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The purpose of this paper is to present various forms of presence of the Coptic language in the Ethiopian writing until the 19th Century. In this period we witness the birth, flourishing and decay of a Christian ecclesiastical culture with Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) as its literary language within a well-defined political entity of the Ethiopian Empire. The middle of the 19th Century saw a significant break with the tradition and radical shift towards modernity in many spheres of life. The presence of the Coptic language in Ethiopia is an outcome of the long-standing relations between Ethiopia and Egypt or strictly speaking between their respective national churches. There is a large literature devoted to these relations, they will be therefore treated only briefly. The article will deal with such phenomena as: Coptic loanwords in Ge'ez, documents written in Coptic within the context of Ethiopian church administration, the treatment of Coptic names in translated literary texts. It will certainly not be exhaustive but rather will put together information scattered throughout various publications, not necessarily accessible to the audience interested in Coptology.

Amharic is the official language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. There are lots of historic Amharic and Ethiopic handwritten documents addressing various relevant issues including governance, science, religious, social rules, cultures and art works which are very rich indigenous knowledge. The Amharic language has its own alphabet derived from Ge'ez which is currently the liturgical language in Ethiopia. Handwritten character recognition for non Latin scripts like Amharic is not addressed especially using the advantages of state-of-the-art techniques. This research work designs for the first time a model for Amharic handwritten character recognition using a convolutional neural network. The dataset was organized from collected sample handwritten documents and data augmentation was applied for machine ...

International audience ; The Ethiopian monastery of Qoma Fasilädäs (Bägemdér) keeps a rather unusual high number of archival documents testifying of its foundation in the first half of the 17th C. by the queen Wäld Sä'ala : three waqf in Arabic, two gult and a foundation charter in Ge'ez. Examining this documentation, this article traces back the opposition of the queen against her husband, the catholic king Susneyos, and against their eldest son, king Fasilädäs (1632-67). The monastery and lands of Qoma have been the head quarter of a political and religious network lead by the queen, her son Galäwdéwos and the Coptic metropolitan Marqos. They lose the battle but still, their voices can be heard through the subtle language of legal documents and forgery.

International audience ; The Ethiopian monastery of Qoma Fasilädäs (Bägemdér) keeps a rather unusual high number of archival documents testifying of its foundation in the first half of the 17th C. by the queen Wäld Sä'ala : three waqf in Arabic, two gult and a foundation charter in Ge'ez. Examining this documentation, this article traces back the opposition of the queen against her husband, the catholic king Susneyos, and against their eldest son, king Fasilädäs (1632-67). The monastery and lands of Qoma have been the head quarter of a political and religious network lead by the queen, her son Galäwdéwos and the Coptic metropolitan Marqos. They lose the battle but still, their voices can be heard through the subtle language of legal documents and forgery.

International audience ; The Ethiopian monastery of Qoma Fasilädäs (Bägemdér) keeps a rather unusual high number of archival documents testifying of its foundation in the first half of the 17th C. by the queen Wäld Sä'ala : three waqf in Arabic, two gult and a foundation charter in Ge'ez. Examining this documentation, this article traces back the opposition of the queen against her husband, the catholic king Susneyos, and against their eldest son, king Fasilädäs (1632-67). The monastery and lands of Qoma have been the head quarter of a political and religious network lead by the queen, her son Galäwdéwos and the Coptic metropolitan Marqos. They lose the battle but still, their voices can be heard through the subtle language of legal documents and forgery.

International audience ; The Ethiopian monastery of Qoma Fasilädäs (Bägemdér) keeps a rather unusual high number of archival documents testifying of its foundation in the first half of the 17th C. by the queen Wäld Sä'ala : three waqf in Arabic, two gult and a foundation charter in Ge'ez. Examining this documentation, this article traces back the opposition of the queen against her husband, the catholic king Susneyos, and against their eldest son, king Fasilädäs (1632-67). The monastery and lands of Qoma have been the head quarter of a political and religious network lead by the queen, her son Galäwdéwos and the Coptic metropolitan Marqos. They lose the battle but still, their voices can be heard through the subtle language of legal documents and forgery.

When one thinks of the religious landscape of Ethiopia, what usually comes to mind is the historic and colorful Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC). The EOC originated in the fourth century in the ancient kingdom of Abyssinia, which coincides today with the northwest region of Ethiopia. Having quickly come under the influence of Athanasius of Alexandria (293-373), the church became ecclesiastically dependent on the Coptic Church of Egypt, and soon aligned itself theologically with the so-called Monophysite group of eastern churches. With the exception of this link with the Egyptian church (which appointed EOC's patriarch until as late as 1959), the EOC was relatively isolated from the rest of Christendom. This was due largely to the geographical seclusion of Abyssinia on a mountainous plateau, which later became nearly surrounded by Muslim regimes. A variety of unique features resulted, most notably EOC's distinctive Jewish character, which is reflected in practices such as circumcision and the observance of the Sabbath along with Sunday. In addition, the church has its own canon of scripture, incorporating apocryphal works into both testaments, and its own liturgical language, Ge'ez (generally called "Ethiopic" among western scholars). From Ge'ez the modern official language of Amharic derives. A number of sacred legends connected with Israel also arose, especially the belief that the biblical Queen of Sheba was the monarch of Abyssinia, and that during her visit to Jerusalem King Solomon tricked her into a sexual union that produced a son, Menelik I. When the crafty son came of age and visited his father, he managed to abscond with the Ark of the Covenant to Abyssinia, where it is still said to reside in the ancient capital of Axum. Menelik subsequently became the progenitor of Abyssinia's ruling dynasty, bequeathing to it a divine sanction that was reinforced by the country's acceptance of Christianity. Church and state were thus inexorably connected until the fall of emperor Haile Selasie in 1974, and this political-religious marriage has almost always played a central role in Christian-Muslim relations.

The term Falasha is derived from the Ge'ez or Amharic word maflas, 'to remove', and denotes people without land or roots, strangers, and will be used in this article because of its wide international recognition, although most Ethiopian Jews now prefer to be known as Beta Israel. According to their tradition, the Falasha have lived in Africa for more than two-and-a-half millennia, for the most part unaware of the existence of other Jews in the world. In recent years, an increasing number have felt impelled to seek a permanent home in Israel, and by June 1991 as many as 43,000 had managed to achieve this goal. Although most of these Ethiopian Jews must have anticipated that emigration would not be easy, it is very unlikely that they, or anyone else, could have known just how difficult would be their ordeal.

Tigrinya is a Semitic language spoken in Eritrea and in the Tigray Region of Northern Ethiopia. Tigrinya is one of the nine languages in Eritrea. It was one of Eritrea's official languages (along with Arabic) during the short-lived federation with Ethiopia (1952-1962). When Ethiopia officially annexed Eritrea in 1962, Amharic also formally replaced Tigrinya and Arabic; and was established as an official language by the imperial government of Ethiopia. In 1993, when Eritrea officially declared its independence through referendum. Tigrinya regained its status as a working language. Tigrinya has its own alphabet of 32 letters adopted from Ge'ez, a language which exists with a very limited function within the Coptic Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Like English, Tigrinya is written from left to right. Although the Tigrinya script might look difficult, pronunciation is simple and straightforward, as the phonetic symbols closely resemble pronunciation. The earliest written example of Tigrinya is a text of local customary laws, dating back to the 13th century. It was found in the district of Logo Sarda, Akele Guzai in Eritrea. The first literary text in Tigrinya was published in Europe. In 1895 Feseha Giyorgis, a scholar who was studying Italian and Latin and taught Tigrinya in Naples, published a pamphlet in Rome giving an account of his journey to Italy five years earlier. He was very conscious of his trailblazing role as "the father of Tigrinya literature." In his foreword to the work he wrote that "our main drive has been to furnish those who yearn to learn Tigrinya with material for exercise." The content of the pamphlet indicates that his 3 primary audience, however, was the educated elite of his home country, as it focuses on the author's impressions of the exotic country to which he had travelled. The first work published in Tigrinya was a translation of the Four Gospels by Dabtera Matewos. It was written in the 1830s and was published in 1866 by Isenberg, in Basle, Switzerland. The Tigrinya title is ወንጌል ቅዱስ ናይ ጎይታና ናይ ምድሓኒናን የሱስ ክርስቶስ. This work is of major significance, because it marks the first appearance of the Tigrinya language in book form as well as in a full Ge'ez script. European missionaries were responsible for a stream of publications from the 1890s onwards, including the first Tigrinya language newspaper in 1909, but that it did not last long. During the British Military Administration in 1941-1952, Ministry of Information of the administration published a weekly newspaper in Tigrinya. At that time, a single newspaper would cost about 5 cents; the number of copies of the newspaper sold per week would reach up to 5,000. At that time, it was reported to be the first of its kind. There is no standard bibliography of Tigrinya publications. In an effort to address this gap, I have prepared what I think is the first annotated bibliography in two volumes. I hope that this publication will provide a summary and evaluation of books written in Tigrinya that I have been able to locate and analyze. It is also my belief that this work will be of great use to researchers and future generations and will enhance the development of Tigrinya language and literature. In compiling this work, I have traveled extensively and conducted research in libraries and archives in Asmara, Addis Ababa, Sweden, and Italy. I also interviewed and consulted with knowledgeable individuals about early publications. After collecting bibliographic information for over 760 publications, I arranged individual records in alphabetical order by author, followed by title, place and date of publication, and number of pages. During the process of my work I have come to realize the following facts: 1. Books written in Tigrinya are far more numerous than many people realize. 2. Because of the large number of discovered publications, a published bibliography would be of great importance to researchers. 3. Most books published in Tigrinya have incomplete information regarding dates and places of publication. The bibliography presented here is the first one of its kind. It does not, however, claim to be comprehensive. I would be very pleased if this book stimulates and encourages other researchers to make additional entries. After 1991 the number of books published in Tigrinya has increased tremendously. Volume one of this work includes all publications before 1991. And Volume Two will include all the works published since 1991.

Let us begin with an unfortunate fact: Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí is one major writer that is hardly anthologized. The problem could not have been that he wrote in Yorùbá because Fágúnwà is far more anthologized than he is. Simon Gikandi's edited Encyclopedia of African Literature (2003) has an entry and other multiple references to Fágúnwà. There is only one reference to Fálétí which is found in the index without any accompanying instance in the work. In Irele and Gikandi's edited volumes, The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature (2004), Fálétí only managed an appearance in the bibliography that featured four of his works—Wọn Rò Pé Wèrè Ni ́ (1965), Ọmọ Olókùn Ẹṣin (1969), Baṣòrun Gáà (1972) and Ìdààmú Páàdì Mínkáílù (1974). In the preface, Irele and Gikandi write: The scholarly interest in African orality also drew attention to the considerable body of literature in the African languages that had come into existence as a consequence of the reduction of these languages to writing, one of the enduring effects of Christian evangelization. The ancient tradition of Ethiopian literature in Ge'ez, and modern works like Thomas Mofolo's Shaka in the Sotho language, and the series of Yorùbá novels by D. O. Fágúnwà, were thus able finally to receive the consideration they deserved. African-language literatures came to be regarded as a distinct province of the general landscape of imaginative life and literary activity on the African continent (2004, xiii). Essays 60 Adeshina Afolayan In fact, the publication of Fágúnwà's Ògbójù Ọdẹ Nínú Igbó Ìrúnmalẹ (The ̀ Intrepid Hunter in the Forest of Spirits, 1938) made the chronology of literary events in Africa, and it misses out Fálétí's 1965 work. In her "Literature in Yorùbá: poetry and prose; traveling theater and modern drama," in the same volume, Karin Barber seems to redress this imbalance when she gives a place to Fálétí in her discussion of post-Fágúnwà writers. According to her, In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s there was an explosion of literary creativity, with many new authors emerging and pioneering new styles and themes. Among the most prominent were Adébáyọ Fálétí whose ̀ Ọmọ Olókùn Ẹṣin (1969) is a historical novel dealing with a revolt against the overlordship of Ọyọ, and Ọládèjọ Òkédìjí, author of two brilliantly innovative crime thrillers (Àjà ló lẹrù, 1969, and Àgbàlagbà Akàn, 1971), as well as a more somber tragic novel of the destruction of a young boy who is relentlessly drawn into a life of crime in the underworld of Ifẹ (Atótó Arére, 1981). Notable also are Akínwùnmí Ìsòlá, whose university campus novel Ó le kú (1974) broke new ground in social setting and ambience; Afọlábí Ọlábímtán, author of several novels, including Kékeré Ẹkùn (1967), which deals with the conflicts arising from early Christian conversion in a small village, and Baba Rere! (1978), a contemporary satire on a corrupt big man; and Kólá Akínlàdé, prolific author of well-crafted detective stories such as Ta ló pa Ọmọ Ọba? (Who Killed the Prince's Child?). These authors were all verbal stylists of a high order; they transformed the literary language, moving away from Fágúnwà's rolling cadences to a more demotic, supple prose that successfully caught the accents of everyday life (2004, 368). While it may be misplaced to draw a comparison between Fágúnwà and Fálétí, there is a sense in which Fálétí's demonstrates a more robust literary sensibility that goes beyond the allegorical into a realistic assessment of human relationship and sociality within the context of the Yorùbá cultural template. While Fágúnwà could not resist the influence of Christianity, and especially the allegorical motif of the journey in which humans encounter spiritual challenges (which John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress made popular), Fálétí is fundamentally a cultural connoisseur; a writer with a most intimate and dynamic understanding of the Yorùbá condition, especially in its conjunction with the political and sociocultural contexts of contemporary Nigeria. And we have Ọlátúndé Ọlátúnjí to thank for the deep exploration and interrogation of the fundamental poetic and literary nuances that Fálétí has left for us. In this essay, I will attempt to unearth the philosophical sensibility that undergirds Fálétí's literary prowess, especially as demonstrated by his poems. Fálétí's Philosophical Sensibility 61 Both the poets and the philosophers have always had one thing in common— the exploration of the possibilities that ideas and visions yield: As theoretical disciplines concerned with raising social consciousness, philosophy and literature engage in similar speculation about the good society and what is good for humanity. They influence thoughts about political currents and conditions. They can, for instance, lead the reader to critical reflections on the type of leaders suitable for a given society and on the degree of civic consciousness exercised by the people in protecting their rights. Philosophy and literature, equally, offer critical evaluation of existing and possible forms of political arrangements, beliefs and practices. In addition, they provide insights into political concepts and justification for normative judgements about politics and society. They also create awareness of possibilities for change (Okolo 2007, 1). Compared to Ọlátúnjí's exploratory unraveling of Fálétí's poetry, my objective is to enlist Fálétí as a poet that has not been given his due as one who is sensitive to the requirements of political philosophy and its objective of ensuring the imagination of a society that is properly ordered according to the imperatives of justice.