Abraham (Abba), Alias Abu Rumi

[work in progress]

Main Sources on Abraham’s Life

Abba Abraham [አብርሃም, Abrəham] was born around 1749/50 and died in 1818, probably in Cairo (or Jerusalem). Due to the title pages of his Amharic Bible translation, Abba Abraham is better known by his Arabic name Abu Rumi [ابو رومي].

The following sources can provide us with information about his life journey.

1. William Jowett (1822)

Rev William Jowett was an Anglican cleric serving the Church Missionary Society in the Mediterranean area from 1815 to 1820. He was also associated with the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS). Most of the time, he worked from Malta, but he visited Egpyt twice. In early 1820, he met with Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville (died 1822), the French Vice-Consul with offices in Cairo and, since 1816, in Alexandria. In his book Christian Researches (1822), Jowett recounts what he learned about Abu Rumi’s life journey:

“At the age of twenty-two [i.e. in 1771], Abu Rumi interpreted for Mr. Bruce in Gondar. At twenty-eight [around 1777], as near as M. Asselin could calculate from his statements, he left Abyssinia—visited Caïro and Jerusalem —traded in Syria [i.e. Palmyra?]—and proceeded, through Armenia and Persia, to India. Here Sir William Jones was instructed by him; and he resided in Sir William’s house [in Kolkata]. From India, he went to Mocha; and thence returned to Abyssinia.
After a while, according to the custom of travelling Merchants, he became restless to quit Abyssinia, and again went to Caïro. Here, in a fit of sickness, M[r]. Asselin found him out. He would have died from mere poverty and neglect. M. Asselin having been the means of his recovery, he vowed never to quit him, and called him his Father. He was now about fifty or fifty-five years of age [i.e. around 1799/1800 to 1804/05].
After having finished his work [of translating the Bible into Amharic], he went to Jerusalem; and, returning to Caïro, died there, of the Plague, about four years since [in early 1818].” (Researches, p. 201; some emphasis and paragraph breaks added here and in the following quotes).

2. Asselin de Cherville (around 1813)

Excerpt from a letter to Count Vinceslas Rezewuski (prob. in 1812 or early 1813), printed in the BFBS Records (1815), p. 424:

“I took pains to seek an Abyssinian capable of teaching me to pronounce the Ethiopic [Ge’ez] well. After many fruitless inquiries, I was at length directed to an old man, as the only one qualified to satisfy my wishes. Imagine my surprise, to find, in this poor old man, a person, master of the literature of his country; a traveller who had penetrated the most remote regions of Asia; the instructor of Bruce and Sir W. Jones.

These considerations determined me to engage my Abyssinian friend to translate into the vernacular tongue, of which he was perfectly master, a book which might serve to make it known in Europe. But what book should he translate? After mature reflection, I resolved to get him to translate the Bible, for the following reasons. The Bible is translated into the Ethiopic: this book therefore becomes a point of comparison, in order to assign the differences between the Abyssinian and the ancient language. My aged religious friend, besides, like all the Orientals, knew the Bible by heart.

The translation commenced five years ago [in 1807/08], is already far advanced. I possess, at this moment, the whole of the New Testament, the Books of Moses, and all the Historical books; and my Abyssinian, after his long Lent, is about to proceed to the translation of the prophetic books, etc.” [Bold emphasis added in this and the following quotes]

3. Christoph Burckhardt (1818)

Rev Christoph Burckhardt was a cleric from Basel (Switzerland) working as a Bible colporteur. He reported in a letter from Cairo on 25 March 1818 (published in BFBS Report, 1819, p. 229):

“I have this moment left Mr. Asselin, the French Vice-Consul here. The name of the person whom Mr. Asselin employed in making the translation of the Amharic Bible, was, Abraham. He was born in Ethiopia, and was a very worthy and active man. He had travelled for forty years. In his youth, he accompanied the celebrated traveller, Bruce: he went afterwards to India, and studied three years under an Englishman of great learning. Besides his native tongue, he was master of the Persian, Italian, Greek, and other languages.

He was employed for ten years by Mr. Asselin in translating the Bible; when he had finished his task, that gentleman wished him to translate other works; but he replied, that he was desirous of some repose, and had determined to undertake a journey to Jerusalem, there to die and be buried. Soon after his arrival there, the plague made its appearance, and he fell a victim to it.”

4. William Jones (1788)

Sir William Jones wrote in a letter from Kolkata in March 1784 (published in Connor, Letters, no. 382):

“There is an Abyssinian here, who knew Mr Bruce at Gwender [Gondar]. I have examined him, and he confirms Bruce’s account.”

A summary of their conversation concerning Gondar and the Nile was printed as “A Conversation with Abram […]” in Asiatick Researches 1 (1788):

“[p. 383] Having been informed, that a native of Abyssinia was in Calcutta, who spoke Arabick with tolerable fluency, I sent for and examined him attentively on several subjects, with which he seemed likely to be acquainted his answers were so simple and precise, and his whole demeanour so remote from any suspicion of falsehood, that I made a minute of his examination, which may not perhaps be unacceptable to the Society. […]

[p. 384; In Gondar] the council of state consists, by his account, of about forty Ministers, to whom almost all the executive part of government is committed. He was once in the service of a Vazir, in whose train he went to see the fountains of the Nile or Abey, usually called Alwey, about eight days’ journey from Gwender […].

[p. 385] ‘All these matters, said he, are explained, I suppose, in the writings of YA’KU’B , whom I saw thirteen years ago in Gwender [1771]: he was a physician, and had attended the King’s brother [?], who was also a Vazir, in his last illness: the prince died; yet the king [Tekle Haymanot II, r. 1769‒77] loved YA’KU’B, and, indeed, all the court and people loved him […].’ “

5. James Bruce (1790)

In his Travels (vols. 3 and 4, published in 1790), James Bruce of Kinnaird did not mention any person named Abraham or Abram whom he met in Abyssinia.

The editor of the 2nd and 3rd editions of Bruce’s Travels, Alexander Murray, published a more than 500-page Account of the Life and Writings of James Bruce in 1808. An Abyssinian named Abram/Abraham is mentioned only once (p. 78), in a reference to William Jones’ essay (see above). Unfortunately, no clues are given as to who Abram was.

Note that Murray refers to the translators of Song of Song into Oromo and other vernacular languages as “scribes employed by Mr Bruce” (p. 446; cf. p. 498)

Bruce mentions a young Amhara named Sarsa Dengel, whom he met several times in Gondar and who probably most resembled the older Abba Abraham:

“He was a young man of excellent understanding, and particularly turned to the study of religion; he was well read in all the books of his own country, and very desirous of being instructed in ours; he had the very worst opinions of his own priests, and his principal desire (if it had been possible) was to go with me to die, and to be buried in Jerusalem.” (Travels, vol. 4, p. 180)

6. Contemporaries of Abraham in Ethiopia

Narrative by Henry Salt, in Annesley, Voyages and Travels, vol. 3, p. 104‒05, 208:

“September 22 [1805]: […] While we were halting by the [p. 105] side of the same stream where we had before refreshed ourselves, an old priest, named Allula Lucus, came to pay his respects to me, having been formerly, as he said, well acquainted with Yagoube [James Bruce] at Gondar. On my questioning him, he told me that Bruce lived at Koscam, and made two attempts, the first of which failed, to visit the Nile. […] that he never went to war, but staid during those times in the house of the Aboona [Yosab III]; that Yusuff, the Aboona’s interpreter, whom I had before seen at Adowa, often interpreted for Bruce, as he understood well neither the language of Amhara nor of Tigré; but that he had also an interpreter of his own, named Michael [James Bruce’s Greek servant who accompanied him until Cairo]”

[October 24, 1805:] “[p. 208] Hadjee Hamed, the person I have before mentioned as being sent by the Ras to see us safely to Antalow, a man of about fifty-one years of age, remembered Bruce very well, and said that it was thirty-five years since he came into the country; that he continued in the country between one and two years, and was well received by the King, Tecla Haiminout [Tekle Haymanot II]. [p. 209] Ras Michael [Mika’el Sǝhul] gave him a house at Koscam, but never employed him in any of the offices of the state […] and during the battle of Serbraxos, especially he was residing in the house of Aboona Joseph. […] He did not understand well Amharic or Tigré, and did not speak much Arabic than I do, but had with him an interpreter named Michael […]
Yusuph, interpreter to the late Aboona [Yosab III, d. 1803], paid me a visit on the 26th of September. He had accompanied the Aboona hither from Alexandria thirty-five years ago [in 1770], and is related to Marcus, the present Greek Patriarch. He said that he knew Bruce well, and sent three of his own people to attend him to Sennaar; that he heard of his having got safely there, but had never learned what became of him afterwards. He spoke of him with much regret, and appeared sorry to hear about his death.”

7. Contemporaries of Abraham in Cairo and Jerusalem

(a) John Antes (1740‒1811) was the first Moravian missionary from the US. He wrote in his book Observations on the Manners and Customs of the Egyptians (p. 17ff):

“When Mr. Bruce returned from Abyssinia [in early 1773] I was at Grand Cairo, I had the pleasure of his company for three months almost every day: and having, at that time, myself had an idea of penetrating into Abyssinia, I was very inquisitive about that country, on hearing many things from him which seemed almost incredible to me. I used to ask his Greek servant Michael (a simple fellow, incapable of any invention) about the same circumstance, and must say, that he commonly agreed with his master in the chief points.”

In his book, Antes does not mention Abraham or another Abyssinian travelling companion to Bruce.

(b) ? Henry Salt (d. travelled to Ethiopia; corresponded with the BFBS; English Consul General in Egypt from 1816 until 1827)

8. Contemporaries Abraham met on his journey to/ from East India

[any records?]

9. Karl Wilhem Isenberg (1841)

From the Introduction to Isenberg‘s Dictionary of the Amharic Language, p. iii:

“The Amharic Translation of the whole Bible, executed in Egypt by an Abyssinian monk, Abu Rumi, or—as the author of this Dictionary received his name from a personal acquaintance of his, Dabtera Matteos—Abi Ruhh, a native of Godjam, which was revised and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society, furnished a more valuable source for the study of the Amharic Language.”