Guest lecture 5 May 2017
5 May 2017
Dr Amsalu Tefera Alemu (Addis Ababa / Munich) gives an informal talk on the topic
"Textual History of the Dǝrsanä Uraʾel"
at HLCES on Friday 5 May 2017, 11:00 a.m.
Abstract
Ethiopian textual tradition on the Archangel Uriel is attested from the time of Emperor Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob (1434-1468), with its earliest source found in an angelological homiliary from Däbrä Ḥayq (EMML 1835). As veneration of the archangel expanded, churches began to be dedicated to him, the first and oldest, according to tradition, being Däbrä Kälina in Ǝmägwa in North Shoa. Later on, homilies and miracles were composed in his honor, and were eventually collected into the Dǝrsanä Uraʾel. But the textual history of Dǝrsanä Uraʾel is complex. The homiliary (a collection of 11 homilies) in honor of the archangel Uriel (accompanied by 14 miracles) contains various stories (biblical, apocryphal and Ethiopian) related to different time frames (from the creation of angels to medieval Ethiopia). Different parts of the homiliary, which reached a standardized form under Emperor Menilek II, come from different sources. One of the homilies, attributed to Cyriacus of Constantinople (some versions say Bǝhǝnsa), has a colophon saying that it was originally composed in Greek (Lǝssanä Yonani) and translated into Gǝʿǝz by Ǝnbäräm during the time of Abraḥa and Aṣbaḥa. Elsewhere, four manuscripts (out of 15 MSS collected for my project) have colophons stating that Dǝrsanä Uraʾel was composed by Aqabe Säʿat Yoḥannǝs during the time of Naʿod (1494-1508) and Lǝbnä Dǝngǝl (1508-1540). The claim of Emperor Menilek to have suppressed inaccurate versions of Dǝrsanä Uraʾel and propagated the authentic form of the text suggests the existence of variant textual traditions prior to and during his reign (cf. EMML 6694, fol. 145r). I will discuss in my presentation different traditions on the textual and compositional history of DU.