(CE:975b-979b)

ETHIOPIAN CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. The literature of

Christian Ethiopia was, and still is, written in the ancient Ethiopic
language called Ge‘ez, which is supposed to have ceased to be a
living language around the tenth or eleventh century, when it was
superseded by "modern" Semitic languages. This literature is related
to traditional Ethiopian culture, which was born and developed as a
scion of Oriental Christianity, spread in Ethiopia from about the
fourth century onward. It covers almost all aspects of social life, so
its content is either strictly doctrinal and catechetical (possibly
unconsciously preserving some rare vestiges of Gnostic literature) or
else profane (historical, juridical, magical, etc.) but inspired by
Christian principles. It began between the fourth and seventh
centuries and was at first mainly a literature of translations.

Translated Literature
Translations undoubtedly began with the Bible and apocryphal
and patristic works. Although other branches of Oriental Christianity
(mainly Syriac) may have contributed to that activity, from the very
beginning the bulk of the translation into Ethiopic apparently was
done under the direct influence of the Christian church of Egypt and
its literature. In fact, the Ethiopian Christian church was an offspring
of the Egyptian church, under whose official leadership it survived.
Until the twentieth century, the head of the Ethiopian church was
selected by the Coptic patriarch from Egyptian monks and sent to
Ethiopia. Paleographic evidence clearly suggests that the Ethiopians
must also have learned the art of writing their manuscripts on
parchment from their Christian forebears in Egypt.
Certain translations include works no longer extant in the
original Oriental Christian literature. Therefore, they preserve texts
otherwise unavailable or even, at times, different versions of texts
known in other Christian literatures of the Orient.
Until about the seventh century, translations came mainly from
Greek, since Greek prevailed in the church of Egypt. Although no
conclusive evidence exists to confirm this, some translations may
have been made from Coptic, seemingly between the seventh and
the twelfth centuries. When Arabic became the dominant language
in the Egyptian Coptic church around the twelfth century,
translations were made from Arabic. Among the works translated
from Greek, besides the Bible, are books such as Mashafa Henok
(The Book of Enoch), Mashafa Kufalie (The Book of Jubilees),
‘Ergata Isayiyas (The Ascent of Isaiah), and Herma Nabiy (The
Prophet Herma). Of these the first two are preserved in their entirety
only in the Ethiopic version. All four books are reckoned as part of
the biblical canon of the Ethiopian church. Textual hints lead one to
surmise that the translation from original texts—especially Enoch
and the Jubilees—was performed in the presence of, if not upon, an
Aramaic version and that some or all of the translators may have
been religious men, possibly from the Monophysite church of Syria.
Most of another work of great relevance to the theological
teaching of the Ethiopian church was also translated at this time.
This is Qerelos (The Book of Cyril), a collection of homilies, mostly
belonging to Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Since the first of these
homilies, the "Prosphonetikos," addressed to Emperor Theodosius
II, was a work by Cyril, it has provided that collection with its
Ethiopic title. Still another work of high inspiration for Ethiopian
monasticism is Ser‘at wate’zaz za’abba Pakwmis (The Rule of
Pachomius). As far as is known, translations from Greek include a
few lives of saints, a pious genre of paramount importance to
Ethiopian literature to this day.
It appears that when Greek ceased to be the language of the
Egyptian church, countless translations were made from Arabic texts
of Coptic literature. The translations from Arabic are the most
numerous and include a revision of the books of the Bible. The
lively activity that motivated such translations went on from the
twelfth century to the eighteenth. The translations of that period
include several notable works. Senodos (Synodicon), is a basic
collection of canonical regulations, beginning with those of different
church councils (save that of Chalcedon). A work of similar
contents, Didesqelya (Didascalia), is the revered source of the
internal regulations of the Ethiopian church. Both works might have
found their way into Ethiopia in the twelfth or thirteenth century. It
was apparently the thirteenth or fourteenth century that saw the
translation of the Story of Alexander, a widely known narrative
about Alexander the Great, which in Coptic literature possessed
peculiarly Egyptian characteristics and in Ethiopic literature took on
other features of its own. In the fourteenth century occurred the
translation of some liturgical books, such as Mashafa genzat (Book
for the Preparation of the Body of the Dead), a ritual for funerals;
the widespread Mashafa sa‘atat (Book of the Hours), the horologion
of the Western church; Gadla sama‘tat (Contendings of the
Martyrs); Gadl (Meritorious Acts, i.e., of saintly persons; cf. Greek
athlesis); Gadla hawaryat (Contendings of the Apostles, i.e., their
apocryphal acts); Gebra hemamat (Acts of the Passion), a lectionary
for Holy Week; Wuddase Maryam (Celebration of Mary), derived
from the Copto-Arabic Theotokias from the Psalmodia, together
with some lives, or contendings (gadl), of Egyptian saints. Some of
these works—as well as others, for example, the Filkesyus
(Philoxenos), written by Philoxenos of Mabbug, regarding monastic
life, and Laha Maryam (Bewailing of Mary) —were translated
directly by, or with the aid of, a highly reputed Egyptian Coptic
metropolitan named Abba Salama, who became the head of the
Ethiopian church as Abuna Salama II, during the second half of the
fourteenth century. He is known to have been in Ethiopia between
1348 and 1388, which was probably the year of his demise in that
country, since metropolitans were supposed to stay in Ethiopia until
the end of their lives. His brisk literary activity must have resulted in
stimulating a lively movement in Ethiopian literature within the
church.
The fourteenth century is probably the time when the translation
of Zena abaw qeddusan (Stories of the Holy Fathers) was made.
This contains the renowned Apophthegmata Patrum, a work of great
resonance in the thought of Ethiopian monks. It seems likely that
between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, another Egyptian
monk undertook the translation of a different liturgical work of
paramount importance to the church: the Synaxarion. In the course
of the following centuries, Ethiopians made their own contributions
to it by adding commemorative lives of Ethiopian holy men, who in
this way began to take their place beside the foreign saints. Another
addition was made in the form of short poems in honor of the saints
of the day. Still another, similiar work, Ta’ammera Maryam
(Miracles of Mary), translated in the fourteenth or fifteenth century,
enjoyed an enormous diffusion in the Ethiopian church, on account
of the topic to which it was devoted—namely, the Virgin Mary,
whose cult has always been strong in the Ethiopian church, a trait it
shared with the Egyptian church. (The materials of this work had
been drawn from Oriental as well as Occidental Christian sources.)
Later additions included original miracles referring to the local
milieu. The translation from an Arabic original, now lost, of an
apocalyptic work in the same period entitled Ra’ya Sinoda (The
Vision of Shenute) is the only known text available.
Attributed to the fifteenth century is the translation of another
revered book of juridical relevance, Fetha nagast (The Code of the
Kings). Until modern times, this work was considered the basic
legal text of Ethiopian high courts of justice. It is a version of the
thirteenth-century Majmu‘ al-Qawanin of al-As‘ad IBN AL-
‘ASSAL, a nomocanon written for the Christians of Egypt.
In the sixteenth century the corpus of monastic works underwent
a substantial enrichment through the translation of two renowned
treatises of ascetic life. The first is entitled Aragawi manfasawi (The
Spiritual Elder), the Ethiopic equivalent of Al-Shaykh al-Ruhani, a
work by Yuhanna ibn Siba‘. According to Ethiopian tradition, the
Egyptian metropolitan Marqos I, who died in 1530, contributed to
that translation, along with an Ethiopianized monk of foreign origin
(perhaps Yemeni) named ‘Enbaqom. The second work was Mar
Yishaq (Master Isaac), the reputed work of Isaac of Nineveh. Both
of these works, together with Filkesyus, constitute a sort of a trilogy
in the schools of the Ethiopian church under the collective title
Masahefta manakosat (Books of the Monks).
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, other theological
works were translated into Ethiopic, including Haymanota abaw
(The Faith of the Fathers), which reiterated Ibn Raja's Arabic treatise
entitled I‘tiraf al-Aba’. This and Qerelos remained the most
authoritative theological texts in the church. Other works deriving
from Arabic are Tilmidh (The Pupil), Ethiopic Talmid, and Mashafa
Hawi (Book of Hawi), the original Arabic title of which was just Al-
hawi. Another book, Faws manfasawi (The Spiritual Medicament),
was translated by order of Queen Sabla Wangel in the seventeenth
century.
So far, works of purely religious content have been listed. Of
those more profane, or, more precisely, Christian-profane, several
translations deserve mention. In the fourteenth century, the Zena
ayhud (Story of the Jews), attributed in the Ethiopic translation to
Yosef ben Goryon, was translated into Ethiopic from an Arabic
original, possibly one from Egypt. Other nonreligious works
rendered into Ethiopic include the universal history Mashafa tarik of
the Egyptian Jirjis ibn al-‘Amid al-MAKIN, possibly translated in
the second half of the thirteenth century, as well as Abu Shakir's
work appearing under the Ethopic title Mashaf buruk zadarasa Abu
Saker (Blessed Book Composed by Abu Sakir), translated in the
sixteenth century. Still more important was the translation of the
chronicle of JOHN OF NIKIOU, relating to the ARAB
CONQUEST OF EGYPT, a translation executed by an Egyptian
cleric named Qebryal (Ghubriyal) in the seventeenth century. The
original of this unique work is lost, and the Ethiopic version is the
only one that survives.
The bulk of Ethiopian Christian literature, it appears, is drawn
from Coptic sources. It is worthwhile to recall the fact that now and
then the Ethiopic translations of foreign works either offer a version
of their own, different from the one extant in other literatures, or
append original Ethiopian contributions to the body of the translated
work, thus producing new pieces of purely local literature, as in the
case of the Rule of Pachomius.
Some of these translations were made outside Ethiopia, either in
Egypt or in the Holy Land, by Copts or Ethiopian monks on
pilgrimage. The rest must have been done in Ethiopia by foreign
monks (mostly Copts), who may have had the assistance of
Ethiopians in performing their work. Yet such translators were not
confined to that task and now and then became authors in Ge‘ez,
displaying outstanding skill and knowledge, like the already
mentioned Metropolitan Salama or the monk ‘Enbaqom.
Original Literature
The overwhelming mass of Coptic literature passing into
Ethiopia stimulated a vigorous movement of purely original
Ethiopic literary production. It is difficult to fix the time of its
beginning. The oldest surviving works seem to date no further back
than the thirteenth or fourteenth century, a period when the activity
of Egyptian clerics in Ethiopia as translators and original writers in
Ge‘ez was at a peak.
Original Ethiopian literature emulates the parent genres of the
Coptic Christian literature of Egypt. In character, it was theological
(dogmatic and pastoral), didactic and monastic, as well as
apocalyptic, eschatological, and hagiographic (gadl is the typical
Ethiopic term for such narratives), mainly concentrating on
Ethiopian "saints" and historical material (based on Christian
principles and telling about events in the life of the rulers of
Ethiopian society, such as kings, high officials, and dignitaries of the
church). Other topics included in this prolific literature were
grammar, magic, and chronology. The contents, as a rule, drew on
the models offered by the Christian literature of Egypt. Even so, the
Ethiopic writers developed an impressive degree of originality.
Noteworthy are the grammatical works, called sawasuw (ladder),
derived from the Coptic works known as scalae (Arabic, sullam),
which developed a peculiar art of their own and seem to have
emerged in the course of the fifteenth century. No one knows why it
is called ladder or, more precisely, why Bishop Yohannes of
Samannud (Egypt) called it ecclesiastical ladder (Graf, 1947, p.
372). In this connection, it is worthwhile to mention an original and
thriving method of commentary on the Scriptures and patristic texts,
which developed in the traditional oral teaching in church schools,
where the sawasuw was taught. The language was the living one,
called Amharic, employed also as a teaching language. This art of
commentaries is usually called andemta, or enumeration in
succession, one after another, of the various interpretations.
All the literature so far taken into account was written in prose,
but poetry was also widely cultivated. Although there is no direct
evidence of Coptic poetry translated into Ethiopic (the rhymed
liturgical texts constitute a special case), the Ethiopians eventually
developed a flourishing poetic literature of original stock, some
types of which are thought to have been inspired by Coptic models.
Such is the poetic form called malke’ (effigy, image), a composition
made of stanzas, each of them praising, with symbolic language, the
physical parts as well as moral qualities of a saintly person (Christ,
the Virgin Mary, etc.). Sometimes it dealt with sacred items. The
earliest of these poetic compositions may be traced to the fifteenth
century. The same may be said of another type of poetry, similar in
form and content to the malke’, which is used to praise holy persons;
such poems are called salam (peace, equal to the greeting "hail"),
taken from the word with which they begin. The salam also seems to
date from the beginning of the fifteenth century. Another typical
poetic genre is the qene, which is metaphorical and possesses a
hidden meaning. This type of original composition may have been
inspired by Coptic models. It has a high degree of elaborateness and
is considered by Ethiopians the highest genre of poetry. All these
compositional forms and styles seem to go back for their beginning
to the fifteenth century, so it may be that grammar and poetry were
introduced into Ethiopia at the same time, the schools being the
place where they were studied and practiced.
In conclusion, a final case deserves mention. Sometimes original
works of Ethiopian literature appear to have been translated into
Arabic, seemingly for the use of the Christian church of Egypt. A
certain Arabic narrative ascribed to the sixteenth century deals with
the widespread legend of the queen of Sheba. It is allegedly a
translation of a portion of a famous work written in Ethiopia in the
fourteenth century, bearing the title Kebra nagast (The Nobility of
the Kings). Also in the sixteenth century there was made a
translation, or redrafting, from Ethiopic into Arabic of the life of one
of the most important (politically and religiously) saints, Takla
Haymanot. Again in the twentieth century, an Ethiopian monk
whose name had been Arabicized to Yuhanna al-Mutawahhid al-
Habashi published a new Arabic version of the miracles of the saint.
The monk died in 1955 in Egypt, after living in the convent of
DAYR AL-MUHARRAQ, where a copy of that publication is to be
found. One wonders if he himself executed the translation.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Comprehensive Treatises
Cerulli, E. La letterature etiopica, 3rd ed. Florence and Milan, 1968.
Colin, G. La Profession de foi christologique du Talmud: Mélanges
linguistiques offerts à Maxime Rodinson, ed. Christian Robin,
pp. 161-163. Paris, 1985.
Doresse, J. Les Anciens monastères coptes de la Moyenne Egypte et
leurs influences sur l'Ethiopie chrétienne médiévale: Documents
pour servir à l'histoire des civilisations éthiopiennes 1. Paris,
1970.
Guidi, I. Storia della letteratura etiopica. Rome, 1932.
Harden, J. M. An Introduction to Ethiopic Christian Literature.
London, 1926.
Littmann, E. "Geschichte der äthiopischen Literatur." In Geschichte
der christlichen Literaturen des Orients, ed. C. Brockelmann,
2nd ed. Leipzig, 1909.
Ricci, L. "Letterature dell'Etiopia." In Storia delle letterature
d'Oriente. Milan, 1969.
Rossini, C. Note per la storia letteraria abissina. Rome, 1900.

Monographs and Articles on Special Topics

Cerulli, E. Il libro etiopico dei Miracoli di Maria e le sue fonti nelle
letterature del Medio Evo latino. Rome, 1943.
______. Etiopi in Palestina, 2 vols. Rome, 1943-1947.
______. Scritti teologici etiopici dei secoli XVI-XVII, Vol. 1, Tre
opuscoli Mikaeliti. Vatican City, 1958.
______. Storia dei Quattro Concili. Rome, 1960.
Chojnacki, S. Major Themes in Ethiopian Painting. Wiesbaden,
1983.
Cowley, R. W. The Traditional Interpretation of the Apocalypse of
St. John in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Cambridge, 1983.
Devos, P. "Les Miracles de saint Ménas en éthiopien." In Atti del
Convegno Internazionale dei Studi Etiopici, pp. 335-43. Rome,
1960.
Donzel, E. van. Enbaqom—Anqasa amin (La Porte de la Foi):
Apologie éthiopienne du christianisme contre l'Islam à partir du
Coran. Leiden, 1969.
Fusella, L. "Libro dei Giubilei-Libro di Enoc." Apocrifi del l'Antico
Testamento. Turin, 1981.
Getatchew Haile. The Different Collections of Nägs Hymns in
Ethiopic Literature and Their Contributions. Oikonomia 19.
Erlangen, 1983.
Imbakon Kalewold. Traditional Ethiopian Church Education, trans.
Mengestu Lemma, pp. 33-38. New York, 1970 (contains an
appendix by translator on Ethiopian Classical Poetry).
Knibb, M. A., and E. Ullendorff. The Ethiopic Book of Enoch, 2
vols. Oxford, 1978.
Lantschoot, A. van. Abba Salama métropolite d'Ethiopie (1348-
1388) et son rôle de traducteur. Atti del Convegno
Internazionale dei Studi Etiopici, pp. 397-401. Rome, 1960.
Meinardus, O. F. A. "Ecclesiastic Aethiopica in Aegypto." Journal
of Ethiopian Studies 3, ser. 1 (1965):23-35.
Metzger, B. M. The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their
Origin, Transmission and Limitations. Oxford, 1977.
Moreno, M. M. Struttura e terminologia del Sawasew. Rassegna di
studi etiopici VIII-1949. Rome, 1950.
Murad Kamil. Das Josef Ben Gorion (Josippos): Geschichte der
Juden—Zena ayhud. New York, 1938.
______. "Translations from Arabic in Ethiopic Literature." Bulletin
de la Société d'archéologie copte. Cairo, 1942.
______. Al-Qini: Lawn min al-Shi‘r al Habashi. Majallat Kulliyyat
al-Adab. Cairo, 1948.
Rodinson, M. "Notes sur le texte de Jean de Nikiou." In IV
Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici, Vol. 2. Rome, 1974.
Sauget, S. M. "Un Exemple typique des relations culturelles entre
l'arabe-chrétien et l'éthiopien: Un Patericon récemment publié."
In IV Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici, Vol. 1. Rome,
1974.
Schall, A. Zur äthiopischen Verskunst: Eine Studie uber die Metra
des Qene auf Grund der Abhandlung "al-qene laun min as-si‘r
al-habasi" von Dr. Murad Kamil. Wiesbaden, 1961.
Uhlig, S. Das äthiopische Henochbuch. Gütersloh, 1984.
Ullendorff, E. Ethiopia and the Bible. London, 1968.
______. "Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek: The Version Underlying
Ethiopic Translations of the Bible and Intertestamental
Literature." In The Bible World: Essays in Honor of Cyrus H.
Gordon, ed. G. Rensburg, R. Adler, M. Arfa, and N. H. Winter.
New York, 1980.
Vergote, J. La Littérature copte et sa diffusion en Orient. Atti del
Convegno Internazionale sul tema L'Oriente Cristiano nella
storia della civiltà. Rome, 1964.
Weischer, B. M. "Der Dialog ‘Dass Christus Einer ist' des Cyrill von
Alexandrien," pt. I, Oriens Christianus 51 (1967):130-85; pt. II,
Oriens Christianus 52 (1968):92-137.
______. "Die äthiopischen Psalmen und Qerlosfragmente in
Erevan/Armenien." Oriens Christianus 53 (1969):113-58.
______. Qerellos I: Der Prosphonetikos ‘Über den rechten
Glauben' des Kyrillos von Alexandrien an Theodosius II, ed. J.
Lukas. Afrikanische Forschungen 7. Glückstadt, 1973.
______. Qerellos III: Der Dialog "Dass Christus Einer ist" des
Kyrillos von Alexandrien. ed. E. Hammerschmidt. Äthiopistische
Forschungen 2. Wiesbaden, 1977.
______. Qerellos IV 1: Homilien und Briefe zum Konzil von
Ephesos, ed. E. Hammerschmidt. Äthiopistische Forschungen 4.
Wiesbaden, 1979.
______. Qerellos IV 2: Traktate des Epiphanios von Zypern und des
Proklos von Kyzikos, ed. E. Hammerschmidt. Athiopistische
Forschungen 6. Wiesbaden, 1979.
______. Qerellos IV 3: Traktate des Severianos von Gabala,
Gregorios Thaumaturgos und Kyrillos von Alexandrien, ed. E.
Hammerschmidt. Äthiopistische Forschungen 7. Wiesbaden,
1979.

LANFRANCO RICCI