This book is a fitting tribute to Getatchew Haile's pre-eminent place in the study of the Ethiopian manuscript tradition. It is an eclectic collection of articles by authors who themselves represent some of the finest scholarship in Ethiopian studies, and who wish to pay tribute to Getatchew Haile's long career, and important scholarly contribution. There is a short biographical introduction, followed by three main sections: History and Culture; Texts and Manuscripts; and Languages.
The History and Culture section contains the following articles: “Traditional Ethiopian legal culture: Amharic proverbs and maxims on law and justice”, by Jon Abbink; “The life histories of four Ethiopian farmers”, by Donal Crummey; “The west portal ceiling paintings in the Zagwe church of Yəmrəḥannä Krəstos”, by Michael Gervers; “Concerning Saint Yared”, by Marilyn E. Heldman and Kay Kaufman Shelemay; “Arab–Ethiopian relations in the Aksumite period: the role of Simeon, Bishop of Bēth-Arshām”, by Irfan Shahîd; “Multiple sources for Ethiopian history and methodology: a historiographical approach”, by Irma Taddia; and “Pseudo-science and the politics of change in Dertogada and Ramatohara” by Taye Assefa.
The Texts and Manuscripts section contains: “Biography as a self-narrative – the case of al-Sakhāwī (d. AH 902/1497 CE)”, by Renate Jacobi; “The ‘Golden Gospel’ of Agwäza and its historical documents”, by Ewa Balicka-Witakowska; “The Ethiopic Book of Clement: the case of a recent Ethiopian edition and a few additional remarks”, by Alessandro Bausi; “Homélie d'Anastase le Sinaïte sur le Psaume 6 (ms. éthiopien D'Abbadie 134, de la BnF)”, by Robert Beylot; “The question-and-answer part of Ibn aṭ-Ṭayyib's The Paradise of Christianity: an Ethiopic translation (MS EMML no. 1839)”, by Aaron Michael Butts; “Ǝqäbänni: an English translation of New York Public Library Spencer Collection Ms. 4”, by Monica S Devens; “The library and Old Testament manuscripts of Gundä Gunde”, by Ted Erho; “The Sänbät-Sunday in Gəʿəz liturgical texts: a comparative perspective”, by Habtemichael-Kidane; “Rəstä Amba zä- Ǝsraʾel: Ein Dokument über Erbbesitz des äthiopischen Königshauses (Ǝsraʾel) auf und um Amba-Säl aus dem 16. Jahrhundert”, by Manfred Kropp; “A 364-day calendar encapsulated in the Liturgy of the Seventh Sabbath of the Betä Ǝsraʾel of Ethiopia”, by Basil Lourié; “A new Gəʿəz text on Adam and the judgement of the angels (Gundä Gunde 177)”, by Adam Carter McCollum; “A brief history of the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML)”, by Columba Stewart; “Witnesses to the Ethiopic I recension of Mäṣḥafä Henok from Gundä Gunde: a comparison”, by Loren T Stuckenbruck; “Abba Ləbsä Krəstos of Gonğ-Ṣelalo: sources for discussing religious identities in Goğğam (early seventeenth century, Ethiopia)”, by Anaïs Wion; “Cain, Abel and their sisters in Ethiopian tradition”, by Witold Witakowski.
The Languages section contains: “Old Amharic object suffixes and the formation of the ሰያፍ አንቀጽ”, by Gideon Goldenberg; “Some Agaw non-loanwords in Ethiopian Semitic”, by Grover Hudson; “Syntax and the history of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia”, by Olga Kapeliuk; “Die Perfektkonjugation im Tigre”, by Rainer Voigt; “A selected bibliography of the publications of Getatchew Haile”, by Alessandro Bausi and Thomas Rave.
A short review cannot do justice to each of these contributions, but they constitute an important collection of work that gives distinctive insight into Ethiopian history and culture through papers that span several centuries, and each article has an extensive bibliography. The diversity of the articles is exceptional, and the book would provide a useful reference for almost any scholar of Ethiopia, with several being of wider interest, for instance in the history of the Arabian Peninsula, Arabic Christian writers, manuscript studies, linguistics, social history, etc. Jon Abbink's article gives detailed interpretations of 52 proverbs which express “core ideas and procedure of traditional law and legal thinking among Amharic-speaking populations in Ethiopia”, relevant to students of language and of Ethiopian law; Donald Crummey's article is an important collection of biographies of four rural farmers in the 1970s and 80s, and as such represents a unique source of information on Ethiopian culture during Communism, elucidating aspects of childhood, marriage and family, farming, and tree and bush planting, etc.; Michael Gervers discusses particular church paintings in detail, with 28 black-and-white figures; Marilyn Heldman and Kay Kaufman Shelemay's article is a useful compilation of contemporary, textual-historical, visual, and musical sources on this foundational figure of Ethiopia's chant tradition; Irfan Shahîd brings his knowledge of the Arab world to a discussion of Arab–Ethiopian relations in the Aksumite period; Irma Taddia offers some innovative approaches to teaching and use of Ethiopian historiographical sources in the study of Ethiopian history; Taye Assefa discusses two important contemporary Amharic mystery novels which promote “a vision of a ‘new’ Ethiopia” through the thriller genre, seeking to discuss issues around political disputes; Renate Jacobi's article lies outside the core of Ethiopian studies, in discussing the biography of medieval Islamic writer al-Sakhāwī, an important scholar of ḥadīth; Ewa Balicka-Witakowska discusses the highly decorated Gospel manuscripts from a relatively unknown church in Təgray, with 17 black-and-white figures; Alessandro Bausi analyses a recent Ethiopian edition of the Book of Clement giving insights into ways in which traditional scholars interact with and modify texts; Robert Beylot's article in French is a transcription of the Gəʿəz text and a French translation of a homily on Psalm 6, attributed to the seventh-century Greek writer, Anastasius the Sinaite, known also in Syriac; Aaron Michael Butts examines the Ethiopic translation of Ibn aṭ-Ṭayyib's Paradise of Christianity with a commentary comparing this version to the Arabic sources, and discussion of it as a source for the Ethiopic versions of parts of Theodore Bar Koni's Scholion; Monica Devens’ article is an annotated English translation of a litany of prayers found in a pocket-sized illuminated manuscript from mid-eighteenth century Gondär; Ted Erho's provides a comprehensive catalogue of the important collection of manuscripts from the Gundä Gunde monastery library; Habtemichael-Kidane discusses the veneration of Sunday in the Ethiopian tradition from a selection of liturgical texts; Manfred Kropp's German article presents the Gəʿəz text and German translation of a sixteenth-century document regarding the inheritance of the Ethiopian royal family from the Amba-Säl area; Basil Lourié describes a calendar found within the Liturgy of the Seventh Sabbath, a text from the Betä Ǝsraʾel community; Adam Carter McCollum presents a Gəʿəz text and English translation of a newly found text on Adam and the Judgement of the Angels from the Gundä Gunde library; Columba Stewart narrates the history of the important Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, on the fortieth anniversary of the project; Loren Stuckenbruck discusses in some detail the comparison of two manuscripts from the Gundä Gunde library that witness to the Ethiopic I recension of 1 Enoch, assessing their significance; Anaïs Wion focuses on nine different sources regarding the first known abbot of the Gonğ Tewodros Däbra Ṭəbab church, Abba Ləbsä Krəstos (d. 1647), including the oral tradition regarding his association with a giant sycamore tree in Gonğ; Witold Witakowski discusses several sources that recount the story of Cain, Abel and their sisters; Gideon Goldenberg discusses Old Amharic object suffixes; Grover Hudson contends with an established argument from Agaw language pointing to early Semitic groups settling in the north of the Ethiopian Highlands, challenging assumptions on the origin of Ethiopian Semitic in South Arabian migrations; Olga Kapeliuk discusses syntax in the early development of Ethiopian Semitic languages; and Rainer Voigt outlines the formation of the perfect tense in the Tigre language. Finally, there is a chronological selected bibliography of Getachew Haile's publications.
