Piovanelli, Pierluigi

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     Aethiopica 19 (2016) International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies     ________________________________________________________________  PIERLUIGI PIOVANELLI, University of Otawa  Review ALESSANDRO BAUSI, in colaboration with SIEGBERT UHLIG, eds, Encyc-lopaedia Aethiopica. Volume 5: Y–Z, Supplementa, Addenda et Corri-genda, Maps, Index Aethiopica 19 (2016), 264–267 ISSN: 2194–4024 ________________________________________________________________  Edited in the Asien-Afrika-Institut  Hiob Ludolf Zentrum für Äthiopistik  der Universität Hamburg Abteilung für Afrikanistik und Äthiopistik    by Alessandro Bausi in cooperation with Bairu Tafla, Ulrich Braukämper, Ludwig Gerhardt,  Hilke Meyer-Bahlburg and Siegbert Uhlig Aethiopica 19 (2016) Editorial The present issue of AETHIOPICA, like the preceding one, is partly monograph-ic, with a section containing the proceedings of the Panel on Islamic Literature in Ethiopia: New Perspectives of Research, from the ‘19th International Con-ference of Ethiopian Studies’, held in Warsaw, Poland, on 24–28 August 2015. Starting from this issue, the annual bibliography on Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic linguistics held from its inception in 1998 for eighteen years by Rainer Voigt is handed over, on Voigt’s own wil, to a pool of younger scholars, with the substantial support of the AETHIOPICA editorial team. I would like on this occasion to express the deep gratitude of the editorial board of AETHIOPICA and of al scholars in Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic linguistics to Rainer Voigt for his fundamental and valuable contribution. Bibliographical abbreviations used in this volume AÉ  Annales  d’Éthiopie, Paris 1955f. ÄthFor  Äthiopistische Forschungen, 1–35, ed. by E. HAMMERSCHMIDT, 36–40, ed. by S. UHLIG (Stutgart: Franz Steiner (1–34), 1977–1992; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (35–40), 1994–1995). AethFor  Aethiopistische  Forschungen, 41–73, ed. by S. UHLIG (Wiesbaden: Harrasso-witz, 1998–2011); 74–75, ed. by A. BAUSI and S. UHLIG (ibid., 2011f.); 76ff. ed. by A. BAUSI (ibid., 2012ff.). AION  Annali del’Università degli studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’, Napoli: Università di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’ (former Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli), 1929f. CSCO  Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 1903f. EAe S.  U HLIG, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, I: A–C; II: D–Ha; III: He–N; in cooperation with A. BAUSI, eds, IV: O–X (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010);  A. BAUSI in cooperation with S. UHLIG, eds, V: Y–Z, Supplementa, Addenda et Corrigenda, Maps, Index (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2014). EI² Encyclopaedia of Islam, I–XII (Leiden: E.J. Bril, 1960–2005). EMML  Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa. JES Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa 1963f. JSS Journal of Semitic Studies, Manchester 1956f. NEASt Northeast African Studies, East Lansing, MI 1979f. OrChr Oriens Christianus, Leipzig–Roma–Wiesbaden 1901f. PICES 9 A.A. GROMYKO, ed., 1988, Proceedings of the Ninth International Congres of Ethiopian Studies, Moscow, 26–29 August 1986, I–VI (Moscow: Nauka Publishers, Central Department of Oriental Literature, 1988). RSE  Rasegna di Studi Etiopici, Roma, 1941–1981, Roma–Napoli 1983f. ZDMG  Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Geselschaft, Leipzig–Wiesbaden–Stutgart 1847f.  Aethiopica 19 (2016) Reviews ALESSANDRO BAUSI, in colaboration with SIEGBERT UHLIG, eds, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Volume 5: Y–Z, Supplementa, Addenda et Corrigenda, Maps, Index (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014). xxxi, 1269 pp., 32 maps. Price: € 78.00. ISBN 978-3-447-06740-9. With this sumptuous volume, the publication of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica comes to its completion: Siegbert Uhlig supervised the edition of the first three volumes in 2003, 2005, and 2007;1 the fourth volume, in 2010, was published in colaboration with Alessandro Bausi, Uhlig’s successor to the chair of Ethiopi-an Studies at the Asien-Afrika Institut of Hamburg University, who has sub-sequently (and naturaly) become the main editor of this fifth and final vol-ume. After the usual introductory maters and lists of abbreviations (pp. vi–xxxi), the volume opens with the entries belonging to the last two leters of the alphabet, from ‘Yaa’ to ‘Zway’ (pp. 1–204), folowed by a substantial section of ‘Supplementa’, also arranged alphabeticaly, from ‘Abärra ämbäre’ to ‘Wood’ (pp. 205–557). Contrary to what one might expect, these supplements are not intended to provide additional information to the articles already pub-lished—although, a few updates can be found among the ‘Addenda and Corri-genda’ (pp. 559–571), e.g. in the case of the need to adjust the date of the Fk-kare Iyäsus to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century (p. 564, correcting vol. 2, p. 517a–b)—, but consist of true Paraleipomena, or ‘things left out’ from the previous volumes. Some of them are biographical notices about scholars (e.g. Brhanu Abbäbä, André Caquot, Märd Wåldä Arägay, Paolo Marrassini, Edward Ulendorf),2 intelectuals (e.g. Mammo Wddnäh, Sbat Gäbrä gziab er), artists (e.g. Afäwärq Täkle, Asnaqä Wärqu), high ofi-cials (e.g. Iyasu Mängäša, Mikael mmru), and other personalities who have passed away since 2003. Others, the majority of them, are articles that should  1 See J. Tubiana’s reviews of vol. 1, in Aethiopica, 7 (2004), 194–211, and vol. 2, in Aethiopica, 9 (2006), 249–256, as wel as P. Marrassini’s review of vol. 3, in Aethiopica, 13 (2010), 232–235. 2  Sadly enough, some scholars who passed away too recently to have their biographical notice inserted in the ‘Supplementa’ are not included, as in the cases, for example, of the French Egyptologist Jean Leclant (1920–2011), the Canadian Jesuit Claude Sumner (1919–2012), who taught Ethiopian philosophy at Addis Ababa University from 1953 to 2001, and the great Ethiopian historian Taddesse Tamrat (1935–2013), whose memory has been celebrated by Getatchew Haile (in colaboration with A. Bausi), in Aethiopica, 16 (2013), 212–219. Reviews Aethiopica 19 (2016) 265have been included in previous volumes, but were omited partly ‘due to edi-torial reasons’ and partly because the topics to which they are devoted are the results of the most recent advances in research (p. vi), and/or, I would add, the emergence of new scholarly sensitivities. The later reason is possibly the case with the new entry on the ‘Blemmyes’ (pp. 275b–278b), the name that in Greek, Latin, and Coptic sources designates a nomadic tribe moving about Upper Egypt, Nubia, and the Red Sea shores, but that in G z and Arabic sources seems to be labeled as ‘Bga’ or ‘Buga’ (the Greek form Bougaeîtai in Ezana’s inscriptions, finding its paralel in the forms Axmîtai, Hom rîtai, and Sabaeîtai, and meaning ‘the people of the Buga [tribe]’; as for the gentilic Bgyawi in the Ethiopic version of Esther 3:1 and 9:10, it is clearly the Ethiopian translator who interpreted the mysterious Greek term Bougaîos as ‘the Bea’). Thus, the recent trend to distinguish be-tween Blemmyes and Bea, as if they were two separate ethnic groups and not simply two denominations—the former northern, Greco-Egyptian, and the later southern, Aksumite—of the same cluster of nomadic peoples,3 has prob-ably motivated the editorial choice of adding this new entry. Another interest-ing example is provided by the new article on the ‘Fkkare mäläkot’ (pp. 312a–313b), apparently prompted by an essay I wrote in 1993–1995, but published only ten years later,4 in which I re-examined this early seventeenth century theological treatise and atempted to demonstrate that, contrary to the conclu-sions of its first editor, Enrico Ceruli, the Fkkare mäläkot was not the work of the so-caled ‘Zämikaelite school’, whose opinions had been refuted two centuries earlier by ae Zära Yaqob (the main tenets of his religious politics are summarized on pp. 147b–148a), but that, as abba Agosinos Tädla had shrewedly discerned, it emanated from an Orthodox milieu of Alexandrian observance. These conclusions have been, on the one hand, correctly integrat-ed into the entry on the ‘Zämikaelites’ (pp. 131a–133b),5 and on the other hand, strangely ignored in the new notice concerning the famous ‘ägga Krstos’ (pp. 503a–504b), the Ethiopian adventurer who in 1635 brought the  3  For a wel-balanced assessment, see now J. Dijkstra, ‘Blemmyes, Noubades and the Eastern Desert in Late Antiquity: Reassessing the Writen Sources’, in H. Barnard and K. Duistermaat, eds, The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert (Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2012), 239–247. 4  P. Piovaneli, ‘Connaissance de Dieu et sagesse humaine en Éthiopie. Le traité Explication de la Divinité atribué aux hérétiques ‘mikaélites’, Le Muséon, 117/1–2 (2004), 193–227. 5  Even if the ‘Zämikaelites’ never existed as such, it would have been more appropriate to insert the more topical article of P. Piovaneli, ‘Les controverses théologiques sous le roi Zära Yaqob (1434–1468) et la mise en place du monophysisme éthiopien’, in A. Le Bouluec, ed., La controverse religieuse et ses formes, Patrimoines, Religions du Livre (Paris: Cerf, 1995), 189–228, in the bibliography of secondary sources, instead of the essay quoted in the previous footnote. Reviews Aethiopica 19 (2016) 266sole manuscript copy of the Fkkare mäläkot to Paris, as wel as three other treatises sharing similar theological premises. Other additional entries that deserve special mention are the very pano-ramic ones on ‘Archives and libraries’ (pp. 244a–256a), as wel as on modern and contemporary ‘Art’ (pp. 257a–264a), ‘Film: Ethiopia and Eritrea in film’ (pp. 315a–328b), ‘Industry’ (pp. 349b–355b), ‘Itineraries’ (pp. 363a–367b), ‘Languages and peoples in Ethiopia and Eritrea’ (p. 381a–388b), ‘Literature: Ethiopia and Eritrea in literature’ (pp. 390a–405a),6 ‘Marginalized people’ (pp. 412a–415b), ‘Marriage’ (pp. 418a–421a), ‘Migrations’ (pp. 427b–429b, despite the more than hypothetical and problematic nature of the so-caled ‘Second Christianization’ of late antique Ethiopia), ‘Monasticism’ (pp. 443b–447b), and ‘Treaties and conventions’ (pp. 537b–542b). No doubt such transversal entries wil help to bridge the gulf between specialists of ancient and medieval Ethiopian societies and cultures and those involved in the study of more modern and contemporary phenomena. Especialy significant for experts of apocryphal literature wil be the articles ‘Infancy Gospel of Thomas’ – ‘Infan-cy Gospel of Thomas in art’ (pp. 355a–357b), ‘Nägärä Maryam’ (an Ethiopic biography of the Virgin) – ‘Nägärä Maryam in art’ (pp. 456a–458b), and ‘Pon-tius Pilate’ (pp. 489b–492a). Last but not least, in these pages historians wil find—with interest, as always, but now not without great emotion—the ex-tremely learned contributions of the recently departed Gianfranco Fiacca-dori7 on such key topics as the ‘Zagwe’ dynasty (pp. 107a–114a), ‘Nubia’ (pp. 465b–470b), ‘Polo, Marco’ (pp. 485a–489b), ‘Täsfa yon’ (pp. 525a–528b), or ‘Theophilus the Indian’ (pp. 530a–531b). In the second part of the volume, the ‘Addenda and Corrigenda’ also in-clude a set of 34 smal black and white maps initialy omited or printed with some mistakes (pp. 572–580), folowed by a useful table of Ethiopian ‘Titles, ranks and functions’ (pp. 580–590) and a series of 31 larger ‘Maps’, some of which are in color, dealing with geographic, linguistic, religious, historical, and administrative matters (pp. 591–647). An impressive general ‘Index’ to al entries of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (pp. 649–1259), fol-lowed by the ‘List of Authors’ (pp. 1261–1267) and the ‘Image credits’ (pp. 1268–1269), complete the volume.  6 It is unfortunate that, in the section devoted to Italian post-colonial literature (pp. 395a–396a) any reference to the life and work of the comic book author Hugo Prat (1927–1995) is missing. The early years and adventures (real or imaginary) of this au-thor in Ethiopia were especialy formative and inspired the stories of Le etiopiche, also known as Corto Maltese in Africa (1972–1973). See Prat’s recolections in his first au-tobiography, Le pulci penetranti (ed. A. De Rosa; Venice: Alfieri, 1971), 7–30. 7 See B. Daskas and A. Soldati, ‘In memoriam Gianfranco Fiaccadori (1957–2015)’, Aethiopica, 18 (2015), 200–213. Reviews Aethiopica 19 (2016) 267Finaly, we may congratulate the editors, the members of the editorial team, and al the specialists—if my calculations are exact, not less than 591 authors!—who have colaborated on such a remarkable and scholarly achievement, and to express the wish that the content of the 4,360 articles of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica wil be soon available online, and that, in future, regular publication of new supplements wil help to keep this wonderful project up to date. Pierluigi Piovaneli, University of Ottawa PAOLO MARRASSINI, Storia e leggenda del’Etiopia tardoantica: Le iscrizioni reali aksumite, Testi del Vicino Oriente antico, 9, Leteratu-re etiopica, 1 (Brescia: Paideia, 2014). 394 pp. Price: € 43.00. ISBN: 978-88-394-0873-0. Since the 1990s a series of publications have made the rich and diverse evidence related to late antique Ethiopia ever more accessible to non-specialists. In this remarkable book published in the excelent Testi del Vicino Oriente antico series after the author’s death in 2013 the celebrated Semiticist Paolo Marras-sini makes a landmark contribution to this burgeoning literature. In a modest introduction, Marrassini explains that the aim of the volume is to present to the reading public and to non-specialists in related fields reliable, annotated translations of the most important epigraphic evidence related to late antique Ethiopia. These translations are based on the G z and Greek inscriptions published in the first and second volumes of the Recueil des Inscriptions de l’Éthiopie des périodes pré-axoumite et axoumite (Paris, 1991). The translations from Greek folow those in the third volume of the same publication (2000); while those from G z (stil not translated in the RIÉ) are the author’s own. The provision of translations from the critical texts of these inscrip-tions gathered together in a single place, and with a detailed annotation is important enough; but I cal Marrassini’s introduction ‘modest’ because the book in fact goes much further than its stated aim. For it ofers (alongside the translations and their commentaries) a series of critical reflections on the in-scriptions’ context, and a comprehensive guide to the rich textual evidence through which historians can further comprehend them. Extensive bibliog-raphies on particular topics, persons, or texts appear throughout, in addition to the long bibliography in the final pages (to which Alessandro Bausi has added more recent publications). The book therefore also serves as an im-portant scholarly introduction to the history of late antique Ethiopia, and wil be of enormous interest both to Ethiopicists and, in particular, to those (like the present reviewer) who specialise in the wider medieval, eastern Christian, and Islamic worlds. 

Alessandro Bausi, in collaboration with Siegbert Uhlig, eds, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Volume 5: Y–Z, Supplementa, Addenda et Corrigenda, Maps, Index

Aethiopica

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Alessandro Bausi, in collaboration with Siegbert Uhlig, eds, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Volume 5: Y–Z, Supplementa, Addenda et Corrigenda, Maps, Index

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