A Fragment of the Late Aksumite or Early Zagʷe Period on the Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

This short note presents the transcription and translation of the old fragment of a manuscript of commentary on themes from the Gospel of Matthew which was found tucked at the end of a manuscript of Nägärä Maryam (EMML 7229, fols 122r–123v). The fragment probably dates back to the late Aksumite to early Zagʷe period and is likely to be a translation of a commentary by an early church scholar. The Vorlage remains unknown

In memoriam Taddesse Tamrat (1935-2013)

Obituary  

A Short Apocalyptic Text Based on the Prophecy of Ezra (Esdras Salathiel)

The main themes of the text, occasionally ascribed to Ezra (Salathiel), are the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the end of the world, the future rulers of Ethiopia, and the honouring of the Sabbaths. It is cast in the spirit of 4 Ezra, quoting it and Jubilees occasionally and extensively. As in 4 Ezra, its author is interested in knowing and declaring the future to call the faithful to observe the law and the ordinances. Reckoning the time by cycles, aqmar, provides him the revelation of future events ‘with exact dates’. The text, composed before the sixteenth century, is one more source of Gǝʿǝz apocalyptic literature. The article is an edition and translation of it as preserved in EMML 6429, fols 9v–39r

The Marginal Notes in the Abba Gärima Gospels

It is clear that, due to the age of the manuscripts of the Abba Gärima Gospels and the condition in which they are preserved, some leaves of one Gospelmanuscript have been inadvertently rebound with another Gospel manuscript. My presentation follows Garima I and Garima II, as titled, which have been graciously sent to me for this conference. For my personal study of the notes, I was fortunate to have access to copies made three times, first by D.M. Davies, then by Jacques Mercier, and now by HMML, the Museum and Library to which I am affiliated. Unfortunately, there are letters and words that might be lost forever unless there is a technology that can retrieve them.Also, a few people and many places will remain unidentified, at least for now, as it is not clear if two words which come following one another are names of one place or of two. As one will see, the method I followed is this: (1) editing the texts, (2) translating them into English, and (3) offering my views under ‘Commentary’. The Index helps when questioning if words that look alike are names of the same place or of different places. Conti Rossini’s edition of Liber Axumae (1909) and the study of its ‘Land Charters’ by Huntingford (1965) have been helpful.These notes are what one might call Land Charters; none of them is a colophon

Conversation of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus with His Twelve Apostle Disciples at Jericho (EMML 7229, fols 93r–109r)

The article presents a collation and translation of an apocalyptic text, which may be titled, Conversation of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus with His Twelve Apostle Disciples at Jericho, as taken from EMML 7229, fols 93r–109r. It is one of the two conversations known so far (the other took place at Däbrä Zäyt) and, although copied in the same hand, this conversation cannot be considered a part of the traditional Nägärä Maryam

Denis Nosnitsin, Churches and Monasteries of Tǝgray: A Survey of Manuscript Collections

Review Articl

Refashioning the Ethiopian monarchy in the twentieth century: An intellectual history

This article traces the shift in the Ethiopian monarchical ideology from lineage as symbolic Christian filiation to dynasty as a political genealogy of sovereign power. From the end of the nineteenth century, and more prominently under Haylä Səllase, Ethiopian state sources started qualifying the Ethiopian ruling dynasty as ‘unbroken’ in history. A record of ‘uninterrupted’ power allowed the Ethiopian government to politically appropriate past glories and claim them as ‘ours’, thus compensating for the political weakness of the present with the political greatness of the past. The ideological rebranding of the Ethiopian monarchy in the 1930s brought Ethiopia closer to Japan, and the ‘eternalist clause’ of the Meiji constitution offered a powerful model of how to recodify dynasty in modern legal terms. An intellectual history of dynasty in the Ethiopian context sees the concept simultaneously associated with both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic political projects. The narratives of continuity enabled by the dynastisation of history were successful in invigorating the pro-Ethiopian front during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936-1941), but served at the same time to reinforce domestic mechanisms of class, political and cultural domination

Praises of the Cross, Wǝddase Mäsqäl, by Abba Giyorgis of Gasǝč̣č̣a

One of the many works of Abba Giyorgis of Gasǝč̣č̣a/Sägla (d. 1527) is a Wǝddase Mäsqäl “Praises of the Cross”, a work which previously was known only from Abba Giyorgis’s Acts (Gädl) and oral tradition. Recently, however, the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Abäba/Collegeville, has discovered and microfilmed a 16th-century copy of the text, EMML 504, edited and translated here. In the work Abba Giyorgis reviews the symbolic prophecies in the Old Testament relating to the Incarnation of the Word. The Wǝddase Mäsqäl is an exceedingly high quality literary work, even by the author’s famously high standards