[1]The first of these articles is C. Conti Rossini, ‘Aethiopica’, Rivista degli Studi Orientali 9, 1923, 365-81, 449~8, esp. 452-55. In § 15 ‘Un editto di re Zar’a Yā‘qob per l’Eritrea’ = BL Or. 481 F 208 r, we see the division of northern Ethiopia into two mission dioceses of the two Ewostatian monasteries Däbrä Bizän and Däbrä Maryam. This document of AD 1456/7 is not only interesting from an ecclesiastical perspective, it also proves that Zär’a Ya‘qob had involved the Ewostatians in imperial politics. Even more important is its value as an ethnographic map. The dioceses are listed not only by regions, but also by peoples. A second article is Conti Rossini, ‘Sulle missioni domenicane in Etiopia nel secolo XIV’, Rendiconti dell’Accademia Reale dei Lincei, 1940, 72-98, esp. 91-2, § 6, which examines document No. 3, g^welt to Bätärgelä Maryam. We will discuss his interpretation of it in some detail. A third article is Conti Rossini, ‘Tre piccoli testi etiopici’, Rivista degli Studi Orientali 23, 1948, 46-51, esp. 46-7. In § 1, he examines document no. 1 = BL Or 481 F 124, while § 2 contains a text on the construction of the church of Däbrä Egziabǝḥer-Ab on Amba Geshe by Dawit II, and his generous gifts of relics, taken from the manuscript d’Abbadie 256 (see Conti Rossini, ‘Notice sur les manuscrits éthiopiens de la collection d’Abbadie’, extract from Journal Asiatique, Paris, 1914, no. 253, 251 ff). These relics were part of an extensive trade after the fall of Constantinople, a trade in which Ethiopia and many other countries were involved. On the basis of another document, relating to the same church and relics but originating from Zär’a Ya‘qob, Conti Rossini wrote ‘Ma le tradizioni su re Dāwit e, assai meglio un documento di re Zar’a Yā‘qob, che spero di ritrovare fra le mie carte e pubblicare, dimostrano come il trafffico delle reliquie, divenuto assai intenso quando con la presa di Costantinopoli nel 1204 le leipsana si diffusero per l’Europa intera, fin con l’avere tarde ripercussioni anche in fondo all’ Africa Cristiana.’ The document for which Conti Rossini was searching in his papers is contained in the manuscript BL Or. 481 (f. 209 r). He definitely had a copy among his excerpts, and it was the subject of a later study. This much has already been said. The heading yä-milad däbdäbbe does not indicate that this is a part of the work sharing the same name of Zär’a Ya‘qob. Instead, according to the practice of the scribe of BL Or. 481, the relevant document (däbdäbbe) was included as an attachment within a copy of the Mäṣḥafä Milad, one of the Vorlagen for the manuscript.

[2]Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-1527, Oxford, 1972, esp. 100-3 and 236-7.

[3]M. Kropp, ‘Dann senke das Haupt und gib ihr nicht im Zorn’ : Eine testamentarische Verfügung des Kaisers ‘Amdä-Ṣǝyon aus dem Archiv der Hs. BM. Or. 481’, Orientalia Suecana, 28-9, 1989-90, 92-104.

[4]Haddis Gebre-Meskel, A Survey of Representative Land Charters of the Ethiopian Empire (1314-1868) and Related Marginal Notes in Manuscripts in the British Library, the Royal Library and the University Libraries of Cambridge and Manchester, Ph.D. Diss., University of London, 1992. The author was kind enough to make his work available to me, for which I have been very grateful indeed. He has examined the greater part of the documents recorded in manuscript BL Or. 481, including the four documents discussed in the present paper. Even where I disagree with him, I do not feel able to enter into a lengthy and detailed discussion of his interpretations. This would not seem to be appropriate as long as the work remains unpublished.

[5]A. Bausi, ‘Su alcuni manoscritti presso comunità monastiche dell’Eritrea’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 28, 1994 (1996), 13-69 ; plates I-VII.

[6]This relates of course to the legal instruments recorded in all the manuscripts cited. The following should be defined as Vorlagen and source manuscripts : two Gospels, one from the Church of Däbrä Egziabǝḥer-Ab, the other from the Church of the Virgin Mary of Amba Geshe, as well as a copy of the Mäṣḥafä Milad. The documents contained in these manuscripts were recorded in the seventeenth century in a collection of other material, including the Octateuch, Gospels, and theological treatises, which constitutes the manuscript BL Or. 481.

[7]The description can be found in European literature as early as Ludolf and his sources. Its precise origin is still unknown. The curious title should be avoided. The dynasty called itself Betä Esra’el or simply Esra’el, and this was employed throughout the Ethiopian historical tradition. Empire and power are called mänbärä Dawit (Throne of David). In the texts examined here, Esra’el often has the precise meaning of Amba Geshe, in other words, it refers to the residence of the royal family.

[8]Not a state gift, as often maintained, e.g. Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State, 236. The edition of Conti Rossini (see n. 1), which correctly acknowledges the great significance for the history of the ethnic groups in Eritrea, should be adjusted to some extent.

[9]Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, No. 46 (136 ; text 280) “private land charter”.

[10]Ibid., : (sic) ; Conti Rossini, ‘Tre piccoli testi etiopici’, 46 : : ; one might have expected : Change of person is not unusual, and there is also the question of whether the verb is Amharic or Ge‘ez.

[11]Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, no. 1 (88 ; text 268) ‘church land charter’. Bätärgelä Maryam is understood to be the name of a church. The author has not recognized the fact that the documents are interrelated and has arranged them according to his classifications into separate areas. Furthermore, he incorrectly isolates individual documents. In the previous text, ka‘bä ought to have been a clue.

[12]Ibid., no. 47 a (136 ; text 180). There is another g^wǝlt document in the collection for Ṣäbälä-Mika’el concerning the estates mentioned here, and yet another with different regulations (f. 208 r ; cf. ibid., No. 47 b). They are recorded here as documents no. 3 a and 3 b.

[13]Ibid., no. 48 (137 ; text 280).

[14]For example, one might compare the documents concerning the four appanages of Däǧǧazmač Ḫaylu, which belonged to him quite legally in the eighteenth century because of his descent from princesses who were daughters of the kings Na’od, Eskǝnder, and Lǝbnä Dǝngǝl. (M. Kropp, Die äthiopischen Königschroniken in der Samlung des Däǧǧazmač Ḫaylu, Heidelberg, 1989, 165-177.)

[15]G.W.B. Huntingford, The Historical Geography of Ethiopia, Oxford, 1989.

[16]In the later documents the categories are reduced considerably. The categories for land, mǝdr and bota, usually remain, and serve in place of the others. The fact that taxation practice retained its great variety until the twentieth century is proven in the work by Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq.

[17]This would be an important methodological hypothesis for the economic history of medieval Ethiopia, which ought to be open to verification or falsification by analysing the present source material. In any case, it is a useful basis for a structured interpretation of the texts.

[18]Documents of this kind are preserved in the BL Or. 481, e.g. f. 92 r for the descendants of Zär’a Ya‘qob, f. 132 for Minas and the descendants of various predecessors. Reference is made to this category of g^wǝlt documents by Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, 208-9, nos. 182, 183, 186, and 187. He has the individual documents in mind, however, and not the character of the complete collection. He therefore fails to notice that in all probability the other documents should also be attributed to individual persons in the same category.

[19]Sons of ’Amdä Ṣǝyon, as far as they are known from the sources, all bear names composed with -säggäd : Bahr-Säggäd, Saf-Säggäd. His son and successor Sayfä-Ar’ad could not have adopted this throne name until a later date (see Taddesse Tamrat, ‘Problems of Royal Succession in Fifteenth Century Ethiopia : A Presentation of Documents’, IV Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici, Roma 1972, Rome 1974, 501-35.)

[20]See also Taddesse Tamrat, ‘Problems of Royal Sucession’ and Getatchew Haile, ‘Power Struggle in the Medieval Court of Ethiopia : The Case of Bätärgéla-Maryam’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies 15, 1982, 37-55.

[21]See also the report of Almeida about Amba Geshe (C. F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, Some Records of Ethiopia, London, 1954, 97-101 = Almeida II, 22). As potential rivals for the throne, the male descendants were isolated on Amba Geshe, as we have already mentioned. Special dignitaries, the guardians of Amba Geshe (see document no. 5), administered the estates that supported them, collecting taxes and delivering them to the princes.

[22]It should therefore be assumed that this relates to connected plots of land.

[23]One field research task would also be to determine the extent to which the old relationships have been preserved in the names used today.

[24]The syntactical construction ‘In (whom we) the Father… praise…’ is adopted for reasons to do with the appropriate document formula.

[25]The name is written here with the accusative ending -n, quite in keeping with the Amharic patterns that stand behind the Ge‘ez document. The variation below shows that this was not consistently assumed to be part of the name. This feature can be found in other names as well. The land is perhaps exactly the same as yägǝmba, mentioned in the document concerning the hereditary property of the dynasty on Amba Geshe, together with Ganza and Sälgo (see below) as being rǝst of Lǝbnä Dǝngǝl in the sixteenth century.

[26]According to Conti Rossini, ‘Tre piccoli testi etiopici’, 47, äsg^wällätä is used as the simple causative (in current terms) äsg^wällätä given as fief, not ‘to arrange to have a fief requested’. If one did not wish to follow this assumption, one would adopt the interpretation that ‘Amdä Ṣǝyon arranged for the specified persons to donate the fief. But this is improbable, because it would mean that the most important partner, the beneficiary of the fief, would not be mentioned in the document. The present translation ‘to arrange to have given as fief’ takes into consideration the definite meaning of äsg^wällätä, leaving open as the possibility that the king would arrange for another person to donate land as fief for the purpose in question. One might compare, for example, documents no. 6 and 20 in Conti Rossini, ‘L’evangelo d’oro di Dabra Libanos’, Rendiconti dell’Accademia Reale dei Lincei, ser.5, vol. 10, 1901, 177-219, in which the king arranges for his spouse to donate a fief. It should be admitted that in document no. 3, the verbal form äsg^wällätä is also used in the sense of ‘to donate a fief’, as it is in BL Or. 481 f.-132 (= Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, no. 5 ; 89, 269). This rather suggests that all the forms mentioned are used promiscuously and without any distinction in meaning, a conclusion that would also be important for the study of early forms of Amharic.

[27]Here too a form of the name has been chosen that is closer to the spoken language. The pure Ge‘ez form would be yagbǝ’a (lä-) Ṣǝyon.

[28]The meaning of the text is obvious. There is a shift from the first person to the third person, which can be explained from the perspective of the scribe who is recording the words of the king. This shift occurs frequently, especially in reports of direct speech.

[29]According to the evidence of another document in the manuscript (f. 208 r ; cf. Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, 184 and 212), Žan-Ṣǝrar geta as his own title is to be distinguished from Žan-Ṣǝrar ; in this case the plenipotentiary of Žan-Ṣǝrar. A comparison with the otherwise parallel list in document no. 4 reveals an individual trait displayed by the scribe of document no. 1. He usually supplies the name of each dignitary with the generic geta (Sir), which is therefore not to be interpreted as a part of the preceding individual title.

[30]As in the following cases, geta is an unspecified rank, equivalent to ‘Sir’, or ‘Officer’.

[31]An Amharic name, meaning in this case ‘one has made me equal’. The linguistic material for this name and others ought to be collected and examined as evidence for the early stages of Amharic. It is not entirely clear whether in this instance one should envisage three holders of the same office, or whether the two geta are simply listed on account of their capacity as witnesses without any further specification. The punctuation of the text, which is followed exactly in the edition, provides no clues to understanding the point, and this is true of other places in the lists as well.

[32]In addition to žan-ṣǝrar and the following šobḥer, this would seem to be a title of the governors of the imperial district of Amba Esra’el and Amba Geshe, drawn from ‘aqqabe amba.

[33]Does this concern the same person who has already been mentioned as ‘spokesman’ ? In the list in document no. 4, the other two persons are mentioned as spokesmen. In this instance, we cannot say whether the text results from errors in transmission, which can easily occur in lists of this sort.

[34]This is the title of a governor of Amba Geshe, which is attested only for the early period, drawn from śǝyumä bǝḥer. All three mentioned here can also be found in the Historia of Paez ; see Conti Rossini, ‘Tre piccoli testi etiopici’, 47.

[35]According to the evidence of the list in document no. 4, the person is called Habtä-Maryam. In this case as well, we may have an error in transmission.

[36]Without other parallel texts, we cannot resolve the question of whether three similar renderings of the name have occurred (see above), or whether one person has accumulated three offices.

[37]The two suffixes -nä and -ni have been added to the name, a hybrid of Amharic and Ge‘ez. The first is the accusative marker in Amharic. The second is the Ge‘ez suffix meaning ‘also’.

[38]Šämma, also referred to as gabi, is a measure of 20 cubits for fabrics, especially for the indigenous cotton cloth from which the traditional robe is cut. Later, qǝranna is also frequently used in the text, an additional measure of 10 cubits, equivalent to half a šämma. Perhaps the two measures were used for different fabrics, and no explicit statement of this was thought to be necessary because the usage would have been understood by any reader at the time. It is very difficult to answer this question on the basis of the texts themselves. We do have some standard by which to compare them, however. The numerical values for qǝranna are clearly lower than for šämma. In addition, qǝranna is mentioned ‘for cord and belt’, ‘with sharpening, polishing’. This would indicate that it refers to leather belts, mentioned along with the other tools of every day agriculture such as axes and sickles. In later times, leather products of the most varied nature, including saddles, straps for mules, and bridles, were items payable in the form of taxes (see Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System of Land Tenure and Taxation’, Ethiopia Observer 5, 1961-2, 302-39, esp. 310.) In addition, however, it should be noted that šämma is often a generic indication of value in the moneyless economy of medieval Ethiopia (see I. Guidi, Vocabolario amarico italiano, Rome, 1901, 262). It can therefore appear in place of salt, whose measure might serve as a comparable indication. In this way, the fine weights or values of spices are indicated in the text of the śǝra‘tä gǝbr in terms of šämma (see M. Kropp, ‘The śǝra‘tä gǝbr : a Mirror View of Daily Life at the Ethiopian Royal Court in the Middle Ages,’ Northeast African Studies 10.2-3, 1988, 51-87, esp. 73 f).

[39]Both extremely generic terms continue to be employed into the following centuries. ‘Measure’ cannot be defined more precisely. It could be čan, equivalent to 100 or 200 qunna (approximately 400-500 or 800-1000 litres), or a larger measure in the case of grain. The mäsfärya indicated on page 134 of R. Pankhurst, ‘A Preliminary History of Ethiopian Measures, Weights and Values’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies 7.2, 1969, 99- 164 as 134 litres appears to be too small in comparison with the following monthly taxes. The traditional Ethiopian system of measures, in its regional and chronological development, still needs to be investigated in the light of the original documents. The most important essay by Conti Rossini (‘Sulle misure di capacita tigrine’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 3, 1943, 94-102) appeared over thirty years after his publication of the Book of Aksum, and explains some of the names of measures left unexplained there. The comprehensive study by R. Pankhurst in three parts of the Journal of Ethiopian Studies (7.1, 1969, 31-54 ; 7.2, 1969, 99- 164 ; 8.1, 1970, 45-85) evaluates, among other things, the dictionaries and the information provided by European travelers and explorers. In the case of grain itself, one would immediately think of the bread grain par excellence : ṭǝff. This is supported by the fact that wheat or barley are mentioned by name (cf. also the uncertain säddäy). On the other hand, according to Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System of Land Tenure and Taxation’, 307, ehl comes to mean every type of grain used for preparing food and drink, in addition to lentils, lentil seeds, sunflower seeds, chick-peas, etc. These were in any case divided into different categories, and larger quantities of the less valuable were needed to produce equivalent value.

[40]The unit of measurement, which would have been obvious for contemporaries, is omitted here in the case of honey. This supports the theory that different units of measurement are used to indicate the same categories of different substances. In this case, however, the name of the substance is omitted as a matter of course. In the following documents haraba and kära are indicated as units of measurement for honey. If one did not choose to assume that the scribe had displayed an unnecessary verbosity, the only remaining conclusion would be that this is an unusual and alternative measure for honey, and therefore needed to be indicated. A useful comparison can be found in Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 318, which lists for modern readers several container names used especially for the honey tax.

[41]Like the leather products already referred to, iron instruments were also important items payable in the form of taxes, in addition to the axes referred to here (see Guidi, Vocabolario, 72) and the following sickles, stirrups, and snaffles required even in the last period of the Ethiopian feudal system. The axes were later called mäṭräbiya (see Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 310).

[42]The following duplication of ‘tribute from Yämba’ in connection with the stipulation ‘each month’ could be understood to be a second list of monthly taxes, following the annual list already provided. However, an analysis of the parallel lists in the other documents shows that this interpretation is too linear and too logical. The stipulation ‘monthly’ refers only to the salt and seed tax. The duplication of the term ‘tax’ is attributable to the arbitrary nature of the arrangement, which often appears in these early texts.

[43]A measure of 20 qunna, approximately 90-100 litres (see Guidi, Vocabolario, 685).

[44]As with the two preceding measurements of length, it is noticeable here that some indication of the measure and the product is required. Dawǝlla is used as a measure for grain, flour, and fruit. It is not possible to define the type of taxes more precisely from a synopsis of the other documents. An explanation is offered by Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 306 : a specific quantity had to be ground and delivered as flour from the monthly grain tax.

[45]Leather products of various categories, for the saddle, pack- strap, and bridle, were items payable in the form of taxes. In addition to these, there were qälad and ṭǝfr, which were cut from ox-hide, the former thin and approximately 5 m long, the latter approximately 5 cm wide and shorter. They were used as tape measures for surveying land (see Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 303). Qǝlad corresponds here to the Ge‘ez word gämäd. Also meant by this are pack-straps, which were used for donkey and mule loads in large quantities, and are also called mäčaña. In addition, thicker mälämäča (strops) were also delivered, according to the custom of Israel, which would seem to mean the customary law of the dynasty or the region. See below, and also the vivid expression mälač lämäläča, täfr lämälämmäča ‘the knife for shaving, the belt for sharpening’, cited by Dästa Täklä-Wäld, Addis yamareñña mäzgäbä qalat, Addis Ababa, 1962 AM = 1969/70, 728 b.

[46]Quranna, a measure of 10 cubits or approximately 4.8 m (see Guidi, Vocabolario, 262). Once again, the measure is connected with the material, i.e. leather products.

[47]The phrase can be interpreted in different ways, ‘according to the law of the Israelite dynasty’ being the most generally accepted. On the other hand, the issue has more to do with a specific point of tax regulation that in itself is already very detailed. With reference to the many other regional details that appear in the texts, including units of measurement, I now tend to interpret the phrase in the simplest way possible : ‘according to need or customary law (for this special tax) (in the region) of the House of Israel’, i.e. Amba Geshe and the surrounding area, which may differ from other regions on this point.

[48]Corresponds to 4 qunna, approximately 16 litres (Guidi, Vocabolario, 347). The measure is described as being typical for the region of Wädla, an area very close to the place of origin of the documents being examined here. Thus a regional continuity in the terminology is proven over more than six centuries. It would be highly rewarding if field research in the region could also to try to elucidate other obscure technical terms in these texts. It should be noted that it is mentioned as a measure for bread rations in a roughly contemporaneous document from the monastery of Hayq (as biddo). See Taddesse Tamrat, ‘The Abbots of Däbrä Hayq 1248-1535’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies 8.1, 1970, 87-117, esp. 93 and n. 34. See also under kära.

[49]Lepidium sativum ; see Wolde Michael Kelecha, A Glossary of Ethiopian Plant Names, 4 ed., Addis Ababa, 1987, 61. Although it is eaten as bread and sauce, it is assumed to be more medicinal. This corresponds with the tax category ‘ingredients for wot the Ethiopian national dish’ in Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 310.

[50]The formula seems to be unclear. In certain cases, it also appears as ‘all (?) months’. In the following documents, it is clearly given as ‘each month’. The different forms may be attributable to the scribe being less than proficient in Ge‘ez, and they may all have been intended to convey the same meaning : ‘each month’.

[51]According to the evidence from the other documents, the tax in animals should be paid every year, or on important feasts. ‘Months’ is written without a preposition, a syntactical error that arose through scribal oversight.

[52]The šumä mǝdr seems to correspond closely to the later čǝqa šum, those responsible for collecting taxes and village administrators.

[53]For an explanation of the name, see the Additional Note above.

[54]Wäskäb(b)äya corresponds to wäskän/mbay (a cover of basket-work), see, Dästa Täklä-Wäld, Addis yamareñña mäzgäbä qalat, 470 a. Mägäd is either an orthographical error or an independent form of mogäd (terracotta cover for bread dough), see Guidi, Vocabolario, 113). Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 310 calls it mǝṭad, a form for baking bread, which is approximately 50 cm in diameter. For the variations mägädmogäd see under kära/kora. Before linguistic conclusions can be drawn from these forms, it is essential to collect more examples free from the corruption that so easily occurs in the transmission of such difficult texts.

[55]Is ḥǝṣn an orthographical error or independent form for ḥaṣin ? Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 310 mentions long cylindrical ironware called ṭägära as a tax.

[56]The following three parallel titles with the element aq^wǝṣǝ’ have so far only been found in this document and are still unclear. See Conti Rossini, ‘Sulle missioni domenicane in Etiopia nel secolo XIV’, Rendiconti dell’Accademia Reale dei Lincei, 1940, 72-98, esp. 92 and n. 1. Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, 87 understands all three as names of estates, just as he previously understood Bätärgelä-Maryam as the name of a church. The title could be a name in the imperative form from a causative stem. The Ge‘ez root might be qäṣǝ‘a, ‘to humble oneself ; to humiliate’ (see A. Dillmann, Lexicon linguae aethiopicae, Leipzig, 1895, 476), which in some circumstances is contaminated by q^wäṭǝ‘a ‘enraged’, and produces ‘suppress, defeat’. I have therefore selected ‘overlord’ or ‘socager’, that is the person who collected the socage payments. To explain the three distinctive components daša/mäq^wada/däga’, one might ascribe this to the assumption made about proper names, if it were not for the distinctive meaning of däga’ ‘high temperate zone’ and the parallels to the following church titles, which are differentiated by ‘the low’ and ‘the high’. In another context, these correspond to the pair of opposites qolla/däbrä Egzi;;019;abǝḥer-Ab (=däga’ ?). As the meaning of the words daša and mäq^wada is lacking from the definition ‘lowland zone’, they were retained in the translation.

[57]The text appears to be corrupted at this point. Perhaps there was a name here such as Gäbru, and the scribe did not take this into consideration because of the following gǝbru, ‘his tax hereinafter’.

[58]Quranna appears by itself in the following texts, to avoid including the additional duty ‘strops’ here.

[59]At this point as well, the category and function of the specified persons can only be determined from their high rank and through a comparison with parallel texts. (See document no. 4).

[60]liqä kahnat : it is unclear whether the two dignitaries appear here in their function as witnesses or in relation to the obligation resulting from their office, that of arranging the annual banquets for the clergy by relying on the resources provided by duties.

[61]This is the Church of Egziabǝḥer-Ab on Amba Geshe. See also document no. 4.

[62]Here we have an extreme example of information taken from the parameters mentioned above. Knowing the category, the monthly tax in bars of salt and (basket) measure of seeds, we can reconstruct the expanded form that would have been understood by contemporaries : This also forms the basis of the translation.

[63]Cf. Amharic sǝfet/d ‘basket-work; wicker-work’. See J. Baetman, Dictionnaire Amarigna-Francais, Dire-Daoua, 1929, 235 and Dästa Täklä-Wäld, Addis yamareñña mäzgäbä qalat 1098-9. Approximately 4 qunna = q^wǝrzǝñ = beddo. The term therefore has the same meaning as the aforementioned beddo. Could it be a local variation ?

[64]An abbreviated form of the name Yagbǝ’a Lä-Ṣǝyon : ‘May (the Lord) lead back Zion’.

[65]It is important to consider the indirect style of the document, which is narrated in the third person. It seems reasonable to suspect that the text is a rescript and a summary of various earlier documents. The information for the taxes from the land of Gänza does not match the present document, however. It must remain undecided whether these are arbitrary or later changes.

[66]The separation in the text of the connected elements ‘leather belts along with strops’ is characteristic of the list genre. If we reconstruct the mental process of the scribe, it would appear that he forgot the specification for quranna (see above), and then without paying any attention to the sequence of the text, at the particular moment when he realized what he had done, he repeated the word. Further errors were then unavoidable.

[67]Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, 137 offers the translation ‘of various sizes’. The reason is not clear. Sädday is grouped together with salt as a category, in the form of a monthly tax, and instead of cress seeds or dawǝlla, the unit of measurement for an undefined substance. After this, gäbäč which is also unknown, is indicated as a unit of measurement. In another document in manuscript BL Or. 481, 124 v (see Haddis Gebre-Meskel, Survey, no. 51 : 139 and 281) the unit of measurement is in the sequence mäsfärya-quranna-gäbäč. This is perhaps an alternative to gäbäte, ‘wooden plate, wooden container’ (see Dästa Täklä-Wäld, Addis yamareñña mäzgäbä qalat 228 a), as a measure meaning the same as g^wǝrzañ and beddo (see above). The sound change could have resulted from the similar meaning of gäbäta and a folk etymological reinterpretation. Sädday in parallel to feṣo would have to signify a plant or an agricultural crop, but such a name is not known. As a vague possibility, we are left with a variation on the Amharic sǝnde, Ge‘ez s;;;;;ndale ‘wheat, fine flour’. Taxes payable monthly in the form of ground corn may be meant (cf. Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 307 as a replacement for ṣom qollo).

[68]Perhaps an alternative to ḥarbi/harob ‘a leather container’. It is used as a measure for the honey tax (in Tigre), and contains 4 kubaya, which is equivalent to approxirnately 1 gundo (12 kg or approximately 16 litres). See Gäbrä-Wäld Engǝda-Wärq, ‘Ethiopia’s Traditional System’, 318 and R. Pankhurst, ‘A Preliminary History of Ethiopian Measures,’ Journal of Ethiopian Studies 7.2, 1969, 144. In some circumstances, the root of the word can be derived from ‘arräbä ‘to put into Arabic = to tan fine leather’; see W. Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Ge‘ez, Wiesbaden, 1987, 241. A parallel to the word araba is thereby given, a measure of (weight) for imported fabrics such as silk; see Dästa Täklä-Wäld, Addis yamareñña mäzgäbä qalat,135 a : 1 tuba = 10 araba = 70 čärär.

[69]Another noticeable characteristic of the style of the list is its tautological loop : ‘the duty is… is the duty’. This can be found elsewhere as an Ethiopic stylistic mannerism.

[70]Gäz or gäzay, means ‘buyer’, then ‘lord, ruler, administrator’. What is meant here is the part of the duties that is given to the state administrator (see above šumä mǝdr) and other officials. The short text is actually a document from the state administration, not a gift document. In this notice, a particular use of a part of the taxes is established. Is this at variance with the approach elsewhere ?

[71]In the document cited in connection with the hereditary property of the dynasty on Amba Geshe (Bodleian 29, f. 38 r), the land of Zä-Bä-K^wǝlla is mentioned.

[72]Kära is clearly written in the manuscript twice. This is perhaps a regional Amharic variation of kora ‘cup, goblet’ (Dillmann, 833; Dästa Täklä-Wäld, Addis yamareñña mäzgäbä qalat, 670 b). The word is already used in the Ethiopic Bible as a loan word from Aramaic. In Amharic it describes a container and a measure, smaller than a gan, which contains up to 130 litres. It is cited in the dictionaries of Ludolf and d’Abbadie; cf. Guidi, Vocabolario, 523. In documents from the monastery of Hayq that were written about the same time, ‘9 kora of wine’ or ‘7 kora of beer’ are mentioned as duties. See Taddesse Tamrat, ‘Abbots of Dabra Hayq’, 93, n. 34 and 105, n. 95.

[73]He is described in document no. 1 as žan-ṣǝrar geta, yet geta does not appear to be part of the title.

[74]In other words, of the churches on Amba Geshe. In the time of ‘Amdä Ṣǝyon, däbtära in the biblical sense of ‘holy encampment’ = ‘shrine, temple, church’ is frequently used. See M. Kropp, Der siegreiche Feldzug des Königs ‘Āmda-Ṣǝyon gegen die Muslime in Adal, Louvain, 1994, s. v.

[75]Gǝbrä lelit is conjugated and translated accordingly.

[76]For reasons of euphony, the title was frequently interchanged with ‘aqqabe sä‘at, a high church dignitary and leader of court ceremonial; cf. RAESO Index s.v. Aqabi Eçat, Acabissat. Ludolf, in Historia II, 12, 40, calls him custos ignis, praefectum praetorianorum, i.e. commander of the royal body guard, who were therefore described as regem haud absurde igni assimilantes. As is the case here, however, the title derives from the actual function of night guard. The place of exile was watched from all directions in the surrounding area, even at night, as the title used here indicates.

[77]The syntax was changed in the translation. The text contains an Amharic period in the form : ‘… that one should bury, I have ordained…’

[78]The background to this provision is the disdain for the lowlands and their inhabitants that was found at Amba Geshe and throughout Ethiopia as a whole. Even though agriculturally rich lowland areas around the mountain ranges provided residents ‘on high’ – as the present g^wǝlt documents specifically demonstrate – this does not improve the status of the lowlanders. It was reported by Zär’a Ya‘qob that he arranged for descendants of the king Hǝzba Näñ, with whom he was in dispute, to repopulate the lowlands as a form of humiliation. As a result of this, they were called yä-qolla Esra’elawi ‘lowland Israelites’, which indicated that they were members of the royal family whose social status had declined (see Beckingham and Huntingford, Some Records of Ethiopia, 101-2). To what extent the report of Almeidas is connected with the present text cannot be said. Nevertheless, it is clear that anyone whose office demands that he perform duties in the lowlands does at least have the right to be buried ‘on high’.

[79]E. Cerulli, ‘Un frammento degli Atti di Batērgēlā Māryām’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 3, 1943, 131-8.

[80]Getatchew Haile, ‘Power Struggle in the Medieval Court of Ethiopia : The Case of Bätärgéla-Maryam’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies 15, 1982, 37-55.

[81]C. Conti Rossini, ‘Sulle missioni domenicane in Etiopia nel secolo XIV’, Rendiconti dell’Accademia Reale dei Lincei, 1940, 72-98.

[82]Understood as bä-ater, gǝla Maryam ‘during the month of Ater = Hathor, on ? the Virgin Mary’s’ (see Leslau, Comparative Dictionary,

[83]M. Piamenta, Dictionary of Post Classical Yemeni Arabic, Leiden, 1990, s. v.