Citations
- ↑ http://www.wikimanche.fr/Jean-Louis_Asselin_de_Cherville Biographical sketch.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
Abu Rumi (about 1750 - 1819) is the name recorded as being the translator for the first complete Bible in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. Previously, only partial Amharic translations existed, and the Ethiopian Bible existed only in Ge'ez, the ancient liturgical language of Ethiopia. His story is recorded by William Jowett (1824). He was educated in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but it is not clear if he was a monk, priest, or had any official status within the church.
According to Jowett, Abu Rumi served as a translator for the Scots explorer James Bruce at the age of 22. Abu Rumi left Ethiopia in his 28th year, visited Cairo, Jerusalem, Syria and India, where he resided in the house of Sir William Jones. "We are not told what he is supposed to have taught that great orientalist," writes Edward Ullendorff, "but presumably it was a smattering of Ge'ez and Amharic poetry" (Ullendorff, 1968: 66).
While travelling through Cairo, at which time his age is estimated at "about fifty or fifty-five years of age" (Jowett, 1824:201), Abu Rumi became very ill and was taken in by M. Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville (1772–1822), the French Consul in Cairo. [1] He provided Abu Rumi with food, lodging, and medical care. But more significantly, he also provided him with writing materials. Over a period of 10 years, Abu Rumi produced a complete translation of the Bible in Amharic. He then made one more journey to Jerusalem; Abu Rumi died of the plague in Cairo.
The manuscript containing his translation was eventually purchased by William Jowett on behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He took it back to Britain where it was typeset and printed. These printed copies were sent back to Ethiopia. There were a number of editions made of Abu Rumi's original translation, different editors making some changes, but the original work is his. A copy of Abu Rumi's translation of the Bible in Amharic was eventually found in a monastery in the early 1860s and launched a church renewal movement that eventually led to the founding of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (Aren 1978:14, 15, 104).
Since then, there have been other translations of the whole Bible in Amharic, mostly by the Ethiopian Bible Society, but his is the first. According to Ullendorff, "Abu Rumi's version, with some changes and amendments, held sway until the Emperor Haile Sellassie I ordered a new translation of the entire Bible which appeared in 1960/1." (Ullendorff 1968: 66).
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back to the acceptance of Christianity by the Kingdom of Aksum in 330, and has between 36 million and 49.8 million adherents in Ethiopia. It is a founding member of the World Council of Churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches.
Tabot is a Ge'ez word referring to a replica of the Tablets of Law, onto which the Biblical Ten Commandments were inscribed, used in the practices of Orthodox Tewahedo Christians in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Church. Tabot can also refer to a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. The word tsellat refers only to a replica of the Tablets, but is less commonly used.
The Kebra Nagast, var. Kebra Negast, or The Glory of the Kings, is a 14th-century national epic from Ethiopia, written in Ge'ez by Nebure Id Ishaq of Axum, by the office of Abuna Abba Giyorgis and at the command of the governor of Enderta Ya'ibika Igzi'. The text, in its existing form, is at least 700 years old and although clearly legendary is considered by many Ethiopian Christians to be a historically reliable work. It is considered to hold the genealogy of the Solomonic dynasty, which followed the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
The Zagwe dynasty was an Agaw medieval dynasty that ruled the northern parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, after the historical name of the Lasta province. Centered at Roha, it ruled large parts of the territory from approximately 900 to 1270 CE, when the last Zagwe King Za-Ilmaknun was killed in battle by the forces of the Amhara King Yekuno Amlak. The name of the dynasty is thought to derive from the ancient Ge'ez phrase Ze-Agaw, meaning "of the Agaw", in reference to the Mara Tekle Haymanot, the founder of the dynasty. Zagwe's best-known King was Gebre Mesqel Lalibela, who is credited with having constructed the rock-hewn monolithic churches of Lalibela.
Johann Ludwig Krapf was a German missionary in East Africa, as well as an explorer, linguist, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya with the help of Akamba who dwelled at its slopes and Kilimanjaro. Ludwig Krapf visited Ukambani, the homeland of the Kamba people, in 1849 and again in 1850. He successfully translated the new testament to the Kamba language. Krapf also played a key role in exploring the East African coastline, especially in Mombasa.
Habesha peoples is an ethnic or pan-ethnic identifier that has been historically employed to refer to Semitic language-speaking and predominantly Orthodox Christian peoples found in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea between Asmara and Addis Ababa and this usage remains common today. The term is also used in varying degrees of inclusion and exclusion of other groups.
Hawulti is a pre-Aksumite obelisk located in Matara, Eritrea. The monument bears the oldest known example of the ancient Ge'ez script.
Meskel is a Christian holiday in the Ethiopian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox churches that commemorates the discovery of the True Cross by the Roman Empress Helena in the fourth century. Meskel occurs on the 17 Meskerem in the Ethiopian calendar. "Meskel" is Ge'ez for "cross".
Onesimos Nesib was a native Oromo scholar who converted to Lutheran Christianity and translated the Christian Bible into Oromo. His parents named him Hika as a baby, meaning "Translator"; he took the name "Onesimus", after the Biblical character, upon converting to Christianity.
Edward Ullendorff (1920–2011) was a British scholar and historian. He was a prominent figure in Ethiopian Studies and also contributed work on the Semitic languages.
Johannes Potken was a German scholar, papal secretary and printer from Cologne, active at the beginning of the sixteenth century. In 1513 he had the Psalterium David et Cantica aliqua printed in Rome, in the Ge'ez language. It was a collection of psalms and other canticles.
Tewolde-Medhin Gebre-Medhin (1860–1930) was a pastor, educator and translator, originally from the town of Tseazega Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. He was ordained as a deacon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in 1872. From four generations of priests, Täwäldä-Mädhin's father and uncle were Orthodox priests, but both they and young Täwäldä-Mädhin were greatly changed after contact with a Swedish missionary. In adulthood, Täwäldä-Mädhin maintained that he wanted to work for reform within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, though he had been persecuted for being Evangelical.
Although Christianity became the state religion of Ethiopia in the 4th century, and the Bible was first translated into Ge'ez at about that time, only in the last two centuries have there appeared translations of the Bible into Amharic.
William Jowett was a missionary and author, in 1813 becoming the first Anglican cleric to volunteer for the overseas service of the Church Missionary Society. A leader of the Evangelicals at Cambridge, he worked in Malta, Syria, and Palestine, and in later life was clerical secretary of the Society and a parish priest in Clapham, South London.
Getatchew Haile was an Ethiopian-American philologist widely considered the foremost scholar of the Ge'ez language and one of its most prolific. He was acknowledged for his contributions to the field with a MacArthur Fellows Program "genius" award and the Edward Ullendorff Medal from the Council of the British Academy. He was the first Ethiopian and the first African to win the award.
Salama II was Abuna, or head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from 1348 to 1388. During his tenure a number of translations into the Ge'ez language appeared, which has resulted with him being remembered as "Abba Salama, the Translator."
Karl Wilhelm Isenberg, spelt or known by names Carl Wilhelm Isenberg or Charles William Isenberg or C. W. Isenberg or Carl W. Isenberg or Charles Isenberg, was a German Church Missionary Society missionary and linguist to East Africa and Western India.
Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville was a French Orientalist. He studied in Cherbourg and Valognes and was destined for priesthood, receiving his tonsure in 1792. He became a lecturer in the short-lived revolutionary École normale in the year III (1794), and was employed by the Republican ministry of treasure from 1795 to 1802, a post which he left in order to study oriental languages. He went to Cairo as translator in 1806, where he served as vice-consul. He moved to Alexandria in 1816 and ended his career in the position of first dragoman of the French consulate for Egypt. He participated in the philological discovery of the South Semitic languages of Abyssinia, Amharic and Ge'ez. During his time in Egypt, he collected more than 1,500 manuscripts.
Ethiopian literature dates from Ancient Ethiopian literature up until modern Ethiopian literature. Ancient Ethiopian literature starts with Axumite texts written in the Geʽez language using the Geʽez script, indigenous to both Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The Church Missionary Society in the Middle East and North Africa, operated through branch organisations, such as the Mediterranean Mission, with the mission extending to Palestine, Iran (Persia), Iraq, Egypt, Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and the Sudan. The missions were financed by the CMS with the local organisation of a mission usually being under the oversight of the Bishop of the Anglican diocese in which the CMS mission operated. The CMS made an important contribution to the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.
