[work in progress]
Questions and conjectures
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(1) On the names given to “Abraham”
1.1 Abraham?
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1.2 Abu Rumi?
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1.3 Abi Ruhh?
Abba Abraham’s Bible translation also served as a source for Isenberg’s Amharic dictionary. In the preface, Isenberg mentions that “Dabtera Matteos” knew the translator’s name as “Abi Ruhh” (p. iii). However, this name is not Amharic but Tigrinya (?; the language into which Matewos had translated the Four Gospels for Isenberg) and thus not Abba Abraham’s authentic name.
According to Smidt’s article in the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, debtera Matewos was born in Adwa around 1800. It is therefore likely that Matewos’s statements about Abba Abraham are based on hearsay and not personal knowledge.
- Isenberg mentions that ‘Abu Rumi’ was a native of Gojjam and a monk. The designations Abu resp. Abba (‘father’) may indicate that Abba Abraham not only received an ecclesiastical education but also later served as a revered and influential religious person.
(2) On Abraham’s upbringing in Abyssinia
2.1 For whom did Abraham work in Abyssinia?
_ _ _ “Vezier”?
2.2 What professional tasks did he perform for his employer?
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“scribe”?
2.3 Was Abraham born in Gojjam?
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2.4 Where did he learn Arabic?
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We might also speculate that Abraham’s good knowledge of Arabic, which qualified him as an interpreter for James Bruce in Gondar in 1771, is due to a stay at the Virgin Mary monastery on Mount Qosqam in Upper Egypt. Its sand was considered holy since people believed that Jesus walked on it when he stayed in Egypt as a young child. The clerical establishment Ǝtege Məntəwwab built near Gondar (Däbrä Ṣ́äḥay Qʷəsqʷam) in the 1740s tried to embrace some of the holiness of this most ‘ancient’ church.
(3) On Abraham’s Journey to East India and
3.1 When and why did Abraham leave Abyssinia?
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Death of vezier/ king?
Christological disputes?
3.2 What do conclude from Abraham’s itinerary?
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Bruce?
etc. _ _
3.3 What goods did Abraham trade?
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What to conclude from the fact that Abraham worked as a merchant for decades?
It is surprising that Abba Abraham spent much of his life as a merchant—as far away from his home country as northeast India. (Did he intend to import silk from China?) Most often, trade was a profession practised by Muslims and regarded as a dubious occupation by committed Christians.
There were some Däbtäras who earned their living as merchants.
- Cf. K. K. Shelemay, “The Musician and Transmission of Religious Tradition: The Multiple Roles of the Ethiopian Däbtära“, Journal of Religion in Africa 22, no. 3 (1992), 242-60. [Esp. p. 249].
3.4 What areas of knowledge interested him?
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On his stay in East India _ _ _
3.5 What did Abraham do after his return to Abyssinia?
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(4) Abraham’s stay in Cairo
4.1 When did Abraham travel to Cairo again?
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4.2 What was Abraham’s situation when he first met Asselin de Cherville?
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Cf. Samuel Gobat’s account of meeting a poor Abyssinian monk in Cairo.
- Gobat was a close friend of William Jowett
4.3 Where did Abraham live during the years he worked for Asselin de Cherville?
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4.4 What tasks did Abraham perform for Asselin de Cherville?
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Cf. Translation of Liturgy
Scribe?
Cf. Asselin’s Abyssinian ‘notebook’ in the French National Library
4.5 Did Abraham become a monk in the last decade of his life?
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4.6 Where was Abraham burried?
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Cross-references
» Main Sources on Abraham’s Life
» Abraham and Asselin’s translation work
» Manuscripts related to Abba Abraham
» Bibliography with links