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Gondär Land Documents: Multiple Copies, Multiple Recensions
Author(s): Donald Crummey

Source: Northeast African Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2011), pp. 1-42
Published by: Michigan State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41932050
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Gondär Land Documents:
Multiple Copies, Multiple Recensions
Donald Crummey, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign
ABSTRACT
A comparison of two eighteenth- century land grants to churches in Gondär

town are the point of departure for reflections on the creation of the
documents themselves. Both grants are recorded in multiple copies - 5 in
one case; g in the other. A close reading of the documents reveals that the
copies represent different stages in the development of the grant. This is
particularly the case with the grant to the Church of Qêscfam Dabra Sähay ,
which, made in the 1730s and 1740s, unfolded over a period of more than
ten years. The evidence concerning the Church of Bä' ata Däbrä Tebäb is
less striking , but still suggestive. After an indication of the wealth of social
and geographic information , which the grants contain , the paper explores
similarities and differences between contemporary practices of granting of
land in Ethiopia and in the riverine Sudan.
The way in which documents and archives were created in historical

Ethiopia remains opaque. How, physically and institutionally, were
documents created in the first place? Did they go through several stages
of development? If so, why? What determined the location where they
Northeast African Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2. 2011. pp. 1-42. ISSN 0740-9133.
(c) 2011 Michigan State University Board of Trustees. All rights reserved.
2 ■ Donald Crummey
TABLE 1. Açé lyyasu and Yetége Mentewwab Found Däbrä Çâhay

Qwesqwam, Gondär
MANUSCRIPT MANUSCRIPT TITLE CHURCH OF PROVENANCE
Orient 508, iv Arat Wângél Hämärä Noh?

Orient 511, 3r Arat Wângél Däbrä $ähay Qwesqwam?
Orient 636, 5r- reproduced in Wright, Catalogue, LXXXII*
Tä'amrä Maryam Kwe'eratä Re'esu?
Orient 799, 3r- reproduced in Wright, Catalogue, CCCLXV
Various, including Qeddus Rufa'él?
Fethä Nägäst
III/IES, 88
* Wm. Wright, Catalogue of the Ethiopian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1877)
were deposited? What considerations affected whether or not copies were

made of a document? And, if copies were made, how were the number
of copies and their respective locations determined? Eighteenth-century
documents recording the grants of land to churches in the town of Gondar
help us to address a few of these questions.
These documents record grants of land to the Church of Qwesqwam
Däbrä Sähay, by lyyasu II and his mother, Yetégé Mentewwab, in the
1730s and 1740s; and grants of land to the Church of Bä'ata Däbrä
Tebäb by Asé Täklä Haymanot (1770-77) in the early 1770s. The
Qwesqwam grant has been discussed previously on several occasions, and
the present discussion repeats much of the earlier.1 It does, however,
correct a misdating and present some of the Ge'ez texts of the docu-
ments, which earlier versions did not. The Qwesqwam grant exists in
five different copies, the details of which are presented in Table 1.2 The
Bä'ata grant is one of the most widely copied Ethiopian documents
prior to the twentieth century and exists in no fewer than nine different
copies.3 Table 2 summarizes the different copies of the Bä'ata grant.
Only one manuscript, Orient 799 (from the British Library Oriental
Manuscripts), contains copies of both grants, and those copies appear
to be derivative of other copies.
Gondar Land Documents ■ 3
Qwesqwam Däbrä Sähay
The multiple copies of the Qwesqwam grant demonstrate that documents

were revised and changed over time. They exist in three distinct recen-
sions. Four manuscripts have identical texts, with the exception of minor
variations in spelling - Orient 508, 636, 511, and 799. Orient 508, Orient
636, and Orient 799 are essentially the same. Stage II in the document's
development is represented by Orient 511 (see Document I), which has
four lines appended to it. Illinois/IES (Ill/IES), 88_III_i6 represents
the third stage in the document's development (see Document II; the
microfilm containing this and other documents is on deposit at the
University of Illinois and elsewhere). The addition to Orient 511 has now
been integrated into the text; some detail contained in the other versions
is omitted; and new material has been added.
Document 1. British Library, Orient 511 , folio 3r Grant to Qwescram

Däbrä Sähay, by lyyasu II and Yetégé Mentewwab
« j*î.m m
VP aiy-nv W TV*» >7/"* «"OV** ■flCV*> CilK (Dh9°>
ircif i -ncyj rv¡ i AM- ncntn 4-.n*y° hj t ßt /h?«-* ÍÍ9°K¿ AJB me *AA HA
Híh ¿C ©Hca^f Am^t ®MlA.A+ H ©H-iKC fMiA ©CT4} H -H<-C
Hrh3.A ©H -ílArJS ffltH-A- W frtfA* X'<n> fiKK Pô+ AMUMlrlkC A*»£;n+
>çav ©Anuçty (Dvmiroo- vi¿ hjba^jb okí h >n¿ n* pu i Ht u>m o*
H«B I ''<n> AA.Afw ®A+^Cn W ®U-0> U7¿ HVíl¿ ittiß ®£HC ?°AA hW HA*®
7-->*C I A+*Hh¿ 77VV! ®U-fl> U7¿ HJßA</»Jß tl* I ®A<w>*m ®AT> <n>X'i HJSA<n>JB *
4-CT M» ncAt/Âr MA hn-> f HA «ûc
A.n<?A «ya A<H- ®A.«J»®-*>+ tMCA W* ®A.«J»©-*>+
Gìvh O/h* tl<*> hÂì * H7+ ®-V£P+ V 777" h®- 7o?/"* «/»W* ©h<*>V!
ai-HO« I h®*7H* if-Apw tOffl-A* ®</»?°U¿7 a>A.*a>-7t íl,t hCAt ?7 ?°AA MM ®ftftA>
nCAtÂr ®9»AA <*>?°UCV h0 +hA VJB01! <?* MH JB-Ofr H WH- H7+ /"¿9+
TABLE 2. Açé Täklä Haymanot Founds Bä'ata, Däbrä Tebäb, Gondär
MANUSCRIPT
Orient 481, 2ogv Octateuch, Arat Wangél
Orient 549, 2r Fawes Mänfäsawi
Orient 604, 4V Homilies for Festivals of the Virgin Mary, etc.
Orient 635, ir Tä'amrä Maryam
Orient 638, 247^ Tä'amrä Maryam
Orient 751, I72v/i73r Qâlémentos
Orient 799, 4r/v Various, including Fethä Nägäst
Orient 806, 144' Fethä Nägäst
Éth 112, iv/2r Haymanotä Abäw
Gondär Land Documents ■ 5
Däbrä Berhan Sellasé, Gondar • good hand

• abbreviated
• one of at least six documents on the
same page
? • rough hand
• very abbreviated
• one column
• one of numerous documents on the
? • formal
• extensive
• no columns
? • rough hand
• extensive
• two columns
• contains addendum
? • good hand
• extensive
• lacks addendum
? • good hand
• complete
• three columns
Qeddus Rufa'él? • good hand

• extensive
• complete
• four columns
? • good hand
• extensive, but abbreviated (?)
• three columns
• addendum uncertain
Däbrä Sä hay Qwesqwam • good hand

• complete
• four columns
ft/PCfl ®ft®-Ar Ci ®tWH">* rh «PC?* (D-tH A£t>7" a>h!9°S:ái¿' H ®IM1> 9°K¿ Ml>* tD9°jí:¿
-h¿9°<' (D9°K¿ Í1A1 (Df°ñ¿ <frA ®IM1V ti<*> UM Arh¿fl* hA JSftjB rh- <ř<?+ °1JB HJßrt*
m-ka-m Aat ncAtn ®n*° jsn--> aôo <*>/"90* ®+-.cn«
*superscript insertion: H+rt9°f * £-íl¿ Othß
[Arabic header:] In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, one God . . .
Behold, we, King of Kings, Iyyasu, whose regnal name is Berhan
Säggäd, and our mother, Queen Wälättä Giyorgis, Berhan Mogäsa, gave
to Qwesqwam Church, which was built in the land of upper Gondär, *
silk vestments; carpets; censers; crowns, gold and silver; a silver paten
and chalice, books of the New and Old [Testament], and all sacred
utensils, that they might use them in sacrifice to God for the salvation of
our soul. To its priests we gave the land called Bagäna, which previously
had Galla in it, and in which subsequently Zâwé had been established,
that it might be for their sustenance. For the Eucharist we gave the land,
which had been in the hands of Wäyzäro Meslänteya, called Gunter.
For the king's commemoration we gave land called Kāč. The dwelling
place [for the clergy] we exchanged with the dwelling place that is called
Qoffaroč. [These things we did] in front of Abunä Krestodolu, Bishop
[pappas] of Ethiopia, and in front of Abunä Täklä Haymanot, abbot of
Däbrä Libanos, and in front of the aqabé sä4 at and the learned men of
the churches, and the teachers, and the nobles, and the learned men of
law. But that they should not nullify this our gift whether they be king
or queen, nobles or people, all the priests, and teachers, and learned
men of the church with Abunä Pappas Krestädolu and with our abbot,
Abba Täklä Haymanot, they said: "If there be anyone who destroys this
ordinance, by the authority of Peter and Paul and all the Apostles let
him be anathematized."
And afterwards we gave the land of Ebennät and the land of

Guramba and the land of Bäläsä and the land of Çela. We gave [it] that
it might be for the gardeners who clear the water course that irrigates
the plants of the church and that it might be [a source of fire] wood for
the service of the Eucharist.
*later insertion: "and which is called Däbrä §ähay"
Document 2. I II/ I ES, 88_lll_16 Grant to Qwesqwam Däbrä Sähay,

by lyyasu II and Yetégé Mentewwab
> Ihò *>7-w ìir* HCìffo oowm fl7£ (Dh9°t ti/»* ® A+ VT C
in -n cy*> <p7<ì Aa+ ncAtn jo+ jb k* mx* n 9°k¿ ajb me h+a w- £-n¿
BrhJS hAOft Hrh¿c íDHCn-^t ©°10m7^f ®hhA.At H®C¥ ®H-íl<-C l/h A «îm H-iKC
Hrhlfl ©H-nA- ® AhUÇ-fcy ®U-flW<w>* U7¿ HJBrt^JB OgÇ H>íl¿ 0+ 2A
®£"í¿ 0+ Hf u»C} H*B ® A+*.Cm ©ü-nv U7¿ HVÍ1¿ ilhß ® JSHC ?°A A* W Mo* WÏC
(D/i<n>W¿ ©AT> *®h> Hßfiwfi (DWKWH ©ü-nv h-íW * (D9°X¿ «Art
AfHn¿ vvrn. ®imi> y°£v: 7^?°n ©9°^¿ Â ®IMI> ti<n> JBI>? AÂ* *A JBKJBHI- <?<?+
"■ïjb HjBAt h*hAtv! Aat ne ( '±n ®n <n> ça,*® ®+-.cn n*#*» hn->
ncA-řÂ* ®«M. ū*x<n> hn-v frh*>A WÌÌ* HM-r to? ®n*£<"> MM t MA yjB^q** ^9°ÜC
H&n¿ A.n*?A ®n^^ «wa im ® a.*®- *>t mi*+ uca w* ®a.^®-7+ ç* /h
n/h* n<n> h.řAi + H*>t ®-yn+> h*»y typ h®- r?/"* h*»y ®h<">y ;h*Hn<e h®-
7H* tWW*»* +0®-ft* (DooÛM ® A.*®-**+ at hCA-tn ?°AA g* AM* ílíímU*®- OJJPYIA
<r°9°u Ci hn +HA yjw* MH JB-ilA- >i*»n H>w+ H*>-t /"Ot n/"A"l* ft/PCA ®ft®-frA
®tH-Apw rh7
Behold, we, King of Kings lyyasu, whose regnal name is Berhan Säggäd,
and our mother, our Queen Wälättä Giyorgis, Berhan Mogäsa, gave to
Qwesqwam Church, which was built in the land of upper Gondär, [and]
which is called Däbrä Sähay, silk vestments; carpets; censers; crowns,
gold and silver; a silver paten and chalice; New and Old [Testament]
books. To its priests we gave the land called Bagäna, which previously
had Galla in it, and in which subsequently Zâwé had been established.
For the Eucharist we gave the land called Gwenter that had been in
the hands of Wäyzäro Meslā Enteya. The dwelling place [for the clergy]
we exchanged with the dwelling place that is called Qoffaroč. And
afterwards we gave the land of Ebennat and the land of Bäläsä. For
the king's commemoration we gave the land of Gweramba. We gave the
land of Çela that it might be for the farmers who clear the water course
that irrigates the plants of the church and so that it might be [a source
of] charcoal for the service of the Eucharist. It is a right [established]
in front of Abunä Krestodolu and again in front of Abunä Yohännes,
Bishops of Ethiopia, and in front of Abunä Täklä Hay manot, abbot of
Däbrä Libanos, and in front of the 'aqabé sä' at and the learned men of
the churches, and the teachers, and the learned men of law. But that
they should not nullify this our gift, whether they be king or queen,
nobles or people, all the priests, and teachers, and learned men of the
church with the two bishops, each in his own time, and with our abbot,
Abba Täklä Haymanot, they anathematized, saying, "If there be anyone
who destroys this ordinance, let him be anathematized by the authority
of Peter and Paul and all the Apostles."
In terms of status, Orient 636 and Orient 511, which represent

different stages in the document's development, would appear to be the
more "official" versions, since they are accompanied by seals of the met-
ropolitan, Abunä Krestodolu, and superscriptions in Arabic, invoking the
Trinity. Such "certificates" of authenticity are rare in historic Ethiopian
land grants. The higher status of these two copies may also be reflected
by their being written in distinctly finer hands than the others and by
their positioning on the folio. They are both at the top of their respective
folios and occupy their full width. Orient 511 is the only document on its
folio, while Orient 636 appears to have been written around an earlier
record from the reign of Bäkaffa (r. 1721-30). However, Orient 636 may
have had precedence over Orient 511 and, therefore, may represent our
earliest version, since, in copying Orient 511, the scribe omitted a brief
passage contained in Orient 636 ("which is called Däbrä Sähay," on line
3), which he then inserted as superscript.* Finally, both Orient 508 and
Orient 799 would appear most clearly to be "copies" of prior documents,
being more informal in both their writing and their layout. Ill/IES,
88_III_i6 is a synthesis of the two previous stages with some deletions
and bears no seal. Table 3 tries to summarize these relationships.
For the time being, evidence concerning the churches that origi-
nally held these documents is slim. Orient 511, probably, and Ill/IES,
88_III_i6 certainly, were held by the Qwesqwam church itself. Hints in
the Wright catalogue suggest that at least one of the remaining copies,
Orient 636, may have been held in the Church of Kwe'eratä Re'esu,
while Orient 508 and Orient 799 may have been held in Hämärä Noh
and Qeddus Rufa'él, respectively. If, indeed, Orient 636 was deposited in
Kwe'eratä Re'esu, this might enhance its claims to be the original grant,
since Kwe'eratä Re'esu was inside the castle compound itself and may
have functioned as a royal depository.
The five copies of the grant reveal three different stages in its evolu-
tion. Table 3 illustrates these stages. None of the documents is dated, so
the stages of their development must be inferred from internal evidence.

Taken together with information in the chronicle of Iyyasu II and Iyo'as,
the documents reveal nuances not previously evident from the records of
earlier grants. The basic text of Orient 636, 508, 511, and 799 informs
us that, in founding the church, Iyyasu and his mother, Mentewwab,
gave the following lands ( hagar ) for specific purposes: in Bagäna, for the
sustenance of the clergy; in Gwenter, for the Eucharist; and in Käc, for the
king's commemoration serviced Some time later, Iyyasu modified these
arrangements, adding additional lands in Ebennat, Guramba, Bäläsä,
and Çela. The purposes for which these additional lands were given are
unstated, except that one of the lands was given "for the gardeners who
clear the water course which irrigates the plants of the church and that
it might be [a source of fire] wood for the service of the Eucharist." The
purposes become clear in Ill/IES, 88
was the land given for the gardeners; and, for the king's commemoration
service, Guramba was granted instead of Kač, which was to serve this
purpose in the earlier documents. From neither the stage II nor the stage
III documents can we infer the purposes for which Ebennat and Bäläsä
were given. These purposes only become clear after reference to the royal
chronicle and to the register ( mäzgäb ) of the lands given to the clergy,
which is held by officials of the church.6
While it is not surprising that the chronicle contains information
that illuminates the grants, in fact, such corroboration is rare, especially
before the later nineteenth century, at the very earliest. The founding of
the Qwesqwam church was an important event in the reign of Iyyasu II
and Mentewwab. It occupies 20 pages of the translation of their chronicle,
which provides us with a number of firm dates, although it compresses
the three stages in the grant's development, and relating the dates to
the stages, insofar as it can be done at all, must be done by inference.?
The chronicle provides a single narrative of the founding of Däbrä
Sähay Qwesqwam, compressing events that must have taken place over
a number of years. Claire Bosc-Tiessé argues persuasively that the act
of foundation itself and, hence, the date of the stage I documents must
have been 1733.8 The documents in Orient 636, Orient 508, Orient 511,
and Orient 799 refer to Abunä Krestodolu, who died in August 1735 AD.
The chronicle gives us little help in determining when the revisions to
the original grant, as represented by Orient 511 and Ill/IES, 88_III_i6,
TABLE 3. Relationships between Records of the Qwesqwam Charter
MORE ORIGINAL? DERIVATIVE?
Stage I Orient 636* Orient 508

Orient 799
Stage II Orient 511*
Stage III III/IES, 88 III16
*both Orient 636 and Orient 511 have seals of Abunä Krestodolu and Arabic invocations of the Trinity
occurred. However, Iyyasu and Mentewwab could not have completed

their endowment of the church until sometime after 1746, since Ill/IES,
88_III_i6 refers to Abunä Yohännes, who arrived in Ethiopia in that
year. For the time being, it is unclear at what point in time, if any,
between 1733 and 1746 the additions were made to Orient 511. Were they
made at the same time as 88_III_i6, in order to bring the original grant
more in line with its completed form? Or do they genuinely represent
an interim development, being made perhaps around 1740, when, the
chronicle implies, some development of significance occurred?
The chronicle throws considerable light on other aspects of the
Qwesqwam grant. Ill/IES 88_III_i6 presents the various lands granted
in the following order: Bagäna; Gwenter; Qoffaroč; Ebbenät and Bäläsa;
Gweramba; and Çela. Table 4 presents the lands together with the
purposes for which they were given. The following discussion notes the
contribution of each particular source to an understanding of each of
these lands.
The Qwesqwam lands appear in numerous other sources. Some were

involved in earlier grants to other churches, notably Guramba, some
of whose lands Yohännes I had previously granted to the Church of
Kwe'eratä Re'esu; and Çela, some of whose lands Téwoflos had granted to
the Church of Hamara Noh. Others appear very frequently in transactions
of the mid- to later eighteenth century and the earlier nineteenth century.
These references appear in Table 5.
Bagäna. This is the first place name in all of our sources. Today it
is a sub-district within the modern district of Lay Arma££äho, whose
administrative capital is Tekel Dengay, which Google Earth locates at
i2°44'3"N, 37°24'5o"E. The chronicle confirms several details in the

grants: that this land was given to the clergy and that previously it had
been occupied by "Galla" and then by "Zawé." It adds the information
that the Zawé were resettled at Daber Gänta in Gojjam. It also describes
the process whereby the Bagäna lands were registered.
Then Mäl'akä S ähay Hezqeyas and Bäger Wand Zéna Gâbr'él and Liqé
Giyorgis went down to the land of Bagäna as witnesses. They wrote
down all the land of Bagäna and returned quickly after a short time.9
What is particularly remarkable is that we have the results of this writing

"down all the land of Bagäna" in the two copies of the mäzgäb held by
officials of the church. While not unique as registers of land, in their
detail these two documents are particularly rare.10
Gwenter. All recensions of the land grant and the chronicle agree that
Gwenter (Gunter in the chronicle) was to support the Eucharist, but the
chronicle does not mention Wäyzäro Mesläntya, who, according to all
recensions of the grant, had been the previous holder of this land. She
remains a cipher. The Gazetteer of Ethiopia , published by the Mapping
Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, lists a "Guntir" at i2°3o'N
37°o8'E. This places it WSW of Gondär and SE of "Ayikel."11
Käc. In stages I and II of the land grant, Käc appears as the land
given to support the täzkar of the king. It disappears in Ill/IES, 88_
III
now to support this purpose. This development is also reported by the

chronicle. I have not been able to locate Käc.12
Guramba. See the note on Kāč, above. (The Gazetteer gives several
locations for Guramba, which is in Dämbeya, and i2°22'N 37°22'E is
most consonant with the location as indicated in Crummey, Land and
Society , map 8, page 83.) As Table 5 indicates, Guramba land was
granted by Emperor Fasil and by Emperor Yohännes I to Kwe'eratä
Re'esu and appears in a few land sales.
Qoffaroč. The same, very enigmatic, phrase appears in both stages
I and II of the grant: "The dwelling place [for the clergy] we exchanged
with the dwelling place, which is called Qoffaroč." The interpolation
"for the clergy" is, in fact, feedback from the chronicle account, which
informs us that Mentewwab gave the clergy land, in the vicinity of the
TABLE 4. Lands Granted to Däbrä Sähay Qwesqwam, Gondär
Stage I Bäjäna [Baģāna] for the sustenance of the clergy
Gwenter
Kāč
Qoffaroč
Stage II Bäjäna
Gwenter
Kāč
Qoffaroč
Ebbenät
Guramba
Bäläsa
Stage III Bäjäna
Gwenter
Qoffaroč
Ebbenät
Bäläsa
Gweramba
Cela "for the gardeners who clear the water course";

also charcoal for the Eucharist
church, on which to build their houses. This land was distinct from
those lands given "for the sustenance" of the clergy, which, as we will
see, were allotted on an individual basis. The qoffaroč are "diggers."
Apparently, they had previously lived on this land, which was now
named after them. The qoffaroč were settled elsewhere, presumably
at Çela, for which see below. I have not been able to locate QoffaroÇ.
Ebbenät and Bäläsa. Ebbenät and Bäläsa first appear in stage II, in
the addendum to Orient 511, which does not state their purpose. Field
research has revealed that, in terms of area of land involved, they were
the most important additions to the original grant. The chronicle is
explicit about their purpose: support of the clergy. It also tells us that
Guidi, Qoffaroč exchanged for dwelling place of the clergy

lyasu II (pp. 102/111)
et lyo'as* Bäjäna (pp. support of the clergy

102/111)
(uprooted Zawé
choose Dabr
Gänta)
Gunter Eucharist
(PP. 103/112)
Guramba king's täzkar

(PP. 103/112)
Cela "for the gardeners who clear the water course"

(pp. 103/112)
Ebbenät support of the clergy

Taräsemba
(PP. 103/113)
Bäläsa (pp. support of the clergy

104-5/114)
(uprooted Maya
settled in Wedo)
Dämbäla "for the needs of the sanctuary"
*1. Guidi, Annales Regum lyasu II et lyo'as (Paris: Corp. Script. Christ. Orient., Series Altera, VI, 1912)
in Ebbenät it was the sub-district of Taräsemba that was involved, and

that previously it had served special needs of the royal court. It further
informs us that the Bäläsa land had once been occupied by troops
known as Maya, who were guilty of crimes dating back to the reign of
Asé Eskender (r. 1478-92). ^ Ebbenät and Bäläsa, as lands for clergy
additional to Bagäna, are confirmed by the mäzgäb , which is, in fact,
organized according to these three distinct territories. (The Gazetteer
places the "locality" of "Ibnat" at i2°o8 'N 30°03 'E, which is more or
less due east of Addis Zämän and due north of Däbrä Tabor, and the
"locality" of "Belesa" at i2°35'N 37^0 'E, which places it roughly due
east of Gondär and north of Ebbenät.)14
TABLE 5. Place Names in the Qwesqwam Grant Appearing in Other

Sources (in order of appearance in the grant)
LAND NAME ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
Baģāna Orient 776, ir, 2r/' 4r, 6r, gr, iov, nr, i2r/v, 268r, 270v, 27iv
[Bäjäna]
Kāč
Guramba Orient 659, 239*
Orient 636, 3V
Orient 604, 123'
Ebbenät Orient 604, 39v

Orient 745, 225'
Orient 765, 156*
Orient 776, ir/' 2r/v, 3vf 4r/' jT. 9r/v, ior/v, nr, i2r, i3r, 268r,
270' 271r/v, 272r/v
Orient 784, 209v
Bäläsa Orient 745, ior, 224', 225'

Orient 776, ir/v, ix'' 3r/' 4r/v, 7r. 9r/v, ior/v, nr, i2r/' i3r,
268r/v, 269', 270v, 27ir/v, 272r/v? 273f/v, 274r/v
Orient 777, 28iv

Orient 778, i' 2r/v, 4V, 5r/v, 6r/' 7r, 8r, 9r/v
Čóela
Dämbäla *Huntingford, Land Charters, Doc. 68
*G.W.B. Huntingford, The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia. Translated with an Intro-
duction and Notes. Monographs in Ethiopian Land Tenure, No. i, (Addis Ababa/Nairobi:
Addis Ababa University Press/Oxford University Press, 1965).
Gondär Land Documents m 15
DATE
? sales and other transactions involving gaša land, some-
_?
reign of Fasilädäs? Fasilädäs grants se'el bét land
Yohännes I
? land sale
individual grant
later 18th century, sales and other transactions involving gaša and rim
early 19th century land, sometimes coupled with Bagäna, and Bäläsa;
several individual grants of Ebbenät land by lyyasu I,
Täklä Haymanot, and Täklä Giyorgis
Täklä Haymanot numerous sales and other transactions involving gaša

Täklä Giyorgis and rim land, sometimes coupled with Bagäna, and
1774 AM Bäläsa
Gigar
Sahlu
Gwalu
Téwodros
T éwoflos
Täklä Giyorgis fief, in Tâmbén, given by Täklä Giyorgis to Ras Wäldä
Téwodros
**AII of the tax records in Orient 773 were published by Richard Pankhurst and Germa-Selassie
Asfaw, Tax Records and Inventories of Emperor Téwodros of Ethiopia (1855-1868) (London:
School of Oriental and African Studies, 1978)
Çela. Çela first appears in the addendum to 511, where its purpose
is somewhat ambiguous. However, the chronicle clarifies that the phrase
"for the gardeners who clear the water course" belongs to it and not to
any of the other lands that first appear in stage II. I have been unable
to locate Çela, which is also mentioned in a grant made by Asé Téwoflos
to the Gondär Church of Hamara Noh.15
Dämbäla. Our only source for Dämbäla's having been granted to

Qwesqwam is the chronicle, which provides an unusual amount of detail
in informing us that
For the needs of the sanctuary of Däbrä Sähay, King Iyyasu and Queen
Mentewwab also gave the land of Tegré which is called Dämbäla, a place
with a tribute of twenty gold dinar , which it pays annually.16
The Gazetteer gives two locations for a "Dembela," which it identifies as

a populated place in Tegray (i3°46'N 39°]. 'E and i3°47'N 39°6'E).17
It appears an unlikely source for an annual tribute of 20 gold dinar .
However, that it did generate revenue is indicated by its appearance on
a register of taxes from Tegray during the reign of Emperor Téwodros.18
In addition to the grant records and the chronicle, a third component
in this web of records is the register of the lands granted to provide
revenue in support of the clergy, the mäzgäb , of which we have two copies.
The grants themselves do not, at any of their stages, provide any hints as
to just how these clergy lands were to be held. Several lands might, each
one on its own terms, provide tribute, which was then allocated by some
central mechanism to the individual clergy. However, between them the
chronicle and the mäzgäb - the chronicle in its narrative, the mäzgäb as
an administrative document - make it clear that the lands in the three
districts of Bagäna, Ebbenät, and Bäläsa were held individually by each

one of the many priests and deacons assigned to the Qwesqwam church.
The mäzgäb yields rich additional details about these individual holdings,
some of which have been explored elsewhere. ^
Finally, the lands granted to Qwesqwam appear in numerous records
of land transactions in the mid- to late eighteenth century and the early
to mid-nineteenth century. These references are summarized in Table
5. They indicate not only that the clergy lands in Bagäna, Ebbenät,
and Bäläsa were held on an individual basis, but also that they were
transferable. The lands appear very frequently in a whole range of land

transactions that followed their being granted to Qwesqwam. They play
an unusually important role in the history of the buying and selling and
otherwise transferring of land in Ethiopia.20
Bä'ata Däbrä Tebäb
The analysis of the Bä'ata Däbrä Tebäb documents is at a very early

stage, especially when compared to the analysis of the Qwesqwam docu-
ments, on which work has been proceeding for 18 years. The Qwesqwam
documents have yielded up their meaning reluctantly and slowly. We
ought not to expect more from the Bä'ata material.
Täklä Haymanoťs founding and endowing of the Church of Bä'ata
Däbrä Tebäb, Gondär, is attested to by nine different documents.21 In
contrast to the case of Qwesqwam, the Bä'ata documents are limited to
copies of the grant itself. To date we have no narrative. 22 There is no
separate register. However, following the conventional anathema, most
copies have an extensive addition, which serves the purpose of a register.
There is no apparent hierarchy of status among the texts - none bears
an official seal. Several occupy folios to themselves (Orient 635, Orient
638, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Éthiopien [Éth] 112), while the others
share their folios with other documents, which, sometimes, are numerous.
All, except for Orient 604, are written in columns. The provenance of
the manuscripts is mostly obscure. Two of them - Orient 481 and Éth
112 - may have been held by Däbrä Berhan Sellasé and Qwesqwam, respec-
tively (see Table 2). Or 799 may have been held by Qeddus Rufa'él. As
far as the original locations of the remaining manuscripts are concerned,
I am in the dark, although at least one of the locations, most probably,
was Bä'ata itself.
Existing copies indicate two parts and possibly three stages in Täklä
Haymanoťs granting of land to this church. None of the documents
is dated so, again, we have to infer the existence of these stages from
evidence internal to the texts themselves. Before taking up the explora-
tion of this evidence, an excursion to consider the curious case of Orient
549 is in order.
Orient 549 is the oddest of the documents. It is the most truncated
and written in a poor hand. It looks like a rough first draft. It is preceded
by four lines of text - "fifi*® h' fl (dwíAIí g hP°AH 77*i" W/»*
Hitan atfìWìì thAy#0?4?* . . "in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost, one God, we King of Kings, whose regnal name is
Täklähaymanot [szc]. . . ." Separated from the main body of the grant,
these lines, in which the scribe wrongly inserts the king's ordinary name
instead of his regnal name, appear to be a botched start. The text is,
apart from differences in spelling and the weakness of penmanship, the
same as that of the other texts, but it breaks off at a very arbitrary
point. It does not conclude with the customary anathema that ends the
other documents. Do we have here a first fumbling attempt to draft the
grant? The following discussion revolves around the remaining eight
copies.
Orient 751 (see Document 3) best exemplifies both the two parts and
the first two stages in the granting of land. All the other texts deviate
from it in very minor ways, which are all idiosyncratic to the particular
texts themselves. In this group I would place Orient 604, Orient 635,
Orient 799, and probably Orient 806.23 Except for their minor deviations,
all these texts agree with 751. They are probably the earliest of our
documents. Orient 481 and Éth 112 call for separate consideration.
Document 3. Orient 751 , Folio 1 72"/l 73?
nil*» MI œ®A£ (dod-ÍM i *3.fi 5 h9°i'ì' ihò rvt» ìir* +hA HA*»
aoYim TÍW1 Ù1SZ W hHm ©®IMÌ> AhU<i+ 4'hï ®*Af at <*>¥£A H*A<w>JS
Ã- n¿ TÍM hJŤ n mc ti*® »wn A*®#;*** ®><?A
''(Dh*<n> 9°K¿ íffi t«*>A (Dh¿ ti? OAÎÂ I i atMíJ 7i4-*> a* íl£C£
[sic] ®hAh+ -ílH^t MJ7*¿+ ®M"V hlt AUT-C HÍWl fa» Hhtt hlHÍ* HWí
9°kc nn-n íia? 9° t* n-n¿*A z<q%9° íum %%9° na^c
9fl 9° w n nate BEXS?" H7H®- üú¿9° a n£S?° %zģj%9° n hi <t<' %9° nh¿a? [col. 2] rw-nAr nA¿n

íttVT $9° +<*>A nrt-ç Zt9° nhCCI 19° ÍWAr $9° n-ílCIMI 19° nwr>
19° Í17 9o ('¿C% ®9° ÍMAh *C<ř 9°RC ?+77 %Ķ9°
a>hfi fi oofta* h9°K')M >7/"* X'<n> KfilP3* Hlt /"C9+ h®-7lf MM hi»
fA-íl a»ao9°'}¿ £-í1¿ A.n<?A hart +A4- VTCX A a>'Y4too A.*®-f [sic] a+ hCAtn
®h«Hl, A1}* ttlA YfilW
hrt¿+-> [sīc] AIT-AM AHA ao A*A ffîbWfm- llļļf; %% 9°ftC f-fc ŒC+ l$9° řft-ř
hx°% 8?° ffiA ii. i- %9° +* fnjfcir |s¿c] mi¿ %v° pt> ®»n rum íia? '"icsr 2g 9°
ww SJř° f®£HC hfttnjM.«* ggf mv IAAÍ-A Xf° w> S?° J'n-f MI/.
ih)®®!- 9?° íVňA a* Ï?" fhjťa rt'íi- 1?° x¡;?° roti. igy r%% teti
"Vìka ïgr frn **A nuM» s»° t* ronMiA«?
n-n^-YA ggsgy ws #¡-n+¿ ïfi?° f+-.A*?°
OTA7A K3 ggagr f«*î ÍWl+¿
S»" «M říf> 9.9" m
mH®- ïs 9° n ç"/ «j? m mfw /»n (col. 3] a?" «m jui+¿ 9?° fA«í- ïjy
pmie hfu- 19° ř/"ůA ai- £?° +» ffSJutt
nh>i» n?c?c gy «1* nw g»° f-nA-fe-» w ačha ggggi® +* ía^í- gy wi

/bf Arti-t^rt gí" fíHI g?" f/"ÔA fti- Kř° 19° TO.« Ig?° ni
1% 9a VV*¿- M> Kn
nai n<f>TC n®9°a 19° f-tu-« 2?» ?n fl-gy ť-ř-^hA í?° yo <?-n így m-A r«hirt
í?° f¿°7 10*° +* fh^V 9°h¿Hr 19a fH-C M°0 19° fhjHl OT=ř g?" tt-ťř- 0?° f/"ö A
ftì- īgr +* fM hg HC
t'l¿-1 gg?° fAÄi- $9° +* fhíK> 2?° m*» y°A¿=h %9° +* l%9° «.4-h.A
rm¿ 3?- IM* %9° tí- f®JBHC ®A+ ,+A g 9° +» W> %9° +¥ S'C4- «31 RE?» +*
fffl řů-ř-fl %9° ?M hXao-
JSU Ü-A OAT-A* n<«>A+A (l+f. ()'l;l- +JÏA JäJtCil* 'lA.+"> Wi
folio 173r
fSg <n,A.^" fA/fc fifitr -03= Vfifitf g% fit W1 pafļ flhAr* [sic]
fA/k :">&/*': va. 'S Krwiiì nh.-)- tÂ-n* -nAr h<t -i-ha yjs'TfH- Am-vï®- ni * 9 »
nnhí- y¿- +TH*<PA
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, one God,
we, Negusä Nägäst Täklä Haymanot, whose throne name is Tebäb
Säggäd, behold we ordered and we gave to the priests of Bä'ata in the
sanctuary, which is called Däbrä Tebäb, the building of which is within
the confines of Gondär, so that it might be for us for the salvation of
body and soul, many lands [ahägura', which lands [meder] are: Saräqärn
Baša Qämäs, and Aräbiya Balambaras Qämäs and Kwosän Zefan
Bét Bäjerod [sic] Qämäs, and many other lands [ahägurä] and these
[wä'emnä] lands should come into the hands of those priests: in Jäwana,
292 lands [meder täqera]; in Kab Laya Maryam, 715 lands [med tage ];
in Brahila 132 lands [rae];**in Sädda, 27 lands; in Bičāmār, 44 lands;
in An£o and in Jarjar, 455 lands; in Gäzaw, 232 lands; in Säräwa, 104
lands; in Gäräma, 264 lands; in Abagé, in Fenderò, in Wembi 420 lands;
in Dalko, 232 lands; in Abba Nob, 60 lands; in Aräbiya, 352 lands; [col.
2] in Dablo, in Saräba, in Kwami 90 lands; Zäwi Qämäs in Suf Anqära,
180 lands; in Aforgé, 50 lands; in Çelo, 50 lands; in Berbakwes, 50 lands;
in Kosän, 50 lands; in Gum Sârârgé, 30 lands; in Dalko, where terf
land is found, 25 lands. And whoever comes after us [whether] kings or
nobles, that they might not take away this foundation, they pronounced
anathema - our P appas Abunä Yosab and the prior of Däbrä Líbanos,
Eçâgé Täsfa Giyorgis and all the learned men of the church and the
Aqabé Sä' at Täklä Haymanot. From Säräqän [sic] to support [?] the
balägult and the balämäsqäl: in Jäwana, 26 lands, Eté Wârqé's; 15 lands,
Abéto Asmé's;20 lands, the sel béťs; 7 lands [me täq] , Bäjerod Abré 's; 7
lands, Man Wāyš's; in Kab BäLaya Maryam, 95 lands, Sädda däbtärrfs;
27 lands, Wäyzäro Eskenderyawiťs; 25 lands, Säwa Baselyos's; 10 lands,
Natan's; 20 lands, Abéto Gäbrä Heywät's; 40 lands the se1 el béťs ; 10
lands, the aqabé sä'at's; 10 lands, Kidanä Meķrāt's; 13 lands, Koké's;
15 lands, Jaja Qeddus Mika'él's; 12 lands, Jewana Qeddus Mika'él's;
7 lands [me täq], Nebabréna's; in Brahila, 221 lands, Sädda däbtära? s;
14 lands, Qwesqwam's; in Gelgäl Sädda, 235 lands, Çâdda dábtárď s;
30 lands, §ädda Seyon's; 50 lands, Anaçi's; in Gäzaw, 15 lands, Ani
Fesa's; 36 lands, Qän Azmač Atné's; [col. 3] 40 lands, Sädda däbtära1 s;
40 lands, Ledäta's; 16 lands [?], Wäyzäro A dära's; 10 lands, the se1 el
béťs ; 70 lands [me täq], Rufa'él's; in An£o and in Jarjar, 20 lands, Liqé
Bâtré's; 20 lands, Blatén Géta Aykäl's; 225 lands [me täq] , Ledäta's; 5
lands, Abba ÉwosÇatéwos's; 60 lands, Yetégê s; 60 lands, the sé el béťs ; 7
TABLE 6.1. Bä'ata Grants Compared
MANUSCRIPT FULL TEXT TRUNCATED CONTAINS CODICIL
Orient 481 ■ ■
Orient 549 ■
Orient 604 ■ ■
Orient 635 ■ ■
Orient 638 ■
Orient 751 ■ ■
Orient 799 ■ ■
Orient 806 ■
Ēth 112 ■ ■
TABLE 6.2. Differences from Orient 751 and 799 among the Copies
of the Bä'ata Grant
Orient 481 truncated
Orient 604 deviant spelling of one place name

Orient 635 one reversal of word order; one missing word
Orient 806 truncated?; one reversal of word order

Éth 112 one missing place name, one reversal of word order
lands, Rufa'él's; io lands, Kidanä Mehrät's; ii lands, Agné's; 12 lands,

Wäqära Ako Seyon's; in Abagé, in Fentero and in Wembi 100 lands,
Qorasa's; 50 lands, Abo's; 81 lands, Rufa'él's; 10 lands, Abba Nob's;
15 lands, Qeddus Yohännes's; 10 lands, Réma's; 14 lands [med täq],
Kidanä Mehrät's; 10 lands, Zur Amba's; 10 lands, the aqabé sä'afs ; 5
lands, Fäqado's; 4 lands, the se1 el béťs; 12 lands [med täq], Ras Aya
Dar 's; in Gäräma 25 lands, Ledäta's; 20 lands [me täq], the aburìs ; 6
lands, Kidanä Mehrät's; 7 lands [me täq], Fäqado's; 16 lands, Rufa'él's;
in Säräwa 20 lands, the qés asé* s; 14 lands, the še'el béťs ; 15 lands,
Kidanä Mehrät's; 4 lands, Rufa'él's; 3 lands, Ledäta's; 60 lands, Abéto
Agné's; in Dalko 90 lands, Ledäta's; 7 lands [me täq] , Wayzäro Wälättä

Qal's; 5 lands [me täq], the aburìs ; 7 lands [me täq] Boru Dägago's; 23
lands [me täq ļ, Basha Ya'eqob's; 6 lands, Abéto Açmu's. On all this the
balagult , except for the mäsqäl [land], will live, serving in the Eucharist
of Bä'ata. Let judging be by the aläqa.
folio iJ3r
25 çâwa [lands] Asé Täklä Haymanot gave Abora, the azmac1 s ļ, only
to Liqé Ņaylu; [but] to both of them - Liqé Ņaylu and Liqé Iyo'aks - [he
gave] Yesaha, asé qolo , [and] Säbagaw, saying that they should serve in
the Mass at Bä'ata; anathema was proclaimed at Bä'ata.
In Orient 751, part I of the grant is analogous to all the copies of the
Qwesqwam grant. It opens with an invocation of the Trinity - "In the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, one God, we,
Negusä Nägäst Täklä Haymanot, whose throne name is Tebäb Säggäd,
behold we ordered and we gave to the priests of Bä'ata . . - and ends
with an anathema - "And whoever comes after us, [whether] kings or
nobles, that they might not take away this foundation, they pronounced
anathema - our Pappas Abunä Yosab, and the prior of Däbrä Líbanos,
Eçâgé Täsfa Giyorgis, and all the learned men of the church, and the
'Aqabé Sä1 at Täklä Haymanot."24 In between it announces that, for the
salvation of his body and soul, the king has granted "many lands," which
it then proceeds to name (for these names, see Table 7). It mentions no
further purposes for granting the lands. Orient 481 consists only of part
I (for the text and translation, see Document 4).
Document 4. Orient 751 , folio 1 72* /1 7?, Bä'ata Däbrä Jebäb, Grant
ŪCiao Ml flMDAir (Doo-)¿Ci g W Ybv> >7/"* tMA VJB0?«?* Híl*® ao

TÍW1 MX > AhUÇt -ÍW ®-řl+ a+ Ä- íl¿
TÍW1 Mt +rh*>0* ÍIOTA me h«n> JB h-VV A<n»£"tt+ ©><ří I MHt
H®**«/» ('a a? nArn^ři ®twv> a * nfctnir
®h Aht hlt hWC Hfl Xth<n>- AhAr AhUÇ* ÍUM"?
9°kc nn-n w i c, ??° %fl&° +* 1 n-n¿rhA na* r%9° na *<*»c 9fl?°

nhw n;?csc ri7H ®- umm nn¿*°
<¡¡9° mži nçwc n®-^ n nÂn on ç-n $9° n¿a? EE2g?° n>î-nAr
nn¿n n*vi w ļt9° oeci 19° ímicimi 19° ntwrc

19° nÂh *C<ř 9°^c ?+?? SS?"»'
(DM 7x9°RW >7/"* œ^m Woo h.JB*>fl+ H*>+ /"C9+ h®-7H- hiV>
©</»ÍPW «-n¿ A/rcn *¿»,7, tři* if ein ®wi, +HA yjB^ì- anww*>
at ucatn-.-'
<®/P MM Wl* M*A¿- ¥Mi ÏM* -nSF ?MV> n Vit fÔQ?®-? fü*A+ ?A/fe
^JBA^ ?A.* h.fhnn nh^ tirft-n* -HA®- h% -HIA v#"?«?* îwpï®- nnh^ ?¿
Ťinwti»
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, one God,
we, Negusä Nägäst Täklä Haymanot, whose throne name is Tebäb
Säggäd, behold we ordered and we gave to the priests of Bä'ata in the
sanctuary, which is called Däbrä Tebäb, the building of which is within
the confines of Gwondär, so that it might be for us for the salvation
of body and soul, many lands [ahäguratä] which lands* 'meder] are:
Säräqärn Baša Qämäs, and 'Aräbiya Balambaras Qämäs and Kwosän
Zefan Bét Bäjerond Qämäs, and many other lands [ahägurä] and these
lands should come into the hands of those priests: in Jewana 292 lands
[meder täqerana ]; in Kab Läya Maryam 615 lands [med täq ]; in Brahéla
132 lands; in Sädda 27 lands; in Bicämär 44 lands; in Anço, in Jarjar
455 lands; in Gäzaw 232 lands; in Säräwa 104 lands; in Gäräma 264
lands; in Gum Safargé 30 lands; in Abaygé, in Fentro, in Wembi 420
lands; in Dalko 232 lands; 60 lands in Abba Nob; in Aräbiya 352 lands;
in Dablo, in Säraba, in Kwami 90 lands, Zawi Qämäs; in Sufanqära, 180
lands; in 'Aforgé 50 lands; in Çelo 50 lands; in Berbakwes 50 lands; in
Kwosän 50 lands; in Dalko, where terf land is found 25 lands.
And whoever comes after us, [whether] kings or nobles, that they
might not take away this foundation, they pronounced anathema - Abunä
Papp as Yosab and the prior of Däbrä Libanos, E çâgé Täsfa Giyorgis and
the 'Aqabé Sä ' at Täklä Haymanot and all the learned men of the church.
25 çãwa lands Asé Täklä Haymanot gave Abora, the azmac? s
half, only to Liqé Haylu; [but] to both of them - Liqé Haylu and Liqé
Iyo'aks - [he gave] Yesaha, asé qolo , [and] Säbagaw, saying that they
should serve in the Mass at Bä'ata; anathema was proclaimed at Bä'ata.
*hereafter, unless otherwise indicated, "lands" is a rendering of either "me" or "meder"
TABLE 7. Place Names in the Bä'ata Grant
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
(WITH NUMBER OF APPEARANCES)
Saräqärn Baša Qämäs (Saräqärn 2) Abba Nob

*' Aräbiya Balambaras Qämäs Abagé
('Aräbiya 3)
*Kwosän Zefan Bét Bäjerond Qämäs Abora
(Kosän 2)
*Jewana (3) Aforgé
Kab Laya Maryam (2) Ančo
Brahila (2) 'Aräbiya Balambaras Qämäs
$ädda (8) Berbakwes
Bičāmār Bičāmār
*Anço (2) Brahila

*Jarjar Celo
*Gäzaw Dablo
*Säräwa Dálko
*Gäräma Fentero
*Abagé Gäräma
Fentero Gäzaw
Wembi Gum Sârârgé
*Dalko Jarjar
Abba Nob Jewana
Dablo Kab Laya Maryam

*Saraba Kwami
Kwami Kosän
*Sufanqära Kwosän Zefan Bét Bäjerond Qämäs

Aforgé Çâbagaw
Celo Sädda
Berbakwes Saraba
* Kosän Saräqärn Baša Qämäs

Gum Sârârgé Säräwa
**Abora Sufanqära
**$äbagaw Wembi
* land names appearing in Table io

** appears in the addendum
Part II lists in greater detail the lands that appear in part I. While it
adds no new place names, it introduces the names of the recipients, both
individual and group, the latter designated as balägult and balämäsqäl
(for the recipients, see Tables 8.1 and 8.2). Part II of the grant is framed
by "Prom Säräqärn [the following lands] will support the balägult and the
balämäsqäl ..." and concludes, "The balägult will live on all this, except
for the mäsqal land, serving in the Eucharist of Bä'ata. Let judgment
be by the aläqa" We will return to the names of the recipients and their
lands shortly.
Evidence internal to Orient 751 and its peers provide one of our two
clues to the existence of two stages in the grant's development - the adden-
dum. The addendum itself may represent a second, albeit very early, stage,
since it clearly is an addendum. Or 638 omits it. Moreover, the documents
that do include it situate it differently: some placing it immediately after
the main text (Orient 481, Orient 604); others on a facing folio (Orient
751, Éth 112); one (Orient 799) above the main text; and yet another at
the bottom of the first of its two columns (Orient 635). Moreover, the ad-
dendum is different in form from the main text. It mentions two individual
recipients, Liqé Haylu and Liqé Iyo'aks: 11 Asé Täklä Haymanot gave 25
çâwa [lands] Abora, the azmač's half, only to Liqé Haylu; [but], to both
of them - Liqé Haylu and Liqé Iyo'aks - [he gave] Yesaha, asé qollo , [and]
Säbagaw, saying that they should serve in the Mass at Bä'ata, anathema
was proclaimed with Bä'ata."2^
The possibility of a third stage is indicated by an apparently minor
detail in two copies of the grant - Orient 481 and Éth 112. In these
records, the phrase "and the 'Aqabé Sä1 at Täklä Haymanot" appears
not as the conclusion to its mini-section but in the place where, in rank
order, it properly belongs, immediately following the name Ecâgé Täsfa
Giyorgis and before "and all learned men of the church." Was the (aqabé
sä 'at an afterthought to the original grant and properly incorporated into
only two of the documents, which, according to this reasoning, would be
later than all the others?26
What do we know about the recipients and their lands? One of the
puzzles concerning the Bä'ata grant is the number of institutions and
groups listed among its recipients. These are listed in Table 8.1. Four
different offices were beneficiaries of Bä'ata, all ecclesiastical except for
the yetégé (designating her as the holder of an office may be a stretch,
TABLE 8.1. Recipients of Bä'ata Land: Groups, Institutions, and

Offices with Number of Occurrences (unless otherwise indicated,
items appear only once)
GROUPS INSTITUTIONS OFFICES
Sädda däbtära (5) se'el bét (6) 'aqabé sä 'at (2)

Kidanä Mehrät (4) abun (2)
Jaja Qeddus Mika'él
Jewana Qeddus Mika'él qés a$é
Qwesqwam yetégé
Sädda Seyon
Ledäta (5)
Wäqära Ako Seyon
Qeddus Yohännes
Rema
Zur Amba
but her name does not appear). More puzzling is the relationship en-
tailed in the group and church beneficiaries. Several are clearly quite
eminent - Qwesqwam, Rèma, and Zur Amba, for example. The status of
others is unclear.2? Perhaps the former were included to tie them to the
new institution for which they would be weighty allies. The latter may
have been churches tributary to Bä'ata, whose clergy would have been
honored by the opportunity to say Mass at Bä'ata.28 No institutions or
groups appear in the list of the holders of Qwesqwam land.
Table 8.2 lists the beneficiaries of the grant. A number of the people
are identifiable in other documents. These individuals, together with the
additional references to them, are noted in Table 9. Täklä Haymanot
himself gets generous treatment in the Royal Chronicle published by
Weld Blundell. A good deal of the coverage portrays him as a tool of Ras
Mika'él Sehul^ However, after Mika'él's fall from power in mid-1771,
Täklä Haymanot acquired more latitude for action. In addition to his
founding of Bä'ata, Täklä Haymanot also granted land to DâfaÇa Kidanä
Mehrät outside Gondär, for which we have a register^0
Among the recipients of DâfaÇa Kidanä Mehrät land was Abéto Asmé,
who may have been the beneficiary of another of Täklä Haymanoťs grants.
Gondär Land Documents * 27
TABLE 8.2. Recipients of Bä'ata Land with Number of Times

They Appear in the Grant (unless otherwise indicated, items appear
only once)
Abo Natan
Abré, Bäjerond Nebabréna

Aburt Nob, Abba
Addära, Wäyzäro Qeddus Yohännes
Agné (2) Qés Asé
Anasi Qorasa
Ani Fesa Qwesqwam
'Aqabé Sä' at (2) Rèma
*Asme, Abéto (also Asmu?) Rufa'él (4)
Atné, Qañ Azmač Säwa Baselyos
*Ayadar, Ras Sädda Seyon
*Aykäl, Blatén Géta Sädda däbtära (3)
*Bâtré, Liqé se'el bét (5)
Boru Dägago *Wälättä Qal, Wayzäro ( Ernahoy ?)
Eskenderyawit, Wäyzäro Wäqära Ako Seyon
*Éwostatéwos, Abba Wârqé, Eté
Fäqado (2) *Ya'eqob, Baša ( Azaģ ?)
Gäbrä Heywät, Abéto Yetégé
Jaja Qeddus Mika'él Zur Amba
Jewana Qeddus Mika'él From Addendum
Kidanä Mehrät (4) *Haylu, Liqé
Koké *lyo'aks, Liqé
Ledäta (4) * individuals identifiable in other documents
Ras Ayadar was a prominent political figure of the 1770s and 1780s. He
held the title of ras behtwäddäd under Täklä Haymanot, Salomon, and
Täklä Giyorgis; was Täklä Haymanot 's leading official in the endowment
of the Dâfâça church; and supervised the building of Täklä Giyorgis's
principal foundation, Däbrä Metmaq Gondär.31 While we have outside
references to Blatta Aykäl, to Abba Éwostatéwos, and possibly to Wayzäro
Wälättä Qal and to Baša Ya'eqob, the three most interesting figures are
Liqé Bâtré, Liqé Haylu, and Liqé Iyo'aks. Bâtré, it turns out, was the
father of Hay lu. 32 The earliest reference to Bâtré would appear to be in
reference to his acting as a witness in a land transaction in 1747 AD. 33
Other references place him firmly within the reign of Iyo'as and into the
reign of Täklä Haymanot. 34 He was an active buyer and seller of land and
a witness to land transactions. His son, by contrast, was a good deal less
prominent. We do learn, however, that Haylu had siblings called Täklu,
Wayzäro Dinar, and Wayzäro Wälättä Täklä Haymanot, all of whom, ap-
parently, were beneficiaries of a bequeathal from Bâtré.35 Iyo'aks appears,
like Ras Ayadar, in both the land records and the Royal Chronicle. His
chronicle appearances are mostly as an official of Täklä Giyorgis. He was
also responsible for recording a grant of land to Mäkanä Iyäsus.36 Having
received land from Iyyasu II on behalf of Qwesqwam,37 he provides a link
to this other church, whose endowment we have also been considering.
This information concerning the individual beneficiaries of the
Bä'ata grant and their wider relationships and activities leads to no
revolutionary conclusions, but it does extend our appreciation of the role
that land plays in unveiling the web of relationships among the privileged
in eighteenth-century Gondär.s8 So, too, does consideration of the land
names themselves.
The principal lands that Täklä Haymanot gave to Bä'ata are listed
in Table 9.39 A number of the names also appear in sources other than
this grant. The names appearing in other sources, together with refer-
ences to these sources themselves, their dating, and a brief description
of their content, appear in Table 10. Two aspects of these appearances
are worthy of note. First, a number of these lands appear in the grants
that previous Gondär monarchs had made to churches. For example, like
some of the Qwesqwam lands, land in Gewana, Gargar, Gäzaw, and Säräwa
had already been the object of gifts by Yohännes I to Kwe'eratä Re'esu.
Land in Dalko and Säräba, and in Sufanqära, had already been given by
Iyyasu I to Däbrä Berhan Sellasé. Bäkaffa had given Abagé and Kwosän
land to Qeddus Rufa'él. Iyyasu II and Mentewwab had given Gäräma
land to the benefit of Däbrä Berhan Sellasé and Abagé to the benefit of
Ledäta. Second, after the grant had been made, a number of the Bä'ata
lands, like some of the Qwesqwam lands, became the objects of formal
land transactions.«0 In the case of Qwesqwam, the lands that were bought,
sold, gifted, litigated over, and bequeathed were overwhelmingly lands
that had been granted to individual members of the clergy. So, too, most
notably were the Bä'ata lands Dalko, Aräbeya, and Sufanqära.
Summary Discussion
Literacy, in historic Ethiopia, was an instrument of state and class

powers1 In this, Ethiopia was not unique in sub-Saharan Africa.*2 Writ-
ten documents granting power over land and cultivators were issued by
state authorities in the riverine Sudan and as far west as Dar Pur and
Borno. Particularly instructive is a comparison of the eighteenth-century

Ethiopian grants with contemporary grants made by the rulers of Sinnar
in neighboring Sudan.43 While there are formal and substantive parallels
between these granting traditions, it is clear that the traditions are quite
distinct from each other and, further, independent of external influences.
Whereas a continuous Ethiopian tradition of granting gult can be firmly
documented at least as far back as the early thirteenth century, only with
regard to the eighteenth century can we begin to grasp the complexity of
the processes involved, thanks to the survival since that time of multiple
copies of identical or closely related documents. This is precisely the
period to which the Sinnar documents discussed by Spaulding and Abu
Salim belong, although they lack any established precedents earlier
than the later seventeenth century. 44 While there appears to have been
little difference in the formal structure of the Sinnar grants from 1729
to 1820, by contrast, the Ethiopian grants exhibit considerable variety.
Differences between Ethiopia and Sinnar clearly owe something to the
very different backgrounds in customary law and practice, and, in the
case of Sinnar, to the influence of sharia. The Ethiopian tradition seems
wholly attributable to internal precedent and the influence of customary
law and social practice.
The forms of grants in both traditions have been fruitfully compared
using the norms of European "diplomat ics. "45 Most obviously, grants in
both traditions open with religious invocations, conclude with religious
sanctions, and convey, with the backing of royal authority, rights over
land. In both traditions, the recorded presence of witnesses is essential.
The grants also sometimes express the rights conveyed in terms of
exclusion. A grant of Badi, Sultan of Sinnar, reads: "It is completely free
TABLE 9. Recipients of Bä'ata Land Identifiable in Other Documents
NAME**
Asme, Abéto
Ayadar, Ras Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle, pp. 8o-88, 234-99,

312, 321, 330*
Orient 604, 4V; Orient 673, i98v: Orient 745, 225';

Orient 777, i2r/' 284r: Orient 778, 284^
lll/IES 84
lll/IES 84 JL10-13
Aykäl, Blatén Géta Orient 508, 286v
Bâtré, Liqé Orient 508, 279*, 280^, 28ir/v, 282r/' 283^, 284^
285^, 286r
Orient 549, iv, 19V, 2V, 144'
Orient 6o42r/v, i36v
Orient 799, 55r, 2i5v, 2i8v
Éwostatéwos, Abba Orient 508, 282r/' 283', 284'
Wälättä Qal, Wayzäro Orient 776, i2r, Orient 777, 5r

(Em a hoy?)
Ya'eqob, Baša ( Azagl ) Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle , pp. 233-35, 256,
Haylu, Liqé Orient 549, 144'
lyo'aks, Liqé Orient 508, 282v, Orient 604, 4V, Orient 776, iov,
Orient 777, 284r; Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle,
pp. 28, 43, 45, 48, 63, 82, 136
* H. Weld Blundell, The Royal Chronicle of Abyssinia, 1769-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922)
PERIOD
Täklä Haymanot
1770S-90S various military roles under Täklä Giyorgis; ras

Täklä Haymanot, Sälomon, behtwäddäd (Täklä Haymanot, Sälomon)
Täklä Giyorgis
1770S-1790S land buyer, recipient of gult grant

Täklä Haymanot, Sälomon,
Täklä Giyorgis
Täklä Haymanot holder of Däfäca Kidanä Mehrät land;

leading official of Täkä Haymanot in Dâfâça
1775/76 ad buys land
lyyasu II Roles include: witness; participant in land

lyo'as transactions; bequeather
Täklä Haymanot
lyyasu II witness; buys rim' father of Liqé Haylu;

Täklä Haymanot
Täklä Giyorgis
Täklä Haymanot
_?
Täklä Haymanot
1747 ad to lyo'as year III witness; land sale

(1758)
Täklä Giyorgis land sales
Täklä Giyorgis these documents refer to Azag Ya'eqob:
Täklä Haymanot son of Liqé Bâtré; participant in land dealings

Täklä Giyorgis
Täklä Haymanot, Sälomon, witness; receives Qwesqwam gult from lyasu; ?

Täklä Giyorgis azaģ , one of märahyan: witnesses unspecified
grant of Täklä Haymanot, campaigns with
**in order of appearance in Table 8.2
from all shurur , subul , and madārr. It is not subject to damra, hasab ,
' ulūq , muzūl, kaliga , sinina , mukhlā , nor any subul. The government of his
estate, in regard to troops and rocks, is in his possession. We command
you peremptorily, all you shaykhs and muqaddams , and the jarāī who are
under them throughout my kingdom, ... let no one trouble this gift of
alms."46 A thirteenth-century Ethiopian grant by King Lalibäla strikes a
similar note: "And I granted all this as gult that it would be without tax
and forced labor and that it not given [?] and that roads may not cross
it and that it would be without zãnabé and abaké and that it may not
be entered by a horse and a lion and that it not be entered by hunters,
without [the permission of] the mother superior ."47
Nevertheless, the differences seem more salient. The Sinnar grants
are invariably accompanied by a seal, while this is rarely the case in
Ethiopia. The Sinnar grants spell out in detail the boundaries of the
lands entailed, whereas in Ethiopian grants geographical references are
rarely at a level more specific than that of the parish.48 As we have seen
in the Qwesqwam case, Ethiopian grants of gult frequently specify in some
detail the purposes for which the lands were granted, whereas the Sinnar
grants were often given simply as "a gift of alms."49
As for the expression of state and class power, the exercise of state
authority in the documents is overt. By contrast, the class implications
of the documents are often implicit. Spaulding and Abu Salim perceive
their documents as entailing an emergent urban "middle class." And, to
be sure, the recipients of both Sinnar and Ethiopian grants held public
or religious offices and enjoyed titles indicative of social rank, but the
powers that the grants gave them over cultivators, and hence their
implications for class relations, are rarely spelled out. At the very least,
the rights of immunity suggest that recipients assumed rights normally
held by the state, in which case they would profit from the tribute paid
by cultivators, tribute being the way most commentators construe these
levies. Kapteijns and Spaulding suggest one way in which to understand
the relations between land and class in a tributary situation: "Land
tenure in the kingdoms of the precolonial Sudan is best understood in
terms of a precapitalist state society in which an hereditary nobility led
by an elected king used their armed mastery of the land to exact politi-
cal payments in many forms from an ethnically diverse class of subject
producers."50 However, as Habtamu Mengistie has persuasively argued,
at least in some cases, Ethiopian "landlords" held rights in agricultural

land, which abrogated any pre-existing property claims by farmers and
allowed landlords to exact rent.51
And what about the questions with which this article started? What
do we know about the institutional framework of production and archive?
The courts of both Ethiopia and Sinnar had chancery officials, the
relevant Ethiopian official being known as the sahafé te 'ezaz - writer of
the [royal] orders. Such officials also functioned at the courts of provincial
notables. Claire Bosc-Tiessé has also identified a subordinate figure,
the sahafé mäsaheft - the writer of books, which she takes to mean the
writer of the record of court affairs of less weight than those covered
by the sahafé te 'ezaz^ While Spaulding and Abu Salim doubt that the
Sinnar chancery kept copies of outgoing documents, this is less certain
for Ethiopia. However, in neither case has any body of chancery records
as such survived.53 Rather, the Sudanese documents survived through
copies maintained in private hands. Manfred Kropp has established the
existence of a private archive in later eighteenth- and earlier nineteenth-
century Ethiopia. It was sponsored by a nobleman, Däggac Haylu Esâté,
disaffected due to the trend of politics, and designed to preserve the
tradition of Solomonic legitimacy. While the core of the archive was
preserved in private hands in Gondär town and reached us through copies
made by European travelers, documents pertaining to Haylu's secular,
family affairs were deposited in three or four different institutions, all
of which had benefited from endowments by members of Haylu's family,
and which were separated by hundreds of kilometers. 54 However, most
of the Ethiopian texts survived thanks to the practice of placing copies
of them in prominent churches and monasteries using the margins and
flyleaves of service books in common use. Exactly how it was determined
which specific institutions - beyond the church to which the grant was
made, which must invariably have received its own copy - to use as
depositories and the number of copies to be made is unclear. However,
in the great majority of the eighteenth-century cases, these depositories
were prominent institutions in the town of Gondär itself, site of the
court's permanent residence.
While many of the Sinnar documents remain in situ, either in private
hands or in Sudanese national institutions, many of the Ethiopian
documents have reached us circuitously. Some remain to this day in the
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institutions in which they were deposited, but a large body was originally
plundered from the churches of deposit by Emperor Téwodros in the
1860s and then seized as plunder from Téwodros's court by the British
Expedition to Mäqdäla in 1868, much of it eventually finding its way to
what is now the British Library. 55
We can conclude by revisiting three points emerging from our ex-
amples: (1) Ethiopian land grants could undergo development through
time; (2) the documents are original creations following an underlying
template; and (3) lands granted for the benefit of clergy were held on
an individual basis. First, Spaulding and Abu Salim do not remark on
the existence of distinct versions of the same Sinnar document, whereas
this lies at the heart of the present article. We can now see clearly that
Ethiopian grants of land went through several distinct iterations, some-
times spread over the interval of a decade. The existence of variations
within a manuscript tradition has been a stock-in-trade of Ethiopian
studies since the publication by Basset, in 1882, of the first version of
the short or abbreviated chronicle.^6 It has also long been suspected
that some of the shorter grants, most notably those published by Conti
Rossini and Huntingford, are summary copies for "central" deposit, in
this case at the cathedral church in Aksum, of longer versions held by the
institution to which the grant was given.57 However, the Qwesqwam grant
presents an unusually clear example of the development of a document
through successive stages.^8 The extent to which the Bä'ata grant should
be seen as a second example of such development is less clear, since the
existence of shorter and of extended versions may be another example of
the "Aksum" phenomenon. Second, comparing the Qwesqwam and Bä'ata
grants reveals that, while they do follow an underlining template, they are
extempore and original creations. And third, lands granted to churches
for the benefit of clergy were held individually by those clergy members
and were bought, sold, and bequeathed at the will of the holder.
We often have to ferret history out through the close reading of
detailed, and apparently obscure, texts.
NOTES
1. Donald Crummey and Shumet Sishagne, "The Lands of the Church of Däbrä
S'ähay Qwesqwam, Gondär," in Etudes éthiopiennes. Actes de la Xe conférence
internationale des études éthiopiennes. Paris , 24-28 août ig88 , ed. Claude
LePage, vol. 1 (Paris: Socitété française pour les études éthiopiennes, 1994),
225-36; Donald Crummey, Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of
Ethiopia: From the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 2000), 107-9, 169-75, and 177-8.
2. British Library, Oriental Manuscripts (hereafter Orient), 508, f. iv; 511,
3r; 636, 5r; 799, 3r (reproduced in Wm. Wright, Catalogue of the Ethiopian
Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1877), entry CCCLXV); and
Illinois/IES (hereafter Ill/IES), 88_III_i6 (microfilm on deposit at the
University of Illinois and Addis Ababa University).
3. Orient 481, f. 209v; Orient 549, 2r; Orient 604, 4V; Orient 635, ir; Orient 638,
247r; Orient 751, i72v/i73r; Orient 799, 4r; Orient 806, i44r; and Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris, Éthiopien (hereafter Éth) 112, f. iv/2r. Claire Bosc-Tiessé
notes that the foundation document of Narga Sellasé exists in a comparable
number of copies: Les îles de la Mémoire: Fabrique des images et écriture de
l'histoire dans les églises du lac Tana , Ethiopie, X VIle X Ville siècle (Paris:
Publications de la Sorbonne, 2008).
4. This is the version that Wright chose to reproduce in his catalogue of the
Ethiopian manuscripts in what was then the British Museum: Wright,
Catalogue , entry LXXXI.
5. In referring to land, the original Qwesqwam documents use the term hagar.
The passages added to Or 511 and Or 799 use meder.
6. For the royal chronicle, see I. Guidi, Annales Regum Iya.su II et Iyo'as (Paris:
Corp. Script. Christ. Orient., Series Altera, VI, 1912); and for the mäzgäb ,
see Ill/IES, 88.I.0-IV.30.
7. Guidi, Iyasu II et Iyo'as, 94-114. By contrast, the chronicle omits any
reference to the founding of Narga Sellasé during the same reign, despite the
degree to which the language of the Narga accounts reflects the language of
the chronicle's account of the founding of the Qwesqwam church.
8. Bosc-Tiessé, îles de la Mémoire , 206-7. This account corrects the chronology
given in Crummey, Land and Society , 107-9 and 167-68, and in Crummey
and Shumet, "The Lands of the Church of Däbrä S'ähay Qwesqwam," 215-16.
9. Guidi, Iyasu II et Iyo'as , 102 (text) and 111 (trans.). This is now a much-
cited passage, originally appearing in G.W.B. Huntingford, The Land
Charters of Northern Ethiopia. Translated with an Introduction and Notes.
Monographs in Ethiopian Land Tenure, No. 1, (Addis Ababa/Nairobi:
Addis Ababa University Press/Oxford University Press, 1965), 14-16;
and subsequently in Crummey and Shumet, "The Lands of the Church of

Däbrä S'ähay Qwesqwam," 217; and in Crummey, Land and Society , 170. Its
importance merits repetition.
10. Ill/IES, 84_III_6"37 (and the missing 84_IV) and 88_I_0-IV_30. The
microfilm containing these documents is on deposit at the University of
Illinois. Digitized copies of the Illinois/IES microfilm are in the personal
possession of Donald Crummey and on deposit at the Institute of Ethiopian
Studies at Addis Ababa University and at the Centre d'Étude des Mondes
Africains, Université de Paris (I).
11. Gazetteer of Ethiopia (Washington, DC: Defense Mapping Agency, 1982),
346.
12. There is at least one reference to the sale of half gasa of Kāč land: Orient
776, f. ior.
13. For which, see R. Basset, "Études sur l'histoire d'Éthiopie," Journal Asiatique ,
7e série, 17 (1881): 326 (text), and 18 (1881): 96 (trans.). I am indebted to
Getatchew Haile for this reference.
14. Gazetteer , 379 and 116. Lands of Ebbenät and Bäläsa appear very frequently
in land transactions of the later eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries,
for which see Table 5.
15. Orient 508, 278r. See Table 5.
16. Guidi, Iyasu II et Iyo,asì 105 (text) and 114 (trans.).
17. Gazetteer , 216. The former appears more likely, since Google Earth, the
resolution of which is poor in this area, may show a settlement there. In this
case, "Dembela" would be more or less on a direct line between Edaga Selus
and Weqro, about two-fifths of the way from Edaga Selus. This would place
it some kilometers east of what is now the Adwa-Maqâlé road. As indicated
in Table 5, this location is supported by two additional sources, both of which
locate Dämbäla in Tâmbén, roughly where the Gazetteer also locates it.
18. See Table 5. The Orient 733 material on the taxes of Emperor Téwodros, in
which Dämbäla was mentioned, was published by Richard Pankhurst and
Germa-Selassie Asfaw, Tax Records and Inventories of Emperor Tewodros
of Ethiopia (1855-1868) (London: School of Oriental and African Studies,
1978)-
19. Donald Crummey and Shumet Sishagne, "Land Tenure and the Social
Accumulation of Wealth in Eighteenth Century Ethiopia: Evidence from
the Qwesqwam Land Register," International Journal of African Historical
Sources 24, no. 2 (1991): 241-58.
20. These transactions are discussed in Crummey, Land and Society , chapter 8.
2i. For the documents, see Table 2. Relationships among the documents are
listed in Tables 6.1 and 6.2.
22. Täklä Haymanot receives extended treatment in the royal chronicle, which
does not, however, mention the founding of Bä'ata: H. Weld Blundell,
The Royal Chronicle of Abyssinia , 1769-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1922). Two later sources retroactively note that Bä'ata
was Täklä Haymanoťs foundation: C. Conti Rossini, "La cronaca reale
abissina dall'anno 1800 all'anno 1840," Rendiconti della Reale Accademia
dei Lincei , S.5, 25 (1916): 847 (text) and 905 (trans.); and C. Conti Rossini,
"Nuovi documenti per la storia d'Abissinia nel secolo XIX," Atti della Reale
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, S.8, 2 (1947): 372. But see the references to
the founding of Bä'ata in Manfred Kropp, Die äthiopische Königschroniken
in der Sammlung des Däggazmac Haylu (Prankfurt: Verlag Peter Lang, 1989),
238 and 246-47.
23. Orient 638 also belongs to this group. However, it lacks the addendum.
24. Abunä Yosab arrived in Gondär in June 1770 and died in September 1803.
Ecãgé Täsfa Giyorgis is a somewhat shadowy figure. There would appear to
be no references to him prior to his appearance here. He left office sometime
between 1789 and 1792 ad. 'Aqabé Sä'ät Täklä Haymanot was still in office
during the reign of Negus Täklä Haymanoťs successor, Sälomon (1777-79),
into the reign of Täklä Giyorgis, as late as June/ July 1783. For Yosab, see,
for example, I. Guidi, "Le liste dei Metropoliti d'Abissinia," Bessarione , 8
(1900): 13; and Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle , passim. For Täsfa Giyorgis,
see E. Cernili, "Gli abbati di Dabra Libānos, capi del monachismo etiopico,
secondo le liste recenti (sec. XVIII-XX)," Orientalia , NS, 14 (1945): 154.
For the 'aqabé sä'ät , see Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle , 36, 63, 68 (text)
and 253, 293, 299 (trans.).
25. For the personalities appearing in the Bä'ata grants, see below. The ad-
dendum appears in all copies of the grant except for the very truncated
Orient 549 and Orient 638. It is also missing from my copy of Orient 806,
i44r, but the document may continue on to folio i44v.
26. Of course the reverse may be true: that the ( aqabé sä1 at was properly named
originally and that Eth 112 mistakenly left him out and then added him
at the end. According to this reasoning, Orient 481 would then have been
copied from Éth 112.
27. Sädda Egziabehér Ab was a major foundation of Yohännes I. What
relationship the Seyon church had with it, we do not know.

28. For this, and many other suggestions, I am indebted to Habtamu Mengistie.
29. For Mika'él, see his entry in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica , vol. 3 (Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007).
30. See Ill/IES, 84
land.
31. For his appointment as ras behtwäddäd , see Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle ,
65, 82, 88 (text) and 296, 321, 330 (trans.). For his connection with DâfaÇa
Kidanä Mehrät, see Ill/IES, 84
Metmaq, Gondär, see Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle , 47 (text) and 269
(trans.). Täklä Haymanot also granted him 125 gasa of land on behalf of a
church of Abunä Täklä Haymanot, for which see Orient 745, f. 225r.
32. Orient 549, i44r, and 508, 282r.
33. Orient 508, f. 282v.
34. Orient 508, ff. 279v to 283v; Orient 604, 2 r/v.
35. Orient 508, 283r. Ņaylu also bought land: Orient 508, 286v.
36. Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle , 43, 45, 48, 63, 82, 136 (text) and 263, 266,
270, 293, 301, 397 (trans.).
37. Orient 776, iov.
38. Crummey and Shumet, "Land Tenure and the Social Accumulation of
Wealth."
39. Locating these lands is a problem. The following are in Dämbeya as shown
on map 8, page 83 of Crummey, Land and Society. Dablo, Dalko, Fenderò,
Jarjar, Saraba, and Sufanqära. Sädda appears on map 5, page 75 of Land and
Society. The Gazetteer locates Bičāmār in Dämbeya near Gorgora. According
to Google Earth, the coordinates given by the Gazetteer for Fenderò and
Kosän place them in Lake Tana, which is impossible; and the Gazetteer's
coordinates for "Sereva" (Säräwa?) place it north of Tikil Dingay.
40. These sales may have started very early. A sale of Kosän land occurred as
early as the reign of Täklä Haymanot: Orient 549, 2r.
41. For a recent discussion of literacy in Africa, see Journal of African Cultural
Studies 18, no. 1 (June 2006), special issue edited by Cedric Barnes and Tim
Carmichael.
42. Donald Crummey, ed., Land, Literacy and the State in Sudanic Africa
(Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, 2005).
43. See Jay Spaulding, The Heroic Age in Sinnar (East Lansing: African Studies
Center, Michigan State University, 1985); Jay Spaulding and Muhammed
Ibrahim Abu Salim, eds., Public Documents from Sinnar (East Lansing:
African Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1989); George Michael
La Rue, "Mud on the Belly of the Bull: Land, Power and State Formation in
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Dar Fur," in Crummey, Land, Literacy
and the State ; R. S. O'Fahey and M. I. Abu Salim with M.-J. Tubiana and
J. Tubiana, Land in Dar Fur: Charters and Related Documents from the
Dar Fur Sultanate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); and R.
S. O'Fahey, "The Mahrams of Kanem-Borno, " Fontes Historiae Africanae:
Bulletin of Information (Evanston, IL, December 1981), no. 6, 19-25.
44. For the grants of King Lalibäla, see C. Conti Rossini, "L'evangelo d'oro di
Dabra Líbanos," Rendiconti Della Reale Accademia dei Lincei , series 5, 10
(1901): 177 et seq.; also see the discussion in Crummey, Land and Society,
38, 39, 40; and in Spaulding and Abu Salim, Public Documents , 10.
45. The best treatment of the formal structure of the Ethiopian grants remains
G.W.B. Huntingford, The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia. Translated
with an Introduction and Notes. Monographs in Ethiopian Land Tenure, No.
1, (Addis Ababa/Nairobi: Addis Ababa University Press/Oxford University
Press, 1965), 17-22.
46. Document 8, page 63, in Spaulding and Abu Salim, Public Documents. See
also, for Borno, H. R. Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs (London: Cass, 1967), vol.
3, 22; discussed in Crummey, Land and Society , 16.
47. Conti Rossini, "L'evangelo d'oro," in Crummey, Land and Society , 39. The
horse here represents the power of a warrior elite, the lion represents royal
power. The meaning of zãnabé and abaké is unclear.
48. With, of course, the caveat that the Qwesqwam mäzgäb provides a field-by-
field inventory of lands with details comparable to those in the Sinnar grants.
However, subsequent transactions involving the Qwesqwam grants return to
the general level.
49. Spaulding and Abu Salim, Public Documents , Document 16.
50. Lidwien Kapteijns and Jay Spaulding, "The Conceptualization of Land
Tenure in the Precolonial Sudan," 21-41, in Crummey, Land , Literacy and
the State.
51. Habtamu Mengistie, Lord , Zèga and Peasant: A Study of Property and
Agrarian Relations in Rural Eastern Gojjam (Addis Ababa: Forum for Social
Studies, 2004), No. 1 in the Forum for Social Studies' Special Monograph
Series.
52. Bosc-Tiessé, îles de la Mémoire , 208.
53. Body as opposed to fragments, for which see Richard Pankhurst with
Germa-Selassie Asfaw, Tax Records and Inventories of Emperor Téwodros
of Ethiopia (1855-1868) (London: School of Oriental and African Studies,
1978).
54. Kropp, Die äthiopischen Königschroniken. The documents concerning the
aläqenät of Gâlawdéwos, an institution of Hay lu' s family, survived through
copies derived through one or two Gondär churches and the monasteries of
QwäräTa Wälättä PéÇros and Dima Giyorgis: see the discussion in Crummey,
Land and Society, chapter 5.
55. For an inventory of the original British Library collection, see Wright, Cata-
logue. The Illinois/IES collection consists of microfilm copies of documents
recorded in situ.
56. R. Basset, Études sur l'histoire d'Éthiopie (Paris, 1882); J. Perruchon, "Notes
pour l'Histoire d'Éthiopie," 11 separate articles in the Revue Sémitique
between 1892 and 1901; F. Béguinot, La Cronaca Abbreviata d'Abissinia:
Nuova Versione dall'Etiopico e Commento (Rome, 1901); I. Guidi, "Due
Nuovi Manoscritti Relativi alla Storia di Abissinia," Rendiconti della Reale
Accademia dei Lincei , series 5, 2 (1893): 579-605; C. Conti Rossini, "La
cronaca reale abissina dall'anno 1800 all'anno 1840," RR AL, series 5, 25
(1916): 779-923. Later publications in this same tradition are Weld Blundell,
Royal Chronicle ; C. Foti, "La cronaca abbreviata dei re d'Abissinia in un
manoscritto di Dabra Berhán di Gondar," Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 1
(1941): 87-118; and F. A. Dombrowski, Tanasee 106: Eine Chronik der
Herrscher Äthiopiens , 2 vols. (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1983).
57. The documents published by Huntingford were, for the most part, previously
published by C. Conti Rossini, Documenta ad Illustrandum Historiam , vol.
1: Liber Axumae (Paris, 1909).
58. The hagiography of Saint Täklä Haymanot may be an earlier case in point:
see E. A. W. Budge, The Life and Miracles of Takla Haymanot (London,
1906); and C. Conti Rossini, "II 'Gadla Takla Haymanot' secondo la redazione
Waldebbana," Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei , series 5, 2, no. 1 (1896);
98-143. Bosc-Tiessé's analysis of the versions of the grant to Narga Sellasé
reveals a contemporary, eighteenth-century case in point: see Bosc-Tiessé,
îles de la Mémoire.

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Gondär Land Documents: Multiple Copies, Multiple Recensions

Author(s): Donald Crummey

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Donald Crummey, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign

A comparison of two eighteenth- century land grants to churches in Gondär

The way in which documents and archives were created in historical

TABLE 1. Açé lyyasu and Yetége Mentewwab Found Däbrä Çâhay

MANUSCRIPT MANUSCRIPT TITLE CHURCH OF PROVENANCE

Orient 508, iv Arat Wângél Hämärä Noh?

were deposited? What considerations affected whether or not copies were

Qwesqwam Däbrä Sähay

The multiple copies of the Qwesqwam grant demonstrate that documents

Document 1. British Library, Orient 511 , folio 3r Grant to Qwescram

Hrh3.A ©H -ílArJS ffltH-A- W frtfA* X'<n> fiKK Pô+ AMUMlrlkC A*»£;n+

>çav ©Anuçty (Dvmiroo- vi¿ hjba^jb okí h >n¿ n* pu i Ht u>m o*

4-CT M» ncAt/^Ar MA hn-> f HA «^uc

A.n<?A «ya A<H- ®A.«J»®-*>+ tMCA W* ®A.«J»©-*>+

TABLE 2. Açé Täklä Haymanot Founds Bä'ata, Däbrä Tebäb, Gondär

Orient 481, 2ogv Octateuch, Arat Wangél

Orient 549, 2r Fawes Mänfäsawi

Orient 604, 4V Homilies for Festivals of the Virgin Mary, etc.

Orient 635, ir Tä'amrä Maryam

Orient 638, 247^ Tä'amrä Maryam

Orient 751, I72v/i73r Qâlémentos

Orient 799, 4r/v Various, including Fethä Nägäst

Orient 806, 144' Fethä Nägäst

Éth 112, iv/2r Haymanotä Abäw

Däbrä Berhan Sellasé, Gondar • good hand

Qeddus Rufa'él? • good hand

Däbrä Sä hay Qwesqwam • good hand

m-ka-m Aat ncAtn ®n*° jsn--> aôo <*>/"90* ®+-.cn«

*superscript insertion: H+rt9°f * £-íl¿ Othß

And afterwards we gave the land of Ebennät and the land of

*later insertion: "and which is called Däbrä §ähay"

Document 2. I II/ I ES, 88_lll_16 Grant to Qwesqwam Däbrä Sähay,

Hrhlfl ©H-nA- ® AhUÇ-fcy ®U-flW<w>* U7¿ HJBrt^JB OgÇ H>íl¿ 0+ 2A

(D/i<n>W¿ ©AT> *®h> Hßfiwfi (DWKWH ©ü-nv h-íW * (D9°X¿ «Art

H&n¿ A.n*?A ®n^^ «wa im ® a.*®- *>t mi*+ uca w* ®a.^®-7+ ç* /h

®tH-Apw rh<p ®*7*H AJBi>7

In terms of status, Orient 636 and Orient 511, which represent

the stages of their development must be inferred from internal evidence.

TABLE 3. Relationships between Records of the Qwesqwam Charter

MORE ORIGINAL? DERIVATIVE?

Stage I Orient 636* Orient 508

occurred. However, Iyyasu and Mentewwab could not have completed

The Qwesqwam lands appear in numerous other sources. Some were

i2°44'3"N, 37°24'5o"E. The chronicle confirms several details in the

What is particularly remarkable is that we have the results of this writing

now to support this purpose. This development is also reported by the

TABLE 4. Lands Granted to Däbrä Sähay Qwesqwam, Gondär

Stage I Bäjäna [Baģāna] for the sustenance of the clergy

Stage III Bäjäna

Cela "for the gardeners who clear the water course";

Guidi, Qoffaroč exchanged for dwelling place of the clergy

et lyo'as* Bäjäna (pp. support of the clergy

Guramba king's täzkar

Cela "for the gardeners who clear the water course"

Ebbenät support of the clergy

Bäläsa (pp. support of the clergy

Dämbäla "for the needs of the sanctuary"

in Ebbenät it was the sub-district of Taräsemba that was involved, and

TABLE 5. Place Names in the Qwesqwam Grant Appearing in Other

LAND NAME ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

A.n<?A «ya A<H- ®A.«J»®->+ tMCA W ®A.«J»©-*>+

m-ka-m Aat ncAtn ®n° jsn--> aôo <>/"90* ®+-.cn«

superscript insertion: H+rt9°f £-íl¿ Othß

(D/i<n>W¿ ©AT> ®h> Hßfiwfi (DWKWH ©ü-nv h-íW (D9°X¿ «Art

H&n¿ A.n?A ®n^^ «wa im ® a.®- >t mi+ uca w* ®a.^®-7+ ç* /h

®tH-Apw rh<p ®7H AJBi>7

Ã- n¿ TÍM hJŤ n mc ti® »wn A®#;*** ®><?A

TÍW1 Mt +rh>0 ÍIOTA me h«n> JB h-VV A<n»£"tt+ ©><ří I MHt

9°kc nn-n w i c, ??° %fl&° +* 1 n-n¿rhA na* r%9° na <»c 9fl?°