European Sources For Ethiopian History Before 1634

EUROPEAN SOURCES FOR ETHIOPIAN HISTORY BEFORE 1634
Author(s): CHARLES BECKINGHAM

Source: Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde , 1987, Bd. 33, European Sources for
Sub-Saharan Africa Before 1900: Use and Abuse (1987), pp. 167-178
Published by: Frobenius Institute
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41409913
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Frobenius Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde
This content downloaded from

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Paideuma 33, 1987
EUROPEAN SOURCES FOR ETHIOPIAN HISTORY BEFORE 1634*
CHARLES BECKINGHAM
1. Introduction
a. Distinctive features of the sources for Ethiopian history

The written sources for the history of Ethiopia before 1900 are much more abundant, ex-
tend much further back in time, and present an editor with problems very different from
those offered by the other countries of sub-Saharan Africa. There are several reasons for this.
Unlike the other countries with which this volume is concerned, Ethiopia had an indigenous
language, Classical Ethiopie or Gecez, which was written at least from the 4th century of the
Christian era. From the period of the ancient kingdom of Aksum (? - 7th century) we have
inscriptions in Epigraphic South Arabian, Greek and Gecez, as well as coins. After the con-
version of the rulers to Christianity in the 4th century we have translations into Gecez, not
only of the canonical books of the Bible, but of the Apocrypha and of a number of pseudepi-
grapha, as well as some other works of theological or ecclesiological content. The fall of the
Aksumite kingdom in the 7th century was followed by a period of great obscurity, and we
know of no written works that survive from the ensuing Dark Ages. The so-called restoration
of the so-called Solomonid dynasty in the second half of the 13th century was followed by a
literary revival. From the 14th century onwards we have numerous historical works, most
obviously king-lists and chronicles, but there are others from which historical facts can be
deduced, in particular the multiplicity of hagiographies, many of which are still unpublished.
It is only recently that their value as a historical source has begun to be appreciated, primari-
ly because of the work of Taddesse Tamrat.1 While the most important chronicles have now
been translated into a Western language, French, Italian, Portuguese or English, this is not
true of the lives of the holy men. It is worth mentioning that a chronicle in Amharic, which
has become known as the Gojjam Chronicle, beginning with the Creation and ending in 1916,
was found in Debra Marqos some years ago.2
b. Arábie and Turkish sources
Ethiopia is also distinguished from the other countries of sub-Sah

fusion and early date of the relevant sources in oriental languages.
were close and long antedated the rise of Islam. The Sira> the life of
tells how some of his followers took refuge from persecution in M
Najashi , i. e. Negus. Islam is a highly literate culture. There are allusi
histories in Arabic, and more specifically in chronicles devoted to we
The expansion of the religion into the Horn of Africa and the wester
was responsible for the most important, though by no means the
* I wish to thank the British Academy for meeting the cost of my travel to
1 Tamrat 1972. See also Kaplan 1984.
2 The text and an English translation, annotated by Richard Pankhurst, are bei
by the British Academy in the Fontes Historiae Africanae series.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
168 Charles Beckingham
about Ethiopia, the Futiih al-Habasha of Shiháb al-d

graphic records of Islam on the African side of the Red
of the Dahlak archipelago have recently been edited an
(1 983) with exemplary care .
There are also relevant sources in Turkish. From the m
what is now northern Ethiopia constituted the Ottoman
are therefore pertinent archives in Istanbul, as well a
former have been studied and many of them reprodu
both, by the late Cengiz Orhonlu (1974). Unfortunately
and it is much to be hoped that the documents will be
translation by J. F. Spaulding, which is understood to b
These are not the only Turkish sources for the histor
lebi's description of his alleged journey to the Sudan in
has been printed in Turkish but not translated or adequ
the former Regencies in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli mus
history of the states on the southern fringe of the d
possibly the Hausa country and Bagirmi. It is importa
materials about Africa are published, African toponym
at least, if not the entire text, should be printed in the
as used for Turkish since 1928 is a transcription, not a
represent two, three, or even four different Arabic lette
proper names becomes almost impossible unless the edit
2. Review of the European sources
a. European sources before 1520
References to Ethiopia in West European languages in the period with which

cerned are both much more numerous and much earlier in date than is usual i
Africa. This is a consequence of the conversion of the ruler to Christianity in t
Thereafter there was always an important Christian community among the
least in the highlands, and for most, though not quite all, of the time the rei
was Christian. The Ethiopian Christians were in contact with their coreligio
through two somewhat tenuous links, which resulted in there being some aw
Ethiopia in the West. The first of these links was with Cairo. The Ethiopian c
a forged canon of the Council of Nicaea which ordained that the head of the
only bishop in the country, should always be a monk from Egypt. In conseque
incumbent died, it became necessary for the Emperor to send a mission to Egy
the Sultan and persuade the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria to choose a successo
which was often accepted only with reluctance. This curious arrangement, w
until this century, generated not only occasional references to Ethiopia in Ar
of events in Egypt, but also intermittent contacts with European merchants
visiting Cairo and Alexandria. In this way a little information about Ethiopi
3 Chihab ed-din Ahmed ben cAbd el-Qader 1897.

4 It is included in Evliya Çelebi 1938. For a study of Kanuri words recorded by Evliya
1969.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
European Sources for Ethiopian History before 1634 169
reached the West. An example of this, and of the confusion with which it was often atten
is afforded by the Pilgerfahrt of the German knight Arnold von Harff, who set out
Cologne in November 1496. Like his more famous predecessor Breydenbach he sometim
recorded the alphabets of the peoples among whom he travelled, or claimed to have trav
for parts of his narrative are certainly fictitious. Among the alphabets he reproduces is
which he attributes to the Ethiopians. It is in reality a clumsy representation of Coptic,
Harff s claim to have climbed the Mountains of the Moon and then descended the Nile to
Egypt is obviously not to be taken seriously. We can be sure that he did not visit Ethiopia
and that Egypt was the source of his confusing the Coptic and Ethiopie alphabets.
The second, and more important, point of contact between Ethiopia and Western Europe
was Jerusalem. Pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a prominent feature of Ethiopian Christiani-
ty, and while some pilgrims made the perilous journey back to their homes, others remained
in Palestine for the rest of their lives. Cernili (1943: 47) has established that there were
Ethiopians settled in Jerusalem at least from the 13th century, and possibly much earlier.
Inevitably there was some contact with pilgrims from Latin Europe, and some information
about the community and its country of origin was recorded in the frequent narratives of
visits to Palestine and guides to the Holy Places which proliferated in mediaeval Europe. It
should be remembered that theological differences, which were serious between the Roman
Church and the Monophysite Ethiopians, were not always reflected in the personal relations
between members of different denominations. Thus, when the Portuguese Franciscan Panta-
leão de Aveiro was in Jerusalem in 1563-4, those Christians most hostile to the Latins were
the schismatic Greeks and Georgians, whereas the heretical Ethiopians and Armenians be-
haved with marked friendliness. It is significant of the importance of Jerusalem for Western
knowledge of Ethiopia that when King João II of Portugal wanted to make contact with
Prester John, now identified with the Emperor of Ethiopia, in order to complement the dis-
coveries he hoped Bartolomeu Dias would make by sea, he sent two emissaries to Jerusalem.
They are said to have returned to Portugal because they did not know Arabic. This suggests
that the King had envisaged their meeting with Ethiopian pilgrims in Palestine and accom-
panying them on their return home. For his part, he may not have realised that this would
entail a long journey through Arabic-speaking countries; the envoys may have found such a
prospect daunting. As is well known, two others were then sent, Afonso de Paiva and Pero
da Covilhã, but they proceeded by way of Rhodes and Cairo. Whether Paiva ever reached
Ethiopia we do not know. Covilhã certainly did, but through Zeila. Neither of them is re-
corded as having gone to Jerusalem.
There were also some direct contacts. Some Ethiopians came to Europe, and some
Europeans went to Ethiopia, at least in the 14th and 15th centuries. About 1310 thirty
Ethiopian legati , who had been sent ad regem Hispaniarum , are said to have been detained
in Genoa on their return journey and to have met there the cartographer Giovanni da Ca-
rignano.5 This seems to have occasioned the removal of Prester John from inner Asia to the
upper Nile. An Italian letter addressed to the Emperor Charles IV, supposedly by Prester
John, accords to the writer the curious name Voddomaradeg, evidently a corruption of We-
dem Ar'ad> the name of the Ethiopian Emperor who was reigning at the time of this embassy.6
Several allusions to this mission occur in scholarly European works of the 15 th and 16th
5 Bergomensis 1483.
6 Ullendorff and Beckingham 1982.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
centuries, but it excited interest primarily because it

ment of Papal supremacy by the Ethiopians.7
A number of Europeans, Genoese, Catalans and Greek
in the 14th and 15th centuries. We find passing refere
cords of the country that have been traced. Most of th
and in any event may not have been able to write. T
part artisans, carpenters, shipwrights, etc., whose skil
else to have been engaged in selling weapons, like the
Zeila when it was burnt by the Portuguese in 15 17.
b. Portuguese sources, 1520-50
Their discovery of the sea route to India enabled the Portuguese to reach E
the ports of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. In consequence there are a
tuguese sources for Ethiopian history dating from the first half of the 16th ce
of an altogether different character from those previously available. The mo
the narratives of men who had spent an appreciable time in the country and
ly returned to Europe. By far the most valuable is the work of Francisco Al
chaplain to the embassy of Dom Rodrigo de Lima, who spent almost exactly
country, from 1520 to 1526. His book provides the first detailed descripti
any language, though anyone using it is confronted by bibliographical pro
complexity. The information supplied by these travellers can sometimes b
from the writings of the contemporary historians who chronicled the Portu
None of the latter ever visited Ethiopia, but they sometimes met and ques
those who had done so.9
c. Writings of the Jesuits in the early 17th century

Following their conquest of Egypt in 1 5 1 7 the Ottomans extended their control over bot
shores of the Red Sea, culminating in their occupation of Massawa in 1555. This, and the re
lated expansion of Muslim power in the Horn of Africa, made Ethiopia much harder of acces
for the Portuguese, and contact was virtually interrupted during the second half of the 16th
century. It was restored by a small number of Jesuit Fathers, most though not all of them
Portuguese, who, at great risk, made their way to what had become a land-locked kingdom.
They endeavoured, with some limited and temporary success, to convert the people from
their ancient Monophysite beliefs and obedience to the Coptic Patriarchate. The attempt
ended in failure, the proscription of the Catholics, the exile or execution of the missionaries
and an almost total interruption of contacts with the West until the mid-1 8th century. Near
ly all highly educated men, they wrote systematic accounts of the country, its history, ad-
ministration, ethnography and fauna, which are of the greatest value, one of their aims bein
to discredit the absurdities about Ethiopia that had been propagated in two books by
7 Ibid.: 7 n. 1.
8 This applies to Damião de Goes, João de Barros, Diogo do Couto, Fernão Lopez de Castanheda and
Caspar Correa, among others.
9 Barros, who may never have been to Africa (though he was appointed to a post there), talked with
Alvarez.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
Spanish Dominican, Luís de Urreta (1610, 1611). For reasons that are not entirely clea
however, most of what they wrote remained unpublished until the present century.10
3. Problems of editing the European sources
a. The meaning of "Ethiopia"

The principal difficulty presented by the fragmentary and ambiguous reference
pia in mediaeval European texts is that of knowing when the real Ethiopia is me
ledge of what lay behind Dar al- Islam was imprecise. I have suggested elsewhere t
upon Genesis chapter XI as a source of infallible topographical information may
hanced the confusion, for it requires the Nile to have the same source as the Tigr
Euphrates, let alone whatever river the Pison is assumed to be.11 Above all we have
with the use of "Indians" and "Ethiopians" as synonyms, and with the concept o
as a part of India; Marco Polo identified it as Middle India. The confusion between
very old and there is no need to repeat here the long list of examples cited by Sir He
It is, however, worth mentioning the superscription of the letter which Pope Ale
dated from the Rialto on 27 September 1177, karissimo in Christo filio Iohanni
magnifico Indorum regi. Whoever this John, whose servants had met a member of
household, may have been, he cannot have been an Indian and he may well have
Emperor of Ethiopia. Yet the ambiguous terminology of so many mediaeval text
necessarily imply ignorance of the topographical facts. Thus the Dominican Arc
Sultanieh, William Adam, who wrote his tract De modo Saracenos extirpandi early
century, tells us that he had spent nine months on the island of Soco tra when try
Ethiopia (Adam 1906). Whether he succeeded is not certain as his language is not
plicit, but it is evident that he knew where Ethiopia was in relation to the Red
Indian Ocean.
The loose use of "Ethiopia" and "Ethiopians" continued long after the Portuguese voyages
had made the distance separating Africa from the Indian sub-continent a matter of common
knowledge. In 1627 Alonso de Sandoval, the Rector of the Jesuit college at Cartagena in
South America, entitled his book De instauranda AEthiopum salute.1* It is concerned not
only with the inhabitants of Black Africa, but includes much about India, the Moluccas and
the Philippines. It appears that for Sandoval any dark-skinned person was an aethiops. Even
when "Ethiopia" ceased to be interchangeable with "Middle India" the name continued to
be applied vaguely to the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, while the Christian kingdom came to
be more usually called Abyssinia. From the 16th century onwards there was, as can be seen
from contemporary maps, a disposition to bring the southern boundary of the true Ethiopia
much too far to the south, so that places like Malindi and Mombasa were shown in the same
latitude as Gojjam.14 The error was partly one of latitude, but it was currently supposed that
the Emperor exercised some degree of suzerainty over most of the interior of sub-Saharan
10 The works of Paez, Almeida, Barradas and Mendez were not published until they were included in
Beccari 1905-17.
11 Beckingham 1980: 300 (reprinted in idem 1983).
12 Polo 1921, Vol. 2: 431 n. 1.
13 Sandoval 1627. The book is in Spanish, but the licence to publish it reters to tne Latin nue, wnicn
was used for the second edition in 1647.
14 See for example Gastaldi's map, Venice, 1564, reproduced in Alvarez 1УЫ, vol. i.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
Africa, a belief reinforced by his identification with O

This assumption explains the persistent attempts of t
with him by despatching converted, Portuguese-speaki
the interior to look for Prester John. Gregorio da Quad
Arabia, was instructed to ascend the Congo river to Et
the Nile. Luckily for him, the King of Kongo refused t
This exaggeration of the wealth and power of the Empe
is in some measure a remote echo of the preposterous
addressed to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenu
ations of the power of the Ethiopian Emperor were rev
Ahmad Gran when, far from Ethiopia assisting the P
querque had once hoped, it was the Portuguese who ca
Fortunately one of the survivors of the small continge
Portugal and wrote a straightforward narrative of the e
b.The identification of proper names

The identification of the proper names occurring in all these sources presents
of a kind which will be familiar to students of the history of almost any part of su
Africa. It might be supposed that the fact that Ethiopia had a written language w
helped to stabilise the spelling of such names and to make them more recognisable.
extent this is true, but by the 16th century the written language, Gecez, had cea
spoken for something like a millennium. Even relatively learned Ethiopians did n
know it well, as is illustrated by the amusing description given by Alvarez (1540,
chapter 105) of the inditing of the Emperor's letters to the Pope and the King of
The vernaculars, even those most widely used, Amharic and Tigrinya, were not yet
at all. Nor can we be sure how well the authors of our sources knew any of these l
Alvarez seems not to have distinguished between Gecez and Tigrinya.15 Paez, evid
gifted linguist, certainly knew some Gecez and utilised chronicles in that language,
Jesuits, as missionaries, must have tried to acquire some knowledge of the languag
in the provinces in which they worked. Even so, it must be remembered that when the
these names they were transcribing, not transliterating, and that their spelling is a
to represent the pronunciation they heard.
Like so many other countries in Africa Ethiopia has undergone considerable ethnic
ance since it first became known to Europeans. The Muslim and Galla invasions of t
quarter of the 16th century are particularly important in this respect. Districts w
formerly been inhabited by speakers of a Semitic language were sometimes devas
repopulated by Galla (Oromo) or other peoples with consequent changes or distort
toponyms. The history of these movements of population is very imperfectly kn
occasion they could result in the displacement of a name from one site to another,
ably along with the original occupants, so that an identification which was correct a
becomes inaccurate some years later. The most obvious example of this is Damot,
15 In the last chapter of his book, which contains the answers he gave to questions posed by
bishop of Braga, he says: "There are many books in the churches all written on parchment . . .
writing and language is Tigia, which is that of the first country in which Christianity began."

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
was originally a province on the left bank of the Blue Nile, but which later came to be on
opposite bank, as it still is.
c. Bibliographical problems
Unfortunately some of the most valuable 16th and 17th century books on Ethio
fraught with bibliographical difficulties of great complexity. This is particularly tr
works of Alvarez and Lobo, which are discussed in some detail below. Printers often
the role of editors, for which they were not necessarily qualified, correcting wha
supposed, not always rightly, to be mistakes, incorporating their own explanatory glo
the text, suppressing passages which they thought might offend the political or ecc
authorities, or which they merely found uninteresting. Ramusio, who was respons
collecting, translating and publishing so much information about Africa, can be sh
have acted on these principles. In many instances the author himself had no opportun
to influence what the printer did. Alvarez was in Italy when his book was first publ
Lisbon and was dead by the time that Ramusio published another version. The majo
our sources were published posthumously.
d. Prejudices and preoccupations of the authors

Obviously these must be borne in mind when assessing the value of any descriptive wor
Most of our sources, and all of the more important, were written by priests who naturally
took a special interest in the doctrines and practices of the Ethiopian church. Though Alva
rez did not realise that it was Monophysite, and was so ignorant of ecclesiastical history th
he confused the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, the highly trained Jesuits were well awa
of the theological implications of such practices as they condemned. Their own beliefs inevit
ly influenced their judgments but they knew what they believed and on what authority. It
easy for a reader to discount, when necessary, the effect of their consciously held, precise
defined, and explicit convictions. Patriotic prejudice is not often a significant factor in th
sources. The attitude of the authors to Africans was free from the condescension th
characterised so much European writing in the 19th century. They came to understand tha
the Ethiopians had to be classed as heretics, but they had no sense of racial superiority. Th
was true also of their attitude to Muslims. When the Emperor asked the Portuguese ambassad
who had taught the Turks to make bombards he was told that "the Turks were men, and h
the skill and knowledge of men, perfect in all things excepting in the faith" (Alvarez 1540
Part 1 , chapter 76).
e. Political and ecclesiastical censorship
The political implications of what the Jesuits wrote, and of what they w
permitted to publish, are more elusive and are sometimes of considerabl
appreciating their works. As everyone knows, the Society of Jesus was c
questions of state policy. The Portuguese governors in India were anxious
they could from Ethiopia against the Ottomans; from the first the Ethi
weapons and military assistance. At a later date the Jesuits were eager to p
from India for the Emperor Susenyos when he professed obedience t

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
against his successor Fasiladas when he began to per

Emperor seems to have wanted help, not only again
Africa, but also against his own nobles. This is certai
the Catholic Church as a threat to their own autono
Fernandez the elder was thwarted in his attempt to r
easy to think of other factors even more likely to
political involvement of the Society was, of course, n
of the Jesuits who was able to leave Ethiopia, Jerón
1634 and left in the following February for Europe
Portugal for something which the Viceroy in Goa wa
ment of a Portuguese garrison in Massawa. After the
of the Spanish Habsburgs by the House of Bragança Lo
as a Spanish sympathiser. The Society was closely in
last years, when he was living in Lisbon, it was, lik
arrange a treaty of peace between Portugal and Spain
brought the English envoy Sir Robert Southwell int
Fellow of the Royal Society of London and later bec
London the manuscript of several essays by Lobo wh
Wyche and published at the Royal Society's instance
be extracts from the travel narrative Lobo was know
probably answers to specific questions, perhaps p
Society's suggestion. This constant involvement with
be forgotten by any reader of the Jesuit narratives
always wholly understand, the extraordinary delay in
great interest and importance.
4, Examples of editorial problems

a. Alvarez
The Verdadera Informaçam das terras do Preste Joam of Alvarez was fi

Lisbon in 1540. It is an unsatisfactory edition. There are many misprints,
cedilla and of abbreviations, and the spelling of proper names are all erratic
as is given is often wrong. Ten years later Ramusio (1550) included an Italia
first volume of his great compilation. It is evident that in editing this te
other occasions, was concerned to produce a lucid and readable narrative.
troduced into the translation what were really explanatory glosses of his o
always correct.17 This, however, is not the principal difficulty. Ramusio
edition of 1540, but he also used a different version, which had been sent
script by Damião de Goes. The manuscript concerned has disappeared but
the source of information additional to what is in the Lisbon text and wh
16 Wychc 1669. Wyche was the translator; Lobo's name is not mentioned. The Portu
in the Library of the Royal Society, London.
17 For example, in Part 1 chapter 101 he wrongly identifies an interpreter called J
Abreu.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
appears in Ramusio. So much is clear from Ramusio's preface and it ought never to ha
been assumed, though it often was, that his version is no more than an abridgment of
Portuguese.18 There are, however, further complications. The Portuguese edition was cert
not seen through the press by the author. The "Prologue to the King our Lord" was thou
by the late Roberto Almagià (1941) to imply this. Alvarez, however, went to Italy with D
Martinho de Portugal in time to be present at the consistory in Bologna in January 153
seems never to have returned to Portugal. He died and was buried in Rome before Novem
1542. The Prologue, written in a style that differs markedly from that of the rest of the b
was almost certainly written by the printer Luis Rodriguez, who states that he went to
to procure types for printing it, something that Alvarez, who was a royal chaplain, is m
unlikely to have done. Less authority, therefore, attaches to the 1540 text than has of
been assumed.
This is by no means the end of the bibliographical labyrinth in which an editor of Alvarez
can lose his way. In 1941 Almagià published a pamphlet which for obvious reasons did not
become as well known as it would have done a few years earlier or later. In it he announced
the discovery of three manuscript versions of Alvarez, all in Italian, among the Codices Otto-
boniani in the Vatican Library. There are important differences between them and the other
versions and they contain four preliminary chapters which are missing from both the Lisbon
and the Venice editions.19 These Almagià printed in his pamphlet. This is still not the end of
the matter. Almagià was aware of, but was unable to consult, two further manuscript versions
in Italian which were prepared for Lodovico Beccadelli, the Archbishop of Ragusa, and are
preserved in the Biblioteca Palatina at Parma. Huntingford and I were able to examine them
in 1962. A note at the end of Pal. 977 A, presumably by Beccadelli, confirms the statement
of Paolo Giovio that Alvarez died in Rome, and adds that he had been buried in the church
of Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi.20
Finally a manuscript in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice refers to his having written a
comprehensive treatise about the Ethiopians, divided into five books and including an account
of his journey. (The latter appears to constitute the bulk of the versions published in 1540
and 1550.) This tract was published anonymously at Frankfurt am Main in 1603 in the
second volume of a collection called Hispaniae illustratele scriptores varii , and again by Beccari
in Volume X of his great collection. It has now been shown conclusively by Tedeschi (1985)
that it was written and was first printed at Bologna by a Flemish printer, Jacob Keymolen.
The significance of this is that the tract is now known to have been written by someone who
was in Bologna at the time of the consistory, who may well have met Alvarez and actually
seen the treatise of which he writes. His description of it must therefore be taken more
seriously than I for one had previously been disposed to do. In short, we cannot be sure what
is the relation of the surviving versions, whether in print or in manuscript, to what Alvarez
originally wrote. The answer may lie undetected in an Italian library.
18 All significant additions and variants in the Ramusio text are recorded in the revised English translation
of Alvarez (1961).
19 These four chapters were included in the 1961 translation.
20 G. W. B. Huntingford in 1962, Edward UUendorff and I in 1964, and Salvatore icaescni more recent-
ly, have all searched the church in vain for any trace of his grave or of a funerary inscription.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
b. Works in Beccari's collection
The works of Paez, Barradas, Almeida and Mendez, and almost

tracts which Beccari included in his collection had remained unp
century.21 In 1660, however, another Jesuit, Balthasar Telles, wh
Africa, published an abridgment of Almeida's history, which was
Paez's, and incorporated in it some material for which he was ind
by then returned to Lisbon for good (Telles 1660). Beccari did no
published but he provided each work with its own index and supp
index to the whole collection in a separate volume. For two of the
scripts which he did not use. In editing Paez's history Beccari relie
Jesuit archives. There is another in what used to be the Public Lib
the Library of the University of the Minho. This has been publi
without annotation (Páez 1945: 46). For his edition of Almeid
manuscript in what is now the British Library, but the Schoo
Studies in the University of London possesses another manuscript
be a corrected version of the one published by Bèccari.22
c. Lobo
The travel narrative of Jerónimo Lobo, generally known as the Itinerár

graphical problems only less complicated than those connected with Al
published in 1728 in a French translation made by the Abbé Le Grand f
which had been lent to him by the Conde de Ericeira.23 It was from th
Samuel Johnson made his celebrated, abridged, English version, recent
culous scholarship by Joel J. Gold (Johnson 1985). The original manusc
disappeared and was assumed to have been lost in the Lisbon earthquake
seem likely that this may have happened to the Ericeira manuscript. How
of the book was displayed at a meeting of the Royal Academy of Science
At last, in 1947 P. Manuel Gonçalves da Costa discovered a manuscript in
Public Library of Braga, which was also the home of the second manuscript
P. da Costa argues convincingly that the Braga manuscript represents an
book which Lobo subsequently revised, and that the lost Ericeira manusc
revised version. We still do not know, therefore, whether certain feat
translation are to be ascribed to revision by Lobo himself or by Le Gran
The Itinerário is in many ways surprisingly different from the works
missionaries to Ethiopia. So much is this so that when I first read Le Gra
21 Beccari 1905-17. The first volume of the collection is entitled Notizie e Saggi
series title.
22 Huntingford and I used the S. O. A. S. manuscript for the extracts from Almei
and edited in Beckingham and Huntingford 1954.
23 Le Grand 1728. There are three states of the title-page; in the other two "Relat
and only Paris is given as the imprint.
24 P. da Costa's discovery was first announced briefly in an article in A Voz de Lameg
where it failed to attract the attention of international scholarship. It was broug
years later by Francis Rogers. Through his good offices P. da Costa was enabled
1971)datÍOn t0 pUblÍSh a comPretlensive edition of all Lobo's writings in the original Portuguese (Lobo

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
any Portuguese text was known, I assumed that the Abbé must have taken liberties with th
original in order to adapt it to the taste of the French reading public of the age of Louis XV
In this I was wholly mistaken. I mention this to show how cautious editors need to be in
making assumptions about works they have not seen. We now know that Lobo was a man
with a robust contempt for anything that he regarded as superstition, and that he had a
considerable sense of humour, something which the others either lacked or carefully con
cealed. His is also a far less impersonal narrative than theirs. Indeed in some respects Lob
was not unlike the famous 18th century traveller to Ethiopia, James Bruce, who derided him
so ignorantly and outrageously. Anyone who compares the descriptions of the source of th
Nile by Paez, Almeida, Lobo and Bruce, and judges them by the very careful account by th
English traveller R. E. Cheesman (1936) can only conclude that the Jesuits were far more
accurate observers than their blustering and bombastic detractor.
5. Conclusion
Since Ethiopia was in no sense colonised in this period, and since it had no trade with
Europe, the sources with which we are concerned are almost entirely narratives, not archives.
They noticeably lack continuity. Fragmentary in classical times, they disappear altogether
after Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century), slowly emerge again in the later Middle Ages,
become really informative in the early 16th century, disappear again with the Ottoman
domination of the Red Sea, and reappear with the mission of Paez and his successors, only
to disappear again with the restoration of Monophysite Christianity. The editing of these
sources does not present problems peculiar to Ethiopia. As in many other parts of sub-Saharan
Africa the prospective editor will mourn the lack of an adequate gazetteer.25 There is no
flora of Ethiopia. There are no grammars or vocabularies of a number of languages of at least
local importance. In no other part of sub-Saharan Africa, however, can the European sources
be supplemented by a continuous, indigenous historiographical tradition, so that in the early
16th century, and above all in the first three decades of the 17th, it is possible to read of the
same events as described by both Ethiopians and Europeans.
It does not seem likely that many more Ethiopian chronicles will be discovered, though
careful study of the religious literature, in particular the hagiographies, may yield much
valuable historical information. It is not improbable that the Renaissance libraries of Italy
and the Iberian peninsula may contain undetected manuscripts that would clarify the status
of the extant versions of Alvarez and other 16th century books. Except for Lobo's Itinerário
the Jesuit writings offer few bibliographical problems. They merely await adequate annota-
tion.
25 The British Academy hopes to publish in the Fontes Historiac Africanae series, not later than 1987, a
Historical Geography of Ethiopia by the late G. W. B. Huntingford. Though arranged chronologically
it is tantamount to a historical gazetteer of the toponyms occurring in the sources for Ethiopian history
prior to 1700.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC
Bibliography
Adam, William, 1906: De modo Saracenos extirpandi

ments arméniens, Vol. 2. Paris.
Almagià, Roberto, 1941: Contributi alla storia della con
Alvarez, Francisco, 1540: Ho Preste Joam das Indias. Ve
[n. p., probably Lisbon].
-, 1961: The Prester John of the Indies: a true relation
of Lord Stanley of Alderley (1881) revised and edited
and G. W. B. Huntingford. Cambridge.
Beccari, Camillo, 1905-17: Rerum aethiopicarum script
Beckingham, C. F., 1980: The quest for Prester John. B
62: 290-310.
-, 1983: Between Islam and Christendom. London.
-, and G. W. B. Huntingford, eds., 1954: Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646. London.
Bergomensis, Jacobus Philippus [= Jacopo Filippo Foresti], 1483: Supplementum chronicarum
Bruce, James, 1964: Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile , ed. С. F. Beckingham. Edinbur
Çelebi: see Evliya Çelebi.
Cerulli, Enrico, 1943-47: Etiopi in Palestina. 2 vols. Rome.
Cheesman, R. E., 1936: Lake Tana and the Blue Nile. London.
Chihab ed-din Ahmed ben cAbd el-Qader, surnomme Arab-Faqih, 1897: Histoire de la co
l'Abyssinie (XVIe siècle) , trans, and ed. René Basset. Paris.
Evliya Çelebi, 1938: Evliya Çelebinin Seyahatnamesi , Vol. 10. Istanbul.
Hair, P. E. H., 1969: Early Kanuri vocabularies (1670-1820). Journal of West African Langu
27-29.
Johnson, Samuel, 1985: A Voyage to Abyssinia (Translated from the French) , ed. Joel J. Gold. Ne
and London.
Kaplan, Steven, 1984: The Monastic Holy Man and the Christianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia.
Wiesbaden.
Le Grand, J., 1728: Voyage historique d'Abyssinie. Paris and The Hague.
Lobo, Jerónimo, 1971: Itinerário e outros escritos inéditos , ed. M. Gonçalves da Costa. Barcelos.
Orhonlu, Cengiz, 1974: Habe§ eyaleti. Istanbul.
Paez, Pedro, 1945-46: História da Etiópia. Oporto.
Polo, Marco, 1921: The Book of Ser Marco Polo. Translated and edited by Sir Henry Yule. 3rd edition.
2 vols. London.
Ramusio, G. В., 1550: Navigationi et Viaggi. Venice.
Sandoval, Alonso de, 1627: Naturaleza, policia sagrada i profana , costumbres i ritos, disciplina i catechis-
mo evangelico de todos etiopes. Seville.
Schneider, Madeleine, 1983 : Stèles funéraires musulmanes des Iles Dahlak (Mer Rouge) . 2 vols. Cairo.
Tamrat, Taddesse, 1972: Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527. Oxford.
Tedeschi, Salvatore, 1985: Paolo Giovio e la conoscenza dell'Etiopia nel Rinascimento. In: Atti del Con-
vegno Paolo Giovio: il Rinascimento e la Memoria (Como, 3-5 Giugno 1983). Como.
Telles, Balthasar, 1660: Historia geral de Ethiopia a alta. Coimbra.
Ullendorff, E. and C. F. Beckingham, 1982: The Hebrew Letters of Prester John. Oxford.
Urreta, Luis de, 1610: Historia ecclesiastica, politica, natural y moral de los grandes y remotos Reynos de
la Etiopia. Valencia.
-, 161 1 : Historia de la Sagrada Orden de Predicadores en los remotos reynos de la Etiopia. Valencia.
Wyche, Sir Peter, 1669: A Short Relation of the River Nile, of its source and current; of its overflowing
the Compagnia of AEgypt, till it runs into the Mediterranean and of other curiosities: written by an
eye-witnesse, who lived many years in the chief kingdoms of the Abyssine Empire. London.

176.172.183.59 on Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:33:18 UTC

European Sources For Ethiopian History Before 1634

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

European Sources For Ethiopian History Before 1634

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

EUROPEAN SOURCES FOR ETHIOPIAN HISTORY BEFORE 1634

Author(s): CHARLES BECKINGHAM

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41409913

This content downloaded from