather distant semantic ‘to sip nectar (bee), gather

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nectar’ (KT 962) becomes more likely; a possible reconstruction of the semantic evolution would be to derive the Geez meaning ‘to have good taste’ from the meaning ‘to taste’ (attested as ‘to eat; to eat best morsels’ in Arabic and as ‘to sip’ in Tigrinya). Cf. also Sab. k³s 2m ‘? a vegetable plot’ (SD 108). At the same time, it is difficult to refrain from relating the root in question to the common Ethiosemitic verb *k³ms ‘to taste’: Tna. k³ämäsä ‘to taste (a dish), take a taste of s.th., to have a bite to eat, a snack’ (KT 914); „ak³ ¬mäsä ‘to give s.o. some bits of food or drink (host to a guest), to cause to taste; to snack, to have a bite to eat’, k³# mso ‘taste; example or sample’ (ibid. 915). Note also further semantic development of the causative verb „ak³ ¬mäsä ‘to cause to taste’ > ‘to let somebody experience s.th.’: bätri „ak³ ¬misuwo ‘he beat him with a stick’ (ibid.) (lit. ‘he caused him to taste a stick’). Tgr. k³amša ‘to dip; to take a pinch of snuff; to go to a prostitute for the first time’ (LH 237). Amh. k³ammäsä ‘to taste, take a taste of s.th., fig. to experience (misfortune, etc.), to suffer a beating; to be a mixture of many kinds of soil; to do s.th. first, be first in s.th.’ (K 702). For the meaning ‘to experience’, cp. such contexts as batr k³ammäsä ‘to receive a beating’, nuro k³ammäsä ‘to experience life’, yäfit#n t³or k³ämmäsä ‘to be the first to engage the enemy’ (ibid.). Arg. k³ämmäsa ‘taste’ (LArg. 216). Gur. Cha. Enm. End. Gyt. Sel. Wol. Zwy. k³ämäsä, Eža Muh. Msq. Gog. Sod. k³ämmäsä ‘taste; have intercourse (euphemism)’, Cha. k³# mus, Eža k³# mmus ‘tasty’, Muh. k³# mša ‘a taste of something’, Cha. Enm. k³# mamäsä, Eža Muh. k³# mammäsä, Enm. End. Gyt. täk³mamäsä, Eža Muh. täk³mammäsä, End. täk³wamäsä ‘eat a little bit’ (LGur. 482). One wonders whether this root could be related to Har. k³çmäsa ‘sharpen a pen, pencil or reed, sharpen a point’, through the synesthetic transfer of meaning ‘tasty, spicy (taste sense)’ > ‘sharp (tactile sense)’ (which would, however, contradict Williams’s generalization, see II.3). At the same time, the meaning ‘beautiful’, also attested in Harari for this root (täk³çmäsa ‘become slim, become elegant’, (a)k³ômäsa ‘be beautiful’, LHar. 126), may be derived from the meaning ‘tasty, having good taste’ as well (cf. II.6). See further LGur. 482 (Gur., Tna., Tgr., Amh., Gez.). 9. t³Uma, t³aUama ‘taste, be tasty, be delicious, be savory, be sweet, experience’, t³Uum ‘tasty, savory, sweet, pleasant, delicious’ (LGz. 582, LLA 1241f.). The root is widely used and conveys the general idea of pleasant taste, cf. such usages as f#t t³#…um (Prov. 17:1) ’delicious morsel’, mabâl#…#t t³#…um (2 Par. 9:24, see LLA 1242) ‘delicious dishes’. Unlike the root k³sm (see I.8),

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the root t³…m seems to be associated with the sweet taste, and is used to qualify such objects as honey: ma…âr t³#…um (Hez. 3:3, see LLA 1242) ‘sweet honey’. Of special interest is its use as an attribute of water, designating drinkable water, cf. such usages as wa-r#„#yat …azak³ta mây t³#…um (Gen. 21:19) ‘she saw a well of fresh water’; wa-rakabu nak³…a mây t³#…um (Gen. 26:19) ‘and they found a spring of fresh water’; wa-y#t³abb#h³# wwâ la-y#„#ti dorho w#sta mây t³#…um (Lev. 14:5) ‘and they kill this chicken in fresh water’; mây zat³#…um marira y#kaww#n ‘the water which is sweet becomes bitter’ (see LLA 1242). Note that the verb t³#…ma is used to describe a situation when bitter, brackish water becomes fresh, drinkable: wa-„ar„ayo „#gzi„abh³er …#d³a wawadayo w#sta mây wa-t³#…ma mâyu (Ex 15:25) ‘and God showed him a piece of wood and he threw it into water and the water became good’. The verb t³#…ma, t³a…ama can also be used, on the one hand, as a predicative form of the adjective t³#…um (y#t³#…#m „#m#nna ma…âr z#kr#ya, Sir. 24:20, ‘mentioning me is sweeter than honey’) and, on the other hand, as an active verb ‘to taste, to try (food, drink)’ („i-y#k#l t³#…ima mabl#…a, Job 33:20, ‘he cannot taste the food’). One should also note the usage of the root in application to sounds, retaining the meaning ‘pleasant’: l#sân t³#…um yâbazz#w tâ„#wâhu; wa-„af t³#…um yâbazz#w mâ„m#ra (Sir. 6:5) ‘the sweet tongue multiplies his brothers; and the sweet mouth multiplies the knowledge’; masank³o wa-mazmur y#h³eww# zâ la-nafs; wa-„#m#nna k#l„ehomu l#sân t³#…um (Sir. 40:21) ‘the violin and the singing gladden the soul; but the pleasant tongue does better than both of them’; t³#…um nagar (Job 6:6) ‘pleasant speech’; wa-g«#mâ k³âlomu h³awâz wa-t³#…um (Sir. 47:9) ‘and the melody of their voice is pleasant and sweet’; t³#bab la-sami… t³#…um ‘the wisdom, pleasant to hear’; t³#…umâna zenâ wa-z#kr ‘the pleasant of announcement and commemoration’ (LLA 1242). Note also the figurative usage of the verb t³#…ma in the sense ‘to experience’: „i-y#t³#…#m#wwo la-mot (Matth. 16:27) ‘they will not experience death’. The cognates in Ethiosemitic demonstrate both the meaning ‘to have pleasant taste’ and ‘to taste, to find out the taste of s.th.’: Tna. t³ä…amä ‘to taste, try (a dish), to take a sip (of beer); to be sweet, savory, to be tasty, to be pleasing, pleasant, e. g., speech, to be good, convenient, suitable, comfortable’ (KT 2472), t³#…um ‘sweet, good, tasty, savory, delicious, appetizing, luscious, succulent, toothsome; gentle, amiable, cheerful, pleasing, agreeable, mellifluous; livable, cozy, fig. good, kind, gentle; comfortable, convenient’ (ibid. 2473). One should note a peculiar semantic development in Tigrinya: ‘to have taste of s.th.’ > ‘to seem, to be like s.th.’. Consider the following usage: «bäyyänä y#t³#…#m» bälä däbäsay „anfät nayti „awyât fäs³imu s#lläzäy täräd„o ‘«It sounds like Bäyyänä [lit. ‘it has the taste of Bäyyänä’]» said Däbäsay since he did not realize the direction the cries [were coming from]’ (ibid. 2472). Cf. similar metaphors involving the visionary or acoustic per-

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ception: English look (it looks like rain), sound (it sounds a good idea); German aussehen (ihre Reise sah nach Flucht aus).

Tgr. t³a…ama ‘to be sweet, savoury; to taste’, t³#…um ‘sweet, savoury’ (LH 619). Amh. t³amä ‘to be tasty, taste pleasant, be of good taste, be savory, to taste (vt.), take a taste of; to be deeply in love; to satisfy, content (vt.)’, yät³amä ‘savory, tasty, flavorful’ (K 2097). Har. t â³ ma, t³çma ‘taste good, be tasty, have flavor, taste’, yit³îmzâl ‘sweet’, t³ima ‘taste, pleasure’ (LHar. 154). Gaf. è³amä ‘avoir bon goût’ (LGaf. 193). Arg. t ä³ hama ‘taste good, flavor’ (LArg. 223). Gur. End. t â³ mä, Msq. t³amä, Cha. Eža Muh. Msq. tamä, Gyt. tâmä, Muh. Msq. Gog. Sod. Wol. è³amä, Sel. Zwy. è³âmä, End. e„e~ m_ä, Enm. e~ „e~ m_ä ‘taste good, have flavor, be sweet, be dear, be expensive’ (LGur. 619). Another set of Gurage lexemes with similar semantics demonstrate a metathesis: t³amä > mät³a, possibly influenced by another taste term, *ms³·s·³ (see I.4): Gur. Cha. (a)mät³a, Gyt. am_ät³â, Enm. am_ät³â, Eža amät³ta³ ‘taste good’, Cha. amt³ata³ , Enm. Gyt. amt³at³â, Eža Muh. amt³at³ta³ ‘find out the taste of food or drink’ (LGur. 437).

The root goes back to the well-known PS *t³…m ‘to taste, to try (food)’: Hbr. t³…m ‘Geschmack v. Speisen versuchen, kosten; Speise geniessen, essen’, t a³ …am ‘Geschmack (v. Speise)’ (HALAT 361). Off. t³…m ‘to taste’ (HJ 426f.), Palm. t³…mh ‘victuals’ (ibid. 428). Jud. t³#…am, t³#…çm ‘to taste’; t ³#…am, t ³#…çm, t³â…aÐ mâ ‘pleasure, will; good cheer’ (Ja. 543), mat³…ãmâ ‘savory, refreshing’ (ibid. 769). Syr. t³#…em ‘gustavit; edit; usus est’, t³a…mâ ‘gustus’, t³a…îmâ ‘sapidus’ (Brock. 283). JPA t³…m ‘to taste, eat’, t·…m ‘taste’ (Sokoloff 228). Sam. t³…m ‘tasting, eating’, t …³ m ‘taste; food’ (Tal 319). Mnd. T³ AM ‘to taste, try, test, examine, eat’, t³ama ‘taste, flavour, savour, quality; appreciation, pleasure, will’ (DM 174). Arb. t³a…ima ‘manger, avaler, prendre quelque chose; goûter, deguster’, tat³a……ama ‘goûter, déguster; savourer’ (BK II 83), t a³ …m- ‘goût, saveur; appétit’ (ibid. 84). Sab. t³… m ‘give enjoyment of crops’ (SD 152). Mhr. t³…m: t â³ m / y#t ô³ m / y#t³a±ym#n ‘to eat, taste, try (food)’, t³#„çm ‘food’ (JM 405). Hrs. t³…m: t³âm / yet³ôm ‘to taste, have taste of’ (JH 128). Jib. t³a…ám / yt³o…u±m / y#t …³ úm ‘to eat, taste’, t³a…mún ‘tasty; tasted’ (JJ 273). Soq. t³á…am ‘manger, goûter’ (LS 206). Although the meaning ‘have a pleasant taste’ occurs in many reflexes of the root (Gez., Tna., Amh., Har., Gaf., Arg., Gur., Jud., Jib.), one can doubt whether this semantics should be reconstructed on the Proto-Semitic level; it

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may be that the semantic shift ‘to taste’ > ‘to have pleasant taste’ (see II.2) has taken place independently in Ethiosemitic languages, Judaic Aramaic and Jibbali. One should note such semantic shifts as ‘to taste, to try the taste of food/ drink’ > ‘to experience s.th., to learn smth. through experience’ (see II.4; cf. Hbr. t³…m ‘durch Erfahrung spüren, merken, lernen’, HALAT 361: t³a…ãmû ûr#„û kî-t³ôb_ „ãdônây, Ps 34:9, ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’; t³â…ãmâ kî-t³ôb_ sah³râh, Prov. 31:18, ‘she tasted that her merchandise is good’; pB. t³â…am ‘to examine, to taste, test, try, experience’, Ja. 543; Bib. t³…m (pa.) ‘to give to eat’, HALOT 1885; Jud. t³#³ …am, t³#…çm ‘to examine, to taste, test, try, experience’, Ja. 543; Mnd. T³AM ‘appreciate, perceive, discern, experience, savour’: t³ama d_-muta lat³aimin ‘they do not taste the taste of death’, DM 174; Syr. t³#…em ‘percepit, cognovit’, Brock. 283; cf. also Gez. above) and ‘taste, sense of taste’ > ‘judgment, perception, understanding’ (see II.5; cf. Hbr. t³a…am ‘Geschmack (v. Speise); Empfindung, Verstand’, HALAT 361; pB. t³a…am ‘sense, wisdom, sound reasoning’, Ja. 543; Bib. t³#…çm ‘understanding, command, advice, report’, HALOT 1885; Jud. t³#…am, t³#…çm, t³a…ãmâ ‘reason, argument, sense’, Ja. 543; JPA t·…m ‘reason, reasoning’, Sokoloff 228; Sam. t·…m ‘sense’: t·…mh dsbth brkn t·…mh d„rhwth mk·rth ‘the sense of the Sabbath lies in the blessings, the sense of the Torah lies in the reading’, Tal 319; Mnd. t³ama ‘judgement, perception, discrimination’, DM 174; Syr. t³a…mâ ‘prudentia’, t³a…îmâ ‘prudens’, Brock. 283; cf. also Arb. ra‚¶ ul-un d_û t³a…m-in ‘a man possessing intelligence, and prudence, or discretion’, Lane 1854). It seems that the semantic development belongs to the Proto-Semitic level, so that in some languages the original meaning ‘to taste’ was entirely lost: Off., Nab. t³…m ‘order; decision, resolution; authority; matter, affair’ (HJ 427), Akk. t³çmu ‘Planungsfähigkeit, Entschluß(kraft); Verstand; Anweisung, Bescheid’ OB, NB, NA, MB, OA (AHw. 1385). See further AHw. 1385 (Akk., Hbr., Arm.), LHar. 154 (Har., Arb., Gez., Tna., Tgr., Amh., Arg., Gaf., Gur.), LGaf. 193 (Gaf., Arb., Gez., Tna., Tgr., Amh., Arg., Har., Gur.), LGur. 619 (Gur., Arb., Hbr., Gez., Tna., Tgr., Amh., Har., Gaf., Arg.), LGz. 582 (Gez., Arb., ESA, Jib., Hbr., Arm., Mnd., Akk., Tna., Tgr., Amh., Har., Gur., Gaf., Arg.), LS 206 (Soq., Mhr., Arb., Hbr., Syr., Akk., Gez.).

II. THE

SEMANTIC CHANGES INVOLVING THE TASTE NAMES THAT HAVE BEEN

OBSERVED IN THE CONSIDERED MATERIAL

1. The derivation of taste names from names of prototypes and vice versa. The following taste prototypes have been found out in the course of the investigation: ‘honey’ > ‘sweet’ (cf. Gez. ma…ar…ir ‘sweet’ and Akk. dašpu ‘sweet’, see I.3), ‘salt’ > ‘salty’ (see PS *mlh³, I.5).

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The reverse process is also attested: ‘sour’ > ‘vinegar’ (cf. Tna. mäs³is³ ‘sour; vinegar’, Amh. mäs³as³a ‘vinegar’ < mäs³is³ ‘sour’, see I.4); ‘sour’ > ‘lemon’ (cf. Amh. mäs³as³a ‘lemon’ < mäs³is³ ‘sour’, see I.4). 2. Derivation of taste terms from verbs denoting actions or processes and vice versa. The most common type of derivation is a formation of a taste name from a root primarily meaning ‘to taste, try (food, drink)’. The semantic change taking place in the roots k³ms (see I.8) and t³m… (see I.9) can be generalized as ‘to taste, try (food, drink)’ > ‘to have good, pleasant taste’ (cf. also PS *mtk³ ‘to taste, to suck; to be sweet, of pleasant taste’, see I.7). Taste names can also be derived from verbs that denote various processes associated with acquiring a specific taste. Thus, sour taste may be associated with the process of fermenting (cf. Gez. bh³„ ‘to ferment; to be sour’, see I.1; cf. also Gruntov, ms.) or with the process of rotting, decaying (cf. Tna. mäs³is³ ‘sour’, mäè³è³äè³ä ‘to go bad (food)’ and mäè³äè³ bälä ‘to become moldy’, see I.4). 3. The synesthetic changes. In his research on synesthetic semantic changes, Williams postulates that the only sensory lexemes that can switch their meaning to taste are touchwords. At the same time, according to his investigation, «taste-words do not transfer back to tactile experience or forward to dimension or color, but only to smell (sour smells) and sounds (dulcet music)» (Williams 1976:463f.). The present study confirmed the frequent change from taste to sound meaning (cf. Gez. ma…ar…ir ‘sweet’, see I.3; Gez. t³#…ma, t³a…ama ‘to be sweet’, see I.9). At the same time, very little direct evidence on applicability of tastewords to smells has been elicited (one possible example is Amh. k³assämä ‘to smell’ < k³ässämä ‘to taste’, see I.8). Neither did the Geez vocabulary present an example of touch > taste semantic change. Rather, we have several contradictory examples, e. g., Arb. md³d³ ‘to be sour; to be pungeant, to burn’ (see I.4); PS *mrr ‘to be bitter’, the reflex of which in Tigrinya can be applied to sun in the meaning ‘to be pungent; to be burning hot (sun)’, in Akkadian to wind ‘biting, sharp’, and in Tigre can be used to describe a hard horse hoof (see I.6). Obviously, all these contexts involve the touch experience rather than any other sensory experience and would suggest a synesthetic development of a taste term into various touch terms (‘hot’, ‘sharp’, ‘hard’). One has to admit, however, that such applications are poorly attested and may be explained through an intermediary emotional meaning. Another possible contradiction is Har. k³çmäsa ‘to sharpen’, which may go back to Ethiosemitic root *k³ms ‘to taste’ (see I.8). 4. The changes suggested by metaphor ‘to taste, to try (food, drink)’ > ‘to experience s.th.’. The generalization into the meaning ‘to experience s.th.’ is a well-attested semantic shift for the verbs originally meaning ‘to taste, to try (food, drink)’

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(cf. Tna. „ak³ m ° äsä ‘to cause somebody taste s.th.; to cause somebody experience s.th.’, Amh. k³ämmäsä ‘to taste; to experience’, see I.8; cf. also PS *t³…m ‘to taste; to experience, to learn by expierience’, see I.9). A particular case of this development of meaning is ‘to taste’ > ‘to have a sexual experience’ (cf. Tgr. k³amša ‘to go to a prostitute for the first time’ < ‘to taste’, Gur. k³ämmäsä ‘taste; have intercourse (euphemism)’, see I.8; this semantic change is, on the other hand, related to a wide-spread metaphor ‘tasty food’ > ‘attractive woman’, see Razuvaev 2004:47). The metaphor ‘to taste, to try (food, drink)’ > ‘to experience s. th.’ provokes a number of other semantic shifts. Various taste adjectives are widely used to describe various events of life, naturally the pleasant tastes describing happy events (cf. Tna. t³#…um ‘having pleasant taste; pleasant, agreeable, comfortable’, see I.9) and the unpleasant ones being associated with calamities and disasters (cf. PS *mrr ‘to be bitter’ > ‘to be hard, difficult to bear, harsh’, see I.6). The life itself is often described in taste terminology, e. g., as bitter (see I.6.c). 5. The semantic changes involving transfer of a taste term into lexical field of mental qualities or of emotions. General verbs ‘to taste, try (food, drink)’ can derive such meanings as ‘judgment, perception, understanding’ (cf. reflexes of PS *t³…m with meanings ‘taste’ and ‘judgment, understanding’, see I.9). Probably this semantic shift is suggested by metaphor ‘to taste s.th.’ > ‘to experience, learn s.th.’, see II.4. For a similar semantic development, cf. Latin sapere ‘to taste, savour’ > ‘to know, be wise’ (Viberg 1984:158). The pleasant tastes are employed to characterize positive emotions or mental qualities (cf. Gez. t³#…ma, t³a…ama ‘to be sweet; to be pleasant’, see I.9), and the «bad» tastes describe the negative ones (cf. Gez. mad³id³ ‘sour; angry’, Tna. mäs³is³ ‘sour; sour-tempered’, see I.4; for the shift ‘to be bitter’ > ‘to be grievous’ and ‘to be bitter’ > ‘to be angry’ in the PS root *mrr, see I.6.d; rather unexpected meaning shift ‘to be bitter’ > ‘to be brave, courageous, strong’ is also, however, attested for the latter term, see I.6). The terms for salty taste usually have positive connotations, and are often employed to decribe a high degree of intelligence (cf. Gez. m#lh³ ‘understanding’ < mlh³ ‘to be salty’, Arb. milh³- ‘salt; knowledge’, see I.5), frequently being associated with sense of humor (cf. Arb. mulh³at-, malh³at- ‘a bon-mot’ < mlh³ ‘to be salty’, see I.5; cf. also Gruntov, ms.). At the same time, the semantic shift ‘sour taste’ > ‘irony’ is also attested (Tna. m#s³s³ät ‘sourness; irony, sarcasm’, see I.4). The opposite meaning ‘to lack understanding’ can be expressed by a root meaning ‘to be tasteless’ (see Gez. lsh³, I.2). 6. The generalizations and specific developments of meaning. a. ‘to be tasteless’ > ‘to be ineffective, lacking s.th.’ (Gez. lsh³, see I.2); b. ‘to spit’ > ‘to have taste of saliva, to be tasteless’ (Gez. lsh³, PS *tpl, see I.2); c. ‘to be sour’ > ‘to hurt, to cause pain’ (cf. Arb. md³d³ ‘to be sour; to hurt’, see I.4);

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d. ‘to be sour, to ferment’ — ‘to become thick, to dry up’ (Amh. bokka ‘to ferment, to turn sour; to thicken’, see I.1; Amh. mät³tä³ t³ä ‘to ferment, to turn sour; to become thick, stiff, hard’, see I.4); e. ‘to have pleasant taste’ — ‘to be good’ (PS *t³yb, see I.5); f. ‘to have pleasant or sweet taste’ > ‘salt’ (Akk. t³âbtu ‘s.th. having pleasant taste’ > ‘salt’, see I.5); g. ‘to be bitter’ > ‘to be unpleasant, pungeant, sharp (words)’ (Tna. märrir ‘sour; biting, sharp (words)’, Arb. „amarra ‘to make bitter; to say bitter things’, Hbr. m#rôrôt ‘bitter things’ < mrr ‘to be bitter’, see I.6.d); h. ‘to be sweet’ > ‘to be unfermented (drink), unleavened (dough)’ (Hbr. pB. m#tîk³â ‘sweet taste; sweet drinks’, and the term for unleavened bread in Tna. and Amh., related to the same root, see I.7); i. ‘to be sweet’ > ‘to be good, becoming, beautiful’ (Tna. „am…arä ‘to make sweet; to be good for, be becoming’, see I.3; Amh. k³# s#m ‘pleasing, dignified presence or appearance’ < ‘(pleasant) taste’; possibly also Har. täk³çmäsa ‘become beautiful’, (a)k³ômäsa ‘be beautiful’ < *k³ms ‘to taste, to have good taste’, see I.8); k. ‘to have the taste of s.th.’ > ‘to remind someone of s.th., to seem s.th.’ (Tna. k³# mso ‘taste; example or sample’, see I.8; Tna. t ä³ …amä ‘to taste; to have pleasant taste; to remind of s.th., to seem s.th.’, see I.9).

References J. BARTH, 1967. Die Nominalbildung in den Semitischen Sprachen, Hildesheim. B. BERLIN — P. KAY, 1969. Basic colour terms: their universality and evolution, Berkeley. M. BULAKH (forthcoming). «Basic colour terms in Geez: synchronic and diachronic aspects», in: S. Uhlig et al (eds.), Proceedings of the XV th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Wiesbaden. I. GRUNTOV (ms.). È. ÃÐÓÍÒÎÂ, «Ñèñòåìû íîìèíàöèè âêóñîâ: ñèíõðîíèÿ è äèàõðîíèÿ» (Systems of taste nomination: synchronical and diachronical approach). D. PARDEE, 1978. «The Semitic Root mrr and the Etymology of Ugaritic mr(r) // brk», Ugarit-Forschungen 10: 249–288. F. PRAETORIUS, 1890. «Beiträge zur äthiopischen Grammatik und Etymologie (II)», Beiträge zur Assyriologie und vergleichenden semitischen Sprachwissenschaft 1: 369–378. M. RAZUVAEV, 2004. Ì. ÐÀÇÓÂÀÅÂ, Äåðèâàöèîííûé ïîòåíöèàë çíà÷åíèé «ðåçàòü» è «ðâàòü» â àíãëèéñêîì è ðóññêîì ÿçûêàõ (Semantic derivational valency of verbs with primary meanings «to cut» and «to tear» in Russian and English languages), Ph.D. thesis, Voronezh State University.

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Å. VIBERG, 1984. «The verbs of perception: a typological study», in: B. Butterworth — B. Comrie — Ö. Dahl (eds.), Explanations for language universals, Berlin, 123–162. A. WIERZBICKA, 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals, Oxford — New York. J. M. WILLIAMS, 1976. «Synasthetic Adjectives: A Possible Law of Semantic Change», Language 52, no. 2: 461–478. A. ZALIZNIAK, 2001. À. ÇÀËÈÇÍßÊ, «Ñåìàíòè÷åñêàÿ äåðèâàöèÿ â ñèíõðîíèè è äèàõðîíèè: ïðîåêò “Êàòàëîãà ñåìàíòè÷åñêèõ ïåðåõîäî┻ (Semantic derivation in synchronic and diachronic aspect: project «Catalogue of semantic shifts»), Âîïðîñû ÿçûêîçíàíèÿ 2: 13–25.

Sources Dictionaries: [AHw.] — W. VON SODEN, 1965–1981. Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, Wiesbaden. [BDB] — F. BROWN — S. R. DRIVER — CH. A. BRIGGS, 1951. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford. [BK] — A. DE BIBERSTEIN-KAZIMIRSKI, 1860. Dictionnaire arabe-français, vol. I, II, Paris. [Brock.] — C. BROCKELMANN, 1928. Lexicon Syriacum, Halle. [CAD] — L. OPPENHEIM — E. REINER — M. T. ROTH (eds.). 1956ff. The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute, the University of Chicago, Chicago. [DM] — E. S. DROWER — R. MACUCH, 1963. A Mandaic Dictionary, Oxford. [DUL] — G. DEL OLMO LETE — J. SANMARTÍN, 2003. A dictionary of the Ugaritic language in the alphabetic tradition, Leiden — Boston. [Gragg] — G. GRAGG, 1982. Oromo Dictionary, Michigan. [Grébaut] — S. GRÉBAUT, 1952. Supplément au Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae de August Dillmann (1865) et Édition du Lexique de Juste d’Urbin (1850–1855), Paris. [HALAT] — L. KOEHLER — W. BAUMGARTNER, 1974–1990. Hebräisches und Aramäisches Lexikon zum Alten Testament (neu bearbeitet von W. Baumgartner), Leiden. [HALOT] — L. KOEHLER et al., 1994–2000. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and edited by M. Richardson, Leiden. [HJ] — J. HOFTIJZER — K. JONGELING, 1995. Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions, Leiden — New York — Köln. [Hud] — G. HUDSON, 1989. Highland East Cushitic Dictionary, Hamburg (Kuschitische Sprachstudien 7).

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[Ja.] — M. JASTROW, 1926. A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic literature, N. Y. [JH] — T. M. JOHNSTONE, 1977. H³arsûsi Lexicon, Oxford. [JJ] — T. M. JOHNSTONE, 1981. Jibbâli Lexicon, Oxford. [JM] — T. M. JOHNSTONE, 1987. Mehri Lexicon, London. [K] — T. L. KANE, 1990. Amharic-English Dictionary, vol. I, II, Wiesbaden. [KT] — T. L. KANE, 2000. Tigrinya-English Dictionary, vol. I, II, Springfield. [Lane] — E. W. LANE, 1863–1893. Arabic-English Lexicon, London (repr. New York, 1955–1956). [LArg.] — W. LESLAU, 1997. Ethiopic Documents: Argobba. Grammar and Dictionary, Wiesbaden (Aethiopistische Forschungen 47). [LGaf.] — W. LESLAU, 1956. Étude descriptive et comparative du Gafat (Éthiopien méridional), Paris (Collection Linguistique publiée par la Société de Linguistique de Paris 57). [LGur.] — W. LESLAU, 1979. Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic), vol. III, Wiesbaden. [LGz.] — W. LESLAU, 1987. Comparative Dictionary of Ge…ez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden. [LH] — E. LITTMANN — M. HöFNER, 1956. Wörterbuch der Tigrç-Sprache, Wiesbaden. [LHar.] — W. LESLAU, 1963. Etymological Dictionary of Harari, Berkeley — Los Angeles. [LLA] — A. DILLMANN, 1865. Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae cum indice latino, Leipzig (repr. New York 1955). [LS] — W. LESLAU, 1938. Lexique Soqotri, Paris. [Reinisch 1885] — L. REINISCH, 1885. Die Quarasprache in Abessinien, vol. II, Wien. [Reinisch 1890] — L. REINISCH, 1890. Die Saho-Sprache, II: Wörterbuch der Saho-Sprache, Wien. [Sasse] — H.-J. SASSE, 1982. An Etymological Dictionary of Burji, Hamburg (Kuschitische Sprachstudien 1). [SED] — L. E. KOGAN — A. YU. MILITAREV, 2000. Semitic Etymological Dictionary, vol. I.: Anatomy of Man and Animals, Münster. [SD] — A. F. L. BEESTON et al., 1982. Sabaic Dictionary, Louvain-laNeuve. [Sokoloff] — M. SOKOLOFF, 2002. A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Baltimore — London. [T] — R. S. TOMBACK, 1978. A Comparative Semitic Lexicon of the Phoenician and Punic Languages, Missoula. [Tal] — A. TAL, 2000. A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic, vol. I, II, Leiden — Boston — Köln (Handbuch der Orientalistik 50).

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[Vasmer] — M. VASMER, 1955. Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, vol. 2, Heidelberg.

Texts: K. ELLIGER — W. RUDOLPH (eds.), 1969–1977. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, Stuttgart. A. RAHLFS (ed.), 1940. Septuaginta, vol. I, II. editio tertiae. Stuttgart. E. A. W. BUDGE, 1906. The Life of Takla Hâymânôt in the Version of Dabra Libanôs, and the Miracles of Takla Hâymânôt in the Version of Dabra Libanôs, and the Book of the Riches of Kings, 2 vols., London. A. DILLMANN, 1853. Veteris Testamenti Aethiopici, vol. I: Tomus primus, sive Octateuchus Aethiopicus, Leipzig. A. DILLMANN. 1894. Veteris Testamenti Aethiopici, vol. V: Tomus Quintus, quo continentur Libri Apocryphi. Baruch, Epistola Jeremiae, Tobith, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, Sapientia, Esdrae Apocalypsis, Esdrae Graecus, Berlin. K. FRIES, 1892. Weddâsç Mârjâm. Ein Äthiopischer Lobsgesang an Maria, Leipzig. A. GROHMANN, 1919. Aethiopische Marienhymnen, Leipzig. I. GUIDI, 1909. Le Synaxaire Éthiopien. Les mois de Sanê, Hamlê et Nahasê. II. Mois de Hamlê, Paris (PO 7, fasc. 3). M. A. KNIBB, The Ethiopic Book of Enoch, vol. I, II, Oxford, 1978. R. ZUURMOND, 2001. Novum Testamentum Aethiopice. Part III: The Gospel of Matthew, Wiesbaden (Äthiopistische Forschungen 55).

Abbreviations: Akk. — Akkadian Amh. — Amharic Arb. — Arabic Arg. — Argobba Arm. — Aramaic Babyl. — Babylonian Bib. — Biblical Aramaic Bogh. — Boghazkeui Cha. — Èaha Dem. — Aramaic texts in Demotic Script End. — Endegen¶ Enm. — Ennemor Gaf. — Gafat Gez. — Geez Gog. — Gogot Gr. — Greek Gur. — Gurage

Gyt. — Gyeto Har. — Harari Hbr. — Hebrew Hrs. — Harsusi Jib. — Jibbali JPA — Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Jud. — Judaic Aramaic LB – Late Babylonian lex. – lexical (texts) MA — Middle Assyrian MB — Middle Babylonian Mhr. — Mehri Mnd. — Mandaic Msq. — Masqan Muh. — Muher NA — Neo-Assyrian Nab. — Nabatean

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NB — Neo-Babylonian OA — Old Assyrian OAkk. — Old Akkadian OB — Old Babylonian Off. — Official Aramaic Old. — Old Aramaic Palm. — Palmyrean pB. — Post-biblical Hebrew Pho. — Phoenician PS — Proto-Semitic Sab. — Sabaic

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Sam. — Samaritan Aramaic SB — Standard Babylonian Sel. — Selti³ Sod. — Soddo Soq. — Soqotri Syr. — Syriac Tgr. — Tigre Tna. — Tigrinya Ugr. — Ugaritic Wol. — Wolane Zwy. — Zway

SUMMARY The paper gives a survey of Geez lexemes belonging to the lexical field of taste, discussing each in terms of its usage in Geez texts and its etymology. The semantic shifts occuring both on a synchronic level (as polysemy) and on a diachronic level (as differences in meaning between cognates) receive special attention. Whenever possible, parallel semantic developments from other (as a rule, Semitic) languages are adduced. A list of the registered semantic shifts is given in the second part of the paper.

Olga Kapeliuk Hebrew University Jerusalem

TOPICALIZATION IN AMHARIC AND ITS DEGREES «What keeps language moving is essentially the introduction and development of topics». Wallace Chafe1

1. Preliminary remarks For all its merits and undeniable contribution to the understanding and description of language, the current literature on functional linguistics is hampered, perhaps more than any other modern linguistic discipline, by a lack of consistency in the use of its terminology. There seems to be a pool of terms such as «theme», «topic», «focus» and a few others that each author uses at his own discretion, without even bothering to explain the exact connotations of the term employed. The bewildered linguist has to strain to the utmost his guessing capacity and waste his intellectual potential on deciphering the whims of this fashionable mannerism.2 Even in such an insightful and level-headed CHAFE, W., «Polyphonic topic development», in: GIVÓN T. (ed.), ConversationCognitive, Communicative and Social Perspectives, Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1997 (= Typological Studies in Language 34), 41–53, here 42. 2 This mannerism of Anglo-American linguists, which consists of writing only for the initiated, succeeded in permeating Ethiopian lingustics not only on the theoretical level but even in the transcription of local languages. Often computer inadequacies are bypassed by the use of unconventional signs such as, for instance, in R. HAYWARD’s «Tone and accent in Qafar noun», York Papers in Linguistics 15 (1991), 117–137, where Qafar stands for ŸAfar. Similary, in BAYE YIMAM’s «Unaccusative Structures in Amharic», in: MARCUS, H. G. (ed.), New Trends in Ethiopian Studies. Papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Michigan State University, 5–10 September 1994, Lawrenceville, NJ: The Red Sea Press, 1994, I, 1131–1152, and elsewhere in his writings a whole series of bizarre signs is introduced without the slightest explanation about what they are meant to represent. Thus we are entitled to such mysterious transcriptions as flännäqäññ for ۊm” (cännäqäññ) «it bothers me», ÿämmaññ for ÖR” (tämmaññ) «I was thirsty» whereas «the children» JЀ% (lég-oèè-u), inexplicably alternates between [lég-oëë-u] (ibid., 1141), [leŒ-oëë-u] (ibid., 1139) and /leŒoëëu/ (ibid., 1143). For a linguist so keen on making Amharic syntax accessible to a large readership (cf. BAYE YIMAM, «Definiteness in Amharic discourse», Journal of African Languages and Lingusitics 17 [1996], 47–83, here 49) it is a strange thing to do. 1

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work as T. Givón’s Syntax, on whose methodological guidelines much of the present paper is based,3 some current terms have been modified. I shall stick in what follows more or less to Givón’s terminology with the notable exception of the name for «new information» for which I shall use the more traditional denomination «comment».4 Moreover, in what follows, the use of the term «topicalization» beside the term «topic» is meant to distinguish between «old information» as present in every regularly constructed sentence (with the exception, perhaps, of the first sentence of a text) and certain special syntactic procedures for creating the topic. It is this latter aspect that will be investigated in what follows. Besides, it should be stressed that, contrary to most studies in which only nouns and pronouns are treated as topics,5 any sentence components, subordinate clauses and even whole sentences, will be considered as topical as long as they contain previously provided information. Although intonation, as represented in every-day speech, is the best indicator of topicality, written texts have also proven an interesting field for functional analysis, as may be ascertained from a number of former studies on Amharic.6 Some particular means, such as significant changes in word order, topicalization of normally non-topical elements and the use of special particles are recognizable in written texts as well. This applies in particular to texts imitating conversations such as novels or short stories and above all theatrical plays, but narrative texts are also rich in elements pointing to topicalization. Amharic fiction, especially the works of writers of older generations such as Afä Wärq Gäbrä Iyyäsus, Hruy Wäldä Sllase, Alämayyähu Mogäs, Mängstu Lämma and a few others, is characterised by its lively and idiomatic style and its faithful rendering of spoken language. The style of most young writers, on the other hand, underwent a process of levelling and simplification,7 which has resulted in a greater uniformity and the conseGIVÓN, T., Syntax: A Functional-Typological Introduction, I–II. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1984–1990, chs. 7, 16, 17, 20. See also GIVÓN, T., «Topic continuity in discourse: an introduction», in: ID., Topic Continuity in Discourse, Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1983, 1–41. 4 Cf. HOCKETT, Ch. F., A Course in Modern Linguistics, New York: Macmillan, 1958, 202. 5 Cf., for instance GASSER, M., «Topic continuity in written Amharic narrative», in: GIVÓN, Topic Continuity in Discourse, 99–139. 6 Notably: BLIESE, L. F., «A discourse analysis of Amharic narrative», in: TADDESE BEYENE (ed.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. University of Addis Ababa, 1984, vol. 1, Addis Ababa — Frankfurt-am-Main, 1988, 613–621; KAPELIUK, O., The Language of Dialogue in Modern Amharic Literature, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, Hebrew University, 1968; GASSER, «Topic continuity». 7 It is also a banal, insipid version of Amharic that serves as basic data for the current Chomskian analysis of the language. Diversity and variation are ignored or 3

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quent reduction of its syntactical diversity and linguistic interest. However, in what follows an effort has been made to quote examples from current texts as well so as not to give the impression that the phenomena under discussion belong to an obsolete layer of the language.8

2. Topicalizing Particles Among the most interesting means of topicalization, beside the change of word order and the handling of typically non-topical sentence constituents which will be described below, the enclitic particles -mm, and -ss and their combination with the exclamatory particle -a merit a special mention. However, considering that I have dealt in detail with this subject in the past (although using a somewhat different terminology)9 I shall only briefly summarize here the main points to be illustrated by a number of examples quoted below. The particle -mm ‘and, also’ is very often attached in the narrative to the first word of a consecutive sentence. At first sight it might look like a topicalizing particle, considering that sentence opening is the natural position of the topic, but its main function is rather to express thematic continuity until the narration of an episode is exhausted and thus to create a semantic paragraph.10 However, -mm followed by -a is definitely a topicalizing particle accompanied by a strong expressive nuance of impatience in a consecutive sentence, given the evident nature of the answer or response.

swept aside as irrelevant. Structural ambiguities are solved by coining new terms for well known phenomena. To quote just one example: in BAYE YIMAM, «Definiteness», 57–59, the common Amharic possessive pronoun and definite article is suddenly classified as an «indefinite pronoun» meaning «one» (sic!) which, according to the author, has the unique form -u when used, with a headless relative. How, then, should a student of Amharic interpret the following examples from authentic texts in which a headless relative carries the femine form -wa: ›ÂA ¼H‚ª |ÓÀH” éndih yalläèèé-wa tégdäl-äññ (MLTB 34/18; see the list of abbreviations at the end). ‘Let the (fem.) [one] who is like this kill me’; ¾€* vOmÛà I¾ ¼H‚ª yéèèi bämäqäccäc lay y-alläèèé-wa (SNSM 75/1) ‘This the (fem.) [one] who is wasting away’. Cf. KAPELIUK, O., Nominalization in Amharic, Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1988 (Aethiopistische Forschungen 23), here 83–86. 8 Although part of the data cited comes from my unpublished Ph.D. thesis (KAPELIUK, The Language of Dialogue) written in the late 1960s. 9 Cf. KAPELIUK, The Language of Dialogue, 143–232; EAD. «Particles of concatenation and reference in Amharic», BSOAS 41 (1978), 272–282; EAD., «Some suprasentential constructions in Amharic», in: Zaborski, A. (ed.), New Data and New Methods in Afroasiatic Linguistics, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2001, 75–83. 10 Contrary to HETZRON, R., «The element -mm in Amharic verbal system», Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli 23 (1973), 1–10. Cf. KAPELIUK, «Particles of concatenation and reference», 273–275; EAD., «Some suprasentential constructions», 75–78.

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The particle -ss is the equivalent of -mm in interrogative sentences, serving in dialogue to link questions, whether consecutive or separated by the second speaker’s answers, and again providing a thematic frame around meaningful stretches of dialogue; the same applies to its combination with -a. But -ss has an additional important function: when used in dialogue in noninterrogative sentences it often appears after the first word of the second speaker’s answer or response and it has a clearly topicalizing function sometimes accompanied by a contrastive connotation. Mostly, the word to which it is appended either repeats a word of the preceding question or is a personal pronoun, or a resuming expression such as ¾Fe y#h#-ss ‘and this, as for this’, ›c#e #ssu-ss ‘and it, as for it’, ŠÑ\e nägär-u-ss ‘and the matter, as for the matter’ and the like. Just to quote one example (1) with the first -ss as topicalizer, the second -ss as a particle connecting questions within a thematic stretch of dialogue and -mm-a again as a topicalizer with a strong expressive nuance: (1) žO×F dT| ™JUIF! — w¾UI”e? — OÖ+ ŠF "" — ™ze? — ›ŽR Šõ֓ Š“! kä-mät³ta³ h samm#nt al-molla-h! — b-ay-mola-ññ#-ss? — mät³e näh. — antä-ss? — #ne-mma näft³äñña näññ-a! (MLTG11 32/23– 27) ‘A week hasn’t elapsed since you arrived!’ — ‘And if it hasn’t elapsed [so what]?’ — ‘You are a new-comer’. — ‘And you?’ — ‘As for me, I am a [veteran military] settler!’

3. Change of word order In a language with such a fixed word order as Amharic any major change in the position of a sentence component has a great functional significance. Given that topics are mostly nominal, subjectal, definite and placed at the beginning of a sentence, the Amharic basic SOV word order seems naturally adapted to the functional perspective, the more so since there is a certain freedom in choosing the position of the nominal arguments that precede the verb. However, in the spoken language as well as in dialogues included in written texts, this apparent equilibrium is often disrupted by the dislocation to the right, after the final verb, of various sentence components. By transferring a sentence component after the verb of the comment, the speaker hints that it has still lesser communicative weight than that of the topic that stands at the opening of the sentence. This procedure is most frequent in short questions, e. g.: 11 In most examples the sentence preceding the topic discussed has also been quoted to show topic continuity. Topics are printed in bold characters. Utterances of different speakers are separated by a hyphen. Words which are added in translation are printed inside sqare brackets and those which are omitted in translation inside parentheses.

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(2) ›² Ò ›¢ Š« Hóc&Ÿ zJw ›TÖ׫ "" óc&Ÿ À`f ¹HT ›Ä? O€, Š« óc&Ÿ? #zza ga #kko näw lä-fasika tälba #mm-#nn#t³ät³ta³ -w. fasika därso yälläm ende? mäèe näw fasika? (ABDA 34/2–3) ‘It is there that we drink linseed for Easter. Hasn’t Easter come? When is Easter?’ In this example (2) the noun óc&Ÿ fasika ‘Easter’ is the topic of the second sentence, having been mentioned in what precedes, and stands at its opening, acting as the subject. But in the third sentence, although fasika has the same syntactic function as in sentence two, it is relegated to the end after the verb. This right- dislocation12 of the topical element to a position after the communicative peak of the comment constitutes a kind of after-thought, a reminder of what has just been said. By this procedure the importance of the already naturally downgraded information of the topic is further lowered by another degree. The next step would be plain deletion. The topical subject may also be resumed as an independent personal pronoun and dislocated to the right (3) or anaphorically repeated, if it is included in the verb of the comment (4) often with some expressive nuance of insistence (5), e. g.: (3) ¹Q¼eÑ`O” ™Å |Jo ŠÑ` ™H "" — TÅŠ« ›c#? yämmiyasgärr#m-äññ and t#ll#q nägär allä. — m#nd#n-näw #ssu? (PAWD 13/ 4–6) ‘There is one thing which astonishes me’. — ‘What is it?’ (4) ›Ä| xH ¹OH¼¹| Y^ W^ ›“? #ndet blän yä-mälläyayät s#ra särran #ñña? (GTHA 53/31) ‘How (we saying) did we do an act of disruption, we?’ (5) ›Ä| ªI‚B? ›e| ÓOJ ™I‚B ›z? #ndet walaèè#hu? #s#nt g#mäl all-aèè#hu #nnantä? (AWGU 116/14) translated by the author: ‘Bonjour. Combien de chameaux avez-vous donc?’ Any nominal sentence component acting as the topic may be dislocated to the right, whether marked cataphorically by a pronoun (if definite) or not (if indefinite). Thus we may quote: the direct object (6), the indirect object (7), a genitival complement (8) a prepositional complement (9) etc, e. g.: (6) ™Å PH# iTø” ›À {hÑ... — {¼ R zhHO« iTø’% and mulu ðampañ #ndä taððägä… — tadiya man täðällämä-w ðampañ-un? (PAWD 38/14–39/2) ‘A fully sealed champagne...’ — ‘So who was awarded the champagne?’ (7) zÑ#Jv| zxJD| R vziH Hc« tä-gulbät-#nna tä-b#lhat man bä-täðalä lä-saw (AWGR 123/5) ‘Between strength and intelligence what would be better for a man’. (8) ¾E TÅŠ« eP y#he m#nd#n-näw s#m-u? (CGT L 280/2) ‘This [one] what is his name?’ I use here the term «right-dislocation» for any transposition of a sentence member after the final verb, whether accompanied or not by pronominal reference. 12

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(9) zÄ| ¼H« ™Ñ` ÑwB... ›Ó±+` ¼«×” z±&F ™Ñ` tä-ndet y-alläw agär gäbbahu ... #gzer yawt³a-ññ tä-zzih agär (EAMR 40/4-6) ‘Into what kind of country have I entered? May God bring me out of this country!’ But not only nouns serve as topics. In lively dialogue any qualification of the main verb, even an adverb or a subordinate clause, may also be dislocated to the end of the sentence, after the main verb. Sometimes the change of order is just an expression of the speaker’s excitement or insistence (10, 11), but in other cases right-dislocation has an additional function of downgrading the topic, presuming that its content is easily understood from what precedes. This is especially clear when a dislocated subordinate clause has the function of resuming what precedes (12) or presenting it as a condition of the realisation of the comment (13, 14), e. g.: (10) vԂF õ¹H:‚F z^v#JF v×T? bägoèè-#h-#nna f#yyäloèè-#h tärabbu-ll#h bät³am? (AWGR 89/6) ‘Did your sheep and goats breed well to your advantage?’ (11) ÓOJ zc« ¾ï؍J c&EÅ? g#mäl tä-säw y#fät³nall s-ihed? (AWGU 124/18) ‘Do camels walk faster than men?’ (lit. ‘hurries while it walks’). (12) [When asked by her mother the daughter answers that the coffee she is serving was ground on Saturday. The mother scolds her saying that it is forbidden to grind coffee on Saturdays and Sundays and adds:] ›Ž ž} ïéU ™¾Ñw”T HT ³| ®HT ›Š±&F v®I| ›ÀT|[j? #ne kätto fäs³s#³ mo a-y#gäba-ññ-#mm lä-m#n z#nt aläm #nnäzzih-#n bäalat #ndämm#-tt#räš? (HIFK 36/17–19) ‘I don’t understand at all why you always forget these holidays?’ (13) [The guide explains to the traveller the preparations to be made before an expedition:] ‰I zv[D eo HRӒ| ›Ä| ¾GJJ dŠX vò| z±&F {IcÃŠ hwala tä-bäräha s#nq lä-magñät #ndet y#hon-l#nnall s-a-nn#nnässa bäfit tä-zzih t-al-assänaddanä? (AWGU 119/11–12) ‘Later, in the desert, how will it be possible for us to find provisions if, before leaving, we don’t prepare [them] here?’ (14) [The woman asks a blind beggar to take her son as a guide:] ¹Ž JÏ Y^ ™Ø} žy±Š x±# Ñ&±+ G{J... T ™H ›c# v&[ì| (HIFK 139/1-2) yä-ne l#g s#ra at³#to kä-bozänä b#zu gize hono-t-all-#nna… m#n allä b-iräda-wot? ‘It is a long time since my son has been idle having no work and … what is the matter if he helps you?’

4. Topicalization of Verbs In the last four examples (11–14) full sentences with their verbs, albeit subordinate, act as topics. And, as a matter of fact, to quote T. Givón: «While the subject is the most common presupposed, non-asserted [= topical. — O. K.] part of any sentence in connected discourse, it is by no means the only one.

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Other nominal participants may be excluded from the scope of assertion [= comment. — O. K.] … While such tendencies are indeed more common, all languages have the mechanisms for reversing them and topicalizing lesslikely portions of the propositions such as the verb, while making various nominals the focus of new information».13 Amharic has two ways of topicalizing a verb, beside the change of order by right-dislocation of a subordinate clause mentioned in the preceding paragraph: one is by using the verb with certain conjunctions whose function is precisely to refer to what has been just said; the other consists in the nominalization of the verb and its transformation into a nominal topic, either as an infinitive or as a relative verb.

4.1. Verbs with conjunctions as topics Certain subordinating conjunctions such as ž kä- ‘since’ (15), eH s#lä‘since, because’ (16), x b#- ‘if’ (17) or ›À #ndä ‘that’ (18), preposed to verbs, may serve to summarize and resume what has just been said in the preceding sentence, thus providing the topic for the comment which follows in the main sentence. The verb governed by such conjunctions is fully referential, often repeating a verb which has just been mentioned in the preceding sentence;14 it is usually accompanied by the particles -ss or -mm-a, which is a definite sign of topicalization, e. g.: (15) [Speaker A says that he left his native province when he was twelve years old; speaker B reacts] ›À±&F žGŠR AÑ\ ™B ïéO« d¾[c#| ™¾m`T #ndä-zzih kä-honä-mma hagar-u-n ahun fäs³s#³ mäw sa-y#rasu-t a-y#qär-#mm (HIFK 81/21–22) ‘If it is so, doubtless now you must have forgotten the country’. (16) c« Šj ›IHB – c« eHGž#R OÖØ ›ïJÒHB säw näð #lallähu — säw s#la-honku-mma mät³ät³t ³ #fäll#gallähu (C GT L 7/10–11) ‘I am saying: you are a human being’ — ‘Since I am a human being I want to drink’. (17) s`ÖF zŠX! – v&JR ŠÑ\e wJžó qwart³äh tänäsa! — b-ièèal#mma, nägäru-ss b-al-käffa (MLTG 39/9) ‘Make your decision and get started!’ — ‘If it were possible this wouldn’t be bad’. (18) ...JvJF? — ›c#R ¹T{«m*« ™€* Ši! – ›ÀRI«m«R ŠÑ`ž#F l#bäl-#h? — #ssu-n-#mma yämm#-ttawqi-w anèi näð-a! — #ndämm-al-awq-äw-mm-a näggärku-h! (CGT L 225/9–11) ‘Should I say about you …?’ — ‘It is you who knows it!’ — ‘I told you that I don’t know!’ Even fully independent sentences may be topicalized if they imply a condition, e. g.: GIVÓN, Syntax, I, 257. It is not clear how such constructions should fit into T. Givón’s rule (GIVÓN, Syntax, II, 899–900) that verb/ predicate is nearly 100% non-refential. 13 14

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(19) R ›Ov| ™HF? ™O¡v| ™IO¡v| ¹Q¼ÔÅH« ¹QÛT[« ŠÑ` ¹HT (MLTG 40/5–6) man #män-bbät alä-h? ammänk-bbät al-ammänk-bbät yämmi-yagwädl-äw yämmi-è³ä mm#r-äw nägär yällä-mm ‘Who told you to believe in it? [Whether] you believe in it or you don’t believe in it, there is nothing that diminishes it or adds to it’.

4.2. Infinitive in extraposition as topic Although finite verbs with conjunctions may act as topics, the more common procedure of verb topicalization consists in the nominaliziation of the verb itself. Amharic has two main ways of nominalizing a verb: either as an infinitive or as a relative verb, and the use of nominalized verb forms is one of the most prominent features of Amharic syntax in general.15 Topic constructions with a verb nominalized as an infinitive in extraposition are exclusively found in dialogues and they are not very frequent. An infinitive, that normally resumes the verb of the preceding sentence, is put in extraposition16 before a complete sentence, which acts as comment and usually also contains the same or semantically close verb under its finite form. In these constructions, the finite verb of the comment is a focalized «chunk»17 of information. A contrastive statement introduced by the conjunction «but» normally follows. The infinitive itself is often accompanied by the definite article with or without the accusative marker -n (irrespective of the transitivity of the verb of the comment) and has attached to it one of the topicalizing particles, either -ss or -mm-a, e. g.: (20) OTF` ¹Q¼ezT^| JÍÑ[Å v&¨Å ... TÅŠ« Š«\? — O«ÀÅR wJžó Šv` "" ŠÑ` ӏ ¹¨ÀÀ €` Š« "" mämh#r yämmi-yastämr-at-n l#g agäräd b-iwädd m# nd# n-näw näwr-u? — mäwdäd-#mm-a b-al-käffa näbbär, nägär g#n yä-wäddädä èär näw (SNSM 69/22–26) ‘If a teacher loves a girl he teaches … what’s wrong?’ — ‘As for loving (lit. ‘to love’), it wouldn’t be bad. But the one who loves is generous’. (21) ¹O{B| ›`e¬ Šª! — OG‹ Š« "" Ã\ ӏ TT ™¾ÀH yämättahu-t #rswo-n näw-a! — mähon-u näw. daru g#n m#n#mm aydällä KAPELIUK, Nominalization, 17–21 et passim. I use here the term «extraposition» and not «left-dislocation» because the infinitive is not a component of the sentence taken out and dislocated to the left but rather an addition, placed in front of the full sentence which immediatley follows. Cf. KAPELIUK, The Language of Dialogue, 168, 263–266; EAD., «L’emploi de la marque de l’accusatif -n avec le complément d’objet direct en amharique», Israel Oriental Studies 2 (1972), 183–214, here 213–214; EAD., Nominalization, 67–68. In my first two studies terms other than «topic» were used for the extraposed infinitive. 17 For the term «Chunk» cf. GIVÓN, Syntax, I, 258–261. 15 16

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(HIFK 132/13–15) ‘So it was you I hit!’ — ‘As to being, it was, but it doesn’t matter’. (22) ™Be ™JziHFT? — OiJe ›¹ziJ” Š« ... ӏ... ahun-ss al-täðaläh-#mm? — mäððal-ss #yyä-täðalä-ññ näw … g#n… (C GT L 252/ 6–8) ‘Didn’t you get better now?’ — ‘As for getting better, I am getting better … But …’ (23) v™Âe ™vw Ã` Ã` Oeï^€« {«o ¹HT? — OeRz% cTJB bä-addis abäba dar dar mäsfär-aèèäw-n tawq yällämm? — mäsmat-u-n säm#èèallähu (BZMA 112/32–34) ‘Don’t you know that they settled in the periphery of Addis Abäba?’ — ‘As to hearing, I have heard’. (24) ›`e¬ c« ™¾ÀH#T ›Ä? — OG‹e Š” "" Ã\ ӏ ŸH#| v{‚ žUz%| vI¾ Š” #rswo säw aydällumm #nde? mähon-u-n-ss näññ. Daru g#n k-allu-t bätaè kä-motu-t bälay näññ (HIFK 65/11–14) ‘Aren’t you a human being?’ — ‘As to being, I am. But I am below the living and above the dead’.

4.3. Cleft sentences as a topicalizing device The use of cleft sentences is extremely frequent in Amharic18 and we may say that they represent the most common means for circumventing the rather rigid SOV word order and what it implies in functional terms. Thanks to their structure, which involves the downgrading of a verb to the status of the nominalized subject of a copula sentence, they constitute an ideal means of verb topicalization. Normally it is the relative verb placed either at the onset of the sentence or at its end, that acts as the subject of a cleft sentence, and at the same time as its topic, but the infinitive may also play this role, especially in more ancient texts (28). Often the relative verb is followed by the definite article rendering explicit its undeniable substantival status, yet contrary to what might be expected, it is not accompanied by the topicalizing particles -ss or -mm-a, but is sometimes followed by the «thematical» particle -m. The rest of the sentence, namely the comment, is composed of the copula and its predicative complement, which directly precedes it and constitutes the focal chunk of the new information. Contrary to plain copula sentences, in cleft sentences almost any underlying component may be placed directly in front of the copula as its predicative complement and become the focus of the comment. Besides the usual arguments of the relative verb (21, 34, 35, 37, 38) and a prepositional comp18 Cf. KAPELIUK, Nominalization, 101–146, and the bibliography adduced there; LESLAU, W., Reference Grammar of Amahric, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1995, 105– 117. It has been claimed that in Amharic cleft sentences are infrequent in narration (GASSER, «Topic continuity», 138 n. 1). However, it suffices to look at one page of a newspaper to see that this statement is unfounded.

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lement (2, 25, 33, 36, 39), even an adverb of manner (26), the direct speech (27), any subordinate clause (28, 29, 32, 38) or the predicative complement (30, 31, 40), may be focalized, e. g.:19 (25) ¾¦ BH# ¹GŠ« v™Å dT| «eØ Š«! Y#h hullu yä-honä-w b-and samm#nt w#st³ näw (AMYB 43/21–22) ‘It is within one week that all this happened!’ (26) wIÑ` v&R`Ÿ€« v×T Š« Àe ¹QH”! balagär b-imark-aèèäw bät³am näw däss yämm-il-äññ! (HAFM 305/29) ‘It is very [much] that I’ll be pleased if the peasants capture Him!’ (27) ›Ž IÀ`Ñ« ¹T‚H« TT ŠÑ` ¹HT Š« ¹TJj #ne l-adärgäw yämm-#è#l-äw m#n#mm nägär yällämm näw yämm-#l-ð (AMYB 18/ 9–10) ‘It is «There is nothing that I can do» that I am telling you!’ (28) ›ÏÓ ÀŠm” RHz, ... ¹U{€« ŠÑ` xcR Š« #gg#g dännäqäññ malät-e … ya-mot-aèèäw nägär b-#säma näw (AWGR 256/6–7) ‘It was when I heard [lit. ‘if I heard’] the news of her death … that I said «I was very surprised»’. (29) ™wz% JЀ% ™mRØH: Š« ¼dÀҀ« abbat-u l#goèè-u-n aqqämatlo näw y-asaddäg-aèèäw (EAMR 24/15) ‘It is spoiling that the father brought up his children’. (30) ÖI{€« Š« ¹TGŠ« t³älat-aèèäw näw yämm-#hon-äw (ABDA 134/12–13) ‘It is their enemy that I shall become’. (31) vn ²_ ¹z[ÑO m Š« ¹QGŠ« bäqqa zare yä-täräggämä qän näw yämm-ihon-äw (CGT L 260/21–22) ‘Enough! It is an accursed day that it will be today!’ As may be seen from the examples of the cleft sentences just quoted, the topic either stands at the sentence opening (21, 25, 28) or at its end, after the copula (2, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31). It seems that the basic position of the topicalized subject is at the onset of the cleft sentence, but very often, much more often than in plain sentences, it is dislocated to the right, after the copula, especially in questions and answers. The choice of the position of the topic may be conditioned by its relative communicative importance. When it is placed at the beginning of the sentence, its communicative load, albeit downgraded, has still a certain weight, whereas when dislocated to the right it becomes no more than an after-thought. The relative topic occurs more often at the sentence onset in neutral narration than in dialogue. Usually it resumes a verb used in a preceding sentence and the comment adds some new information represented by the focal component, which precedes the copula (32, 33). This kind of utterance is very frequently used in the language of the media when a plain sentence describes an event to which additional details are provided by a cleft sentence (34) that immediately follows, e. g.: An effort has been made to translate the following examples by English cleft sentences, even if the result is sometimes clumsy. 19

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(32) ™ÅRc# K[Ñ ¨¾ ¼vdÞ{J "" ¹Q¼vdÞ|T ›¼Oh Š« admasu harägä wäyn-#n yabbäsaè.è. -at-all. yämm-iyabbäsaè. è. -at-#mm #yy-amäššä näw (PAWD 32/21–22) ‘Admasu makes Harägä Wäyn angry. And it is while he stays out late that he makes her angry’. (33) fó« I¾ ¹zmOÖ« c« R ›ÀGŠ HR¨o ™Ie€Ñ^|T "" c«½« ¹zmOÖv| wJª ™±«|a ¹Q¼`õv| fó Šv` sofa-w lay yä-täqämmät³-äw säw man #ndä-honä lä-mawäq al-asèäggär-at-#mm. Säw-eyye-w yä-täqämmät³ä-bbät bal-wa azäwt#ro yämmi-yarf-bbät sofa näbbär (AMYB 48/7–10) ‘It was not difficult for her to know who was the man who was sitting on the sofa. It was on the sofa on which her husband always rested that the man was sitting’. (34)ù_±&Ï| ŠÒf vmÅU« ¹ï[d¾ ù_±&Ï| ... U| ¹zcR« žõz“ …± vOÓHé |Š| OJ›¡| ™ezIHñ "" ¼ezIHñ| HQcz` h&^¡ ... Š« prezidant nägaso bä-qädmo-w yäfransay prezidant… mot yä-täsämma-w-n käff#täñña hazän bä-mägläs t#nant#nna mäleeket astälalläfu. y-astälalläfu-t … lä-mister ðirak … näw (ADZM January 1996) ‘President Nägaso sent yesterday a message expressing his deep sorrow… about the death of the former French President. It is … to Mr. Chirac … that He sent it’. The frequent right-dislocation of the topic mainly occurs in animated conversation, permeated by some expressive nuance of resentment, impatience and the like (35, 36), although it is also encountered in narration (29). The interesting cases are those in which we witness the passage of the topic from left to right thus rendering explicit the progressive downgrading of the given information (37, 38). Another interesting case, from the point of view of discourse structure and downgrading of information, consists in the presence of a verb in a subordinate temporal clause as part of a cleft sentence with an identical verb for the nominalized topic (39, 40), e. g.: (35) T ŠŸF? ™z Š« ¹TÖ¾oF! m#n näkka-h? ant-ä-n näw yämm#Jäyy#q-#h! (AMYB 71/22) ‘What got into you? It’s you I am asking!’ (36) HT ™z ›Ž vŠÑ\ ™eRRv|T? — vT‹ Š« ›TeRR«? läm#n antä-nna #ne bä-nägär-u a-nn#smamma-bbätmm? — bä-m#n-u näw #mm-#nn#smamma-w? (HIFK 149/13–14) ‘Why shouldn’t we agree about the matter?’ — ‘What is it that we should agree about?’ (37) [A bell rings] c« U} Hõ{z%... ¹QÀ¨J ¾OeH“J — ¹Uz« ¼vi ŠìŠ| Š« – ¡x^‚ Š« ¹Uz« säw moto lä-f#tatu yämm-iddäwwäl y#mäsl-äññ-all. — yä-mot-äw y-abäða näs³annät näw. k#br-aèè-#n näw yä-mot-äw (MLTG 24/8–10) ‘It seems to me that a man having died it rings for ... his absolution mass’. — ‘It is Ethiopia’s freedom which has died! It is our honour which has died!’ (38) [Speaking of a writer] ¹Qéï« HŽ Š« "" ›Ž òz% m%à ™Å`Ô Š« ¹Qéï« yämm-is³# f-äw lä-ne näw. #ne-n fit-u què³è³ ad#rgo näw

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yämm-is³# f-äw (CGT L 27/21–22) ‘It’s for me that he writes. It’s having placed me in front of him that he writes’. (39) ›Ž dÑw ¨ÃÎ – ›Ãw}‚ MÓ Š« ¹RÑw« #ne s-agäba wädag-e, #nd-abbatoèè-aèè#n h#gg näw yämm-agäba-w (MLT B 10/11) ‘When I marry, my friend, it is according to our ancestors’ customs that I shall marry’. (40) e|OÀxT ¹c&cz` ™²H# [Ã| G Š« ¹zOÀv‚« s#tt#mmäddäb-#mm yä-sister Azalu rädat hona näw yä-tämäddäbäèè#-w (C GT L 203/3–4) ‘When she was appointed it was as sister’s Azalu assistant that she was appointed’. The almost tautological status of the relative subject of the cleft sentences in examples (39) and (40) may be brought to its logical conclusion which consists in simple deletion. And, as a matter of fact, topics with minimal communicative load are often felt as redundant and simply elided, as the final degree of downgraded information (41, 42). It happens when the information included in the topic has already been mentioned and sufficiently commented upon, often in a preceding cleft sentence, to the point of being tautological. As a result of the elision of the subject/topic, one-member sentences are created with their predicate/comment composed only of the copula and the predicative complement as focus, e. g.: (41) T W`zF Š« ¹T|vI«? ž¹| ›¼O×F Š«? (MLTG 33/19– 20) m#n särtäh näw yämm#tt#bälaw? käyät #yamät³ta³ h näw? ‘Doing what is it that you will eat? Bringing from where is it [that you will eat]?’20 (42) ¹R U| J{«Ï Š« Ø\OwF ¹¼³¤«? — ... ²_e ¹c« U| I«Ïv| ™¾ÀHT ¹¼³ž#| "" ¹¨ÊJ... U| Ive`v| Š«! yä-man-#n mot l#-ttaww#g näw t³rumba-h-#n yäyazäh-äw? — … zare-ss yä-säw mot l-aww#g-bbät aydällämm yä-yazku-t. yä-wängäl-n … mot labäs#r-bbät näw! (ABDA 137/7–12) ‘To announce whose death is it that you are holding your trumpet?’ — …‘Today it is not to announce a man’s death that I am holding it. It is to announce crime’s … death!’

*** We may conclude by stressing the great variety of syntactical means which are available to the speakers of Amharic in terms of discourse strategy. Not only nominal elements may serve as topics but also verbs, either in subordination or by being nominalized. This is just another proof of the amazing richness of the Amahric syntax. Such cleft sentences with an elided subject are ungrammatical in English and in other languages using cleft sentences known to me. However, in contemporary French the expression C’est moi is often heard as a reply to a simple Merci. This can only be analysed as a truncated cleft sentence: Merci — C’est moi [qui vous remercie]. 20

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List of Abbreviations ABDA — Abba Daffar #nna leloèè aè³aè³è#³ r tarikoèè, Addis Abäba: Kuraz, 1977 Eth.C; ADZM — Addis Zämän. Daily Newspaper. Addis Abäba; AMYB — AMARÄ MAMMO, Yä-#wnät b#ll#è³ ta. Addis Abäba: Commercial Press, 1967 Eth.C.; AWGR — AFEVORK GHEVRE JESUS, Grammatica della lingua amarica, Rome: Accademia dei Lincei, 1905; AWGU — AFEVORK GHEVRE JESUS, Guide du voyageur en Abyssinie, Roma: de Luigi, 1905; BZMA — BERHANU ZÄRYÉHUN: Maý#bäl, vol I. Addis Abäba: Ethiopian Book Center, 1980 Eth.C.; CGTL — ȳ# gag-#nna t³al-#nna leloèè …, Addis Abäba: Mega, 1998; EAMR — EADIE, J. I., An Amharic Reader, Cambrigde: University Press, 1924; GTHA — GÉRMAÈÈÄW TÄKLÄ HAWARYAT, Araý aya, Asmära 1947 Eth.C.; HAFM — HADDIS ALÄMAYYÄHU, F#q#r #skä mäqab#r, Addis Abäba: Brhannna Sälam, 19622 Eth.C.; HIFK — HAYLÄ IYYÄSUS FÉQADU, Käý#ng#dih wädih adära #nday#ddäggäm, Addis Abäba: Commercial Press, 1953 Eth.C.; MLTG — MÄNGÉSTU LÄMMA, Yä-täwnet gubaýe, Addis Abäba: Kuraz, 1983 Eth.C.; MLTB — MÄNGÉSTU LÄMMA, Tälfo bäkise, Addis Abäba: Chamber Press, 1961 Eth.C.; PAWD — PAWLOS ÑOÑÑO, D#bl#ql#q, Addis Abäba: Brhan-nna Sälam, 1971 Eth.C.; SNSM — SISAY NÉGUSU, Sämämän, Addis Abäba: Kuraz, 1978 Eth.C.

SUMMARY The paper investigates the lexical and syntactic means by which Amharic transforms a sentence component into topic. They include the change of word order, the use of some special topicalizing particles, the use of certain subordinate clauses, the infinitive in extraposition and cleft sentence. Topicalization may be accompanied by a gradual downgrading of information by dislocating the topicalized element to the right and even by deleting it altogether.

Leonid Kogan Russian State University for the Humanities Moscow

COMMON ORIGIN OF ETHIOPIAN SEMITIC: THE LEXICAL DIMENSION* Introduction Semitists have a tendency to be sceptical with regards to genetic classification and negative statements about «the questionable usefulness of classificatory schematizations» (Renfroe 1992:7) can easily be found on the pages of Semitological treatises. In spite of this trend, various aspects of genetic classification of Semitic have always occupied many of the best minds working in this branch of comparative linguistics. A proper evaluation of the subgrouping procedure as applied to Semitic languages has been admirably outlined in a recent survey by John Huehnergard: «Classification and subgrouping of language families are among the most important of the comparativist’s tasks, and this obtains in our field, too... Indeed, classification and subgouping should inform comparative work and historical reconstruction, for these activities are inextricably interwined ... In other words, classification is not simply a mind game...» (Huehnergard 2002:130).1 A coherent classificatory pattern of Semitic has two facets: several major splits and unities are to be postulated and proved, such as East Semitic vs. West Semitic or Central Semitic vs. South Semitic; simultaneously, the common origin of each minor subdivision (Cannanite, Aramaic, ESA, Ethiopian, I am deeply grateful to Maria Bulakh and Alexander Militarev for their critical remarks on a preliminary draft of this article. The work on the present topic was carried out within the project «Studies in the Genetic Classification of Semitic» supported by the Center for Fundamental Research (project No. ÐÄ02-3.17-101) which deserves my most sincere gratitute for its assistance. My work on the present contribution was carried out in the framework of the projects 03-06-80435-a (ÐÔÔÈ) and 04-04-00324a (ÐÃÍÔ). I am grateful to both institutions for their help. 1 In reply to the following statement from ULLENDORFF 1961:30: «Classification is harmless, unobjectionable, and at times even useful if limited to describing presentday habitat and the prevailing geographical circumstances, but it becomes positively dangerous, i. e. obscuring rather than illuminating, if meant to explain genetic connections». [For the list of abbreviations used in this article see p. 392.] Ullendorff’s position is rightly qualified by Huehnergard as «without parallel in comparative work in other language families». For another highly positive assessment of linguistic classification v. GOLDENBERG 1998:461, quoting such outstanding figures of general and Indo-European comparative studies as Baudouin de Courtenay, Meillet and Greenberg. *

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MSA etc.) is to be demonstrated as clearly as possible. Demonstration of the diachronic unity of Ethiopian Semitic (ES) is a model illustration of the second task: a compact, geographically and historically isolated group of languages whose similarity is intuitively realized by every student of Semitics should provide many specific features from which a reliable net of classificatory criteria could be worked out. According to a wide concensus, the principal method by which genetic classification of Semitic has to be guided is that of shared morphological innovations. This method, elaborated in a series of important contributions by R. Hetzron (e. g., 1972:13 and passim), was successfully applied by him and his successors to demonstrate the unity of West Semitic as opposed to East Semitic (Akkadian) and the unity of Central Semitic as opposed to other West Semitic languages. In spite of some difficulties connected with the formal shape of the corresponding classificatory features2 and the fact that conflicting isoglosses have been adduced by some authors,3 the essence of Hetzron’s method proved to be valid and there is no doubt that it should be applied whenever possible — i. e., whenever important morphological innovations can be discovered for a given sub-branch of Semitic. Is this the case for Ethiopian Semitic? Regrettably, the answer seems to be overwhelmingly negative. As stated in Faber 1997:12, «although virtually all discussions of Semitic subgrouping assume a single Ethiopian Semitic branch which later split into North Ethiopic and South Ethiopic, there is virtually no linguistic evidence4 for such a Common Ethiopian stage». Indeed, even if Geez alone is confronted with Arabic, Sabaic or Mehri, reliable morphological innovations separating it from these languages are rather difficult to find, and the more so if such innovations are expected to be shared by, e. g., Tigre, Tigrinya and Amharic. Faber’s claim5 is perhaps exaggerated since The origin of the second -a- in the Common WS New Perfect *k³³atal-a and that of -u in the Common CS New Imperfect *ya-k³³tul-u are still uncertain (HUEHNERGARD 2002:126 is well aware of this difficulty). 3 The principal one consists in the fact that Arabic shares several specific patterns of broken plural with Ethiopian and MSA (RATCLIFFE 1998:120). Cf. also ZABORSKI 1991, GOLDENBERG 1998:298ff. 4 Within Faber’s approach, «linguistic evidence» is clearly synonymous with «shared morphological innovations». This implicit equation — independent of its relevance for the subgrouping question — is terminologically inaccurate as it automatically excludes phonology, lexicon and syntax from linguistics. 5 No doubt, a fully justified reaction against many attempts to collect various allegedly specific Ethiopian features, all or most of which are actually absent from several languages of the group (notably, Geez), or turn out to be obvious retentions from PS, or can be qualified as typologically trivial developments possibly of areal nature. A typical example of such a list is LESLAU 1975 (as recognized already by Ullendorff in his comments on Leslau’s communication). HETZRON 1972:17–19 provides a far more serious attempt but the final outcome is also somewhat disappoint2

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some morphological features which can be treated as Proto-Ethiopian can probably be detected. I mean first of all the gerund base *k³atîÐl-, shared by Geez, Tigrinya, Amharic and Argobba (on the controversial evaluation of the Gurage evidence v. Hetzron 1972:101ff. as opposed to Goldenberg 1998:466ff.); the agent noun *k³atâl-îy- (partly replacing the PS active participle *k³³âtil-) and the infinitive in -ot can also be mentioned. However, none of these features appears to be of crucial value for determining the linguistic unity of ES (note that at least in one language — modern Harari — all of them are lacking) and, even if they do occur together (as in Geez), they hardly correspond to one’s expectations about a group of languages intuitively perceived as closely related.6 Does the lack of specific morphological innovations mean that the linguistic unity of Ethiopian Semitic cannot be demonstrated? Should we understand ES as a geographical and historical-cultural concept only? In my opinion, one important factor should prevent one from drawing such a conclusion, namely the fundamental unity of the basic vocabulary. A systematic demonstration of this unity and its key relevance for the question of the common origin of ES is the principal goal of the present article. Vocabulary is overtly or tacitly assumed to be persona non grata in most studies in the genetic classification of Semitic. According to Renfroe 1992:7, «that, under any circumstances, vocabulary is an unreliable measure by which to determine the relationship between any two given languages» is a «widely recognized fact». My comparativist’s intuition (no doubt shared by many colleagues from various fields of historical linguistics) suggests that this — certainly unreflected — attempt to deny the classificatory value of the lexicon cannot be correct. The vocabulary can and should be taken into consideration ing. Thus, verbal expressions based on the verb ‘to see’ are scarcely attested in Geez but so common in Cushitic that their wide use in Modern Ethiopian may well be regarded as an areal phenomenon affecting each language independently. As for some syntactic phenomena discussed by Hetzron, the concluding statement of the corresponding section of his book is quite telling : «...the Cushitic evidence came later and was independent in the different branches of Ethiopian». In sum, it is very hard to agree with APPLEYARD 1996:207–208 who believes that Hetzron’s study «lays to rest the phantom of a dual or even multiple origin of Ethiopian Semitic». Personally, I am convinced that Hetzron’s attempt to defend the common origin of ES is among the weakest points of his otherwise brilliant monograph. 6 Prof. R.-M. Voigt kindly reminded me in personal communication about one Proto-Ethiopian innovation overlooked by Faber and myself, namely the front vowel after the first radical in the imperfect of B (Gez. y# -sebb# r, Tna. y# -s#bb# r, Har. yi-sîbri). I can only object to his observation that even this (no doubt, very important) innovative feature is absent from Tigre where the imperfect of B is identical to that of A (l# -sabb# r). Incidentally, Tigre lacks gerund and preserves *k³âtil- as the main pattern of the active participle (though k³âtlây and k³atâl(i) are also in evidence).

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in any subgouping procedure, especially if other criteria are scarce or vague (as in the case of ES). The main problem consists in elaborating a sound methodology for a proper assessment of its role. As far as the purpose of the present contribution is concerned, a simple and reliable method is at hand, in its essence almost symmetrically parallel to that used by Hetzron and his followers. Not only morphological, but also lexical units can be classified into retentions and innovations. While both morphological and lexical retentions are, in most cases, of no value for establishing the common origin for a group of languages, lexical innovations can be as telling in this respect as the morphological ones. The method of lexical innovations is not identical to the glottochronological method.7 The latter operates, in its statistical calculations, with both retentions and innovations indiscriminately, whereas the former is primarily interested only in innovations (though less trivial types of retentions may also be important, v. extensively below). The principal tasks of the two methods are also different: proving the common origin of ES need not be connected with establishing the time of its separation from Common West Semitic and its subsequent disintegration. However, since both are focused on lexical change, there may be some hope that the analysis proposed in the present article could provide arguments for a further refinement of the glottochronological procedure. R. Hetzron, a pioneer of the present-day Semitic and Ethiopian classification, was certainly aware of the important role of the lexicon in genetic classification: «Naturally, we do not mean that vocabulary must be discarded from among the criteria for linguistic classification. On the contrary, it is one of its most important bases» (Hetzron 1972:13). In spite of this, lexical evidence has been never used systematically in Hetzron’s studies on the topic.8 Which alone is critically mentioned (regrettably, without much discussion) by those who regard shared morphological innovations as the only tool of genetic subgrouping. Thus, APPLEYARD 1996:204 quickly moves from a critical evaluation of D. Cohen’s lexicostatistical study (COHEN 1970) to a general conclusion according to which «it is comparison of morphological forms and structures that must necessarily constitute the bedrock of any comparative work». Oddly enough, on p. 220 of his article the same author does not hesitate to suppose that the presence of the internal passive in MSA and Sabaic — in my view, one of the most important features linking these languages to WS as opposed to Akkadian — may be due to «diffusion, if not direct ‘borrowing’ from Arabic». If such an isogloss can be discarded as the result of borrowing and diffusion, I can only wonder what kind of morphological isoglosses still constitute «the bedrock of any comparative work». 8 Its most explicit manifestation is the term «Gunnän-Gurage» invented by Hetzron to denote West Gurage languages where terms for ‘head’ derive from *gunnän (as opposed to dum < *dVmâS- in East Gurage). HETZRON (1972:1) considers this to be «a very good lexical isogloss». Other scattered examples include the negative par7

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The special relevance of shared lexical innovations has also been recognized previously (see, e. g., Hackett 1980:122, relying on a personal communication by T. O. Lambdin; Tropper 1993:278ff. and especially Huehnergard 1998:275–276, with many penetrating remarks but a somewhat skeptical general evaluation).9 Nevertheless, to the best of my knowledge, this method has not yet been consistently applied to any sub-branch of Semitic.10 The present contribution, gratefully dedicated to the memory of Sevir Chernetsov — who some 13 years ago introduced those who are now the co-editors of the present volume into the field of Ethiopian studies — is intended to fill this gap.11

1. Swadesh wordlist: the evidence The Swadesh wordlist used in the standard glottochronological procedure will serve as a convenient starting point for the present investigation as it mostly consists of semantically unambiguous notions that are primitive enough to prevent — at least ideally — the corresponding terms from being borrowed from one language to another.12 ticles *„Vy vs. *„al (p. 28), the numeral ‘nine’ (*tis…- vs. *zah³t ³an-, p. 29), the verbs *h¼lf vs. *h³wr for ‘to go’ (p. 59) etc. It is also noteworthy that the only feature from among «the first independent innovations that separated it [Ethiopian] from South Arabian» (HETZRON 1972:18) mentioned by Hetzron on p. 129, namely the fact that «the same morphemic exponent is used adnominally in the meaning of ‘like’ and adverbially as a purposive ‘in order that’», is actually a lexical feature. It is attributed by Hetzron to an early Agaw influence but an identical use is observable for Akk. kîma at least in Old Assyrian: kaspam meh¼râtim irraminîkunu kîma tagammilâninni id„âma ‘das Silber, die Gegenwerte, legt, um mir gefällig zu sein, von eurem eigenen’ (HECKER 1968:255). That both Akk. kîma and Gez. kama are widely used to introduce dass-Sätze is commonplace. 9 For a somewhat contradictory presentation of the relevance of lexical isoglosses in the genetic subgrouping of Ethiopian v. APPLEYARD 1977:4–5. 10 A classical study dealing with shared lexical innovations in Indo-European is PORZIG 1954. 11 The method of shared lexical isoglosses has been applied by the present author to the problem of the genealogical setting of Ugaritic (to appear soon as a special study). Another contribution dealing with the lexical evidence for the continuity between Old and Middle Aramaic is KOGAN 2005. 12 In most cases, I will rely on the lists compiled for Geez, Amharic, Tigrinya, Soddo and Harari by Alexander Militarev (partly published in MILITAREV 2000 and MILITAREV 2004), a fruit of many years of thorough work with lexicographic tools and native speakers. My independent check of various positions of these lists has provided abundant proof for the semantic accuracy of Militarev’s choice (in sharp contrast with RABIN 1975 or BENDER 1968, both full of quite arbitrary decisions), minor changes introduced by myself being thus quite insignificant. Needless to say, my etymological evaluation of many concrete cases is quite different from that proposed in Mili-

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My first step was to separate the stock of positions which can be more or less safely regarded as reflecting the hypothetic Proto-Ethiopian stage. In my opinion, a root reflected with the same basic meaning in Geez, Tigrinya or/ and Tigre, Amharic and/or Argobba, Harari and/or Eastern Gurage and one of the «Gunnän-Gurage» languages (for practical reasons, most often Soddo) can be attributed to Proto-Ethiopian without serious doubts. Such positions are represented by 41 examples. To these one can add, with a high degree of certainty, 16 roots which are present in Geez, Tigrinya or/and Tigre and at least two South Ethiopian subdivisions. A relatively small residual (11 examples) comprises various less reliable combinations (Gez., Tgr./Tna. and one S.-Eth. subdivision; all or most of Neo-Ethiopian but not Geez, etc.). In sum, no less than 68 positions can be qualified as Proto-Ethiopian, more than 80 % of them in a highly reliable way.13 By their diachronic nature, these Proto-Ethiopian roots can be subdivided into the following sections.

1. ´Trivialª retentions This group is constituted by terms which are exact phonological and semantic descendants of their Proto-Semitic ancestors. The latter, in their turn, are very likely to be the only (or at least the principal, or basic) terms for the respective notions in the proto-language.14 It includes the following positions: tarev’s studies so that all positive and negative solutions offered in the present article are my responsibility alone. For Tigre, a list compiled by Dr. M. Bulakh with the help of a native speaker was used. On the problem of borrowing in the Swadesh wordlists of ES languages v. Section 4 below. 13 This means that less reliable examples (11) can be easily eliminated from the discussion without prejudicing its basic conclusions. The same is true of the few cases which, in principle, could have been included in the Proto-Ethiopian stock but for various reasons were not (e. g., *t³îs- or *tann- for ‘smoke’, *zV for ‘that’). 14 Such a conclusion is compelling if the respective term is reflected in all (or nearly all) the Semitic languages with the same basic meaning (positions 1, 11, 17, 21, 25, 32, 39, 41, 42, 44, 57, 80, 87, 89, 94, 95). It is almost certain in cases like 9, 37, 38, 40, 48 where the basic meaning is lost in one of the languages but the root in question is still present there and exhibits a transparent semantic (or even stylistic) shift (Akk. rçðu vs. k³ak³k³adu ‘head’, idu vs. k³âtu ‘hand’ and kabittu vs. amûtu ‘liver’ are typical examples). As for the remaining cases, their attribution to trivial (rather than non-trivial) retentions certainly implies some degree of subjectivity (cf. the concluding remark of this section below). My decisions in such cases have been mostly guided by two criteria: the attestation, if not pan-Semitic, must be sufficiently wide and should affect geographically and historically unconnected areas; no alternative PS reconstruction with the same basic meaning should be available. Both criteria are well illustrated by PS *„Vbn- which is reflected as the basic term for stone in Akkadian, Hebrew, Ugaritic, Sabaic, Ethiopian and Soqotri, whereas no alternative basic synonym in PS seems to be known.

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1. ‘all’ — Gez. k«#ll-, Tna. k«#llu, Amh. hullu etc. (LGz. 281) < PS *kull-; 7. ‘to bite’ — Gez. nasaka, Tna. näkäsä, Amh. näkkäsä, Sod. näkkäsä, Har. näxäsa (LGz. 402) < PS *ntÔk/nktÔ (the metathetic variation, well attested for this root within and outside Ethiopian, is intriguing, but can hardly be regarded as an obstacle for postulating an eventual etymological identity of both variants); 9. ‘blood’ — Gez. dam, all Modern Ethiopian däm (LGz. 133) < PS *dam-; 10. ‘bone’ — Gez. …as× ³m, Tna. …as³mi, Amh. at³# nt, Sod. at³#m, Har. ât³ (LGz. 58) < PS *…atÔ. m-; 11. ‘claw, nail’ — Gez. s³# fr, Tna. s³# fri, Amh. t³# f# r, Sod. t³# f# r, Har. t³ifir (LGz. 549) < PS *tÔ. Vpr-; 17. ‘to die’ — Gez. mota, Tna. motä etc. (LGz. 375) < PS *mwt; 19. ‘to drink’ — Gez. sätya, Tna. sätäyä, Arg. säèèa, Har. säèa (LGz. 518) < PS *šty; 21. ‘ear’ — Gez. „# zn, Tna. „# zni, Sod. #nz#n, Har. uzun (LGz. 52) < PS *„udÔ n-; 25. ‘eye’ — Gez. …ayn, Tna. …ayni, Amh. ayn, Sod. in, Har. în (LGz. 80) < PS *…ayn-; 28. ‘fire’ — Gez. „#sât, Tgr. „#sat, Amh. #sat, Sod. äsat, Har. isât (LGz. 44) < PS *„iš(-ât)-; 32. ‘full’ — Gez. m#lu„, Amh. m#lu etc. (LGz. 342 < PS *ml„); 37. ‘hand’ — Gez. „#d, Tna. „id, Amh. #‚¶‚¶, Sod. 䂶, Har. i‚¶ i (LGz. 7) < PS *yad-; 38. ‘head’ — Gez. r#„s, Tna. r#„si, Amh. ras, Har. urûs (LGz. 458) < PS *ra„š-; 39. ‘hear’ — Gez. sam…a, Amh. sämma etc. (LGz. 501) < PS *šm…; 40. ‘heart’ — Gez. l#bb, Tna. l#bbi, Amh. l#bb, Sod. l#bb (LGz. 305) < PS *libb-; 41. ‘horn’ — Gez. k³arn, Tna. k³ärni, Amh. k³änd, Sod. k³är, Har. k³är (LGz. 442) < PS *k³arn-; 42. ‘I’ — Gez. „anä, Tna. „ane, Amh. #ne, Muh. anä, Har. ân (LGz. 26) < PS *„anV; 44. ‘knee’ — Gez. b#rk, Tgr. b#r#k, Tna. b#rki, Sel. b#rk, Wol. b#rk (LGz. 105) < PS *bVrk-; 48. ‘liver’ — Gez. kabd, Tna. kabdi, Cha. xäpt, Har. kûd (LGur. 333) < PS *kabid-; 54. ‘moon’ — Gez. warh¼, Tna. warh³i, Har. wah³ri, Sel. wäri, Wol. wäri (LGz. 617) < PS *war(i)h¼-; 56. ‘mouth’ — Gez. „af, Tna, „af etc. (LGz. 8); as argued in SED I No. 223, the ES forms must be derived from PS *pay- ‘mouth’ (clearly the basic PS term with this meaning) but the „a- extension is highly specific and almost certainly goes back to the Proto-Ethiopian period (to be explained by

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the influence of similar Cushitic forms or/and contamination with PS *„anp‘nose’);15 57. ‘name’ — Gez. s#m, Amh. s#m, Har. s#m etc. (LGz. 504) < PS *šim-; 59. ‘new’ — Gez. h³addis, Tna. h³addis, Amh. addis, Sod. a‚¶‚¶ is, Har. h³a‚¶ îs (LGz. 226) < PS *h³dtÔ; 60. ‘night’ — Gez. lelit, Tna. läyti, Amh. let, lelit, Gaf. litä (LGz. 314) < PS *lay(liy)-; 61. ‘nose’ — Gez. „anf, Tgr. „an#f, Tna. (Hamasen) „anfi, Sod. afunna, Har. ûf (LGz. 28) < PS *„anp-; 63. ‘one’ — Gez. „ah³adu, Tna. h³adä, Amh. and, Sod. att, Har. ah³ad (LGz. 12) < PS *„ah³ad-; 68. ‘root’ — Gez. s× # rw, Tna. sur, Amh. s#r etc. (LGz. 535) < PS *Svr-; 73. ‘seed’ — Gez. zar„, Tna. zar„i, Amh. zär, Sod. zär, Har. zär (LGz. 642) < PS *dÔar…/„-; 80. ‘star’ — Gez. kokab, Tna. kokob, Amh. kokäb, Sod. kokäb, Zwy. kokkäb (LGz. 280) < PS *kabkab-; 81. ‘stone’ — Gez. „#bn, Tna. „#mni, Sod. #mmayyä, Har. ûn (LGz.4) < PS *„Vbn-; 87. ‘thou’ — Gez. „anta, Tgr. „#nta, Amh. antä, Gaf. ant, Sel. atä (LGur. 102) < PS *„anta; 89. ‘tooth’ — Gez. s#nn, Tna. s#nni, Sod. s#nn, Har. s#n (LGz. 504) < PS *šinn-; 90. ‘tree’ — Gez. …#s× ³, Tgr. …#è³è³ät, Cha. äè³ä, Wol. #nè³e (LGur. 12) < PS *…is× ³-; 94. ‘water’_— Gez. mây, Tna. may, Har. mîy, Sel. mäy, Wol. mäy (LGz. õ 376) < PS *ma y-; 95. ‘we’ — Gez. n#h³na, Tna. n#h³na, Amh. #ñña, Sod. #ñña, Har. #ñña (LGz. 395) < PS *nVh³nV-; 96. ‘what’ — Gez. m#nt, Amh. m#n, Sod. m#n, Har. min (LGz. 352) < PS *mîn-; 97. ‘who’ — Gez. mannu, Tna. män, Amh. man, Cha. m«an, Har. mân (LGz. 348) < PS *man(n)-. It may be argued that in some of the above cases (Nos. 19, 28, 54, 59, 61, 63) the status of the respective PS root as the basic exponent of the notion in question is somewhat less certain than in the remaining ones. But even for these examples such a possibility is, in my opinion, so feasible that the preservation of the respective roots in Ethiopian can be regarded as highly nonspecific.

15 In this sense, the present term can be treated not only as a trivial retention from PS but also as a rather specific formal innovation.

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2. ´Non-trivialª retentions For some notions included into the Swadesh wordlist the exponents are so diverse throughout Semitic that it has been impossible to reconstruct a single basic term for PS. Such cases may be explained in several alternative ways: either no basic term with this meaning altogether existed, so that all the corresponding words in the daughter languages are equally innovative; or one of the terms is the direct descendant of the basic PS term, which did not survive anywhere else with this meaning; or several synonyms without substantial semantic difference already coexisted in PS and have been subsequently generalized in particular languages. In other words, the terms in question do have reliable cognates in other languages, but it cannot be demonstrated that the basic meaning like ‘bird’ or ‘black’ is a direct retention from PS and not an independent semantic evolution. Examples of this type include: 6. ‘bird’ — Gez. …of, Tna. …uf, Amh. wof, Sod. wof, Har. ûf (LGz. 78). # From PS *…awp- ‘bird’, in its turn possibly going back to the verbal root …wp ‘to fly’ (though a reverse development cannot be excluded). Ethiopian is the only branch of Semitic where *…awp- became the basic term for bird, though this general meaning is also widely attested for Hbr. …ôp (KB 801, mostly used as a collective; also applied to other flying beings), Jud. …ôpâ (Ja. 1055) and Syr. …awpâ (Brock. 517). 8. ‘black’ — Gez. s³allim, Tna. s³ällim, Har. t³äy, Wol, t³em, Sel. t³çm (LGz. 556). # From *tÔ. lm, mostly attested with the meaning ‘(to be) dark’ rather than ‘(to be) black’ (v. Bulakh 2003:5–7). The latter is, however, also typical of Akkadian s³almu (CAD S³ 77). It is uncertain whether the meaning ‘to be black’ should be considered an independent innovation of Akk. and ES or a parallel retention of the original meaning (as Bulakh is apparently inclined to think). 77. ‘small’ — Gez. n#„us, Tgr. n#„uš, Tna. nu„us, Amh. t#nn#š, Arg. mans, Gaf. #nsä, End. #ns (LGz. 382). # Probably a semantic evolution of PS *„nš ‘to be weak’ represented by Akk. ençðu ‘to be weak, impoverished, shaky’ (CAD E 166), Hbr. „nš ‘to be sickly’ (KB 73). The meaning ‘to be small’ is also present in Soq. „énes (LS 68, without adjectival formations). An eventual etymological relationship between the two metathetic variants (N.-Eth. *n„s and S.-Eth. *„ns) can hardly be put to doubt. 16. ‘to come’ — Gez. mas³„a, Tna. mäs³„e, Amh. mät³ta³ , Sod. mät³ta³ , Sel. mät³a, Wol. mät³ä (LGz. 370). # From the PS verb of motion *mtÔ. „ (possibly ‘to reach, to arrive’): Akk. mas³û ‘to be equal to, to amount to’, D ‘to make reach to’ (CAD M1 344), Ugr. mtÔ. „ ‘to meet, run into’ (DUL 608), Hbr. ms³„ ‘to reach, meet, find’ (KB 619), Bib. mt³„ ‘to reach, attain to; come over’ (ibid. 1914, with references to other Arm.), Sab. mtÔ. „ ‘to reach, arrive, come to’ (Biella 273), ‘to go, proceed, march; to reach a place’ (SD 89), Qat. mtÔ. „ ‘to enter, go through’ (Ricks

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96), Min. mtÔ. „ ‘se trouver à un endroit’ (LM 64), Jib. mídÔ. í ‘to reach (to)’ (JJ 169), Soq. mt³y ‘venir, arriver, atteindre’ (LS 241). 26. ‘fat’ — Gez. s× # bh³, Tna. s#bh³i, Amh. s#b, Cha. s#wä, Har. säbah (LGz. 525). # From *s× Vbh³-, one of several Common Semitic terms for ‘fat, tallow’ (outside Ethiopian reliably attested in MSA, where it also became the main word for this notion, v. SED I No. 261). 31. ‘foot’ — Gez. „#gr, Tna. „#gri, Amh. #g#r, Sod. äg#r, Har. ingir (LGz. 11). # The origin of the ES terms for foot and their counterparts in some Arb. dialects (v. ibid.) is a matter of controversy: reflexes of an independent PS root (SED I No. 7) or an evolution of *rigl- ‘foot’ (so most recently Voigt 1998). 33. ‘to give’ — Gez. wahaba, Tna. habä, Arg. hawa, Sod. abä, Sel. wâbä, Wol. wabä (LGz. 609). # From *whb ‘to give’ (Arm., Arb., ESA, sparsely also Hbr.). Within the Common Aramaic suppletive paradigm of the verb ‘to give’ *whb became, side by side with *ntn, one of the two basic roots with this meaning. 43. ‘to kill’ — Gez. k³atala, Tna. k³ätälä, Wol. k³ätälä, Cha. k³ät³ärä (LGur. 508). # From *k³tl/k³t l³ ‘to kill’, mostly attested in Aramaic and Arabic where it also became the main verb with this meaning. 49. ‘louse’ — Gez. k³«#mâl, Tna. k³«#mal, Amh. k³# mal etc. (LGz. 432). # From *k³umâl- ‘kind of harmful insect, louse’: Old Arm. k³ml ‘louse’ (HJ 1013), Arb. k³aml- ‘poux’, k³ummal- ‘petites fourmis; petites sauterelles qui n’ont pas encore d’aile’ (BK 2 816), Sab. k³mlt ‘insect pests, locusts?’ (SD 105). For a metathetic variant *k³Vlm- v. Jud. k³alm#tâ ‘vermin’ (Ja. 1378), Syr. k³almâ ‘pediculus’ (Brock. 668), Sab. k³lm, k³lmt ‘insect pest, locusts?’ (SD 105), Qat. k³lm ‘Lausbefall’ (Sima 2000:131). Syr. k³almâ and Arb. k³ummal- also became the basic terms for louse in the respective languages. 65. ‘rain’ — Gez. z#nâm, Tna. z#nab, Amh. z#nab, Sod. z#nab, Har. z#nâb (LGz. 641). # From *dÔVnVn-/*dÔVnVm-, one of the common Semitic terms for rain (Akk. zunnu, Sab. dÔnm, v. ibid.). The last radical b in Neo-Ethiopian must be due to dissimilation. 69. ‘round’ — Gez. k#bub, kabib, Tna. käbbib, Amh. k#bb, Sod. k#bb, Wol. kub (LGz. 273). # From *kb (with various extensions), one of Common Semitic verbal roots for ‘to be curved, bent; to make a circular movement, to encircle’: Arb. kbb ‘pencher, incliner; pelotonner, rouler sur un peloton; faire des boulettes, des boules’ (BK 2 850), kbkb ‘renverser, culbuter’ (ibid. 855), Mhr. kbûb ‘to stoop’ (JM 201), Hrs. kbôb (JH 66), Jib. ekbéb id. (JJ 124), possibly also Hbr. pB. kabkâb (also kapkâp) ‘an arched round vessel’ (Ja. 608), Jud. kubbâ ‘vine cask; turret of a fort’ (Ja. 616), Akk. kabâbu ‘shield’ (CAD K 1). PS

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*kp with the same meaning represented by Akk. kapâpu ‘to bend, curve’ OB on (CAD K 175), kippatu ‘loop, tendril’ (ibid. 397), Hbr. kpp ‘to bend, bow down’ (KB 493), pB. kippâ ‘arch, doorway, bow; skull-cap’ (Ja. 635), Jud. kwp ‘to bend’ (ibid. 623), kiptâ ‘vault, arcade; bow, curve’ (ibid. 636), k#pap ‘to bend’ (ibid. 661), Syr. kâp ‘flexit’ (Brock. 323), kap ‘inclinavit, curbavit’ (ibid. 339), Mnd. kup, kpa, kpp ‘to bow, bend, curve’ (DM 208), Arb. kff X ‘entourer qch., faire un cercle autour; se rouler en spirale (se dit d’un serpent)’, kiffat- ‘tout object rond’ (BK 2 910) is almost certainly related as a variant root. 71. ‘to say’ — Gez. b#hla, Tna. bälä, Amh. alä, Sod. balä, Har. bâya (LGz. 89). # From *bhl, a verb of speaking (possibly with an original connotation of praying, imploring): Akk. ba„âlu ‘to pray, to beseech’ SB (CAD B 2), Arb. bhl ‘maudire’, VIII ‘implorer, invoquer, supplier’ (BK 1 173), Mhr. b#hlît ‘word’ (JM 45), Hrs. behelçt id. (JH 16), Jib. bµhlét id. (JJ 24), Soq. bíleh ‘chose’ (LS 83). 72. ‘to see’ — Gez. r#„#ya, Tna. rä„ayä, Har. ri„a, Zwy. #rî (LGz. 459). # From *r„y ‘to see’ whose attestation outside Ethiopian is mostly restricted to Hbr., Arb. and ESA (v. ibid.). It is the basic word for ‘to see’ also in Hebrew and Arabic. 79. ‘to stand’ — Gez. k³oma, Tna. k³omä etc. (LGz. 456). # From *k³wm ‘to stand, stay’, attested in Hbr., Arm., Arb. and ESA (v. ibid). It became the main term for ‘to stand’ also in Aramaic and Arabic.

3. Certain or likely innovations This group consists of those typically Ethiopian roots which can be more or less reliably traced back to PS terms with a different meaning, i. e., Ethiopian semantic innovations. The following positions can be classified in this way: 3. ‘bark’ — Gez. l#h³s³, Tna. l#h³s³i, Amh. l#t³, Muh. l#t³ä, Wol. l#è³è³aè³e (LGz. 312, LGur. 383). # As suggested in LGz. 312, probably derived from PS *lh¼s³/h¼ls³ ‘to draw off’: Arb. lh¼s³ II ‘épurer en séparant les parties moins propres; enlever, tirer, extraire la partie la plus pure et la meilleure’ (BK 2 980), Hbr. h³ls³ ‘to draw off’ (KB 321), pB. Nip. ‘to be peeled off’, Syr. h³ls³ pa. ‘rapuit, spoliavit’ (Brock. 237), see further KB 321–322. For a similar semantic development v. Latin cortex, according to WH I 279 < *(s)qer-t- ‘schneiden’ «als ‘abgeschälte, abgeschnittene Rinde’». 4. ‘belly’ — Gez. kabd, Tgr. käb#d, Tna. käbdi, Amh. hod (LGz. 273). # Generalization of PS *kabid- ‘liver’ (in Gez. and Tna. the meanings ‘belly’ and ‘liver’ are not distinguished at all whereas in Amh. *kabid- with the meaning ‘liver’ is replaced by gubbät). While the meaning shift ‘liver’ > ‘interior’ is also present in Arabic (‘cavité du ventre’, BK 2 852) and Ugaritic (‘innards, entrails’, DUL 424), the development of *kabid- into the main

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term for external belly (abdomen) is specifically Ethiopian (the only — puzzling — parallel is the expression ka-ba-tum-ma ‘on the belly’ in the Amarna Canaanite, cf. SED I No. 141). 22. ‘earth’ — Gez. m#dr, Tgr. m#d#r, Tna. m#dri, Amh. m#d#r, Sod. m#d#r (LGz. 330). # Generalization of a PS term for a type of soil, ground (probably ‘clod of earth’): Hbr. pB. mädär ‘ordure (material used for vessels)’ (Ja. 735), Syr. medrâ ‘gleba (terrae), terra, lutum, pulvis’ (Brock. 375), Arb. madar- ‘boue sèche et tenace, sans sable’ (BK 2 1078), Mhr. mdêr ‘Lehmziegel’ (Jahn 210). Replacing PS *„ars× ³- ‘earth’ (no trace in ES). A similar semantic evolution of *mVd(V)r- is apparently observable in Sabaic (mdr ‘territory, ground’, SD 83 and Biella 267) but „rs× ³ clearly remained the main term for earth throughout ESA (note especially mr„ s1myn w„rs× ³n ‘lord of heaven and earth’ in the inscriptions from the monotheistic period, SD 7 and Biella 27). 23. ‘to eat’ — Gez. bal…a, Tna. bäl…e, Amh. bälla etc. (LGz. 95). # A semantic development from PS *bl… ‘to swallow’ (Hbr., Arm., Arb., MSA, v. ibid. and KB 134). PS *„kl is completely ousted as a verbal root throughout ES but a Proto-Ethiopian deverbal derivate *„i/ukl- ‘corn, cereals’ is preserved in most languages (LGz. 15). 82. ‘sun’ — Gez. s× ³ah³ây, Tna. s³äh³ay, Amh. t³ay, EÅa è³et (LGur. 190). # As argued in LGz. 149, probably derived from a verbal root *s³h³w/*s× ³h³w ‘to shine, to be bright’ (v. ibid. 553 for an extensive list of cognates). An inherent connection with sun, sun-heat is possible as suggested by Hbr. h³ôm s³ah³ ‘glowing heat’ (Is 18.4), rûa hõ ³ s³ah³ ‘glowing wind’ (Je 4.11) and especially Akk. s³çtu ‘light, shining appearance of the sun, moon and stars, sultry weather, open air, open sun’ (CAD S³ 150), ‘Glut, heller Schein, Hitze’ (AHw. 1095). A similar derivation from this root is known from Arabic (d³uh³an ‘heure du jour où le soleil est déjà élevé sur l’horizon, matinée avancée; clarté, lucidité; soleil’, BK 2 12 and d³ih³h³- ‘soleil’, ibid. 10) but its evolution into the main term for sun (with a concomitant extinction of the main PS term for sun *SVmS-16 ) is spefically Ethiopian. 91. ‘two’ — Gez. k# l„e, Tna. k#l#tte, Amh. hulätt, Sod. kitt, Har. ko„ot (LGz. 282). # A semantic development from PS *kil(„)- ‘both’: Akk. kilallân, Hbr. kil„ayim, Arb. kilâ, Mhr. k#lô (ibid.). The only remnant of PS *tÔin-â ‘two’ in Ethiopian is Gez. sân#y ‘the next day’ (ibid. 509).

4. Proto-Ethiopian terms with uncertain status This section includes positions occupied by roots which are highly specific to Ethiopian but have no reliable etymology. It is, therefore, impossible to demonstrate whether they are inherited terms completely lost throughout the 16

Tgr. šäm# š is obviously an Arabism.

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Semitic languages (or, at least, with meager traces outside Ethiopian), or borrowed from an unknown source, or innovated through some unusual phonological and/or semantic shifts. The following examples should be attrributed to this category: 2. ‘ashes’ — Gez. h³amad, Tgr. h³amäd, Amh. amäd, Sod. amäd, Har. h³amäd (LGz. 231).17 # None of the two alternative etymological approaches to this Proto-Ethiopian root outlined by Leslau is fully convincing: — Arb. h³md ‘être intense (se dit de la chaleur)’, h³amadat- ‘pétillement du feu qui brûle’ (BK 1 488); cf. also Hbr. pB. h³ md ‘to produce shrivelling by heat’ (Ja. 475) and, possibly, Akk. h¼ amadîru ‘shrivelled or withered’ (CAD H¼ 57); — Arb. h¼ md ‘cesser de flamber (se dit du feu, quand la flamme s’éteint, quoqu’il y ait encore des tisons qui brûlent)’, h¼ ammûd- ‘lieu où l’on couvre le feu, où on éteint les flammes, en conservant les tisons pour les rallumer’ (BK 1 630), Mhr. h¼# mûd ‘to be extinguished, burnt out’ (JM 443). 46. ‘leaf’ — Gez. k³«as³l, Tna. k³«äs³li, Amh. k³# t³äl, Sod. k³# t³äl, Har. k³ut³ti³ (LGz. 450). # A number of terms with the root k³s³l and various botanical connotations are attested in Arabic: k³as³l- ‘fleur de l’arbrisseau épineux salam-; rebut, parties que l’on jette en nettoyant le grain’, k³as³lat- ‘tendre et flexible (arbre); gerbe (de céréales fauchées)’, k³as³îl- ‘fourrage vert coupé pour les chevaux’ (BK 2 755). One wonders whether these terms, together with the ES words for leaf, may go back to a verbal root *k³s³l ‘to cut’ attested in Arb. (k³s³l ‘couper; trancher, abattre’, XI prendre, saisir’, ibid.) and Soq. (k³ós³el ‘couper (les cheveux)’, LS 381). For possible examples of ‘leaf’ derived from ‘to peel, strip off’ v. Buck 525. 51. ‘man’ — Tna. säb„ay, Amh. säb, Sod. säb, Har. usu„ (LGz. 482). # Included in the present corpus of evidence because of its reliable attestation in Tna. and its wide spread throughout South Ethiopian. One cannot exclude that the collective meaning ‘people’ attested for Gez. sab„ (vs. b#„# si ‘man’) and Tgr. sab (vs. „#nas) is an innovation of these languages but the reverse is also possible. The etymology of Proto-Ethiopian *sab„- is unclear. It should probably be compared to Sab. s1 b„ ‘carry out an undertaking (e. g., a military campaign)’, s1 b„t ‘expedition, undertaking, journey’ (SD 122), Qat. s1 b„ ‘to set out, go’ (Ricks 157), supposing an original meaning ‘gang, military or working commando’.18 A generalization of the ethnonym s1 b„ ‘Saba, The relationship between the present root and Tna. h³am# k w# šti ‘ashes’ is uncertain (h³amäd means ‘earth, soil, dirt’ in Tna.). 18 Cf. also Arb. sub„at- ‘long voyage’ (BK 1 1040), Mhr. h#bû ‘(poor man) to go to people every day for food’, hátbi ‘to struggle back home, make one’s way slowly to people to get help’ (JM 151); that Mhr. h is < *ð is suggested by Soq. miðteb ‘pauvre’ (LS 411; according to Leslau, < ðby). 17

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Sabaeans’ (cf. LLA 359 and Appleyard 1977:8) should, in my opinion, also be seriously considered. Comparison with Mhr. hâbû ‘people’ accepted in LGz. 482 is not convincing for various reasons (cf. the evidence collected in JM 2 which plainly suggests that hâ-/h³â- in this form belongs to the definite article rather than to the root whereas no expected š- is present in the cognate Jibbali form). 52. ‘many’ — Gez. b# zuh¼, Tna. b# zuh³, Amh. b# zu, Gog. b#Åä, Har. b䂶 îh³ (LGz. 117). # Clearly related to Arb. bdÔh¼ ‘être grand, haut; s’élever à une grande hauteur; e×tre fier, orgueilleux’ (BK 1 101) which is, however, hardly sufficient for postulating a reliable PS reconstruction. 66. ‘red’ — Gez. k³ayy# h³, Tna. k³äyy#h³, Amh. k³äyy, Har. k³çh³ (LGz. 456). # The origin of Proto-Ethiopian *k³yh³ ‘to be red’ is obscure. ESA k³yh³ ‘red’ adduced without reference by Leslau is Hapax Legomenon in the Hadramitic inscription RES 2693:2 where it is used as an attribute of dÔhb ‘bronze’ (Sima 2000:320; cf. Pirenne 1990:75 for a different interpretation of dÔhb in this passage). The following possible cognates (none of them fully convincing) can be mentioned (some of them tentatively suggested by M. Bulakh in personal communication): — Arb. k³uh³h³- ‘pur, franc, sans mélange’ (BK 2 677), k³wh³ ‘balayer la maison’ (BK 2 831); — Sab. h-k³wh³ ‘complete satisfactory, finish off, level, plaster’, mk³h³ ‘success, triumph’ (SD 110), Qat. s1-k³h³ ‘to prepare, set in order’ (Ricks 143); — Arb. k³ayh³- ‘pus (qui n’est pas mêlé de sang)’ (BK 2 844), k³wh³ ‘suppurer (se dit d’une plaie)’ (ibid. 831); — Jud. k³# h³ah³ ‘to be dull, faint’, k³# h³âh³â ‘faint-colored, gray?’ (Ja. 1345); — Akk. k³û ‘copper, bronze’ OB on (CAD Q 291). 93. ‘warm’ — Gez. m#ww#k³, Tna. mok³, Amh. muk³, Sod. muk³# nna, Har. muk³ (LGz. 375). # The origin of Proto-Ethiopian *mwk³ ‘to be warm, hot’ is unknown.

5. Certain or likely Cushitisms This group includes Ethiopian terms with no fully reliable Semitic etymology but widely attested in Cushitic. Some of them are obvious Cushitisms, the status of some other is disputed: 14. ‘cloud’ — Gez. dammanâ, Tna. dämmäna, Amh. dämmäna, Sod. dämmäna, Har. dân (LGz. 134–135). # Thought to be borrowed from Cushitic19 in Dolgopolsky 1973:51 and Appleyard 1977:36 (v. Militarev 2004:299–300 for a different opinion). Which means, here and elsewhere below, from some particular Cushitic language(s) or from an undetermined stage of development of Common Central or East Cushitic. 19

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24. ‘egg’ — Gez. „ank³ok³# h³o, Tna. „#nk³«ak³«# h³o, Sod. ank³o, Har. ak³uh³ (LGz. 31). # Borrowed from Cushitic according to Dolgopolsky 1973:282, 319 but treated as cognate to the corresponding Cushitic forms in Militarev 2004:309 (cf. SED I No. 160). The situation is complicated by the fact that no basic PS term for egg can be safely reconstructed. 29. ‘fish’ — Gez. …âs× â, Tna. …asa, Amh. asa etc. (LGz. 73). # Clearly borrowed from Cushitic (Dolgopolsky 1973:293). 36. ‘hair’ — Tgr. è³# gär, Tna. s³äg«ri, Amh. t³ägur, Sod. è³# gär, Har. è³igär (LGz. 550). # Included into the present corpus of evidence because of its wide attestation throughout Modern Ethiopian (the main Gez. term for hair seems to be s× #…# rt though s³ag«r is also attested). Borrowed from Cushitic (Appleyard 1977:17). 53. ‘meat’ — Gez. s× # gâ, Tna. s#ga, Amh. s#ga (LGz. 526). # Clearly borrowed from Cushitic (Dolgopolsky 1973:99). This list is essentially in agreement with that proposed in Ehret 1988:649. Both include terms for cloud, fish, hair and egg. Ehret treats the term for meat as borrowed into Proto-North-Ethiopian (but observes: «also in Amharic»). I have not found compelling reasons for treating *t³îs- ‘smoke’, *brr ‘to fly’ and *…wk³ ‘to know’ as the main Proto-Ethiopian terms for the respective notions though, obviously, such a possibility is not excluded for each of the three cases.

2. Swadesh wordlist: analysis and discussion As mentioned above, there are 68 probable Proto-Ethiopian roots and the majority can be reconstructed quite reliably. From the standpoint of the normal glottochronological procedure, this number is very high and unambiguously points to a rather close genetic relationship: compare, e. g., 56 positions in common between Harari and Geez as opposed to some 23 between Harari and Qur„anic Arabic or some 17 between Harari and Mehri. Within the present approach, however, bare numbers in themselves are not sufficient. The obviously heterogeneous mass of coincidences is to be carefully analysed in order to evaluate the classificatory relevance of each of its segments. Examples attributed to Group 1 («trivial retentions») represent a clear majority (37). In my opinion, these 37 positions do not prove the common origin of ES since the corresponding roots with the same basic meanings are well preserved in many other Semitic languages. A striking example is Hebrew where all 37 roots are present in the respective positions, and Akkadian with its 33 examples is not too far behind. A more or less massive loss of these roots in a given Semitic language (cf. some 25 positions preserved in Arabic and some 20 in Mehri) may probably be interpreted as pointing to

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their relatively prolonged separate status but certainly does not suggest that the remaining languages (such as Ethiopian, Hebrew and Akkadian) are closely related. In other words, if a text in a previously unknown Semitic language is discovered, the presence of these roots is likely to suggest that it is neither Arabic nor MSA, yet does not help to determine whether it is Ethiopian or Cannanite. In sum, trivial lexical retentions can hardly be helpful in the genetic subgrouping based on the lexical evidence, a symmetrical counterpart of the widely accepted opinion concerning the classificatory value of trivial morphological retentions: thus, the imperfect ya-k³tul-u is an important innovation proving the unity of Central Semitic but the preservation of *yV-k³attVl says nothing about the relationship between Akkadian, Ethiopian and MSA. 14 examples my be qualified as «non-trivial retentions» (Group 2). The classificatory value of each of them is conditioned by the degree of its specificity, the evaluation of which is necessarily subjective. Roots specialized with the respective meaning in other West Semitic languages (*k³wm, *r„y, *k³tl, *whb) are, in my opinion, the least significative in this respect (in some cases approaching those included in Group 1) whereas some others (*bhl or *n„s) are so highly specific that practical difference between such terms and those included in the next section is sometimes elusive. The classificatory value of this segment as a whole is, therefore, not unimportant: a language exhibiting all 14 roots can be almost safely qualified as Ethiopian but even the combination of, say, *…awp- for ‘bird’, *tÔ. lm for ‘to be black’, *whb for ‘to give’, *mtÔ. „ for ‘to come’ and *s×Vbh³- for ‘fat’ is highly suggestive in this respect. Nevertheless, since all these terms are retentions (in each case inherited from a more or less restricted pool of options) rather than innovations, there is always the possibility (even if purely theoretical) for an identical or very similar set of options to be offered by another Semitic language. The six examples included in Group 3 («certain or likely innovations») are decisive for qualifying a Semitic language as Ethiopian and provide reliable evidence as to the common origin of ES. Admittedly, the relevance of particular cases is uneven. Thus, *kil„ay for ‘two’ is perhaps the most important one: highly specific from the semantic point of view (at least completely without precedent in Semitic), attested throughout Ethiopian and accompanied by an almost complete elimination of *tÔin- (the only PS term for ‘two’).20 The least significant may be *kabd- ‘belly’ < ‘liver’, present only in North Ethiopian and Amharic and, possibly, with a precedent in early Canaanite. Nevertheless, even if one of the above roots is present in a Semitic text with the respective meaning, its Ethiopian background is very likely (and absolutely certain if there are two or three of such terms). The high relevance of this innovation was fully realised by such a prominent authority of modern Semitics as J. CANTINEAU (1932:179). 20

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The diagnostic relevance of the six terms of Group 4 is high in spite of their uncertain status: as I have just shown, both groups to which they can be alternatively attributed (non-trivial retentions and likely innovations) are significant from the point of view of subrouping. As for the Cushitisms included in Group 5, their relevance depends on whether they are thought to be borrowed independently into various Ethiopian languages or into the hypothetic Proto-Ethiopian. No convincing solution to this interesting problem can at present be proposed (see further below).

3. Evidence from other lexical fields Since the method of lexical innovations is not bound to any fixed number of positions, one can operate freely with various basic notions not included in the Swadesh wordlist. Such an inquiry has yielded several additional examples of lexical innovations, probably going back to Proto-Ethiopian: *…rk³ ‘to be naked’: Gez. …ark³a, Tgr. …ark³a, Tna. …aräk³ä, Amh. arräk³ä (LGz. 71). It remains to be established whether the element #nè³ attested with this meaning throughout West Gurage can be taken back to the present root with n < *r and è³ < *k³. # From PS *…rk³ ‘to gnaw, strip away’: Arb. …rk³ ‘dépouiller l’os de la chair’ (BK 2 228) and other cognates in LGz. 71; replacing PS *…rw. *blh¼ ‘to be sharp’: Gez. balh¼a, Tgr. bälh³a, Tna. bälh³e, Sod. bulä honä, Har. bäläh³a (LGz. 95). # As argued in Kogan forthcoming, probably from PS *blS ‘to be at the edge, to reach the point’ (Arb. blS ‘parvenir à un point; atteindre à..., arriver à...’, BK 1 161), cf. especially Arb. mablaS- ‘terme, point extrême où parvient une chose’ (BK 1 162) vs. Tgr. m#blah³ ‘point (of the horn)’ (LH 269). *batr- ‘branch, shoot, stick, rod’: Gez. batr, Tgr. bät#r, Tna. bätri, Amh. bätt#r, Sod. bätt#r, Har. bärti (LGz. 112). # Possibly derived from PS *btr ‘to cut off’ (cf. DRS 80): Hbr. btr ‘to cut in pieces’ (KB 167), Arb. btr ‘couper la queue à un animal’ (BK 1 82), Tgr. (t#)bättära ‘to become unarmed’, bätray ‘leafless (tree)’ (LH 287), Jib. ôt#r ‘to chop’ (JJ 30). For an exact semantic parallel v. Buck 523 in connection with Greek kládos. *grm ‘to be formidable, amazing, awesome’: Gez. garama, Tgr. gärräma, Tna. gärämä, Amh. gärrämä, Sod. gärrämä, Sel. gärämä (LGz. 203). # Probably derived from PS *gVrm- ‘bone; body’ with a semantic evolution otherwise attested in Semitic (v. SED I No. 94). *h³mm ‘to be sick, ill’: Gez. h³amama, Tgr. h³amma, Tna. h³amämä, Amh. ammämä-w, t-ammämä (LGz. 233). # From PS *h³mm ‘to be hot, feverish’ (v. LGz. 233 and SED I No. 120), replacing PS *mrs׳.

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*lk³h³ ‘lend’: Gez. lak³k#³ h³a, Tgr. „aläk³h³a, Tna. „aläk³k#³ h³e, Amh. täläk³k³a, Har. (a)lçk³äh³a (LGz. 317). # A causative formation from PS *lk³h³ ‘to take’. *nVfâs- ‘wind’: Gez. nafâs, Tna. n#fas, näfas, Amh. n#fas, Sod. n#fas, Wol. n#fas (LGz. 389). # From PS *npš ‘to breathe’. *na…a ‘come! up!’: Gez. na…a, na…â, n#…â ‘come, come now’, Tgr. n#…a, Tna. nä…a, Amh. na, Sel. Zwy. na (LGur. 445). # This interjection (partly serving as a suppletive imperative for ‘to come’) goes back to a PS verb of movement *n… with various extensions (v. KB 681 for references). The verbal origin of *na…a is clear from its full conjugation in Gez. n#…-û, n#…-î, n#…-â. *ma…âr- ‘honey’: Gez. ma…âr, Tgr. mä…ar, Tna. mä…ar, Amh. mar (LGz. 326). # From PS *wa…r- ‘honeycomb’ (Hbr. ya…ar, KB 423), a meaning still preserved in Gez. (note the meaning ‘wax’ for the reflexes of *ma…âr- in Harari and Gurage, LGur. 386). Partly replacing PS *dibš- (preserved in Epigraphic Geez, Harari, Gafat and Argobba, LGz. 122). See further Appleyard 1977:28–29. *„amlâk- ‘god’: Gez. „amlâk, Tgr. „amlak, Tna. „amlak, Amh. amlak (LGz. 344). # A broken plural from *malk- ‘king’ unattested in Ethiopian (Appleyard 1977:56), completely ousting PS *„il-. *mar…ât- ‘bride; daughter-in-law’ (and related forms connected with wedding, marriage): Gez. mar…ât, Tna. mär…at, Amh. m#rat, Sod. märat, Wol. märat (LGur. 424). # Derived from the verbal root *r…w ‘to join’ present in Gez. „ar…ut, Arb. „ur…uwwat- ‘yoke’ (cf. Latin conjux, Russian ñóïðóã). Replacing PS *kallat-. *ngs× ‘to rule, to be king’: Gez. nags× a, Tgr. nägsa, Tna. nägäsä, Amh. näggäsä, Sod. näggäsä, Har. nägäsa (LGz. 393). # From PS *ngs× ‘to push, press, drive (to work)’, replacing PS *mlk, *mal(i)k-, supposed to be preserved in *„amlâk- ‘god’ only (v. above). See further Appleyard 1977:51. *rkb ‘to find’: Gez. rakaba, Tgr. räkba, Tna. räkäbä, Amh. räkkäbä, Msq. räkkäbä, Sel. räkäbä (LGz. 469). # Almost certainly derived from PS *rkb ‘to ride; to join, connect’ even though exact details of the semantic evolution remain obscure (v. extensive discussion in LGz. 469). *rs… ‘to forget’: Gez. ras…a, Tgr. t#räss#…a, Tna. räss#…e, Amh. rässa, Sod. ärässa, Har. räsa„a (LGz. 474). # Likely developed from PS *rš… ‘to be wicked, ruthless’ via ‘to be negligent’ (v. especially Akk. ruššû ‘to behave thoughtlessly, imperiously, to act in contempt or disrespect of others’, CAD R 429). Almost completely ous-

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ting PS *nšy which is possibly preserved in Gez. nâh³saya (LGz. 395; the origin of -h³- is unclear). *t³b³ w ‘to suck’: Gez. t³a³ bawa, Tna. t³ä³ bäwä, Tgr. t³ä³ ba, Amh. t³äbba, Sod. t³obbä, Har. t³ä³ ba (LGz. 587). # Derived from PS (and Proto-Ethiopian) *t³Vb- ‘teat, breast’ (SED I No. 247). *wald-, *lid- ‘son’: Gez. wald, Tgr. wäd, Tna. wäddi, Amh. l#‚¶, Sod. wäld, Har. li‚¶ i, waldi (LGz. 613). # PS *bin- is ousted by derivatives of *wld ‘to bear’ (preserved only in Gez. b#nta …ayn ‘pupil of the eye’). The lack of distinction between ‘son’ and ‘boy’, ‘child’ observable throughout Ethiopian is atypical of Semitic and may be due to the substratum influence.  While *wVld- for ‘son’ is attested in some Arabic dialects, its use there is restricted to filiations (DRS 546), *binclearly remaining the basic term for this notion. *zi„b- ‘hyena’: Gez. z#„b, Tna. z#b„i, Amh. ‚¶# b, Arg. ‚¶#b (LGz. 630). # A semantic evolution of PS *dÔi„b- ‘wolf, jackal’, replacing PS *s× ³ab(u)…‘hyena’ which is reflected in Gez. only (s×#³ b…, LGz. 147; very scarcely attested). The notion ‘wolf’ is mostly expressed by Cushitic borrowings like Gez. tak« lâ. See further Appleyard 1977:44. Besides, a (by no means exhaustive) list of isoglosses with no reliable Semitic etymology, thus corresponding to group 4 in the above classification, can be adduced: *…ilat-, *ma…alt- ‘day’, *w…l ‘to spend the day’: Gez. Tgr. mä…al, m#…#l, …#lät, Tna. mä…alti, …#lät, Sod. may, Har. mä„altu, mâltu ‘day (in daytime)’, môy ‘day (24 hours)’ (LGz. 603). # Replacing PS *yawm- (preserved with the meaning ‘today’ in Gez., Tgr. and Tna., LGz. 627). *bk³« … ‘to fit, to be sufficient’: Gez. bak³« …a, Tgr. bäk³…a, Tna. bäk³«…e, Amh. bäk³k³a, Sod. bäk³k³a, Har. bäk³a (LGz. 99). # Note Arb. bk³… ‘se contenter, être satisfait de qch.’ (BK 1 150). *ft³n ‘to be fast’: Gez. fat³ana, Tgr. fät³na, Tna. fät³änä, Amh. fät³tä³ nä, Sod. fät³tä³ nä, Har. fät³äna (LGz. 171). # Compared by Leslau to Arb. ft³n ‘être intelligent, avoir de la sagacité’ (BK 2 613). MSA verbs with the meaning ‘to remember; to be clever’ (JM 108, JH 36, JJ 66) must be borrowed from Arabic. According to Biella 402, Sab. ft n³ ‘assign, ordain’ may also be related (supposing an original meaning ‘to proclaim’). *g« dl ‘to be missing’: Gez. g« adala, Tna. g« ädälä, Amh. g« äddälä, Sod. g« äddälä (LGz. 182). V. such Cushitic examples as Saho âuÐ k-â ‘kind, son, tochter, knabe, mädchen’ (RSa. 76) and Beja „ôr ‘knabe, son’ (RBed.. 27). 21

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*gz„ ‘to dominate; to own, possess’: Gez. gaz„a, Tgr. gäz„a, Tna. gäz„e, Amh. gäzza, Sod. gäzza, Har. gäza„a (LGz. 210). *h³wr ‘to go’: Gez. h³ora, Gaf. horä, End. wä ärä (juss. y#x«är), Har. h³âra (LGz. 249). # Compared by Leslau to Arb. rwh³ ‘aller’ (BK 1 945) and h³wr ‘revenir, retourner’ (ibid. 509). That Sab. h³wr ‘to settle in a town’ (SD 73) goes back to an original meaning ‘to go’ (as assumed by Leslau) is by no means certain. *h³zl ‘to carry on the back’: Gez. h³azala, Tna. h³azälä, Amh. azzälä, Msq. ezzälä, Har. h³azäla (LGz. 253). # Note Arb. h³udÔ al- ‘giron; ceinture dans le caleçon, cette partie par laquelle on le fixe sur le corps’ (BK 1 398). *h¼ s× ³b ‘to wash’: Gez. h¼as× ³aba, Tgr. h³as³ba, Tna. h³as³äbä, Amh. at³t ä³ bä, Sod. at³t ä³ bä, Har. h³at³äba (LGz. 259). # Compared by Leslau to Arb. h¼d³b ‘se teindre les mains, les ongles, la barbe ou les cheveaux’ (BK 1 584). Replacing PS *rh³s× ³ which is preserved in Gaf. and East Gurage (in other languages with a meaning shift into ‘to sweat, perspire’ only). *k…b ‘to do again, to double’: Gez. kâ…#b, Tgr. kä…abä, EÅa xabä, Wol. kabä, Ancient Har. ka…ab (LGz. 271). # Note Arb. ka…b- ‘jointure, articulation des os’ (BK 2 907). *k³« sl ‘to be wounded’: Gez. k³«asla, Tna. k³«äsälä, Amh. k³ossälä, Sod. k³« ässälä (LGz. 446). # Compared by Leslau to Arb. k³s³l ‘couper’ (BK 2 755). *kyd ‘to tread, trample, walk’: Tgr. keda, Tna. kädä, Amh. hedä, EÅa hedä, Har. xe‚¶ a (LGz. 301). # Compared by Leslau to Arb. kdd II ‘donner une chasse vigoureuse, repousser et poursuivre’, kadîd- ‘sol foulé par les bêtes à sabot’ (BK 2 872). Note Arb. kdkd ‘marcher lentement et lourdement’ (BK 2 875), Mhr. kdû ‘to make (a camel) trot’ (JM 203), Jib. kédé ‘(camel) to trot’ (JJ 126). *lmlm ‘to be green, verdant’: Gez. lamlama, Tgr. lämläma, Tna. lämlämä, Amh. lämällämä, Sod. l#mällämä (LGz. 315). # Note Arb. lmm IV ‘arriver à son terme; avoir les dattes presque mûres’ (BK 2 1022) and Akk. lammu ‘almond tree; sapling’ (CAD L 68). *ls³y ‘to shave’: Gez. lâs³aya, Tna. las³äyä, Amh. laè³èä³ , Sod. läè³èä³ (LGz. 319). # Note Arb. lys³ ‘remuer et ôter une chose de sa place’ (BK 2 1048). *mh³l ‘to swear’: Gez. mah³ala, Tgr. mäh³ala, Tna. mäh³alä, Amh. malä, Sod. malä, Zwy. mâlä (LGz. 335). # Sab. mh³ly in Gl 1533.6 is tentatively interpreted as ‘oath’ in SD 84 and Biella 271. Note Hbr. pB. mâh³al ‘to forgive, pardon’ (Ja. 761), Jud. id. (ibid.) compared by Leslau. It is unclear whether Arb. mh³l III ‘agir avec astuce à l’égard de qn.’ (BK 2 1069) may also be somehow related. *makkân- ‘sterile, childless’: Gez. makkân, Tna. mäkan, Amh. mäkkan, mähan, Gog. mäkan, Zwy. mähan (LGz. 340).

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*mrh³ ‘to guide, lead’: Gez. marh³a, Tna. märh³e, Amh. märra, Sod. märra, Sel. mära (LGz. 358). # One wonders whether Syr. marrâh³â ‘audax’ (Brock. 404), Arb. mrh³ ‘marcher avec fierté, en levant la tête’ (BK 2 1087) may be related. *nbr ‘to sit; to live, stay’: Gez. nabara, Tgr. näbra, Tna. näbärä, Amh. näbbärä, norä, Sod. näbbärä, Har. näbära (LGz. 284). # At least partly replacing PS *wtÔb ‘to sit’ (usually thought to be preserved in Gez. „awsaba ‘to take a wife’, LGz. 619). Etymology fully uncertain (note perhaps Arb. nabûr- ‘cul, derrière’, BK 2 1183). Nöldeke’s attempt to relate Gez. nabara with Arb. nbr ‘to be high, elevated’ (Nöldeke 1910:49) does not look attractive from the semantic point of view. *ndd ‘to burn’ (intr.): Gez. nadda, Tna. nädädä, Amh. näddädä, Sod. näddädä, Har. nädäda (LGz. 385). # Compared by Leslau to Arb. nd„ ‘faire un petit creux dans les cendres chaudes pour y mettre le pain etc., qu’on veut faire cuire’ (BK 2 1224). *ngd ‘to travel’: Gez. nagada, Tgr. nägda, Tna. nägädä, Amh. näggädä, Sod. näggädä, Har. nigdi âða (LGz. 391). # Compared to Syr. n#gad ‘traxit; se effudit’ (Brock. 413) in LLA 693 (with cognates in other Arm.: Ja. 871-2, DM 288). *s…m ‘to kiss’: Tgr. sä…ama, Tna. sä…amä, Amh. samä, Sod. samä, Sel. sâmä (LGz. 481). # Compared by Leslau with Yemenite Arb. sa…am ‘kiss’ (after W. W. Müller; v. now Behnstedt 559) which, in view of its isolated position within Arabic, must be due to (Proto-)Ethiopian influence. *s³bb ‘to be narrow’: Gez. s³abba, Tgr. s³äbba, Tna. s³äbbä, Amh. t³äbbäbä, Sod. t³äbbäbä, Har. t³äbäba, Zwy. t³äbäbä (LGz. 545). # Compared by Leslau to Arb. d³bb ‘empoigner une chose, prendre avec toute la main’ (BK 2 2) and d³aff- ‘étroit’ (ibid. 30) and similar forms in -p in Hbr. and Arm. Likely replacing PS *s× ³yk³ (which may be preserved in Sel., Wol. t³äk³äk³ä, Msq. t³äk³k³äk³ä ‘to be narrow’, LGur. 628). *w…y ‘to be hot, to burn’: Gez. w#…ya, Tna. wä…ayä, Enm. wi„ä, Har. w#y (LGz. 603). # Tentatively related by Leslau to Arb. w…y ‘exciter la sédition, les tumultes (BK 2 1571)’. *wlt³/lwt³ ‘to change’: Gez. wallat³a, Tna. läwwät³ä, Amh. läwwät³ä³ , Sod. liwwät³ä (LGz. 614). # One wonders whether the Ethiopian roots can be related to PS *lwt³ ‘to twist, turn, do a second time’ (v. LS 230 for concrete forms). Akk. lît³u ‘hostage, pledge’ (CAD L 223) is rather close semantically to the meaning ‘to change’ but it is thought to be derived from lât³u ‘to confine, to keep in check’ (ibid. 113). To collect and analyse all non-trivial lexical retentions of ES is an important but difficult task clearly beyond the scope of the present article. Two examples of Proto-Afrosiatic roots widely attested in Ethiopian but with no

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reliable parallel anywhere else in Semitic can show how instructive such an investigation could be: *maray-t- ‘earth, soil, dust’ (LGz. 361: Gez., Tgr., Tna., Amh.), clearly related to Berber *ta-mur-t- ‘earth’ (Militarev 2004:307); *hlw ‘to be’ (LGz. 218: passim), probably to be compared to Berber, Cushitic and Chadic terms with the same meaning (HSED No. 28).

4. Problem of borrowing One of the main reasons underlying Hetzron’s reluctance to deal with the vocabulary in his studies in Semitic classification was the possibility of lexical borrowing: «One must also be very careful with vocabulary in classification. ... Neighbour languages may use the same root and it is sometimes difficult to find out whether it is a recent borrowing from one of them or an old one going back to the proto-language. ... One must proceed with extreme prudence in dealing with the vocabulary of limitrophe languages» (Hetzron 1972:12–13). The first illustration adduced by Hetzron to justify his claim is rather unlucky: no one would group together Harari, Gurage and some Cushitic languages because of the fact that they all have borrowed Arb. Sazw‘raid’ as gaz. His second example is of a different nature, however. According to Hetzron, «the use of the Northern root *ngr for ‘to say’ in Amharic ... can be explained by the northern character of the Amhara civilization, and by the fact that (in historical times at least) Amharas had much more contact with the North than with other South Ethiopic speakers» (ibid.). Since ‘to say’ clearly belongs to basic rather than cultural notions, Hetzron’s argument can be easily expanded to a degree that all coincidences in the basic vocabulary of ES would be explained as interborrowings resulting from a series of «wave innovations» (Hetzron 1975:108), thus completely invalidating the results of the present investigation. In my opinion, there are several reasons to believe that Hetzron’s hypothesis, while not improbable in some particular cases (*ngr may well be one of them), is hardly suitable as a general explanation. First of all, in order to explain the pan-Ethiopian spread of such terms as *bl… or *kil„ay one would have to postulate not just a single act of borrowing from language X into language Y but virtual chains of loanwords involving half a dozen languages at least. While quite conceivable for a term meaning ‘raid’, this spread would be a rarity for such highly conservative notions as ‘two’, ‘sun’ or ‘to eat’. Secondly, ES lexical innovations usually exhibit a deeply structured pattern common to all the languages affected by them. Thus, if PS *„ars׳- ‘earth’ or *SVmS- ‘sun’ disappear from Ethiopian, they are eliminated completely from all the languages of the group (if one of them does not display the common Ethiopian innovation, in most cases it does not preserve the old root

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either but opts for another replacement, such as Har. îr for ‘sun’). But even if *„kl ‘to eat’ does leaves a trace, it is — formally and semantically — the same trace in all Ethiopian Semitic languages, namely „#kl ‘cereals, food’ (with fully regular correlates throughout ES). Not a shade of any other nominal or verbal formation from *„kl is attested. Simultaneously, the original meaning of the newly established basic root undergoes a similar systematic shift: as soon as PS *bl… becomes specialized with the neutral meaning ‘to eat’, its earlier meaning ‘to swallow’ disappears completely and is now expressed by a different root (*wh¼ t)³ . This picture is suggestive of a compact and well-shaped proto-language whose main lexical features were faithfully inherited by its daughter tongues rather than through a chain of borrowings that by their very nature could hardly be so systematic. Thirdly, cognate terms derived from Proto-Ethiopian roots undergo all regular phonological shifts typical of Modern Ethiopian languages: palatalization, loss of nasal sonorants, spirantization of velars and labials, loss of s³, insertion of n, the shift *-rn- > -nd- etc. Since earlier stages of Modern Ethiopian are poorly documented, the chronology of most of these processes cannot be established with certainty, but none of them is very recent (as one can learn from Podolsky 1991:22–23, 32, 35, 45, 48, 51, they are all more or less well represented in the earliest Amharic documents dating to the 14th–15th centuries). Accordingly, the hypothetic chains of borrowings, if they ever took place, must have occurred during a period whose cultural-historical circumstances (at least those which could justify a massive borrowing in the basic vocabulary) are completely out of our control. In sum, Hetzron’s caution is probably justified as far as some concrete examples are concerned but does not seem to be warranted for the bulk of lexical coincidences in the basic vocabulary of Ethiopian. 3 This conclusion can be at least partly corroborated by an analysis of borrowings from ES into Central This circumstance brings us to the interesting question of whether a system of shared losses in the lexicon is significant for genetic subgrouping the essentially similar problem of morphological losses as classificatory criteria is well known to historical linguists. Even if the spread of *bl… for ‘to eat’ is due to interborrowing, it is hard to suppose that its influence was strong enough to produce such a ubiquotous elimination of *„kl. In my opinion, this elimination can only be explained as a ProtoEthiopian fact. The same conclusion can probably be applied to more culture-bound notions: thus, the pan-Ethiopian spread of *„amlâk- ‘god’ or *n#gûs×- ‘king’ is perhaps less impressive than a total absence of such virtually pan-Semitic terms as *„iland *malik-. 23 Even if some obvious examples of lexical borrowing and diffusion can be occasionally detected in Swadesh word lists of Ethiopian Semitic languages: note such telling cases as Amh. s³ähay ‘sun’ and Tna. h³amlya ‘green’, clearly borrowed from Geez and Amharic respecively in view of their phonetic shape (suggested by M. Bulakh). 22

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and East Cushitic and vice versa. As is well known, many years of mutual interaction between ES and Cushitic have produced a virtual linguistic symbiosis whose impact on the lexicon (cultural above all, but basic as well) is hard to overestimate. In many lexical fields interborrowings between ES languages seem to be as frequent as those between them and a Cushitic language like Bilin. In this situation, it is important to check how deeply this interaction affected the 68 positions of proto-Ethiopian lexicon as separated above.

Cushitic > Ethiopian Semitic While many Cushitic loanwords penetrated Swadesh lists of particular Ethiopian languages, as we have seen above, only five examples can be treated as pan-Ethiopian.24 Their extremely wide spread throughout ES makes the assumption of independent borrowings into particular ES languages from one or several Cushitic source(s) # unlikely. Therefore a progressive interdialectal infiltration as envisaged by Hetzron is a real possibility in these cases. However, the number of such examples is so low in comparison with the one hundred positions under scrutiny (or even those sixty-eight which have been qualified as proto-Ethiopian) that the methodological relevance of this process is rather insignificant (though, of course, not to be discarded completely). On the other hand, one should not forget that another, much easier explanation for such cases is at hand: the respective terms may well have been borrowed into proto-Ethiopian and inherited by its daughter languages side by side with the native Semitic lexical items. This is especially likely in the case of *…âs× â ‘fish’ since no PS term with this meaning can be reconstructed at all, this notion being expressed by different terms of uncertain origin throughout Semitic. Ethiopian Semitic > Cushitic In view of a total lack of etymological expertise with Cushitic, my evaluation of this problem heavily relies on Leslau’s comments «passed into Cushitic», «also in Cushitic» etc. scattered on the pages of LGz. and LGur. 6 According to my initial impression, the degree of Semitic infiltration into the basic lexicon of several Cushitic languages (Agaw, especially Bilin; Beja; " I purposely omit a few cases of similar terms widely attested in both ES and Cushitic, but most likely dating back to a common Afroasiatic lexical stock such as *sim- ‘name’ DOLGOPOLSKY 1999:44 or *SVr- ‘root’ HSED No. 551. An interaction between such terms is certainly possible and even likely see above in connection with Proto-Ethiopian *„ap- ‘mouth’ but one is hardly entitled to qualify this interaction as borrowing. # With the possible exception of the term for ‘meat’ which is less widely attested Gez. s× #gâ, Tgr. Tna. Amh. s#gâ. 6 I am therefore aware that additional examples not mentioned by Leslau may have escaped my attention but it seems that such cases can hardly be numerous.

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Saho-Afar) was remarkable enough to provide a solid argument for the possibility of a similar spread of genuine (i. e., non-Cushitic) lexical isoglosses within Ethiopian Semitic. However, this impression does not seem to be confirmed by a closer examination of the evidence. In the majority of cases, one is faced with quite a traditional type of borrowing accompanied by semantic shifts and scarcely affecting the deep stucture of the native vocabulary. 7 Thus, ES *s³lm ‘to be black’ is borrowed into Bilin as è³alam but its meaning is ‘finster, dunkel werden’ (RBil. 171), the main term for ‘black’ being niðîr (ibid. 286). Bilin belâ… is attested only in the derivatives with the meaning ‘die Speise’ etc. (RBil. 78), the normal word for ‘to eat’ being k³« i (ibid. 233). ES *bVrk- ‘knee’ was borrowed into Bilin as bäräk ‘auf die Knie fallen’ (RBil. 86), Saho barak ‘fallen’ (RSa. 87) and Oromo birki ‘joint of finger’ (LGur. 153), the normal words for ‘knee’ being girib (RBil. 159), gulûb (RSa. 153) and jilba ‘knee’ (Gragg 236) respectively. Bilin b䂶 aS and Quara b䂶 âS mean ‘sich vermehren’ (RBil. 72, RQu. 41) while ‘viel’ is rendered as gär-î-uh¼ and ayû (ayiSû) in RBil. 157 and RQu. 21 respectively. Beja behâl means ‘Wort’ and behâli ‘sprechen’ (RBed³. 45) but ‘sagen’ is translated as an, di or yad ibid. 323; Beja sit means ‘Getränke’ (RBed³. 205), the normal word for ‘to drink’ being g«„a (ibid. 86). Even if the borrowed term is attested with the basic meaning, it most often co-exists with inherited synonyms denoting the same notions: Bilin leheè³â ‘die Rinde; der Bast’ (RBil. 253) but also k³âf ‘die Rinde’ (RBil. 236); Saho bala„ ‘essen’ (RSa. 80) but also bay-t, bç-t ‘zu sich nehmen (Speise)’ (RSa. 93) and k³am ‘Tabak oder Speise in der Mund nehmen, kauen, essen’ (RSa. 233), the latter being accepted as the main term for ‘to eat’ in Black 295. The only examples of true replacements found by me were Bilin è³iffer ‘Nagel, Klaue’ (RBil. 169), Bilin näkät- ‘beissen’ (ibid. 283) and Khamta bi‚¶ eq ‘viel’ (RCha. 346), to be supplemented by the only example which can be qualified as pan-Cushitic: Beja dera„ (RBed³. 70), Khamta zíra (Appleyard 1987:504), Saho zäri… (RSa. 333) ‘seed’ (no doubt, culturally determined). Obviously, the degree of interaction between languages belonging to different families is not to be automatically projected on a group of closely related idioms. However, since geographical, historical and cultural circumstances accompanying this interaction are often similar in both cases, the results of these excursuses do provide some support for the main conclusions of the present investigation: — the degree of unity of the basic vocabulary of Ethiopian Semitic languages is comparatively high; — this unity is unlikely to be explained in terms of borrowing and wave spread but relects the lexical peculiarities of one hypothetic source-language; Regrettably, I am unable to judge the degree of the phonological adaptation in such cases. 7

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— a deeply structured combination of innovations and speficic retentions makes the Proto-Ethiopian vocabulary markedly different from that of any other Semitic subgroup and unambiguously points to the separate status of this sub-branch.

Abbreviations of Languages, Dialects and Linguistic Groups Akk. — Akkadian, Amh. — Amharic, Arb. — Arabic, Arm. — Aramaic, Arg. — Argobba, Bib. — Biblical Aramaic, Cha. — Chaha, CS — Central Semitic, End. — Endegeñ, Enm. — Ennemor, ES — Ethiopian Semitic, ESA — Epigraphic South Arabian, Gaf. — Gafat, Gez. — Geez, Gog. — Gogot, Har. — Harari, Hbr. (pB.) — Hebrew (post-Biblical), Hrs. — Harsusi, Jib. — Jibbali, Jud. — Judaic Aramaic, Mhr. — Mehri, Min. — Minaic, Mnd. — Mandaic, MSA — Modern South Arabian, Msq. — Masqan, Muh. — Muher, N.-Eth. — North Ethiopian, OB — Old Babylonian, PS — ProtoSemiic, Qat. — Qatabanian, Sab. — Sabaic, SB — Standard Babylonian, Sel. — Selti, S.-Eth. — South Ethiopian, Sod. — Soddo, Soq. — Soqotri, Syr. — Syriac, Tgr. — Tigre, Tna. — Tigrinya, Ugr. — Ugaritic, Wol. — Wolane, WS — West Semitic, Zwy. — Zway

Bibliographic Abbreviations AHw. — W. von SODEN, 1965–1981. Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. Wiesbaden. Behnstedt — P. BEHNSTEDT, 1992f. Die Nordjemenitischen Dialekte. T. 2: Glossar. Wiesbaden, BK — A. de BIBERSTEIN-KAZIMIRSKI, 1860. Dictionnaire arabe-français. Vol. 1–2. Paris. Biella — J. C. BIELLA, 1982. Dictionary of Old South Arabic. Sabaean Dialect. Chico, CA. Black — P. D. BLACK, Lowland East Cushitic: Subgrouping and Reconstruction. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (Yale University). Brock. — C. BROCKELMANN, 1928. Lexicon Syriacum. Halle. Buck — C. D. BUCK, 1949. A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages. Chicago. CAD — OPPENHEIM, L., E. REINER, & M. T. ROTH (eds.), 1956ff. The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute, the University of Chicago. Chicago. DM — E. S. DROWER, R. MACUCH, 1963. A Mandaic Dictionary. Oxford. DRS — D. COHEN, 1970ff. Dictionnaire des racines sémitiques ou attestées dans les langues sémitiques. La Haye. DUL — G. DEL OLMO LETE, J. SANMARTÍN, 2003. A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Leiden — Boston. Gragg — G. B. GRAGG, 1982. Oromo Dictionary. East Lansing. HJ — J. HOFTIJZER, K. JONGELING, 1995. Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions. Leiden — New York — Köln.

L. Kogan

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HSED — V. E. OREL, O. V. STOLBOVA, 1995. Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary. Materials for a Reconstruction. Leiden — New York — Köln. Ja. — M. JASTROW, 1996. A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. New York. Jahn — A. JAHN, 1902. Die Mehri-Sprache in Südarabien. Texte und Wörterbuch. Wien. JH — T. M. JOHNSTONE, 1977. Hùarsûsi Lexicon. Oxford. JJ — T. M. JOHNSTONE, 1981. Jibbâli Lexicon. Oxford. JM — T. M. JOHNSTONE, 1987. Mehri Lexicon. London. KB — L. KOEHLER, W. BAUMGARTNER, 1994–2000. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. (revised by W. Baumgartner and J. J. Stamm). Leiden — New York — Köln. LGur. — W. LESLAU, 1979. Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic). Vol. III. Wiesbaden. LGz. — W. LESLAU, 1987. Comparative Dictionary of Ge…ez (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbaden. LH — E. LITTMANN, M. HÖFNER, 1956. Wörterbuch der Tigrç-Sprache. Tigre-deutsch-englisch. Wiesbaden. LLA — A. DILLMANN, 1865. Lexicon linguae aethiopicae. Leipzig. LM — M. ARBACH, 1993. Le madâbien: Lexique, Onomastique et Grammaire d’une langue de l’Arabie méridionale préislamique. T. I. Lexique maddâbien. Thèse de doctorat — Nouveau régime. Université de Provence Aix Marseille I. Centre d’Aix. Aix-en-Provence. LS — W. LESLAU, 1938. Lexique Soqot³ri (Sudarabique moderne) avec comparaisons et explications étymologiques. Paris. RBed³. — L. REINISCH, 1895. Wörterbuch der Bed³auye-Sprache. Wien. RBil. — L. REINISCH, 1887. Die Bilin-Sprache. Bd. 2. Wörterbuch der Bilin-Sprache. Wien. RCham. — L. REINISCH, 1884. Die Chamir-Sprache in Abessinien. Wien [Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien, 106/1]. Ricks — S. D. RICKS, 1989. Lexicon of Inscriptional Qatabanian. Roma. RQu. — L. REINISCH, 1885. Die Quara-Sprache in Abessinien. Wien [Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien, 109]. RSa. — L. REINISCH, 1890. Wörterbuch der Saho-Sprache. Wien. SD — A. F. L. BEESTON, M. A. GHUL, W. W. MÜLLER, J. RYCKMANS, 1982. Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic). Louvain-la-Neuve. SED I — A. MILITAREV, L. KOGAN, 2000. Semitic Etymological Dictionary. Vol. 1: Anatomy of Man and Animals. Münster. WH — A. WALDE, J. B. HOFFMANN, 1938. Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Vol. 1–2. Heidelberg.

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References Appleyard 1987 — D. APPLEYARD. «A Grammatical Sketch of Khamtanga, II». BSOAS 50: 470–507. Appleyard 1977 — D. APPLEYARD. «A Comparative Approach to the Amharic Lexicon». Afroasiatic Linguistics 5/2: 43–109. Appleyard 1996 — D. APPLEYARD. «Ethiopian Semitic and South Arabian. Towards a Re-examination of a Relationship». Israel Oriental Studies 16: 203–28. Bender 1968 — L. BENDER. «Remarks on Glottochronology of Northern Ethiopian Semitic Languages». JES 6/1: 1–11. Bulakh 2003 — M. BULAKH. «Etymological Notes on the Akkadian Colour Terms». In: L. Kogan (ed.). Studia Semitica (Festschrift for Alexander Militarev). Moscow, 3–17. Cantineau 1932 — J. CANTINEAU, «Accadien et Sud-arabique». BSLP (Bulletin de la Societé de linguistique de Paris). 1932 [no number]: 175–204. Cohen 1970 — D. COHEN. «Le vocabulaire de base sémitique el le classement des dialectes du sud». In: ID. Études de linguistique sémitique et arabe. La Haye—Paris, 7–30. Dolgopolsky 1973 — A. DOLGOPOLSKY. Comparative-Historical Phonetics of Cushitic. Moscow (in Russian). Dolgopolsky 1999 — A. DOLGOPOLSKY. From Proto-Semitic to Hebrew. Phonology. Milan. Ehret 1988 — C. EHRET. «Social Transformation in the Early History of the Horn of Africa: Linguistic Clues to Developments of the Period 500 B. C. to A. D. 500». In: Taddesse Beyene (ed.). Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Addis Ababa, vol. 1, 639–651. Faber 1997 — A. FABER. «Genetic Soubgrouping of the Semitic Languages». In: R. Hetzron (ed.). The Semitic Languages. London, 3–15. Goldenberg 1998 — G. GOLDENBERG. «The Semitic Languages of Ethiopia and Their Classification». In: ID. Studies in Semitic Linguistics: Selected Writingds. Jerusalem, 286–331. Hackett 1980 — J. A. HACKETT. The Balaam Text from Deir …Allâ. Chico. Hecker 1968 — K. HECKER. Grammatik der Kültepe-Texte. Roma. Hetzron 1972 — R. HETZRON. Ethiopian Semitic. Studies in Classification. Manchester. Hetzron 1975 — R. HETZRON. «Genetic Classification and Ethiopian Semitic». In: J. Bynon, T. Bynon (eds.). Hamito-Semitica. The Hague, 103–121. Hetzron 1976 — R. HETZRON. «Two Principles of Genetic Reconstruction». Lingua 38: 89–108. Huehnergard 1998 — J. HUEHNERGARD. «What is Aramaic?» ARAM 7: 261–282.

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Huehnergard 2002 — J. HUEHNERGARD. «Comparative Semitic Linguistics». Israel Oriental Studies 20: 119–50. Kogan 2005 — L. Kogan. Lexical Evidence for the Historical Unity of Aramaic. Babel und Bibel 2 (in print). Kogan, forthcoming — L. KOGAN. «S in Ethiopian». To appear in: Festschrift R.-M. Voigt. Leslau 1975 — W. LESLAU. «What Is a Semitic Ethiopian Language?» In: J. Bynon, T. Bynon (eds.). Hamito-Semitica. The Hague, 129–131. Militarev 2000 — A. MILITAREV. «Towards the Chronology of Afrasian (Afroasiatic) and Its Daughter Families». In: C. Renfrew, A. McMahon, L. Trask (eds.). Time Depth in Historical Linguistics. Cambridge. Vol. 1: 267–307. Militarev 2004 — A. MILITAREV. «Another Step towards the Chronology of Afrasian (I)». Babel und Bibel 1: 283–342. Nöldeke 1910 — T. NÖLDEKE. Neue Beiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft. Strassburg. Pirenne 1990 — J. PIRENNE. Les témoins écrits de la région de Shabwa et l’histoire. Paris. Podolsky 1991 — B. PODOLSKY. Historical Phonetics of Amharic. Tel-Aviv. Porzig 1954 — W. PORZIG. Die Gliederung des indogermanischen Sprachgebiets. Heidelberg. Rabin 1975 — Ch. RABIN. «Lexicostatistics and the Internal Divisions of Semitic». In: J. Bynon, T. Bynon (eds.). Hamito-Semitica. The Hague, 85–102. Ratcliffe 1998 — R. RATCLIFFE. «Defining Morphological Isoglosses: the «Broken» Plural and Semitic Subclassification». Journal of Near Eeastern Studies 57: 81–123. Renfroe 1992 — F. RENFROE. Arabic-Ugaritic Lexical Studies. Münster. Sima 2000 — A. SIMA. Tiere, Pflanzen, Steine und Metalle in den altsüdarabischen Inschriften. Wiesbaden. Tropper 1993 — J. TROPPER. Die Inschriften von Zincirli. Münster. Ullendorff 1961 — E. ULLENDORFF. «Comparative Semitics». In: G. Levi Della Vida, H. Cazelles (eds.). Linguistica Semitica: presente e futuro. Roma, 13–32. Voigt 1998 — R. M. VOIGT. «“Fuss” (und “Hand”) im Äthiopischen, Syroarabischen und Hebräischen». Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 11: 191–199. Zaborski 1991 — A. ZABORSKI. «The Position of Arabic within the Semitic Dialect Continuum». In: K. Dévényi, T. Iványi (eds.). Proceedings of the Colloquium on Arabic Grammar. Budapest, 365–75.

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SUMMARY The present contribution offers a comprehensive analysis of lexical isoglosses behind the linguistic unity traditionally defined as «Ethiopian Semitic». In spite of the relatively small number of pertinent phonological and morphological features common to all Semitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, their common lexical heritage has never been systematically studied. As is revealed in the course of the present study, there are several important semantic innovations affecting a number of key positions of the basic lexicon of all or most Ethiopian Semitic languages. Such innovations (together with a considerable number of non-trivial lexical retentions) strongly suggest that all these languages developed from a common ancestor rather than from several independent sources.

Nikolay Okhotin Moscow

SOME NEW EPIGRAPHIC SOUTH ARABIAN ó ETHIOPIAN ETYMOLOGIES The purpose of the present note is to propose new etymological evidence for a few lexemes of Epigraphic South Arabian languages (usually Sabaic). Most of the relevant terms are more or less problematic from the point of view of textual interpretation so that at least some of the newly proposed cognates from Geez and Modern Ethiopian are potentially helpful for eliciting their meaning. All etymological comparisons are taken from the author’s unpublished Ph. D. thesis dealing primarily with the non-emphatic sibilants of ESA (Okhotin 1999). In each entry, the pertinent ESA root is followed by a concise examination of the relevant context(s) and the etymological discussion (introduced by # and || respectively). 1. Sab. Us1 y=m ‘measure of weight’ (SD 20). # The Sab. term is Hapax Legomenon in Ja 669/7 but the above meaning (already suggested by the editor and accepted, e. g., in Sima 2000:334) can be derived from the context: hk³nyw mr„hmw ... s³lmn wms3dm s³rfm wmdlthmy …s1ym ‘they dedicated to their lord ... this statue and a silver inscription, the weight of both of them being one …sy’. An alternative interpretation is proposed in Biella 375 (‘verified, correct’, with reference to Arb. …âsin ‘proper, fitting’) though ‘name of a weight’ is also mentioned. || The etymological evidence for the translation ‘measure of weight’ comes from Tgr. …Is (pl. …Isäs) ‘a dry measure, measure (in general)’ (LH 463), Tna. …Issi ‘a wooden measure for cereals, about four kg.’ (KTna. 1858). 2. Sab. Uws1(=m) ‘plague, pestilence’ (SD 23, BIELLA 359), Min. Us1 ‘épidémie, peste’ (LM 17). # Since the Sab. term is attested several times, its general meaning ‘kind of disease’ is rather transparent (v., e. g. Ja 645/10–13: hwfy ... grb …bdhw ... bn òwm w…ws1 wmwtt ‘he saved ... the body of his servant ... from sickness, disease and plague’). || In Müller 1962:83 …ws1 was compared to Yem. Arb. …aws ‘sprain, dislocation’ (Piamenta 346), ‘Verrenkung’ (Behnstedt 878). For an alternative etymological interpretation v. Tgr. …aso ‘fever, malaria’ (LH 463), Tna. …aso id. (KTna. 1858). Other, less reliable parallels, are proposed in SED I No. 27. 1

For the list of abbreviations used in this article see p. 400.

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3. Sab. h. s3s3=m ‘(building material), mud brick (?), mortar, puddled clay (?)’ (SD 72), ‘material used in masonry’ (Biella 192). # The Sab. term is Hapax Legomenon but the meaning ‘kind of building material’ is relatively clear from the context: mbr„m h³s3s3m w„bnm ‘building work in h³ and stones’. || To be compared to Arb. hisan ‘sol dur recouvert de sable, où l’eau des pluies s’infiltre’ (BK 1 429), Hrs. h³ôhi ‘earth, land, soil, dust’ (JH 57), Jib. h³áši ‘soil’ (JJ 118), Soq. h³óhi (h³oihe) ‘terre’ (LS 166) and Ethiopian terms for ‘sand’: Tna. h³ašäwa ‘sand, strand, sandbank’ (KTna. 212), Amh. ašäwa, ašawa ‘sand’ (K 1182), Cha. Eža Enm. Gyt. Muh. Sod. Sel. Wol. ašawa, End. ašawa, Msq. Gog. ašäwa ‘sand’ (LGur. 102). 4. Sab. ks1d=m ‘feebleness (of body)’ (SD 79). # According to SD, attested in Ja 670/9–11: whw„l bnhw ks1dm ‘he made feebleness retreat from him’. An alternative interpretation proposed by the editor is to treat bnhw ks1dm as ‘his son ks1dm’. || If the rendering of SD is accepted, note Amh. kässädä ‘to become very thin, gaunt, emaciated’ (K 1411). 5. Sab. s1lU=m ‘mésure de capacité’ (RMA 66). # According to the editors, attested in RMA 15/6 (s1l…m glglnm ‘un sil… de sésame’), with a reference to another text written on wood where sl… tmrn ‘une unité de mesure de dattes’ is mentioned. This interpretation, accepted, e. g., in Sima 2001:286, has been placed to doubt in Stein 2003:180 (with an extensive discussion). || An etymological support for the translation ‘kind of measure’ is provided by Tgr. šIllI…o ‘a measure, = 1.5 l.’ (LH 206) and Tna. sIllI…o ‘small measure for grain that equals 1/3 of an Inqa; small unmeasured amount of grain, a pinch of grain’ (K Tna. 633). Amh. salle ‘a large earthenware crock holding about two Insära-jugs’ (K 441) can also be compared. Sab. s1l… ‘kind of coin’ (SD 125, Biella 336), attested in C 548/8 (òms1 „s1l…m ‘five sl…-coins) is usually regarded as borrowed from Aramaic: Nab. sl…, Plm. sl… ‘certain coin’ (HJ 788), Jud. sil…â ‘a weight and a coin’ (Ja. 996), Syr. sel…â ‘moneta, drachma’ (Brock. 477). One wonders whether the Arm. terms, otherwise without etymology, can also be compared to the above Ethiopian forms with a meaning shift ‘kind of weight’ > ‘kind of coin’. 6. Sab. s1Us1U (=m) ‘summer season’ (SD 122). # Attested several times together with other terms for agricultural seasons (e. g. Ja 615/18–19: „mrt dt„ wòrf ws1…s1…m wmlym ‘crops of spring, autumn, summer and winter’). 2

According to SIMA 2001:286, also in RMA 15/7.

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|| If Jamme’s interpretation according to which «each term of the series indicates not the season itself, but the crops and fruits gathered during these periods of the year» (Jamme 1963:118) is correct, the Sab. term should probably be compared to Tgr. sI…sI…a ‘épeautre’ (LH 194) and Tna. sa…sa…a ‘barley grown in the season following the small rains because it can subsist on the moisture in dew or fog or by irrigation and which is harvested before the big rainy season’ (KTna. 764) rather than to Arb. s…s… ‘to pass away (months)’ as suggested by Jamme (reproduced in Biella 340). The Ethiopian terms probably belong to a well-attested non-reduplicated prototype denoting a kind of cereal crop, represented by Akk. še„u ‘barley, grain’ (CAD Š2 345), Hbr. pB. šI…û…ît ‘a species of bean’ (Ja. 1610), Arb. su……- ‘ivraie; froment gâté par la nielle’ (BK 1 1090), Tgr. sä…a… ‘oats’ (LH 194) and Tna. sa…a… ‘oats, kind of fodder; edible grass which grows mixed with barley’ (KTna. 766). 7. s1Ut=n ‘period, space of time’ (SD 139, Biella 503). # The Sab. term is Hapax Legomenon in R 3910/5 where it denotes the timespan of use of a hired animal: wdyhgb„n b…dn …s2rt ymtm f„w …s2ry „blm f„w twrm f„w b…rm flyhbn …s3bhw s3…tn ys1b„n b…lyhw «one who will return after ten days or twenty [days of use] a camel, a bull or a[ny other] beast, let him give its hiring price for the period he employed it». || While Ethiopian forms in -at (like Gez. sâ…at) are likely Arabisms, a few other terms, structurally different from Arb. sâ…at-, may be suspected to be genuine: Gez. sâ… ‘hour, time’ (LGz. 481), Tna. sa… (ša…) ‘moment, instant, time(s); time, hour’ (KTna. 760), ša…tuy ‘then, at that time, at this (that) moment, immediately’ (ibid.), Har. sa ‘time, at the time of’ (LHar. 135). A similar dichotomy is observable in MSA: contrast Mhr. sâ„Ih ‘hour, watch’ (JM 353), Jib. sá…áh id. (JJ 232), Soq. sá…ah id. (LS 289) on the one hand and Mhr. sä³tIn ‘for a while’ (JM 353), Hrs. sç„et, seyât ‘a while’ (JH 112), Jib. mI n sá…täÑ ‘long ago’ (JJ 232), Soq. le-sâ:…et ‘à l’heure’ (LS 289) on the other. 8. Sab. s1wn ‘towards’ (SD 129), s1nn ‘towards, in front of, next to, by’ (ibid. 127), s3nn ‘to, up to, next to, by’ (ibid. 139). # These three types of forms have been ususally treated as phonetic variants of one lexeme (Beeston 1984:58) but according to a recent study (Stein 2003:213–214) s3nn (with a late and phonologically innovative variant s1nn) is to be kept apart from Middle Sabaic s1wn. || The Sab. preposition is rightly compared to the widely used Eblaite preposition si-in ‘to, for’ in Fronzaroli 1979:13 and Archi 2002:8 (extensively discussed in the latter study where the meanings «allocutive ‘to’», «allative, directive ‘to’», «dative ‘for, to’» and some others have been detected). Both are further to be connected with Cha. Enm. End. Gyt. Gog. sIn, Eža sInn ‘until, till, up to, as far as’ (LGur. 549) as well as Jib. s~ín ‘for, in a while, for

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a time’ (JJ 268). Mhr. hIn ‘with, in the presence of, at’ (JM 158) is also of interest but the correspondence Jib. s~ ~ Mhr. h is atypical and the semantic difference is considerable.

Abbreviations of Languages Akk. — Akkadian, Amh. — Amharic, Arb. — Arabic, Cha. — Chaha, End. — Endegeò, Enm. — Ennemor, Gez. — GeŸez, Gog. — Gogot, Gyt. — Gyeto, Har. — Harari, Hbr. — Hebrew, Hbr. pB. — Post-Biblical Hebrew, Hrs. — Harsusi, Jib. — Jibbali, Jud. — Judaic Aramaic, Min. — Minaean, Mhr. — Mehri, Msq. — Masqan, Muh. — Muher, Nab. — Nabatean, Plm. — Palmyrean, Sab. — Sabaic, Sel. — Selti, Sod. — Soddo, Soq. — Soqotri, Syr. — Syriac, Tgr. — Tigre, Tna. — Tigriòòa, Wol. — Wolane, Yem. Arb. — Arabic dialect of Yemen.

Abbreviations of Lexicographic Tools Behnstedt — P. BEHNSTEDT. Die nordjemenitischen Dialekte. Teil 2: Glossar. Wiesbaden, 1992. Biella — J. C. BIELLA. Dictionary of Old South Arabic. Sabaean Dialect. Chico, CA, 1982. BK — A. de BIBERSTEIN-KAZIMIRSKI. Dictionnaire arabe-français. Vol. 1–2. Paris, 1860. Brock — C. BROCKELMANN. Lexicon Syriacum. Halle, 1928. CAD — The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chicago, 1956. HJ — J. HOFTIJZER, K. JONGELING. Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions. Leiden — New York — Köln, 1995. Ja.– M. JASTROW. A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. New York, 1996. JH — T. M. JOHNSTONE. Harsusi Lexicon. Oxford, 1977. JJ — T. M. JOHNSTONE. Jibbali Lexicon. Oxford, 1981. JM — T. M. JOHNSTONE. Mehri Lexicon. London, 1987. K — T. L. KANE. Amharic-English Dictionary. Wiesbaden, 1990. KTna — T. K. KANE. Tigrinya-English Dictionary. Springfield, 2000. LGur — W. LESLAU. Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic). Vol. I– III. Wiesbaden, 1979 [whenever quoted without number of volume, the 3rd volume is referred to]. LGz — W. LESLAU. Comparative Dictionary of GeŸ ez (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbaden, 1987. LH — E. LITTMANN, M. HÖFNER. Wörterbuch der Tigre-Sprache. TigreDeutsch-English. Wiesbaden, 1956. LHar — W. LESLAU. Etymological Dictionary of Harari. Berkeley — Los Angeles, 1963.

N. Okhotin

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LM — M. ARBACH. Le madabien: Lexique, Onomastique et Grammaire d’une langue de l’Arabie méridionale préislamique. T. I: Lexique madabien. Thèse de doctorat — Nouveau régime. Université de Provence Aix Marseille I. Centre d’Aix. Aix-en-Provence, 1993. LS — W. LESLAU. Lexique Soqotri (Sudarabique moderne) avec comparaisons et explications étymologiques. Paris, 1938. Piamenta — M. PIAMENTA. Dictionary of Post-Classical Yemeni Arabic. Leiden — New York — København — Köln, 1990. SD — A. F. L. BEESTON, M. A. GHUL, W. W. MÜLLER, J. RYCKMANS. Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic). Louvain-la-Neuve, 1982. SED — A. MILITAREV, L. KOGAN. Semitic Etymological Dictionary. Vol. 1: Anatomy of Man and Animals. Münster, 2000.

References Archi 2002 — A. ARCHI. «Prepositions at Ebla». Eblaitica 4: 1–21. Beeston 1984 — A. F. L. BEESTON. Sabaic Grammar. Manchester. Fronzaroli 1979 — P. FRONZAROLI. «Problemi di fonetica eblaita, 1». Studi Eblaiti 1: 65–89. Jamme 1963 — A. JAMME. Sabaean Inscriptions from Mah.ram Bilqîs (Mârib). Baltimore. Müller 1962 — W. W. MÜLLER. Die Wurzeln mediae und tertiae y/w im Altsüdarabischen: eine etymologische und lexikographische Studie. Diss. Tübingen. Okhotin 1999 — N. OKHOTIN. Voiceless Non-Emphatic Sibilants of the Eigraphic South Arabian Languages: an Etymological Investigation. Unpublished PhD. thesis, Russian State University for the Humanities. Sima 2000 — A. SIMA. Tiere, Pflanzen, Steine und Metalle in den altsüdarabischen Inschriften. Eine Lexikalische und realkundliche Untersuchung. Wiesbaden. Sima 2001 — A. SIMA. «Altsüdarabische Konditionalsätze». Orientalia 70: 283–312. Stein 2003 — P. STEIN, Untersuchungen zur Phonologie und Morphologie des Sabäischen. Rahden/Westf.

SUMMARY Despite the enormous progress made in Sabaeology in recent decades, there still remain a significant number of Epigraphic South Arabian lexical items for which textual analysis has not yet provided any coherent interpretation. As far as such terms are concerned, Semitic etymology may sometimes provide precious clues for a better understanding of their meaning. The present article attempts to present a few newly proposed etymological connections between Ethiopian Semitic and Epigraphic South Arabian (mainly Sabaic).

Renate Richter Leipzig

Jv cò UND ANDERE IDIOME IM AMHARISCHEN Der Wortschatz einer Sprache besteht nicht nur aus Einzelwörtern, d.h. aus Simplizia und Wortbildungskonstruktionen, sondern es gehören dazu auch feste syntaktische Wortverbindungen als phraselogische Einheiten. Ihr besonderer Charakter als feste Wortverbindung ergibt sich vor allem aus ihrer semantischen Idiomatizität und ihrer semantisch-syntaktischen Stabilität. Damit zusammen hängt ihre Speicherung als lexikalische Einheit, die bei der Textgestaltung reproduziert wird.1 Ein Idiom stellt also eine spezifische Wortverbindung dar, die zwei oder mehrere (bedeutungshaltige) Wörter zu einer phraseologischen Einheit zusammenfügt, deren Gesamtbedeutung sich aber nicht unmittelbar aus den lexikalischen Einzelbedeutungen ableiten läßt.2 Ein idiomatischer Ausdruck ist somit eine feststehende Wortverbindung oder formelhafte Wendung, die durch Demotivation, d.h. das Verblassen einer sprachlichen Bezeichnung im Bewußtsein des Sprachbenutzers, entstanden ist. Die syntaktisch-semantischen Mittel zur Gestaltung von idiomatischen Wendungen sind dabei von Sprache zu Sprache verschieden. Allgemein gilt jedoch: (i) Die Gesamtbedeutung eines Idioms oder einer idiomatischen Wendung ergibt sich nicht oder nicht mehr aus den Bedeutungen der einzelnen Komponenten. Diese haben vielmehr eine Umdeutung bzw. Übertragung erfahren, wobei die Glieder dieses Idioms nicht oder nur begrenzt austauschbar sind. (ii) Die ursprünglich vorhandene Motivation einer Redewendung, nicht selten aus der Sprache bestimmter sozialer oder Berufsgruppen stammend, ist verloren gegangen, und diese Redewendung wird nun als fertige lexikalische Einheit reproduziert und in der Funktion eines Einzelwortes gebraucht. (iii) Eine idiomatische Wendung nutzt zusätzliche emotionale, expressive oder stilistische Nebenbedeutungen eines Wortes, um die konkrete kommunikative Absicht zu erreichen.3

Kleine Enzyklopädie — Deutsche Sprache, Leipzig 1983, 307. TH. LEWANDOWSKI, Linguistisches Wörterbuch. 1, Heidelberg 1976, 268; R. CONRAD (Hrsg.), Lexikon sprachwissenschaftlicher Termini, Leipzig 1988, 96. 3 Vgl. CONRAD, Lexikon sprachwissenschaftlicher Termini, 104 f., 179. 1

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Auch die amharische Sprache, Muttersprache von mehr als einem Drittel der Bevölkerung4 sowie urbane5 und nationale lingua franca in Äthiopien, besitzt eine Vielzahl von Idiomen und idiomatischen Wendungen. Diese sind hauptsächlich deskriptiver Natur und dienen dazu, Fähigkeiten und Verhaltensweisen der Menschen zu beschreiben.6 Die amharische Bezeichnung für «Idiom» lautet ïH&Ø /fäliJ³/, was auch mit «Mode, Stil, Kunstgriff, Trick, geschickter Methode, diskrete Ausdrucksweise, Weitblick, Voraussicht, Raffinesse, Scharfsinn, Intelligenz» übersetzt werden kann. Diese dem Begriff fäliJ³ innewohnenden Bedeutungen und die mit dem Gebrauch idiomatischer Wendungen angestrebte kommunikative Absicht, nämlich die Aufmerksamkeit des Lesers oder Hörers durch gedankliche Tiefe, Klarheit und Präzision zu fesseln und so eine größere Vollkommenheit des Ausdrucks zu erreichen,7 ist vergleichbar mit den Intentionen, die etwa ein azmari mit dem Vortrag seiner qéne8 verbindet, wenngleich fäliJ³ und qéne in ihrer Struktur und Komposition verschieden sind. Idiome und idiomatische Wendungen gehören zu den produktiven Elementen der Wortschatzentwicklung im Amharischen. Ein Vergleich von Lexikoneintragungen in verschiedenen Wörterbüchern9 zeigt, dass die Anzahl der idiomatischen Wendungen z.B. mit dem Morphem Jx/lébb/ «Herz» ständig zugenommen hat. Im Handwörterbuch von T. L. Kane sind dazu über 4 DANIEL ABERRA, «Language Situations of Ethiopia in the 1990s: A Sociolinguistic Profile», in: KATSUYOSHI FUKUI — EISEI KURIMOTO — MASAYOSHI SHIGETA (eds.), Ethiopia in Broader Perspective. Papers of the XIIIth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Kyoto, 12–17 December 1997, Kyoto 1997, vol. 1, 431–440, 436. 5 R. MEYER — R. RICHTER, Language Use in Ethiopia from a Network Perspective: results of a sociolinguistic survey conducted among high school students, Frankfurt-am-Main 2003 (Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 7). 6 AMSALU AKLILU, «Characteristics of Amharic idiomatic expressions», in: TADDESE BEYENE (ed.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. University of Addis Ababa, [26–30 November] 1984, Addis Ababa — Frankfurtam-Main 1988–1989, vol. 1, 571–580, 571 ff. 7 DÄRÄGGÄ TÄSÄMMA, Tägbarawi yäséD³ fät mämriya, Addis Abäba, Miyazya 1996 [Äth. Kalend.], 24. 8 Ebenda, S. 25; R. RICHTER, «Wenn das Wachs schmilzt...», in: W. ARNOLD — H. BOBZIN (Hrsg.), «Sprich doch mit deinen Knechten aramäisch, wir verstehen es!» 60 Beiträge zur Semitistik. Festschrift für Otto Jastrow zum 60. Geburtstag, Wiesbaden 2002, 570 ff. 9 U. a. T. L. KANE, Amharic — English Dictionary, Wiesbaden 1990; TÄSÄMMA HABTÄ MIKAýEL GÉSSÉW, Käúate Bérhan Täsämma. Yäýamaréñña mäzgäbä qalat, Addis Abäba 1951 [Äth. Kalend.]; DÄSSÉTA TÄKLÄ WÄLD, Addis yäýamaréñña mäzgäbä qalat bäkahnaténna bäòagärä säb qwanqwa, Addis Abäba 1962 [Äth. Kalend.]; YÄýITYOPYA QWANQWAWOÈÈ TÉNATÉNNA MÉRÉMMÉR M Aý ÉKÄL (ed.), Amaréñña mäzgäbä qalat, Addis Abäba 1993 [Äth. Kalend.].

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einhundert Idiome und idiomatische Wendungen verzeichnet. Auch im GéŸéz ist das gleichlautende Morphem bereits in idiomatischen Wendungen anzutreffen, ihre Zahl hier ist jedoch relativ gering.10 Die Tendenz, den Wortschatz durch die Bildung von Idiomen und idiomatischen Wendungen zu bereichern und durch ihren zunehmenden Gebrauch dem gesprochenen oder geschriebenen Wort mehr Nachdruck zu verleihen, ist dabei nicht nur im Amharischen, sondern auch in anderen äthiopischen Sprachen zu beobachten.11 In ihrer gemeinsamen Publikationen Yäý amaréñña fäliJ³oèè haben Amsalu Aklilu und Daññaèèäw Wärqu12 über 4 000 Idiome und idiomatische Wendungen zusammengetragen, die sowohl in der modernen amharischen Literatur als auch in der Umgangssprache häufig gebraucht werden und auf die unser Beitrag näher eingehen möchte. Bevor wir uns den besonders beliebten kompositorischen Elementen dieser Idiome zuwenden, sollen zunächst die grammatischen Strukturen und Wortbildungsmodelle kurz skizziert werden, nach denen sie gebildet werden. Dabei folgen sie, wie die Bildung neuer Wörter generell, den jeweils sprachspezifischen Wortbildungsmodellen. Im Amharischen sind dies vor allem (a) die Verbindung von bestimmten Wurzelmorphemen mit anderen Wurzeln oder Affixmorphemen und (b) die Kombination vorhandener Wörter bzw. Wortstämme miteinander oder mit besonderen, frei im Satz nicht vorkommenden Bildungselementen. Dabei spielt die Nominalisierung eine besondere Rolle. Sie stellt ein sehr produktives Verfahren zur Bildung neuer Substantive bzw. zur Überführung von Einheiten aus anderen Wortklassen — vor allem von Verben und Adjektiven — in die Klasse der Substantive dar. Nominalisierung kann auch die Transformation von Verbalkomplexen oder ganzen Sätzen in Nominalphrasen einschließen. Dabei wächst ganz allgemein die Tendenz, Sätze mit einfacher Grundform und einer Fülle von nominalen Gliedern zu bilden sowie mögliche Prädikationen durch substantivisch-adjektivische Gruppen zu repräsentieren. Diese Tendenz zur Nominalisierung, auch als transformationelle Umformung von Sätzen der Tiefenstruktur zu Nominalgruppen in der Oberflächenstruktur13 definiert, ist eine sehr produktive Form der Wortbildung im AmhaW. LESLAU, Comparative Dictionary of GeŸez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden 1987, 304 f. 11 Vgl. u. a. ABARRAA NAFAA — HINSEENEE MAKURIYAA — ABBOHHNAH ASHAAGREE — DIIMAA ABARRAA (eds.), Galmee Jechoota Afaan Amaaraafi faan Oromoo, Finfinnee [Addis Abäba] 1994, 8 f. 12 AMSALU AKLILU — DAÑÑAÈÈÄW WÄRQU, Yamaréñña fäliJ³oèè, Addis Abäba 1988 [Äth. Kalend.]. 13 CONRAD, Lexikon sprachwissenschaftlicher Termini, 1988, 253 ff. 10

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rischen geworden14 und trägt nicht zuletzt zur Vereinfachung und Durchsichtigkeit des komplizierten amharischen Satzbau bei.15 Die Nominalisierung im Amharischen nutzt dabei ein breites Spektrum unterschiedlicher Wortbildungsmodelle und -komponenten. Hier sind es vor allem Nominalkomposita, die durch Zusammensetzung zweier oder mehrerer, sonst auch frei vorkommender Morpheme zu einem neuen Morphemgefüge entstehen. Ein solches Kompositum ist ein auf seine Teile nicht reduzierbares Wort mit eigener Bedeutung, also formal und inhaltlich eine neue begriffliche Einheit. Diese festen Verbindungen, die als substantivische, adjektivische, adverbiale oder verbale Komposita auftreten können,16 lassen — selbst bei Getrenntschreibung — keine Infixe zu. In der Pluralbildung, Determination und Kasusmarkierung werden sie, gleich den einfachen Nomina, wie ein einziger Begriff behandelt.17 Ein solches Nominalkompositum kann dabei aus folgenden Elementen bestehen:18 — (yä) Nomen + Nomen, z.B. (¹)™Ñ` Jxe ‘traditionelle Kleidung’, (¹)c« eT ‘Reputation’, (¹)v+| Ož& ‘privater PKW’; — Nomen + Nomen, z.B. ›| ™Ñ` ‘Vaterland’, ™Ñ` v+| ‘ländlicher, lokaler, Dorf-’, nJ ž&Ï ‘Vertrag, Pakt’, ™¹` OÑÅ ‘Fluglinie’; — Nomen /ä/ + Nomen, z.B. v+z cx ‘Familie’, ›Ê cIT ‘friedfertiger’, ™ï R` ‘guter Redner’, wH ›Ï ‘geschickter Handwerker’. Letztere Form der Nominalkomposita, der sogenannte Status constructus, ist ein Nominalkompositum, das dem GéŸéz entstammt und dazu dient, ein Genitivverhältnis oder allgemein das Verhältnis der Unterordnung eines Nomens unter ein anders auszudrücken.19 Es besteht aus einem Nomen regens + Nomen rectum. Die Verbindung zwischen beiden wird durch deren Reihenfolge und Vokal/ä/-Einschub bei konsonantisch auslautendem Nomen regens hergestellt. Einem vokalisch auslautenden Nomen regens folgt direkt das Nomen rectum. Während das Nomen rectum in der Regel ein Substantiv ist, kann das Nomen regens entweder (a) ein Substantiv, z.B. éMï| Ož& ‘Schreibmaschine’ wörtl. ‘Maschine in Bezug auf das Schreiben’, (b) ein Adjektiv, z.B. ›Ó[ mIJ ‘leichtfüßig, flink’ wörtl. ‘leicht in Bezug auf die Füße’, (c) ein Partizip, z.B. ®X ™ØRÏ ‘Fischer’ wörtl. ‘ein Fänger von Fischen’ oder (d) Vgl. O. KAPELIUK, Nominalization in Amharic, Stuttgart 1988 (Äthiopistische Forschungen, 23). 15 E. HAMMERSCHMIDT, «Geleitwort», in: KAPELIUK, Nominalization in Amharic, 12. 16 LEWANDOWSKI, Linguistisches Wörterbuch. 3, 829. 17 J. HARTMANN, Amharische Grammatik, Wiesbaden 1980 (Äthiopistische Forschungen, 2), 315. 18 Ebenda; W. LESLAU, Reference Grammar of Amharic, Wiesbaden 1995, 248; BAYYÄ YÉMAM, Yäýamaréñña säwasäw, Addis Abäba 1987 [Äth. Kalend.]. 19 HARTMANN, Amharische Grammatik, 312. 14

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ein Verb sein, z.B. ™¹` ¨HÅ ‘luftbefördert, Luftlande-’ wörtl. ‘in der Luft geborener’. (e) Status constructus-Formen, die aus den Komponenten Verb + Verb bestehen, sind z.B. c`} ™À` ‘Arbeiter, Werktätiger’ wörtl. ‘jemand, der lebt indem er arbeitet’. Die Bedeutung einer Status constructus- Form ist dabei nicht gleich der Summe ihrer beiden Komponenten.20 So wird das Nominalkompositum H&m Ov`, das aus den Komponenten H&o ‘Gelehrter’ und Ov` ‘Stuhl’ besteht, heute als Terminus für «Vorsitzender» gebraucht. Aufgrund der festen Verbindung der Elemente einer Status constructus- Form und der Markierung von Definitheit, Genus, Numerus und Kasus nur am zweiten Element ist der Status constructus ein äußerst produktives Mittel der amharischen Wortbildung, insbesondere zur Schaffung der modernen Terminologie für Wissenschaft und Technik. Auch die amharischen Idiome und idiomatischen Wendungen werden sehr oft nach dem Modell des Status constructus gebildet. Häufig anzutreffende Komponenten dieser Idiome und idiomatischen Wendungen21 sind Nomina, die bestimmte Körperteile bezeichnen oder solche Dinge, die im tagtäglichen Leben der Menschen eine große Rolle spielen. Oft finden wir auch Verben der Bewegung und solche Verben, die eine immer wiederkehrende Tätigkeit bezeichnen. Nomina, die Körperteile bezeichnen und in vielen Idiomen eine Rolle spielen, sind Jx ‘Herz’ (117),22 ÀT ‘Blut’ (52), ™õ ‘Mund’ (50), ®¾ ‘Auge’ (49), ›Ï ‘Hand’ (38), ò| ‘Gesicht, Antlitz’ (36), ^e ‘Kopf’ (28), ™Ê| ‘Eingeweide, Darm’ (23), GÅ ‘Bauch, Leib’ (22), Ða ‘Ohr’ (117), ›Ó` ‘Bein, Fuß’ und ™Ñ| ‘Hals’ (je 16), gefolgt von ӏw` ‘Stirn’, Ø`e ‘Zahn’, YÒ ‘Fleisch’ (je 11). Nomina, die im Alltag und Umfeld der Menschen eine große Rolle spielen, sind vor allem v+| ‘Haus’ (37), «D ‘Wasser’ (27 ), TÅ` ‘Erde’ (23), nJ ‘Wort’ (22), Šõe ‘Seele’ (21), ™ï` ‘Boden, Erde’ (20), ™Ñ` ‘Land’ und m ‘Tag’ je (18), ›d| ‘Feuer’ (17), ™w| ‘Vater’ (13), ›Ê^ ‘Fladenbrot’ und ¢f ‘Kosso’ (je 12), c« ‘Mensch’ und ™OÅ ‘Asche, Staub’ (je 11). Verben der Bewegung, die hauptsächlich im Grundstamm, aber auch in abgeleiteten Stammformen und verbalen Ableitungen vorkommen, sind Ñw ‘hineingehen, eintreten’ (81), ¨× ‘hinausgehen, herauskommen’ (70), ¨[À ‘hinuntergehen, hinabsteigen’, À[c ‘ankommen, erreichen’, pO ‘stehen’ (je 40), Šd ‘aufheben’ (30), ïcc ‘fließen’ und Öó ‘verschwinden, verloren Vgl. AMSALU AKLILU — DAÑÑAÈÈÄW WÄRQU, Yamaréñña fäliJ³oèè, 135. Als Quellen- und Referenzmaterial wurde vor allem genutzt: AMSALU AKLILU — DAÑ-ÑAÈÈÄW WÄRQU, Yamaréñña fäliJ³oèè; KANE, Amharic — English Dictionary; GETAHUN AMARE, The English — Amharic Idioms Dictionary, Addis Ababa 1986 [Äth. Kalend.]. 22 In Klammern ist die Häufigkeit vermerkt, mit der das betreffende Lexem in Idiomen und idiomatischen Wendungen angetroffen wurde. 20 21

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gehen’ (je 27), ™Hï ‘vorübergehen’ (26), m[ ‘bleiben’ und [ÑÖ ‘treten, trampeln’ (je 21), ´[ ‘wenden, umdrehen’ (20). In Idiomen vorkommende Verben, die häufig ausgeführte Tätigkeiten, seltener einen Zustand, beschreiben, sind ¼± ‘nehmen’ (89), ¨Àm ‘fallen, hinwerfen’ (85), vI ‘essen’ (48), p[Ö ‘zerschneiden’ (41), ªH ‘(Tag) verbringen’ (37), W^ ‘arbeiten’ (32), À[m ‘trocknen’ (31), ŠÑ[ ‘sprechen’, ‘sagen’ (30), ±Ò ‘schließen’ (29), O{ ‘schlagen’ (26), ™¹ ‘sehen’ (23), žvÀ ‘schwer sein’, cv[ ‘zerbrechen, zerschlagen’, ±^ ‘säen’ und ÑHÖ ‘erklären’ (je 20). Die folgenden Idiome und idiomatischen Wendungen, in denen Körperteile eine Rolle spielen (Bsp. 1–7) ferner Dinge des täglichen Lebens (Bsp. 8–17), Verben der Bewegung (18–26) und Verben, die häufig ausgeführte Tätigkeiten beschreiben (27–32), sollen einen kleinen Eindruck von der Vielfalt und Raffinesse dieser Ausdrucksformen vermitteln. Die Grundbedeutung der jeweiligen Nomina und Verben erfährt dabei oft eine Bedeutungsübertragung, Bedeutungserweiterung oder -verengung. Diese Idiome spiegeln neben zahlreichen landesspezifischen Besonderheiten viele Gedankengänge, Empfindungen und Assoziationen wider, die universeller Natur sind und so oder ähnlich auch in anderen Kulturen und Sprachen anzutreffen sind.

Nomina, die Koâ rperteile bezeichnen (1) Jx /lébb/ — ‘Herz’ — Jx ™H (™H ‘sagen, sprechen’) → ‘aufmerksam, konzentriert sein’ — Jx ™À[Ñ (™À[Ñ ‘machen tun’) → ‘sich erinnern, in Erinnerung behalten’ — Jv PH# (UI ‘füllen, voll sein’) → ‘mutiger, tapferer, entschlossener’ — Jv cò (có ‘weit geräumig sein, erweitern, expandieren’) → ‘geduldiger, großzügiger, großmütiger, toleranter’ — Jv mIJ (mHH ‘leicht sein’) → ‘unseriöser, leichtsinniger’ — Jx cÖ (cÖ ‘geben’) → ‘aufmuntern, ermutigen’ — Jv# Ñw (Ñw ‘hineingehen, hereinkommen’) → ‘Bewusstsein wiedererlangen, genesen, sich in jdn. verlieben’ — Jv# ï[c (ï[c ‘zerschlagen, zerstören, vernichten’) → ‘Herzschmerzen haben, unterdrückt werden, benachteiligt sein; übertreiben, etwas übermäßig tun’ (2) ÀT /däm/ — Blut — ÀO Óv# (Ñw ‘hineingehen, hereinkommen’) → ‘schöner, gut aussehender’ — ÀO Ø\ (Ö^ ‘reinigen, klären’) → ‘angesehener, edler, ehrwürdiger’ — ¹TÅ` ÀT (TÅ` ‘Erde’) → ‘Getreide’ — ¹ÀT ªÒ (ªÒ ‘Preis’) → ‘Blutzoll, Blutrache’

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— ÀP ™ïcc (ïcc ‘fließen, auslaufen’) → ‘sein Leben geben (für sein Vaterland)’ — ÀP ïI (ïI ‘kochen’) → ‘sehr wütend, ärgerlich sein’ — ÀO Šõe (Šõe ‘Seele, Gefühl, Bewusstsein’) → ‘Instinkt; unbewusst; animalisch’ — ÀO O^^ (O[[ ‘bitter schmecken, sauer sein’) → ‘unsympathischer, ungehöriger, verleumderischer’ (3) ™õ /af/ — Mund — ™ï R` (R` ‘Honig’) → ‘guter, gewandter Redner’ — h#J ™õ (h#J ‘Dorn, Spitze’) → ‘Schwätzer’ — ™ï cIT (cIT ‘Frieden’) → ‘friedfertiger, jmd. der nie Böses sagt’ — ™ï žwÅ (žwÅ ‘schwer sein, schwierig sein’) → ‘wortkarger, schweigsamer’ — ™ï áR (áR ‘Fett, Speck, Talg’) → ‘Schmeichler’ — ™ñ ¼± (¼± ‘nehmen, halten’) → ‘den Mund halten, schweigen’ — ™ñ ï{ (ï{ ‘lösen, öffnen’) → ‘Mutter/Erstsprache sprechen, reden können’ — ›d| ™õ (›d| ‘Feuer’) → ‘Schwätzer, Verleumder’ — õ¹J ™õ [õ¹Iõ] (õ¹J ‘Ziege’) → ‘Plaudertasche, Plappermaul’ (4) ®¾ /ayn/ — ‘Auge’ — ®¾Š `Óx (`Óx ‘Taube’) → ‘Schleier’ — ®¾Š wM` (wM` ‘Meer’) → ‘Luftschloss, Fata Morgana’ — ®¾ ™ï` (™ï` ‘Boden, Erde’) → ‘unversöhnlicher, Todfeind’ — ®¾Š ¨`o (¨`o ‘Gold’) → ‘Weizen von höchster Qualität’ — ®¾Š «D («D ‘Wasser’) → ‘Trend, Richtung’ — ®¾Š MH& (MH& ‘Schicksal’) → ‘Phantasie, Einbildung’ — ®¾Š Ñx (Ñw ‘eintreten, hineingehen’) → ‘gutaussehender, auffallender’ (5) ›Ï /égg / — ‘Hand’ — ›Ê cIT (cIT ‘Frieden’) → ‘friedfertiger, pazifistischer’ — ›Ê cò (có ‘weit sein’) → ‘freigebiger, großzügiger, generöser’ — ›Ê mÃà (mÃà ‘Loch’) → ‘verschwenderischer, leichtsinniger’ — ›Ï ™À[Ñ (™À[Ñ ‘machen’) → ‘einnehmen, Besitz ergreifen’ — wH ›Ï (wJ, w®J ‘Herr, Besitzer’) → ‘geschickter Handwerker, Schmied’ — ›ÍT (adj. Suffix: -™T) → ‘gewandter, geschickter; Dieb’ — v›Ë cÖ« (cÖ ‘geben’) → ‘direkt, persönlich übergeben’ — ›Ï ¼± (¼± ‘nehmen’) → ‘verhaften’ (6) ò| /fit/ — ‘Gesicht (Vorder) Front, vorn, Oberfläche’ — ò| cÖ (cÖ ‘geben’) → ‘Aufmerksamkeit, Achtung schenken’ — òz% ™ï[ (™ï[ ‘sich schämen, scheu sein’) → ‘Achtung, Respekt haben vor jdm.’

R. Richter

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— òz% ™´[ (™´[ ‘drehen, wenden’) → ‘ignorieren, missbilligen’ — ò| HJ| (H- Präposition ‘für, zu’) → ‘gegenüber’ — òz mIJ (mIJ ‘leicht’) → ‘leutseliger’ — òz žwÅ (žwÅ ‘schwer, schwierig’) → ‘mit ernster, feierlicher Miene’ — ¹¨À ò| (¨À Präposition ‘nach, in Richtung auf’) → ‘Zukunft, künftiger’ — ¢f ò| (¢f ‘bitteres Getränk, Wurmmittel’) → ‘unfreundliches Gesicht, Grimasse’ (7) ^e /ras/ — Kopf — ^e ™H« (™H ‘haben’) → ‘klaren Verstand besitzen, Gespür haben für’ — ^c# H (H ‘können’) → ‘unabhängig sein, Selbstvertrauen besitzen’ — ^c# ™¨m (™¨m ‘wissen, kennen’) → ‘Bewusstsein wiedererlangen, zu sich kommen’ — ^e ¨ÃÅ (¨ÀÀ ‘lieben’) → ‘selbstsüchtiger, egoistischer’ — ›^e ¹H+H« (¹H+H« ‘nicht vorhanden sein’) → ‘schamloser, frecher, dreister’ — ^e ѳ (Ѳ ‘herrschen, regieren’) → ‘autonomer Bezirk’ — ^e ÖÑ#` (ÖÑ#` ‘Haar’) → ‘zahlreiche, reichliche’ — ¹TÅ` ^e (TÅ` ‘Erde’) → ‘Kap (geogr.)’

Nomina, die Dinge aus dem taâ glichen Leben und Umfeld der Menschen bezeichnen (8) v+| /bet/ — ‘Haus’ — v+z% ï{ (ï{ ‘lösen, aufbinden’) → ‘Haushalt auflösen, sich trennen (Ehepaar)’ — v+| Ñv& ¨Ý (Ñw ‘hereinkommen’, ¨× ‘hinausgehen’) → ‘Vertrauter, enger Freund’ — v+z OÓe| (OÓe| ‘Regierung, Staat’) → ‘Palast, Regierungssitz, Residenz’ — v+z OèMõ| (OèMõ| ‘Bücher’) → ‘Bibliothek’ — v+z ¡e`|¼ (¡e`|¼ ‘Christen’) → ‘Kirche’ — ¹v+| Ož& (Ož& ‘Auto’) → ‘privater PKW’ — T¡` v+| (T¡` ‘Rat, Ratschlag’) → ‘Ratsversammlung, Parlament’ — |TF`| v+| (|TF`| ‘Unterricht, Bildung’) → ‘Schule’ (9) «D /wé ha/ — ‘Wasser’ — «D GŠ (GŠ ‘sein, werden’) → ‘tauen, sich auflösen’ — «D GŠ‚ ‘in Tränen ausbrechen, ganz aufgelöst sein (vor Trauer, Schmerz)’ — «D J¡ (HŸ ‘messen’) → ‘Meeresspiegel; ebene, glatte Fläche’ — «D mHT (mHT ‘Farbe’) → ‘hellblau’ — «D vI (vI ‘essen’) → ‘Nichtsnutz, Grobian; Betrunkener’

"

Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

— «D «D ™c’ (™c’ ‘machen, veranlassen’) → ‘jdn. böse zurichten, bis zur völligen Erschöpfung treiben’ — «D Ñx (Ñw ‘hineingehen, hereinkommen’) → ‘bewässertes Land’ — ¹«D ®¾ [®¾Š «D] (®¾ ‘Auge’) → ‘Aussehen; Trend’ — ›FJ «D (›FJ ‘Getreide’) → ‘(Lebens) Unterhalt, Dasein, Existenz’ (10) TÅ` /médér/ — ‘Erde’ — TÅ` Hmm (Hmm ‘verlassen’) → ‘hochmütiger, überheblicher’ — TÅ` cR¾ zÀvIHm (cR¾ ‘Himmel’; zÀvIHm ‘sich vermischen’) → ‘dem Ende der Welt entgegengehen’ — TÅ` mHÖ (mHÖ ‘auseinanderlaufen, tauen’) → ‘Erosionsschäden’ — TÅ` ŠÒ (ŠÒ ‘Morgen werden’) → ‘Tagesanbruch’ — TÅ` v+| (v+| ‘Haus’) → ‘Keller, Erdgeschoss, Boden’ — TÅ` ™õ (™õ ‘Mund’) → ‘Türpfosten, Tor, Eingang’ — TÅ[ cIÖ+ (cIÖ+ ‘Speerspitze’) → ‘Halbinsel, Landzunge’ — TÅ[ zR] (zR] ‘Student’) → ‘Studentenschaft (als Gruppe)’ — TÅ[ Wo (Wo ‘breiter Ledergürtel’) → ‘Äquator’ — TÅ[ o`é (o`é ‘Form, Gestalt’) → ‘Topographie’ (11) nJ /qal/ — ‘Wort’ — nJ cÖ (cÖ ‘geben’) → ‘Ehrenwort geben, versprechen, garantieren’ — vnJ ŠÑ[ (ŠÑ[ ‘sagen, sprechen’) → ‘mündlich, verbal’ — nH žwÅ (žwÅ ‘schwer’) → ‘einflussreiche Person’ — nH# Övm (Övm ‘beschützen; erwarten’) → ‘sein Wort, Versprechen halten’ — ™Féaz nJ (™Ö[ ‘kürzen’) → ‘Abkürzung, Kurzform’ — ›[“ nJ (›[“ ‘Hirte’) → ‘derbe, unhöfliche Ausdrucksweise’ — ׯO nJ (ׯT ‘Geschmack’) → ‘feine Formulierung, geschliffene Rede’ — vnJ ™Ö (™Ö ‘lernen, studieren’) → ‘auswendig lernen’ (12) ŠÑ` /nägär/ — ‘Wort; Sache, Ding; Angelegenheit’ — ŠÑ` ™O× (™O× ‘bringen’) → ‘Schwierigkeiten bereiten’ — ŠÑ` HnQ (HmO ‘auflesen’) → ‘Lauscher, Spion’ — ŠÑ` ¨ÃÅ (¨ÀÀ ‘lieben’) → ‘streitsüchtiger’ — ŠÑ` ±^ (±^ ‘säen’) → ‘Klatschbase, Plaudertasche’ — ŠÑ[ D¾R| (D¾R| ‘Religion, Glaube’) → ‘religiöse Lehre’ — ŠÑ[ vI (vI ‘essen’) → ‘kluger, gebildeter, intelligenter’ — vŠÑ\ Ñw (Ñw ‘hineingehen’) → ‘in eine Sache verwickelt sein’ — õ_ ŠÑ` (õ_ ‘Frucht’) → ‘Hauptsache, Grundgedanke, Kern’ (13) Šõe /näfs/ — ‘Seele, Geist; Leben’ — vŠõe À[c (À[c ‘ankommen’) → ‘gut, rechtzeitig ankommen’ — Šõc# ™× (™× ‘verlieren’) → ‘das Bewusstsein verlieren, in Ohnmacht fallen’

R. Richter

"

— Šõc# ™¨m (™¨m ‘wissen, kennen’) → ‘das Bewusstsein wiedererlangen’ — Šõe ¨žõ (¨žï ‘verteilen, aushändigen’) → ‘Einzel-, pro Kopf, individueller’ — Šõe Ñþ (ÑÀH ‘töten’) → ‘Mörder’ — Šõc v&e (v&e ‘ohne’) → ‘furchtloser, mutiger, couragierter’ — vŠõc# GŠ (GŠ ‘sein, werden’) → ‘am Leben sein, lebendig sein’ — Šõc Ö#` (Ö[ [Ö¨[] ‘eine Last tragen’) → ‘Schwangere’ — ÀO Šõe (ÀT ‘Blut’) → ‘Instinkt’ (14) ™ï` /afär/ — ‘Boden, Erde’ — ™ï` GŠ (GŠ ‘sein, werden’) = ™ï` vI (vI ‘essen’) → ‘sterben’ — ™ï` O_| vI (O_| ‘Erde’) → ‘tief gedemütigt sein’ — ™ï` Hvc (Hvc ‘bekleiden’) → ‘begraben sein’ — ®¾ ™ï` GŠ (®¾ ‘Auge’) → ‘einander nicht mögen, spinnefeind sein’ — ™ï` oÖJ GŠ (mÖH ‘fortfahren, weitermachen’) → ‘zahlreiche, unendlich viele’ — ™ï` ÑÀJ (ÑÀJ ‘Schlucht’) → ‘Steilufer, Steilküste’ — ™ï` ïÏ (ïÊ ‘verbrauchen’) → ‘ungehobelter Kerl, Flegel’ — c+z, ™ï` (c+| ‘Frau, weiblich’) → ‘rötliche Erde, Roterdeboden’ — ¨Ã+ ™ï` (¨Å ‘Mann, männlich’) → ‘Schwarzerdeboden’ — ¹x[| ™ï` (x[| ‘Eisen’) → ‘Eisenerz, Erz’ (15) ™Ñ` /agär/ — ‘Land, Region’ — ™Ñ\ BH# (BH# ‘alle’) → ‘jedermann, alle’ — ™Ñ` v+| (v+| ‘Haus’) → ‘ländliche Gegend, ländlicher, lokaler’ — ™Ñ` õo` (õo` ‘Liebe’) → ‘Patriotismus’ — ™Ñ[ cx (cx ‘Menschen’) → ‘Landsleute, Einheimische’ — AÑ[ exž| (exž| ‘Predigt’) → ‘Pfarrbezirk’ — ›| ™Ñ` (›| ‘Mutter’) → ‘Vaterland, Heimat’ — ¹™Ñ` Jxe (Jxe ‘Kleidung’) → ‘traditionelle Kleidung’ — ™Ñ` «eØ («eØ ‘Innen’) → ‘Inland’ — «à ™Ñ` («à ‘Außen’) → ‘Ausland’ (16) m /qän/ — ‘Tag’ — m cv[ (cv[ ‘zerbrechen’) → ‘Pech haben, Unglück erleiden’ — m cÖ (cÖ ‘geben’) → ‘einen Termin vereinbaren’ — m‹ ™Hï (™Hï ‘vorübergehen’) → ‘veraltet, unmodern sein’ — m ¨× (¨× ‘herauskommen, hinausgehen’) → ‘anbrechen (gute Zeiten)’ — m Hm (H- ‘für) → ‘Tag für Tag, tagtäglich’ — ¹m cŸ^T (cž[ ‘betrunken sein’) → ‘Trinker, Säufer’ — ›ž#H m (›ž#J ‘Mitte, Hälfte’) → ‘Mittag, Mittagszeit’

"

Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

— ¡ñ m (¡ñ ‘schlechter’) → ‘schwere Zeiten’ (17) ›d| /ésat/ — ‘Feuer’ — ›d| GŠ (GŠ ‘sein, werden’) → ‘sehr wütend sein’ — v›d| z¼¼± (¼± ‘nehmen’) → ‘Feuer fangen, sich ineinander verlieben’ — ›d| ™õ (™õ ‘Mund’) → ‘Schwätzer, Verleumder’ — ›d| àÅ (àÅ ‘Stroh’) → ‘Todfeinde’ — ›dz ÑU^ (ÑU^ ‘Gomorrah’) → ‘Vulkan’ — ¹›d| ›^| (›^| ‘Abendessen, Hauptmahlzeit’) → ‘Motte’ — wM[ ›d| (wM` ‘Meer’) → ‘Fegefeuer, Hölle’ — ›dz žI (žI ‘verhindern’) → ‘feuerfester, feuersicherer’ — ¹cÀÅ ›d| (cÀÀ ‘wegschicken, verbannen’) → ‘Lauffeuer, Gerücht’

Verben der Bewegung (18) Ñw /gäbba/ — ‘hineingehen, eintreten’ — mHT Ñw (mHT ‘Farbe; Bildung, Wissen’) → ‘klug, gebildet sein’ — Ó^ Ñw (Ó^ ‘links; schwierig’) → ‘verwirrt, verblüfft sein’ — nJ ž&Ï Ñw (nJ ž&Ï ‘Pakt, Vertrag’) → ‘einen Eid leisten’ — ›GÅ Ñw (GÅ ‘Leib’) → ‘sehr beliebt sein, geliebt werden’ — ¹c« ™õ Ñw (c« ‘Mensch’; ™õ ‘Mund’) → ‘ins Gerede kommen’ — «J Ñw («J ‘Vertrag’) → ‘einen Vertrag schließen’ — ¨× Ñw (¨× ‘hinausgehen, herauskommen’) → ‘rau, uneben sein’ — ÀÑJ Ñw (ÀÑJ ‘Groll’) → ‘Vergeltung üben, halsstarrig, eigensinnig sein’ — çL¾ Ñw‚ (çL¾ ‘Sonne’) → ‘untergehen (Sonne)’ — wJ ™Ñw‚ /Qe| ™Ñw (wJ ‘Ehemann’; Qe| ‘Ehefrau’) → ‘heiraten’ (19) ¨× /wätta/ — ‘hinausgehen, herauskommen’ — H«ÅÅ\ ¨× («ÅÅ` ‘Wettkampf, Wettbewerb’) → ‘am Wettkampf teilnehmen’ — JÏ ¨×H| (JÏ ‘Kind, Sohn’) → ‘sein Sohn ist seine Unterstützung (im Alter)’ — hÔ ¨× (hÔ ‘Versammlung, Kongress’) → ‘an einem Kongress teilnehmen’ — ŠèŠ| ¨× (ŠèŠ| ‘Freiheit’) → ‘die Freiheit erlangen’ — ™À“ ¨× (™À“ ‘Erster’) → ‘Sieger sein’ — ¯× ¨× (¯× ‘Los’) → ‘gewinnen; verlieren (Lotterie Spiel)’ — ¨× ¨[Å (¨[À ‘hinabsteigen, herunterkommen’) → ‘hart arbeiten’ — Ñv¼ ¨× (Ñv¼ ‘Markt’) → ‘auf dem Markt sein, im Angebot sein’ — h#O| ¨× (h#O| ‘Beförderung, Ernennung’) → ‘befördert, in ein Amt eingesetzt werden’ (20) ¨[À /wärrädä/ — ‘hinuntergehen, hinabsteigen’

R. Richter

"!

— Jv# ¨[À (Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘völlig erschöpft sein’ — z™T` ¨[À (z™T` [{T`] ‘Wunder’) → ‘ein Wunder ist geschehen’ — ž^e I¾ ¨[À (^e ‘Kopf; selbst’) → ‘j-n sich selbst überlassen’ — Ñv{ ¨[À (Ñv{ ‘Tafel, Tisch’) → ‘zubereitet sein (Mahlzeit)’ — OLI ™¨[À (OLI ‘Eid, Schwur’) → ‘einen Eid abnehmen, schwören lassen’ — c&¨`Å c&ª[Å (zª[À ‘überliefern, weitergeben’) → ‘traditioneller, überlieferter’ — ªÒ ™¨[À (ªÒ ‘Preis’; ™¨[À ‘erniedrigen’) → ‘Preis senken’ — ªe|« ™e¨[À (ªe| ‘Garantie’) → ‘j-n seiner Verpflichtung entheben’ (21) À[c /därräsä/ — ‘ankommen, erreichen’ — HQe| À[c (Qe| ‘Ehefrau’) → ‘alt genug sein (um eine Frau zu heiraten)’ — ™ŸH O֏ À[c (™ŸJ ‘Körper’; O֏ ‘Maß’) → ‘das Erwachsenenalter erreichen’ — ¹Jv# À[cH| (Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘sein Herzenswunsch ging in Erfüllung’ — ¹¾Å[e ¾Å[e TÓx (TÓx ‘Speise, Essen’) → ‘Schnellimbiss’ — vj{ HU| ™À[c (vj{ ‘Krankheit’; U| ‘Tod’) → ‘(Krankheit) zum Tode führen’ — Teҍ žJv# ™À[c (Teҍ ‘Dank’; Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘sich ganz herzlich bedanken’ — çH:| ™À[c (çH:| ‘Gebet’) → ‘beten’ — ïؐ À^j úH&e (ïؐ ‘[er] sich beeilend’; úH&e ‘Polizei’) → ‘Schnelles Einsatzkommando’ — À`f OJe z*ž+| (OJe ‘zurück-’; z*ž+| ‘Ticket, Fahrkarte’) → ‘Hin- und Rückfahrkarte’ — ›£ H... vÀF ™À[cF → ‘Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum...’ (22) pO /qomä/ — ‘stehen’ — v™ŸJ pO (™ŸJ ‘Körper’) → ‘persönlich anwesend sein’ — v±#ó I¾ pO (±#ó ‘Thron’) → ‘auf den Thron sitzen, regieren’ — ÓÓ` pO (ÓÓ` ‘Gespräch’) → ‘Verhandlungen abbrechen’ — HÊӐ‚ ¹pO K«J| (K«J| ‘Denkmal’) → ‘Heldendenkmal’ — ™«H: óe pO (™«H: óe ‘Sturm’) → ‘der Sturm hat sich gelegt’ — Y^« ™pO (Y^ ‘Arbeit’) → ‘in den Streik treten’ — uQ éMï| v+| (éMï| v+| ‘Sekretariat’) → ‘ständiges Sekretariat’ — m%T ŠÑ` (ŠÑ` ‘Sache’) → ‘wichtige, ernste Angelegenheit’ — m%T éMï| (éMï| ‘Schreiben’) → ‘Kalligrafie’ (23) Öó /J³äffa/ — ‘verschwinden, verloren gehen’ — Jv# Öó (Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘das Bewusstsein verlieren, ohnmächtig werden’

""

Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

— OJž# Öó (OJ¡ ‘Antlitz, Äußeres’) → ‘entstellt, verunstaltet sein’ — OÑÅ Öó (OÑÅ ‘Weg, Straße’) → ‘vom Wege abkommen, sich verirren’ — eP Öó (eT ‘Name’) → ‘seinen (guten) Ruf verlieren’ — ®¾‹ Öó (®¾ ‘Auge’) → ‘erblinden’ — ±\ Öó (±` ‘Samen’) → ‘aussterben’ — Jv Øñ (Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘gefühlloser, herzloser’ — «J ™Öó («J ‘Vertrag’) → ‘einen Vertrag außer Kraft setzen’ (24) ™Hï /alläfä/ — ‘weitergehen, vorübergehen’ — M¾¨z% ™Hï (M¾¨| ‘Leben’) → ‘sterben’ — žO֏ ™Hï (O֏ ‘Maß’) → ‘maßlos sein’ — «J ™Hï («J ‘Vertrag’) → ‘einen Vertrag unterlaufen’ — ¨c ™Hï (¨c ‘Grenze’) → ‘Grenzen überschreiten, einfallen’ — Ñ&±+ ™Hï (Ñ&±+ ‘Zeit’) → ‘veraltet sein, unmodern sein’ — c®| ™Iò (c®| ‘Stunde’) → ‘Polizeistunde, Ausgangssperre’ — ¹¾Hõ ¨[m| (¨[m| ‘Papier’) → ‘Ausweis, Pass’ — ™Jö ™Jö ‘manchmal, ab und zu, hin und wieder’ (25) m[ /qärrä/ — ‘bleiben’ — Jv# m[ (Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘Neigung verspüren, sich hingezogen fühlen, denken an’ — Y^ m[ (Y^ ‘Arbeit’) → ‘untätig, faul sein’ — pR c+| (pO ‘stehen’) → ‘unverheiratete Frau, «sitzengebliebenes» Mädchen’ — ¨À‰I m[ (¨À nach; ‰I hinten) → ‘rückständiger, zurückgeblieben’ — m] я±x (я±x ‘Geld’) → ‘Guthaben’ — o]| ™ŸJ (™ŸJ ‘Körper’) → ‘Fossil’ — ¹R¾m` eMz| (eMz| ‘Fehler’) → ‘unvermeidbarer Fehler’ — ™ÅT d¾m` (™Å ‘einer’ + Neg.) → ‘ausnahmslos’ (26) ´[ /zorä/ — ‘sich wenden, sich drehen’ — ^c# ´[ (^e ‘Kopf’) → ‘schwindelig werden’ — TÅ[ cRº ´[x” (TÅ` ‘Erde’; cR¾ ‘Himmel’) → ‘mir drehte sich alles (bei Trunkenheit)’ — ŠÑ` ™±#a ™¹ (ŠÑ` ‘Sache’; ™¹ ‘sehen’) → ‘gründlich betrachten, nachdenken’ — ›Ï ™´[ (›Ï ‘Hand’) → ‘Besitz übergeben, kapitulieren’ — ±ª] ®HT (®HT ‘Welt’) → ‘Planet’ — v³«`«` OÑÅ (OÑÅ ‘Weg’) → ‘indirekt’ — z³ªª] ¡H&Œ¡ (¡H&Œ¡ ‘Klinik’) → ‘mobiles Krankenhaus’ — R´]¼ v+| (v+| ‘Haus’) → ‘Telefonzentrale’ — ±#a ±#a ‘alles in allem, letzten Endes, schließlich’

R. Richter

"#

Verben, die eine haâ ufig ausgefuâ hrte Taâ tigkeit oder einen Zustand beschreiben (27) ¼± /yazä/ — ‘nehmen’ — vJx ¼± (Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘in Erinnerung behalten, sich erinnern an’ — vnJ ¼± (nJ ‘Wort’) → ‘auswendig lernen’ — eJ׏ ¼± (eJ׏ ‘Macht, Autorität’) → ‘die Macht ergreifen’ — OÑÅ ¼± (OÑÅ ‘Weg’) → ‘sich auf den Weg machen’ — ›oJõ ¼±« (›oJõ ‘Schlaf’) → ‘vom Schlaf übermannt werden’ — x±# OmOÞ ¼± (OmOÞ ‘Sitz, Stuhl’) → ‘viele Sitze erringen (Parlament)’ — ™À“ À[Í ¼± (™À“ ‘erster’; À[Í ‘Stufe, Rang’) → ‘Sieger sein, gewinnen’ — Ze| H&|` ¼± (Ze| H&|` ‘drei Liter’) → ‘drei Liter fassen’ (28) vI /bälla/ — ‘essen’ — c« vI (c« ‘Mensch’) → ‘j-n verleumden’ — ŠÑ` ¹vI (ŠÑ` ‘Sache’) → ‘erfahrener, routinierter’ — ™À^ vI (™À^ ‘Auftrag’) → ‘Vertrauen missbrauchen’ — Ñ&±+ vI (Ñ&±+ ‘Zeit’) → ‘Zeit vergeuden’ — Jv# vI or GÁ vI (Jx ‘Herz’; GÅ ‘Leib’) → ‘stören; quälen’ — Ož^ vI (Ož^ ‘Kummer, Sorge’) → ‘tief betrübt sein’ — ORHÍ vI (ORHÍ ‘Bestechung’) → ‘bestechen lassen, Schmiergeld annehmen’ — Ñ#y ™vI (Ñ#y ‘Schmiergeld’) → ‘Schmiergeld zahlen, j-n bestechen’ — Ñxa vI (Ñxa ‘Abgaben’) → ‘Steuern zahlen (an den Staat)’ — X` vI (X` ‘Gras’) → ‘Pflanzenesser’ (29) p[Ö /qwärrätä/ — ‘schneiden, zerschneiden’ — žY` p[Ö (Y` ‘Wurzel’) → ‘komplett abschlagen, ausrotten’ — |ž+| p[Ö (|ž+| ‘Ticket’) → ‘Eintrittskarte / Fahrkarte entwerten’ — GÁ p[Ö (GÅ ‘Leib, Bauch’) → ‘Bauchschmerzen haben’ — ÀO¨³ p[Ö (ÀO¨³ ‘Lohn’) → ‘Lohn, Gehalt kürzen’ — Kdv# p[Ö (Kdx ‘Gedanke’) → ‘einen Entschluss fassen’ — p`Ù zŠX (zŠX ‘sich erheben’) → ‘wild entschlossen sein’ — zeó« p[Ö (zeó ‘Hoffnung’) → ‘Hoffnung verlieren, verzweifeln’ — ÓÓ` p[Ö (ÓÓ` ‘Rede, Gespräch’) → ‘Verhandlungen abbrechen’ — OÑÁ ™u[Ö (OÑÅ ‘Weg, Straße’) → ‘eine Straße überqueren’ (30) W^ /särra/ — ‘arbeiten, herstellen, bauen’ — ™ÅR W^ (™ÅR ‘Komplott’) → ‘Komplott schmieden’ — ¨ÊJ W^ (¨ÊJ ‘Verbrechen’) → ‘ein Verbrechen begehen’ — †Ö&š| W^ (†Ö&š| ‘Sünde’) → ‘eine Sünde begehen’

"$

Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica

— ¹z¢J Y^ W^ (z¢J ‘Trick, List’) → ‘eine List anwenden’ — Ñv{ W^ (Ñv{ ‘Tafel, Tisch’) → ‘das Mahl bereiten’ — c`} ™À` (™À[ ‘leben’) → ‘Werktätiger’ — Y^ ™ØŠ| (™× ‘verlieren’) → ‘Arbeitslosigkeit’ — ¹Y^ «Ö+| («Ö+| ‘Ergebnis’) → ‘Arbeitsproduktivität’ — c« W^j (c« ‘Mensch’) → ‘künstlicher’ (31) cv[ /säbbärä/ — ‘zerbrechen, zerschlagen’ — Dxz% cv[ (Dx| ‘Reichtum’) → ‘sich (finanziell, materiell) ruinieren’ — Jv# cv[« (Jx ‘Herz’) → ‘Laune verderben, betrüben’ — «J cv[ («J ‘Vertrag’) → ‘Vertragsbruch begehen’ — ¹c« eT cv[ (c« ‘Mensch’; eT ‘Name’) → ‘jemandes Reputation zerstören’ — MÓ cv[ (MÓ ‘Gesetz’) → ‘das Gesetz brechen’ — ŏv` cv[ (ŏv` ‘Grenze’) → ‘Grenzen verletzen, eindringen’ — ¯ÅH# cv[ (¯ÅJ ‘Glück’) → ‘seine Chance verpassen’ — ®¾Š cw] (®¾ ‘Auge’) → ‘scheuer, schüchterner, ängstlicher’ — ž+I cv[ (ž+I ‘Kontrollstelle’) → ‘Schmuggelware einführen’ (32) ±Ò /zägga/ — ‘schließen’ — _Å¿ ±Ò (_Å¿ ‘Radio’) → ‘Radio ausschalten’ — ™ó ±Ò (™õ ‘Mund’) → ‘j-m den Mund verbieten’ — ™õ ±Ò (™õ ‘Mund’) → ‘seine Zunge im Zaum halten, schweigen’ — OÑÁ ±Ò (OÑÅ ‘Weg’) → ‘Probleme bereiten’ — v\ BH# z±Òv| (v` ‘Tür’) → ‘alle Hoffnung verlieren’ — v³Ó zÀ[Ñ (zÀ[Ñ ‘gemacht, getan werden’) → ‘hinter verschlossenen Türen, geheim’ — ¨eóz% z±Ò (¨eó| ‘Appetit’) → ‘keinen Appetit haben’ — ó¾H# z±Ò (ó¾J ‘Fall’) → ‘ein abgeschlossener Fall (vor Gericht)’ — cR¾ z±Ò (cR¾ ‘Himmel’) → ‘bewölkt sein (Himmel)’ Diese wenigen Beispiele sollen einen kleinen Eindruck vermitteln, wie mit Hilfe von Idiomen und idiomatischen Wendungen, die sowohl in der Umgangssprache als auch in der modernen amharischen Literatur eine bedeutende Rolle spielen, eine größere stilistische Vielfalt und emotionale Tiefe des Ausdrucks erreicht wird. Die feinfühligen und scharfsinnigen Idiome sind besonders geeignet, die umgebende Realität stimmungsvoll und ausdrucksstark zu erfassen und die Einstellung und das Verhalten der Menschen, ihr Temperament, ihre Gewandtheit und Geschicklichkeit, ihre Emotionen und Neigungen, ihre Freude und Trauer eindrucksvoll widerzuspiegeln.23

23

Vgl. auch AMSALU AKLILU, «Characteristics», 580.

R. Richter

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SUMMARY Amharic idioms and idiomatic expressions are stable compounds which differ in meaning from that of their constituents. Frequent elements of these idioms are words denoting parts of the human body, objects of everyday life or verbs of movement and those of habitual human activities. In the Amharic speech, idioms are preferably used to reach depth, clearness and precision of thoughts when the speakers describe human behaviour and ability, attitudes, temperament and emotions, pleasure or sadness.

Scrinium 1. Varia Aethiopica. Errata

page

printed:

read:

frontispiece

Ingrid Heine

Ingrid Henke

frontispiece

HHrpH.ll; XaiiHe

HHrpH.ll; XeHKe

xiii, line 23

C.H. IOIIIMaHoBa

H.B. IOIIIMaHoBa

4, n. 1, line 6

argomentatione

argomentazione

83, line 29

[21 April 1340 A.D .]

[8 April 1341 A.D .]

176, line 3

Mohammed

Ahmad b. Ibrahim

279, line 19

N iiftiififia

N iift.iififia

311 , line 6

wiiyzero

wiiyziiro

312, n. 86, line 1-3

athiopischer ... nuir .. .

athiopische ... nur ...

Mere' e Haren

Mers'e Hazen

317, line 15

d' Aethiopie

d' AEthiopie

365 , line 36

Amahric

Amharic