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The Fälasha and the Stephanite: an episode from Gädlä Gäbrä Mäsih1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Steven Kaplan
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Extract

One obstacle which confronts any historian interested in reconstructing the history of the Bētä Esra'ēl (Fälasha) of Ethiopia is the comparative scarcity of reliable historical sources. References to the Bētä Esra'ēl in Ge'ez chronicles and gädlat are all too rare, while those in Hebrew generally lack historical value. The scattered mentions of the Fälasha in other languages prior to the nineteenth century are few and limited in scope. In light of this situation, any new source, no matter how brief, is deserving of attention and study.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 278 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1985

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References

2 The standard bibliographies on the Fälasha are Aešcoly, A. Z., ‘The Falashas: a bibliography’, Kiryath Sepher, XII, 254–65Google Scholar, 370–83,498–505; XIII, 250–65, 383–93, 506, and Leslau, W., ‘A supplementary Falasha bibliography’, Studies in bibliography and booklore, II, 1957, 9–27.Google Scholar

3 Aešcoly, A. Z., ‘Yehudē Habbaš Bassifrut Ha'ivrit’, Zion, I, 3, 1936, 316–36; 4, 1936, 410–35.Google Scholar

4 Fonds Conti Rossini, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 89. Cf. Strelcyn, S., Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de I' Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome, 1976), 235. This manuscript is a twentieth-century copy of an early manuscript.Google Scholar, Cf. Mordini, A.,‘II Covento di Gunde Gudie’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, XII, 1953, pp. 50, n. 7. I have unfortunately been unable to examine other manuscripts of this work.Google Scholar

5 Tamrat, Taddesse, ‘Some notes on the fifteenth-century Stephanite heresy’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, XXII, 1966, 103Google Scholar. On the Stephanites see also Beylot, R., ‘Un épisode de I'histoire ecclésiastique de I'Éithiopie, le mouvement Stephanite’, Annales d'Éthiopie, VIII, 1962, 103–16Google Scholar; idem. ‘Esṭifanos hétérodoxe éthiopien du xve siécle’, Revue de I' Histoire des Religions, CXCVII, 1981, 279–84Google Scholar.

6 cf. Tamrat, Taddesse, Church and State in Ethiopia 1270–1527 (Oxford, 1972), 3.Google Scholar

7 cf. the text ‘felasa’ and ‘falasawi’.

8 cf. Aešcoly, ‘Yehudē Habbaš’; Payne, E., Ethiopian Jews: the story of a mission (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Rapoport, L., The lost Jews: last of the Ethiopian Falasha (New York, 1980)Google Scholar, and numerous recent articles in the popular press.

9 cf. Aešcoly, ‘Bibliography’, p. 258, No. 8; p. 259, No. 18; p. 260, No. 19.

10 cf. Haile, Getatchew, ‘Preliminary investigation of the Ṭomarä T∂sb∂'t of Emperor Zär'a Ya'∂qob of Ethiopia’, BSOAS, XLIII, 2, 1980, 212–13, 219Google Scholar; Rossini, C. Conti, II Libro delta luce del Negus Zar'a Yā'qob, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, XLVII, LI passim, cf. esp. LI, 131.Google Scholar

11 Basset, R. (ed. and tr.), Histoire de la canquête de I' Abyssinie (XVI esiècle) (Paris, 1897), tr. pp. 456–9.Google Scholar

12 Aešcoly, ‘Yehudē Habbaš’, 415.

13 Taddesse, ‘Some notes on the fifteenth-century Stephanite heresy’, 103; cf. Strelcyn, 235.

14 ibid, Church and State, 201.

15 ibid, (my emphasis).

16 cf. Quirin, J.,‘The process of caste formation in Ethiopia: study of the Beta Israel (Felasha) 1270–1868’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, XII, 2, 1979, 236Google Scholar, ‘The era of wars 1270–1632’.

17 Wajnberg, I., ‘Das Leben des Jafqerena' Egzi'’, Orientalia Christiana Analecta, CVI, 1936, 50–60Google Scholar. Cf. Rossini, C. Conti, ‘L'agiografia etiopica e gli atti del santo Yafqiranna-Igzi (secolo XIV)’, Atti del Reale Istituo Veneto, XCVI, 2, 1937, 419–20Google Scholar; ibid, ‘Appunti di storia e letteratura falascia’, Rivista degli Studi Orientali, VII, 1920, 567–77. The term ‘falasha’ does not appear in this text. The people of samen and Ṣälämt are said to live ‘bähaymanoté 'ayhud’.Google Scholar

18 ibid, Ada Sancti Abakarazun et Sancti TaUa Hautaryat, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Script. Aeth., ser. altera, t. XXIV, 103–9Google Scholar. For a discussion of this text see aplan, S., ‘A source for the history of the Bētä Esra'ēl (Fälasha)—from the “Life” of Abunä Täklä Hawaryat’, Pe'amim, xv, 1983, 113–24 (Hebrew)Google Scholar. Once again the Fälasha are identified only as 'ayhud.

19 Caquot, A., ‘Gadla Ezra’, Annales d'Éithiopie, 75.Google Scholar

20 ibid., p. 97.

21 cf. note 10 supra.

22 lit. pagan, i.e. a non-Christian. Cf. Rossini, C. Conti, ‘Gli atti di Abba Yonas’, Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, ser. 5, XII, 1903, 241Google Scholar for ‘ ' arämawi’ used in reference to Muslims.

23 Leviticus 19:18. Cf. Matthew 5:38 ff.; Luke 6:27 ff.

24 Proverbs 25:21; Romans 12:20.

25 cf. Lamentations 4:4.

26 I John 1:7.