The Second Book of Moses called Exodus
translated into the Galla language /
Ooriitiin kan bayuu:
Kan hiikamte ajajamaa Mootiiwwan Mootii Miniilik kan Itiyoophiyaa
kan Afaan Sidaamaa Afaan Oromootii,
kan Itiyoophiyaa Zaanbitu caafe;
Kan hiikes Gabira-Maaram Ilmi Darraa;
Kan qajeelche, kan wal qixxeesse, Luuwiis Kiraaphiif, Afaan Ibiraayisxiitii.
Dhalachuun Kristoosii waggaa kumaa fi saddeettamii dhibba torbaataamaa torba
Biyya Wallootiitii, ganda Warra Iluutiitii caafame.
1877.
- Engl. translation:
“Exodus:
Translated from ‘Sidama’ [i.e. Amharic] to Afan Oromo,
under order of Menelik [II], King of Kings of Ethiopia.
Written by Zännäb, an Ethiopian,
translated by Gäbrä Maryam, a man from Därra.
Edited and prepared by Lewis Krapf, from Hebrew.
In the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven after the birth of Christ
written in the country of Wällo in the district of Warra Illuu.
1877.”
Printed at the request and at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible-Society in London. At the Mission-Press of St. Chrischona, near Basle, Switzerland. 1877.
Source: Swiss National Library (Bern)
Notes on the Text
Sidama: Cf. Ton Leus and Cynthia Salvadori, Aadaa Boraanaa, s.v. Sidaama -ti (p. 586): “person /people of the Sidama tribe, province of Sidamo. In the past the Borana would use the term Sidaama foranybody who spoke Amharic, any man wearing trousers, any woman wearing a dress, people living in town; ie for all strangers. Therefore Sidaama = Amhara, and the Amharic language afaani Sidaamaa.”
Warra Illu: A garrison town founded by Menelik II in the late 1860s. He stayed in this border town near Wällo for considerable time, e.g. in June 1872 when Johannes Maier and aläqa Zännäb arrived there. Zännäb died in October 1876, a few weeks before Menelik and his army arrived in Warra Illu on their way to Wällo.
Lit.:
Eloi Ficquet, “Wärrä Illu” in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 4, ed. S. Uhlig in cooperation with A. Bausi, p. 1149-50. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010. [Cf. Sewasew entry]
Lindahl, Bernhard (compiler). “Were Ilu” in Local History of Ethiopia. Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute, 2005. [View online]
Notes on the publication
(1) Darlow & Moule, Catalogue, # 4118, reads:
“This edition consisted of 500 copies.”
Coldham, Bibliography, # 763, reads:
“Exodus, translated by J. L. Krapf, assisted by nationals.”
Transliteration and translation of the title page
by Sadirak Taasisaa.